Saigon 🏯

 We left Vũng Tàu on the ferry to head back to Ho Chi Minh City on a rainy, blustery day. The seas were a bit rough; I muddled through with a Gravol and a seat at the back of the boat 🤢 Jared was of course perfectly fine, and rode outside on the back deck watching all the cargo ships 🛳️ 

Even though Ho Chi Minh was renamed after the Vietnam War in 1975, it’s still commonly referred to as Saigon. With a population of 9 million, this city is busy, and hoppin’ and LOUD. It’s right on the Saigon River that flows into the South China Sea, making the Saigon Port one of the busiest container ports in the world. 

We only spent a whirlwind 48 hours here, on our feet the whole time trying to see it all. We wished we had more time in Saigon, it’s a great city with lots to do. 

The “Cafe Apartment” was so cute - a converted apartment building where every suite had been turned into a cafe. Talk about having supper options! 

While we were there, the city was hosting its annual International Music Festival called HOZO. We spent the day sampling free food and drinks, and listening to singers and bands from all over the world. One thing we’ve noticed is that Vietnam does not cheap out on their speaker systems. They love blasting their music loud, and this concert was no different. Here’s a few clips of the different types of bands and the crazy crowds:

We also joined an impromptu workout session in front of another stage. It was a Les Mills total body workout or something, but it felt more like a party! Oh and did I mention LOUD? 😂

One of my favourite things in Asia is the typos on signs, it makes me laugh so hard. Sometimes that translation from Vietnamese to English gets a little lost, I could make a whole post with the pictures I’ve taken of typos. Anyways, one of the bands was called “Smile Land” but this is what was broadcasted on the screen behind them. 

The crowd was chanting in Vietnamese, so Jared and I joined in and started chanting “Metaphor! Metaphor!”

Unfortunately no one gets our humour over here 🤷🏼‍♀️

Vũng Tàu 🏝️

 We hopped on a flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh city, then caught a ferry to Vũng Tàu. It’s a city with a population of about 400,000 on a southern peninsula, close to Ho Chi Minh.

Vũng Tàu‘s main industry is offshore oil drilling and exporting, but this city also serves as a vacation destination for local Vietnamese because of the sandy beaches and sunny weather. Also the beaches here have huge random deposits of shells that get washed ashore. I really love beachcombing, so that’s been my favourite thing to do this past week. 

It’s very humid here, Jared wore a backpack for the walk home from the beach and check out the sweat! 

One evening we were walking home and saw a couple unloading a bunch of pineapples they had picked to sell the next day. We asked if we could buy one and the lady carved it all up perfectly for us right then and there. Talk about fresh 👍🏻 

Along the beach, many locals scrape mussels and clams right off the rocks. They collect big buckets everyday to take back to their restaurants for the dinner rush that evening. 

There’s a large port right on Front Beach and we love watching the fishing boats come in. One night we caught an impromptu fish market situation that was so interesting to witness. 

We’ve mostly been relaxing and taking our days fairly slow while here in Vũng Tàu. Our 3 month trip is almost wrapping up and, boy oh boy, are we feeling it! We have been going so hard, trying to explore and see everything in every place we visit. Even on our “lazy days”, we still manage to walk minimum 7 or 8 kms. Our shoes are wearing out and maaaaybe also our 40-yr-old backs 😂

 

While out watching the sunset one evening, we took this selfie. Turns out we couldn’t compete with what was happening on the deck below us:

The Instagram Model game is STRONG here in Vietnam. We see people (mostly females) posing for pictures endlessly, not exaggerating; hundreds of the same pose. Then the females will go look at the pictures, critique how their boyfriend can do better as the photographer, and make them take some more!! They don’t even care how many people they’re blocking or how long it takes to get the perfect content. It makes for some great entertainment for Jared and I 😂

We are heading to Ho Chi Ming City for the last few days of our trip, before we make the journey back home to Canada! 

Hội An 🏮👘🎏

We had a free day so decided to travel back to Hội An again. It’s about 40 minutes from Da Nang by scooter. Along the way we were hit with some intense rain and had to take cover at a cute little local cafe. 

