My first two stops in Vietnam were Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat. While very different cities from each other, I really enjoyed my time in both; from the chaos and busy streets of Ho Chi Minh City to the calmer, mountainous town of Da Lat.
After parting ways with my mom in Bangkok, I had another day in Bangkok to rest before leaving for Vietnam. The time to rest was really nice and went by super fast. Flying to Ho Chi Minh City ended up taking way longer than planned. The flight was only supposed to be an hour and fifteen minutes, with a landing time of 3:30 pm. Unfortunately, it was not that quick and easy, I didn’t end up landing in Ho Chi Minh City until 7:50 pm. After circling the airport for a long time we were told that we were being diverted to another airport further south due to the airport being too busy. Once there we were stuck sitting on the plane on the runway for over an hour before we left again. It ended up being a longer travel day than planned and I was confused as to what was happening most of the time. After finally arriving in Ho Chi Minh City and getting through customs I was finally able to get the bus and head to my hostel. Since it was so late by the time I checked in, I got dinner and called it a night.
On my first day in Ho Chi Minh City, I went out to find a sim card before wandering around the city to get used to the traffic chaos and to explore aimlessly. I also ended up spending a lot of time in a park since it was shaded and the weather in the shade was amazing. It was nice to just enjoy my surroundings there and people watch. Since Ho Chi Minh City is a huge city full of motorbikes you always have to be watching every which way, even while walking down the sidewalk. Crossing the street was very stressful, but I pretty quickly got a slight handle on crossing the street. I found that you need to just hope for the best and not think and simply go when crossing the street since cars and motorbikes won’t stop, even if you’re on the road. The next morning, I headed to the War Remnants Museum and spent half of the day there going through all of the displays. The War Remnants Museum is all about the American War, what we know as the Vietnam War. It has old US airplanes, like a CH-47 Chinook, tanks, weapons, and more on display in the outside courtyard area. On the inside of the museum there were three floors that had everything from stories of life in Vietnam during the war, showing how the world reacted to the war, photos and stories of war crimes committed, and on the top floor there was information about the different chemical warfares used, specifically Agent Orange. It was very informative and interesting hearing about the war from Vietnam’s perspective. It was also very hard to not only hear about the war crimes committed by US soldiers but also to see photos depicting the atrocities. On top of being confronted by photos of the war crimes committed, it was also very hard learning more about and seeing photos of the effect that Agent Orange had on citizens and which even now, generations later, it continues to have. After going through the entire War Remnants Museum I went out for a late lunch before heading to a market that sold everything from food to clothing. Once I finished at the market I continued exploring Ho Chi Minh City. Since it was crazy hot and humid I took my time walking around and exploring the city; according to the weather app it was 95 degrees Fahrenheit and felt like 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
On my final day in Ho Chi Minh City, I started the day by booking my bus ticket to Da Lat for the next day and then I headed out to explore. I first started at a popular shopping street and then started walking to the Opera House area. There were a lot of old, beautiful buildings surrounding the Opera House and it felt as if I was transported back to Europe. After walking around that area, I headed up the street a little way to see the outside of Ho Chi Minh City’s Notre Dame Cathedral and post office, which has a beautiful exterior and is a popular tourist attraction. Near these buildings is a street called Book Street that is filled with small bookstores. It was a nice, calm street filled with books and it was pleasant to walk up and down. After taking my time to walk around the Opera and Notre Dame Cathedral areas, I made my way back towards my hostel by passing by the Independence Palace and through two different beautiful parks. While I didn’t go into any big sites, I really enjoyed wandering around the city and seeing the different attractions of the city and having the time to enjoy the beautiful green park spaces. I enjoyed the old European style buildings and it was cool to see the contrast between the different areas of the city.
