Ho Chi Minh was our second destination on our Vietnam trip.
Exploring this crazy city was just amazing.
It’s huge, full of life, with many bars and food stalls, street markets, great coffee shops and super nice people.
Here we’ve looked for the traces of History.
Exploring Cu Chi Tunnels that have been so important during the American War.
Coming across buidlings and icons from the revolution and reunification of the country.
Visiting old French Palaces from the French Protectorate times.
Discovering impressive pagodas and temples.
We wandered around Saigon’s streets and discovered the social mix, the chaotic traffic and the eclectic architecture.
And of course, we kept on learning about the people, their habits, what life in a big city was like and much more.
Table of Contents
1st Day in Ho Chi Minh
Once overcome all the stress of not being able to travel as we had planned and having to buy a ticket at Da Nang airport, we finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh. Then, we just had to make it to our accommodation.
Facing Ho Chi Minh's traffic
The flight was very short, just an hour and a half. However, getting to the accommodation we had booked through Airbnb took us more than an extra hour due to the intense traffic of old Saigon.
We repeated the strategy and called the Grab from outside the airport. We could do this because we traveled with very little luggage: just a 30L backpack each. It didn’t seem so terrible to walk a bit more than 500 meters until we were slightly away from the traffic jam at the airport.
We could say that the traffic in this city is unbearable, there are many motorbikes and cars everywhere. In fact, it seemed we were never going to reach our destination at such a slow pace, but we finally did.
Arriving to our Booking accommodation.
It was located on a dead-end street. At first glance it might scare an off-guard traveler a bit, but then we realized that there was nothing to fear.
Besides, we had read some comments from previous guests that motivated us to keep moving forward…
And truth is traveling through Southeast Asia we’ve always felt safe, so we kept on walking until we found our door.
Again, everything seemed interesting for us. The alley where this building is located reflects the mix of social classes, like all Ho Chi Minh City.
Discovering Ho Chi Minh's social mix
As in every alley that we saw around the city, there were some very small rooms (2 m x 1.2 m for example) where people lived. They were built just next to the bigger building diving walls.
It is really hard to set the boundary between public and private spaces.
As we said, the inside of these houses is really small. You can imagine that those who live there do so in terrible conditions.
In this case, the people who lived there had their food stall on the sidewalk at the entrance to the alley.
Other people, in their room home, had a kind of mini market. They offered different products, including water and beer that we have bought many times, even at a more convenient price than in the markets. And they also lived there, of course.
Our accommodation in old Saigon City
Our accommodation was located in a modern building. It was a family house, they lived there and also rented rooms for tourists. A very different reality.
Our room on the second floor was immaculate, gigantic, with excellent air conditioning and a picture window overlooking the alley.
So far, everything was already perfect. Moreover, our host gave us a folder including attractions to visit in the city, recommended excursions outside Ho Chi Minh city and the best, food recommendations!
After a shower, we went out to get some dinner. After the flight from Da Nang drama, it was a bit late, almost 9 pm. Fortunately, in this big city there were many options so that we wouldn’t miss dinner.
Coming across Bui Vien St. lively ambiance
Exploring the surroundings and looking for food was how we ended up on Bui Vien Street, just by chance. What to say about this place? It’s hard to explain, it’s absolutely wild.
There are tons of bars one next to the other, playing extremely loud music. So deafening that it’s impossible to talk with someone even yelling in their ear. (Sound On)
We began to communicate telepathically. Obviously the same things caught our attention.
It was a really overwhelming experience. Thousands of people walking down the street (and more inside the bars), motorcycles going through the crowd, street vendors, waiters trying to capture potential customers. Bui Vien St. is just a few blocks long, but it’s certainly overwhelming.
Anyway, we decided to get away from that hysteria and have a sandwich at one of the places recommended by our host.
Tasting Banh Mi vietnamese sandwich
We already mentioned in our Da Nang post that Vietnamese people adopted some traditions from France and baguette-style bread is one of them.
It’s very common for them to eat sandwiches made with this bread and different fillings, usually spicy. While bread looked like a french mini baguette, the fillings were something different.
We quickly understood that this habit had to do with their history.
Instead, what most caught our attention is that in order to open the bread to prepare the sandwich they used scissors, rather than a knife. They cut it with scissors on one of the sides and then they unfold it using their fingers.
After dinner, we resumed touring the city.
