Well we wanted culture shock and we got it! I am still processing the last six days and everything we saw/ate/heard/felt. I am going to do my best to relay it all so this might be another long one…
After around 21 hours of travel (our flight from Taiwan to Ho Chi Minh City was delayed) we finally arrived at Ho Chi Minh airport (formerly Saigon). We were told prior to coming to Vietnam to be patient and have a “go with the flow” attitude as things don’t always go as expected. We had to apply for a tourist visa online before coming to Vietnam and when we got off the plane we waited in the passport control line. We were a bit anxious and hoped we weren’t missing any paperwork. After waiting for over half an hour we got our visas checked and made it through fine.
We were overwhelmed as we exited the airport terminal as we were swarmed by a humid heat as well as tons of motorcycles, cars, buses and people trying to sell us rides. We found our bus fairly quickly (thank goodness it had air conditioning) and we rode about 40 minutes to the stop closest to our hostel. This first ride is one I will always remember as I was grabbing onto the bus seat and Al’s arm the entire time in anxiety. We thought the bicycles and chaos in Amsterdam was crazy, but this was on another level - an utter shit show. Basically the roads consisted of a fair share of cars and buses which were surrounded by hundreds of mopeds and motorcycles that would weave their ways around them. There were few traffic lights and intersections with clusters of mopeds going in every direction and TONS of honking horns. We even encountered mopeds driving on sidewalks, and driving on the opposite lane of the street. It seemed as if there were no rules. I would be terrified to drive in this city.
But even though we weren’t drivers, as pedestrians it was equally as stressful and scary. Walking to our hostel from the bus stop we learned quickly that pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. Actually, no one has the right of way here. Some big intersections have cross walk signals, but most are a free for all, where you just have to start walking without hesitation and hope something doesn’t hit you. Definitely almost got hit a few times. Needless to say by this description, the traffic, constant horn honking, and chaos was overwhelming and we quickly realized this wasn’t a walking city or one that was enjoyable to just take a stroll and wander the streets. You really have to pay attention to every step you take. For me, the most shocking part was seeing entire families all fit on one scooter and the kids didn’t have helmets on. Also, the amount of materials, food, animals, etc. that people would carry with them as they drove on these tiny bikes seemed to be a recipe for disaster. But we never witnessed an accident so I’ll give them that! Al pointed out that the chaotic driving situation here is probably one reason why there is the stereotype of “bad Asian drivers” in California. There’s no time to be polite in a big urban area like Saigon because if you’re nice, then you won’t be able to get anywhere!
We got a little lost finding our hostel and as we did so, we passed by an outdoor market with tons of stalls that had started to break down. Seeing the trash, filth, and rats crawl underneath the stalls, made me extremely nervous to eat anything - and we hadn’t even been here for an hour! In this moment, I think we both realized its really dirty here (although we later discovered nicer parts of the city), and that its very different from what we are used to, especially coming from Westernized European cities. It was also very eye opening and made us appreciate what we have and the cleanliness standards in the States. It’s crazy to think people live like this their entire lives (or are born into it).
Hot, sweaty, exhausted, and hungry, we finally found our hostel, Long Hostel, which was off a main street down a little alley way. Supposedly this is the “backpacker” district and our street had probably 10 hostels on it with foreigners. We got the keys to our private room and were surprised to see that it was super clean, air conditioned and even had a refrigerator. Not what we were expecting after what we had seen on the walk over. On top of that, we learned that we got free breakfast, free towels and free beers during happy hour every night. And this was for under $20 a night. We showered, took a nap, and then wandered out for our first meal. Since I am super paranoid about getting sick from food (as if I’m not already picky enough as it is…) I spent a lot of time researching best practices and learned that it was best to go to restaurants or street food carts with a lot of people so you know the food is probably good, fresh, and safe to eat. After wandering a bit and praying we wouldn’t get hit every time we had to cross a street, we found a crowded pho restaurant down the street so we ate there the first night and it was pretty good!
After a solid night’s sleep, we were pleasantly surprised at the breakfast selection which consisted of several food options (eggs, omelettes, and banana pancakes) and drink options (iced coffee, tea, juice, water) and turned out to be delicious. Our first day in the city, we decided to walk to some of the main attractions despite it not being a walking city.
Within a couple hours, we managed to see:
- Ben Thanh Market - a big indoor market that reminded me of the grand bazaar in Istanbul. Tons of stalls selling clothing, accessories, spices, food, you name it. Saw some very questionable meat sources including what looked like brains of some animal, intestines, and literal “free range chickens” just wandering around. Saw the insides of more animals than I needed to and no joke considered becoming a vegetarian (or at least for this trip).
- Cathedral Notre Dame - a big Cathedral built during the time the French ruled the area (Indochina).
- Nguyen Hue Street - a big street near City Hall that you could actually walk down the center (nothing too special, this was a nicer part of the city with international brand shops and fancy hotels).
- Independence Palace - a big building that housed the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was also the location where the “Fall of Saigon” took place during the Vietnam War when the North Vietnamese troops crashed through the gates.
