Ho Chi Minh City

Another day another flight, this time it’s an internal flight so Viet is coming with us. We are heading to Ho Chi Minh City and I am excited. So after everyone’s awake we load ourselves onto a bus and head north to Danang airport. Having been in quite a few airports recently I have to say I have started to rather enjoy them, yeah if your unlucky enough to end up in a queue they can be a pain in the arse, but overall I have been rather lucky with check ins; security and passport control rarely having to wait long at all which means my experience of airports recently are nice clean air condition building with a variety of food choices and a chance to just sit and chill before boarding a flight to one’s next adventure. I relax a little too much I think, once we board the plane I am asleep before the safety briefing has finished and sleep for pretty much the whole flight! Awake for yet again another load of security and bag collection. I have to admit I find the process a lot more stream line when I am travelling alone as opposed to a group of nearly thirty but, hey, like most things, it is more enjoyable with friends. Once we make it out of the airport we have a brief wait in the car park for our bus to arrive to take us to our new hostel.

Once settled in the hostel it is time for dinner and the group head out together. It is a nice dinner; I order a clay pot dish which, when it arrives, is presented in a metal dish which is a little disappointing because as anyone who has eaten clay pot cooked dishes before, knows the whole point is the extra flavour cooking in an actual pot made of clay imparts during the cooking process. Nonetheless it is a decent meal. After the meal some of us go to a roof top bar with lovely decorations for a drink and then hit the strip, it is a long road with clubs up and down both sides, music booming from every bar and club on the road. Many of the places have women and men dancing on podiums as well as waiters and waitresses on the street trying to lure people in. The group settle for a bar/club called Crazy Nights near one end of the strip, with no such dancers, probably because it has a pool table. However, the group quickly discover it is a lot cheaper to go across the road and buy our beers there and bring them over than get them in Crazy Nights itself. It is a fun night, nothing too crazy, most of it we spend sitting on a sofa outside just chatting and enjoying our drinks before heading back to the hostel to rest.

The next day I wake up excited to see the city. HCMC is a city I have been looking forward to visiting since I booked this tour. There is a lot of history in these streets and a lot of fun to be had too. The day starts with a walking tour guided by Viet. We see a lot of cool things; the Notre Dame cathedral designed to emulate the one in Paris, the Caravelle Hotel famously used by journalists during the war as a look out to see the various hot spots or bombings, being the tallest building in the city at the time with a roof top cafe and, across the square past the Opera and Ballet House, the Continental Saigon Hotel built in the 1880’s with beautiful architecture which has been the resting place of visiting royalty and the rich and famous for generations. Near this hotel we see a famous rooftop, it doesn’t look like much, a normal roof with a simple shack on the top, but this is the site of the famous 1975 photo ‘The Fall of Saigon’ – a rooftop used by American journalists and diplomats and their families to catch the final escape helicopter as the city fell during the war. The picture went on to win many awards and still remains a reminder of the horrors of the war and the effect those horrors had on everyone that found themselves in their path. We end the tour at the famous Saigon Central Post office a famous building built by french colonialists a beautiful building that is a mixture of french and gothic architecture, that still serves as a working post office today, but is now surrounded by rows and rows for market stalls.

Ho Chi Minh statue in front of Ho Chi Minh City Hall

The Notre Dame

After we are done with the tour we head for food, I am starving. Viet takes us to an indoor food market where there are loads of different stalls selling a variety of different foods; it is a good choice as there is a lot to chose from. I end up getting another Tom Yum, a Thai soup that is quickly becoming one of my favourite foods. Especially when it is made spicy! Once we are all full a group of us walk to the ferry terminal to get tickets for tomorrow to do a round trip on the water bus along the river, it doesn’t sound all that amazing but the tickets cost £2 and I always enjoy being on the water, so why not. Afterwards a few of us go to the famous coffee apartments – an apartment building that has been revamped into a load of different coffee shops and cafès. I treat myself to an iced tea and enjoy sitting on the balcony watching the world go by. Now what remains of the group is fully fuelled with food and caffeine, we head back to the hostel through the streets of Ho Chi Minh.

Once we are back Alex, Sarah, Jon and I head out to get pedicures. Alex and I have been wanting to get them for ages although Jon is actually after a massage. After the first few places let us down, Jon asks me to split with him and get a massage instead and I agree. We go in search of a parlour that doesn’t look dodgy avoiding the first couple we look at when they try and lead us down some dark alleys. Finally we find one with a professional looking shop front and go in. All is well although they lead us up the stairs at the back and into different rooms which they lock – a little suspicious but we are here now. It is a 45 minute massage and the first half an hour is nice and normal; a good massage. Things then start going a little awry when the masseuse starts paying a little too much attention to my nipples and then even starts tapping on and rubbing my groin. Oh shit, this is one of those places; the next 15 minutes are spent with me rather uncomfortable repeatedly confirming I just want a massage and not for her to ‘make master happy’. Finally the massage ends and I wait down stairs for Jon who follows shortly after. It has started pouring with rain but we both agree we need to get out of here and just run to a restaurant on the corner and order a beer. Jon has gone through the same awkward process as me and we are both glad to be out of there. We meet up with Alex, Viet, Scott and Louis and play some pool while the boys watch the football. After the games and few drinks we head back to the hostel for a relatively early night. Tomorrow should be a fun one we are heading to the Củ Chi Tunnels!

Opera House in front of Caravelle Hotel

The famous 'Fall of Saigon' photograph

The Continental Hotel

Central Post Office

Cafe apartments building full of coffee shops and boutique stores