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Ho Chi Minh City

We board a plane and head towards Bangkok. Our first destination is Vietnam, but to get there we have to take a short detour through Thailand. I’ve been to South East Asia once before and I loved it, however never made it to Vietnam.

My friends Josh, Hannah and I were so excited on the plane that we got quite intoxicated. I hate to imagine how many drinks we had, especially after we got onto the rum and whisky. We watched Titanic and things got fairly emotional… Josh may or may not have cried, and then wet his pants.

After long hours of travelling we arrive in Ho Chi Minh at 9pm. I always get a bit sketched out arriving in places in the evening, and it seems there’s a much higher chance of taxi drivers ripping you off when its dark. From six months travelling in Central America, Ella and I have some confidence in travelling. I feel we have reasonable judgement, and a decent sense of when people are trying to rip us off –  these two weeks should be a breeze.

Ho Chi Minh is super busy and overwhelming as we expected. It’s hot, sticky, and chaotic. We flag down a taxi to take us to our hostel and negotiate a price. As soon as we leave the proximity of the airport the taxi driver points at a sign next to the steering wheel, and tries to tell us that there’s an extra fee for leaving the airport.

He says that we owe him an extra $10 US. Come on mate. Are you having a laugh? We tell him we’re not paying.

Thirty minutes later we’re at the hostel and the driver still insists we pay. Ella has other ideas and tells him no. I look closely at the sign he was pointing to earlier and it doesn’t even have any numbers written anywhere, which indicates that he’s talking bullocks. Ella once again tells him we’re not paying, and puts on her angry voice.

The taxi driver then backs down on the extra $10 which indicates to us that he knew he was guilty and we caught him out. Not a good start to the trip.

Busy streets in Ho Chi Minh City

The next morning we’re excited to stroll the streets and find something to eat. There’s a small but busy market going on and the familiar smell of Asian street food mixed with pollution wafts through the air. Ohh yeah we are in South East Asia.

This is my first decent look at Vietnamese locals, and it excites me to see people wearing the classic Nón lá Vietnamese conical hats. I love that first feeling of adrenaline when walking onto the street in a new country. There are people everywhere, and so many scooters racing up and down the roads in every direction.

Crossing the street in Asian countries is always a bit of a challenge, but I quite enjoy the thrill of walking at a consistent speed, and watching cars and motorbikes dart around you at the last moment. As we cross the street something moves in the corner of my eye and I notice a huge rat running into the gutter. Yuck.

Rats freak me out. Although whenever I do see a rat they make me laugh, as they always remind me of a dream that my sister had – where she was being chased by a giant rat on a skateboard.

Strolling the streets of Ho Chi Minh 

After six months of Central American food we were a bit sick of eating the same thing over and over again (mucho beans and rice), and began craving Thai food. I bloody love Thai food, and I’m excited to eat some Vietnamese food, as I’ve never really tried it before. Vietnam’s most famous meal is ‘pho’, a beef soup made with noodles and lots of herbs.

Strolling the streets we see local people sitting on tiny tables and chairs eating pho, chatting away happily amongst the chaos of the scooters whizzing up and down. There’s pho being served everywhere. It’s quite overwhelming, as we can’t decide where to order it from.

Pho here, Pho there, Pho everywhere.

When travelling we normally go by the rule: If there are lots of people eating at a café or street food, then it’s good to go.  I’ve come to accept the fact that I will end up with diarrhoea sometime along the trip. In Central America I literally shat my pants multiple times, so what’s the worst that could happen in Vietnam?

After ordering some pho, the dish comes out and the sight of it makes me salivate. It’s a big, steaming bowl of noodle soup full of herbs, and it smells fresh, zingy and delicious. Next to the soup there are handfuls of healthy greens that you can add yourself. There are a range of different chillies and sauces too.

Wow, so many condiments.

The first sip confirms for me that we have made a good decision coming to Vietnam. I am going to thrash the food here so hard that I’ll never want to eat Vietnamese again. The soup is surprisingly filling, but we still order some fresh spring rolls and fried rice – we are in Vietnam after all.

