Formally known as Saigon – the largest city in Vietnam.
Saigon was re-named Ho Chi Minh in 1975 to commemorate the end of the Vietnam War and to celebrate the reunification of the North and South. Called after ‘Uncle Ho’ the Communist leader of North Vietnam who dedicated his life to liberating the Vietnamese people. His face is on the currency and there are pictures of him all over Vietnam.
Arriving in HCM after being in Hoi An was a bit of a shock, we crawled through the city in a taxi to our hotel getting stuck in traffic and swerving in and out of motorbikes. A very different place to the laid back Hoi An that we had just left.
We stayed in a small block of apartments called BYLA Apartment which was in District 8, down a little side street that led on to an insanely busy road where motorbikes would regularly mount the curb and start driving down the pavement. We had to keep a very tight grip of the boys and pretty much carried them everywhere to make sure they were safe and not getting mowed down!
We quickly realised that there was no chance we were going to be navigating the streets with a 2 year old and a 4 year old anywhere quickly or safely so we downloaded the Grab App (just like Uber) and used that to get around.
The apartment had a washing machine and drier right outside the apartment, a large balcony, little kitchen, 2 double beds and Netflix! So I spent the first morning chilling with the kids getting some washing done whilst Phil went out to explore the War Remnants Museum. We both knew we wanted to see it but from reading up on it and speaking personally to friends who had visited recently we knew that it wasn’t somewhere we wanted to take the boys to. Me and the boys jumped in a cab and went to meet Phil later on, I had read that there was a park called Tao Dan Park close to the War Remnants Museum so we wandered up there and found a playground where the boys happily played and ran around for a while. We grabbed some lunch and then Phil took the boys back to the apartment and I went into the War Remnants Museum myself (read about our experience here).
In the evening we went to the Golden Dragon Puppet Show which the boys absolutely loved, we wrote a blog post on it here. Followed by an evening meal at Cyclo Resto which we read about in the lonely planet guide. It was a tiny little place with writing all over the wall, people signing and thanking the staff for the meal. We struggled to find it as it is tucked away down a lane off an incredibly busy road and roundabout and very nearly gave up but we eventually managed to dodge the motorbikes and found our way. It is a quirky little place, a small backpacker type cafe which is right up our street. They offer a set menu and just bring the food out to you – spring rolls, soup, rice and chicken which was decent and it was really cheap so we couldn’t really complain. The reviews on Trip Advisor are spectacular so we probably went in there expecting more and to be wowed, but it was good and exceptional value for money at something like $6 USD for the set meal.
The following day we did an organised tour to Cu Chi Tunnels, another must on our list whilst in HCM. We opted for the half day trip and just went for the morning arriving back in the hotel around 3pm. You can read about our day in our blog post about it here.
On our last evening we decided to try a restaurant called Cau Ba Quan which we had seen on the Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil with Phil Rosenthal. The owner Nikki Tran had worked in America and brought back some fusion flavours to this restaurant. It is a restaurant on the side of the street where we sat on little plastic stools, surrounded by locals and completely over ordered. Oops! We started with the beef salad and went onto cajun prawns and pork belly and some noodles. It was incredible, we were in food heaven and both agreed it was the best food of the trip. The cajun prawns were outstanding and all 4 of us devoured the pork belly. We would definitely return here if we ever go back to Saigon.
A very happy way to end our few days in Saigon. I wouldn’t say we really got to grips with the city as it was so busy it was hard to get our bearings when travelling everywhere by taxi. We usually always take to the streets by foot and explore and find our feet by getting lost and stopping in restaurants and bars along the way. Saigon was a difficult city to do this in just for the sheer amount of motorbikes and the erratic behaviour of a 2 year old and a 4 year old.
We were ready to escape the city and head to the beach – Phu Quoc island was our next stop. You can read about our experience here.
Please follow us on Instagram: @the_wandering_whites for our daily lives in Dubai and travel pictures. Also join in with the travel chat with us over on Twitter: @wanderingwhites
