Good morning Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City

Virtually all of the travellers we had met going through S.E, Asia recommended a very short stop in the apparently nondescript Vietnamese capital. We took their advice and regretted not staying longer!

Bonkers it was, but it definitely had a good vibe. The city had areas where bars and street food merchants spilled on to the narrow interlinking maze of roads. It had numerous museums, which we missed due to lack of time! And then there were the mopeds, in such great numbers that crossing a road became an art form, apparently there were in the region of 10 million of them buzzing around!

The second thing the traveller community warned us of was that at the Vietnamese were a bit ruder, and perhaps more aggressive towards tourists. Again, we didn’t think this warning was justified in Saigon. Apart from a taxi driver wanting three dollars to take us 25m over a road, many people had a smile and tried to be helpful.

The food was also excellent. The meals are lighter than many Cambodian dishes and the ingredients seemed fresher. They serve tender leaf herbs with loads of the food and ‘Pho’ (a delicious noodle soup, with herbs of course!) was served everywhere you look.

A few motorbikes queueing

Olly the street seller and his coconuts

A first taste of Vietnamese broth (Pho)

‘Parking’

Dried shrimp, anyone?

It was a little difficult to cross the road

A wholesale market

Ho Chi Minh City by night