First meal of Vietnamese food

It would be hard to go to Vietnam and not notice the damage that has been inflicted by years of war here. I knew Vietnam had a crazy history, but before coming here I simply had no idea about the extent of what really happened.

It’s difficult to imagine just how traumatising it must have been, not only for the people alive during the war, but the generations of people afterwards.

We visit a couple of Vietnam war museums and it’s heartbreaking. Ho Chi Minh is a great place to learn about the history of Vietnam, and its intriguing to learn how different the North and South of Vietnam used to be and the different ideologies that still exist here.

One of the most popular tourist sites in Ho Chi Minh is the Chichi tunnels – one of many underground networks of tunnels where the Vietcong lived and fought. I can’t believe they actually lived in those tiny tunnels – they are so small and dark, and they did this for years – it’s mind-boggling. We’re ready to get out of the big city though, so decide to skip the Chichi tunnnels and head to Hoi An, a smaller town further north.

We’ve decided to fly around Vietnam, as opposed to using trains or buses, as we’re on a tight schedule and keen to limit travel time as much as possible.

Hoi An

Hoi An is famous for its affordable tailor made clothing, which attracts people from all around the world who have high hopes of getting cheaply made, but expensive-looking clothing.

We head downtown, where there are clothing shops everywhere, selling hundreds of types of shoes, leather bags, suits, and just about anything else you can think of.  It’s common for women on the streets to come up to you and ask where your from, making conversation before trying to get you to come into their shop.

Each shop looks pretty similar and appear to sell the same stuff. It’s hard to tell which places are legit – maybe none?

I’ve always thought while in Vietnam I would get a suit. Now that I’m here I realise that I don’t need a suit, and I would never wear it. I still want one though, until I find out it will cost about $250 USD. Whaaat?  I seriously thought it would be about ten bucks.

Instead of a suit,  Ella and I opt for two custom made leather bags (by the time of writing by leather bag has already broken, cheers Vietnam).

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The streets of Hoi An

Hoi An is super touristy and you can see why; the streets are beautiful and everything is very picturesque. Lanterns hang in the cobbled streets, while tourists stroll around buying items or dining at the local restaurants.

It’s fun wandering the streets, and there are some nice restaurants where we lounge and sample different Vietnamese cuisine. One of my favourite pass times is trying different spring rolls from different places. You know you’ve got a good life when your main worry for the day is whether to get fresh or fried spring rolls, or both.

Vietnamese coffee has been a real highlight. It’s quite a strong and intense, and it actually reminds me of cow dung – but in a nice way. I’ve never really minded the smell cow dung, but haven’t thought about drinking it until now. The coffee here is served with a small filter on top of your cup that the strong coffee slowly drips through. You can either have your coffee with fresh or condensed milk.

Nice photo opportunities are everywhere throughout Hoi An

One awesome thing about Hoi An is that most of the hostels/homestays have bikes that you can borrow to go for a cruise on. Ella and I set off for the day and and see some epic Vietnamese landscapes. It’s a cool way to meet some locals and see the sights.

Good times cruising around Hoi Ann 

Unfortunately, the weather has been pretty average so far, with mainly cloudy days and sometimes some serious rainfall, but we’re still making the most of it. After a few days in Hoi An we’re ready to move on, so we decide to do a one day motorbike trip over to Hue and fly north to Hanoi.

My mate highly recommended a motorbike trip over the Hai Van Pass so we decide to give it a go. We’re picked up early by our motorbike group.  Ella and I have limited experience riding hogs we decide to sit on the back. We ride with a Vietnamese brother and sister. I sit on the back of Uy’s motorbike, the brother, while Ella sits on the back of Thuy’s bike, Uy’s sister. Uy and Thuy’s mother follows behind in their car carrying our bags.

Uy fills me in on how their business is thriving, all because of the great reviews they have on Trip Advisor. How cool is that.

