I am home and I am soooooooo happy to be here! The end of the semester was very difficult for me, but I (somehow) managed to survive. I spent a few lovely (magical) days with some of my loved ones in New York City. Now I am in Florida with more people that I love, and I am thrilled to have time to slow down (aka - blog! Yay!).
We've FINALLY reached the end of my Spring Break in Vietnam series, where I have spent the majority of this calendar year recapping my forbidden love affair with Vietnam. Last time we left off, I was leaving Central Vietnam because I felt compelled to visit one more place: Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC... also known as Saigon).
Saigon City at night
My very late flight to HCMC was super delayed and became an even later flight (full of screaming children, at that!). I reached my hotel room in HCMC in time to catch about 5 hours of sleep before a pretty big outing. Despite the hotel being super noisy, I crashed pretty hard that night.
When you wear a somewhat cute outfit to travel because you are almost out of clean clothes on your trip...
My room in Saigon was small but clean/functional.
FYI: The first part of this blog post is quite heavy, but I felt it was necessary to write. If you want to skip over the heavy stuff and get to the sightseeing part of my trip, scroll down to Friday's adventures (the text starts just above the picture of the breakfast food).
A little background and context:
It may sounds strange that I felt compelled to visit a place, so I will explain a little. Vietnam was very prevalent in my life when I was growing up. This may sound odd, considering I am an 80s baby, and the War happened long before that.
My mother had me later in life. She graduated from high school in the 1960s - right smack in the middle of the conflict. Many of my mom's classmates were drafted and sent to war - including some that were very close to her. I also have a family member who fought in the War. We were fortunate that he not only survived, but his mind did too. I know that many others (including some of my mom's friends) were not so fortunate.
The Vietnam War had a great impact on my mom and therefore on me, as I grew up hearing a little more about it than most kids my age. I felt that I needed to go to HCMC for the same reason I needed to go to the prison in Hanoi: I needed to understand. We learned about the conflict a little bit in school (but it was mostly glossed over, since it was not a successful time in our history). I also know a little bit about the emotional impact that it had on people of that generation because of conversations with family members. But I felt that I needed to see things to help me gain an even better understanding.
Thursday: Remembering The War
My first day in HCMC was very, very hard for me. I met up with two friends from my school who were traveling in Vietnam for Spring Break like I was. Together, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels and the War Remnants Museum. Usually I enjoy solo travel, but that day I was grateful for the company because it was a difficult and emotional day.
The beginning of our trip was lovely, as we took a speedboat through part of the Mekong River. I also got to try some new and interesting fruits, including something called a "dragon's eyeball." It was squishy but tasty!
All smiles to start the day, though my smile was definitely tight with nerves (and a little exhaustion).
We did enjoy some beautiful views en route to the tunnels.
Longan's fruit - they call it "dragon's eyeball" - kind of like a lychee, if you've ever tasted that
For those who do not know, the Cu Chi Tunnels are a system of narrow, underground tunnels that were used by locals during times of resistance. Initially they were used against the French, but they were developed more extensively against Americans. Now they are a tourist/historical site. I learned a lot about the booby traps and so-called "primitive" weapons that were used against our heavily armed forces. (I sort of disagree with the description of "primitive" because the demonstrations helped me understand just how much damage bamboo can do.)
I did crawl into a small manhole and then through a tunnel, which was absolutely terrifying for me. My back scraped along the top of the tunnel about halfway through it, and I almost had a complete meltdown. I knew I had to hold it together until I got out of the tunnel (and I did... barely).
I did not take many pictures that day. I was even hesitant to include these, but it is a frame of reference for how intricate the tunnel system is/was, and a reminder of the connections and emotions that I felt that day.
Our guide told us that they specifically built these so that they were not "American-sized"
I have a strange nervous laugh - I smile or giggle when I am scared and/or nervous, so that explains my expression here. This was about the time that all of the reality started to sink in for me.
The scrape on my back that almost sent me into a panic, but I somehow managed to crawl through the rest of the tunnel and escape to the fresh air.
I spent most of the time at the Cu Chi Tunnels site in tears. I hid behind my sunglasses so that others wouldn't notice. Despite the tears, I managed to continue listening and learning through most of the tour.
