Day 2 - Ho Chi Minh City - part 1
Another view from our room. The sun was out and the humidity was high.
There are a lot of trees and plants all over the First District which is where we’re staying. Looking down from another one of our hotel rooms.
Delicious noodle soup for breakfast!
More delicious food for breakfast…
… and more!
The hotel where we’re staying in Ho Chi Minh City.
Back to explore the indoor market.
It’s a huge market absolutely crammed with booths.
About a third of the market is food related.
And around the outside of one part was a fish market.
So many types of seafood!
And fresh fruits and veggies.
The old and new all jumbled together. Super interesting to see.
On our way to Independence Palace we stopped at Highlands Coffee where we hung out for an hour by a huge fan and lots of iced coffee.
Sitting next to the big fan in the shade.
The coffee here is refreshing on a hot day.
After our coffee break we continued our walk to the Independence Palace Park. We stopped at the April 30 park and ended up buying a bunch of coconuts to drink the juice. I have to hand it to the sales guy, he totally knew how to get us to make a purchase!
The banyan trees at the park are impressive.
A tribute to a martyr from the war.
We finally made it to the Palace Park. It was an odd experience for me. I graduated university with a Political Science degree with an emphasis on the Vietnam War. I’ve seen many films and read many books about that period and I’ve read about and seen film about the fall of Saigon and the chaos that happened that day and especially at this building. The odd part, which makes total sense, is that the story told in the placards and brochures was totally from the other “winning” side of that day. I honestly just felt sad walking through the Palace. So many deaths, so many broken people and families, so much tragedy and here I am walking through the symbol of Independence as a tourist. Weird. It felt haunted by the memories of hundreds of years of colonial rule and later being caught up in the political machinations of the world’s super powers of the time.
I’m glad I went and I’ll never go back.
Vietnam specific Coke can marketing
After touring the Palace we were all hungry. Fortunately a wonderful concept restaurant was on our way back to the hotel. It has a dozen or so “food stands” inside although you order from a menu and the food is cooked at a specific stand and brought to your table. Jaedan called the restaurant “ the Cheesecake Factory Of Vietnam” because the menu was huge!
The resident cat “Angel”
It’s a frickin’ huge menu
Holy smokes that was a big day and it’s only lunch! Part two is just as packed if not more! Stay tuned!
Itinerary Correction
One quick update to our plans. We’re not headed to Phu Quoc after Ho Chi Minh City. That was part of the plan for my brother and sister-in-law and they did go and got to try this:
So cool! Looks like a fun adventure!
Day 1 - Sensory Overload
I’m having hard time taking it all in.
After 25 years of talking about and wanting to visit Vietnam, we’re here. And it’s already exceeding my expectations. And we have been in town for less than 6 hours.
I’m not ashamed to admit I got choked up a bit thinking about it as we walked from the hotel to the Street Food Market. It feels surreal. Like a dream. But it is real and it’s a sensory overload. The flashing lights, the constant stream of scooters and cars and people, the smells, so many incredible and not so pleasant and new smells, and the food! The food at the Street Food Market was delicious. I ate way too much and afterwards felt restored from the long day of travel. I’m at a loss for words so here are a bunch of photos.
View from our hotel. The top floor of the building in the distance seems to be where the park is at.
It’s 10:30 pm and things are hopping
The cutest
Heavenly
We’ve arrived at the night market and we’re hungry!
Cheers!
Pretty self explanatory
Fresh food for the barbecue
Family
OMG yes this is what I’ve been waiting for!
Dessert! Bananas, coconut and rice
Local beer wearing a cocktail umbrella
Cousins and Phở
Dried spicy squid
Mind blown
Time to soar!
An eclectic mix of architecture
So many motorcycles and scooters.
Headed back to the hotel. That’s was a long day.
And now we are back at the hotel, the AC is on full blast, and we’ve showered. It’s 1am local time and we’re already thinking about and excited for what comes tomorrow!
Flight Number Three Completed - We’ve Arrived!
Not much to report on flight number three. I sat down and promptly fell asleep until food arrived. Fortunately, Tien work me up because the food was actually really good. Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting through it. And after 20 or so hours of traveling, that’s how the flight from Narita to Ho Chi Minh City felt. The good news is, we made it through the customs and visa process without any problems at all, and we’re here!!!
Flight Number Two Completed
We’ve been traveling for a total of 19 hours of real time and because of the many time zones we’ve crossed, we have arrived at about 2:30 pm local time on Thursday. It hurts my brain a little to think about the real time vs. apparent time on this trip. In real time it would be about 11pm on Wednesday back in Seattle. That’s why it’s going take a day or two to adjust once we arrive in Vietnam and when we arrive back at home at the end of the trip.
The flight was surprisingly easy.
We didn’t have it as easy as folks in the premium section!
The 10 hours went by fairly quickly between eating, watching three movies, catching up with “Gone With The Wynns” via the YouTube videos I downloaded, and listening to some podcast episodes.
The three movies were “Avengers Endgame”, “Us” and a documentary by Jean-Michel Cousteau.
“Endgame” was fun and long, “Us” was well crafted with a few missteps about half way through in tone but overall I really liked it and the documentary was relaxing and beautiful.
The food on the flight was above average in my experience of airline food, especially the last few years where the serving sizes continue to shrink.
The first meal was teriyaki chicken.
Had a couple of beers since they were “free”
The second meal was breakfast for lunch. Either French toast of spinach and cheese omelet. I choose the omelet. It was a little dry though the flavor was good.
And now we have a couple hours layover in Narita.
Lots of duty free shipping at Narita airport
And coffee and beer
Next stop Ho Chi Minh City!