Travel Tuesday Destination for August 27th: Ho Chi Ming City (aka Saigon), Vietnam
Traveled to: June 2008 with Alex
Alex and I had the opportunity to travel up the coast of the Vietnam for about 3 weeks as our honeymoon trip back in 2008. As you may have guessed, we’re not really traditional travelers in the sense that we’re against all inclusive resorts for hundreds of reasons, and I also get ancy sitting around for too long. I like to see new and different places. And mostly, if we had the time, why would we NOT go somewhere cool? While we had several places on our shortlist, and I’m happy to say I’ve made it to all but one of them since then, we ultimately decided on Vietnam as having the most to offer where our dollar would go the furthest. While we got loads of funny looks when saying we were headed to Vietnam on a honeymoon, it turned out wonderfully. The country was incredible, and the people were some of the kindest I’ve met in my travels.
Saigon was our first stop, and holy moly, what an introduction to this country it was. The capital is one hell of a crazy place. If you are looking for peaceful relaxation, I can most definitely say you have come to the wrong spot. HCMC is a assault on the senses with colors and sounds and everything all at once. While I’m told India is worse, this city is kind of the most glorious complete and utter chaos that actually functions in a way that I will never understand. I could sit at a cafe and just watch the circus of motorbikes at an intersection all day. Crossing the street is a death defying act in that there aren’t really traffic rules (aside from honking, everyone honks always), you just kind of slowly but surely make your way across like a game of frogger. You have to trust that the motorbikes will make their way around you, so long as you don’t make any sudden movements. This daily adventure is a big part of why I loved it so much.
While exploring the city we made sure to hop on a xe om (motorbike taxi) and zoom out to Cholon, the chinatown part of Saigon and saw loads of interesting temples, markets, and shops. While the temples in places like Bangkok are a tourist mecca, HCMC isn’t quite as developed in the same way (at least not then) and we found we often had the places to ourselves. It’s here we found everything from colorful fruits to crazy dried herbs, to snakes in jars featured in the photos below.
Enjoy!
Racing past on the streets of Saigon.
Temple in Cholon.
Pink prayer ribbons at a local temple in Cholon.
Incense prayer coils at a local temple. The coil burns slowly until it reaches the prayers contained in the red ribbon at the top.
Colorful dragon fruit for sale at the market.
Why yes, those are snakes in a jars in Saigon’s Chinatown.
Motorbikes on the streets of Saigon.
Happy Travels.
