Ho Chi Minh City and Mui Ne, Vietnam

     My favourite part about traveling south-east Asia so far is that each place I have been to has been so incredibly different from the others. Bintan island was a great place to get to know my fellow exchange groups on beautiful beaches with locals, Tioman was secluded and adventurous, Hong Kong was a city surrounded by islands, and Vietnam, well, you're about to find out just how amazing it was.

 Abby, Sophie, Herrta and I set off to Vietnam Thursday afternoon. It was a short 2 hour flight but nonetheless we had a great time. I fell asleep during take off and I think that's a tell tale sign I'm getting used to this whole traveling thing, a month ago I would've never fallen asleep for take off. I didn't wake up until I got nudged from Abby sitting beside me. At first I ignored it wanting to sleep as much as I could but when she nudged me again I decided to see what she wanted. I turned to my left and I see Abby holding a beer with a big huge smile. It turns out, the 8 Singaporean gentleman behind us had woken her up from her nap to give her a beer, and I guess it was my turn. After reluctantly accepting a beer, we all cheersed and engaged in conversation. Although creepy at times, it was really funny to talk to the men and they even gave us tips on where to go.

     We landed in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, at around 6  and had to fill out our paperwork for our visa's. I got a 3 month multiple entry visa for $100. I opted out of the 1 month single entry visa for $60 because I had a feeling I was going to be back. When we got outside the airport our first mission was to find ourselves a cab. They use Vietnamese dong as their currency, which set us up for a confusing weekend. 17,700 Vietnamese dong is the equivalent to $1USD, and although I made strides in making a conversion chart, my math skills were limited on little sleep the entire weekend. We managed to find a cab (a reliable one) as Vietnam is infamous for it's shady cab prices and drivers, and got dropped off in District 1, a backpacker's dream. We got out of the cab and were greeted by tons of backpackers walking the main street, a ton of restauraunts, travel agencies and shops too.

                                     

      We met a lady on the street asking if we needed a place to stay and she offered us a deal we couldn't refuse. For $7USD each a night we ended up staying at her hostel for all 3 nights. The room was large, came with 3 double beds, hot water, and a working toilet. We settled into our room, unpacked just a little and then changed clothes to head out for the night, but not without a dance party first.

                                               

Herrta, Sophie, Abby

     Like most trips, the stop after finding a hostel is for food. We read about a place called Allez Boo's in Lonely Planet so we decided to check it out. We got a few drinks along with famous Vietnamese spring rolls, but we found the restaurant relatively overrated. The prices were relatively high for what I thought Vietnam would be.

     After a couple of beers (and okay, maybe a Margarita) the girls and I decided to pamper ourselves with 4 dollar mani/pedi's. The ladies at the store were great, although the language barrier was large, and we met a really sweet mother and daughter from Seattle. We became instant friends and I even tried to make the mom let the 11 year old daughter come out with us for the night. In hindsight, I think it was a great idea she didn't.

     After our diva moments we headed to the Crazy Buffalo, a main bar in the centre of the main street. Happy hour specials were on so it was 2 for 1 Saigons. Saigon is the local beer and we found it relatively cheap, 2 for 40,000 dong aka 2 for $2.50.

Me on the strip!

Our best friend security guards

     I found it really weird at first that there were so many security guards at the restaurants and bars but I soon realized that they had an important purpose: to keep the street sellers away. While I was sitting in the bar people would come up to me and sell sunglasses, books, bracelets, food, you name it. I don't know if I look like an easy target but everyone seemed to flock to me to buy things. I ended up buying a bracelet, fake Raybans, and even a book Catch 22. It seemed like such great deals at first but I did have to go back to the hostel at one point to put everything away. We roamed the streets after Crazy Buffalo and ended up finding cheaper beer. One of the side streets had convenience stores with tables and chairs outside and had the large Saigon beers for 10,000 dong. THAT IS 60 CENTS CANADIAN. We met some great Australians, a Spanish person or two, and ended up enjoying the rest of our night. It was a late night and an early morning, but definitely worth it!!

I love Vietnam!

     At 7 am the next day we woke up to go down to a travel agency to book bus tickets to Mui Ne, Vietnam. Fun Fact: Vietnam has a ton of travel agencies on every street and street corner. I would say there was about 8 on the 300m street alone. These agencies have all the bus information for tours around the city, country, or information about traveling to other countries. We booked a sleeping-bus ticket to Mui Ne for 10 dollars and departed HCM at 8:30am.

You know you're budget traveling when ....

     We arrived in Mui Ne at around 2pm Friday. Mui Ne is about 4 hours of HCM. Mui Ne is known for its beaches and sand dunes. We knew we had one mission for Mui Ne though: to slide down the sand dunes. We got some lunch on the beach (more spring rolls), and bought a $6 trip to the red and white sand dunes. The girls and I had a driver and his Jeep for the half an hour trip there.

Enjoying lunch. Note: The kitesurfing in the back ... the place to do it in vietnam

The Jeep!

    Our driver was so kind and even stopped at a beautiful point on the way. It overlooked the water with hundreds of fishing boats - breathtaking. We stopped for a couple pictures and quickly resumed our trip to the sand dunes.

