Hectic HCMC [Vietnam]
Vietnam! Can you say culture shock?! Starting off in Singapore weaned us into this adventure of a lifetime, and yet I still wasn't prepared to jump into the deep end of Vietnam. In Singapore, the first thing that hits you is the oppressive heat. In Vietnam—especially in Ho Chi Minh City, where we landed—it's the sheer volume of activity. There was a cacophony of sound emitting from motorbikes that zigzagged in every direction. There were frogs, alive(?) and skinned, that jumped around on the streets (I was terrified). Vietnam felt like the stereotype of "ASIA!!" come to life... at least, the version people think of when they imagine the Eat Pray Love Southeast Asian backpacking trip of their dreams.
When people visit Vietnam, they tend to make their way North-to-South from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Based on flights, we started from the bottom and worked our way up.
Day 1 in Ho Chi Minh City
As soon as we landed (and cleared the annoying visa process to get into the country... bless Stea for teaching me about Vietnam E-Visa), we found ourselves smack in the middle of a morning market on the way to our Airbnb. Little did we know the chaos would completely clear out by mid-afternoon. We stopped for sugar cane juice and water on the side of the street, and it was only $0.50! Now that's the kind of culture shock I endorse. :)
It turned out that my exchange buddy Will was in Ho Chi Minh at the same time as us, so we ended up touring around with him over the next couple of days. The three of us went to Pho 2000—famed for serving Bill Clinton once upon a time. I was leery of all the non-locals eating there, but it was still good. I learned that pho in Vietnam tastes pretty much the same as pho in Canada. This specific place was also definitely marked up due to the presidential visit.
Then we made our way to Ben Thanh Market, which was mainly filled with touristy trinkets and fake clothes in a grid of shops (Pacific Mall-style). I didn't have any interest in buying anything. And then... we found the place of Jenny's dreams: Cong Ca Phe. You have NO IDEA how often we visited this place while we were in HCMC. Cong Ca Phe is known for its coconut milk coffee, somehow whipped into a thick consistency. Since I'm not a coffee fan, I had the supposedly less delicious cocoa version.
Before we knew what hit us, it suddenly started raining like crazy. Turns out this is the norm in Vietnam, but I had no idea that these flash storms would happen every day! We ran for shelter at a western-style pub, eating French fries until the rain died down a mere five minutes later. Out of paranoia, we walked to a mall near City Hall and shopped around. It felt like a regular mall back home (aka: posh for Vietnam), except familiar western brands like Zara were actually MORE expensive here than they are back home.
That evening, Jenny and I embarked on one of our pre-booked activities: a street food tour with OneTrip! This was SUCH A HIGHLIGHT of our time in Vietnam. Even though it was around CA$85, I felt immense peace-of-mind knowing that the street food we tried was not going to get us sick. Jenny was especially content because this operator made sure we tried all the food on her hit-list. I loved having amazingly fun local tour guides named Tam and Rosey who brought us around on the backs of their motorbikes and educated us on all the food we were trying.
Tam and Rosey took us through Districts 1 and 2, where we tried the following treats. Despite being a picky eater, I liked almost everything!
- Beetle Leaf barbecue pork, which we ate by wrapping it in rice paper and dunking it in various sauces. The pork was cooked right beside our little stools!
- Spit eggs, as in, made with human spit + sweet & spicy corn. The eggs were prepared by sloshing around the egg with raw spices inside someone's mouth before regurgitating it back into the eggshell with a straw. Then it got boiled to death and presumably killed off the germs.
- Shrimp pancakes (otherwise known as banh xeo) + little cakes called banh coc. The banh coc kind of reminded me of mini-quiches or Starbucks sous-vide egg bites (you can take the girl out of QComm, but you can't take the QComm out of the girl!). These were served with fresh passionfruit juice (my fav).
- Vietnamese pizza! This was the whole reason why Jenny was adamant on going on a OneTrip tour rather than one of the myriad of other tour options. Vietnamese pizza is cooked on a "dough" akin to rice paper and has an egg base instead of tomato sauce. At this stop, we also got some bonus meatball(?) skewers.
- For dessert, we had some sort of green coconut + tapioca + jelly over ice concoction. It kind of reminded me of Filipino Halo Halo. Unfortunately, I'm not a big coconut fan. Still, it was a super fun experience! We even taught Tam and Rosey how to "fake-laugh" for fun candid photos. This won't be the last you hear about them in this post.
After all that, we surprisingly still weren't gassed for the day (I guess you could say the food fueled us up). We met up with Will at a place called Chill Sky Bar, which was practically a rave and NOT CHILL AT ALL. A waiter even accidentally dropped a glass bottle that cut into Jenny's foot. We were nonplussed and departed for a place called Bar Eon 52 (attempt #2!) in the much quieter Bitexco Financial Tower. This suited the vibe we were looking for, and we chatted among the swanky elevator music and killer view.
HCMC Day 2
The next day, we learned that Ben Thanh Market has counterparts for street food and wet markets! It was kind of expensive though, and all the food we found/ordered was spicy. Before Will departed for India, we took video clips for his travel vlog and recruited some Malaysians (who we mistook for Singaporeans due to the accent, oops) to take photos of the three of us.
Afterwards, we spent the rest of the afternoon browsing the markets. Ben Thanh wet market allowed us to see giant salmon getting washed and skinned on the ground. We tried haggling for small bags, but walked away when we were quoted prices that were 4x the market price (such is the life of a tourist!).
