Happy in Ho Chi Minh City

With a long weekend available to us, Jeremy and I took the opportunity to hop next door to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.  On our first day, we prepped for a day of checking out the city, got down to the lobby...and looked out into torrential rain.  We waited around in the lobby for a bit, hoping the rain would let up.  Eventually, we decided we couldn't let a little rain coop us up in the hotel all morning.  So, we donned our rain coats, headed out, and promptly got soaking wet.  We persevered, ducking under awnings to sneak a peak at a map in our quest for the Pham Ngu Lao District.  After several wrong turns, we finally found it, just as the rain let up.

The next day was thankfully dry, since we had booked a 6-hour moto tour of the city with Tiger Tours.  The tour was an excellent way to see parts of the city off the well-worn tourist track.  It was also a delicious way to sample authentic Vietnamese cuisine.  We stopped at three different restaurants and sampled a range of dishes.  We even tried pig ear...I would not recommend it!

The most unique part of the tour was a stop at a local beauty salon, where we were treated to a relaxing hair wash and face massage.  I've never had that combination of beauty treatments, but we learned it's common in Ho Chi Minh City.  I also snapped this blackmail photo of Jeremy with cucumber slices on his face!

Next day, we boarded a bus for Cu Chi Tunnels.  This network of tunnels, stretching from Saigon to the Cambodian border, allowed Viet Cong fighters to move about undetected.  After watching a patriotic propaganda "documentary" filmed in the 1960s, we viewed various hidden tunnel entrances and deadly booby traps used to avoid detection.  Finally we descended into the tunnels and crawled a hot, dark 80 meters.  And to think fighters spent weeks down there!

 

Overall, we had an excellent visit to Ho Chi Minh City.  I think what we liked best was that it's a nice city to walk around in.  Each turn down an unfamiliar street offered an opportunity - a cute shop to explore, a restaurant to discover, beautiful architecture to admire, or a park in which to stroll.  Jeremy even got to try being a coconut juice street vendor!