For me, I think the best part was honestly just walking through different streets and alley ways (as best we could avoiding mopeds) past people’s homes, people sitting on tiny stools eating food, drinking coffee or tea, street vendors preparing food, etc. It was hard to take in and process everything my eyes were seeing since this has been culturally the most different place I have ever been. But despite the differences, I was surprised to still see so many American chain restaurants. We passed by KFC, Starbucks, McDonalds, Coffee Bean and Pizza Hut.
Later that night, we went to a rooftop bar and had beers ($1 each, what?!) and walked down Bui Vien, a crowded street with tons of bars and restaurants. It was very lively, colorful, and the road was closed off to cars and mopeds which was nice (it was Saturday night).
Our second full day, we went to the War Remnants Museum and spent a couple of hours there. Of course, I went in a little naive and blind to all the details behind the Vietnam War but I quickly learned the Vietnamese perspective on things. The history, commentary, and photos portrayed in the museum made Americans look really really bad. Going through the museum we didn’t feel “proud to be an American”. Compared to Europe, it made me hesitate to want people to know I was American while in this country. While the museum wasn’t uplifting, we both agreed we were glad we went and were able to see the war through a different lens. This also made me want to learn more about the history of the Vietnam war so we started watching the Ken Burns PBS mini-series at night in our hostel room.
During the afternoon, we got foot massages at a spa found on TripAdvisor. For 30 minutes it cost $3 per person which we thought was pretty good. Wasn’t the best foot massage I’ve had but it was relaxing. There are tons of spas here and I was shocked to see you could get an hour long full body massage for around $8 or a full mani/pedi for $5. Of course, I’m not sure of the quality but compared to the States it is so cheap!
Our last full day, we walked to another indoor market and down various alley ways of streets. It was crazy to see how small and run down so many of the homes are here and how people really do live with less. I have realized that for these people, every dollar or “dong” (Vietnamese currency, yes their money is called dong so insert whatever funny joke you want here) counts where as for us one or two dollars may not make a huge difference.
Some other things we’ve noticed/learned:
- They have Uber here but it’s on a moped!
- It is interesting how pho and all the other types of noodle soup are so common here when it is SO hot out! It was hard for us to eat at times because our body temperatures were already high. And this is in December.
- Most people wear flip-flop sandals and we saw many men sitting, walking, napping with their shirts off.
- Many people wear surgical or other masks here when outside. Which can serve two purposes: to prevent inhaling polluted air and to avoid getting a tan since women in particular consider dark skin unattractive. This is a thing in Asian cultures because dark skinned people were the peasants who worked on the farms and upper class people were light skinned.
- People sit on these tiny stools by the food vendor carts and eat and lounge at all times of the day.
- We observed the population to be on the older side (but maybe we just weren’t in the right areas). People on the street just hanging out were generally older.
- Restaurants give you these little cold wet naps with your meal but then they charge you extra for them if you use them (I think they charged us if we didn’t use them too).
- You can bargain pretty much anywhere.
- We saw multiple men peeing in broad daylight on the side of the road.
- There are lots of coffee shops - coffee culture is a thing.
- Vietnam is 50% Buddhist.
- Fun fact: “Rach” means canal in Vietnamese.
Our fourth day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), we signed up for an overnight tour to the Mekong Delta not really knowing what to expect. It was only around $20/person and we couldn’t find any reviews on the travel company but we went in with an open mind. Overall, the tour was great value for the money and we were glad we could see this part of the country but the Mekong Delta just wasn’t as interesting as we expected (it was also dirty). The whole trip was just pretty touristy. To sum it up, we traveled down to the city of My Tho, spent the night in Can Tho, and then came back to HCMC the next day. Lots of driving, but I didn’t mind it as I enjoyed looking out of the bus window and people/scenery watching.
Summary of the Mekong Delta tour:
- Stopped by Vinh Trang Buddhist Temple - beautiful gardens and shrines, and huge statues of buddhas.
- Visited a Coconut Candy making workshop - we got to try it too! And they also had snake wine but we weren’t bold enough to try it.
- Tried honey mint tea - very fresh honey made it extra sweet and yummy.
- Took a ride down one of the canals in a row boat - this ended in a major traffic jam though and the whole time people were saying “tip” to us and showing us money.
- Tried street food for the first time during our free time in Can Tho - we had “com tam” which is a dish typical to Southern Vietnam and consists of broken rice and grilled pork (com tam translates to broken rice).
- Stumbled upon a Vietnamese version of Target/Walmart.
- Visited a rice paper and rice noodle making workshop.
- Visited a floating market - locals selling fruits and vegetables on their boats the middle of the river - very touristy though as several little boats of people came up to our boat and tried to sell us drinks
We took the bus back to HCMC for one more night and this time the city wasn’t as overwhelming. We were more confident crossing the streets and knew our way around much better.
Overall, our time in HCMC and the Mekong Delta has been eye opening, hot and hectic. I had no idea what to expect prior to arriving, and I have enjoyed taking in every moment and gaining a new perspective on the way others live in this world. Hard to believe sometimes. We met lots of friendly people during our time here and definitely saw a difference in the types of tourists visit Vietnam - in terms of being open minded, low key, down to earth people.
Today we are heading to Hoi An for a week (central coast Vietnam) which we are really looking forward to.