I caught the overnight train from Hué to Hanoi (are you surprised? I love overnight trains!) on Tuesday to arrive in on Wednesday. This day, I’d splashed and gone for a bottom bunk rather than a top bunk, as they’re more expensive but have more space (plus you don’t have to ascend the step to get up to your bed!) however I wish I hadn’t. I shared my compartment with an old Vietnamese woman (who when I boarded the train, was in my bed), a middle aged Vietnamese man who used English at work with a Japanese company, and another older Vietnamese man. The old woman decided to turn the compartment lights on at 11pm when she wanted to go to sleep… I turned them off, half an hour she turned on her bed light that illuminated the entire compartment. At 12 I gave up and turned that off as well. Finally, the Middle Ages man decided to put his laptop on at 3am and play loud, bright video games. I think I got about 3 hours sleep… I wish I’d had a top bunk, as I haven’t even mentioned the worst bit yet: every hour, the old Vietnamese lady sleeping above me, needed to go to the bathroom. Rather than use the steps, she managed to stand on my leg every single time, on the hour, every hour. And not just gently, but like her entire weight. Ow. The restaurant car didn’t have anything good either…

Either way, I arrived into Hanoi at the wonderful time of 5am (shudder) so walked across the tracks, came out of the station dodging the taxi touts (getting so tired of them!) and walked through the deserted streets for an half an hour to arrive at the youth hostel. It was actually too early to even leave my bags, so waited for reception staff and checked in when they opened at 6am. Free beer on arrival – after only 3 hours of sleep, it felt basically like the evening before so I guess not too early for a beer?!

First thing first, breakfast, and what could be better than a steaming hot bowl of beef pho noodle soup. Delicious, fresh, rich clean flavoured broth, with two types of beef, lots of coriander and spring onion, and self-serve chilli on the table.

I then went to explore Hanoi; I went along first to the old French cathedral which is in the centre, near the Hoan Kiem lake. From the late 1800s, it was built in the heart of the old French colonial quarter. It’s quite an imposing building, quite deteriorated, but apparently still in use (although all the doors were locked to prevent visitors).

I then went to the lake itself to visit the temple situated on an island in the lake, called Ngoc Son (temple of the Jade Mountain). It is from the mid 1800s and built in the honour of a Vietnamese national hero, Tran Hung Dao. An ornate bridge leads to the island, on which there is a pavilion, a temple, and some beautiful plant specimens.

I walked back from there to the youth hostel, passing some communist statue in a square to the lake, as well as more examples of degraded colonial architecture. Ended up having a burger in the youth hostel for tea!

Everyone from the hostel ended up going out to a bar called Local that night, so we caught a couple of taxis after the hostel bar closed over to the bar, where they had £2 G&Ts, and somehow we were given free white tequila… The worst tequila I’ve ever had to be honest, but we were in Vietnam! I lasted until 1am when I decided to go home, and when checking on google maps to see how far I was from the hostel (as we had taken a taxi out), I discovered it was less than a 10 minute walk!

The following day, recovering from a hangover, I continued to explore the food on offer in Hanoi, as well as wandering around the streets and markets. The traffic is quite intense but better than Saigon by a long stretch. I never felt genuinely in fear for my life, whereas in Saigon there were multiple crossings that I never managed to cross. I’d booked a Halong Bay tour to be departing the following day, so decided to take the opportunity to relax a bit!

I went to eat bun bo nam bo in a lovely streetside place just down the road from my hostel (Flipside), it’s just so delicious! Heaped with peanuts, lovely fresh noodles and sauce, it’s actually a southern speciality but hey I have never liked to do things the normal way 😉 I then went for a coffee and a slice of cake, or rather “slice of cake” as it was more like a doorstop! Ridiculously large, heavy and dry, it came with a slice of orange; it was meant to be an orange cake but it seemed like the orange had been forgotten as the cake itself was so dense, it had its own gravitational pull.

