Caught up although in a slightly strange way. We have not lost our passport, they have not stolen all our money, there is no revolution in the streets or anything like that ... We arrived in Saigon (or as it was renamed: Ho Chi Minh) After paying a good sum to leave the island of Phu Quoc. The bus that should leave us in the center of the city does it in a kind of bus cemetery, where the only life we find is that of the taxi drivers who are waiting for us rubbing their hands. One of them would be very lucky just the last day of the year in the Chinese calendar.
We share the taxi with two Finnish girls and look for our hotel. When we finally meet him and enter the process of relaxing in the typical room after a trip, we realize that we are missing something ... we have forgotten the small backpack in the taxi !! Or what is the same we have lost the mp3, the mobile, notebooks (among them the expense) and worst of all, the two cameras!
Caught, but why? We cannot continue the trip without a camera and the country is stopped because the celebrations of the TET (Vietnamese New Year ... chuc mung nam moi by the way!) will last all week. So we have to explore without photos and wait for the stores to open.
With the assumed situation we take the following quiet days, strolling through the city decorated with yellow flowers, celebration trees, dragons, and many lights. But all closed. We loved the center, with its colonial buildings that still reveal the greatness of what was the capital of Indochina. One is that of the Opera, where we could attend a traditional Vietnamese dance and music show. Very cool! Interesting was also the visit to war museum, although with a propaganda air it is worth reviving a part of modern history. A special area of Ho Chi Minh City is Cholon, Chinatown. The most beautiful temples in the city are found here.
We follow the tradition and we lit some incense sticks in honor of the guardian horse of a temple: in principle this would bring us good luck for the trip ... although I don't know ... it seems to me that we have either failed horse or incense mark, but what happened to us you will discover in the next post ... and the thing has crumb.
USEFUL INFO
Transport. How to get to Ho Chi Minh City?
Since it was the eve of the Chinese New Year, everything was much more expensive, so the trip to Ho Chi Minh C. from Phu Quoc, including boat, bus and pick-up, cost us $ 27 each.
In CHCM it is highly recommended to take the urban bus, we catch the number 1 to go to the Cholon area. It costs 4,000 dongs per person.
Accommodation. Where to sleep in Ho Chi MinH City?
We stayed every night at the Ngoc Son hotel, about 5 minutes walk from Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacking area par excellence. The site is quieter and more authentic with other cheap accommodations. Highly recommended. We made the reservation by mail ([email protected]) so the price was normal, or $ 10.