There is a spot at the end tour where you can fire actual guns that were used in the War, and that is when I lost my composure. Hysteria bubbled up, as too many horrifying images came to mind. I hurried away from the area, ignoring the last bits of information our tour guide was trying to tell us. At that point I had to concentrate really hard on breathing.
We had lunch (which is a blur for me), and we rode the speedboat back to the city in a sort of trance.
Back on dry land, we needed a treat to take the edge off. I had my beloved coconut coffee!
After cooling off (both physically and mentally) in the coffee shop, my friends and I decided to walk to the War Remnants Museum. I appreciated the time to clear my head before we went to another difficult place. (We decided to do it all in one day. You know, a sort of "feel all the feels" approach).
We saw a few interesting sites along the way.
There are so many motorbikes in HCMC.
It didn't take long for me to feel shocked when we arrived at the War Remnants Museum. They have American helicopters, tanks, and other remnants on display in front of the museum. As soon as I saw them, all I could think about was the fact that they didn't ask nicely to borrow those... they definitely got them by other means.
The museum was informative, but again, I did not take many pictures. I just took it all in. And cried some more. A lot more, actually. My heart hurt by the end of that day.
We needed something a little stronger to take the edge off this time...
We walked back to our hotel and ate dinner together. I don't remember it very clearly, but I think we just kept stammering about how we felt. We all ended up calling it an early night. I wrote almost nothing in my travel journal that day. It was a lot to process, but something we all felt was necessary to experience.
Dinner on a quaint little balconey
Unfortunately, there was a party in the park across from our hotel that night. "Loud" doesn't even come close to describing it. The windows were vibrating, and I could feel the bass in my chest, my bones, and the bed underneath my body. It was very surreal experience. This may sound odd, but I was almost grateful for the distraction.
Friday: The Lighter & Brighter Side of Saigon
Things were much brighter the next morning. While I still felt a heaviness on my heart, I knew that there was nothing I could do to change the past. While it was tempting to spend the day grieving, I did want to do something with my last day in the city. I wanted to see what else HCMC had to offer. My friends were headed back to Yangon that day, so I set out on a solo venture once again - I followed the Old Saigon City Walk in the Lonely Planet guide book.
Here we go! Sometimes I don't like to use these because I don't want to look like a tourist. But there's no hiding the fact that I am a tourist in this part of the world, as I don't exactly blend in with my surroundings! Haha
As I left my hotel, I walked past the park that made so much noise the previous night. It was actually quite lovely when it wasn't rattling my bones!
I made my way to the start of the tour, which was quite close to my hotel. The guidebook officially starts at 23/9 Park, which borders the city's unofficial backpack district. Ah, that's why my hotel was so noisy!
I saw these sidewalk barricades everywhere. They are meant to keep motorbikes off the sidewalk, as drivers often use sidewalks when the roads are too congested.
See all the motorbikes parked over there?
I crossed the very busy road in order to get to Ben Thanh Market and its iconic clock tower. Crossing the street in HCMC is intense. There aren't many streetlights, and the roads are mostly wider here than they were in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. There is a lot of traffic, so I could have easily been standing there all day if I waited for a break in the flow in order to cross the street. I took a deep breath and slowly made my way across the road. Once you start to move, you have to keep going. The traffic ebbs and flows around each other. Hesitation could be quite dangerous or maybe even fatal. I was relieved when I finally made my way across the traffic circle to the market.
View of Ben Thanh Market
I walked through the market, but I didn't see anything I loved. It was your typical Southeast Asia market, but it lacks the charm of some of the markets that I have seen in Myanmar and Thailand. I walked through the aisles and stalls but I didn't buy anything.
I continued on to the Fine Arts Museum. The architecture is lovely, and I considered going inside to peruse the artwork, but I had my eye on another museum later in the tour. I continued past the antique shops and a local street market. Unlike Ben Thanh Market, which is a very popular attraction that sells street food and local trinkets to tourists, local street markets sell mostly produce, meats/fish, flowers, and other provisions for daily living. They are not meant for tourists, but they are very colorful and lively to walk through.
Fine Arts Museum
Some antique shops
Street views on my walk (including a view of the real Bitexco Financial Tower... more on that in a moment)
The local outdoor market - stalls line the streets and often have covered awnings to shield the workers and the product from the sun (and the rain during wet season).
