Exploring ASEAN . 3 . Backpack Thru Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — Adventures
Crossing an invincible border between countries is probably a very first for me, as on one hand, it felt quite odd as the landscapes doesn’t seem to change very much, nor was there a border that was truly demarcated as far as the eye can see.
Realising this is a backlog on my list that I really got to clear in 2019, after embarking on the trip just 6-years ago, this is my hasty-sort of effort to get it all sorted and done at one ago, and get this task checked off my To-Do-List.
Crossing Borders.
Nonetheless, the checkpoint was a pretty peaceful and efficient transaction as we generally sorted everything out within about 30-minutes before we re-embarked onto our bus, to be dropped off at our pre-designated drop-off point at the city center of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
People… People… People.
It was a pretty WET Day… A really, really wet day as it was literally pouring through once we gotten across the Vietnam border.
One fact that really struck me, was the staggering number of people and motorcycles that transversed the streets of Ho Chi Minh. It was a sort of “peaceful-madness” that took some time to get use to as we finally journeyed up to our new budget hotel room, that was so dry and clean, which made us really happy!
Thankfully, the weather slightly cleared up as we ventured out to buy our next leg of train tickets, as we were informed that it was much more cheaper to get it locally. But, we had to get it fast and early, as it is known to be sold out pretty quickly.
A Little Change Of Plans.
We needed two sets of train tickets. But only got One. Seems like the last option was to fly on our next leg of the journey and train upwards thereafter.
Just thankful we managed to sort it out in such a short amount of time! ;)
Weekday Nights Were Unexpectedly Quiet.
Though the roads weren’t bare, there was a significant exception in the difference in crowds that we do see in the day.
There was just a handful of local hawkers selling the daily food fare on the streets and we gradually bought little bites here and there, as we moved ourselves along as we headed back to our hotel.
Somehow… Lunch Was Shared Bread & Noodles.
Guess we all woke up late and decided that we can easily find some food along the way, but we only ended up with these simple food fare of a sandwich and maggie noodles.
There apparently wasn’t much restaurants nearby nor street stores open that sold meals along our way, so we grabbed what we needed and moved along.
Thankfully enough… They still fit nicely into our USD 1.00 budget per dish (In 2013).
War Is An Unnecessary Thing.
Walking through the museum that housed the remainder war remnants, especially the personal stories of the gas-bombs that were dispersed and caused deformed kids to be born. It was just impossibly-inhumane and painful to envision how life was like back then.
There were just too many people and generations who were subsequently affected, where food were scarce, medical treatment was non-existence and merely surviving on to the next day, was considered a torture than a bliss.
As threats of wars ever-so-loomed between the fine lines between global powers, I do sincerely hope that we will NEVER-EVER witness war in our future lifetimes to come. It is just TOTALLY UNNECESSARY to have it ever happen!
Probably The Best Drink Around.
The day had suddenly been Super-Hot. And we were just glad to have found this roadside stall, who actually had a queue!
We queued and bought our drinks and I must say, we were not disappointed and literally finished every last drop, as it was just yummy, tasty and totally quenched our thirst and reminder hunger from lunch! Hahaa!
Thank you Uncle for being so BIG-Hearted! Thanks for sharing Your Wonderful Smile & Service! ;)
Hidden Underground USA-War-Gems.
Decked deep beneath this beautifully-maintained building, with inner halls that were well-kept with dignitary-furnishings, was a US Bunker that was meant as a safe-zone for Vietnam-based US-citizens, if war were to come to the front door of this US-Embassy.
There were all sorts of military-grade technologies, including communications, war-games room, military bunkers and even an actual decommissioned helicopter held right on the top-floor helipad backyard of the building.
It was just ready-built for the onset of a war!
I was just impressed that everything was so well-maintained despite decades have passed, and I’m thankful I do get to witness first-handed that such a place actually still existed and helped made the past-stories of wars more real and something for future generations to avoid at all costs!
Our Silly Search For Food.
Food… Is probably one of our weakest allures in this journey. Though we had primarily wanted food that was cheap and worthy, we were still willing to spurge a little on foods that were highly-rated and a Definite-Must-Try!
