Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
We left Chiang Mai on a little trip before Brentwood heads back to the states. Our first stop of the trip is Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. But the trip started out a little bumpy
:
we couldn't check in for our flight because we didn't have a visa for Vietnam (whereas for Thailand you could get a 30 day visa-on-arrival). We had to do some quick research and applied for a visa approval letter online. However, we couldn't get the letter in time to check in for the flight. So we had to check in just for our domestic flight to Bangkok and when we arrived there we had to get our bags and then recheck in for our flight to Vietnam. By then our approval letter was emailed to us and we could check in. Once we arrived at the airport in Ho Chi Minh City we filled out an entry form for our visa-on-arrival or "landing visa" along with a passport photo and $25. After a bit of waiting we got our visa and passed through immigration, no problem. As we left the airport there were hundreds of people waiting outside for relatives which gave the feeling of walking into a crowd as a celebrity with everyone looking at you. We took a taxi to our modest hotel, Blue River 2 Hotel. The next day we toured around the city hitting the main attractions
:
The War Museum (depressing but necessary visit. Most shocking pictures are of agent orange caused deformitites), Reunification Palace (tank crashed through it's gates during the fall of Saigon at the end of the war), Notre Dame, and Ben Thanh market.
On the streets of HCMC
War Remnants Museum
Left behind and still killing
"most harmful and toxic chemical ever discovered"
old world meets new world in HCMC
@ Notre Dame Cathedral
Local street vendor
Ho Chi Minh statue infront of city hall
example of crazy traffic
The next day's mission was to get my 60 day Thai visa at the Thai consulate. Visas have been a bit of an ordeal this whole time since we didn't have time to get one before leaving the states. I researched online and was planning on getting the visa at the Thai embassy in Cambodia (where we headed next) but read that it took 4 days to process. So I went ahead and went to the consulate in HCMC and surprisingly was able to get my visa the very next day! what a relief. So for the rest of the day we walked around the city taking it all in.
Reunification Palace
Scooter Taxi
Good Vegetarian Food
Vietnam is definitely different than Thailand. First off there's a lot less tourists and white people so the locals take notice of you more. The traffic is nuts - when you get to an intersection everyone goes at once and then when everyone is stuck in the middle you maneuver around others. Being a pedestrian is frightening in that kind of traffic - you basically have to walk straight into the traffic and just move one step at a time because no one will stop to let you pass - think Frogger. [Here's a
of the traffic] No tuk tuks. More locals trying to sell you stuff, especially trying to clean your shoes (which Brentwood ended up paying quite a bit when they added a sole to his shoes). The food was great, every meal was delicious. The layout and style of the city has a European feel (due to France's colonization of Vietnam). All around, we really enjoyed our stay in HCMC and would have liked to tour around Vietnam a bit more but didn't have the time. *If anyone has any questions about Vietnam or about my time there feel free to ask.
Prior to the trip I wanted to read more about Vietnam and started two books I recommend
:
&
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam.
Next: Phnom Penh, Cambodia
