To put it simply, Vietnam was one of the best and worst trips of my life. It was beautiful and raw and endearing. I could definitely see myself falling in love with that place. But it was also sad and heart-wrenching and really, really, really painful. This trip and this place were both different from anything I have ever experienced in my life.
Everything-EVERYTHING-that I saw, experienced, heard, and did on this Vietnam trip was unexpected. I have never been so unprepared and surprised by a place in my life. I came to Vietnam expecting to see the Cu Chi tunnels and I did that. And that was the only thing that was planned for that happened.
What wasn't planned for? Here we go:
to explore such a fascinating city. It was upsetting that I lost a few days in Vietnam, but three days would not have been enough anyways. I will 100% be back one day to further explore the beautiful country, and hopefully the beautiful city of Ho Chi Minh, but I will NEVER eat the food again!
Everything-EVERYTHING-that I saw, experienced, heard, and did on this Vietnam trip was unexpected. I have never been so unprepared and surprised by a place in my life. I came to Vietnam expecting to see the Cu Chi tunnels and I did that. And that was the only thing that was planned for that happened.
What wasn't planned for? Here we go:
- Accommodations: One of my travel buddies, Judy, has a great-aunt who lives in Ho Chi Minh. They had never met before and her aunt offered to get us take us from the airport to our hostel. We didn't expect to meet such a beautiful and openhearted family of four. Judy and her aunt immediately hit it off. She took us to dinner before the hostel. One thing led to another and we ended up moving in with Auntie Chau for the weekend! Her home was beautiful (I'm talking a seven bathroom and a surround-sound/soundproof karaoke room with lights kind of beautiful) and she was more than kind to us.
- The sites: Most of the areas that I have traveled to in Asia (with the exception of Hong Kong) are not exactly cities. Some are more urban than others, but most are just little shops and hostels beside the huts that people live in. Even if they are in tourist-y areas, they are more like busy towns. Ho Chi Minh is a beautiful CITY. It has big buildings with multiple stories and real shops. Auntie Chau took us to a gorgeous rooftop bar, Chill, one night. It overlooked the city all lit up at night and it was just breathtaking.
- The people: It sounds bad but I had no idea what to expect when visiting a Communist country. However, after talking to many of the locals and tour guides, I realized that the most of the Vietnamese are not Communists. The government is but the people aren't. Also, the Vietnamese know how to party (probably a little too hard...)!
- The history lesson: I knew a little about the Vietnam War (which is called the "American War" in Vietnam) before travelling to Vietnam. However, I learned the whole story in Vietnam and got to explore a city that was actually involved in the war. I crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels (the tunnels built by the Viet Cong-Northern Communists-in order to practice guerrilla warfare) and got to actually feel how troops felt crawling through these skinny tunnels in the heat (it was not fun). It was also interesting to hear the story of the war from so many perspectives. The tour guides and even the War Remnants Museum did a good job on trying to stay neutral when it came to the politics of the war. It helps that we were in South Vietnam but one tour guide even said "Thank God you're not American" to us which was shocking for me to hear. I know that many places don't like Americans but I have never had anyone make such a genuine statement of hatred towards Americans to my face. (To clarify, we usually say we are from Canada when we travel because it's generally safer).
- Seeing the impact of the war: I have never seen how war has actually affected a place. I have seen documentaries about PTSD and seen people who have lost loved ones in the war. But in Vietnam, Agent Orange (the herbicide used to locate the tunnel system), directly affected people's DNA. There are people all over Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam with serious birth defects such as missing or deformed limbs, skin deformations and mental disabilities. Generations and generations will be born with birth defects because of Agent Orange. It was really sad to see these people all over the city and know how it happened.
- Food poisoning: Here's where I talk about that pain I mentioned before. I woke up in the middle of Night 2 sicker than I have ever been in my life. Essentially, this is where my trip ended. I spent all of Day 2 locked up in Auntie Chau's house and I spend Day 3 attempting to crawl around the city on our city tour (but in reality, I was just sitting in chairs outside the museums fighting my nausea). Luckily, my friends were amazing and put up with me and my weak body. And I also feel so lucky that I did get food poisoning in a house, with a mom (despite the language barrier). It sure beats laying on the floor of a hostel bathroom.
to explore such a fascinating city. It was upsetting that I lost a few days in Vietnam, but three days would not have been enough anyways. I will 100% be back one day to further explore the beautiful country, and hopefully the beautiful city of Ho Chi Minh, but I will NEVER eat the food again!
I obviously did not get as many pictures as I would have liked to in Ho Chi Minh, but I did get my favorite city picture. Many of the moments I experienced in Ho Chi Minh were very hard to capture on camera. It is a place with such an intense history that I felt like a lot of the emotion not be captured through camera (and I didn't want to capture it). However, I did get this beautiful picture of the city of Ho Chi Minh lit up at night. This was taken at Chill Sky Bar, one of the best views I have had from a bar!