Ralph and Karen's Tours

After a sad farewell to Hoi An we headed off to Da Nang Airport for our short flight South to Ho Chi Minh City.

Seems like a routine now; get to airport nice and early, easiest check in and security experience in any airport and through in less than ten minutes.

Aircraft is waiting at the gate and for some unknown reason we board 30 minutes late. so frustrating.

Anyway – 75 minutes later we land after a simple flight, collect our bags and find our transfer guy all in 15 minutes. Brilliant.

We are doing a River Cruise from Ho Chi Minh to Siem Reap in Cambodia in a few days with amazing travel company APT (Australian Pacific Tours) who my business has a pretty good relationship with.

So the APT experience starts now with one of their guys picking us up and taking us to the pre cruise accommodation.

The drive into town is exciting. Lots of traffic – but waaaaaay more orderly than Hanoi. People here sort of obey road rules and traffic signals.

HCMC is located in the South of Vietnam and is the largest and most populated city with over 14 million residents.

Formerly and historically known as Saigon, it is still commonly called Saigon today particularly by residents. The name was changed to HCMC in 1976 with the formation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at the end of the war with the new name in recognition of President Ho Chi Minh who had so much to do with the changes to the local political climate over many years.

The architecture is a beautiful mix of French Colonial and modern – often next door to each other. It was such a pleasant surprise to see this all unfold on the way in from the airport. The Saigon River rolls gracefully through the middle of the city and creates lots of opportunities for parklands and water front dining and entertainment districts.

We arrived at our hotel – the Park Hyatt – in district number one and wow. What a place. Probably the most opulent hotel we have ever stayed in. those of you that know us understand that we never stay in these luxury hotels – so it’s kinda weird to be honest. But. Wow.

Anyway …. After being absolutely spoiled on arrival we decided to go for a wander around and have a drink and dinner. After about ten days of local food we thought we’d do something different and we had found a local pub – yep a pub about 250m from our hotel.

We went to leave the hotel and boom …. Out of no where I think old mate typhoon Kanjiki has followed us

Cats and dogs ! We waited for a while and it eased off so we donned our emergency ponchos and set off and within 50m down it came again. With wind

And I got lost. We had 250m to get to the pub and I got us lost.

We arrived a little worse for wear and a little damp but it’s only water right ?

Not only was this place a pub but it was a craft brewery too ! It’s all too much haha. And it’s Friday night. And I didn’t book. the Heart of Darkness Brewery. And it looked amazing.

Never mind, they must have taken pity on a couple of old folks who braved the elements to visit them and sat us right up at the bar.

Excellent banter right from the outset from the wait staff and a young couple alongside us from Korea on their first date. Haha poor things. They got stuck with us.

But we got on famously comparing beer notes. The young bloke must have been nervous as he was drinking an Aperol Spritz and every sip looked like it had razor blades in it. But he was out to impress. The lovely young lady was hooking into beers quite happily. Her first was a gorgeous Stout but her next couple she was following my lead.

We had a few and their beer list was extensive. Over twenty beers of their own on tap. Some were wild but most were pretty good.

And Karen was stoked as again, they had amazing French Rose available ! Schooners of their best beers were the equivalent of $4 and Karen’s wine was outrageously expensive at $5.50.

The dinner menu was unreal. Pretty much a heavy USA influence with some local options. We went for the Mac and cheese balls and pulled port nachos. Outstanding.

The place was buzzing and everyone was having a great time. Including us.

Who’d have thought we’d end up somewhere like this in HCMC?

We braved more rain on the way back to the hotel – didn’t get lost this time – and thought we needed a night cap. Of course we did.

So there is this piano bar right. A serious piano bar. People dressed in ball gowns and almost tiaras. Almost.

I’ve got on a pair of purple cord shorts, a Mollymook Board riders tee shirt and Vans shoes dripping. Karen was similarly attired – well better than I was. And we entered and ordered drinks.

I’m feeling a tad under dressed here. But too late now. Drinks ordered and on their way. Then …

It was gorgeous. And we clapped them. Not sure if you’re supposed to or not …

Anyway another great end to a night.

Back to the room to find a “Pillow Menu”

I shit you not. who does this ?

Ahhh what a fabulous first day.

The International Travel Magazine Conde Nast Traveller recently reviewed this hotel and considers the “Opera Bar”restaurant (one of three hotel restaurants) one of the best breakfast restaurants in the world. Big wrap.

And even though we haven’t eaten in every hotel in the world we’ve done a few – and it’s probably justified.

Man. It is outrageously good. Every single thing you can imagine you’d want for breakfast is available. Even stuff you wouldn’t think of.

So good. so very good.

And like everywhere else we’ve been here, the French pastries are out of this world.

Wow. Two more days of this.

We headed out after recovering from breakfast and walked a short distance to the Saigon Opera House and admired it from the outside. Renovation work inside means you can’t visit.

From there we joined the Saigon Hop on Hop Off Bus for a really very enjoyable day exploring HCMC. So much to see in this large city jam packed with historical drama.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Vietnam War Remnants Museum which is as confronting a place as I’ve ever visited – but at the same time so fascinating

The forecourt outside the museum is filled with aircraft, tanks, jeeps, water craft, artillery weapons and sets the tone of what lies within.

Then they have kept some of the POW “tiger cages” from various prisons around the south during the ‘61-75 war

These barbed wire cages housed up to SIX human beings. For weeks at a time or until they perished.

There were probably a dozen exhibitions across the rest of the museum inside covering all facets of the war. Videos and original photos all on display with warnings at each entrance if applicable.

It was brutal. Karen couldn’t do all of it, it was just so confronting.

We spoke about it later on and wondered aloud if it was necessary to show the tortuous detail. Ultimately we believe if the truth is to be told for past present and future generations then it is probably justified.

I’ll not go into more detail and I didn’t take one more photo while many others did – but you can imagine.

We both agreed it was absolutely worth the visit. Despite how horrific the subject matter is.

They did have a special area devoted to the Australians engaged in the war effort. Which was actually nice. Some other nations didn’t fare as well.

We meandered back via the Ben Than Market which is one of the larger I door markets I’ve ever seen with more junk on Sale than Paddy’s Markets in Sydney. it was actually a pretty cool experience to see so many people and so much stuff in one place. They do also have a fruit and vege market as well as wet foods. So it’s a big deal.

Back in Time for a cooling swim at the oasis of a pool before another ripping rain storm hit – perfect timing !

Out for dinner and drinks somewhere locally then off to the Cu Chi Tunnels tomorrow.

What a great few days visit in HCMC.