Travelling through Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

This is the final post about our journey through Vietnam which ended on the 5th February 2014. We travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City - the North capital to the South capital - and stopped at Ninh Binh, Hué, Hoi An and Nha Trang along the way. We travelled the whole way by sleeper bus which turned out to be an interesting experience (see other posts)! 

The three of us had flights booked out of Ho Chi Minh City on the 5th February so, by the time we were in Nha Trang, we were running a bit short on time. We had originally planned to stop in Mui Ne but decided against it as we preferred to spend longer at our final destination rather than at the beach resort. We travelled overnight from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh and arrived ridiculously early in the morning (I forget the exact time). Again, not wanting to get ripped off by taxi drivers, we made our way to our hotel on foot. When we got there, however, we found that it was completely shut up - doors closed and shutter down! We ended up having to wake up the family who ran it to let us in. To be fair to them, we had booked for that night and we arrived so early that we had to pay for another so they weren't expecting us! It was also during the festival and it seemed that there were not any other guests in the hotel. 

Ho Chi Minh seemed different to anywhere else we'd been in the country, more European than the other cities. There is evidence of much more European-style and modern architecture, as well as wide roads and statues. However, there was still evidence that we were still in Asia. There were still loads of scooters. Everywhere. We walked down a more traditional market street and the Benh Thanh Market near where we were staying was full of people trying to flog fake goods for the best price.

The roundabout in front of Benh Thanh Market

Lights celebrating the new year and lots of scooters!

Market street

Meat stall

One of the things that Alex had been particularly looking forward to in Ho Chi Minh was going to visit the  Cu Chi Tunnels, a vast network of connecting tunnels from during the Vietnam War. We booked a half day trip to go out to see them having decided it would be difficult to make our own way there. It was a good thing we did, as everyone there seemed to be with a tour group and our guide was good. He had been in the Vietnam War himself and showed us his gunshot wound. However, he spent most of the day singing which didn't really fit the setting! "Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen, You come from different countries, To Vietnam on holiday, Come along and sing with me" (or something like that!). We were able to walk around the forest looking at various exhibits of weapons, a tank, underground rooms etc. as well as the gruesome traps the Vietnamese made for the enemy. There was also a shooting range where tourists could pay to fire various guns. The gunshots added to the atmosphere of the forest. Tourists were allowed to get into a replica tunnel opening for photo opportunities and crawl through one of the tunnels, which had been made bigger and had lighting installed to accommodate large Western tourists! The tunnels are definitely worth a visit.. 

Me in the entrance of the tunnels

One of the traps

A tank

Another trap

They must have been lethal!

Exploring the tunnels

Alex in the tunnels

We seemed to visit Ho Chi Minh at a good time as the flower festival was on to celebrate the new year. There were thousands of colourful flowers for people to look at, some of them in different shapes, with lots of horses to celebrate the new year.

Pretty flowers

Colourful

This was all the way down the street for at least 500m

We enjoyed wandering around the city and seeing the various sites.

Modern buildings (with Alex and Chloe)

Municipal Theatre

Statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of City Hall

Notre Dame Cathedral

Reunification Palace

On the 4th February, our last full day in Vietnam, it was my 21st birthday. We discussed various options for what to do, thinking we ought to do something special, but realised that we'd been doing so much over the three weeks that it would be nice just to have a relaxing day. We considered visiting the Mekong Delta but were sick of being herded around on organised tours by then and preferred the idea of a lie-in! After some research, we found that Ho Chi Minh had a bowling alley and some Indian restaurants so we decided it would be a day of home comforts instead. The night before, we went to a really nice Thai restaurant (in preparation for mine and Chloe's next destination!), followed by a  few bars late into the night, so a lie-in on my birthday morning was just what I needed. It was fun to go bowling, something I hadn't done in a few years, and hadn't done on my birthday for even longer! I did have a bowling birthday party for my 10th birthday though. It is often joked that the typical food of Britain is Indian and at home we enjoy our Indian takeaways and occasional meals at Indian restaurants, so it wasn't difficult to choose which cuisine I wanted to celebrate with. 

Action shot!

Results of the first game

Enjoying our Indian

Birthday girl!

The next day, I went with Alex early in the morning to get a taxi to the airport from one of the travel agents. He was setting off to fly from Ho Chi Minh, back to Hanoi. Then from Hanoi to Xiamen via Hong Kong (the same way we came). Then from Xiamen to Dubai via Hong Kong. Then from Dubai to Denmark! That's an awful lot of travelling but I'm glad he arranged it so that he could be there to celebrate my birthday. Chloe and I left later on that day. On the way to arrange our taxi, we saw a lion dancing show as part of the new year festivities. That evening we flew to Chiang Mai, Thailand, via Bangkok. It was sad that our time in Vietnam was over and that we no longer had Alex with us, but we were looking forward to our next adventure!

Lion dancing in the street

The lion

Denmark

After our China travelling trip, it was back to Xiamen and exams (these went fine, I passed all of my modules for the year). After exams was saying goodbye to Xiamen and the various friends I'd met there. This included various meals, nights out and goodbyes, with the hope of seeing at least some of the people again. After this was what turned out to be a very long journey home, 24 hours more than planned! I am still waiting for the compensation I'm entitled to through my travel insurance for it.

