Ho Chi Minh City - Welcome to Vietnam 🇻🇳

First stop in Vietman! I think we're going to like it here. On arrival at our hostel we were given an option to move to the companies sister villa as the room at the hostel had rain damage. A taxi ride later and we're in a quiter part of the city and have a pool, so not bad. A lovely lady named Hang at the hotel sent us a huge list of the best places to eat and drink so we headed down the road to a sandwich shop, which didn't disappoint.

We arrived unknowingly on Independence Day, 79 years since Vietnam gained independence from the French. After our sandwich and walk about we headed back for an early night when the reception guy told us there would be fireworks going on in different parts of the city so we turned around and headed to the riverfront for the celebrations. It was incredibly busy but the atmosphere was great. There were lights up and down the streets, a huge stage with performances, and a brilliant firework display, I was so glad we hadn't gone to bed and got to be part of it.

The next day we set off through Tao Dan Park, which was lovely, with flowers, fountains and sculptures, to the War Remnants Museum. Time for Matt and Lisa's history lessons to continue. It's well-organised and gives a lot of information with great visuals, the audio guide is good to keep you on track. Again, I went in pretty uninformed about the Vietnam War so it was enlightening.

From the museum we did a walking tour to spot the notable buildings of the city. We walked past the Independence Palace where the war officially came to an end. Then carried on the the Notre Dame Catherdral, which unfortunately was covered in scaffolding top to bottom. We popped into the post office, past the City Hall, and the Opera House, before wandering around the Ben Thanh Market.

Our coffee shop break took us to Little Hanoi which was one of Hangs suggestions for Vietnamese Egg Coffee which Matt wanted to try, I stuck with a Peach Tea as neither eggs or coffee are my thing. We made it back for a swim before having food at another of Hangs great recommendations and a walk down the Walking Street, which has got to be the craziest street we've walked down so far on our trip, it is very bright and very loud!

We took the next day a bit slower and aimed to tick off more food and drink places on the recommendation list. We took a longer route to the river seeing great flower displays for Independence Day then sat having a drink riverside.

We wanted lunch at rooftop place but their outside seating area had been bombarded by heavy rain so we had to eat inside, which was still nice. We then headed to walking street to have a few drinks before it got too busy and loud for us, it was fun to watch it turn from a pretty normal street into the chaos that appears when the sun sets. With our dreams set on being on a rooftop at somepoint we made it up to a rooftop bar as our final stop for the day. The rain had eased off and there were great city skyline views with cocktails to match, a good way to end our stay in Ho Chi Minh.

We're now on our first cabin bus of the trip heading to Da Lat. It's not an over night one, but still nice to be able to have a lie down and rest your eyes.

Lots of Love,
Lisa and Matt 💕