The guidebook led me down a very wide road to the Bitexco Financial Tower, which is prominent in the HCMC skyline. The street in front of this iconic building is quite wide: I read that some of the very wide boulevards like this one were once canals with roads alongside them, which explains why there are so many lanes and medians here.
The Bitexco Financial Tower was designed to look like a lotus flower beginning to open up in bloom. (The lotus flower is a very important symbol of Vietnam.) Unfortunately, this ignorant tourist missed that important little fact, and I focused my attention on a different skyscraper on that very wide boulevard. Definitely a face-palm moment when I later realized this silly mistake... which, by the way, was when I did a motorbike tour in HCMC over October Break. Better late than never?
Wide boulevards
Very impressive (though it's definitely NOT the Bitexco Financial Tower! The real one can be seen in one of my previous pictures from the street market.)
Even the Grab Taxi guys are on motorbikes here! Uber is too. I found this fascinating.
Oops...
I crossed another very busy road and walked along the riverside to the Majestic Hotel. It lives up to its name and makes me wish I could afford to stay at a place like this. I learned that the Japanese requisitioned it during WWII and used it for their military barracks. Not bad quarters, if you ask me!
View along the riverwalk
Stunning, if you ask me. (And the correct structure, at that!) It definitely transported me out of the modern city and back to another era.
Two different angles of the statue
This quaint little road was a much happier place to walk :-)
I definitely liked the different buildings shapes, colors, and materials here. It's very eclectic and interesting to look at.
There was a lot of construction in the area near the Municipal Theatre. I heard from a local that they are building a train/subway system. Despite the construction, this little area had some interesting places and historical landmarks.
The Caravelle Hotel - used to house foreign news bureau during the War
Municipal Theatre - I returned here later that evening for a cultural show!
Hotel Continental - featured in the film The Quiet American
Pedestrian walkway... Yay! No cars!
Statue of Ho Chi Minh
The Peoples' Committee Building
At this point, I was getting very hot. I thought to myself, "I really want a coconut coffee from Cong Caphe." And then I turned the corner...
Ta da!! I should have tried my luck at asking for a million dollars! Haha
I sat there happily sipping my coffee treat. I had been to several other branches of this coffee chain, but I noticed for the first time that the workers were wearing green uniforms. They looked almost like militia. And then it hit me. Duh. Cong Caphe. CONG... I know where the name comes from. Did you figure it out faster than I did??
Bathroom door graffiti
After my treat, I continued on the walking tour. I passed several landmarks until I made my way to the Reunification Palace, also known as Independence Palace. As with many sites and museums in Vietnam, it was closed midday and would reopen for some later afternoon hours. I decided this would be a good time to grab lunch at the infamous Propaganda Cafe. (Do you see a trend in the names of places around here?)
Notre Dame Cathedral
Views around the back
Central Post Office
30/4 Park
Reunification Palace grounds
Tofu and tomato banh mi - it was sweet, just like Hung said it would be!
Propaganda Cafe
Even the napkins were interesting
During lunch, I read a little bit about the Reunification Palace. It is where the South officially fell to the North in 1975. The most powerful quote I read in the guidebook said this:
"General Minh, who had become head of the South Vietnamese state only 43 hours before, waited with his improvised cabinet [as soldiers stormed the grounds]. 'I have been waiting since early this morning to transfer power to you,' Minh said to the VC officer who entered the room. 'There is no question of your transferring power,' replied the officer. 'You cannot give up what you do not have.'"
Wow... chilling.
The palace was like a time capsule. It was left virtually untouched since the previous government fled decades ago. It was fascinating to wander the halls.
Views from one of the balconies inside the palace.
These arrows allowed you to do a self-guided tour through the palace.
I spent quite a bit of time wandering through bedrooms, meeting rooms, salons, party rooms, a cinema, game room and bunker/war room in the Reunification Palace. It really was a fascinating place to see and remains one of my favorite experiences in HCMC.
I continued on Turtle Lake, which was this weird little park area with absolutely no Westerners in sight. I ended the tour with a well-deserved but very expensive drink at Shri, which was on the 23rd floor of Centec Tower.
