22nd – 23rd October

Familiar Faces!

Thankfully my whirlwind experience of Ho Chi Minh City was amazing and made up for the night before. I arrived and was met at the airport by Hebe, my friend I met on my first night in Singapore. Hebe lives in HCMC and was so keen to show me round! Such a sweetie, she did an amazing job and I’m so grateful!

We went off on her little red scooter in search of my hostel in city centre. I had my big 16kg backpack on my back and had to hold on for dear life every time we accelerated in an attempt not to fly off the back! I was very glad to dump my stuff at the hostel! The Dola Hostel was right in centre of the city in a bustling location with many bars and restaurants. This hostel is good as it’s down an alley off the main street, so a bit quieter. It’s been built upwards with one room in each floor and a small reception at the bottom. It was ok, not overly clean, my bed side light and charging point didn’t work and the breakfast was one choice & a bit rubbish, but it was ok for one night.

We then went off to sort out my bus to Cambodia for the next day, find some street food and meet Celine! (Canadian Celine, not French). It was awesome to spend the day with them both 😊, a really nice part of travelling is being able to meet up with your friends at different locations on your route! I did have a little wobble when I realised that somehow I’d lost 1 million dong (don’t worry it’s a lot less than it sounds, around £35), but after a search with no luck, I quickly decided to let it go – see I’m growing! 🤣 We did some sightseeing in the centre and stopped a several times for food or a drink. I really like the city, it is busy like Hanoi, but has a different feel. A lot of the buildings are colonial style and some of them have now been converted to big modern malls, keeping the look of the old buildings. It’s a flashy and modern, but still very much Asian city with a good energy. And very hot! Although we were relieved a couple of times with big downpours of rain. 

Late Night Vietnamese Massage

Celine also had friends in the city and she was staying with them for a few days. She left us in the evening after a couple of beers at a bar in the centre and Hebe and I continued chatting with another beer. She then randomly asked if I fancy a massage? It was about 8pm, I was like, what now?! The spa place in the bottom of her apartment block is open till late and she is a regular. Why not?! We walked back to her scooter and went out to the area where she lives, not too far from the airport. The experience was amazing and very surreal! They give you tea on arrival, you then get into a hot wooden bath to soak for a while, followed by a mini steam room, and then a mini sauna, before finally getting an hours massage, or appointment was at 9pm and we didn’t finish until 10.45pm!

Hebe very sweetly then showed me her lovely apartment and we cooked Vietnamese vege soup for an extremely late tea, eating around 11.30pm! I jumped on a Grab bike back to the hostel around an hour later and crashed.

TIP: Using Grab bike is a really cheap and fun way to get around cities in Vietnam. Just use the normal Grab app and switch the vehicle to motorbike. They’re registered and (mostly) safe drivers, you always get a helmet and you can feel the atmosphere as you enjoy the ride!

War Remnants Museum 

The next morning I checked out and went off walking to the war museum, it’s an important part of the countries’ recent history and something I felt I should learn about whilst in Vietnam. Bit of a history lesson if anyone’s interested……. The country was under French rule from the early 1880’s and the largest party of resistance to this came from the communist party in 1925, led by Ho Chi Minh. By the end of the Second World War Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh forces took control of large parts of the country and declared independence from France in what’s known as the August Revolution. This led to war, which divided the country in two, North and South Vietnam, communist and anti- communist sides. America, as well as other countries, became heavily involved in the war, deploying many troops from the early 1960’s in support of the Vietnamese government and southern Vietnam, seeing their involvement as an anti-communist take over. The war went on for years and the presence of American troops grew. In the mid 60’s the US launched large scale bombing and air strikes that affected Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. By the early 70’s the whole world was watching and many anti-war protests were held in many different countries. The Paris agreement was signed in 1973, which, later that year, brought a ceasefire and removal of American troops and release of prisoners of war.

It was pretty hard going, the methods of warfare and torture used on prisoners of war was absolutely horrific! Things that most people could never imagine anyone could inflict on another human being. I wasn’t really aware of the use of agent orange, a herbicide used in warfare by the US army, and the disabling effects it had then and years since on millions of people. I’d on I’d been warned and quickly saw that the museum is one sided, but it was really interesting and heartbreaking nonetheless. 

I was glad to be meeting Celine after, so we could perk me up! We had a quick meet up for lunch on the go and a coffee before I caught my bus. It was now the last time I’d see her 😞, we said our goodbyes as she was flying to the Philippines that night and I jumped on the bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.