HO CHI MINH CITY (SAIGON)

14th - 18th July 2015

It was time to leave Cambodia behind and head to the bright lights of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. We had booked a through bus the night before, that would collect us from our hostel and hopefully drop us off in the cheap neighbourhood in HCMC. The bus ran like clockwork - leaving on time, getting us through the border into Vietnam super quickly, and dropping us off in the right place! It was just so easy!

We successfully dodged the guys waiting for us in the bus terminal and marched off, and within 10 minutes we had a brilliant room with a hint of art deco about it, complete with a private balcony for $13 which seemed like a very fair price for a big city.

We headed off in search of street food and found that there was so much choice out there! We opted for noodles and pork, which came with a broth that you poured over the top. The flavours were amazing, and even though we'd only been in the city for 2 hours, we decided there and then that we LOVE HCMC.

We walked around and came to a square where people of all ages were hanging out. Everywhere you looked were people playing games, aerobics classes, dance classes, martial arts classes. I loved that everyone made their own entertainment, that it was outside, and that it was social. There was a really good feeling about the place. 

We sat down to watch the men doing Thai chi and within minutes, a couple of kids came up to us and shyly asked if they could talk to us. We said yes, and they motioned for their friends to come over too. They wanted to work on their English, but also wanted to hear about what we were up to and in turn, told us about their lives. It was only a half hour conversation, but it was such a precious memory of a city that is inquisitive and forward thinking. 

The night ended up in an acoustic bar where there was a lady with an incredible voice performing covers of western songs. The drinks were insanely expensive, so we stayed for one, enjoying the music, then headed back to our balcony for a beer before bed.

The next morning we got up bright and early and headed over to the War Remnants Museum. We had read online that it was heavily one sided, so we went with an open mind but very limited knowledge of the war. What we learnt was harrowing. There was an incredible photo exhibition taken by war photographers with the American army. The photos were full of emotion, powerful imagery and faces of people that couldn't be ignored. Many images were deeply uncomfortable to view, yet we gave each and every photo the attention it deserved. It was warfare as you imagine it to be - lines of soldiers walking through knee deep mud, blood, brutality, horrifically wounded men, amputation, and civilians caught up in the mess having to deal with the worst scenarios imaginable. Yet again we were seeing mankind at its worst and how history seems to repeat itself. I have to take comfort from our journey as a whole, remembering the kindness that people have extended to us, the simplicity of getting on with life, uncomplaining, finding joy in simple pleasures and seeing the best in a situation. 

Whilst in the exhibition I got chatting to a 20 year old Vietnamese girl who was travelling in Vietnam. She taught me a lot in our 15 minute conversation and I was very grateful for her honesty and her frankness. I asked her a question about the war and she said "I think you need to do more research on that yourself". She spoke about the current government and communism and said that she was taking everything she was reading heat the museum and all she was taught in school with a pinch of salt, and always does independent reading to ensure she is getting both sides before forming her own opinions. She really inspired me and we vowed to educate ourselves on the war and have since done so. It gives me a lot of hope for the future when I speak to young people like her, I got the same feeling when we spent the morning with Surej in Varanasi India.

Another exhibition showed the affects of agent orange which was again horrific, even more so as these were innocent civilians whose land was sprayed with such harmful chemicals. What's worse is that American veterans that were affected have rightfully received compensation, but the Vietnamese have not. There was a very moving letter written by a teenage girl affected by the chemical addressed to President Obama asking for his help in getting justice for the victims from the chemical companies - all of which are still in operation today.

Out the front were planes, helicopters and tanks. Which were pretty cool to see.

The next place on our sightseeing day was the Reunification Palace. It was built in 1966 and it was where the president of South Vietnam worked during the Vietnam war. It is famous all over the world for the events of April 39th 1975, when a North Vietnamese tank crashed through its gates, marking the fall of Saigon and the end of the war.

It was built in 1966. There are no actual rooms, the space is divided up by glass walls, with curtains to provide privacy if needed.

The architect designed a rooftop meditation space, with the vision that the president would come here to reflect before making big decisions. However, the president had another idea for the space and turned it into a disco, complete with wooden dance floor and bar!

After looking round and seeing the vast meeting rooms and dining rooms, we went down to the underground bunker area, which the president had access to from his office via a private staircase. It was a maze of tunnels and communication rooms. Old maps of Vietnam were still pinned to the walls showing the markings that the army used. It was a stark contrast to the vastness upstairs and would have been a cramped few days that the president spent down there before Saigon surrendered to the north Vietnamese army.

We continued down the road to Notre Dame cathedral, made form stones imported from France. We were too late to look inside but it was very impressive from the outside. 

Next door was the famous Saigon post office, which was a large colonial building with a breathtaking interior.

From here we headed to the Vietnam Water Puppet show, which was certainly an experience. Wooden puppets danced in a trough of water, whilst a band either side of the pool played traditional Vietnamese music and did the voices of the puppets. One older lady was very enthusiastic and we liked her the best. However the show as a whole was pretty rubbish and we both nearly dozed off.

For dinner we ate in a beautiful restaurant that had a pond in the middle. We had stir fry and beef salad. The salad tasted amazing, with such exciting fresh flavours. 