Finally, time for the best juice I’ve ever had, pomelo juice 🙂 Grabbed some com tam on the way back (chicken rice) and then ended walking up coffin street back to the hostel – yes seriously, every other business was either selling funeral wreaths, coffins or funeral momentos. I’d never seen a coffin balanced on a motorbike until now! Tomorrow, early start for Halong Bay tour!

After seeing pretty much all Hué had to offer, I booked myself onto a bus tour to see the Vinh Moc tunnels among other sights. Don’t get me wrong, I hate bus tours, but in Vietnam they are the easiest way to see some of the more remote tourist sights if you are not prepared to illegally hire a motorbike. (Also my insurance does not cover me to be on a motorbike at all, as either driver or passenger, so I was steering well clear!)

The tour was one of those full day jobbies, so my hotel asked me to come down early for breakfast, which I did… Except it took them so long to cook my breakfast pancake and make my breakfast coffee (and the bus arriving slightly early) that it was only given to me as the bus arrived! Instead, they gave me a bread roll and some butter and jam to take with me, as well as a little bottle of water. At least it was something! First stop was to “see some ethnic minority villages”, ie the bus briefly stopping near a house on stilts with a satellite dish, and taking a picture from afar before immediately departing again. I chose not to leave the bus! Next stop was the Ho Chi Minh trail, crossing the Dakrong bridge on the way to Khe Sanh. We went past the Rockpile, a US outpost during the war on the top of the hill, where soldiers had to be airdropped and worked mostly on ensuring communications could be passed along. It looked incredibly inhospitable, with blazing heat, torrential rain, malaria and a multitude of other insects and creatures to harm the soldiers.

We arrived at the Khe Sanh base, and it was so eerie. Everything was almost untouched from when the US retreated from the base after winning over 70 days of warfare. Planes and tanks were just on site, unmanaged but there, along with bunkers, sandbags, and the runway. Very strange… And of course the standard peddlers wandering around trying to sell you helmets or dog tags. Hopefully fake?!

We headed back to Dong Ha for some crappy tour trip food (note: if you want to have some nice local food, NEVER take a tour bus. They will somehow manage to take you to the worst, most over-priced restaurant in the local area… Quite incredible if you think about it!) and drove through the DMZ which is still surprisingly empty even now. Quite a few signs at the side of the road advertising anti land mine initiatives actually, and all paid for by eithe Canada or Japan; definitely one nation who may or may not have left all those landmines whose payments are conspicuously absent here!  We also crossed the famous Ben Hai bridge which was painted two different colours,  which shows where the DMZ border fell. The north was originally painted red by the Communists and the south painted their half yellow. The north side is now painted blue… I guess to show the difference?

After some horrific food, it was off to the Vinh Moc tunnels, which during the Vietnam war were located on the border between north and south. Built over seven years, they sheltered the inhabitants of the village from the war, but also enabled the people to assist the local guerilla soldiers, with various levels within the tunnels, the very deepest being used to shield bombs and weapons. Villagers lived here up to 7 years; there were “family rooms” which were barely big enough to fit one Westerner, a maternity ward, and a central meeting room that could apparently fit 60 people but it was so hot and sweaty, more than 15 would have been awful.

Finally, we went back to Hué via a Communist war hero cemetery. I’d had enough of rhetoric by this point… So I went for a beer!

Hué isn’t far from Hoi An so I got a taxi from my hotel in Hoi An back to Da Nang, and then popped on the train for 3 hours. The journey itself is beautiful, as the train goes along the coast, you go through the Hai Van Pass (literally means Ocean Cloud) which is just breathtaking. The cliffs, the blue sea, the sun shining down, as well as the greenery on the coast and islands. Highly recommended train journey!

