Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Greetings friends and family! 

I am finally up and running with our Vietnam recap. I was a little overwhelmed with where to start so I thought it might be best to structure the recap in FAQ format. Hope you enjoy!

FAQs:

Q: Do they call it Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon?

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short) was formerly named Saigon when it was the capital of anti-communist South Vietnam. As you know the story goes, Saigon and the South eventually fell to the North in 1975 ending the Vietnam War, and the city was later renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). In terms of the people living and traveling there, we felt as if many people there still refer to the city as Saigon. We observed that any of the hotels, restaurants, businesses, etc. included the name Saigon as opposed to HCMC. Many people in Singapore that we spoke to about our trip often referred to it as Saigon as well. But either way works!  

Q: Why did you go there?

Great question! A couple of reasons. Well the main reason was we had 2 full days off of work for Chinese New Year so we were going to travel somewhere for sure. The next reason was, well, frankly it's close and most all of our neighboring countries are on our 'to-do' list. The flight from Singapore was only about 1 hour 45 min. Lastly, in terms of travel, there are basically 3 types of vacations one can choose from: beach, culture and adventure. Since our last trip was a beach trip (I may even file our Christmas trip under adventure ;)), we decided we wanted to travel to a 'culture' destination. Also, it doesn't hurt that Vietnam is very inexpensive to travel to and within. Add all those factors together and we decided on HCMC! 

Q: Was it strange being an American in Vietnam? 

Yes and no. Yes, really only when we were touring the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels, for obvious reasons. However, you do have to remember that Saigon was the capital of the South, which fought alongside the Americans during the War. But the so-called 'strange feeling' for us, was more a personal feeling of astoundment and respect. There is SO much history there, you can only take a step back and try and take it all in. 

Walking down the street, eating, shopping, and everything else we never felt a sense of hostility or resentment toward us for being American, not in the slightest. In fact the people were very, very friendly - happy to be sharing their culture with us (and happy for us to spend our money on them). Today there are many American tourists who travel to Vietnam every year. Michael and I, a handful of times, would seriously stop in our tracks and think aloud how crazy it was that today 2 young Americans can safely walk down the streets of Vietnam chatting, taking pictures, like its nothing. 

Through the horrific war images in the museum, to seeing the guerrilla warfare tactics firsthand, it was an internal struggle of basic human emotions, our life-long American pride and our ongoing experience within the city. It was a strange mix of emotions, but at the end of the day, I personally left feeling very thankful that 1) Michael and I were born in a time and place where we have not had to experience that type of war-time horror and 2) the American government and the people of Vietnam have allowed us to have this amazing experience and allowed us to peacefully walk down the streets. 

The Vietnam War was not that long ago and the fact that we were able to travel there and have the experience we did is mind-blowing. This is not an exact comparison, but friends my age, can you imagine your children taking a weekend holiday to Iran or Iraq? It's a great testament to a lot of great people. I am sure there are people out there who have a different opinion or might have a totally different experience, but I had a feeling of thankfulness that we are people and two countries that can now have peaceful and prosperous relations with one another even after such a horrific history. I kept being reminded of this quote:  

An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World Blind 
- Gandhi

Q: Was it easy to get around?

  

Yes and no. Yes because almost everyone speaks English (or at least everyone we interacted with) and we had working phones and google maps. Also, taxis were easy to come by. I read a lot about getting ripped off by taxi drivers, but from what I heard and experienced even if you do get 'ripped off' it's paying $3.50 for a $2.00 15min ride - fine, I can take that. It was not easy because the city is literally a real-life game of frogger. Saigon is well documented for its out of control motor bike traffic and it certainly lived up to its reputation. You seriously wouldn't believe how many BABIES and small children ride on these things smashed between their parents or in balancing jerry-rigged highchairs at the front of the bike. It's not every day you see like a 3mo old baby with no helmet drinking a bottle zipping past you on a motor bike. Like, what!? Also, we learned quickly that the cross walk signs (when there are ones) go directly from green to red in a blink. What, no yellow or blinking man or nice little countdown? Yup, got it.  

Q: How was the food and drink?

Awesome! In case you didn't know (and I didn't until very recently) Vietnam was a French colony (honestly I can't keep up with who was a colony of who around these parts). The French influence can still be seen (and tasted) around Vietnam. On our first day we had seriously the most amazing lunch at this French restaurant near our hotel. We also had 2 amazing Vietnamese dinners - one very authentic, one more modern. Our impression was it is very similar to Thai food, but with less curries, fresher ingredients, and more herbs (mints and basils). Also, as with many other Asian nations, heavy on the seafood. Drink = Saigon Beer. Very good (and crazy cheap).

