Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) 1st- 5th of June

Small alleyways filled with locals hunched over small plastic tables sharing food, children chasing each other through these alleyway suburbs. Swarms of motorbikes flying along the roads in organised chaos. Tourists standing on the side of the road trying to figure out the best way to cross the street, bright lights and designer stores; this is Saigon.

We had heard many stories that detailed the madness of Saigon so when we arrived it wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated. Our guesthouse owner in Can Tho had told us that the bus would stop far from the centre and that dozens of motos would try and take you there for an inflated price, but the bus company would provide free shuttles to the centre but generally don’t advertise it.
So as we watched confused tourists get off the bus and get mobbed by moto drivers we asked the bus driver where the shuttle was, and sure enough there was a mini bus waiting to the side.

We got into town and managed our first road crossing without incident, we knew from other’s experience that the only way to cross the road is to walk in a straight line at a consistent speed, so the motorbikes can predict your next step and avoid it. This works extremely well, just make sure they are looking at you, and not talking to the person behind them. We saw a few people who would hesitate or back track which caused chaos as they became unpredictable.
We found our guest house nestled in a small alleyway just off one of the main roads, hotels and noodle stands lined the alley.

Barber in the alleys of Saigon

Saigon alleyway guard dog

Just walk

We knew that with any big city the main star was the street food.
So the next day we ventured out to find the infamous “lunch lady” I had seen her on an Anthony Bourdain episode and there are many blogs that mention her, her stall has become a must do for foodies looking for what many regard as the best bowl of noodles anywhere. Every day she does a different soup, after becoming so popular her family members have opened up stalls to support her, there’s a fruit shake stall and fresh spring rolls also.
I could write on about here but lots of others already have, so to read more visit gastronomyblog.com

Lunch at "The Lunch Lady" oh my god.....these noodles oh my god....

We visited the war remnants museum which shows the horrific results of agent orange, but the museum is heavily focussed on the “Vietnamese heroes vs the American imperialist puppets”
which is a bit off-putting that such a tourist attraction in this day and age can be so filled with propaganda; it doesn’t mention much if anything about the years of war between the north and the south before the US joined in.
A more interesting visit is the reunification palace which was the home and workplace of the South Vietnamese president, and also the site of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnamese war.
There were lush meeting rooms, theatres and parlours upstairs, while downstairs there war bunkers and command centres. The place looks to be frozen in time, worth a few hours’ visit.

replica of the tanks that broke down the gates

Communications room in reunification palace

Reunification palace 

We booked a day trip to tour the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels,
Cao Dai is a religion that was created in South Vietnam, but to be honest I can’t remember a lot about it and you would be better off checking out Wikipedia for more info on it Wikipedia
The Cu Chi tunnels are a huge network of tunnels spreading for hundreds of kilometres and gave the Viet Cong a huge advantage during the war; they even had underground kitchens with sophisticated smoke dispersion systems so they wouldn’t be seen from the air, hospitals and supply rooms.
At the park they have opened a section of the tunnels up to visitors roughly 100 metres long, which has been made wider (for the fat westerners). Even with the tunnels being wider the closed in space and the heat makes for quite the claustrophobic experience.
At the end of the park there is a shooting range where you can shoot down the range with some old war weapons ranging from handguns to the huge m60 mounted machine gun. I decided that this would be one of the only chances I would ever get to shoot the iconic AK47. Wow these things are loud, they walk you to the spot and hand you some ear muffs, the problem is that to walk there you walk past other people firing guns and without ear protection these things are scarily loud. It was a good bit of fun but at over $1 US a round it’s not cheap.

Cao Dai temple

Worshippers at the noon service

Worshippers at the noon service

Rakatatatatatata!

Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City (make sure the latter is used when speaking to police or any government official) is a great place to visit with a bit of pre-visit study online. It’s not as scary as people make it out to be.