Ho Chi Minh City
48 hours in HCMC! What an adventure, what a place.
Our Thanh Buoi sleeper bus arrived 2 hours earlier than expected, which usually I guess would be a bonus - but at 04.30am, we were a little unsure of where to head or what to do with ourselves. Thanks to these night buses, though, terminals are open 24/7 with coffee and food offerings late into the night and early into the following morning. After a rather delirious coffee, we munched our way through a huge bowl of pho bo before walking to our accommodation, Aloha House; they were happy for us to leave our luggage and freshen up, then come back later to check in properly… Meaning at only 07.30am, we were walking around the city in search of some energy and inspiration.
We headed to Tao Dan park, where I had read that it’s possible to get a coffee and just hang out, taking in the smell and noise and overload of senses within the city. It’s funny seeing somewhere wake up when you’re wandering around this early - when you’re in the whirlwind of constantly travelling, it’s easy to forget that people are just living their everyday lives and routine. There were endless exercise classes taking place, people getting coffee, eating their breakfast before going about their day; we took a hint and stopped at Cong Ca Phe for our little sweet coffee hit and some sunflower seeds (as the locals do!) before heading back for a lush little nap and much-needed chill. It’s easy to feel frazzled in such a vibrant city after staying in sleepy towns for the past few weeks!
Feeling more alive, we headed back out in the direction of Ben Thanh Market, which was much cleaner than other markets we had found in Vietnam and HCMC, but was extortionately overpriced. For example, a teacup that I had to buy because I broke the strainer cost me 100k in Hoi An - here they were charging 400k!
A Google recommendation had us walking to Kieu Bao for supposedly the best bun thit nuong - dry pork noodles - in the city of Saigon. I would, hand on heart (and not having tried another anywhere else) say that this is true! A huge portion, served with two steaming hot spring rolls, was incredibly peanut-ty and tasty. We also stopped for some steamed roadside corn and a beer, before ending the night on a sweet note of passionfruit fro-yo.
Day 2
Waking up refreshed and ready for action, we headed to the local market only 30 steps from the front door of Aloha House, Thai Binh market. We chose the bun thit xao - fried pork noodles - which were full of fragrant herbs and lemongrass. I also ordered a black coffee, which was so full of sugar!
Full and energised, we walked over to the War Remnants Museum, which was pretty intense and highlighted the other side of the Vietnam War that we didn’t see in the museum in Hanoi.
Since it as so hot, we chose a banh mi as our pick-me-up of choice. There aren’t many food options near the museum, but we found this little beauty where we ordered a thap cam (mix) with extra egg. There was also a Cong Ca Phe nearby, so we couldn’t resist ordering our one and only coconut coffee slush.
Once more, we were full of regret that we hadn’t discovered these sooner! They are exactly what Cong is famous for, and is the perfectly sweet, not-too-over-the-top afternoon treat.
A short walk away, we found the Notre-Dam Basilica of Saigon. A mini ode to the original Notre-Dam in Paris, this is the area that we discovered the more westernised parts of Vietnam; a whole shopping mall complete with H&M for me to buy new pants (at last!) We happily sipped our last roadies of the trip and cracked open our final packet of sunflower seeds - coconut flavour this time - talking about the trials and tribulations we had faced in this beautiful yet confusing country.
As the sun went down, we headed to find bun bo nam bo, which we hadn’t found since our first days in Hanoi. This is more of a Northern dish, and is one of the meals that we really did find to stick to its own region! We headed to Bun Bo Nam Bo - Ba Ba, the best rated in HCMC amongst the few eateries that offer it on their menu. I’m sad to say that the staff were simply too overbearing, watching us eat for our reaction and never taking more than 5 steps from our table. I get it - clearly it’s not something that people arriving in Saigon may have tried before. But I almost felt too under pressure to enjoy it, as silly as that sounds!?
On the way, we found a delicious che bap (sweetcorn pudding) and followed up dinner with a steamed corn. It’s clear from how much I’ve mentioned it, that I have never enjoyed corn as much as I did in Vietnam.
We decided to stay closer to the airport for our 8am flight the following day, so moved accommodation which was an easy 10-minute walk to the international terminal. Once more, we found the airport ridiculously expensive (the cheapest coffee we could find was a 1-shot Lavazza for $6 each, and they wanted extra for milk!) but had pre-planned, making soy milk oats with banana for the journey. We booked our flight to Bali with Vietjet, who we were told were notoriously bad for a number of reasons, however we didn’t experience a single flaw in the travelling process with them.
And with that… Onwards to Bali, island of the Gods.