HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

Where we stayed: Sofitel Saigon Hotel

We stopped in Ho Chi Minh City for two nights before making our way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We came from Phuket where Marika was just recovering from a terrible flu. We were pretty excited to stay in Vietnam for a few nights because we love pho and were excited to try it in Vietnam.

We took a transfer from the airport to the hotel we were surprised at the number of scooters. They take over all the roads, sidewalks; they are everywhere. It was terrifying watching everyone weave around each other. We nearly got run over many times during our exploration of Ho Chi Minh.

We stayed at the Sofitel Saigon Hotel; we chose because it was fairly central to the city square and was a great deal. We weren’t overly impressed during time exploring Ho Chi Mihn City. We wish we were able to say stay a bit longer and visited other parts of Vietnam, like the beaches. It is chaotic in the city, we were continually dodging scooters threatening to run us over on the sidewalk and on pedestrian crosswalks.

The one positive was we did get authentic pho, at Pho 24. We did some research, and while there is definitely way more authentic spots for pho, we didn’t want to be too adventurous in case our stomachs lashed out. With Marika’s severe cilantro allergy and our picky food choices with seafood at the time, we didn’t want to try anything too crazy. Pho 24 is a chain pho restaurant, and our entire meal with drinks was $7 Canadian, and it was one of the best pho meals we’ve ever had. What followed after this meal was hell. We decided to get some ice cream after, which wasn’t a good idea. The dairy and the hot pho did not mix well for me. As we started trying to walk back to our hotel from the mall, my stomach started to feel swirly. It wasn’t long before I started throwing up on the street, and Marika, still recovering from her blinding migraine, was doing her best to guide us back to the hotel with dim street lights and scooters trying to kill us. We managed to get back after what felt like hours of walking, and unfortunately, that was the main memory we left Vietnam with.