We are four days into our trip and I’m struggling to put my impressions of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) into words. We arrived at 1AM on Wednesday night after almost 20 hours of travel and I have to admit that, in my exhausted and jet lagged state, I did not love Ho Chi Minh for the first couple of days.

We spent our first two days wandering around the city, trying to get our bearings and trying not to get run over by mopeds. Dan is planning to write a whole separate post about scooter culture in Ho Chi Minh City but suffice to say there seem to be millions of them and they have the right of way everywhere: in the streets, in crosswalks, and on the sidewalk. We wandered through parks, ate amazing banana pancakes at the free breakfast at our hostel, took photos of the famous Central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral, got massages and took long naps, trying to get our bodies used to the 15 hour time difference.

On our third day we finally started to hit our stride. I felt well rested enough to do some serious site seeing so we headed out for the War Remnants Museum, the museum dedicated to telling the story of the Vietnam War (or the War of American Aggression, as they call it here). Visiting this museum was an extremely intense experience and it left me with a lot of thoughts and questions that I’m still grappling with. For now, I’ll just say that I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Vietnam. It definitely gave me a better understanding of this country and of the history of my own country.

For lunch that day we met up with some fellow travelers, who we had met at our hostel the night before, and headed to Ben Thanh market for a delicious bowl of pork and vermicelli from one of the food stalls.

After lunch Dan and I headed to the Independence Palace to check out some very retro 1960s architecture and furnishings.

The Palace has an interesting history. It was built in the early 1960s and only used as the Presidential Palace until 1975 when the South Vietnamese government fell to the North. The interior of the building is beautifully preserved with ornate furnishings and decor- check out this round couch in the ‘game room’.

There is even a bunker in the basement, complete with war room and American communications equipment used during the war. The Palace is kind of your typical tourist attraction but was totally worth a visit for a history/architecture nerd like me.

For our final full day in Ho Chi Minh City we got up extra early. Dan had discovered that the tiny market outside our hostel is actually huge and bustling in the early morning hours so we went down to check it out. There were stalls selling everything from fresh produce, live fish and frogs, a snake, jewelry, clothing and more.

We grabbed seats at one of the food stalls and some Vietnamese Canadians helped us order plates of banh cuon nong (rice flour pancakes stuffed with pork) and iced Vietnamese coffees that were so amazingly good (basically like drinking melted coffee ice cream).

After a second breakfast back at the hostel we headed to Cholon, Ho Chi Minh’s Chinatown, to visit the Binh Tay market. I had read about this wholesale market in our guidebook but I was completely unprepared for how huge and packed with people it was. The main market building is currently being repaired so the market has been moved into long buildings that cover several blocks. Beyond that the market spills into the surrounding neighborhood with practically every storefront selling huge quantities of some specific item (straws, plastic cups, etc.)

Meanwhile there are trucks, mopeds and people everywhere hauling massive loads of goods. It was unlike anything I have every experienced and was completely overwhelming. I’m glad we went but I can’t say it’s somewhere I would go back to.

Once we were burnt out on the market we realized that we had been able to call an uber from the wifi at our hostel to get us there but, without internet on our phones, we had no idea how to get home. Luckily Dan had downloaded Google Maps so we could at least find a bus stop and decided to just get on a bus going in our general direction. The first bus was a bust, with the driver adamently yelling ‘no’ when we tried to explain where we were going, but they let us off at the stop for another bus which ended up dropping us right outside our door- who needs 4G??

At the end of our four days I feel like I am just starting to appreciate this city and could definitely see spending more time here. It is huge and overwhelming but it is also full of hidden gems: amazing street food stands, great restaurants and lovely parks. It just takes a little getting used to. We were also very lucky to stay at an awesome hostel while we were here and got to meet fellow travelers from all over the world.

Next we are heading down south to the Mekong Delta region to visit the Floating Markets and get a glimpse of rural Vietnamese life!