Through Glass and Prose: Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We arrived in Saigon from Phnom Penh soon after 9 PM and were not entirely sure where we were dropped off. We saw a tour agency across the street and went in and asked if we could use their wifi. It turns out we were dropped off at the park that is one block parallel to the backpacking street (where we were staying). While we were there we asked about travel options up the coast. The nice man recommended the hop on and off bus that stops at all the locations we were interested in. I booked tickets as far as Hoi An and Alex booked a ticket all the way up to Hanoi as we would be parting ways and she would go faster up the coast to volunteer for a week in Hanoi. All we had to do was contact the bus company the day before we wanted to leave and they would arrange for us to be picked up at where we were staying. The pricing was surprisingly cheap and around 1/3 the cost of the train from what I recall.

Feeling prepared for Vietnam, we headed out in search of our guest house. It appeared it was down an alley on the map but it was quite difficult for us to find. We spent about an hour walking around when it turned out to be three minutes from the tour agency (ugh). We finally found the place and to our delight, there were two twelve week old puppies at the family run place we were staying.

Cutest puppies ever greeted us once we finally found our hostel.

The first thing anyone notices about Saigon is the motorbikes. The city is infested with them and they are completely out of control. The drivers swarm around you like a school of fish as you cross the street. There are hardly any walk signals and the cars don't stop or even alter direction if you are in a crosswalk. This is by far the worst city I have ever been in as a pedestrian. All of this quickly became apparent as our first day was spent doing the walking tour of the old city as suggested by our guidebook and we crossed a lot of streets. On our route we saw a lot of famous building, ate durian for the first time, went to the museum of modern art and met some adorable seemingly abandoned kittens.

There's a family of 4 on the orange and black bike on the right. This is pretty a common sight in Vietnam.

Alex's first experience with Durian face.

My first and last experience with Durian

American War Propaganda at the Museum of Modern Art in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Museum of Modern Art in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

We stopped by the local post office so Alex could mail some postcards.

Alex discovered kittens

Baby kitten in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Swarming kittens

We ended at the reunification palace which was previously the presidential palace of south Vietnam. Once the North took over, it was renamed. The palace was a beautiful open floor plan, filled with beautiful furniture and history. We learned that the palace was attacked by a rogue North Vietnamese fighter pilot. After this time, the South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu, requested increased air support from the US. That was when President Ford realized it was a lost cause and refused this request. Within days, the president resigned. Within weeks, Saigon had fallen.

We were exhausted after that full day of walking. Unfortunately, that night, there was kareoke blasting next door that sounded like it was originating in our bathroom. This went on until 1:30am on a Wednesday night. Oy.

The following day we woke up early to take a bus to Bien Hoa to spend a night visiting our friend (and TEFL teacher from Arequipa, Peru) John and his fionce Phuong. Bien Hoa is 20 miles northeast of Saigon but with the traffic it took over an hour. We arrived earlier than expected but John was ready for us. He had a fridge fully stocked, a smile on his face and a room ready with the AC on. What a host, what a guy! We went out for our first Vietnamese coffee at a nice place by the river. The coffee here is strong! It hit me right in the face. I hadn't drank coffee in over a year and this is like a 3 shot espresso slowly dripping into your cup of sweet condensed milk. It made my head spin. Once settled, and after a nap, we headed to the courts for an hour of tennis. John and I used to play together in Arequipa so it was a fun reunion. That night we were completely spoiled with Phuong's home cooing. She cooked up 3 delicious dishes of chicken, beef and pork. John, you are a lucky man. It was truly so great catching up with you and thanks for everything! See you in NYC!

Beef, chicken and pork

The next morning, we said our goodbyes to our incredible hosts and jumped in a taxi back to Saigon. We moved guesthouses as they were booked, settled in and then walked to the War Remnants Museum (wasn't far from our place and took about 20 minutes). This museum was previously named the War Crimes of America and China. They changed the name but the bias was still very much there. Whenever the South Vietnamese president was mentioned, "president" was always put in quotes as if to belittle the fact. There was also a mention of American initiated concentration camps in Vietnam. However, it wasn't always far from the truth and we spent a good amount of time learning of the atrocities committed by the US during the war. The room dedicated to the victims of agent orange was particularly difficult to stomach. It was also interesting to see the exhibit that shined a light on the worldwide protests of the war. There were incredibly few countries in favor of the US being in Vietnam and rightfully so. It was not all anti-American, however, as there were pictures of American soldiers helping the Vietnamese children and it did sometimes seem to depict the true enemy as war itself.

After feeling sufficiently depressed, we decided to grab a cab home as we were tired of walking. The guy didn't reset the meter and it started at 160,000 VND ($8). Alex soon noticed this and told him and he freaked out. He tried saying that it was 60,000 but the meter wasn't working correctly but he definitely would've charged us what the meter said if we didn't say anything. Apparently this is a common scam. When we told him "no, thats not correct, you're meter is broken," he lost it. He started screaming at us. Alex demanded that he pull over and I tried paying him 20,000 VND (the rate for 1 kilometer, which is what we traveled) and he screamed at me and threw it in my face. We left it on his console and got out of the cab. Alex said she read about this scam and that when you call them out they get really angry to try and intimidate you into thinking they were correct. It didn't work, Alex was all over it. Some advice, don't try and scam that girl.

That night we met up with Alex's friend Elise who recently moved to Saigon for work. We went out for dinner and walked around the night market (where I got a sweet Saigon t-shirt). Elise was just getting settled and we had a good time talking about the exciting chaos that is Saigon.

What the city lacks in pedestrian safety it more than makes up for in cheap and delicious food. The next day Alex and I had an epic day of amazing food. We started the day by walking around the day market and eating some street snacks. We then met up with Elise again to go to the emerald Buddha together. Afterwards, we went to a famous Pho restaurant called Pho Lee 2 (there are more than one) and it was spectacular. It costs 60,000 as opposed to a more standard 40,000-50,000 in HCMC but it's worth it. The broth was just out of this world and the noodles were cooked just right.

Emerald Buddha in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Pho Le 2 in HCMC. Some of the pho we had in Vietnam.

Later that night we also managed to track down a place that I researched as "the best street food in the world." It is a bahn mi street stand that makes a bbq pork sandwich. Bahn mi basically means baguette sandwich and this particular place was the first I saw with freshly cooked meat. It took us a while to find it because it was slightly down an alley instead of on the main street as I was led to believe. However, as we peered down the alley we saw a guide showing a foreign couple the bahn mi stand and I knew we were in the right place. It was so fresh with the right amount of spice, all for 17,000 VND (less than $1).