It was sad to say goodbye to Hong and How but we were ready to settle down in one place for more than a few hours (not to mention we desperately needed to do laundry). The first thing I noticed when driving towards the city was the gradual increase in motorbikes-- it makes New York City traffic look mild. I also noticed that this city was much more modern than all of the other cities in Vietnam-- there were international stores, banks, sky scrapers and everyone seemed to be a bit more trendy.
Our hotel was in an alley way which seemed very common for the city
My good friend Allie Frankel studied abroad in Ho Chi Minh City junior year of college and put us in contact with her Vietnamese friend, Thanh, who still lives there. Thanh and her friend Hugo truly made our trip in Ho Chi Minh unforgettable--it would not have been the same without them. Our first night after we got settled into our hotel, we met Than and Hugo for dinner and they showed us a great night out in the city. The next day while Thanh had to work, Hugo picked us up from our hotel and basically became our private tour guide for the day. He greeted us with delicious iced coffees, took us to some of Ho Chi Minh's best street foods for lunch and even accompanied us through the museums which I am sure he's already seen numerous times. The museum that we were most eager to see and the most memorable was the War Museum which focuses on the Vietnam (American) war. After spending more than 3 weeks in Vietnam, the images and stories in the museum had a new meaning to us.
We ended the day with some shopping and then met up with Thanh for dinner at a popular restaurant where you can make your own spring rolls (which was different than northern Vietnam). We then went to a bar and taught them some American drinking games.
We left early the next morning ready to start a new adventure in Cambodia, but spending time with Than and Hugo in Ho Chi Minh city was the perfect way to end our travels in Vietnam.
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