STOP 7: Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam – Bradford On The Move

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SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL – ROLLING STONES

DAY 26 – Chill Day

I got up ready for my 11am flight and had a mooch around the hostel. Turns out there’s this whole kitchen/living room/cinema room area available to use so I got a few snaps.

The airport was about an hour drive and I had ages to wait in the airport because I got there about 3 hrs early lol. My earache was pretty terrible by this point and the pharmacy was closed, so I had some bbq pork noodles to cheer me up. The flight actually ended up being okay ear wise.

IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY COOL SEEING THE CITY FROM ABOVE AND I KNEW I WAS ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW

Ho Chi Minh which was once called Saigon was absolutely heaving. Setting foot out of my hostel on Buy Vien Street (the party street) I was pretty hassled everywhere I went. I decided to try a salt coffee and get my first Banh Hi (a Vietnamese filling in a baguette kind of bread), however the salt coffee was horrible and I had an allergic reaction to the Banh Mi – not the best start to my trip. I did manage to find a Polish girl who helped me cross the batshit crazy roads and locate a half decent pharmacy to locate some eardrops and ibuprofen.

To kill some time before heading to the rooftop of my hostel I decided to get my nails done, something I had been waiting till Vietnam to do because I heard it was such good value. I got hand and feet gels off, manicure, pedicure and red gels on hands and French tip gels on feet for £18, not bad at all. I headed for an early night to shake off my crippling earache.

PRETTY KUSHTY ROOMS AT BUY VIEN HOSTEL (£6 A NIGHT)
NO WINDOW IN THE ROOM BUT THIS MEANT I SLEPT REALLY WELL

DAY 27 – Cu Chi Tunnels

I woke up feeling rough as a dog but I went up to the balcony for my free breakfast and coffee which was delicious to be fair. Having finished Three Women I downloaded Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus but I’m just not getting into it. I was supposed to meet some guys from my hostel to go to the museum, but as they slept in I thought I would go to a cafe to write some blog. You can imagine my upset when, on top of all the other things which had gone wrong, I found that the bloody platform I use to write my blog is blocked in Vietnam so I drank my horrible coffee from the shop and dipped.

HOSTEL MOOCH

I thought I would try my hand at a second Banh Mi and found a proper cafe/restaurant to be able to share my very specific dietary needs with. I walked in the sweltering in heat and after a few near death experiences crossing the road, I was able to google translate my order. They guaranteed that there would be no fish or fish sauce in said Banh Mi (I wonder if you can already tell where this is going). I plotted up and started eating. After a few minutes I felt the familiar tingle of an allergic reaction, the lip swelling followed so I popped a few fexofenadine and succumbed to near death (again), which was a shame because the sandwich was really tasty. Luckily this must have been some light contamination because after about 15 minutes of staying calm the swelling passed. I vowed to never eat a Banh Mi as I value my life and health.

FREE BRACELET THE BANH MI LADY GAVE ME BEFORE SHE TRIED TO KILL ME

Things did perk up from here, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear. I booked a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels through my hostel (£20) and it was a really interesting day subsequently. The lovely girl in my room, Jackie, was also going so we had lots of time to chat on the bus. They took us to a place where they make art out of egg shells on the way, slight scam but included in the price so can’t complain.

SLIGHTLY STRANGE EGG SHELL PLACE

LOTTIE AND JACKIE <3

ARRIVING AT THE CU CHI TUNNELS

The Cu Chi Tunnels played a fundamental role in the Vietnamese defeat of the Americans in the Vietnam War (they call it the American War here – makes sense). They run for thousands of miles basically served as an underground network for guerrilla fighters to communicate, hide out in and lay boobie traps in. Most of our tour was overground, but we did have the opportunity to go into the tunnels. I was too scared so I waited patiently for Jackie, and was very proud when she was one of the only people to complete the whole length of the tunnels (well done Jackie, icon).

VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE TUNNEL SYSTEM. SOMETIMES PEOPLE WOULD STAY UNDERGROUND FOR A MONTH AT A TIME

THIS WAS ONE OF THE BIGGER TUNNEL SIZES – YOU CAN SEE HOW SMALL IT IS IN RELATION TO THE FEET

THE VIETNAMESE CREATED MOCK INSECT MOUNDS ABOVE GROUND TO ACT AS AIR VENTS THROUGHOUT THE TUNNEL SYSTEM

SHOES MADE FROM CAR TYRES. THE VIETNAMESE STARTED TO WEAR THEM BACKWARDS TO CONFUSE THE AMERICANS AS TO WHICH WAY THEY WERE WALKING

I met a very nice man called Cameron on the tour and we decided to go for some dinner. I had my first Pho and we walked down Buy Vien Road. It was fucked. That’s literally all I can say. I’ve now been to Khao San and Bangala Road in Thailand, combined they were not even a scratch on Buy Vien. On top of the noise and the lights the street was rammed with motorbikes coming in both directions. Pure chaos, that’s all I can say. We opted for a rooftop bar instead and enjoyed a few margies and negronis with a side of chippies.

DAY 28 – We Have Had The Holiday From Hell

I woke up this morning a shell of a woman. I mentally prepared the 6 hour journey which ended up being an 8 hour journey, it really took the biscuit…I’ll get into the specifics later.

I embarked on my journey from Ho Chi Minh to Da Lat – the people at the hostel told me to book through the local agency shops rather than 12Go Asia as they sort out your transfer to the bus stop. I went to the end of my road to wait for a bus which would take to the bus station, this journey took about 45 minutes but I fell asleep so can’t tell you too much about that. We ended up at the heaving bus stop and through looking at a board I managed to find my sleeper bus. There are no toilets on this bus which became slightly stressful at times. They ended up stopping 2 times throughout the sleeper journey for food/toilet, but I was not aware of this the first time. So I tell you, when they stop its probably because they’re going to a service station, not picking people up.

STOP 1 – GOT A BANH MI KEBAB? ACTUALLY WASN’T TOO BAD AND LOOKED FISH FREE

AT EACH STOP THERE IS A BASKET OF SLIPPERS WAITING FOR YOU SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO PUT YOUR SHOES BACK ON (YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR THEM ON THE BUS).

LITERALLY EVERYONE AT THE SERVICE STATION HAD THEM ON IT WAS SO CUTE.

PICKED UP SOME FRUIT WITH SOME SPICY SALT THING ON THE SIDE (VERY SPICY) THE FRUIT WAS GOOD BUT NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT AND I STILL HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WAS

(the man from the hostel just told me it is pomelo)

The reason I write this damning title (I know this journey doesn’t seem like the holiday from Hell) but honestly I really didn’t enjoy this journey). If I did it again I’m sure it wouldn’t be too bad as I would know what to expect, but being the only foreigner on the bus and sporadically stopping but not knowing for how long and also needing a wee and also not knowing how long we were stopping for made the journey unenjoyable.

HOWEVER, I made it to Da Lat at about 10pm. Oh yes, there were also some strange taxi drivers at the bus station who were seriously invading my personal space and wouldn’t leave me alone even when I was visibly uncomfortable, but we take this as a learning curve not to speak to strange men at the end of a long journey and assume they have your best interests at heart.

To be completely honest Ho Chi Minh, you weren’t my cup of tea. But I was very poorly and ill equipped allergy wise so as mentioned previously, any bad experience is a learning curve. As always, I am very grateful for the people that I met and I am excited to spend some time unwinding (from my busy schedule or mooching and writing blog) in Da Lat.