I had been to Ho Chi Minh City before but it was the b/fs first time so we did the typical stuff which generally revolves around the war and we also ate a lot. The food is pretty darn good and we both love to eat so it’s not surprising that a lot of the photo’s are food related!
On our first day we got taken for a bit of a ride by a Cyclo Driver, one of our stops was at a temple – which you will become very used to seeing if you travel anywhere in Asia.
After finally arriving at the destination we had in mind when we left our hotel that morning – The War Remnants Museum – we had a good look around and took a bunch of photo’s. Be warned if you go to this museum that it is very one sided and calls the war the American War which would give you an idea of which side it think was ‘good’ and which was ‘bad’.
I must admit I don’t know all that much about any of the war’s as war isn’t something that I believe in so I don’t have that much interest in learning about so most of it just made me angry that people can do that type of stuff to each other.
It is a place that should really be visited though, combined with the Chu Chi Tunnels (which by far and large are a bit of a tourist trap, it’s still good to visit and learn about how things operated during the war – this is also very one sided!). If your not that interested in the war there are still some cool war tanks and planes dotted around the place which make for some good photo’s.
Getting photo’s of you beside some of the tanks and planes make you realise how massive they really are as well!
Along with photo’s of food I also have a habit of taking a lot of photos of flowers and trees, I’m not really sure why but you have been warned that there will be a few of this photo’s amongst the travel posts 😉
Now – let’s get on to the food in Ho Chi Minh City (or all of Vietnam for that matter). Pretty much anything you order (if your going for vietnamese food) which be some kind of combination of rice OR noodles with some kind of meat – we always went for chicken or beef, and vegetables.
I’m not quite sure what herbs and spices they use but everything was SO tasty! The one thing I did notice though was that everything was a little greasy as they must cook everything in oil, I was looking forward to some plain rice when we got back home as we don’t use any oil in our cooking generally!
If your keen to try some different foods you will need to look out for the street food stalls with the weird looking balls on sticks (I was not brave enough to try them!). You can find the rice and noodles at street stalls as well and it is SO much cheaper than buying from a restaurant!
In the main tourist area of Ho Chi Minh we walked a couple of blocks until we found a street vendor selling rice and noodles dishes which were 40,000VND – only a couple of NZ$ and it was pretty tasty so we ate here a few times.
To be honest I think you only really need a couple of days in Ho Chi Minh City unless you are planning on doing a trip on the Mekong Delta then you might want to add another day or so. The main things to see are the War Remnants Museum and the Chu Chi Tunnels. You can also do day tours which take you around the city to the markets, independence palace, post office and the Cathedral but to be honest they are all relatively close to the touristy hotel area so you could just as easily walk – we did.
Then when you have worked up a sweat you can stop for an iced tea and some relaxation on the way home 😉
If you want to read more about our Vietnam Adventure please see these posts: