It is now eleven days since we landed at Ho-Chi-Minh airport and entered Vietnam with a hotel booked for three days, three weeks of time available and no plan. We have done so much, seen so much and met so many friendly people since then that it seems like a life time ago.
We took a Grab (like Uber for Australians and like a cheap, friendly, quick, safe taxi for Germans) from the airport to the hotel and since there we have walked everywhere except for journeys over 100 kilometers. We are in training for climbing a 3000 meter mountain in summer. Walking has the advantage that you meet loads of people and find hundreds of places you would miss in a car. You need to learn to cross the road when you are on foot. The principle is easy. Choose a spot and start walking across the two, four or six lanes and KEEP GOING at a constant speed. The scooters, cars, Grabs and trucks will swerve right or left to pass just in front or behind you. Buses will not swerve so time the crossing without buses. It is easy but the first few days I was holding Heidi tight and muttering to myself “don’t stop. don’t stop, don’t …” Now I just hold Heidi tight.
We spent the first four days in Ho-Chi-Minh-City (Saigon) and walked for hours and hours. We ticked off the tourist sights and took photographs of everything and anything and then deleted ninety percent. A selection of the best pictures are in an album at Google Photos. We walked around and saw the huge financial center tower so we headed over there and took the elevator to the 49th floor to enjoy the view. From up there we saw a park with a statue so walked that way and found Ho-Chi-Minh himself beaming down on us in the middle of the city. On the way home we heard a sound check for a concert so that night we went and watched the biggest, loudest, brightest coca-cola advertisement I have ever seen complete with all the local star singers.
After a few days, it was time to move on so we decided that “tomorrow’s project” was finding out how to book transport and get around. That evening we picked up some food from a market stall and sat next to two Estonian ladies. They have been travelling Asia for a few months so we quickly installed the 12GO app that allows you to book any transport to anywhere and Getlin gave us her WhatsApp number to answer any questions about using it. That left “tomorrow” free.
Next to our hotel was a tiny cafe which was just an alleyway between two houses but the owner was extremely friendly and the coffee was good. All day there were girls and young ladies there posing for pictures in their traditional dresses – Áo dài. Apparently it is a famous location as it looks so traditional so girls come from all over the city, do their make-up, don their dress and take pictures. What they can do, we can do; so we trekked across the city to a shop that a lady recommended, bought Heidi an Ao Dai, drank a fruit juice while it was altered to fit, walked back via a Zen Buddhist temple, dressed Heidi up and then went photo-shooting at the cafe. The owner, who just smiled and laughed at the young girls, insisted on a photo with the “European Supermodel”.