Ho Chi Minh

(Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, 10-13th of February)

From the lovely little town of Hoi An we were off to another big city, even bigger than the capital city Hanoi. It was a bit of a shock, especially as the traffic in Ho Chi Minh is totally crazy, even worse than in Hanoi. In Vietnam they do not follow normal traffic rules, not even when it comes to traffic lights. You never know if you are safe crossing a street, also if the light is green, as cars and motorbikes very often drive also if they are supposed to wait for their turn. And a car or a motorbike would never stop for you at a pedestrian crossing. The best thing to do is to walk slowly across the street but always with the eye on the traffic – this works as the traffic moves rather slowly.

Ho Chi Minh, or Saigon as most people say, is a big, bustling, but not very charming city. Except for a visit to the Saigon skyview, a really tall building right opposite our hotel,  we spent most of our time on tours visiting places outside the town.       

Our first tour took us to the Cu Chi tunnels, a couple of hours outside the city. The tunnels were used during the wars and contained a whole society in multiple levels.

The tunnels are more than 250 kms long and were used for every day life like cooking, eating and sleeping but also for preparing for war and hiding in special bunkers. It was an interesting day and we also got the opportunity to try to crawl through a tunnel.

The second day in Saigon we went on a trip to the Mekong Delta and it was absolutely fantastic. We started up with driving a couple of hours outside the town. We stopped at a handicraft place where disabled people made marble paintings, really interesting to see.

We started up by going to through a daily market before entering our motor boat and started our journey on the Mekong river. We passed houses built on poles and a floating market.

We stopped along the river to listen to some traditional music and taste tropical fruits.

For lunch we got to make our own vietnamese pancakes with filling, really fun.

Then we also got meat and vegetables fried with tempura, fresh spring rolls with fish and fresh fruit. So nice and tasty!

The day continued with a short tour in a rowing boat and a visit to see how they make coconut candy, rice paper and puffed rice. 

The day ended with a bicycle tour through a Mekong village.

It all sounds very touristy but somehow it was great fun. And the group we travelled with, in total 11 people, was mixed and very talkative. We talked a lot with a mother and daughter from Sweden, the first Swedish people we actually talked to since we left home.