Saigon: my first experience in Vietnam. Many Americans associate Saigon with the Vietnam War and “the fall of Saigon.” Saigon was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) after the war, but locals are used to hearing the city still referred to as Saigon, and many still refer to it that way themselves.
As with much of the trip, I figured out things to see as I went. In researching, I thought that putting a little wind in my hair while on a river was an excellent idea, so I had my hotel book a Les Rives package tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels followed by an underground city tour by motorbike through sites that impacted the resistance during the war. To top it off, I also tacked a Vespa nighttime food tour with XO Tours. In reviewing TripAdvisor, I saw that XO Tours had consistently top reviews, especially for their foodie tour, so I had to give it a go. Three tours in one day - buckle up!
Before the marathon tour day, I had a day to myself, so I went exploring on my own. Because my hotel was far from the city center, I popped up Uber to get me where I wanted to go. From a taxi, I had noticed some bikers wearing blue coats with the Uber logo on them and was quite intrigued. So when I opened the app and saw uberMOTO as a new option, I thought, “YES, PERFECT.” Honestly, to hell with cars in Southeast Asia - the traffic is insane and taking a car takes longer. The roads are absolutely dominated by bikes - cars are the minority.
So I requested my uberMOTO to take me to the War Remnants Museum about 15 minutes away, which cost the equivalent of 60 cents - heck yeah! Each uberMOTO driver has a helmet for the passenger, and away you go. I loved this option and used it multiple times in Saigon.
Arriving at the War Remnants Museum, you can see the outdoor area is scattered with numerous American military vehicles from tanks to choppers. Once inside, there is a lot to take in, especially from the photographic exhibits. Americans refer to the war in Vietnam as the “Vietnam War,” while oppositely, the Vietnamese refer to it as the “American War.” It was a strange feeling being there as an American because this museum, at its core, showcases atrocities committed by Americans on the Vietnamese. The museum very bluntly shows only one side. You will not find any hint of negative action taken by the Northern Vietnamese toward the Americans or the Southern Vietnamese during the war. There were tragedies reflected that, unsurprisingly, I never saw in my history books. The Agent Orange exhibit is exceptionally sad, and I couldn’t help but think about how countries such as Syria still use chemical warfare. Although obviously one-sided, there is still a lot to learn at the museum, and I’m glad I went.
Outside I also explored other attractions in the city. Similar to Thailand and Cambodia, there aren’t really traffic rules and pedestrians just have to grow a pair. My hotel’s city map outlined some tips for tourists, and funnily, one included how to cross the street. It said to make yourself as big as an elephant and just walk confidently and consistently across the road, as the bikes will go around you. If you make a sudden change in direction while crossing the road, you are likely to end up on the front tire of someone's bike. You can try to wait for a traffic light down the road to change, but without traffic rules, running red lights is pretty common, so there is never a break in traffic. You would end up stuck on the side of the road all day waiting.
Marathon tour day! Bright and early start at 7 a.m. for the morning boat ride to the Cu Chi Tunnels. I was familiar with these Viet Cong tunnels but had no idea the labyrinth they truly created with three different levels of depth. Also, the size of the tunnels was astonishing. They had to widen portions of the tunnels to fit the Westerner-sized bodies that visit the tunnels. I was practically crawling on my hands and knees, and it’s pitch black unless you have a flash light. Think of it as crawling through a long bathtub that also has a cover. The one part of the tour that bothered me was the shooting range. On the same site, you can spend $1 a bullet to shoot an AK-47. Just considering the actual seriousness of what happened, it felt insensitive to have a shooting range on-site. Have it somewhere else outside the city, but including it as a part of this experience was uncomfortable. Some people must have dropped at least $100 on bullets because you could hear the sounds of Rambo going on as if they were a soundtrack to the site.
After we got back to the city, I was quickly whisked away for tour #2. I had a bit of hesitation when I saw I was getting on a Vespa Adventures bike because I knew they were the provider of a different tour that I didn’t book since it goes through the main Saigon attractions that I had just done the day before. When I met up with the rest of the group, I could tell that yep, I got booked on the wrong tour. At that point, it was one of those things you just have to roll with. We hit up a lot of places I had already been but also went to a temple in Chinatown with 10,000 Buddhas - it looked like the walls were lined with pocket-sized Buddhas.
Finally it was time for the foodie tour. All the drivers for this company are women, who are super social, funny and ready for anything. Their English was excellent, which was unlike most other motorbike tours, where only the guide speaks English. All of our food stops were well off the beaten tourist path. We stopped at three different food locations, and through much laughter and fun, were able to partake in 11 different Vietnamese dishes. I won’t bore you with all of them, but some of the highlights were: beef noodle soup, barbecued goats breast, frog and balut egg. The balut egg was the only food dish that only a couple people tried. I couldn’t bring myself to be one of those brave souls but did try the "liquid" inside of it, and that’s as far as I could go. Seeing what was inside that egg had me pause my fork for the next two weeks anytime I was about to eat my breakfast omelet. If you aren’t familiar with what the egg dish is, feel free to look it up, but consider yourself warned.
On the tour, one of the other travelers flying solo was Klaudius, a German who, through conversation, found he was hitting many of the same Vietnamese cities as I was. We swapped info as it’s always fun to meet up again with travelers along the way.
As usual, I ended the night by getting my uberMOTO taxi back to the hotel. Bike taxis helped add to the experience, but if I had a do-over, I definitely would have found a hotel in the city center. I didn’t realize how far out my hotel was - even my Uber drivers struggled not to get lost when taking me "home."
