Blogs from Ho Chi Minh City, Southeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 4

It's day three of our tour although, quite unbelievably, it's only day two in Vietnam. It really does seem as though we've been here ages already. And Day 3 always promised to be quite an intense day and intense it was. Today, our trip focused on the history and horrors of the war. But which war you might reasonably ask? Vietnam seems to have been at war for centuries, whether it was with the original Khmer occupiers from Cambodia in the south, between the Kings and Lords in the north, with the Chinese on and off for ever, or with French colonialists until 1954. But in modern times, when people talk about conflict in this area, they mean The Vietnam War from the mid 60s until 1975. But, here's the thing, whilst we call it 'The ... read more

Once I had gone out to find breakfast I called a Grab to go to the zoo. A GrabCar that is, not a bike. I felt that not dying was worth the 57p extra cost. There's probably a way to get there by bus, but the Grab was less than £1.10 and it didn't feel worth the effort which isn't the best example for budget travel and you could spend a long time in Vietnam for incredibly cheaply but since I'm only here for two weeks, I'm going to strike a balance. On that breakfast note though, I would like to make the observation that Vietnam knows how to do bread! Seemingly no where else in Asia does good bread, sure Malaysia has slightly odd but perfectly good potato buns, but Vietnam has actual French baguettes! ... read more

We had an early flight out of Hanoi to Saigon and left the hotel at 6:30. Our flight was operated by url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Airline_Review-d8729146-Reviews-Jetstar-Airways-Australia-New-ZealandJetstar which great reviews does not have; however, our experience was okay, granted, we had low expectations for the 2-hour journey. We touched down in Saigon with mostly sunny skies. The hotel (url=https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293925-d1048912-Reviews-Alagon_Central_Hotel_Spa-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.htmlAlagon Central Hotel ) stay was organized through Habitat for Humanity. The hotel had a driver waiting for us. The hotel was a 30-minute drive from the airport. We checked-in with the front desk but our room was not ready for us. We needed to kill about two hours before getting into our ro... read more

Saigon is a lively, booming city full of historical landmarks and attractions. We say it’s like an upgraded version of Hanoi; much more to see and do. We were warmly welcomed into the home/hostel of Vy, who took us through a map of Ho Chi Minh city and even gave us her personal phone number incase we get lost or need her help. She really is the perfect host. We started with a tour around the Cu Chi tunnels; an immense network of connecting tunnels used by the ‘Viet Cong’ soldiers as hiding spots during combat at wartime. We were shown booby traps cunningly invented by the Vietnamese to kill and injure the American soldiers. These traps were lethal; the Vietnamese were crafty as hell. Before our guide showed us how each trap worked he’d say, ... read more

We’d had an easy start to the day and having taken our time over brunch we made our way to the tour office. Woolly says – Although I’m not a great fan of guided tours we felt that this one would give us an opportunity to learn a lot more about the Vietnam war as well as making it easy to get there and back. We sat waiting in the office as more and more people gathered, I smiled engagingly at each new arrival listening to accents from around the world as they joined us. It didn’t look as though it was going to be an intimate tour and as the signal was given to board the bus I hoped that there was actually going to be enough seats! ... read more