Quick run through of Ho Chi Minh city

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At 6:30am I left the party hostel and went to my next location. This second hostel in Ho Chi Minh was called Saigon Charming Hostel and for good reason. It was a much needed upgrade for me. I soon made friends with Taht, who worked there and he immediately offered me breakfast, coffee, a towel and friendly advice about the city. More than anything though I just felt comfortable there, with the coy, family feel about it and the sort of people I soon met who were also staying there. Among them a friendly Lithuanian couple, an older French lady, two nice kiwis and another halfie 20 something male like me hailing from New York.

The events of the day summed up quick included:

Visiting the War Remnants Museum (formerly the American War Crimes Museum) which, as expected, had to have it's named changed a few years back although the original name was probably a more accurate depiction.

Checking out the Independance Palace, Xa Loi pagoda, Notre Dame cathedral, the Ben Thanh market for some haggling fun and the post office to send some of that aforementioned loot home.

Booking a 2 day Mekong River Delta tour including an overnight home stay in a rural village.

Getting a $15 Vietnamese massage for 1hr. (I would say that this massage was better than any in Thailand because they used hot rocks on your back which felt amazing)

Going for pho for lunch and scallops and rice for dinner which ran me about $8 total.

Hanging out with different hostellers and Taht during down time



Couple interesting tidbits:

There's surprisingly a lot of Christmas trees with lights and decorations in many shops (my theory: it's aimed to draw tourists in)

The pho is phonomenal ?

The traffic is fucking nuts - much crazier than Bangkok with the amount of scooters and bumper to bumper chaos. It's definitely an art form to cross the road. I'm getting better at it but sometimes it's nerve wracking when you have to walk across the street maintaining your pace and hope that the 40-50 scooters will all go around you. The only traffic that was crazier for me was in Kampala, Uganda

You can really haggle further here than other places I've been. Ie Thailand, Morocco, Turkey. I got a present for someone that was priced at 650,000VND and I got it for 200,000VND with a little stone elephant thrown in there for fun.

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