Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City - The capital of Vietnam, is a massive busy city that holds an age old charm and character that is missing from most modern metropolis'. We only stuck around a night or two and stayed up in the backpacker area (District 1)and on one of our days there we took a trip back to the Mekong Delta to visit Unicorn, Phoenix and Turtle islands - see some traditional dance and song, eat Vietnamese food from that area and check out the local produce - including sweets, honey, rice wines and fruit and veggies.
It would have been nice to hang around and check out Ho Chi Minh for longer - we heard many good things about the place - but you know you can't have everything and with a flight back to London already booked and a budget to work between we had to move on so we could see the many other fantastic places in Vietnam. Like Dalat - Mui Ne - Nha Trang and Sapa and Hanoi - Halong Bay the list goes on.
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| John on the sleeper bus to Saigon |
Pho Bo is such a simple dish but so filling and tasty - just made from a beef stock or more like a broth, full of flat rice noodles, and thinly sliced beef - Plus on the side - to add to it - you get mint and basil and some sort of water cress and lime and chilli and garlic and YUM. Slurp it up!!!!
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| Honey tea - was Ok |
We caught a boat up the canals that run of the Mekong - these boats were puddled by local people - they bump and splash around each other, bustling forward and squeezing through. At the end of the little wooden boat ride we had some fruit and watched a traditional song and dance. It was all a bit put on - and felt a bit weird really. But they have to make money somehow.
The Vietnamese make a sweetie out of coconut by mixing stuff together (unsure what goes in but guaranteed it has sugar) and heat it and churn it for a while and then they get it ready and stick it into a tray and cut it up and then individually wrap it. It tastes good but I think you would get a belly ache if you ate to many!!
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| Snake wine - tastes like evil spirits |
All the boats in Vietnam are usually given eyes - this is because they believed there was a big snake creature in the Mekong at one time and the boats with eyes look like dragons so they snake would be scared away.
We stopped for lunch on one of the island and ate some pork and rice and chicken and tofu and veggies. It was tasty but simple - fixed tour foods - always cheap and portion controlled - serve us right for being boring and going on tours instead of adventurous and whatever.... The island the restaurant was one was all for tourism - there did not seem to be anything else there except gift shops and restaurants - some gardens and of course a pond with crocodiles in it - and a guy selling meat for you to feed to the ignorant crocs.... We didn't bother - the crocs didn't bother when others tried to bother - it was all a bit forced, contrived, lame and a bit of a croc.
We wanted to check out Ho Chi Minh City - so the best way to see what it looks like was to check out the Saigon skydeck offered by Bitexco Financial Tower at 200,000 dong each ($10). It is a remarkable view and adds to the appreciation you can get for such a big busy city.
We found some cool bars and places to eat in the city - a bakery that was just awesome and we were lucky to stay in a little hotel with a nice family in a lane not too far from everything that was happening. And one night after dinner and drinks we were lucky enough to listen to the lady running the hotel play her Sitar - especially for us. She got it out after I asked what instrument she played and where and when she found the time to practice. It was a special moment.
