Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

After our tearful departure with John and Aunt Toy, we took off to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (formerly Saigon). We arrived at night and took a taxi to our hostel, amid a sea of motorbikes. Vietnam must account for half of the motorbike industry in the entire world – it’s insane.

At the time of our arrival, we figured we could spend a few days in Vietnam and squeeze in a trip to Cambodia. I really wanted to see Angkor Wat. But on the other hand we wanted to slow down the pace and actually enjoy ourselves and the place that we were staying. Southeast Asia is an area so highly concentrated with diverse and fascinating places to visit, making it hard to make the call of where to go next and how long to stay in any given place. We ended up staying in Vietnam for about 9 days, and decided Cambodia would have to be saved for another trip.

Saigon is a crazy place. The motorbike traffic is no joke (seriously, it was worth mentioning again). It’s really cheep there, which is great for travelers and maybe less great if you think about the economic implications (i.e. devastation caused by colonization and war). Speaking of which, I went to the War Remnants Museum, which was super intense. Feeling like I should read more about the Vietnam War to understand it, but I certainly feel a more familiar with how horrific and tragic it was.

On a lighter note, we went to a bar on the 52nd floor of Bitexco Financial Tower at sundown with our Swiss compatriot Sascha, our Canadian friend Ryan, and our British friends Stef, Ellis, and Sasha.

Additionally, we rented motorbikes for $4 a day and rode those around the city a bit (also drove them to Mekong delta, more on that to come). Franklin and I found a tennis court and managed to get some hitting in – tennis racket hauling vindicated once again!