Ho Chi Minh City - the final chapter

Saigon railway station

After nearly three months on the road we'd reached the final leg of our trip as we set off for the airport to fly down to Ho Chi Minh city!

There was a huge queue at the check in desk but we passed the time away chatting to a nice Australian couple who'd spent a few days in HCM and were heading to Hanoi - they gave us a few tips and recommended a trip on the Mekong River. The flight was on time and it was all pretty relaxed until we made our way out of HCM city airport to get our cab - we were directed to the taxi area within the car park and it was absolute chaos! It looked as if lots of Vietnamese were returning after Tet and I felt quite sorry for them facing the prospect of returning to work after all the festivities. After a few minutes wait our taxi arrived and once we were out of the airport the roads seemed fairly quiet. In fact our first impression was that it seemed much quieter than Hanoi and it was much the same when Max went to pick the bike up from the train station later that afternoon. We checked into our hotel for the next few days - Au Lac Legend - and we were suitably impressed. Another great choice even if we were slightly underwhelmed when we saw the size of the rooftop pool - with amazing views but barely enough space to swing a cat let alone swim in!

The hotel did warn us that quite a few places around the city were still closed due to Tet and that proved to be the case when we headed out again that afternoon to find a bike shop - always keen to tick chores off the list right away Max wanted to get hold of some bike boxes so he could get the bike ready for the flight home. No luck though meaning we'd have to try again the following day instead. We did find a nice gelato shop instead though while wandering the streets so all was not lost.

We found a bike shop that was open the next day and they were really helpful - even supplied a roll of strong tape which we'd been struggling to find in the shops here. Once the bike had been successfully boxed up and weighed Max relaxed a little and announced that we did have some spare capacity in our luggage to be able to go shopping. HCM city is renowned for the bargain markets where haggling is all part of the experience so we headed down there to see what we could find. From our research we'd gleaned that prices are usually overinflated to begin with and haggling is very much expected - we don't tend to be very good at it but threw ourselves in all the same. Max was quite good and at least had some sort of strategy but I was my usual indecisive self. This did actually play to my advantage on a few occasions though because my greatest success seemed to come at the point I went to walk away - either because I wasn't sure or because Max had wandered off and, as he was holding the cash I had to track him down! On one stall though, I started to sympathise with the owner and ended up paying a higher price than I'd negotiated. I was also quite successful at the Rolex watch stall - I couldn't make my mind up and the guy was desperate to make a sale which meant I got some really good quality fakes for a bargain 👍👍

After about an hour we emerged from the market exhausted - it was great fun and it felt like a successful shopping trip but we were relieved to escape all the same!

We signed up for a trip down the Mekong River and this meant a 7.30am start - something we hadn't done in a while so we both set our alarm clocks just incase. Our guide for the day, Anh, was another larger than life character - both in stature and personality. He had lots of anecdotes and stories to share, bringing to life the culture and way of life on each of the individual islands that we visited. We crossed the Mekong in a largish boat before transferring into a much smaller, four seater hand rowed boat where we travelled along a jungle style waterway for about half an hour to a local restaurant for lunch. We had lunch with two other couples - one from Budapest and the other from Brisbane - the Hungarian couple were really lovely, the Australian couple were slightly harder work but did relax a little after a while of forced conversation. We were introduced to some of the cottage industries on the islands - coconut candy making and beekeeping/manuka honey honey making - and whilst they were obviously plugging their products it didn't feel like a hard sell at any point. Although we'd already noticed prices were a little higher than elsewhere in Vietnam everything was still relatively good value.

We treated ourselves to a trip to the Saigon Opera House, which is a beautiful old French Architectural Building in the heart of HCM city. It looked absolutely stunning when lit up at night 🤩. We saw a famous show here called the Bamboo Circus. This involved highly skilled acrobats telling a captivating story - through a series of sketches - of the transition from a peaceful life in the countryside to the fast paced city life of modern Southern Vietnam. The acrobats were brilliant, not just because of their physical skills but also the way they depicted the range of emotions without the need for words. It was another highlight and certainly something I'd highly recommend.

Our short stay in HCM passed quickly and it was soon time to leave. We just found time for one last spa treatment though on our last day and managed to find a lovely French cafe for brunch beforehand. Max had arranged a taxi to take us, and the bike, to the airport and was anxious to ensure we were ready and waiting. I on the other hand suddenly felt the need for one last manicure 💅 which I just about squeezed in thanks to Max for stalling the taxi driver for 10 minutes to await my return! I think it was the best manicure of the trip so well worth the few minutes of stress it caused both of us at the end of the trip 🤣🤣