     We arrived at the red sand dunes first and we had about half an hour to enjoy them. Immediately after exiting our Jeep local boys surrounded us trying to sell carpet rides. I told them I would take one but only if they showed me the best place to slide. After crossing the street the red sand dunes were so amazing. It looked just like the pictures I had researched, I couldn't believe my eyes.

The little boy I bought from for $1.

Aladdin, is that you?

     I rode down the dunes three times and each time was better than the last. It takes some serious effort to set up a track on the dunes, it wasn't as natural as I thought. The little boys used wet sand from underneath the top layers to make a path to go down. Although it wasn't as smooth as I had hoped, anyone over ten pounds would get stuck quite easily, it was something I'll never forget. The hardest part? Walking back up the dunes. At one point, I got my little friend to help me up haha.

Filled with sand we headed back to the Jeep for our next stop the white sand dunes. I was pretty tired at this point and wasn't expecting much from the white sand dunes but let me tell you I was wrong. I loved the white dunes even more than the red ones. The white sand dunes were so secluded and endless, compared to the red ones being by a road and contained. We rented ATV's for the white sand dunes as they were much larger than the red ones, so we knew if we wanted to make it to the top of them we were going to need a little help. For I think ten dollars each we ATV'd on sand dunes in Vietnam, a thrilling experience.

Abby and I excited for the mission!

White sand dunes, Mui Ne, Vietnam

Sophie and Herrta trying to run me over .... thanks girls

     The white sand dunes were magnificent, I can't even begin to say how I felt watching the sunset over it. We headed back to the Jeep after 30 minutes of ATV'ing and headed back to the main strip of Mui Ne for some much needed dinner. We found a hidden gem on the strip, a restaurant that had everything we wanted for half the price of the others because it wasn't of the beach side of the road. What you need to know about Vietnam? They have the freshest bread! Vietnam has major French influence so baguettes are everywhere. For dinner I had a shrimp cocktail baguette, brushchetta and calamari, all for about 5 dollars.

After finishing dinner we went to the beach to wait for our bus back to HCM. The 1am bus was our only option because buses are limited. We went to the travel agency steps at 12am to start waiting for the bus. After 3.5 hours of waiting on the Mui Ne streets, our bus finally arrived at 3:30am. Being delirious at this point we got onto the bus to luckily find empty beds. I was so tired and slept for the entire bus ride back to HCM (Ho Chi Minh).

Delirious? yes. Thank goodness I brought my bed sheet with me, made the ride warm and comfy.

     Getting back to HCM at 7:15 am meant we only had about 10 minutes to get ready for the day ahead of us. We needed to buy our tickets for the Cu Chi tunnels, the bus departed at 8am. Managing to get together in time and switching to fresh clothes we grabbed some $1 baguettes from a street vendor and hopped on the bus. The Cu Chi tunnels are battleground for the Vietnamese in the Vietnam war from the 1950s to 1970s. The Cu Chi tunnels tour costed 10 dollars for transportation and ground entry.

A trap the Vietnamese used for the American dogs

Vietnamese tunnel hole. So small!

War tank 

Before actually entering an actual Cu chi tunnel we got to do the most badass thing ever, shoot an AK47. The AK47 was the main Vietnamese weapon, so for about $10 I got to shoot of 5 bullets. I was nervous at first, but the shooting was easy. My aim was awful but I felt like a different person.

Repping my MIT faculty shirt while shooting guns. Perpetuating the stereotype that we're badass.

MY FACE... oh goodness.

After the shooting we went through an actual Cu Chi tunnel. It was actually quite scary. The tunnels are only about a metre in height and less than a metre wide, not to mention dark. I was filthy after crawling underground for about 50 metres but in awe that soldiers lived in there for hours or days at a time. We headed back to our hostel after the Cu Chi tunnels for another night on the town in HCM!

We got dinner and found the main market of Ho Chi Minh District 1. I got some gifts for my brothers and mom, managed to find a hammock for my dad from a street seller too! The night market was great and it was once again fun to barter with the sellers. I have to say I actually am quite good at the bartering. That or I just buy a lot so they give me a slight deal haha.

After the market we all showered and prepared ourselves for a night of 60 cent beers. We met so many cool people on the Saturday night: an Ottawa couple that were 28 but already married for 8 years, 2 Saigon basketball players from NYC, Chileans, and we even managed to find some of our friends from NTU. Saturday night consisted of great memories, but I was sad to leave the next morning.

Guilty of buying more raybans. $1 each how could I say no.

HCM and Mui Ne were absolute amazing places to travel to in southern Vietnam. The weekend consisted of great friends and unforgettable memories. In fact, I loved Vietnam so much that I plan to go back to Northern Vietnam in about a week and a half for the latter part of recess week. If my dad comes to visit me overseas I think I will take him back to see the Cu Chi tunnels, and I'd also like to go back to HCM to see the war remnants museum I never ended up seeing. 1.5 months down, 3.5 more to go!!!!!

#ultimatetourist