Last February , i stepped on the airplane to go on a holiday together with my wifey . I flew in from Amsterdam , with small layover in Abu Dhabi . And she flew in from Cebu , with a stopover in Kuala Lumpur.
She arrived at Ho Chi Minh airport an hour before me , and it took a lot longer , because i had to wait for my visa.
After this was taken care of , we were finally able to hold and hug each other again , after not seeing each other for 6 months.
A lovely moment i can tell you !
After arranging a cab , we went on to our hotel , which was located in District 1. Once we arrived at the hotel , we decided to have a small rest as we both had a long flight . I flew for over 16 hours , and she had an 8 hour flight.
After arranging hour luggage and get a little rest we decided to strawl the city , looking for the Benh Thanh market .
I night market we both read a lot about !
We were amazed by the energy this city offered to us ! There were scooters literally everywhere , and crossing the street was one big adventure ! As you can see in the next videos :)
After risking our lives a couple of time , we finally reached the Benh Thanh market. Now it was time for food !
I was craving for a few weeks already for the famous Vietnamese dish Pho Bo . After looking for a bit we found a good place and sat down to have some dinner , our first dinner together in 6 months :) A very special moment !
After this we decided to strawl back to the hotel , exploring a bit more and taking in the energy of the city while doing it. We both had long flights as mentioned before , so we went to bed early to make the best out of the next day.
After waking up , we went out to get some breakfast and coffee , and do some more exploring . We got some traditional Vietnamese coffee , and let me tell you ! It was the best coffee I've ever tasted . It was really strong and bitter at first , but with a nice sweet chocolaty after taste ! It was delicious , and i love the way how it was made.
We sat at a lovely place , a bit quite , away from busy streets , and it was amazing to see how the Vietnamese started of their mornings. We set at a place connect to our park , which was really peaceful.
One coffee further it was to do some more exploring of this amazing buzzing city , and we went out on a hunt for food. Since we are both food lovers :)
We heard a lot about the Lunch Lady , in Anthony Bourdains TV show , and also in some other travel blogs , from Mark Wiens and some other people. So we entered the data on google maps , and on we went :)
It was actually a very long walk , and the temperature was in the 30 degrees celsius. So it was quite a challenge for the both of us.
Finally after 1 hour of walking and dodging scooters , we found the famous Lunch lady !
She only serves one dish each day , so the ordering wasn't a hassle . We ordered here famous bowl of soup , together with some spring-rolls and some fried batter with shrimp in it.
The food was absolutely delicious , i can advice anyone visiting Ho Chi Minh city , to look for her when you have the chance !
After the food dropped in our stomach a bit , we walked back to the hotel , to make up our mind on what to do next. Scoring some fresh coconut along the way for some much needed energy after a very long walk.
Our decision was to book a half day tour at the Cu Chi tunnels for the next morning , at a tourist agency in front our hotel. A trip i will write an extra blog for !
On again to do some more exploring of the city ! Always walking , as we both like to do that :)
We typed in the Notre dame on google maps , and we started walking.
An half our later we reached the place and took some pictures .
I was very attracted by a big skyscraper which was hard to miss in the distance , and since i love to see night time skylines , we went on our way to the Bitexco tower. A beautiful skyscraper of 258 meter high counting 68 floors !
We bought tickets , for around 11 dollar , which is actually pretty expensive for Vietnamese standards , we got in the elevator , and went on the the 50th floor i think it was. Sadly , the skydeck had no open balcony. Which made it hard to make good pictures , since i couldn't use the flash because of the reflection in the windows.
It was time to fulfill another craving of me , the Banh Mi sandwhich . We walked another half hour to find the best Banh Mi in Saigon . I've seen the place on TV , and the waiting line told me i was up for something delicious !
It was amazing to see , how fast they were working . And the sandwich was absolutely amazing ! But after this we were still really hungry , cause of the long distances we walked , and the calories we burned.
It was time for food again ! We found a lovely rooftop bar which also served some lovely food , to give us some much needed energy after a long day
Time to get back to the hotel now , and get some well deserved rest. Since we booked a tour at the Cu Chi tunnels , the next day , we would be picked up at our hotel , early in the morning.
I will write a report about that trip later , because this report i getting a bit long now :)
I hope you all enjoyed reading about our experiences in Ho Chi Minh , and don't forget to upvote , resteem and follow if you enjoyed !
Thank you for reading and have a great day !