Ho Chi Minh Sightseeing ~ Day One ~ Vietnam July 2019

[DisneyDaffodil]

Index

The alarm woke us all at around 8:10am. I had woken up at 12am and not been able to get back to sleep until 4am but other than that none of us had slept too badly. The beds had been incredibly comfortable and we had heard very little noise in our room, which we hadn’t expected being so close to the busy roads.
All of the hotels we booked were bed and breakfast, so after getting ready we headed up to breakfast on the Huong Sen’s rooftop restaurant. As soon as we reached the roof, the heat hit us. Even though it was still early, the temperature was already at around 30 degrees. We made sure to find a table under a fan as it was so hot and humid.
Breakfast choice was varied here and we all found things that we wanted to eat. However there were some things on the buffet that we just wouldn’t consider breakfast foods such as pasta, curries and pieces of fish and chicken. There was also a choice between Western and Asian foods, such as Pho. We mainly stuck to Western food for breakfast, as it’s what we felt comfortable with. We did try a Vietnamese coffee though, which was nice although a little ‘heavy’ and earthy tasting. I found it a little too strong for me, so we usually drank the instant coffee there.
The other great thing about breakfast here was the view from the roof. It was great to eat breakfast while looking at the buildings around and hearing the traffic noise from the road.

After breakfast, Ian met us outside our hotel. Today we had decided to visit the main tourist sights of Ho Chi Minh. Although the Post Office and Notre Dame cathedral were only a 12 minute walk away, Ian said that we should order a Grab as it would get too hot to walk this far. Grab cars only cost around £1 for these short distances so we often used them. We never had to wait long for a Grab either so they worked out the best way to travel in the city.
Our Grab stopped right outside the Post Office for us. This was one of the busiest parts of the city. There were lots of tourists here, as well as locals, bikes, cars, people selling touristy souvenirs.

The post office is still a working post office, so we joined the majority of people who were heading inside. I found that it was busier inside the post office than it was outside so it was sometimes difficult to walk around and take photos, as we were trying to avoid people who were there to actually use the post office not just be tourists.
The building of the post office is so beautiful. The central part of the building is where the post office runs from and the two side wings is set up with stalls selling souvenirs. We enjoyed walking around the central area looking at the Vietnamese map on the one side, the clocks which showed times from around the world (it was really weird to look at the London one which was showing around 3am. I was very confused) and at the painting of Ho Chi Minh (the former president).

We wandered around the main building first, taking photos and then headed into the souvenir stalls. We found that the souvenirs in Vietnam were often quite nice, not just tacky souvenirs. Again (we’re sure we’re going to say this a lot throughout this report) but we were surprised at how cheap everything was. We did find some things we wanted to buy in these stalls and enjoyed looking around here, as the sellers weren’t pushy or overbearing. I bought a fridge magnet and a compact mirror (these both cost only a few pound). I bought a cute rabbit luggage tag for about £2.
After we left the Post Office, we made our first road crossing. Although it was busy, we followed Ian when he told us to and we made it across easily, despite what seemed like hundreds of bikes coming from all directions. At the beginning of the trip this is how we crossed most of the roads, waiting for Ian to show us when to go as he knew the roads but the longer we were in Vietnam, the more confident we became and could cross the roads by ourselves (even if I did step out in front of a bike going the wrong way once) Which was totally your fault, as neither dad nor I stepped out then.
We stopped at the square in the middle of the roads to take photos of the Notre Dame cathedral. It was really hot here as there was no shade, even though it was only around 10am. The cathedral isn’t open for the public as it’s under construction, so the photos aren’t as pretty due to the scaffolding but the building is still spectacular. We were planning to go to France next year and of the attractions I wanted to see the most was the Notre Dame cathedral but due to the fire, that won’t be possible. I’m so glad we got to see this version in Ho Chi Minh, even though we still couldn’t see inside.

