Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Preparing for Bali!

On June 23rd I flew from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. When I landed, my best friend Madeleine was waiting for me at the airport! Mads and I met when we were 12 years old and she’s been my best friend ever since. About 2 years ago she moved to Ho Chi Minh City to teach English, and for the past 2 years we’ve had a weekly Skype date every Sunday night (Monday morning in Vietnam time). It has been hard having her so far away. Even though Skype has kept us very connected, we have been looking forward to our time together this summer for months!

We would be leaving on June 27th for our backpacking trip through parts of Indonesia (Bali and maybe Lombok), Singapore, island hopping through the islands of Thailand (and attendance at the infamous Full Moon Party), and finally Bangkok, before retuning to Ho Chi Minh City at the end of July (our return date has yet to be determined).

In our 3 full days in Ho Chi Minh City I had the opportunity to experience her lifestyle living in Vietnam. I decided to save all my city touring (museums, sights, etc) until after we return from our trip because there were other things we needed to take care of before leaving, and I wanted a little break from touring before starting up backpacking again!

Living in Vietnam, Mads has really embraced the Vietnamese lifestyle…a lifestyle I still find a bit terrifying: the use of a motorbike for transportation! When she told me that we would be using her motorbike for transportation within the city my reaction was not one of excitement. It was the exact opposite. For those who have been following my blog you’ll know how frequently I’ve written about the vast number of motorbikes that have taken over the roads throughout Vietnam, and how terrifying it is to cross the road with the motorbikes zooming past you at lightning speeds. I was not excited to participate in this madness!

She tried to convince me that we would be ok and it would be a fun experience. I am still undecided to whether or not riding a motorbike can be considered “fun”, but it is definitely an experience!

I learned a lot about the rules of the road – or more accurately: the lack of rules! I’m pretty sure the only legitimate rule is that everyone (with the exception of children) are required to wear helmets. For some absurd reason children are excluded from this rule. Other than that it appears that the road is a free-for-all for drivers. It’s survival of the fittest, where the largest vehicle wins. In Toronto the pedestrians have the right of way – here the pedestrians are the lowest on the food chain, and the buses and large vehicles rule the road. If you see a bus coming then you had better move out of the way!

People drive the opposite way on a one-way street, or they’ll drive right through opposing traffic on the wrong side of the street. Anything goes here, and you always have to be on the lookout!

There are so many motorbikes that they have designated parking lots just for them!

During my time in Ho Chi Minh City we had a few chores to do, including buying me a new luggage backpack. A very common theme when I travel is luggage problems… mainly because I have a slight shopping problem, and tend to buy more than I can carry. Considering how I travel with a backpack, I have to be able to carry all my belongings on my back, which generally leads to some complications.

The problem started a few weeks ago when I was in Ho Chi Minh City with my Contiki tour. My bag was growing very fast, and it was becoming more and more difficult to carry around. Also, at the time, one of the straps was ripping so I was worried the bag wouldn’t survive much longer! To help with this problem, and reduce the weight of my backpack, I left a large bag full of my stuff in storage at my hotel, and continued traveling through Vietnam.  The strap eventually broke off (when I was in Hanoi), and even though the bag was still usable, it was much more difficult to carry on my back. A new backpack was definitely required!

Mads and I set out to the backpacking area of town, which is completely saturated with tourists and backpackers. There are tons of shops that sell backpacks, and I found myself a nice replacement backpack luggage in pink for only $25! I will definitely miss how cheap everything is here… I paid over $300 for my original backpack in Toronto! I may pay for this cheap backpack later on in the trip though… as I’ve already noticed the zippers and clips aren’t too sturdy! Hopefully it’ll survive the next few weeks until I’m back in Ho Cho Minh City!

In addition to backpack shopping, I decided to have some more clothing custom made. When I was in Hoi An I had a suit, 2 shirts and a winter jacket made, but when I left Hoi An I really regretted not having more clothing custom made! So Mads took me to a local tailor to place my orders.

Ordering clothing in Ho Chi Minh City isn’t nearly as easy as it is in Hoi An. In Hoi An custom clothing is one of their main businesses, and there are so many shops that specialize in it, each with a vast variety of fabrics to chose from. But in Ho Chi Minh City the fabric had to be purchased separately and brought to the tailor to use.

So Mads and I set out to the fabric market! Imagine a large market area with stalls and stalls of fabric! It was so overwhelming! There was one booth that was completely dedicated to buttons! After spending a lot of time going through all the different stalls and fabric samples I finally picked out my material.

Another major difference between the tailors in Ho Chi Minh City and the tailors in Hoi An is that in Hoi An they will make all your clothing overnight, while in Ho Chi Minh City it takes 2 weeks to complete. I had 3 more shirts and a blazer jacket made, which I will be picking up in a few weeks once we are back in the city! I am very excited for it! In fairness to me – I’m starting my MBA in the fall, and I’ll need adequate business attire for business school, so what better place to buy it than Vietnam?

In Ho Chi MInh City it is very very easy to pamper yourself! And that is exactly what we did when we weren’t doing chores! We went for an 60 minute massage for only $10 (CAN), a manicure and pedicure for $5 (CAN) total, and a 1 hour Bum Bum Hair Treatment and Facial for $2.5 (CAN). It’s incredible how cheap things are here!

The Bum Bum treatment was very interesting. For $2.5 (CAN) you get a facial, a head massage, a face massage, a full shampoo and hair treatment and then finally they’ll blow dry and straighten your hair. During the facial they put slices of fresh cold cucumber all over my face! So relaxing!

My time in Ho Chi Minh City was a well needed break where I could spend lots of time catching up with Mads, have my laundry washed (every single thing I owned was filthy!), and just relax and pamper myself before taking off on the next section of my trip!