🇻🇳 Ho-Chi-Minh-City

Because of the very long distance from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh, we decided to fly. When we arrived at the airport in the morning, after looking at the display board, we noticed that our flight was delayed. A whopping 5 hours later we took off.. 😅 It unexpectedly turned into a loooong day at the airport again. It was already dark when we landed in Ho Chi Minh City. At the airport we first went looking for our Grab taxi. Ten to fifteen minutes later, we were in the “Maison Royale” accommodation, where we had a room with a private bathroom, table and chairs and even a hob, cutlery and a cupboard. But the beds were incredibly hard unfortunately🙈

We have been fans of the “Family Mart” supermarket since Taiwan and we found one just like it right around the corner from our apartment 🥳 Here you can find delicious food, drinks and all kinds of other knick-knacks like sweets or toothpaste, hygiene products, and much more.

We were able to reach sights such as the “Reunification Palace” after a 20-minute walk and the “War Museum” after just 15 minutes. Big recommendation for both! Because history is part of it when you're here and the museum in particular is totally worth it, even with an audio guide. You can easily plan 2 hours here. More than once I had goosebumps and moist eyes when listening to the dark story surrounding the war in Vietnam and looking at the pictures and photographs. I wasn't aware of how many people lost their lives back then. Young reporters on the ground simply disappeared during the war and never reappeared. What we are left with are her detailed and vivid photographs that leave you stunned. The space around the topic of “Agent Orange” (the nerve agent that was used) with its serious effects on people and the environment was also difficult to bear.

We walked around the city a lot, passed the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon (which had scaffolding in front of it at the time), strolled through “Book Street” and discovered that large squares were colorfully and festively decorated for the annual New Year celebrations was. This year, the Tét Festival/New Year took place on February 10th and the holidays ran from February 8th to 14th, 2024. The Year of the 🐉 Dragon was just around the corner. We booked the onward journey to Can Tho by bus for February 6th. The Mekong Delta was our next destination 😊

By the way, we found the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City to be even worse than in Hanoi 😅 There was no peace and quiet anywhere. The streets were regularly clogged thanks to cars and even more scooters. Even as a passenger in a taxi you get a bit of a bang. 😂