Ian suggested that our next stop should be the Reunification Palace. It was only a 5 minute walk from the cathedral, so we chose to walk this instead of getting a Grab. I had to apply more sunscreen before we set off as I was already starting to burn. The walk from here was mostly in the shade so it wasn’t too hot. It was also a very pretty place to walk through and gave us a good perspective on the city. Dad and I were amazed to see the number of wires hanging from one telephone pole. We used to have problems with the wires for our internet at home and we only have one wire! How did they solve a problem with all of those wires?
There was a small entrance fee for the Reunification Palace. It worked out only £1.30 per person though, so definitely worth the fee. It sounds a lot more when you’re actually there though, as it was 40,000 VND each! After a while though, Georgia and I found it quite easy to convert as we worked on the basis that 30,000 is worth around a pound. Poor Rob never managed to work it out.
We decided to walk around the grounds of the Reunification Palace first. In the grounds are tanks and fighter planes. I can’t really tell you anything about these, as Ian and Dad were more impressed by them than either me or Mum. These were all from the Vietnamese War and we took pictures of them despite not really knowing anything about tanks or planes.

The Reunification Palace is huge. The building itself is made up of about 4 stories and each one has a number of different rooms to look around. It’s decorated in the style of how it would have been in the 1970’s, as it was at the end of the Vietnamese War. The furnishings in these rooms were really luxurious and it was interesting to see things like old phones, old cinema equipment (as it had its own cinema room) and the extensive telecommunication systems (that were huge. It’s so weird to compare them to the sizes of our phones and communication devices nowadays.)

Although these rooms were beautiful, Ian and I spent a lot of our time counting how often Mum and Dad pointed out how lovely the carpet was. There was a particular room (photo below) where they mentioned that they loved the carpet to us both about ten times. It was a nice carpet, I guess.

The palace itself was very hot. We stopped many times to just sit down and drink water (thankfully there were vending machines at one point selling cold drinks) as well as benches throughout the palace. My biggest problem with the heat was the amount of unnecessary walking that we did. We made it to the floor beneath the roof when Dad said “Oh, can you look in the bunker?” to which Ian replied “Yes, let’s go back down and look at it now.” So, we walked all the way back down the stairs to look in the basement (which was one of the only places that had fans thankfully) and then WE WALKED ALL THE WAY BACK UP TO THE ROOF! I had to stop as I was very overwhelmed with the heat and humidity. I was struggling to breathe with it and wondered how I was going to cope on the trip if I was affected by the heat this badly. Thankfully, this was one of the only times on the holiday that I felt that bad because of the heat and I managed well the rest of the time. I agree with Georgia that this was difficult, as we weren’t used to the heat/humidity and it seemed difficult to breathe when the heat became too much. Georgia and I took it slower than Ian and Rob and made it to the roof after them but were glad we went up there.
The views from up here were wonderful, as we could see a mixture of the tall buildings, the roads but also a lot of greenery in the city. Also on the roof, we saw the sites where the bombs hit the palace during the war. Overall, we all found it interesting looking around the palace and feel it’s a must-do if visiting the city.

We were all way too hot now and had to stop for a drink. There was a little café in the ground of the Reunification Palace so we stopped here. We made sure to get seats by a fan as we were all so hot and we ordered drinks. Rob had an iced coffee, Ian had a watermelon juice, I had a bottle of water and I originally ordered a can of coke but then also ordered a coconut for us all to try. Ian recommended we try this as its refreshing. I really enjoyed it and it helped me cool down a lot. Rob didn’t enjoy it very much and I thought it tasted pretty bad. I stuck to water.

Despite just having a rest, we were all still hot and it was around lunch time. We weren’t incredibly hungry due to the time difference, but Ian knew of a restaurant nearby that served good Vietnamese fusion food, so we headed there. This restaurant was called Propaganda and the walls were painted with images from Vietnamese war propaganda posters. It was very bright inside, as the artwork was so colourful and had a good atmosphere because of this. This restaurant was very busy and also quite touristy, as it was close to the tourist attractions and was themed as such.