We were told by our dear friend Jason that this particular restaurant was a “Must-Die-Die-Try”. The challenge had pulled us away from our easier-route and roughly a 15–30 minutes journey, to arrive at this home-based restaurant, only to realised that it was sadly, closed.
Not knowing any of the language on the notices nearby, we hungrily sought elsewhere nearby for our dinner and sought to return the next day, if our schedule permits, to re-attempt at this endeavour!
More Of Street Exploring & People Watching.
We ate. We drank. We chilled.
The dynamism of the street life is pretty intense on a weekend night. On one side, there are food hawkers making their dishes and selling on one corner of the road, and crowds of locals and tourists alike munching, chatting and people-watching away, as the streets just bustle with business and life at every corner you turn to look.
It was like living at one-point of the world, and just seeing the whole world moving continuous ahead, right in front of you.
The Usual Factory Tour Opened Up My Eyes.
Often, I personally hate to be “auto-enrolled” onto default “Factory-Tours”, which usually brought me along a tour which I did not want to participate in, and more importantly, a waste of my precious travel time.
However, this particular factory tour, though subtly-inserted into our schedule due to the Chi-Chi Tunnels we had intended to visit, was indeed an eye-opener to how the artworks were manually created, and sadly many were left unsold and collected dust on the salesroom floor.
Each of the works were a remarkable art of beauty, despite the repetitive artworks that were duplicated as a sort of “easy-choice-sale” for the tourists. Along the huge salesroom were intricately-decorated floor tiles, to poster-sized and window-panel-sized decorations, and upsized all the way to these huge-ass vases that were about nearly 2-meters tall.
I was just totally dumbfounded by the art talents involved and sad that I could not contribute myself, given I was on a traveling-student-budget, and I had no space to store on my traveling backpack, as well as sufficient budget to ship the item after purchase.
For these striving artists, I do sincerely hope that their art will find a place in the homes of art-loving tourists, through their loving-wallets.
Impressed By The Tactics Used By The Vietnamese During The War.
The Chi-Chi Tunnels were just impeccably-tiny!The view up-top on the surface, seems just like any other typical tropical forest grounds by the equator.
However, venturing deeper beneath, through a “tourist-friendlier-version” of the tunnel, we were informed that this particular tunnel has been, (a) Enlarged about 20–30%, (b) With An In-Built Lighting-System Installed, (c) Multiple Air-vents Installed to Help Make the Tunnel More Breathable, and (d) With Air-conditioning Installed.
Gosh! I cannot, in my wildest dreams, imagine without all these new improvements for the tunnel, how could one have stayed on through in the tunnel during war times!
Moreover, this “sample-tunnel”, was probably a mere few meters long, while the actual one extends in multiple directions, typically across 10–30x in length!
Most importantly, there is zero light visibility at night, shaking of the grounds above during the bombings by the US Air Force, limiting air flow, and coupled with living conditions of mud-infested-floods during monsoon seasons of Asia, and the companionship of rodents and bugs of all variation, it must have been just Hell-On-Living-Earth!
Just a deeper, new-found respect for the Vietnamese people who had to live through such conditions during the war!
Just Not Fated.
It was our last day here… And the shop is still closed! What luck we really had! It was just not meant to be with us! Hahaaa!
We just told ourselves that we probably just have to revisit this place next time if we really want to know how this food actually taste like, to have done so well that it was closed on the two-specially-trailed-day of re-visiting this store.
Our eventual-new dinner plans had to be quick as we have an evening flight to catch to head up to Hoi-An!
The Flight That Was Just Meant To Be.
We were actually quite tired, even though this has just been about a one-third way through our journey. I guess we truly counted our blessings as “Things Do Happen For A Reason”, and we were really thankful we exchanged our train ride for a flight instead.
The time and pains we had saved ourselves! Till our next adventure awaits!
Read up my other Backpack Thru ASEAN Stories in the following timeline → 1: Siem Reap, Cambodia | 2: Phnom Penh, Cambodia | 3: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | 4: Hoi An, Vietnam | 5: Hanoi, Vietnam | 6: Halong Bay, Vietnam | 7: Sapa, Vietnam
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