I have made plans to spend the last leg of my visit in Vietnam staying in Saigon for the last 11 days before I fly out of Vietnam to Ecuador.
As I leave Phu Quoc Island I paid for a guided tour to get me from Phu Quoc to Ho Chi Ming City, with a stop at the halfway point visiting Can Tho in the Mekong Delta for a one night stay, where I ate dinner at a very affordable vegetarian restaurant and the next day scheduled to see the floating market, rice noodle factory and many views with a guided tour. I do not normally buy guided tours but to get my ass to Saigon it seemed to be the best way and most affordable so why not, I enjoyed it and well worth it. After the the stay in Phu Quoc I started off with a boat ride from the Island to Rach Gia then a bus to Can Tho, and for me this means visiting the fourth largest city in Vietnam along with already being in second largest (Hanoi) and the third largest (Danang) and so to be in the largest city very soon. So the next day after the sight seeing tour it was  a 4 hr bus ride to Ho Chi Ming City. The stay in Can Tho was short one night and day basically, I did see the floating market, rice noodle factory, went for a short bicycle ride, it was all good.

Ho Chi Ming City what excitement especially if you are on the back of a motorcycle as the driver is weaving in out of lanes, bumping into others just about t-boneniing or being t-boned, that is something else or crossing the road as a pedestrian and being ignored as you must weave in and out of extremely congested traffic, very thrilling. Many vegetarian restaurants which is good, many tourist in District 1 and D1 is all clean of litter, tall buildings, old buildings and Vietnamese style buildings. At night the buildings are all lit up and so many bright colourful lights especially when it is getting close to Christmas, but a much different scene than during the daytime.

Ho Chi Ming City is busy with people and scooter motorcycles everywhere transporting everything from a family of five, maybe 6 on the one motor bike to fine dishes for a setting of 12, and many, many flats of eggs as I estimated about 1200 chicken eggs, I have seen about 100 litres of gasoline being transported along with propane bottles carrying several large bottles at a time, it is amazing what the Vietnamese pack and transport on their scooters. With the so many bikes and large volumes of traffic, it still seems to move, always moving forward, which is impressive considering other places the traffic comes to a stand still.

I found many vegetarian restaurants to eat at along with these frozen food stores that just sell vegan foods only, they seem to have it all, fish, beef, pork, turkey, chicken, sausages, eggs, the list goes on, but all vegan. Some of these vegetarian restaurants and street food carts were a tad more expensive than other places that I had bought such foods, like in Danang food prices were cheaper and just before I got to Ho Chi Ming City, I ate at a vegetarian restaurant in Can Tho and again much cheaper for a very big plate of food.

I stayed in District 5 (D5) at a place called Happy Hostel, the arrangement was I would get a dormitory room and daily food in exchange to teach English to the owner and staff. As it turned out the owner was usually busy and had other plans I suppose, so he bought some food day 1, but after that I was on my own for buying food, he even told me he would treat me to a vegetarian meal at a good vegetarian restaurant that he knows, but because of busy schedule he cancelled and never rebooked, so there was a little disappointment, and then he informed me and another female tourist that we both need to be out by a certain date because he has to move his Hostel/business to another location, as it turned out once we left he stayed and kept the business running at the same location. So he has good intentions of helping travellers in exchange for English for the accommodations and food, but does not keep his word, so beware of this if you are heading to this Hostel for free accommodations and food in exchange to teach English or help with something else.

I did find a outdoor swimming pool nearby where I was staying which was good for the exercise and a little bit of sun rays, as I was missing the beach for this. I did seek out a guide from Facebook to show me around, a young pretty local girl that was a tour guide for me for the day, as we started off looking at some pagodas in D5 thus being in my neighbourhood so to speak, with the first one we visited being Thien Mau Pagoda . Then it was off to another nearby pagoda, then the War Museum which I found to be very surreal to me and most humbling, I saw so many images that touched my heart, I could feel the pain and tragedy. There was the Independent Palace,  which I viewed from the gates only. Then there was the big church across the street from the Canadian Immigration Consulate/Services regarding visas and passports, which is called Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, the front of this Cathedral was ok to photograph but much construction and/or renovation with the sides and back of building going on, and then in the evening we ended up at Bitexco Financial Tower  on the Saigon Skydeck 49th floor for a 360 degree viewing of the city and beyond with bright lights everywhere.

I liked Vietnam very much, I like the very friendly happy smiling people, I like the Vietnamese coffee and the country, as there were trees, rivers, oceans and beaches.The foods were tasty and cheap for the most part, depending on the areas, as with the accommodations. Overall I really enjoyed the stays in Bac Ninh and DaNang. I will go back again I am sure as there is so much more to explore. I met so many people that became friends with me and I will treasure all the memories of them and the country along with all the experiences I had, I can hardly wait to get back to Vietnam for a much longer stay…

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