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Ho Chi Minh
We had heard mixed reviews about Ho Chi Minh, some people hated it saying that the city was more hectic than Hanoi. We had also heard that it had the best night life in Vietnam and was very westernised. After having the past week in quite remote locations it was refreshing to be back in a buzzing city.
We let Jake pick somewhere for dinner that eve, he had followed us to Ho Chi Minh so we had a couple of nights more with him. We bumped into an Italian girl I had met in Dalat, Isabel. She joined us for dinner and we went for drinks on one of the lively strips of Ho Chi Minh. It can only be described as Vietnam’s version of Koh San Road. But the bars were more over the top and themed, so they also reminded me of an Asian version of Ibiza clubs. We went to a rooftop bar and ended up playing pool. When we got back to the hostel we quickly got sucked into the atmosphere and got chatting to people. We showed off our card tricks which Jake especially was baffled by. Then we all followed the hostel reps onto the bar crawl. It began in a dark club with a DJ who didn’t seem to be able to transition well between songs but tried to make up for it with enthusiasm. We had a good dance and went to the next bar ‘donkey’. Which regardless of the name was Egyptian themed. What is nice about the route down Vietnam is that you bump into people again and again who are doing the same route. We bumped into a guy we had met in Castaways, Louis.
The next day we just wanted a relaxed day as we knew we had a few days of travelling to come before getting to the Thai islands. We wondered around Ho Chi Minh, did bits of shopping. We ate in a big market hall with various food stalls. We weren’t too impressed with the food and put this down to the lack of kitchen space that each food stall occupied. We searched for a good restaurant for our final meal. I managed to find a highly reviewed restaurant round the corner from the hosteal that was easy to book via Facebook. As the afternoon progressed various people we had met got involved in our dinner plans. It was nice to spend our last night with a good group of people. The restaurant itself was nicely decorated with bright colours, lanterns and fans. The waitresses were extremely attentive and even presented the menu to us, talking through their recommendations. After the meal one of the waitresses wrote down a list of recommended things to do in Ho Chi Minh, they must have guessed we were travellers and it was such a nice gesture. We made an extra effort to tip, it’s got to be the nicest experience I’ve had from a restaurant travelling.
After that we went to a rooftop bar following Louis’ recommendation. Unfortunately we were allowed in the outside area because of the rain. But it was still nice to see the city from above and appreciate just how expansive the city is and the number of high rise buildings it has. It definitely has a different vibe to Hoi An that seemed more traditional with low rise buildings and less chain restaurants.
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