The train station in Hué is quite well situated, just on the outskirts of the actual city, unlike Hoi An where the train station is in an entirely different city! Standard amount of taxi touts outside the station, so I put on my resting bitch face and walked with purpose straight past them all, over the bridge and into town. It was about a 35 minute walk to my hotel, so very reasonable 😊 Weather was also much cooler than Saigon which was nice! Checked into my hotel and went to a restaurant just off the main backpacker stretch, recommended by a group of Dutch tourists as I walked past. It was called Elegant restaurant, and I dined on Hué speciality foods and a local beer.

Banh beo was the first local food I tried, which are tiny steamed rice cakes (like dumpling cases) topped with dried prawns, spring onion, pork crackling and herbs, each cake served in a tiny china dish, and a bowl of fish sauce to accompany which you pour over each rice cake immediately before eating.

Nem lui was the other dish I ate here, which comprises minced pork mixed with sugar,  garlic, fish sauce and other seasonings, shaped into a sausage around a lemongrass stalk and grilled. It is served with cold vermicelli noodles and some vegetables and herbs, and rice paper circles. You have to put a small amount of vermicelli noodles on the paper, add some herbs or vegetables, then put the pork patty on top and wrap the paper around. Gently remove the lemongrass stalk, and then you can dip the roll in the provided peanut sauce. Delicious, although I prefer the banh beo.

The next day, I spent recuperating as I still had a fever, although did drag myself out in the evening for a walk and for some food. This time I went to Serene cuisine restaurant, and enjoyed more speciality food! I had some beef pho and also banh khoai which is a crispy rice pancake, filled with pork, shrimp, beansprouts and herbs, served with a soybean sauce. Also, they sell the best chocolate mousse I actually have ever had!!

My final full day in Hue dawned, so to make the most of my time there, I went to visit the Imperial Citadel. I walked there so got to walk across the bridge over the river, and went through the stone gates into the old city. It was built over 200 years ago by the Royal Family, in the style of the Forbiden City in Beijing. A moat surrounds multiple layers of buildings, temples and ornate corridors. The complex is vast, although nowadays much of it has fallen into disrepair, and some areas are gone with only occasional rubble remaining. The main area that has gone belonged to the concubines, and through a combination of termites, fire and war, those buildings have gone.

During the Vietnam war, the US deliberately did not attack the area containin the citadel, even though the Viet Cong were based there. However over time, this restriction was lifted. It was quite weird to see highly restored sections next to rubble, with tourist tat being sold from inside some of the most important buildings, and even horses just casually wandering round the complex,  and motorbikes randomly going down corridors. Another difference between the West and SE Asia! It’s completely free to just wander around the complex (after paying the high entry fee… It might be without rules but you still definitely need to pay!)

The long corridors gave way to empty space, with crumbling mouldy temples, dogs running amok, fragments of buildings, and a weird feeling of what once was, imagining the courtiers walking around but now there’s just this empty space.

For lunch, I went to a French restaurant down the road called Les Jardins de la Carambole which was quite fancy, but I fancied treating myself 😊 Had beer, some delicious spring rolls, and some chicken stir fried with chilli and lemongrass. The weather began to deteriorate so I hopped in a taxi back. The rains rolled in which put a dampener on my evening plans… Unfortunately I was booked onto a tour the following day, and the weather showed no signs of improving!

When I booked my night train, booking it for 5am seemed like a good idea as it meant I would be able to justify a bed, get some sleep, and not waste an entire day on a train again! However, waking up at 3am was significantly worse than I’d hoped, but my lovely hostel provided me with a breakfast to bring with me onto the train! Got a taxi rather than walk 35 mins at 4am, and the train came on time and everything. Found my carriage, found my compartment, opened the door to go… And I actually couldn’t go in!

The two Americans I was sharing the carriage with (as well as their dog 😉) were actually moving to Hoi An and had brought all of their stuff with them, so the area between the two bottom beds was filled with suitcases, as well as the space under the bed, and one of the beds was half taken up with a suitcase. There was also a dog container and the dog was sleeping on the bed with one of its owners… I presume it was because it was 5am after all but I just sort of froze with confusion, not knowing what to do with my bag as I could not put it under the bunk, and couldn’t actually close the compartment door because there wasn’t enough room for me to enter! Eventually one of the Americans told me that there was more luggage space above the outside corridor, accessed from the top bunk, so I was able to hoist my bag up there and then ascend the perilous tiny step to get onto the top bunk. It was quite nice actually – certainly better than Chinese trains! Clean sheets, light duvet and a pillow – absolutely fine.