Wandering through every alley we found
Most of them were quite narrow, with bundles of cables a few centimeters away from our heads, very precarious connections from the houses.
It was like walking around the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, with a very different glamor. Naturally, there were motorbikes that barely mannaged to go through these narrow bystreets. We felt quite clumsy at times, because we couldn’t help blocking their way.
We enjoyed exploring these alleys pretty much.
Coming upon the boundaries of private and public life
We noticed that many houses had their doors and windows fully open. We could look inside and have a glance at what their inhabitants were doing.
We observed they used those carved wooden armchairs (so unique to Vietnam), without pillows or anything. They just seemed to be chilling there. However, perhaps most of them, directly sat or lay on the floor.
Tasting the best smoothies
Then, after the walk, it was time to try another recommendation from our host, the smoothies.
We followed the directions and found the stall at the entrance of a dead-end street. Surely it had its little plastic tables and chairs.
We made a ritual out of this, coming back there every night. We dare to say they are the best smoothies we have ever tried.
Spotting the local fauna
On the way back, always on foot, we kept learning about life in Vietnam. It was in Ho Chi Minh that we realized Vietnamese people were not horrified to see a rat on the street. And trust us, there are many many rats. But for them it’s like seeing a pigeon.
We even saw children trying to play with rats, luring them with food or scaring them. In short, the same thing that a child in Buenos Aires could do to a pigeon… and to tell the truth, we wonder which of the two animals transmits more diseases …
This is how our first night and first hours in Ho Chi Minh went by.
2nd Day in Ho Chi Minh
Breakfast at Cho Ben Thanh
Our accommodation was located near (Cho) Ben Thanh Market, about which we had heard a lot. So we went there to get a good soup breakfast.
As soon as we entered, we felt overwhelmed, it’s a place for tourists only. Picturesque, indeed, but just for tourists.
Everyone who works there wants you to spend money in their business. We felt somewhat harassed, but we needed to eat. So we chose a stand and had a prawn soup.
Prawns became a kind of warning: food stalls offering soup with prawns were generally visited by tourists, while market stalls, without so many tourist customers, only offered Pho Ga (with chicken) and Pho Bo (with cow meat).
Touring around old Saigon
That day we took the chance to explore the city looking for the vestiges of having been a French colony. Palaces that had been turned into Museums, the Central Post Office building, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, etc.
The first one we found was the Fine Arts Museum. It was near our house so we had already seen it from the taxi on the trip from the airport.
The rest of these attractions are located quite close to each other, so we headed towards Nguyen Hue pedestrian street and from there we started walking around.
We found Ho Chi Minh City Hall just behind the statue of the revolutionary leader (Ho Chi Minh).
Originally it was the “Hotel de Ville”, the building housing Saigon City’s local administration during colonial times. However, like many of these vestiges it suffered a name change (to “Ho Chi Minh People’s Committee”) and a reappropriation by the communist regime.
An interesting fact that we discovered is that the lighting of this beautiful building is in charge of the lighting service of the French city of Lyon. We came back at night on our night walks, and we really enjoyed it.
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum in the next block is also interesting for its colonial architecture.
Then, we went to see the city’s Opera House. Just in front of it, The Continental Hotel building reminded us of old movies.
We were already dreaming about what life would have been like at that time.
From there, the next landmark to visit was the Central Post Office. As we always do, we sent a postcard for the family, while we enjoyed the architecture.
We were already in front of the Cathedral. Again, like our experience in Da Nang visiting the Catholic Cathedral, we didn’t really feel curious about it. But we did take some photos anyway, of course.
It was so hot and we kept on drinking water and isotonic drinks, that we needed to go to the bathroom. Problem was it wouldn’t be easy to find public toilets. There are not many.
In shopping malls there are none, and we discovered that even some cafes didn’t have one! Luckily, on the way to the Reunification Palace, we ran into that chain of cafes that we had found in Da Nang again and sorted things out.
From the Reunification Palace we decided to go back home, we needed to rest a little.
But first, we wanted to take a photo of the Turtle Lake, a square with a fountain in a roundabout. Big mistake !!! The fountain seemed abandoned and the whole place was full of mosquitoes. We have never seen anything like that before in our lives. We ran out of there and started heading back towards Saigon River.
Wet season in Ho Chi Minh
The Bixteco tower was in our way back, so we included it in the tour as well. When we arrived, we had to look for a rain shelter, but it was just a moment. It immediately stopped raining and we continued our tour.
