Ho Chi Minh City

Sneaking in a little luxury before leaving Hoi An, Ang and I went for hot rock foot massages before we had to meet the bus in the morning. 

Our flight departed from neighbouring Da Nang, taking 1.5 hours to reach Ho Chi Minh City. There are 13 districts and approximately 8 million people in the city. It was originally named Saigon, but after the fall of the south Vietnamese government in the war, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. According to our guide, locals and south Vietnamese still refer to the city as Saigon, but no one in an official or government position will acknowledge it if you don't call it Ho Chi Minh. 

We had a quick orientation walk and stopped for lunch at a place called Pho 2000 where former U.S. president Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea ate during a diplomatic visit. 

After lunch we were set free and a few of us decided to explore Ben Thanh market. It was packed wall to wall with little shops selling almost the exact same things. I was interviewed by some school kids outside of the market working on a class project. I learned the market was built in the late 19th century and now consists of five areas - clothes, cosmetics, food, souvenirs, and flowers. 

BUY ALL THE THINGS!

I went a little bananas and bought two beautiful (non-endangered, not CITES listed) moths in frames. Wildly impractical for backpacking but they had Atlas and Gindian Moon moths!! I had to put Ang in charge of my wallet so I didn't buy more ridiculously inconvenient presents for myself. 

After the market we stopped for happy hour drinks at a Vietnamese BBQ restaurant. I had squid and pork skewers that I cooked on a grill in the centre of the table. We had many beers and befriended a young Australian couple before heading back to the hotel. 

Here's a short video of the traffic here. Our guide has a saying to help us cross the road : if you can go, you go. If you cannot go you stop. 

Basically you slowly walk through this and everyone goes around you. But don't run and don't break eye contact with oncoming bikes.