The music in the corridor came blaring on quite early so if I wasn’t awake before, I certainly was after that. I chatted with my compartment mates for several hours (mostly about politics unfortunately 😛) until arriving into Da Nang which is the city with the nearest station to Hoi An.

The Americans decided to get a taxi but as the price was about £12, I went to catch the local bus which was only 60p; bit of a price discrepancy there! Dodging the taxi touts lingering outside the station, I made my way to the bus stop which was actually in English(!) and waited for the bus. I was joined by two local girls… Until a Vietnamese chap poked his head out of a shop door and spoke to one of the girls. From the miming that one girl did to me, I gathered that the bus would not be stopping at this bus stop and that we needed to walk to the next bus stop. A rickety bus appeared after about 20 minutes, the conductor tried to charge me 50,000 dong when the price should be 20,000 dong but I had exact change in my hand and I kept waving it at him and smiling until eventually he accepted it. It took about one hour to get to the Hoi An bus station which is north of the city. I decided to walk to my hotel rather than get a motorcycle taxi… Pretty hot so I probably should have just got a taxi!

Felt decidedly unwell by the time I arrived so walked into town for a brief wander around that evening as well as some food. Went to a streetside seller who was selling Cao Lau, a Hoi An speciality noodle dish with slices of delicious pork. So good ❤️ Sitting on tiny plastic stools at the roadside is generally the best way to eat any food!

I then walked around the Old City a bit more, to see the Japanese Covered Bridge which is beautiful, and to see all the lanterns alongside the shopfronts and roadsides illuminated and twinkling away. Even though it is a touristy town, it doesn’t take much until you are down a side street and seemingly separated from the other tourists by an ancient winding wall. Walked around the markets and just basked in the architecture and atmosphere 😊

I eventually ended up in a sports bar (as you do) and had a Pasteur Street craft IPA. Met a nice American girl whose birthday it was, so we had a drink in her honour! The rain poured down while we were in the bar, but fortunately it was dry by the time I was leaving. Or at least that’s what I thought… When I was about half way back, thunder and lightning started. I picked up the pace and took a wrong turn somewhere in the dark, as I ended up walking along a dirt track, a dog barking at me and following behind me, the rain started… I ran for the last few minutes and made it back just before the storm properly started.

The next day, I tried to go to the beach by borrowing a bike from my hotel. However I apparently was more unwell than I had thought and when only 5 mins from the beach, I nearly fainted… I stopped for some water from a streetside seller, then free-wheeled back to the hotel. Bit annoyed that I had lost a day of holiday in Hoi An but needed to get better, so stayed in bed until my train to Hué the following day.

Got the train at 8am from Saigon to Nha Trang, a beach town 8 hours away by train. Decided to take the daytime train as the journey didn’t seem quite long enough to warrant a sleeper train… 2nd class aircon train, sat next to quite a large American chap which was a bit annoying but hey ho. He got up frequently so we swapped seats so I could have the window seat and stare outside. My first glimpses at the Vietnamese countryside! Journey did drag a bit, but I had brought enough food and water with me to keep me comfortable until I arrived 😊 Arriving into Nha Trang and walked from the station to my hostel, as it was only a half hour walk!

First thing I noticed walking through was how the restaurant signs were in Vietnamese and Russian, which was quite surreal to see being as everything had been in English until this point. The menus all had goulash and other Russian dishes on them, no fish and chips in sight here! The hostel had an hour of free beer a day on the rooftop so drank a couple of cups of bia hoi (fresh unpasteurised beer from a keg) before venturing out to find somewhere to eat that had an English menu. Tried for about 15 minutes on the main street near my hostel before giving up and having Indian! In my defence, the train had taken it out of me! While eating, chatted with some Londoners who were also on holiday, and then engaged in people watching. Nha Trang has a lot of awful older men with really young looking women. Still not as bad as Saigon though!