Rain never really bothered us during our stay in Ho Chi Minh.
We had hesitated to visit the city. Precisely because it was not the best time of year regarding rain. However we are very happy that we included it in our trip, we had a blast. Rain didn’t last long and it certainly didn’t affect us too much.
Getting addicted to fresh drinks
Before arriving at the accommodation, we stopped by Ton That Dam street market and bought some sugarcane juice. It was refreshing. During this trip we also got really addicted to these juices, apart from the smoothies! Not to mention the coffee…
3rd Day in Ho Chi Minh
Adapting to the local diet
We started our day the local way. We came back to Ton That Dam street market and had a very spicy soup with prawns at a street food stand.
Immediately afterwards, we went for a coffee. With all day ahead, we were already perspiring too much before 9 am.
We obviously didn’t hesitate to ask for a cold coffee. We didn’t dare to have a hot coffee yet. Believe it or not, it’s the most popular choice among Vietnamese people, despite the super hot temperatures (more than 30°C in the morning).
The coffee measure is usually a small cup, not as small as an espresso but small nonetheless.
We observed, on more than one occasion, that coffee was served and placed on something that looked like an oil burner. Instead of having a cup with a fragrance oil, you’d find a cup of coffee under a tealight alight.
On the subject of food, we can say that Vietnamese people generally eat in a healthy way. They have a very varied diet, it doesn’t include so many flours. In our experience, it’s not common to see obese people.
The local way of life
We decided on our second day of exploration to go see Chinatown, visit its pagodas and temples.
Once again, we’d go on foot, even though our first destination was more than 4 km away … In any case, it definitely worthed the effort!
The mere fact of watching the city’s architecture, wandering around the streets, observing locals eating and communicating with each other was already an experience for us.
On our way there we came across a street market. There were fruits and vegetables we had never seen before.
The buildings, generally very ornamented, kept grabbing our attention. Most of them were very narrow, three or four meters wide (not more than that) and three or four stories high. Being one next to the other, they seemed arranged in very interesting compositions.
We were exploring areas hardly visited by tourists. Everyone looked at us as if we were freaks. However, we really enjoyed the walk, it was super nice to be able to observe real life. Everything seemed authentic, exactly what we were looking for.
Learning how to deal with traffic
At this point we already felt experienced in the art of crossing the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. The important thing is to walk with no hesitation, always moving forward. The coming motorcycles would slow down or dlightly drift out their lane to dodge you.
As it happens, this is the safest way to cross a street.
Nevertheless, it’s not just when crossing a street that you need to be extremely careful, but at any times. You should never forget about motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh.
As locals use motorbikes all the time, to go anywhere, it’s valid riding anywhere, even on the sidewal. In the markets as well, they’d just go through the crowd between the stalls.
Pagodas, churches, temples
Also on our way, we came across the St. Francis Xavier Parish Church, another beautiful Catholic church. Yet, what most captivated us was it had an oriental-style arch at the entrance. In the garden, the Our Lady statue is placed on a very special pagoda looking pavillon.
Eventually, we reached Chinatown. We lost count of how many pagodas we visited that day, but they were all amazing.
We observed the rituals of their visitors (there were hardly no western tourists) and we were hypnotized by the figures illuminated with very psychedelic led lights.
We finished our tour at the Binh Tay market after which the neighborhood is called (Cho Lon). We arrived a bit late to see the market in full swing, but it was one of the must do for us, so we still toured around it.
Some businesses were still open and it was fair enough for us to get an idea of what we could find there. Anything!
Finally, as we were tired of walking so much, we decided to call a Grab and go back to the accommodation. We definitely needed a little rest
4th Day in Ho Chi Minh
Cu Chi Tunnels Tour
On our fourth day we decided to leave the city, we couldn’t miss doing a guided tour to Cu Chi tunnels.
Emblematic place in the war against the United States, it was there that the most fierce resistance from the Vietnamese people took place.
This excursion was super interesting. We heard a lot about the war in which the US invaded Vietnam.
We’ve been able to see what life in the tunnels was like (where slept, ate and just lived) and to learn about the consequences, which are still sadly visible today in those affected by Agent Orange.
In Cu Chi, there is an area adapted for tourism where you can see the craters generated by the bombs, the weapons and clothing used by the resistance and, mainly, explore a small section of the famous tunnels.
