Vietnam Trip Report

We did a three week trip to Vietnam and Japan (Japan in another thread. Link to be added when I get around to writing it). We had never been to either place, much less anywhere in Eastern Asia. I’d always wanted to go to Japan after studying a lot of the gardens and shrines as a graduate of LSU’s landscape architecture program, and Vietnam sounded interesting, though all I really knew about it was some food items.

It started with a very long day from Nashville > LA > Guangzhou > Saigon. Basic AA flight to LA, and then China Southern Airlines to Guangzhou and then Vietnam. We got to fly on this big girl from LA to China.



I’d never flown on an A380. Boarding was an absolute cluster trying to get 500 queue-averse Chinese people on the plane, but once on it was all good. We’d cashed in points to get business class on the two long flights over the Pacific. The flight took a little longer than expected due to going around some weather. Fifteen hours in total.

Guangzhou’s airport was madness. I thought we’d be flying in to the brand new terminal that opened a few weeks earlier, but we instead were in the old terminal. Our connecting flight to Saigon was on the ground floor where there were 8 gates with only about 200 seats.

Thirty hours later we were in Saigon. As soon as you walk out of the airport you are blasted with heat, charcoal, and motorbike exhaust. I’ve lived through some hot Louisiana summers, but they have nothing on the heat in Vietnam. Highs while we were there were around 97-99, and depoints hovering around 80-85. We had packed light with carry-on backpacks, but we ended up burning through clothes pretty quickly in Vietnam due to sweat. Lots of washing clothes in the sink.

We grabbed sim cards for our phones ($9 for 6gb of 4g data) and then jumped in a cab. As soon as the cab driver was out of the airport gate, he pulled over, switched off the meter, and said 300,000 Dong ($13). frick you, dude. I’m too tired to fight you over it, so take the money and get us to our apartment. It should have been half that amount if he ran the meter.

Let me tell you about cabs in Vietnam. They are shady. We only had to use them a couple times. Every other time we used Grab, which is the Vietnam equivalent of Uber. Grab had just bought Uber a month or two before we got there, but they work the same. The only quirk was that we couldn’t register for Grab in the US. We had to be on a Vietnamese IP. Grab lets you use a car or motorbike. The motorbike is fine for one person, but if you’re traveling with someone, you’ll need a car.



Here’s our Airbnb in Saigon. It was in a back alley in district 1. Very quiet and only $25/night.



Everything in Vietnam is cheap. Comically cheap. Minus airfare to get there, a middle class American can vacation like a king. I knew it would be cheap, but I didn’t expect it to be that cheap. Beers are 85 cents. Food is $1. Grab rides were $1.50. Souvenirs could he haggled down to almost nothing. Our Airbnbs were $30/night for private apartments in good parts of town.

After a short nap, we took a street food tour. We figured it would be good to do on the first night so we could learn the ropes from a local. They picked us up on motorbikes and we went across town and met up with an Irish couple our age.

First stop was bahn xeo, or sizzling pancake. It’s rice flour spiced with turmeric that is pan fried with pork belly and a shrimp, plus some bean sprouts. The South, Central, and Northern areas of Vietnam all have different versions. The Saigon version was about the size of a quesadilla, which you then cut up and wrapped with lettuce. I liked the Central/Northern version, which was smaller and wrapped up in rice paper like a spring roll.



Next stop was a seafood stand. We had shrimp, scallops, lemongrass mussels, and conch. This was my favorite spot of the night. The mussels were like crack.





Next was bahn cuon. It’s pork and mushroom and spices minced up and wrapped in steamed rice flour. Pretty solid.



There were a few more stops in there for snacks and banh mis and whatnot. Didn’t grab any pictures. The night ended with some ice cream and smoothies.

That first night was my introduction to Vietnamese traffic. To say it’s hectic is an understatement. Saigon has 8 million motorbikes. There is a method to their madness, but I never figured it out. Your ears are constantly filled with honking noises, and your nose is always filled with exhaust. Crossing the street is a literal leap of faith. You just go and hope everyone moves around you, which they magically do. Sidewalks aren’t for walking. They are for parking.

That night was sleepless. My body was not handling the 12 hour time difference and was trying to digest my street food baby.

Day 2 was exploring the city. We used the Lonely Planet recommended walk as our guide. Ben Thanh market, drinks at the top of the Bitexco building, stroll down Nguyen Hue to City Hall, the post office to mail some Mother’s Day postcards, and finally Independence Palace.