Deep in ‘Nam

It’s an awesome feeling being on the back of a motorbike cruising through Vietnamese countryside. We pass locals working in rice paddies, small towns and fishing villages, all the while chatting with the siblings about Vietnamese way of life.

Uy tells us about how his granddad lost a leg from standing on a mine. We hear some crazy stories about the war and visit a famous place where the Americans were attacked at midnight by the Viet Cong. There are bullet holes in the walls reminding us how recent the war was. It’s raining but that doesn’t put a dampener on things, it almost intensifies the experience.

The journey

Hanoi

Straight away we notice that Hanoi is colder, and it should be, as it’s at a much higher altitude than the places that we’ve visited so far. We try a meal similar to pad thai and dang, it is tasty. It has so many noodles, herbs and flavours it’s blowing my mind. Its called Bun Bo Nam Bo.

We also try an egg coffee which has been recommended to us and is a specialty in Hanoi.

An egg in your coffee, surely that can’t be good can it? I tell you it was delicious. It didn’t even taste like egg, it just tasted creamy and delicious.

I love coffee!

Bun Bo Nam Bo an Egg Coffee

From Hanoi it’s a skip and jump to Halong Bay –  a world heritage site. I’m excited but anxious as there are many stories of people getting ripped off. A common theme seems to be that people will buy a ticket for one boat, then get told that boat isn’t available but another similar one is. Then they get on the new boat and it is much worse condition than the original boat. The old bait and switch.

Nowadays with Trip Advisor, decisions should be easy but it ain’t. Trip Advisor makes it even harder sometimes. There are just so many options and just when you think you have found the best boat/restaurant/hostel, you find a terrible review.

Who do you believe in this day and age?

Luckily some friends of ours had recently been to Vietnam and recommended a specific company. We were skeptical and slightly worried when were told via email that “we had been upgraded”, but we rolled the dice and decided to go ahead.

Later on, we found out we had paid half of what the rest of the passengers paid.. We paid $250 USD and other passengers had paid $500 USD!

Our fancy boat

The upgrade we received means that we are in the fanciest accommodation we have ever stayed in. The cabin is like something out of Titanic (first class of course).

There is a huge cloud-like bed, floor to ceiling windows out onto the ocean and islands, a spa bath and a flat screen TV. We would happily hang out in here all day, but decide to go up on deck and take in the scenery.

Halong bay is beautiful. We spend the days cruising through the bays dotted with huge limestone islands. It’s very peaceful and nice to get out away from the pollution.

We kayak and explore some of the islands and caves. It’s interesting to see that so many people on this boat have never been in a kayak before and don’t know how to swim. It definitely makes us grateful to come from NZ where these activities are so commonplace.

Kayaking in Halong Bay

One of the main highlights of our time in Halong Bay was our tour guide Tony, it wasn’t so much his great guiding, but his great haircut. Tony had the best bowl cut I’ve ever seen, perfectly shaped, it was always straight whether it was morning, afternoon or evening.

Cheers Tony you really made the trip something special.

Tony and his bowl cut

Another perk of the upgrade is the ten course meals – we’ve never experienced anything like it. Course after course keeps coming out and it’s a real novelty. I even try an oyster (disgusting).

After Halong Bay, it’s time to head home.

Overall, although I raved about it at the start I have to say that I’m disappointed in the Vietnamese cuisine. I would love to be more ‘cultured’ and say it was great and different on the palette, but I cannot tell a lie.

Maybe it was the food I chose, or the Westernised asian food I’m used to in New Zealand, but I found that the food was not spicy enough and lacked flavour.

I felt like the Vietnamese food was almost an impersonation of Thai food, but not quite as good. Sure, every now in then we would get a delicious pho, or a nice stir fry, but overall I’m a wee bit disappointed.

However, I must say that the spring rolls were spot on, and I swear I could eat them every day for the rest of my life.

The country itself was awesome – the history is still so fresh here, and the experiences we’ve had have been much more intrepid than I was expecting.

I love this place and will definitely be back, although next time I might sneak a couple of green curries across the border.

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