The south of Ho Chi Minh

It's been almost two weeks since we took a trip to the southernmost part of Ho Chi Minh, but we thought the post shouldn't be missed.

We started at 7am. The backpack was full of water, snacks, sunscreen and of course endless money ^^ We rode on a moped to the appointed meeting point, where we were picked up by a small bus. Our five companions, who also wanted to take a trip out of the noisy city, were already sitting on the bus. Now we took one of the last ferries that still exists in HCMC and reached our destination after about two hours by bus.

We were greeted by hundreds of monkeys in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Can Gio. Since they are used to tourists, they were just waiting for food to be presented to them. Immediately after getting off the bus, I watched a monkey jump on a woman's shoulders and steal her sunglasses from her head. Then he ran and played in the mangroves with the glasses. Our guide was right, you should hide anything that could be stolen, hold on to it or not take it with you at all. We walked a short distance and then took a boat a little deeper into the forest.

We stopped here to visit a Vietnam War memorial. At that time, many Viet Cong “guerrilla” warriors lived in the middle of the dense mangrove forest and fought against US soldiers. They hid in the forest, obtained drinking water from the evaporation of salt water, built hospital beds from tied logs amid mud and roots, and repeatedly attacked US boats heading inland. At some point the Americans began to bomb the forest almost down to the last trees or to contaminate it with “Agent Orange”. For one simple reason. Because what do you do when you can't see the enemy? That's right, burn everything down, because as the world's largest power you can afford that... What a masterpiece of human failure. It was only in the 90s that reforestation could begin. It's crazy when you see how big these trees and the roots above the water have grown within 30 years.

At some point we drove back to see the monkeys and a few crocodiles again. Laura had a lot of fun as the monkeys crawled on her head, shoulders and legs. She fed them peanuts and I think she wanted to take one to our pet-friendly hotel.

However, when we arrived at the crocodile, my mood became a little darker. It was advertised online as a crocodile reserve with great photos and a lot of fun. But well, the truth is that people have somehow failed here too and we are both part of that. For reasons of tourism, the sale of crocodile skin and meat, and simply overfishing, the crocodiles here have been displaced from their natural habitat, killed, or captured. Now you can look at them in an enclosure with a small pool of water and hold on tight, even feed them dead fish. For 20,000 VND ~ 75 cents you can get a fishing rod with a fish that attracts crocodiles and lets them grab food. At first it was fascinating to see these beautiful animals, but after a few seconds my naive thoughts of seeing free crocodiles turned into feelings of shame, pity and anger.

Later we went with our group to eat hot pot, to the beach in Can Gio, to a fisherman's market, to drink coffee and finally back to Ho Chi Minh at some point. It was nice to go on this trip with Laura, to get into nature and have a memory of it. But after figuring it all out, I wouldn't recommend anyone to book the tour.

Since the best thing was the boat tours and the memorial, I would advise you to go to the mangrove forest or the Mekong Delta on your own. Once you're here, take a leisurely canoe or paddle boat tour, enjoy the little kingfishers that appear every now and then and find a guide who can drive you around privately. The best way is through homestays, which you can book here for a few euros per night.