vietnam

The Scamp in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Posted on by erranteditor

My time in Hanoi was brief. I took a flight to the other end of the country so that I could explore Ho Chi Minh city, one of the largest cities in Vietnam. It is commonly referred to as Saigon, the city’s name until 1945. The city is in the southeast part of Vietnam and is home to around 10 million people.

I was met at the airport by a guide who got me settled into the hotel. I stayed at the Prague Hotel, which had really nice clean rooms and good food in the hotel restaurant. It was also near a 7/11 and the best little sandwich station. I arrived on Christmas Eve, and got to take advantage of the warm weather and the bustling street. One of the great things about being in this part of the world is the smell of street food. Although I was not brave enough to try street food in Vietnam, the smells were amazing.

Christmas day was a journey to My Tho, which is an entrance to the Mekong Delta. I was on tour with three couples from India. The women were all friends from college. There was another couple from India as well as a guy who was travelling solo (also from India) and some people from the US. The whole group was fun and lively and the tour guide was such a nice guy. He was probably in his early 20s and he loved hearing travel stories from everyone.

The first place we stopped was the Vinh Trang Temple. The temple is known for the giant Buddha and the beautiful tiles and gardens. There is a great article that you can find here that provides an overview of the temple, but some of the highlights include:

  • Statue of Maitreya Buddha: This colossal statue was inaugurated in 2010, constructed from reinforced concrete and steel, standing at a height of 20 meters and weighing approximately 250 tons. Under this statue is an office building of the Buddhist Executive Committee of Tien Giang Province.
  • Statue of Amitabha Buddha: Inaugurated in 2008, this standing statue of Amitabha Buddha measures 18 meters in height and 150 tons in weight.
  • Reclining Buddha statue: Often mistaken for the statue of Amitabha Buddha, this Reclining Buddha statue was completed in 2013, with a length of 32 meters, a height of 10 meters, and a weight of 250 tons, made from concrete and steel.
  • 7-story tower: In addition to the colossal and majestic Buddha statues, Vinh Trang Pagoda also houses a 7-story tower located at the rear. This tower serves as a repository for the ashes of Buddhist disciples and monks of the pagoda.

We then boarded a boat and sailed down the Mekong around four islands, Dragon, Unicorn, Pheonix and Tortiose. We stopped on Unicorn island and then took a sampan through the Thoi Son canal to see a honey bee farm and have a very interesting lunch.

The island had a host of animals that were for sale and some interesting drinks that promised a wide range of cures. I was not brave enough for snake wine, but I did hold some bees and a snake.

Once back at the hotel, I had a Christmas Banh Mi, which is a sandwich that was filled with veggies and chicken and some sort of spicy chilli sauce that was amazing. This was not the first Christmas that I have spent away from my family, but it was the first warm one that I’ve had in a while.

I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam, but it was not long enough. 5 days was not enough to see everything, and it is definitely a country that I would visit again. The people were really nice, it was fairly easy to navigate, and the food was amazing. I felt very safe there being a solo female traveller, and found that there were a lot of good tours that could be easily booked to get me around. It really is a must visit.

The Scamp in Hanoi, Vietnam

Posted on by erranteditor

I’m taking it back to December 2022. I have a massive backlog of travels to write about, but life has been very stressful lately, and writing about all of this so long after the fact feels odd. I miss the days when I updated this blog as things happened.

In November of 2022, my stepbrother Sean died. His death came almost 7 years to the day of my brother Eric, forever making Thanksgiving a horrible holiday for my dad. Addiction is a serious problem and sometimes it completely consumes a person. I’d booked this trip months before Sean’s death and had a serious chat with my parents about cancelling the trip or not. My dad told me to go on the trip and use the time to relax and process.

The trip did not get off to the best start. My flight from Edinburgh to London was cancelled, which caused me to miss my flight from London to Qatar. I ended up having to fly out the next day, which cost me the first two days of my time in Vietnam. The changing of the ticket and a new flight will become an issue later, but at that time, I was happy to have a flight out.

I booked my travel with a company called Realistic Asia. I cannot recommend them enough. The company books tours through Southeast Asia. They take care of everything, internal flights, private tour guides, hotels, every aspect of the trip you can think of. They were so helpful when I had to change my flight and even booked me a new hotel. Due to a slight misunderstanding on my part, what I thought was a group tour was actually a group of 1 tour. This turned out to be amazing once I was in Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.

I arrived in Hanoi after a million hours in Qatar’s airport to warm weather and the friendliest hotel staff. After a bit of a nap, I went out to enjoy the city a bit. I was only going to have one day in the city before going to Ho Chi Minh, so I wanted to make the most of it.

After a quick Google search I found the Temple of Literature. It is a temple dedicated to Confucius and was built in 1070. Yes, 1070! The temple was a popular spot for school tours, and it was really fun to see all the kids going through the temple.

According to Wikipedia:

The Văn Miếu is one of several temples in Vietnam which is dedicated to Confucius, sages, and scholars. The temple is located to the south of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long. The various pavilions, halls, statues, and stelae of doctors are places where offering ceremonies, study sessions, and the strict exams of the Đại Việt took place. The temple is featured on the back of the 100,000 Vietnamese đồng banknote. Just before the Tết Vietnamese New Year celebration, calligraphists will assemble outside the temple and write wishes in Chữ Hán.

The temple has 5 courtyards and a selection of stone tablets to encourage people to study.

Once I had explored the temple, I decided to brave the streets and wander the city a bit. Let me tell you, that was an experience. Scooters do not stop and the constant honking and beeping let you know that you might get run over if you dare to cross the street. I made it across thanks to a tiny little grandma who just walked like she was invisible. People stopped for her and I just road her coattails across the street. I enjoyed the walk and only had to pop into a hotel once to get wifi so I could get back to my hotel. The day was a major success.

This also started my goal of going into as many 7/11s as I could find. The flavours of crisps on this trip were amazing, so different from what you can find in the US and the UK. The seaweed-flavoured ones were surprisingly good.

Unfortunately, I missed the chance to take a cruise along the Ha Long Bay, and I would definitely go back to visit.