We took a while looking at the menu deciding what to order as we weren’t really sure what we’d like. Ian helped describe what some of the foods were, which really helped us to decide what we wanted. I chose the fresh prawn rolls with Julienne vegetables, rice noodles & coriander fish sauce (I didn’t particularly enjoy these as I didn’t like the rice noodles in it but they were beautifully presented and just weren’t to my taste), Rob and Ian both had a Banh Mi (which were huge) and I had the Stir-fried lemongrass beef salad with shredded water spinach & fried shallots (I think I chose the best meal here as the salad was really fresh and the meat was AMAZING. I couldn’t manage to eat a lot as I was still feeling a little disorientated and jetlagged but really really enjoyed what I did eat) I tried a bit of Georgia’s meal and wish this was the meal I had chosen too. We had three beers and an orange juice for Georgia. Overall the meal came to £25 for the four of us. Such big meals would have cost so much more in the UK and they were all well presented and tasted so fresh.

After our meal we decided to visit the War Remnants Museum. We decided to walk the ten minutes to the War Remnants Museum but soon realised how hot it became in the afternoons. We did walk it though, as it really wasn’t that far away. Just as we reached the Museum, we realised how uneven the pavements were in Ho Chi Minh. Dad was walking just behind me and the next thing I knew he put a hand out to me, before he rolled and fell towards the road onto a grassy area close to the busy road. I shouted and tried to grab him but had no chance as he’d taken a heavy fall. Mum and Ian rushed over to check he was ok, which thankfully he was. He’d thrown himself onto the grass so that he hadn’t hurt himself on the rough pavement as he fell but it had worried me as he was so close to the road.
We all made sure Rob was ok, somehow he’d managed to not cut or bruise himself at all, before heading into the War Remnants Museum. This cost 15,000 VND which is approximately 50p per person. During planning, none of us had really wanted to visit the museum as we knew it was upsetting but agreed that it was one of the places we should see in Ho Chi Minh.
The outside area nearest the entrance was where the planes, tanks and other military equipment and vehicles were. We took some photos looking around this part, but didn’t take photos in the main part of the museum as it seemed insensitive and not something we wanted to look back at photos of, due to their sensitive, emotional nature.

The museum was set over three floors and each floor had a different theme to it. I found that it became more upsetting the further up you went and by the third floor, I felt completely drained and very upset by the terrible photographs and stories depicted in the museum. Similar to Mum, I found this museum was very emotional and couldn’t bring myself to read a lot of the stories. One part of the museum I found interesting though was the section that concentrated on the photographers and news reporters during the war. It was interesting to me to see the photos they took before, during and after the war and read the stories of the photographers themselves, which I think is often overlooked in war situations. Some of the most distressing parts of the museum showed pictures relating to the chemical warfare and the impacts on people plus the effects on future generations. Another upsetting part was seeing the damage that unexploded bombs had on people living in Vietnam since the war. Overall, because of how emotional it is, we wouldn’t say we enjoyed the museum or would ‘recommend’ it but we learnt a lot from it and think it has an important role in teaching about the history of the war and the impact on individuals.
By now it was around 2:15-2:30pm. We were starting to get tired from jetlag and the heat so decided to head back to our hotel for a rest, before meeting up for a meal later with Ian and Claudia. We agreed with Ian that we’d order a Grab car for us and he’d catch a Grab bike to his place. We started to order ours, which took us a few minutes as we hadn’t used the app ourselves before. By the time we’d really started the process, Ian’s bike had arrived outside (as bikes came quicker than cars, but he hadn’t realised it would be that soon). He got on his bike and we thought we could get a Grab to us. Now, I was in charge of ordering these, as I’m just quicker than Mum and Dad at using phones. However (and I’m making excuses here because it couldn’t be my fault) we were using an old phone of Mum’s that hadn’t been updated in months as Mum has a new phone. We used this as it was unlocked, so we could use a Vietnamese sim that Ian bought for us there. However, this meant that the phone was slow and it was a little more difficult to use. I assumed it had found my location when I ordered the Grab and when the driver said he had arrived at the location, we looked around for him. The driver tried to call us, but due to the language barrier there was no way I could communicate where I was or find out where he was. After five minutes, if the driver cannot find you, they cancel the ride and you have to make a new booking. When this happened, we decided to walk around the corner to see if it would be any easier here (I don’t know why we thought it would be haha). After looking at the Grab app, I think I’d put the wrong location in for our first booking (as it looked like we were near a river and we definitely weren’t) Around the corner from the War Remnants Museum was a bus stop and this was a good marker to order a Grab from. The next Grab arrived really easily and took us straight back to our hotel. Afterwards we updated our phone and we had no other problems using Grab and I always doublechecked the location.
Back at the hotel, we rested up and enjoyed cooling down in the airconditioned room. We also went up to the roof to look at the pool in the daytime and to take photos of the view. The pool here was small and under a canopy to keep it in the shade, which made it cooler to sit around here. We didn’t spend much time at the pool in this hotel, as it was early in the holiday and we spent most of our time exploring Ho Chi Minh.

