Travel Report Vietnam 23 - 28 September 2017

The flight to Ho Chi Minh

At 12.30 on a Saturday, Putri (Indonesian ex gf) and I left for the airport sukarno hatta, Jakarta – Ho chi Minh.
The flight to Ho Chi Minh was at 16.40. For sure, because the traffic in Jakarta is never predictable, we left early.
Fortunately, there was not too much traffic, leaving only 45 minutes left.
We flew with air Asia and the checked-in and passport check went well without problems.
For Putri, it's the first time she travels to another country, so it's extra exciting for her.
She is a photographer and has taken many pictures and videos all the time.
The flight was reasonable on time and not too much turbulence. It took about 3 hours before we landed well at Ho Chi Min airport. There is no time difference with Jakarta and arrived at 19.50 PM.
I had already filled out my visa forms online, so it took about 10min for $ 25. In Vietnam everyone needs a tourist visa.

Hotel

We booked online a hotel (Blue River hotel) for $ 30 / day. There is no online payment option at this hotel. This hotel is located in the backpackers are of Ho Chi Minh. We had requested a pickup service and the friendly sir with a name tag with my name written on it, looked nice on us. After giving us one hand and loading the luggage, we drove to the hotel. It took about 30 min when we arrived. Once arrived we noticed that everyone threw out their shoes.
A more homely atmosphere so, what I felt pretty positive about that place.
The mister I contacted was there, Mr Hai. A very friendly service orientated man.
He took the time to explain to us what to do in the city and gave us a magazine and directions on how to get to certain places. There was absolutely no form of payment or deposit. Everything could be paid at check-out, including all tours, etc.
This never happened to me in other countries. In Jakarta for example, you are bothered daily to make the next payment at any hotel I stayed or at least a deposit.
We booked a city tour for the next day for $ 20 per person, which takes from 8:00 to 16:00, including lunch.
After unpacking, we immediately went to explore the area. We walked through the streets and wanted to buy a sim card because our Indonesian card does not work in Ho Chi Minh.
They asked $ 3 per SIM card, of which $ 1.5 is call credit. We did not know if the sellers cheated us, so we asked 1 of the hotel's employees, a very helpful boy, to check this out and he bought it for us. That was absolutely no problem. It was the same price. We realized that there are quite a lot of motorcycles here, just as much as Jakarta or even more, but not so many cars. The streets are cleaner and the people travel quieter. Dozens of shops, bars, travel agencies, restaurants etc.

##Food and beer

We walked through a street and saw a nice, not too busy restaurant, with all sorts of different types of food.
Here we spent the evening and did not make it too long because we were already tired.
The beer is quite cheap 1 USD for 33cl beer in any bar. Quite cheap and lots of people drink there. Vietnam you can say is a alcoholic city:)

First City tour

The following morning we left at 8.00 with a minibus for the city tour ho chi min. They picked us up from the hotel right on time.
The first stop was the war museum. Here were the tanks and helicopters that that were used in the Vietnam war. Furthermore, the history of the war was explained, the effects/consequences and damages caused and the protests of different countries and the reconstruction of the country after the war. Some of the pictures can be pretty emotional.
America never had to interfere with this war and by killing south-vietnam a lot of children and women were killed. A shame to see this actually.

After that we went to the old town hall. Here's not a lot to say about it. Many tourists come there and it is an impressive building, not more than that in my opinion.

Buddhism

Then we left for a Buddhist temple. 50% of Vietnamese follow the Buddhist faith. Much incense was burned and what I found funny was that many people kept their wallet over the smoke to get rich soon! I did try(seen on the picture), but I did not get rich yet….
After that we went for lunch. Here I have eaten the best noodle soup in my life.
It is also known that Bill Clinton had also eaten there once and there is a picture of him while he was eating there.
Hereafter is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral and another visit to a second temple. The city is actually quite small. After another stop in Chinatown(same as almost all over the world) and a market there, we went back to the hotel again.

After that, a friend I met in Jakarta names Andrew met with me who lives there. An Australian I already knew from Jakarta.
He lived in Ho Chi Minh for over 3.5 years, so he knew the good and bad places to tell us about.

Outside Ho Chi Minh Mekong Delta River

Mekong is a river in the south of Vietnam. Very impressive environment. We went by boat to different islands around there. We started to an island where they mainly sold coconut candies and other coconut products. Including a 40% coconut alcoholic liquor.

But after 1 sip that boy immediately took the bottle off my nose. So he did not receive a tip from me in that way, haha. I have bought some of those sweets. Mekong is especially famous for rice production and export. After Thailand, Vietnam is ranked No. 2 in the world. In the Mekong Delta, 10,000 new organisms have been discovered in the last 10 years, including a rat thought to be extinct.

Laonastes aenigmamus, a kind of forest rats, which scientists believe was extinct 11 million years ago, turns out to be the daily food for the Ruc minority people in Vietnam.

After that we went to a bee farm. Those tour guides said to me, "Did you try honey?" I said "I have a honey next to me", which said, "You should try Vietnamese honey, very cheap". Uhum.., that's another story. In addition, honey is not really so special. I used to attend beefarms earlier, but the types of honey are different of course.

After lunch, we went cycling through the plateau. The tires were almost flat and there was a stroke in all the tires. After lunch we had a canoe ride through the jungle. Well done! Total damage but 17 Dollar including lunch.
Then back to the hotel. Just later, we went out with Andrew and had the necessary beers.

Got flowers on stage of Hardrock Cafe

We went to the Hardrock cafe. I sang "Bed of Roses" there and I got flowers and free beer! That's never happened to me in Jakarta! Putri has filmed everything happily.

The next day it was time to pick up my visa for Indonesia again. It had to be at 11.00.
Fortunately, there were no problems, otherwise I had to extend my ticket that would leave the same evening at 19.40. Everything was all right. Putri went back to the market to buy some souvenirs for her family.
I still have a lot of videos, but here I want to make a compilation, and I'll send you that soon.