First day in Ho Chi Minh City

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After being up for 24 hours and traveling for 18, we finally made it to Vietnam late last night.

This morning after breakfast we decided to explore district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City -where we are staying- in the 30 degree heat. When we left the hotel we were already shocked at how busy the streets were with people sprawled out on the pathway preparing food stalls and fruit and veges for the long, hot day ahead. What was more overwhelming was the amount of scooters and lack of road rules on the large and busy highways - traffic lights, giveway signs, and pedestrian crossings are just completely ignored which makes crossing the road quite tricky and scary the first few times! It is unbelievable how calm the Vietnamese people are when flying through an intersection swerving around thousands of other scooters, cyclists and people and oncoming traffic!

It was a huge culture shock for both of us walking down the streets with people following us trying to get us to buy maps and fans, fake Ray Bans or to hire a scooter (which is the last thing we will do!). Definitely a positive and exciting culture shock though, we absolutely love how nice everyone is here and so polite. A lot of people stared at both Matt and I for our very pale skin and light hair which is somewhat intimidating!

We went into a large market area which was very packed and extremely hot! Quite a cool experience with the stall owners offering you multiple pieces if you look at something for more than 2 seconds! We bought some Vans each for 1 million don which is around $32 NZD a pair, fake of course but look exactly the same! After the markets we had to go back to the hotel to swim as we were covered in sweat and rather dehydrated!

When we re-entered the crazy hot bustling streets we sat in a lovely air conditioned room to have a delicious meal and decided to learn some Vietnamese. So far we have Xin Chao - hello, Càm On- thank you, xin Vui lòng - please, Vâng- yes, and Nha vê sinh- toilet. We trailed our new Vietnamese words in some stalls on the way home which the locals loved!

We are shattered now (at 7pm) so are in bed! What a fantastic first day in Vietnam 😊

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