After spending three days in Ho Chi Minh City it was time for me to leave and head to my next destination, Da Lat, which was an eight hour bus ride away and took me up into the mountains. The change of pace between the cities and temperature was really nice. I went from the crazy hot heat of Ho Chi Minh City to perfect cooler mountain air weather in Da Lat. On my first day in Da Lat I spent the morning walking around the city to explore. In the center of town was a lake which I really enjoyed walking around for a while before I left for Crazy House, a popular attraction in Da Lat. My walk to Crazy House took me past a park in the city called Flower Park, aptly named because it was just rows and rows of bright, beautiful red flowers. Before long I made it to Crazy House. Before arriving I didn’t have high hopes for the place since it was one of the main attractions of Da Lat and I thought it would be super touristy and full of people. Crazy House ended up being a lot of fun. It gets its name because it’s a number of buildings that are crazily built - from looking like trees, to rocks, to underwater themed rooms and more. It also has funky stairs winding all throughout the buildings, going inside, around and over the top of the buildings. It was a maze walking around the place and at the top of the buildings there was an amazing view of the town and the surrounding mountains. It’s hard to truly describe the place, but it ended up being super fun walking up and down and through the buildings and while there were other tourists around, it never ended up feeling overcrowded. I ended up spending longer than expected walking around the place and I did my best to see all of the different areas.
After finishing at Crazy House I took my time walking back through town and through a local market on my way back to my hostel before calling it a day. The next day was another nice, relaxed day spent wandering around town, enjoying the weather in local parks, walking around the lake, and planning my next travels. On my third and final day in Da Lat, I got a Grab bike, which is like Uber, and headed to a local waterfall outside of town. To get to the waterfall from the parking lot area there was an alpine coaster ride that you had to take down the mountain a little way to finally arrive at the waterfall. While not normal for a waterfall, it was a fun ride through the trees and down the mountain. Once down to the waterfall area I was able to explore the different levels, from the main large waterfall to smaller ones that continued down the mountain. All around the bottom waterfall area were funky, colorful, fun sculptures from large leaves, to a golden frog playing an instrument, to a dinosaur and dinosaur eggs. It was all super random, but fun to walk around and see. After walking around the different areas of the waterfall I waited in a very long line for the alpine coaster that I had to take back up the mountain to get back to the parking lot area.
Once back up to the parking lot I had the difficult task of getting a Grab back into town. Since the waterfall was a little way outside of town, when my Grab bike driver dropped me off I tried to ask if I could pay him to wait for me, but he didn’t seem to understand and just told me to use the app to get a ride back and then left. Just as I assumed would happen, once it was time to leave it was nearly impossible to get a Grab back to town since there weren't any cars around and all of the taxis in the parking lot were waiting for people. While trying to get a Grab back to town, I saw two other tourists trying to get a ride back as well and so after briefly talking we decided that if either could get a vehicle we would share the ride back. After trying for a while we made a group decision that it would be best to just try and start walking the long way back to town in hopes that at some point we would be able to get a ride. They were a nice, younger, couple from Australia and after walking and chatting for a while the woman finally was connected to a driver and since that happened I looked again at my app and at that time a Grab bike driver was coming back from the waterfall and I was able to get a bike back. Both our drivers came at the same time so we parted ways and I headed back to my hostel to chill for a little while before again wandering around town. The next morning, I packed my bags and then headed around town to find lunch and snacks before my long, overnight bus that was leaving that evening. It was a chill last day.
My time in both Ho Chi Minh City and Da Lat went by super fast. While both places are very different from each other, I really enjoyed my time spent in both the cities and in nature. One of my favorite things about Ho Chi Minh City was the chaos of the busy city and the game of crossing the crazy streets; whereas in Da Lat I enjoyed that it was a smaller, more calm town where the weather was amazing and I was surrounded by beautiful nature. Both towns were a great start to my time in Vietnam. I think one reason I really enjoyed the chaos and craziness of Ho Chi Minh City was because it seems like much of my time on this trip has been full of chaos, but good chaos, and I seem to thrive on that.
“I think one travels more usefully when they travel alone,
because they reflect more.”
- Daphne Du Maurier
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