Ho Chi Minh - The city of coffee and commotion

The past few days I've spent hanging out in Ho Chi Minh city. Many people have asked me how I like it here, and I've come up with (I think) the perfect answer. Ho Chi Minh, and I say this with the best intentions, is the perfect manifestation of an anxiety attack.

While I like it here very much, this city is incredibly loud, noisy, fast and overwhelming. At first, I thought it was just me, but this opinion has been confirmed by a few other travelers I've met. Every time I walk somewhere, there are at least six (but most of the time eight) lanes of traffic zooming by. Green traffic lights mean NOTHING here. There are scooters, honking cars, yelling people and music everywhere you go. I'm not somebody that gets particularly bothered by noise but this is a lot, even for me. I can barely hear myself think and the possibility of being hit by a car, scooter or bike everywhere I turn is also not helping. Also, Vietnamese New Year is coming up (I really had no idea until now) and that makes for a lot of parties, music, and people yelling into microphones EVERYWHERE. I've not really had a lot of quiet time at my hostel, unfortunately, as the windows are super thin. As we speak, Despacito is blasting through the speakers and a guy seems to feel the need to yell "YEAH!!!" Into a microphone every 5 seconds.

I wouldn't say I'm quite the world traveler (yet) but I have been to other busy cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Marrakesh. But this, in my opinion, is a whole different level of madness.

Nonetheless, I've had quite a good time here over the past few days.

When I arrived at the airport on Saturday, I texted the hostess of my hostel to see if it was okay for me to go to the hostel, as everything had gone more smoothly than I'd expected. My map-apps (and I use three of them) all said that it would take about 10-15 minutes to get to the hostel. The hostess responded "Your room will be ready in about an hour, so you can come here now". I was so confused, but once I was in the taxi I realized the 10 minute trip was probably going to take an hour. There was so much traffic that 1.5 hours later, I finally arrived at my hostel. Or, close to it. The taxi just dropped me off somewhere randomly and I had no idea where to go so I ended up asking a random girl on the street. Eventually, I found the hostel and all was good.

I must say that the room I have is the best I've had so far. It's super spacious and my bathroom has a bathtub so I have nothing to complain about. The owners of this hostel are a lady and her husband and they provided me with everything I could think of. In the past cities, if I wanted to book a tour, I had to do it myself. If I wanted to get a SIM card, I had to go to a phone store. If I wanted to get my laundry done, I went to a laundry place. This lady, however, arranged everything for me. From tours to breakfast, from laundry to SIM cards, she gave me everything I needed which really helped making me feel at home.

The first full day I was here, I went on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, which were used at the time of the Vietnam war. It was interesting to see this whole tunnel network under the jungle where people actually used to live (these tunnels were 1.20 meters high at most). We got to walk through one of these tunnels for 150 meters and it was actually quite hard. However, it was an interesting experience. I also got to meet some people, so that was really nice. In the afternoon I did some exploring and I tried to get used to the cars and scooters everywhere. I ended up at this adorable little coffee shop where they made me a pour-over Vietnamese coffee. I saw two barista's doing a coffee tasting so I asked them what they were tasting (it was Ethiopian coffee) and they offered me some, as well. We ended up talking about coffee for a bit and I felt really happy. :) I just want to say that in terms of coffee, this is one of the best cities I've ever been to. There are coffee shops everywhere and all the coffees I've had are amazing (more about that later).

In the evening, after I'd turned off the lights, I heard something in my room. It sounded like a mouse was walking on my plastic bags, or perhaps an unusually big spider. Kind of freaked out, I turned on the lights and expected the room but I saw nothing. When I turned off the lights again, I heard the sound again and it freaked me out but as I hadn't seen anything, I just covered my ears and imagined I was crazy. It didn't, however, make for a nice nights' sleep.

The second full day I was here, I took a tour on the Mekong river which was nice but a bit much. We were literally taken from one island to the other and had so many activities in a few hours that it feels like a blur. We got to try honey tea at a bee keepers' place, eat dried fruit somewhere else, we saw a coconut candy workshop, had lunch, had a horse carriage trip, and many more things. It was a bit much but it was fun to see the area. On this tour, I also met some people that had taken the tour to the Cu Chi tunnels the day prior just like me.

In the evening, I was chilling on my bed, when I heard the plastic bag noise I had heard the night before, again. When I looked at my plastic bags, I saw something move really quickly. My heart stopped in fear of it being a mouse or rat. It wasn't, though. Instead, it was a lovely, huge, flying cockroach. I'd never seen one of these (flying ones) before but it was probably as big as my thumb so I was less than amused. Normally, I would have asked the hostess to help me get rid off it but she is eight months pregnant, which kind of made me feel bad about asking her to chase this thing. I was unsure what to do as it was super fast (and flying) but at some point, it fell on its back which, I figured, was my chance to get rid of it. I really would have preferred to just take it outside but having no way to (it was bigger than a glass), I killed it, instead. It was super disgusting but I was mostly just happy that there had, in fact, been something in my room all this time and that I wasn't going insane. Still, welcome to Asia, I guess.

The last full day I was here, which is today, I just had a chill day. If anything, I think I would call today "Tripadvisor day". I tried to do the best of everything, according to Tripadvisor (best breakfast, best coffee, best dinner...) and I must say I had a wonderful day for it!

First off, hadn't gotten the chance to sleep in the past few days so that's just what I did today. When I woke up, I wanted to get the best breakfast in Ho Chi Minh and Tripadvisor sent me to this adorable coffeeshop that is famous for their "egg coffee". A few decades ago, apparently there was a milk shortage in Vietnam so people used eggs as a creamer instead of coffee. Nowadays, this coffee is a specialty in Vietnam. I had been super hesitant to try it but holy hell it is delicious! It is basically raw merengue with coffee taste and I wish I could have it all the time. This coffee shop is a real gem but it is actually off the main road, hidden in a very tiny alley. I definitely never would have found this or gone in there if it hadn't been for Tripadvisor, so I am very grateful to have seen it.

After this, I walked around the city for a bit and went to get yet another coffee I'd been excited to try, the so called "Coconut coffee". Tripadvisor sent me to this coffee shop I'd probably also never have gone to, called "Cong Ca Phe". The coffee was amazing; basically, it is coconut ice cream with espresso and as the worlds' biggest coconut lover, I was so happy to try it and it was DELICIOUS!

After these two delicious coffees, I went to get myself a manicure at one of the best spa's here (again, according to Tripadvisor). This place is also hidden in a very tiny alley and I definitely never would have found it if I hadn't been for Tripadvisor. It was relatively fancy but still affordable. :)

Getting all these manicures and massages here really make me wish I could have the same luxury at home. Unfortunately, at home manicures are not really 3 or 4 dollars, which makes me sad. Therefore, I feel the need to enjoy them as much as I can now!

In the evening, I had some pho (beef noodle soup) at this famous (for the Vietnamese, I didn't see any foreigners there) pho restaurant that Tripadvisor had sent me to and it was delicious.

I feel so grateful to be able to travel in a time where we have Internet and such useful apps (such as online maps and Tripadvisor), which are things that I feel enhance my experiences so much. Whenever somebody asks me if it isn't hard to travel alone, I feel like I am almost cheating. When you have Internet, it really is not so hard. It makes me wonder how people used to do it in the past, though. Especially when people don't really speak English that well, it's very hard to get recommendations from the locals, I feel like.

All and all, I have had a relatively good time here, but I am glad to go to my next destination, which is Phu Quoc! I expect my stay there to be relatively uneventful as all I plan to do is lie by the pool or on the beach, but who knows, exciting things tend to happen when you travel!

With all my love,

Demi.