Hot and Sweaty in Ho Chi Minh City

Greetings from Cambodia! It feels like ages since I wrote a blog entry; apologies to the dedicated readers out there who have been following our travels closely over the past few months. As you may have caught in my last post, our fun-filled backpacking days slowed significantly when Matt and I arrived in Phnom Penh and I started working full-time for the United Nations World Food Programme. My schedule has been very busy as I’ve adjusted back to a 8am-5pm office job, so “Mel & Matt on the Move” was pushed to the far corner of my mind for a while. More on my month-long Cambodia gig in a later post…but for now I want to zoom back in time to Ho Chi Minh City—the final stop of our 3+ week Vietnam adventure.

Formerly called Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of 8.4 million. Also known as the country’s economic hub, Ho Chi Minh City is located in the southeastern part of the country and was the capital of South Vietnam before and during the Vietnam-American War. After the city fell to the communists at the end of the war, it was renamed in honor of the late political leader of North Vietnam in 1976. If you take look on a map and see the long, skinny shape of Vietnam, you can see that a typical tourist route is from Hanoi – Ho Chi Minh City or the reverse. The major urban hubs are 1,090 miles apart! It’s wild when we think of how much ground we covered during our trip.

Matt and I took a fancier-than-normal bus from Dalat to Ho Chi Minh City for the four-hour journey. A popular route for Vietnamese travelers, our entire bus was filled with locals instead of backpackers—an interesting change from our typical bus experience. We were dropped off in the center of a busy going-out district in Ho Chi Minh City, and one thing was clear—the temperature had ticked up at least 25 degrees between the cool mountains of Dalat and the notoriously humid, hot Ho Chi Minh City. In fact, we arrived during April—the city’s hottest month! Backpacks in tow, we dodged partiers on the bustling street and hailed a “Grab” to our homestay in the northern part of the city.

To be honest, it’s challenging to write up an interesting blog post for Ho Chi Minh City because we didn’t do much in terms of sight-seeing. The sweltering heat meant we spent much of our time in our air-conditioned room and walked around shopping malls for hours to escape the humidity and strong rays of the sun. Matt and I took care of a few errands in advance of my Cambodia gig: I bought two work dresses at a clothing boutique; we posted up at a print shop so I could print, sign, and scan all necessary contractual documents; and we went to a medical clinic so I could get a “fit-for-work” certificate. The latter involved a 20-minute check-up during which a doctor and a nurse checked my blood pressure, breathing, temperature, vision, height, weight, ears, and eyes. They asked me questions about my exercise habits, diet, digestion, iron levels, and family health history. At the end, I paid $86 (to-be-reimbursed) for the clinic to draft up a letter to the United Nations to state that I am capable of traveling to and working in Cambodia. It was all relatively quick and easy, thanks to Matt who did research to find the clinic, book my appointment, and locate the print shop.

Modeling Work Dress #1...

...and #2!

Aside from those activities, we ate tasty meals in Ho Chi Minh City including bahn mis, vegetarian Pho, avocado toast, and egg coffee. One day we hung out at a Starbucks for four hours as I read up on rural school feeding in preparation for my consultancy and Matt played computer games. Again, the heat was so intense! We didn’t even feel bad about sitting at a Starbucks for so long.

Banh mi and iced coffee! Perfection!

Avocado toast, egg coffee, and an iced mango tea.

Veggie pho!

Bun cha for Matt!

Our most interesting tourist outing was a sobering visit to the War Remnants Museum, once known as the “Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes.” This government-sponsored museum is the most popular attraction in Ho Chi Minh City and one of the most popular in Vietnam as a whole, attracting half a million visitors a year. Outside the entrance are captured or downed American planes and helicopters used during the war. Inside the four-story museum are about seven different exhibits, all very heavy in terms of their subject-matter. One focuses on the horrifying physical toll that land mines and Agent Orange have had on Vietnamese adults and children since the war. Another addresses the international response to America’s involvement in Vietnam and houses powerful images of war protests in countries all over the world. Other exhibits depict images of dead American soldiers, American soldiers torturing and killing Vietnamese civilians, and more. It was all very disturbing and difficult to take in. While my opinions on the war are very complex given what I have learned about it recently, I kept reminding myself that the museum was developed from the Vietnamese perspective. Still, though, being an American and walking through the museum led to a complicated array of emotions. Luckily Matt and I have maintained a very open and reflective dialogue related to our feelings on what we have seen and done throughout the backpacking trip. Many of our experiences lead us to discuss what it means to be an American and how our perspectives are shaped through that lens. It was helpful to discuss these feelings in light of the intense experience at the War Remnants Museum.

American helicopter outside the museum.

Outside the entrance.

Small jets in front of the museum. 

We stayed in Ho Chi Minh City a day longer than expected due to the turnaround time of my United Nations contract. The UN did, however, pay for my flight to Cambodia which was great! We snagged Matt a ticket on the same flight and boarded our plane. Our three weeks in Vietnam were wonderful and I would highly recommend it to all travelers. The country offered such a diverse set of tourist experience including world-class food, impactful historical sites, and some of the most beautiful nature we have seen on our whole trip. I miss it already!