Do you like our rain ponchos? Jared gave me the girlier color, but by default then he got the Asian-sized one.  It was a little small on him, haha. Like one of my previous posts said, Asia isn’t prepared for 6’2” people 😂

The rain passed and we went on our way. Hội An Is surrounded by rice fields and farms. The rice fields are usually flooded with muddy water and have raised walkways between. The little farm houses are surrounded by chickens, ducks, dogs, and water buffalo. 

We went back to the Ancient Town in Hội An to shop the markets. It’s a well preserved site with buildings and bridges across the canals, previously a busy international trading port, that dates back to the 15th century. It’s right along the Thu Bon River and every September they hold their Lantern Festival where thousands of people come to boat on the river and release paper lanterns. It also has some Japanese influence, which you can see in the temples and bridges.

  We always think it’s so funny to see stuff like this in markets. Just an entire chicken plucked and boiled - head and beak and everything! 

We also saw some cool bunkers from the Vietnam War. There’s cool war history stuff like this everywhere and you just have to kind of stumble upon it. They don’t put up signs to give directions, because there a lot of similar relics from the war spread everywhere. 

Overall it’s a cute little town with some cool history. As always, we enjoyed our time away from the touristy sites more than in them. It’s so intriguing to see real life and the people that live here, especially in these fishing and farming towns on the outskirts of the cities. 🇻🇳

Good Morning Vietnam!

 We’re in our 6th week in Vietnam, but we’ve been here in Da Nang for 3 weeks - the longest we’ve stayed in 1 place the entire trip. It’s been nice to be a little more settled and really get to know an area. 

I try to post about some of the adventures we go on, but I also wanted to share some pictures that were more “real life” living in Vietnam. Every culture has its pros and cons, but an overwhelming trait the Vietnamese share is they are hardworking. We often see shop owners sleeping on a cot inside their store or Grab drivers sleep on their bikes; not because they’re lazy, but because they work crazy long hours! 

Here’s some other pictures and videos I took just trying to capture real life in Vietnam! 🇻🇳 

The other thing I love is that everyone goes out at night. People meet up at parks, restaurants, or just in front of their shops/homes. They visit with friends and family, kids run around, blast some music, exercise, eat and drink together, etc. From about 6pm onwards anyone who can be outside, just is. Of course the weather is usually very accommodating for people to be out socializing, it’s so nice and warm here everyday. Even when it rains, it’s still warm. 

A very common sight is groups of middle-aged women doing “calisthenics” in the park together at night. They basically chat while they dance/swing their limbs around to loud music. It’s hilarious and extremely common. I will try to catch a video sometime if I can. 

Hooray for Huế

Huế is a large city about 80 km from where we are here in Da Nang. Because of the terrain, the ride there on a scooter takes around 2 1/2 hours so it made for a long day on the scooter (and some sore bums afterwards 😂). Along the journey we saw it ALL: ocean views, jungle rainforest, mountain waterfalls, rice fields, fishing villages, water buffalo…. and a mix of busy traffic jams and empty mountain roads!

The city of Huế was formerly the feudal capital of Vietnam, under the Nguyen Dynasty - the last royal dynasty in Vietnam from 1802-1945. During this time, the Imperial City was built up as a military and political stronghold, until the country was divided into North and South Vietnam in 1945. The original Imperial City walls and many of the buildings inside still remain and it was fascinating to walk around. It contains the original palaces that housed the imperial family, as well as shrines, gardens, and villas for mandarins (the name for a beaurocratic scholar during that monarchist period).

There is so much history in Vietnam; I honestly find it very hard to keep everything straight in my mind. Between the French takeover, Chinese feudal dynasties, Buddhism vs Confucianism, civil war and communism, Indochina Wars, the Vietnam War, etc….it’s all just a lot to try and learn about. 

On that same note, last week we visited the Ho Chi Minh War Museum here in Da Nang. It’s a huge museum that describes Vietnam military activity throughout history. It was very informative. At the end of trying to take in all the information I dramatically said to Jared, “So essentially these poor people have just been defending themselves for hundreds of years??” Haha. Not exactly, but they have a very in-depth history which I’m sure I’ll never have a full grasp on. I’m trying though!