These tunnels, although they are adapted for tourism, are very narrow, so it’s extremely uncomfortable going through them.
We were shocked when we heard they had been made wider and taller to accommodate tourists. We can’t even imagine what life there could have been like.
Trap doors we’ve seen on the tour had been made slightly larger than the originals (only those with a very small physical build can go through the original entrances). Moreover, they now have artificial ventilation and low lights have been installed to make traveling through them easier.
Our first experience was to go through a tunnel that would be about 15 meters long. It was very small, you could only move forward in a crouch and despite the ventilation, the air was still scarce.
Once we left this tunnel, the guide suggested we visited a section that hadn’t been adapted for tourism. It was about 50 meters long, narrower and lower than the previous one and with no ventilation. If that wasn’t enough, in this tunnel, it was necessary to crawl. You just couldn’t do otherwise.
Julián decided to abort the mission, while Gilda, very brave, also explored this tunnel.
Although it has been altered for tourist activities, this place is most interesting. The guide explained how they made their weapons, their clothes, how they cooked without being detected by the enemy, what the traps were like and all the strategies they used not to be found. We learned a lot.
And we were soon very tired too. Getting into the tunnels had been very exciting and we needed to relax a bit.
Luckily, the tour included lunch, and we have to admit that it exceeded our expectations, being able to taste several typical dishes and fruits.
The tour we had booked was a whole day activity. In the morning we visited the tunnels and in the afternoon, after lunch, we headed to the Mekong Delta.
Mekong Delta
The distance from Cu Chi tunnels to Mekong Delta was quite long, it took us almost 2 hours until we arrived at the port.
The trip through the delta included a visit to 4 islands and a canoe trip through a narrow channel. Basically the stops were thought as places where you could buy souvenirs and traditional products.
Landscapes were very beautiful and you could get a glance at the local way of life. Even the boats were interesting, with an Asian flair.
A country with very cheap beer
On our way backk to Ho Chi Minh from the Mekong Delta, our guide very kindly offered us cold beers for the trip.
Beer is very cheap in Vietnam, for less than USD 0.25 you can get it cold from any market. Some members of our group said yes, “a beer please”.
We were around 9 tourists in the group. So he bought about 18 cans in total, 6 for the members of the group and 12 for himself. Moreover, every time he opened a new can, he poured some liquor from a hip flask. The label on that flask had a scorpion on it, and the beverage smelled so strong that every time he opened the bottle you could smell it from the back seat.
Our guide was a very friendly guy, although extremely homophobic.
During the whole way back, he was flirting with the only girl who was alone in the group. The rest of us were all couples. So he was flirting with her, while he kept on drinking beer and burping in her face!!! He acted as if it was something completely normal.
Well, after such a long day, we went out to get some food and went to bed early.
5th Day in Ho Chi Minh
Getting the local experience
In order to bid farewell to Ho Chi Minh, we had breakfast at the same place as the day before.
It was a stall in a market, hosting up to 12 people. Simply assembled on an iron frame with canvas walls, it also had tables, chairs and even ceiling fans..
A truly authentic place. Indeed, we did not see other tourists in that market.
When we got to the food stand, all three tables were taken. Fortunately, the guy who was working there pointed out one of the tables so that we sit there. There was only one person having breakfast.
Our table fellow was dressed as an office worker. Another table was occupied by two other people, presumably office workers as well, and at the third table, there were a father and his son, who seemed to be having breakfast before going to school.
We felt a bit observed by the other diners. Apparently, it wasn’t usual to have tourists there.
The one who broke the ice was the kid; he asked “where are you from?”. After our answer, they all said “ohhh” and they immediately linked us with Lionel Messi.
From there on, we had a nice chat with our table mate. Needless to say, he spoke English.
After our breakfast, a noodle soup with chicken, fresh green leaves and a little spice, we went for a coffee. Naturally, what everyone does.
We went to the place that was already our favorite coffee shop. We spent 4 mornings in Ho Chi Minh and all 4 days we went to have coffee there.
We liked the coffeee itself, but also the place and the ambiance. By the way, we never saw tourists in that cafe either.
They already recognized us and offered us “the usual”: iced coffee with condensed milk.
When we asked for our bill, already with the confidence of having seen us for four days in a row, they asked us “where are you from?”. Once again, they immediately linked us with Lionel Messi.
Unfortunately no one there spoke English, so our conversation was restricted to that brief exchange.
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