Next day, and it was up to the rooftop for the complementary breakfast (crepe with lemon and sugar) and then off out to the beach! As it was off season, it wasn’t too overrun with tourists, so was able to lie in the shade for a bit before heading off for a quick dip in the sea. A delicious iced coffee in lieu of lunch later, and time for a bit more city exploration.

Found the French Cathedral at the top of the hill overlooking the train station, with a plaque outside commemorating the French priest who founded the bishopric there. Lots of Chinese tourists doing v sign selfies in front of the crucifix at the altar which is just a bit odd I guess? Reminded me of tourists doing the same at the 9/11 memorial in New York – I just don’t understand when people do that. Walked down the seafront to the southern end of the town and then headed inland to see if there were any markets. It’s a very sleepy town, with not much going on, so went to a bar restaurant on the beach called Louisiane Brewhouse. It sold a craft beer taster menu! Had some delicious Vietnamese seafood to accompany it 😊 Then went back towards the hostel and popped into one of the backpacker bars, Booze Cruise, for some more beer. Was accosted on the way by several sleazy looking Russian bar owners who presumed I was Russian; used my best “nyet, spasibo” on them 😁

Next day was also my last in Nha Trang – I think two days would have been enough but I booked my train ticket incorrectly, so ended up having to stay another day. On the plus side, was able to find a properly local place to eat called Cuon Papa’s, which was amazing! Two dishes of different types of spring rolls and a beer for £1.60 – lush. The flavours of the coriander, lime and fish sauce were so fresh 😊 Watched some old men playing mah-jong at the side of the road, and saw another old man having his inner ear picked with a long thin metal instrument – ugh I shuddered at the idea! My train to leave Nha Trang was at 5am so I headed back to my private hostel room to watch some TV (was feeling a bit under the weather)  and to get some sleep before having to get up at 3am.

Nha Trang was alright but I probably wouldn’t recommend other backpackers to go here unless they were dying for some Russian food or wanted a Russian beach resort. I think everything you can get here, you can get elsewhere for cheaper.

 

Ugh I hate early starts – bus pick up was at 8am. Free breakfast first of baguette with scrambled egg – I love free so I’ll take it! I felt smug about being awake as I noticed a taxi was waiting outside for ages, and at 8am some drunk Aussie guy half fell down the stairs and ran for the taxi. Turns out he massively overslept, his taxi was booked for 7am as his flight back to Oz was at 10am and it takes an hour to get to the airport…! Good luck to him I guess?!

Crappy little minibus came to get me, but got a seat with plenty of leg room so was feeling quite lucky! And then the bus stopped, at a bus station – we had to transfer buses to an even crappier one where half the seats were so far back it was proper “easy rider” style and the other ones were so far forward even an osteopath would think that was too severe! Crammed in this tiny bus whose aircon was severely limited, we started off on the journey. The “English speaking tour guide” spoke limited English and so sort of would just say a few words and leave us to our own devices. It turned out though the reason he was particularly reticent to speak was quite interesting…!

The bus drove for 3 hours to get us to Tay Ninh in time for the Cao Dai adherents’ midday prayer. The religion was started in the 1920s, the worshippers dress in white robes while the priests wear either yellow, blue or red representing different facets of the religion, Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism. As well as combining these three faiths, Cao Dai also combined them with Christianity and Islam. It teaches that many important figures from these faiths are saints, as well as Victor Hugo (author of Les Miserables!), Sun Yat-Sen (father of China), Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc… All in all, it’s very eclectic, and the prayer summed that up!

