Ho Chi Minh City- Vietnam

After leaving Siem Reap, we continued on to Ho Chi Minh City.  Once we got through all the airport lines after our arrival, we headed outside to look for our driver.  Before I continue I have to tell a short story.  At the end of my second grade, one of my best friends G left to go to Vietnam for a couple of years.  We went to see G and his parents when we were in Ho Chi Minh City.  Okay enough time spent on the story.  Our driver drove us straight to G's house.  When we arrived, our hosts were awaiting us.  

It was great to see G again!

That night we had spaghetti for dinner.  It was really good!  G gave me a tour of the house when we arrived.  During the time we spent at G's house I was able to play basketball because G had a hoop.  One of the markets we went to had a bunch of hat stalls.  I really wanted a new hat because mine was getting old.  I found a hat that fit and that I liked so I got it.  I also got to negotiate the price of the hat and I got the price down to 100,000 Dong.  You do the conversion if you want :).  At that market we also got some Pho soup!  It was good too.  At the market many people were calling out to us and asking if we wanted to buy their stuff.

My new hat

Ben Thanh Market- huge, relatively clean and lots of aggressive vendors

We got hungry so ordered Pho soup from one of the stalls.  Within a few seconds of saying we would buy something, 2 ladies grabbed a bunch of plastic of stools and set up a makeshift table for us.  The  Pho was really yummy and it was interesting to be eating in the middle of the market.

Check out how low to the ground we were

The other time we went time we went into town, we went to... OOPS almost forgot.  Time for another story.  There is a non-fiction show series on Netflix called ''Streetfood''.  On the episode about HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) there is a guy who cooks something called Banh Mi.  Banh Mi means bread but in Vietnam they use the words to mean "sandwich".  You also have a choice of toppings to put inside.  Yeah, so we actually ended up looking for that guy's place and found it!!  The only problem with that is that it was closed both times we went to go and see.  We tried another Banh Mi place and didn't love it.  

Closed...out of luck!

Our first Banh Mi in Vietnam- not our favourite

After the Banh Mi we were still hungry so we went on a search for some Pho soup.  In the end we found this cool little food court and sat down.  We looked at the menus of the different restaurants and what appealed to us was a place with tacos.  We waited a while for our tacos to come and when they finally did, we devoured them!  They were so good!  We also ordered a plate of nachos and they were really good too.  After that we headed back to the house. 

There is this really tall building in HCMC called ''Landmark 81''.  It is not quite as tall as the CN tower in Toronto.  It looks like it is many buildings on top of each other.

Landmark 81- a picture taken from the car

Landmark 81 all lit up at night

The next day we hung out around G's pool and went to the skate park.  It was really fun to go up...and down...up... and down...The skate park also had a basketball court and a play structure.

Lots of fun in the pool

During the time we were in HCMC, there was a holiday going on.  The holiday is called ''Tet''.  Tet is the Vietnamese New Year.  It is the most important holiday for the Vietnamese culture.  Tet is short form of a word that I do not know how to pronounce.  That word means: Feast of the first morning of the first day.  The Vietnamese people believe that their actions on the first day of the new year will set their behavior for the rest.  For example, if I do something ''good'' they believe that I will do more good things and/or that good things will happen to me.

Decorative trees during Tet

When we were in the city, we don't know whether it was because of Tet but it was really clean.  There were lots of trees down near the river.  It was really nice.

HCMC- District 1

Notre Dame Cathedral- District 1 in HCMC

The post office- District 1 in  HCMC

We went to Independence Palace in the time we were in HCMC too.  Independence
Palace is were the South Vietnam government siding with the Americans were during the Vietnam war.  At one point the North Vietnam soldiers crashed 2 tanks through the palace gates.  That's when South Vietnam surrendered.

Inside the palace were all of the rooms that were used.  For example the President's bedroom.  There was also an underground bunker that was quite big.  Underground there were so many rooms and hallways.  There were lots of maps on the walls.  On the grounds outside, where the tanks were, there was also an old fighter jet.  The tanks and fighter jet were exact replicas of the ones used during the war.

 

The grounds at Independence Palace

Replica from the war

A fighter jet replica from the war

Independence Palace

Walking across the street in HCMC was like ''what time is it mister wolf''.  It's like that because when you cross the street, crazy drivers don't even care about red lights.  So you cross half of the street...stop...look...continue...It is like that on a lot of streets.  Our family motto was "keep you head on a swivel and don't make any sudden movements".

Probably the most frustratingly annoying thing in HCMC is all the honking from cars and motor bikes.  It gets annoying because you can not go 10-15 seconds without hearing a honk.  NO EXAGGERATING!

Here come the scooters!

We did some pretty awesome things in HCMC!

Delicious farewell bbq

Don't forget about the cake for dessert

Thank you very much to our hosts J, K and G!  It was so great to see you!!