Near the restaurant part of the roof was a small fish pond with lots of Koi and Giant Gourami. We spent quite a while watching them, as we love fish and have a tank of (much smaller) fish at home. When the bar staff noticed us watching the fish, they came over to feed them so that we could watch them eating.

After relaxing, we messaged Ian and agreed to meet him at his apartment and we would all head out for food at a local restaurant to him. He had also arranged that we would go to his local bar afterwards to meet a group of his friends (there’s no more photos of this evening, as we spent the time with Ian and his friends and forgot to take photos again. I think this is the last time that I forgot to take food photos, so there’ll be a lot more soon!)
We ordered a Grab to Ian’s apartment (we were starting to get the hang of the app now and by we, Mum means I was getting the hang of it, not her) We met Ian and Claudia and then caught another Grab to the restaurant. When we arrived, we sat outside and we were brought menus. Ian told us we could look through them if we wanted, but that he often ordered the same thing here and the owner came over to greet Ian and take his order. We agreed that it was better for him to order for us (especially as when we opened the menu, most of the things on the menu sounded really weird such as tortoise) Ian ordered a bowl of seafood rice, morning glory, shrimp and chicken. I was a little worried about this, as the only thing that I liked was chicken (I’d never tried morning glory and don’t like shrimp or rice) We were all a little dubious too, as the menu had been so strange so we didn’t know what to expect.
Similarly to how we ate often in Vietnam, plates of food were brought out to the middle of the table and we all took portions of what we wanted. This worked really well and we were always really full afterwards.
It started to rain as we were eating, so the owner tried to bring out the canopy to cover us. When this wasn’t big enough to cover the whole outside area where we were sat, they helped us move all of our food and drinks inside and set up a table big enough for the five of us in there. They even switched the tv channel to an English-speaking news channel, despite us being the only Westerners in there. It was so welcoming and thoughtful.
The food here was so much better than we’d expected it to be. I tried the rice (as it was the first thing that was brought out and I was worried that I wasn’t going to eat enough if I only tried the chicken) and it actually wasn’t too bad (which is saying a lot as I won’t go near rice at home) The rice was very flavourful and had pieces of seafood such as octopus and shrimp. Morning glory became my favourite food in Vietnam (and it’s a vegetable. I never thought I’d hear Georgia say she loved a vegetable!) Morning glory is also known as water spinach and is a green leafy vegetable. It’s cooked in Vietnam with lots of garlic and fish sauce (as well as sometimes other flavours such as lemongrass, chilli, etc.) We ate this a lot throughout our trip as it was available at all the Vietnamese restaurants we visited and tasted delicious. My favourite part of the meal was the shrimp, as they were huge and ‘meaty’. The shrimps needed to be peeled and I made such a mess of peeling my first one that Ian insisted he had to peel all of mine for the rest of the trip
Our meal was so delicious and we all had 2-3 beers there (and Ian’s friend joined us for one drink there) and overall the meal came to under £25. We then headed back to the bar near Ian’s apartment building where we were greeted very, very warmly by the owner (as this is Ian’s local and he goes there often) and sat outside. Around 5 of Ian’s friends joined us, Ian and Claudia and we sat here for a couple of hours and had a few drinks. It was really nice to talk to Ian’s friends and we all talked and laughed a lot (even if I could feel my eyes closing towards the end) We left here around 10:30pm, as we were still very tired and jetlagged, despite enjoying ourselves.
We took a Grab back to our hotel and very quickly went to bed.


