I barely had 48 hours in Ho Chi Minh City, but I certainly made it worth my while. (Read: I was exhausted and continued to exhaust myself).
The taxi ride to the hotel from the airport was already insane because of the traffic flow. This would continue to haunt me for the rest of the trip. Know this: nonstop, day or night, cars and motorbikes are CONSTANTLY EVERYWHERE. There is NO break in the flow, traffic lights mean nothing, and you just have to go and hope for the best.
I only had one morning to try to see the place, and my hotel had a free shuttle to take you to different places in the city, which was convenient. I went to a market and got a tradition ao dai to wear to the fair in Hanoi. I walked around and saw the Post Office and the river and some other government buildings. It was warm, but beautiful. Lots of lotus flowers and other beautiful greenery.
View of Saigon from my hotel room. Beautiful!
Famous market
I texted this to my mom and AJ to say
"I guess 'hard hat area' doesn't translate"
They were so big on International Women's
Day in Vietnam!
Reunification Palace
These kids were SO GOOD in their drumline lololol
At the EdUSA fair. I thought the map was so cute!
Amy, my student helper
So for dinner I looked up pho and found a place semi-nearby that was really highly rated on TripAdvisor (the lifeblood of the agrotourism industry). I went to this place and it was like a German beerhall... long picnic benches and you sit wherever they have a space. I was looking at the menu and the guy just came up and pointed to one. They didn't speak English and I guess that must've been what all the tourist got so I just nodded my head yes lololol. IT. WAS. SO. GOOD.
My evening pho. SO GOOD.
1 USD COFFEE. LOL.
People just sit out on these plastic chairs all
evening long eating pho and noodles and people
watching
Even though the pho restaurant wasn't very far, I was pretty much in tears by the time I got back because of the streets! I only had to cross twice (once on the way there and once on the way back) and after my day of it, I was so mentally drained from it, I couldn't handle it! It is so exhausting and frustrating! LOLOLOL. Like, I kept seeing all these "coffee ice cream" stores that I wanted to try soooo baddddd but I didn't have the energy to cross the street!
So, I knew Vietnamese coffee was a thing, and I was happy to be in the land of Vietnamese coffee where I could get so much of it for so cheap. (And by the way, if you haven't had it before, that stuff is legit. I swear you can get high off of it). It wasn't until someone else made the comment that it was "one good thing the French did here" that it all clicked. Of course studying as much French as I did in college we learned a lot about their colonization in Indochina and whatnot, but it never hit me that the Vietnamese coffee was an influence of that. And naturally most other countries in Asia are all about the tea.
And, shame on me and my ignorance again, but I had assumed that all of Vietnam was just hot all the time. But when I flew to Hanoi, and got off the plane - it was overcast, chilly and drizzly! I was shocked! And it was pretty much like that my whole time there. I did have one free day though and took a day tour into the countryside so I got to see a lot more here than the Saigon area!
Neat clouds over Vietnam
The hotel I stayed at in Hanoi was the
hotel that hosted Kim Jong Un when he was
in town for the peace summit... barely the week
before! They got this picture up fast
Beautiful Lunar New Year decorations
were still up everywhere
So I have a friend, her and her husband have been spending the past few months traveling extensively throughout Asia. They've actually been doing London through to Singapore by train (you can follow them on Instagram @thesemibudgettraveler ). Sadly, we were going to miss overlapping in Vietnam by just a week, so I told her I would leave a message for her somewhere... I should have brought tape but sadly without it, I had to resourcefully find a place to hide it, which I did, and then texted her instructions to find it...
And guess what, they did! I was surprised because I thought some people were eyeing me putting the note in the pole and figured they'd try to fish it out after I left to see what it was, and on top of it it was a Lunar New Year decoration that was long overdue needing to be cleaned up, but it lasted almost a week and a half and they got it! Fun times.
The Old Hanoi Quarter was fascinating!
My student helper in Hanoi!
I was exhausted AF but forced myself out on a day trip on my one rest day. I was sleepy and tired and texted this photo of myself to AJ to prove it.
This was Ha Long, the original, ancient capital of Vietnam before it was moved to Hanoi.
They gave us free rice hats! Everyone wears
them, natives and tourists alike. It really
got to a point where no one considered you
a weirdo if you wore it. And AJ really liked
the rice hat so I also had to carry it all the
way home with me!
Can you see the mountain goats in their natural
habitat??
We did this boat tour... check them out rowing
with their feet!!
"Street food" LOL
This dragon mountain was insane lololol
Some pretty daring pictures if I do say so myself!
The Hanoi Opera House
This. Friggin. Rice. Hat!
Hello Kitty telephone in the Taipei airport!
The rice hat made it to its rightful owner at LAX!
That was a long trip, but it ended strong, and I really loved Vietnam and would be happy to go back! Now I'm all caught up and will get behind soon enough, but my 2019 has been global and wild so far!