Cute little cafe on my walk
Turtle Lake
Cheers!
Pretty!
After the walking tour, I decided to check out a nearby temple that intrigued me. I made my way over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, which was built more than 100 years ago in honor of the supreme Taoist god.
Turtles!
...and a temple cat!
The incense was so thick that there was a haze inside the rooms of the temple. It was also quite dark inside.
There were interesting wood carvings and statues in every nook and cranny of the small rooms that dotted the temple. There were also lots of Western tourists who elbowed their way past local worshipers in order to get "cool" pictures. I hung back and observed instead.
The Jade Emperor Pagoda was worth seeing because I was out and already nearby, but I'm glad that I didn't make a special trip for it. Afterwards, I went back to the hotel to rest a bit before going out for street pho for dinner.
These electrolyte packets definitely saved me on my hot trip to Vietnam! They are similar to Gatorade, which is not easy to come by in this part of the world. I highly recommend traveling with something like this if you do a heavy walking trip like I did.
Time for one more dish of street pho
I love street food places with plastic chairs on the sidewalk. I will take this over a fancy restaurant almost every time!
The pho was sweeter here but had spices I could add. (My favorite pho is still the first dish that I had in Hanoi!)
It was a pleasant evening, so I decided to walk to the AO Show at the Opera House. It was a little over a kilometer away, which is nothing for me these days. I ended up getting a little lost on the way, but I made it just in time to pick up my ticket at will call and find my seat.
So pretty at night!
The AO Show was absolutely incredible! I wish I had better words to describe how exciting it was. The best way I can describe the show is that it was like Cirque du Soleil - meets martial arts - meets STOMP - meets traditional storytelling. Women were featured in the show and displayed so much strength. The performers used baskets as bowls, drums, turtle/crab shells, baskets, and all kinds of tricks. They climbed sticks, used them in martial arts-type moves, stacked and passed baskets like a machine... SO COOL! They swung in the air and leapt from the heights. They transformed into turtles and crabs. There was traditional Vietnamese music but it was amplified with a sound system.
At the end, the performers did beat boxing and hip hop. This was my least favorite part of the show. (I felt it was unnecessary, but it was definitely a crowd-pleaser.) Even the bowing at the end was entertaining! When I was leaving, I had an opportunity to jump in with the performers for a really cool photo op.
The AO Show was definitely my favorite part of HCMC. I walked home very happy, and I didn't even dread the loud music that probably waited for me back at the hotel.
I admire these performers so much!
It's hard to see in the picture, but the building behind the statue was COVERED in geckos.
When I got back to the hotel, I cracked up laughing: There was absolutely no music. It was the first non-weekday that I had spent in the hotel, and it was by far the quietest! Something about that was very funny to me.
Saturday: Time to go home
I woke up the next morning and took a (trusted) taxi to the airport. I had booked a "Skyboss" ticket back to Yangon. I didn't know what that meant at the time. Mostly, I didn't want to figure out how baggage allowances worked on that airline, so I booked the Skyboss level because it had a pretty big allowance. It turns out that an extra $10 on this airline buys you a rapid check in, private bus to the airplane, front row/first class seats, and a meal. It bordered on absurd, but I wasn't about to complain! It was a funny way to end my adventure in Vietnam.
For future reference: The trusted cabs in HCMC are called Vinasun and Mai Linh.
Outerwear for motorbikers
My Skyboss ticket
Private bus to the plane - only two of us were on this bus. We boarded after the other bus and arrived before they did.
Did I also mention how much legroom it got me??
These guys were waiting for me when I got back to Yangon... "Welcome home!" haha
Some reflections for next time:
- I need to pack fewer clothes and do laundry (I have yet to try this, but plan to do so on my summer adventure!).
- It was good to bring a smaller bag for short excursions from "home base" on this trip.
- Hotel business cards are useful for taxis.
- Traffic in Vietnam mostly goes around each other. It is kind of like organized chaos. Except buses. They absolutely do not yield to anybody, so be sure to get out of their way!
- I still feel drawn to go back to Vietnam... perhaps it will be a future destination for long weekends? (Those who follow me on social media know that I have already returned once since this epic adventure. Stay tuned for those details!)
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