As the faithful processed in, segregated by gender, and all singing prayers, the band played what I guess was meant to be music, but just sounded like a discordent cacophony of noise, completely unrelated to everything happening on the level below. From time to time the worshippers would kneel, stand, bow, all in unison. Tourists were allowed to observe from a balcony but could only enter through certain doors and could not walk on certain areas of pavement. The building was a psychedelic nightmare, like the decorators couldn’t decide on a theme or colour scheme so instead used seemingly every single form of religious iconography they could find, all at once!

After the prayer finished, the bus waited for us to take us to the Cu Chi tunnels. Unlike the Cao Dai temple which dates from during the French colonisation of Vietnam, the Cu Chi tunnels are from the Vietnam war and were used by the Vietcong as a way to avoid the US soldiers. The tunnels stretch across a massive area, and were used to cache weapons, live, travel underground, and give the Viet Cong the advantage during guerilla warfare. The US tried to root out the Viet Cong but were unable to as the tunnels were so complex, deep below ground, and also some were so narrow that they were unpassable for westerners. Many tunnels were rigged with lethal traps, trapdoors were hidden with foliage so as to be indistinguishable from the forest floor. Combined with the humidity and malaria, it was an inhospitable place for the US forces and the Viet Cong alike.

Original tunnels are all over the area however as Westerners cannot fit inside them(!) for tourism purposes, the Vietnamese have built replica tunnels and in part expanded some original tunnels to allow foreigners to explore them and get a feeling as to how oppressive they were. Our guide was very reticent to explain the traps and tunnels, so I asked him about his war experience (he was in his 70s) – he had actually fought for the Saigon army with the Americans against the Viet Cong. After the US evacuated their embassy, these soldiers were left behind so he fled to the countryside, killing any communists he encountered on the way, and then stayed there for several years until relative normality resumed. He was bitter towards the Americans but hated the Communists even now, so unlike the other guides we passed, he didn’t go into great patriotic detail about the gruesome traps the “Viet Cong bravely set to destroy the capitalist invaders” so pros and cons I guess!

I went into one of the tunnels and you had to squat and shuffle which is good for your calf muscles! Very narrow, would not have wanted to spend long down here in the heat and the dark. The tunnel staff took us to watch a dreadful video probably made in the late 70s filled with pro-Communist anti-American rhetoric. They then took us to a firing range where they still had loads of American weapons from the war, and you could have a go – so obviously I did! Had a go on a machine gun and a M-30. The recoil from the M-30 was big but the heat from the machine gun…mood grief! The tank machine gun was ridiculous.

It then began to rain as we boarded the bus back to Saigon. Went for pho (mmmm I do love broth), with a train at 8am the following day another early night required!

Waking up in Saigon to face another ridiculously hot day, I regretted booking three nights here! The hostel was fine, all girls room with an ensuite wet room and free towels, but there was nowhere to socialise within the hostel itself, and only the bedrooms had air conditioning. Nothing else for it… Time to go for a coffee! The Vietnamese coffee chain Trung Nguyen had a store a few doors down from my hostel so I went there for a cold coffee to try to wake up, and also kill an hour or two! I booked a tour for tomorrow to Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple so that left me with another day in Saigon.

For lunch, went to have delicious Bun bo Hue – I might be in Saigon not Hué but hey it’s good food! That plus a beer = happy 🙂 also had spring rolls and bo la lot which is beef wrapped up in betel nut leaves.

It was Independence Day today so I saw a square in the centre of Ho Chi Minh was putting on performances, and so I stopped by to watch the rehearsal before the evening performance at 8pm. It was… quite Communist 😂 Everyone showing through interpretive dance that they are good workers/farmers etc.

The dancing was fun but I’m glad I didn’t go to watch the performance as one dance was enough and that was only 5 minutes! Went for a bit of a wander around the city, walked through the Ben Thanh market which was sweaty and full of vendors selling assorted tat, before arriving in the old quarter with the Notre Dame Cathedral built by the French and the Saigon Central Post Office.