Then we consumed copious liquids in quick succession. We stopped for Koi bubble tea — I am once again asking when this brand will make its way to Canada. We tried getting egg coffee at a famous place Jenny found, but it turned out to be closed and deserted. Instead, we found a juice place where I got a pineapple/orange/raspberry mix. Then the pull of Cong Ca Phe was too strong, so Jenny got another coconut coffee while I went for some lime juice and a washroom break (hah!).
Before we knew it, the daily downpour was upon us. We sought refuge at a Swiss Wine Bar, where the owners were all too gleeful to talk about Zurich with me. Then we took a taxi to an indoor Russian market, which was immensely puzzling for their inventory of winter jackets. Surely no one in HCMC needed these parkas? It's perpetually humid and tropical out there.
After more unsuccessful market-browsing, we walked through the backpacker district to a place called Huynh Hoa for banh mi, as recommended by Joe Yang. The pâté was good, and it was loaded with meat. The bun was crispy and fresh too, although I've been told that all the banh mi places get their bread from the same source.
That evening, we met up with Rosey and Tam again — this time, off-the-clock (aka now as travel buddies)! They took us to the so-called "bubble tea street," where we stopped by a place called Comebuy and The Alley (which we have back home too, but seemed to be viewed with excitement by the locals — which I suppose is also how we perceive the brand).
Then, Rosey and Tam took us on their motorbikes to District 4 for dessert. District 4 is kinda known as the "mafia district" and is therefore somewhat unsafe, but is also known for its banging desserts. Rosey and Tam instructed us to stay vigilant with our belongings, which we did while trying delectable flan desserts. We had plain, green tea, kiwi, and a refreshing soupy dessert. I've never been a big kiwi person, but it was SO GOOD. Then it was time to bid our new friends adieu (...for now!) as we departed for a short couple of days in Mui Ne.
Marvelous Mui Ne
The next morning, we got up early to take a train ride to Mui Ne. This place is an underrated gem that I once again heard about from Stea (who inspired us with her insane ATV pics in the sand dunes!). Despite seeming fairly sketchy when we booked tickets online, the train ended up being nice and smooth. Jenny captured agrarian landscapes of unknown plants and we entertained a curious little child who kept peeking at us from the seat in front of us.
Our Airbnb was a nice compound with a spare motorbike available for us to use, so Jenny took the handlebars and drove us down the shoreline. It was sleepy and quiet, and almost felt like a beach town in North America. There is something so different about biking YOURSELF around from place-to-place at will with the wind in your face. Of all places in Vietnam, Mui Ne was definitely the best place to get some motorbike practice in because the roads were mostly empty, unlike the cacophony of noise and activity that we faced in Ho Chi Minh.
We stopped at a roadside restaurant for pho and (for Jenny) a mango crepe, but it wasn't very good. Then we biked to the "Fairy Stream," where we weren't allowed to wear shoes! It was surprisingly fun and liberating to squish our toes in the reddish sand.
These tourist aunties roped me into taking photos of them and for some reason, WITH them??! Do I fit in or what?
After the fairy stream, we motorbiked to the red sand dunes. It was rainy at first, but miraculously cleared up beautifully for sunset. What a cool, serene place that I never would've expected to find in bustling Vietnam. A vendor offered us plastic sheets to rent as makeshift sleds, which turned out to be a total blast (but also way harder than it looked)! Near the dunes, we also found fresh passionfruit juice (still only $0.50!).
With sand literally EVERYWHERE, we walked 700 metres to a street food market. I ordered rice and meat, but it wasn't very good.
The next morning, we had booked a hot air balloon ride with a company called "Vietnam Balloons," but they cancelled on us — ostensibly because of the weather. This seemed like an extremely common occurrence, but our hopes were up anyway. When I look them up now, they seem to be closed. Despite the cancellation, we had lofty plans to wake up at 4:30 am to observe the sunrise at the white sand dunes. This straight up didn't happen (I have no excuse). We made our way to the white sand dunes at 9 am instead.
Now... DRAMATIC STORY TIME. On the way to the white sand dunes, we got pulled over on the side of a deserted road by "police inspectors" with paper name tags. They wanted to charge us for going 5km over the speed limit, even showing us speedometer images as "proof." They tried taking us to a negotiation table obscured by a van. However, Jenny knew this was false because we were actually driving 20km over the "speed limit" that they quoted (hah!). We managed to shake them and go off on our merry way by convincing them that we had ZERO cash on hand.
When we got to the white sand dunes, we rented an ATV! The white sand dunes were a lot more vast than the red ones, so it was an INSANE ride. When the guide took over, it practically felt like we were on a roller coaster. We then took pictures posing with the dunes (totally false advertising; I drove nothing). I would highly recommend Mui Ne!
Back in HCMC...
For our last night in Ho Chi Minh, we hung out with Tam and Rosey again! They took us to try BALUT (OMG) and what seemed like a Vietnamese take on takoyaki.
Turns out that a "night on the town" in Vietnam is very different from what I'd experienced everywhere else. Everyone gets tables and sits with their friends (almost like a bar...?), but the music is pumping so loud that you can't hear anyone. It wasn't particularly fun, so after hopping from place to place, we wound up at Cong Ca Phe again. Finally, we ended the night with Tam letting me try his motorbike. Within five seconds, I crashed into both a person and a sign (at a snail's pace), and he revoked my driving rights. Hah.
