Vietnam Week 1 - Ho Chi Minh/Mekong Delta

As many of you know I was lucky enough to take three weeks off work and explore Vietnam with one of my best friends, François. Many of you may remember him by the name Tallboy, from the Pacific Crest Trail. We have kept in touch the past 2 years and decided we should have another adventure together! He has been traveling Asia since January and so we decided that once he got to Vietnam, I would meet him there and we would travel the country. This would be my first time traveling to Asia and I couldn't wait for what lay ahead of me.

I flew into Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Saigon, and spent the first couple of days getting over jetlag as well as exploring the city. First I needed money and a SIM card, both of which were incredibly easy to do. After we just walked the streets. Between all the alleys and small streets it felt like we could walk forever and not run out of things to see. There were shops that sold everything from computer monitors to LED lights to money safes. Instead of seeing big shops in America and other western countries, we saw endless smaller shops that specialized in anything you could think of.

While in Ho chi Minh we also visited the War Remnants Museum. While not the most adventurous parts of the trip, this was still one of my favorites. Not only was it interesting learning about the Vietnam war from the Vietnamese point of view, but it was incredible to view all the photos and see an extensive amount of documents from the war. I highly recommend anyone traveling to Vietnam visit here.

We spent the next day and a half in HCM exploring the markets, trying new food, and experiencing the night life. At night the city took on a completely different mood. The temperature dropped, neon lights illuminated the streets and everyone seemed to relax a little bit. Going from small Iowa City to a city of just over 9 million people was an additional shock for me. The big city life was both thrilling and taxing at the same time. After a couple days in the city we were ready for our first motorcycle tour.

We headed out southwest toward the Mekong delta for a 3 day tour. This region is where the Mekong river empties out into the sea and is known for its agriculture due to its flat flood plains. In a way it felt very similar to driving through Iowa. We saw everything from rice to limes and to floral nurseries. Many of the nurseries we saw grew massive amount of seedlings and then sent them away to buyers.

We spent three days among the locals without seeing another tourist. Almost no one spoke English which was such a humbling experience. As a native English speaker, it is easy to take for granted the fact that most of the world also speaks the same language. This experience was another that I think helped me grow tremendously on the trip. Despite the language barrier, we still made many friends and had many laughs.

One of my favorite parts during these couple of days was to get a cà phê sữa, or Vietnamese iced coffee, and sit watching people go about their daily lives. It was fascinating to be completely immersed in a different culture and be able to witness what normal life looks like for people on the other side of the planet. We took many coffee breaks to just observe what was going on around us.

As the first week wrapped up I was exhausted. We had spent 3 days riding 8 hours a day in the heat riding motorcycles. We went into each day with no plans and just rode until we got tired. I was ready to take a day or two to relax and stay in one place for more than a day. We headed back to Ho Chi Minh and made plans to fly to Hoi An where we would be on the coast and be able to relax. It was hard to believe I had already been in Vietnam a week, it felt like I had already experienced so much, what would the next two weeks be like??