We walked down the pedestrian street that leads from the Town Hall down to the river, which has skyscrapers either side. Lots of people were hanging out here, including rollerbladers, a girl on a motorised single wheel, and people playing the shuttlecock keepy uppy game. Again, it was a really cool place to hang out and people watch. We ended the night at a couple of bars, the best being a place named 'Last Call Saigon'.

We got up pretty late after our last call in Saigon and headed over to Ben Thanh Market, via Pho 2000 - where president Bill Clinton had a bowl! It was our first Pho in Vietnam and it was delicious - noodles, beef, bean sprouts and leaves in a tasty broth. You add lime and chilli yourself - we added chillies and the broth was instantly spicey, so we fished them out in the nick of time!

In the market we were hounded by everyone to buy buy buy. We bought a few t-shirts and then went in search of a replacement watch for my Casio, as it broke in Nepal, meaning I had to add on 15 minutes when we were in India and 1 hour 15 minutes everywhere since, which after 4 months, I have finally gotten fed up of. We went to a watch stall and I showed him my watch and said I wanted the same. He grabbed my arm and lead me through the narrow alleys until we came to another watch shop, where, at the back of the cabinet was the exact same watch sitting all alone in a corner. I thanked him and bought the watch. The only problem now is I keep looking at my watch and adding on the extra time!!

We had been seeing tonnes of trendy coffee shops around the city. It seems that most locals spend their time in coffee shops rather than bars. We had searched online to find recommendations for which ones to go to, and L'uisine kept popping up. We went in search of it, and weren't disappointed. Downstairs it had an incredible shop selling super cool products from all over the world. We pined after a gorgeous speaker from Denmark. Costing 3 million.... Dong that is! We also randomly found a ceramic jug the exact same that I had bought for Will from a pop up shop in Glasgow!

The coffee shop was expensive but so effortlessly cool. The cheesecake was absolutely divine and Will was buzzing after his Vietnamese coffee.

In the evening we got a taxi out to district 2 to a place we'd heard about called Saigon Outcast, similar to box park in Shoreditch. Small shops made from shipping containers, reused scrap metal and old girders created a industrial hangout. When we got there at 6, the place was dead, but we were assured by an American guy that it would be heaving later. A screen and projector were set up and we found out they would be playing Jurassic World. We decided to stick it out and see what happened. So we got a beer and settled in for the night. It did indeed slowly fill up, but it was definitely a quiet one, which suited us fine! We asked the guy what was in two big shipping containers, he said he was in the planning stages of turning them into a climbing wall! He then told us about other walls he had put up in Vietnam, one that was made of toughened glass, so you can see through the wall that you are climbing! I said I'd be back one day to climb his shipping container wall.

The film itself was brilliant and there's something fun about watching films outside on big screens. Especially when you've also got a beer and a burger.

Our last day in Saigon was arty day. We went for a delicious English breakfast, where we also got a bread basket and lots of condiments, the absolute hands down best one was the chocolate spread. Yummmmmm. It meant we could eat our main breakfast, then sit for another hour writing the blog whilst slowly munching our way through the bread. 

We made our way to The Craig Thomas Gallery, which had some beautiful paintings by artist Phuong Quoc Tri they were black and white women's faces and female forms. We spoke with Craig for a while, who was an American expat who had lived in the city for many years. We discussed the war, the city, the coffee shop culture, and the art scene. 

We had another gallery on our list to visit and he called them up for us to check they were open, speaking in perfect Vietnamese. We headed over to San Art but it turned out it was more the artists in residence studio area, and the actual gallery was pretty far out of town. Undeterred, we headed to DIA Projects where we saw a brilliant exhibition of Dzung Yoko's work. He was an art director for high fashion magazine shoots. It was interesting to see his vision for a shot and then see the final work. I would have liked to know the designer of the clothes in each shoot though. 

We quickly drank down an iced coffee in the uber cool coffee shop below the gallery, then headed to our final destination GQ Gallery where there was a little bit underwhelming exhibition after the two amazing works we had seen earlier in the day. However there was one piece that caught my eye - the woman shaped dart board. Read into that what you will. 

The gallery was an incredible space, with beautiful natural light, and the biggest door I've ever seen.

The day continued upwards, by 49 floors to be exact, to the Saigon Sky Deck, in the Bitexco Financial Tower. The view was stunning, and made better that we'd been in the city a few days so we could actually recognise a few places. We stayed up there to see the day turn into night, when the city really came alive. The light show started on the sky scraper opposite and it was brilliant! The building had light strips running lengthways, and they changed colour, sometimes horizontally, sometimes vertically, and very rarely, they went diagonally. It also had a swimming pool on the roof.

We made our way to an ex-abandoned apartment block that has since been taken over by startup shops and coffee shops. The stairway felt like an apartment block on Brixton, and the coffee shops wouldn't have been out of place there too! It wasn't that busy, but people were just there to hang out and mostly drink coffee. I think they found it weird when we ordered alcohol. 

We stopped by a lively looking bar for a quick beer before retiring to our hotel. It was sandwiched between two buildings and seemed to be built of bits of scaffolding, rope and tarpauline. Guess that explains why the beer was damn cheap. 

The night ended back on our balcony, where we put on some music, had our last tinnies and had a little boogie. All too soon the morning came and we had to figure out to get to the Mekong Delta.