Leaving gloomy Shanghai amidst 40 consecutive days of no sun for vibrant Vietnam was brilliant. Are you pho-king kidding me, 40 days of no sun?? That’s completely mad. I had a full-on countdown going from the moment we purchased our tickets.
Our first few hours in Ho Chi Minh city were so not glamorous. I am fairly certain we got ripped off by a fake taxi who charged us 200,000 dong (yes, dong) just to take us 200 meters across the road. Our hotel was literally the loudest hotel I have ever slept in, I could hear the people in the room over having their middle of the night pees and the discussions from the room above. But hey, me and my handsome travel babe made it!
We tossed and turned all night on the world’s hardest mattress (super common in Asia btw) and finally morning came and we high tailed it to our indulgent hotel in the city center.
What a pho-nomenal place
It didn’t take long for us to settle by our rooftop pool and bar to try work on recovering from our night of flying. It also didn’t take long to notice Tom was sick. I couldn’t tell if he was coming down with the “man flu” or if he was actually ill. After a day of bed, fevers & chills, we head off to the hospital at 1AM. The doctor was so blasé about the whole thing, Tom had swine flu…casual. We found it so ironic as we were on holiday for the Lunar New Year, kicking off the year of the pig! (facepalms all over) Anyways, so we both got loaded up with Tamiflu and were off….
We spent most of our time in Ho Chi Minh recovering and walking around the labyrinth of markets. We skipped out on the tourist attractions of the city and decided to take it easy. Despite the struggle, Ho Chi Minh was beautiful. It was so easy to sit and watch literally everything. Motorbikes stampede down the streets with questionable amounts of people on them, rubbish bins overflowing with waste and some of the rankest smells linger around the mysterious manholes but somehow, everyone was so pleasant. We didn’t encounter a single person who didn’t return a smile. The culture seemed so expressive, music and singing everywhere… laughter on the streets and so many neon lights. Despite the rubbish bins and pollution, the city was lit up with neon lights of flowers and pretty things on nearly every corner. Maybe the inhabitants of this city don’t have the best of everything, but they seem to make the best of everything. The city keeps the greenest trees and flower pots on terraces. So charming.
Their life revolves heavily around the street. People could be seen on every sidewalk having a nap, a meal, a drink and even playing games. Most venues were playing loud music and seemed to be celebrating. I am not sure if the celebration vibes were in light of the Lunar New Year or if the city felt like this all of the time, either way, it was hard not to love. Many may see it as a dirty loud city, but I saw it as a simple and gracious city. In the U.S. it seems like kids are attached to technology and have never played “kick the can.” The kids in Ho Chi Minh appeared to be playing any game they could come up with. We saw groups playing cards and others playing games we couldn’t recognize. People were not quietly absorbed into a screen in front of them, people were loudly immersed in their environment and enjoying authentic interaction.
chúc mừng năm mới!
As I mentioned before, we were traveling during the Lunar New Year holiday so it was a bit hectic but worth it. There were signs literally everywhere with “chúc mừng năm mới!” on them, Happy New Year. We were lazy in the sense that we didn’t look up anything in Vietnamese prior to arrival. We didn’t know how to say Hello or Thank you but we definitely learned Happy New Year because it was just…. everywhere. Because of the new year, we ran into some lions! I instantly turned into a little kid and joined the crowd on the street to watch the show.
Confetti was trickling through the air, drums were beating and echoing through the streets, people were cheering and the lion people were dancing. I never thought this 2 person lion puppet could be cute, but it even wagged it’s tail and batted its eyes hoping for the crowd to feed it red envelopes with money inside.
The guys under the lion costume were dripping with sweat as they just spent half an hour dancing collaboratively leaping from platform to platform. One little miscommunication and the whole lion would fall in front of the crowd but they were so on point and never missed a beat. I love crowds like this. Being part of a group you have little in common with other than the show you are enjoying, is beautiful. I didn’t even speak the same language as the people I was standing shoulder to shoulder with but we all shared a mutual excitement and authentic appreciation towards the celebration. Smiles were exchanged along with many “ooo’s” and “ahwws” as the dragons danced to the beat of the drums.
All in all, I’d rate Ho Chi Minh as a pretty pho-bulous place. The currency is hectic as an expensive dinner could be 1,500,000 dong…. like how do you even count that when some of the denominations are as little as 2,000 … allllll that donggggggg. But if you can figure that out, you can figure out Ho Chi Minh and you should! If you take anything away from this page, take away a few of the following tips. Keep your cash organized, people watch, enjoy the music, and surf the countless rooftop spots in the city. I’d happily go back to Ho Chi Minh any time, it’s definitely a gem.
meraki mik 