Anyway, I got back to Romiley, Stockport on Wednesday 25th June and left for Denmark On Thursday 3rd July, just over a week later. This may seem very early to go away again but it was my only chance to see Alex over the summer. He's spending the majority of it in Dubai with his parents (where I went for Christmas last year) which is an expensive plane ticket from the UK! However, he and his family were going to Denmark to visit friends and family (they're Danish) so it was much more feasible to purchase an easyJet ticket to go there for a week instead. Alex and his family are from Roskilde, a town just outside of Copenhagen, so I flew from Manchester to Copenhagen Airport.

On arrival, I was met by Alex and we went by train to Copenhagen as his parents were there for the day. This gave me a chance to do some sightseeing of the capital including the outside of Tivoli, City Hall, Amalienborg (Royal Palace) and Nyhavn (Harbour). I really enjoyed walking around the Danish capital, taking in all of the sights, as I had never been there before - I hadn't even been to Scandinavia before!

City Hall

Pedestrian Shopping Street

Nyhavn

Alex and I at Amalienborg

The next day was spent in Roskilde. We went to an art gallery of a contemporary artist Alex's parents like. He mostly does abstract paintings and metal sculptures and goes by the name "The Zinker" and his trademark is to use z's instead of s's in words. It was very interesting to have a look around his gallery, I particularly liked his sculptures. Here's a link to his website: http://www.thezinker.com/

After the gallery, Alex took me to see Roskilde Domkirke (Cathedral), the burial site of the Danish Royals since the 15th century, and where Alex had his confirmation. It is a very impressive church and I would definitely recommend a visit. It's both beautiful and full of history. It costs 60 kroner for a standard adult visit, or 40 for students. Alex then took me on a little walk around the town, showing me various spots such as his old school, the park and the main shopping street.

Roskilde Domkirke

Inside the Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Dead Royals

Saturday was also spent in Roskilde town with Alex as my tour guide. It seemed like I was visiting at a good time as the town was decorated for the Roskilde Music Festival happening that weekend. The colour of the festival is orange so there was orange bunting, orange Danish flags, orange inflatable sofas and many other orange bits and pieces dotted around which was nice to see. I wore an orange dress specially to join in the festival spirit!

Me with our HUGE ice cream!

Roskilde town

Orange fountain for the festival

As we were there at the time of the festival, I decided to treat Alex to Sunday day tickets. I had witnessed Alex telling people where he was from (particularly Scandinavians) and them talking about the festival and how great it was. However, Alex had never actually been (he left Roskilde when he was 10) so I thought that next time this happened he should be able to tell people that he had. We chose Sunday as it was the day we knew the most artists playing and because Thursday was sold out - Rolling Stones, Outkast, Bastille... Sunday was supposed to be Kasabian, Stevie Wonder and Drake but, unfortunately Drake had to pull out due to illness and was replaced by Jack White (from the White Stripes). This was a shame as Alex had been really looking forward to seeing Drake but it was still great to get the chance to see Stevie Wonder! I had grown up listening to him and knew quite a lot of his songs. We had a really nice day at the festival and were thankfully very lucky with the weather!

At Roskilde Festival with my Tuborg and Festival Guide

Stevie Wonder playing the Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival

As the main reason Alex and his family were there was to visit people, it meant that I got to meet three family friends and Alex's grandparents. They had varying levels of English from fluent to none and, as a linguist, I felt embarrassed that I couldn't speak a lot of Danish to them! I hope that my smiles and little comments like "thank you for the meal" were enough to give a good impression. His grandparents couldn't speak any English so I hope that they still liked me. I've been trying to learn Danish but have found it quite difficult. I've never learnt a language like it before. It seems like it might be a bit like German (which I have never learnt) but has some of the same/similar words with French and English. The writing system has letters in it I've never used before and the written doesn't always represent the spoken. I'm hoping to persevere and be able to speak a bit more next time I go!

On the Tuesday Alex and I had another day trip into Copenhagen to see more of the sites. This time we got the train to "Den Lille Havfrue" (the Little Mermaid) statue and made our way from there past a lot of the sites we had already seen. It was a nice sunny day, in comparison to the grey day when I arrived, so it was nice to revisit the same spots.

Us with the Little Mermaid

Novel way to see the city

A pretty church (don't know what it's called)

Amalienborg

We headed to Tivoli, the second oldest amusement park in the world (thanks Wikipedia!). It's a really nice place, definitely worth a visit, with a mixture of old and newer rides, shops and cafés. There is also a stage at the centre where concerts were held. While we were there, we witnessed a rehearsal and some of the concert of an orchestra and two vocalists which was fun. I used to play clarinet in orchestras and sing so I particularly enjoyed it. As the park is such an attraction, it is quite expensive to go on the rides so we decided to only go on one. The ride we chose was Rutschebanen, the third oldest rollercoaster in the world, celebrating 100 years this year. It was fun bit not particularly scary! Of course, it probably was back in 1914...

Rollercoaster

Pretty Tivoli

Feeling like an excited child with my banana lollipop

Third oldest rollercoaster in the world

Concert

One of the entrances to Tivoli with Rutschebanen (the mountain) behind

The last touristy thing I did was to have a quick look at Roskilde harbour where there is a Viking Ship Museum. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to the museum as it was quite expensive and we didn’t have much time, but we still had a look around the harbour which I liked. My dad used to sail a lot ) and has recently purchased his own boat) so I have lots of memories of walking around similar places while he looks at boats!

I had a really lovely week away but it seemed to end too soon. I must say a big thank you to Alex’s family and friends for looking after me and making sure I felt welcome while I was there. I’ll be back!

Tusind tak!

Ducks. We also saw jellyfish and crabs

Roskilde Havn

Viking Ship

Viking Ship