On Monday the 27th of July we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I had never seen a country that was so effected by poverty before, the view from the plane was a bit of a shock but as we got further into the city the western influence appeared.
A bit of advice when it comes to obtaining a visa in Vietnam, have EVERYTHING prepared, double check everything on the form and have the money there and then! We didn't have the money as we didn't get US dollars before our travels and we regret not doing so, they do not want to help you and some are so rude. They pretend like you do not exist and that's very hard to deal with if there is a language barrier but eventually we got through thanks to other westerners rather than the Vietnam airport staff themselves. We stayed in a recommended place called Long Hostel, some of the locals helped us find it as we were the clear image of lost travellers. We got to the city about mid day due to a very early flight and we were exhausted so the first day was a write off as we got something to eat and caught up on our sleep.
Day 2: We woke up earlier than we had on most days on our travels so far, our plan was to walk around to get a feel of the city and to see a few museums. Ho Chi Minh City is well known for its war history and so most of the museums were focused on the American war and the history of Vietnam being a communist country. Across from the museum was the post office and the cathedral, although we didn't get to experience the cathedral it was a magnificent building and we found out some of the history towards it due to tagging along with an American tour group.
Walking around a city in high temperatures usually gets difficult after a while for the typical Brit so we stopped for coffee in a small chain called highland coffee, I have to say the Vietnamese coffee tastes much better than coffee from the UK which surprised me as I didn't think Asia would be big on coffee due to primarily being tea drinkers but it was a lovely surprise as it was delicious. At this point in the trip we were starting to settle down and get into the routine of being away from home, although we still missed home slightly the excitement of exploring new places and experiencing new things outweighed the homesickness.
We decided to see an acrobatic show that was recommended to us by trip advisor, it was performed in the opera house in the middle of the city and it reminded me of the O2 Brixton academy at home.
The performance was something that we had never experienced, people pretending to be ducks, turtles and frogs whilst jumping and cartwheeling around, it didn't seem to have a plot but it proved to be popular. For dinner we found a familiar dim sum place, it was a nice break from the rain and proved popular to the locals!
Day 3: We woke up early to attend a tour of the Chu chi tunnels, the bus ride was about an hour but we were able to get to know more people from our hostel. On the way we stopped at a market where they created paintings and pottery out of eggshells, it was an unusual process but the detail that was produced in the artwork was remarkable and it proves how much work goes into producing some artwork. The tour itself was interesting, our tour guide was a cheery Vietnamese man who clearly thought he was one with the ladies and made many puns that most of us didn't understand, none the less the experience of the tunnels and the history of the war between Vietnam and America was educational and proved that war doesn't seem to solve much. Before we went home we stopped to see the war museum, not being a fan of war history myself I didn't find it quite so interesting but daniel was enthusiastic about the war tanks and planes so everyone was happy.
Overall Ho Chi Minh City was a crazy, cultural city that threw us into the deep end of the Vietnamese culture but it's prepared us for what else is to come!
Love Tam xox
P.s don't shoot guns, stay safe kids xox
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