3 days in Ho Chi Minh

I’m just gonna say it. 3 days is not enough for Ho Chi Minh.

Especially when you have a plane to catch on the third day.

The train ride from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh was a little different from the train of Hanoi to Hue. This is a local train, so there’s a lot of people getting in and out during the sixteen hours ride (there are normal seats and cabins to sleep in). On the first one, you see a lot more tourists, there’s food in the room, the beds are impeccably made. In this one, we just had a reality check.

We got on the train at around 11 pm, and we had booked the top bunks in a cabin of four. We were hoping to find another nice couple like on the other train, but we were in for a surprise. I think for the 16 hours we were on the train, we had about 4 or 5 different people in the bottom bunk. All local. At first, I was terrified, the first person was an old man who had a lot of groceries and didn’t speak English, none of them did. He was very nice, and always smile at us, but because we had such a different experience on the other one, this was definitely a reality check. Then the worst part came, I decided to go to the bathroom (the bathroom was definitely the worst part) in the middle of the night and I saw a lot of people sleeping on the floor, mostly children. I think most of them pay the normal seats and then the ticket man just let them sleep on the floor, and maybe even on the bed if there isn’t anyone in there. We had a bed free in our cabin and in that same bed, we had two women (I believe it was a mother and a daughter) who were in there for maybe two stops which is a lot of hours (maybe 4) and another old man that came right after them. They were all very quiet and very respectful. I remember because the lights were on and they were already on the bed, ready to sleep and I pointed asking if they wanted off, and it seemed that they would have slept either way. They use the sheets and then arrange them again for the next person. The sheets aren’t changed.

If you ask me if I sleep? Yes, I did, more than in the first one. I was very very tired.

If you ask me if I would do it again? I think I would. Although it wasn’t a pleasant experience, it was a real one, and I think we forget a lot to emphasize with how other people live. We live in our little world, with our problems (and they are problems, not saying they aren’t), but sometimes our problems aren’t really that bad comparing to what other people have. And just because they were born on the other side of the world. And I’m not saying I became a better person after this experience, that was barely an experience, but I think we should all travel a little bit more, not just to travel, but to know other stories, to understand other cultures.

We finally arrive at Ho Chi Minh and decided to just walk around near the hotel until dinner time.

The next day we decided to go to the Cu Chi tunnels. We also wanted to take a tour through the Mekong River but there wasn’t enough time, that’s why I say 2 nights aren’t enough and we should have thought about that considering the plane schedule. So, 3-nights minimum I would say, and 4 nights even better to explore more the life of the city.

The Cu Chi Tunnels are a 155-mile network of tunnels known for the role they played in the Vietnam War and it’s really overwhelming.

We decided to go to the Ben Duoc tunnels and not the famous Ben Dinh because we read that the last ones are widening the tunnels for tourism purposes.

So, we woke up really early in the morning, ate our breakfast (they have the best breakfast in Vietnam! Eggs, noodle soup - my favorite, bread, rice!) and set out!

We didn’t want to make any more tours, so the night before we started to search local buses to take us there and believe it or not it’s very simple (we used an app called BusMap), and doing this, you are actually contributing to the local people, local buses, local guides.

We got on the local bus and we were the only tourists there (paradise). The locals just looked at us and laugh, and they knew exactly where we wanted to go, so when we were arriving, they stopped the bus, not at the bus stop, but at the actual entrance of the Ben Duoc tunnels, and everyone looked at us and pointed to the exit and we said “ok! I guess we are here! Thank you very much!“

At the entrance you will pay the fee and just walk to the tunnels. There was practically no one in there, to get in the tunnels they wait until you are a group of 5, maybe 6.

The guide spoke English very well and after a historical explanation we were in the tunnels.

No, it’s not my cup of tea. Yes, Pedro was delirious. I enjoyed the historical part and getting to know a little bit more about the tunnels, but if you’re like me and have the slightest claustrophobia, just don’t do it! I did the short ones easily, but the long one, I panicked. I really did. But I guess that’s the experience? Oh, well.