Ho Chi Minh City & Phu Quoc
- mollyben98
- Mar 12, 2018
- 3 min read
The journey to Ho Chi Minh was pretty mad. We were on a 26 seater bus that must have had nearly 40 people packed on for most of the journey - constant stops picking up and dropping off locals. We made it to the city around 8.30pm and got a cab to our hostel with a guy we met on the bus. We stayed at In the Woods hostel for three nights for just over £20.
(It got much busier than this!)
Starving hungry, we dropped our bags off and headed to a burger place called Chucks we found on maps.me just down the road - basically a Five Guys - which hit the spot but wasn’t anything to rave about. The next morning we were up early as we’d booked full medical assessments and X-rays for our New Zealand working holiday visa applications. The assessments were quick and easy (chest X-ray, a few medical questions, height, weight, blood and urine samples) and we were out of there within an hour and a half. Although the hospital was near the War Museum we were starving so headed back towards the hostel to a great little sandwich spot called Journey Sandwiches.
We got changed, as it was absolutely boiling, and headed back out towards the War Museum (40,000VND each). This place was incredible - not one for the faint hearted though as some of the pictures were incredibly graphic! We didn’t know too much about the history of Vietnam but after two hours in the museum we had more of an idea.
(Napalm Girl)
For the rest of the day we wandered around Saigon before heading to Noir, a dining in the dark experience, to celebrate our five year anniversary. I’ll do a separate blog on that because it was hands down the best dining experience Molly and I have ever had! Harvey, Daisy, Joe and Amy also went after us raving about it and we’ve recommended it to every person we’ve spoken to who’s going to HCMC.
The next morning we had brunch at Luke’s cafe then went to the Cu Chi Tunnels (215VND pp), 250km of connected, three level tunnels. Really interesting and incredible what they were able to build with no real tools or technology. On the way to the tunnels we stopped at a local craft centre which was set up to help those affected by Agent Orange, where they created the most stunning mosaics and pottery to sell to help fund the project. If we’d had the space in our bags Mol and I would have bought all sorts!
Yet another amazing dinner at a middle eastern restaurant called Zeytun then got drunk on backpacker street with the other guys and watched the six nations. Up early for a rather sharp haircut at Liems barbershop (less than £2), then back to Luke’s for breakfast before our flight to Phu Quoc that afternoon.
(The clothing and tattoos of the barbers were a marvel in themselves - let alone the cuts)
Phu Quoc is beautiful! There’s no need to go in to every little detail as every day was a beach day - the weather was amazing, beaches were golden, water was clear, food and restaurants were fantastic. The one thing I would say is if you go, stay at 9 Station hostel, it was the nicest and cleanest hostel we’ve stayed in all trip.
(One of the many thousands on Starfish Beach)
One of the days we hired a private boat to explore the abandoned beaches with the gang which was awesome! We drove to the marina at the south of the island and booked the boat for the next day, paying 3,800,000 inc. transfers once we’d got back to the island after the day on the boat. We bought our own food and drink (a lot of drink) and had the most amazing day!
After a heavy night (more for some than others - me) we got on the bikes again the next day and went to Sao beach again before getting our flights back to HCMC in the evening.
Comments