The Refinery - restaurant in an old Opium Manufacturer  

 Side note: I am pretty positive I got food poisoning from our last night (not pictured below), but Michael said it was from one too many Saigon's. I swear it was the food! ;) but I won't hold that against them - the food was great. 

Dinner at Cuc Gach Quan

Q: Where did you stay? 

We stayed at the Park Hyatt Saigon. Highly recommend it. Perfect location and a stunning hotel with excellent service. Also a gorgeous pool (and super fun bar!)  The Park Hyatt is rated the #1 hotel in the entire city and let's just say it cost about the same amount as my wedding block hotel in Omaha, NE. 

2 Lam Son Bar

Q: What would you suggest to anyone planning to go there?

1. Get a visa before you go. You can get them upon arrival but it is much easier to have one before you arrive. 

2. Take a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels. You can get there either via bus or boat. We highly recommend the boat. It was really neat to get out on the Saigon River and see parts of the city that you normally would not really want to, or have the opportunity to explore on your own otherwise. We saw traditional fisherman, motorbike ferries and all kinds of homes from decrepit house boats to some really large and intricate colonial mansions along the waters edge. 

Early morning on the Saigon River

We did our tour via the Saigon River Express. Our guide was so friendly and knowledgeable and our boat was pretty nice. Our guide hosted us (and about 10 others - 2 other Americans who lived in Beijing, some young Aussies and an Aussie family who lived in Hanoi) and led our tour from pick up at our hotel to the boat all the way through the tunnels and back. The tour also included a simple breakfast on the way there, lunch on the river after the tour and fruit and snacks on the way back. The ride was about 1.5 hours each way, but it was really fun and there was plenty to look at along the way. I was convinced there were massive man-eating crocs in the river, but I didn't spot any (or at least any I could show Michael in time to be validated). The full adventure was the highlight of our trip. 

The stick in the leaf - the marker Viet Cong would use to warn other V.C. of hidden traps.

We learned this type of trap was used  more to scare the enemy than to kill - thus slowing down their movement. 

Fact: this tunnel was made 50% larger for tourists. Few, if any, modern-day Vietnamese can fit into the original tunnels.

Everyone gets a try.

Except Michael ;)

AK47

M60 - via a U.S. military vehicle.  

Rice paper making.

3. Download a currency converter app. It drove me crazy the conversion was not mental math friendly.  1 Vietnamese Dong = 0.000047 USD. It was funny our total for lunch would be something like 1.2 million dollars :) It was hard to keep up when you are in a taxi or bargaining buying something off the street. 

We got a Go Pro for Christmas! 

Traditional lunch on the river. Actually they said it was 'normal' food for us ;)

The water hyacinth was out of control - but pretty to look at. We probably had to stop our boat 3 or 4 times to get it out of the motor. It was scary thick in some parts.  

My favorite pic from the entire trip <3.

More mystery fruit to add to our repertoire. 

4. Map out your dinners and bars beforehand. Saigon is not like Paris or some romantic European city where you can whimsically twirl around the city drinking wine out of the bottle waiting to be swept off your feet by some guy on a horse out of a fairly tale. You should probably know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Motorbike gangs stalking you and stealing your bag or valuables as you stand on the street corner - and they zip past you - is no joke. Besides my dashing and strong 6'3 fiance/body guard, I made a point to go hands free for most of the trip and not bring any kind of bag. Ladies: contrary to popular belief, I have heard from more than one person that when travelling a cross-body bag is actually more of a red flag invite for someone to target you and steal your bag than anything else. You are better off carrying a small under the arm bag or better, nothing at all.

   

5. Dress for heat. Why is everything in SE Asia so bloody hot! We need to venture farther north for our next trip. You guys at home are probably silently cursing me for complaining about the heat. Sorry ;)  

Downtown Saigon

6. Note on traveling during Chinese New Year. In Vietnam the Lunar New Year is referred to as Tết. (Remember leaning about The Tet Offensive in school?) While there is definitely a very festive atmosphere around the city, you can expect a lot of things to be closed. We missed out on a few 'street eat' locations we had planned on trying.

A major highlight for us was seeing the annual Nguyen Hue Flower Street display. It felt like the equivalent of everyone flocking to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree with their kids and family in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. The street was packed with people and they were blasting holiday music on repeat.  

Year of the horse! 

Overall, it was a fantastic and very memorable trip. I even got a lucky horse balloon to round out the weekend.  

Peace, peace. 

 - Cassidy