The next day we visited the Emperor Jade Pagoda, Walking Street and ate at Secret Garden (my favourite meal of the whole trip)

[Melbatb]

What an interesting day - challenging at times by the sound of some of the things you saw but I think it is actually a positive step that we confront the awful things that have happened in the not that distant past!

Your food sounds lovely- I am intrigued by the morning glory! Greens and garlic is a winning combination in my book!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

What an interesting day - challenging at times by the sound of some of the things you saw but I think it is actually a positive step that we confront the awful things that have happened in the not that distant past!

Your food sounds lovely- I am intrigued by the morning glory! Greens and garlic is a winning combination in my book!

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It was a really interesting day and we felt more comfortable with Vietnam by the end of it as we had eaten good food, coped with the heat and the traffic and met lots of very friendly people which was things we were worried about before we went.

The War Museum was heartbreaking but I agree with you that we need to see the damage and pain caused and learn from it 😢

Morning glory really was delicious and is eaten in a lot of South East Asian countries I believe but not always by the same name. All the vegetables there were cooked with garlic or herbs and sauces and were much tastier and fresher than our soggy veg over here 😀 I have looked for water spinach (morning glory) in UK supermarkets to try and replicate the dish but can’t find it anywhere sadly

[CrispyA]

Sounds like a fascinating day and you certainly packed a lot in. The museums must have been very sobering, especially with the war being so recent really. Food sounds really good!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by CrispyA

Sounds like a fascinating day and you certainly packed a lot in. The museums must have been very sobering, especially with the war being so recent really. Food sounds really good!

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We did see lots that day and found the city easy to get around. We did have Ian to help us of course, but the Grabs were very efficient and so cheap. Plus as we used the app to put in where we were going and paid via the app, we didn’t have any communication problems with the drivers.

The museum was sobering but afterwards we felt it had been necessary to visit.

I do wish we’d remembered to take photos of the evening meal as it was such an authentic Vietnamese restaurant out of the tourist areas with outstanding food. I promise we will redeem ourselves over the rest of the trip with lots of food photos 😀

[Goldia]

I will echo the others, it really does sound like an interesting day. I can imagine it must have been harrowing reading about the chemical warfare and of course seeing the photos.

On a lighter note, I was pleased to read that you managed to cross the roads by yourselves eventually Walking around in the heat and humidity sounds very draining. Oh and I thought it was a lovely carpet too, plus nice for the kids to bond over mocking their parents, my two love doing that when they aren't bickering

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I will echo the others, it really does sound like an interesting day. I can imagine it must have been harrowing reading about the chemical warfare and of course seeing the photos.

On a lighter note, I was pleased to read that you managed to cross the roads by yourselves eventually Walking around in the heat and humidity sounds very draining. Oh and I thought it was a lovely carpet too, plus nice for the kids to bond over mocking their parents, my two love doing that when they aren't bickering

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There are actually t-shirts on sale in Ho Chi Minh saying ‘I crossed the road in Ho Chi Minh’ 😀 It really was quite scary at times, Georgia reckons I made a squeaky noise as I crossed as I was so nervous 😂

Georgia soon discovered that Ian loved mocking us as much as she did and they definitely enjoyed bonding over this. It was great to see them getting on together and they certainly got to know each other much better as adults during the trip which was wonderful for them.

[cornishfrogboy]

I am really looking forward to this trip report. A great start!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

I am really looking forward to this trip report. A great start!

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Thank you for reading. Georgia sets off to uni tomorrow and, as we write it together, it is going to take a long time to get completed as we will only be able to write when she comes home for holidays. We always get them finished though so I promise we’ll get there 😀 I will post a comment in our Index each time we put a new day up

[cornishfrogboy]

I look forward to the rest as we are looking to visit this area for the first time.
Your trippie will be read with a view to formulating our own plan.