A month in Vietnam: Part 2 - Ho Chi Minh City

Hostel rooftop in Ho Chi Minh City

I've heard from a lot of other travelers that they really enjoyed Ho Chi Minh City (which is a handful to type, so I'll be using HCMC from here on) but to be honest, it was one of my least favorite places that we visited in Vietnam.

The main problem for me was the insane traffic. HCMC is not a place that people walk; or at least not the parts of it that I visited. Everywhere we went, people traveled by motorbike, Uber, taxi, bus, etc, but almost no one walked anywhere further than a block or two, and for good reason. We tried walking from our hostel to one of the major museums in the city, which in most places would take around 30 minutes, but not there. Every time you have to cross a street, you feel like you're playing sudden death match Frogger. Not to mention the horribly congested, terrifying, massive roundabouts throughout the city that you cannot even attempt to cross on foot.

I love walking places, especially when I'm traveling, because it's how I soak up the little details of the place and get to know it, so not being able to walk easily or comfortably around HCMC was a major bummer for me.

No idea what this is called, but it was great!

That said, I'm still glad I visited it. We had some great food in a local shop the first night there that I never caught the name of, but it essentially consisted of little bundles of rice noodles served on a huge platter with meats, fresh herbs, papaya, tofu, a mysterious purple sauce that tasted wonderful and a little citrusy, and limes. 

Vietnamese dumplings

Drip coffee

On our long horrible walk to the museum through traffic the next day, we escaped from the incessant roar of the motorbikes briefly with some Vietnamese style dumplings for lunch. They were filled with ground pork with herbs, crunchy fried shallots on top, shredded lettuce and mung beans, and a sweet and spicy sauce. We also took a little coffee break on the way and got our first Vietnamese drip coffees with condensed milk. The way it works is they fill a small mug with some condensed or regular milk, then place another metal cup full of coffee grounds and hot water on top, and you wait while it slowly drips down. The condensed milk version is very rich but so good.

One of the big draws of HCMC is its nightlife, which we were all feeling too tired after a few days out in Hanoi to partake in, and maybe this is why I didn't enjoy HCMC as much as other people. There are a lot of great rooftop bars that I've heard about, but luckily our hostel also had a rooftop area where we sipped beers and chatted with fellow travelers while enjoying the view of the city.

The War Remnants Museum

One of the many powerful photos on exhibit in the museum; this shows a mother whose child was born with disabilities as a result of Agent Orange

The museum we visited was the War Remnants Museum and I would definitely recommend it. It focused mainly on showing military artifacts from the Vietnam War and had some really powerful, stunning photography exhibitions showing both the war and the fallout from the damage it left behind, especially the lingering effects of chemicals like Agent Orange which still cause children to be born with severe disabilities even today. The museum is another good reminder of what the people of Vietnam have been through as a result of war and colonialism. 

Despite the horrors that occurred within living memory in Vietnam, and for so long before that, the people there were consistently kind, positive and friendly. At one point, when we were staying in the coastal city of Danang, an older man in a military uniform walked up to me in the street and asked where I was from in English. I told him I was American, and he shook my hand and told me that he was happy there was friendship between our countries now. I felt pretty terrible about the legacy my country left behind in Vietnam the entire time I was there, and while this man's sentiment doesn't erase any of that, it still really touched me. I was so impressed by the ability of this man and many other kind people to be so friendly and positive. The people I met showed a grace that I've rarely seen anywhere else.