Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived late in the evening (10.30pm) so took an airport taxi to hotel (100,000vnd).

Day 1
We started our day having breakfast at the little local market opposite our hotel, we had great fun chatting with locals. After we set off on a walking tour around the city, trying to see most of the monuments and sights as well as the market. We then found our way to the war remnants museum. We had a quick veggie lunch in a lovely little restaurant almost opposite the entrance before heading in at about 3pm. We massively underestimated the time it would take and ended up not finishing before the place was due to shut! Thankfully they let you come back the next day to finish it off!

Day 2
We woke up and walked in search of the place voted no.1 for breakfast. A great street stall selling a posh banh mi opla(fried eggs and bread). It comes in a pan and has been cooked with with meats. Its a great filling breakfast and the coffee is cheap too.
We went back to the war museum to finish off the exhibition. It really is a great museum. We learnt a lot about the Vietnam war and its consequences- not only for Vietnam but surrounding countries too. We also learnt about the after affects of the chemicals used still affecting people being born today.

We then had a look around a few of the shopping centres before heading to our couch surfing host. We stayed with her for 2 nights in her traditional Vietnamese house with her family, both nights we had dinner with her. She showed us amazing hospitality and help us with booking tours for the next 2 days!

Day 3
We did a morning tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, arranged through Singh Tourist.It was very cheap; only 89,000 each including the bus, tour guide, water etc. We just had to pay entry on arrival (110,000) The tour was very interesting, we learnt a lot and crawling through the tunnels was especially fun! Seeing all of the traps they used and how they used the tunnels helped us to understand how these people were able to fight the American forces so well.

We arrived back in town around 2pm so went for a late lunch at Saigon Vegan. We had a very tasty noodle soup as well as a curry noodle dish!

Day 4

We had another early morning for a full day tour of the Mekong Delta. It was an exceptionally cheap tour, costing only 189,000 each including all food, drinks snacks etc!

We took a boat ride along the river, learnt about the nature and people living on the river, before stopping for a very tasty lunch. We then returned onto the boat to see some of the swamp areas before being taken to a honey farm where we could see how they collected honey traditionally and sample honey tea. We were then transferred into smaller boats which were paddled by the locals. We then went on land for a horse and cart ride to a local village where we listened to traditional music and tasted local fruits. Finally before heading back to our bus we stopped in a coconut processing plant where we were able to see the many uses of the fruit as well as sample and buy some treats! We were both stuffed by the end of the day!

On our way to our hotel for the night we were stopped by an Australian guy asking us to come and watch a cultural show at the theatre...for free...Our luck was in, we were given copious amounts of coconut wine, tapioca and cashews before being ushered into the show. It was great fun and even better for being free! There really was NO catch (other than asking us for a tripadvisor review)

It was then a quick turnaround before we headed out for dinner with a friend of a friend, where we were taken to the best local Vietnamese restaurant as well as some of the very cool bars...needless to say it ended up being a very late night!

Day 5

Unfortunately we had to be up reasonably early for our bus to Cambodia at 11.00am again booked through Sinh travel costing 178,000.