The cathedral was beautiful with a great atmosphere; one of the deacons allowed me into the main church, through the tourist fence behind which hundreds of tourists were trying to take photos. Enjoyed taking in the beauty there,nclassical French architecture and the stone imported from France! Then went across the road to the Post Office, another great colonial building, had some local schoolgirls come to take their picture with me (lucky them, I think was about 30% sweat at this point so I’m sure it was a great photo!)

I found a bar off Le Loi and Nguyen Hué to have a beer and watch an Independence Day parade, before going to get some tea. I went to a recommended restaurant… Ngoc Chau restaurant, and I was quite disappointed. Bit greasy and overpriced. I braved the streets again, dodging all the motorcycle taxis and other dodgy street sellers, and went back to the hostel for an early night. Chatted to some new dorm mates for a while (two nice American girls and a Singaporean lady), early start for my tour tomorrow!

 

First day in Vietnam means last day of holiday with mum. 😭 Horrifically early start to the day, having to get up at 5am and leave the hotel before 6am to be at the airport by 7am. We got a taxi to KL Sentral and then got the 2nd KL Ekspres of the day to the airport. Glad we left as early as we did, as bag check-in took ages, as did immigration! We had a grumpy immigration assistant serving us who did nothing but scowl when stamping us out. Dropped mum off at her gate, and said goodbye, as I’ll see her next in 2 months’ time.

Now it was time for me to make my way back to my gate – mum’s plane went from the satellite terminal so I had to get the train back to the main section, and then queued at my gate to go through security. Queued… A bit longer… and a bit longer, until half an hour had passed. A man held my place while I ran up to the front to check my flight status, and it turned out my flight was on final call but yet no announcements! It turned out the people queuing were waiting for a different flight which wasn’t leaving for another hour but yet the same gate – I got the attention of an immigration official who allowed me to cut in the queue (against every bone in my body!) because nearly everyone else was waiting for a different flight. Ran down to the gate and boarded the plane… I was the last one on the plane despite having heard other people in the queue saying they were also going to Vietnam, so that was a close call! Badly organised and only one scanner on shift, bit unimpressed. Still, made it onto the plane, and got an entire row to myself.

 

Finally, I was on my way to Vietnam! I readied my paperwork, photos and visa application fee for immigration. After I had handed in my document and while waiting for the visa decision, I overheard the immigration officer talking to an Australian girl who did not have cash on her, who was explaining that her boyfriend was outside with cash, but the immigration officer had evidently decided that she wouldn’t allow the boyfriend to give someone the money for the visa fee. I offered to pay her visa fee in US dollars, which she accepted. Her boyfriend gave me back the money for the visa fee after we’d collected our luggage 😊

I made my way past the taxi touts and expensive buses to the cheap local bus stop – 7000 dong from the airport to the end of the road where my hostel was, about an hour’s drive for 25p, not too bad! Got off the bus with everyone else and walked down the road towards my hostel. The traffic was absolutely appalling – they had pedestrian crossings but I’ve never felt so much like I was putting my life in my hands by just crossing the road!

Hostel was weird, like a hotel room with bunk beds in it, it had its own bathroom but some of the residents had left their underwear hanging everywhere. Or at least I hope it belonged to the residents…!

After checking in, I went for a beer and some spring rolls, as I arrived at like 10am and there wasn’t exactly much to do so early in the morning, as I couldn’t check into my hostel.

I then walked over towards Independence Square past the station of Ho Chi Minh. It would be Independence Day tomorrow so preparations were just starting. It was so oppressively hot; 40C in the shade at one point in the square, so I sought refuge in a local coffee shop with an iced coffee and rang my grandparents to catch up with them 😊

Walked back in the twilight and went to a local pho restaurant full of Vietnamese, and had my first proper Vietnamese meal. Delicious with all the fresh herbs! After, went for a craft beer and had some rib ends, as you do when in Vietnam…! Survived day 1 in Saigon – still don’t know whether I should be calling it Ho Chi Minh or Saigon as even the locals seem to call it both.