My third visit to Viet Nam, just three months after the second one :)
And it was also the second country of my 3-week Asia trip with Felix and Niklas.
This blog post actually feels a bit pointless since I visited the exact same places (Saigon and Vung Tau) already in “Vietnam II”. The only real difference this time? I had three other crazy people with me (VTM joined us for the days in Saigon too!) :D
We took a late-night flight from Mumbai to Saigon and were more than ready to enter the comfort of Viet Nam after the intense and chaotic days in India with nonstop action and almost no sleep at all. Compared to Mumbai, Thane and Pune, Saigon felt like an oasis in terms of sounds, smells, traffic and simply walking around the city :D
The very first thing we did after landing in Saigon, after eating a Bánh Mì, of course, was checking into an hourly motel to finally get some proper sleep. After a 4-hour power nap, we were ready to explore the city and our district Phú Nhuận again, which I had already enjoyed so much during my previous stay.
Our days in Saigon consisted of delicious and exotic food, endless walks through different districts, Grab motorbike races with amazing prizes to win, daily badminton & pickleball sessions, lots of cheap Bia Hơi and plenty of spa visits to calm our India-stricken bodies and souls :D
Saigon is simply an incredibly fun city and after spending many weeks there over multiple visits, it slowly became one of my favorite big cities in the world. I already mentioned the massive transformation compared to my 2019 visit in the last post, but I really have to repeat myself here: I’m genuinely impressed by how fast this megacity is developing while still keeping its unique energy and atmosphere. It’s honestly a pretty good example of how urban development can work.
If I had to choose my top 5 big cities from my entire world trip so far, the list would probably be: Saigon, Buenos Aires, Yerevan, La Paz and Almaty.
After Saigon, we headed to Vung Tau again to enjoy the coast, absurdly delicious seafood, some nice viewpoints and the calm atmosphere of the city, at least on weekdays :D We had a really nice apartment there and, for the first time during the trip, everyone even had their own room. A true luxury after somebody always had to sleep on the floor or in some random storage room :D
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| BOM - SGN |
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| Walking out of the airport to eat Banh Mi |
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| Coffee in Viet Nam, the best in Asia by far! |
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| First restaurant |
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| Delicious jackfruit with sticky rice and sesame, soo good! |
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| VTM joining the gang for 4 days |
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| Alleys of Phu Nhuan |
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| Vo Thi Mai aka Vo Thi Guide |
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| Bia hoi! |
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| Saigon vibes, sitting on the road on tiny chairs, nipping coffee and beers |
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| Balut! |
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| Clay roup, snails in salty egg, octopus teeth and green beans. Soo delicious |
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| Grab race no. 1 |
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| From a rooftop bar in Phu Nhuan |
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| Really good band in a bar |
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| Pickle ball session |
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| Head massage with shampoo treatment |
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| Laundry day on the roof of our guest house :D |
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| We are too tall for this country |
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| Com tam |
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| Book shop in D1 |
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| Ben Thanh market |
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| Beer tasting in a brewery |
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| One of the many new developing areas of the city |
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| For your entertainment: 2 nearly 2-meter-tall men on a 30 cm plastic chair |
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| Even the kids is like what the hell :D |
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| Hundreds of interesting bars andcoffee shops in Saigon |
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| Team India :D |
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| Badminton session |
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| Landmark 81 during sunset |
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| POV: Grab ride during sunset |
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| Kite battles, we wanted to order our one ones but they would be so tiny, we wouldn't even see them next to those monsters |
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| A sink and box with peppermints just for puking :D |
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| Meeting at the reception every morning, checking on the others on the security cam :D |
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| Off to Vung Tau |
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| Apartment in Vung Tau with a beautiful view, 17 euros a night with 3 bedrooms |
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| Russian Donut shop |
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| Hiking up a hill for sunset |
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| Leaving the official path |
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| And throw rocks to decide who is the boss of the day tomorrow :D :D |
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| Sea food feast in Vung Tau |
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| Catan, a new passion that we found on the trip (played it later in Thailand too :D) |
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| One of my favorite meals of the entire trip, you can tell on my eyes, no time for posing |
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| :D |
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| Peeing free-handed, quite impressive and only possible with a small |
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| Meeting school kids at a bus stop |
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| One of the best Spa sessions ever! |
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| I love that photo hahahaha |
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| That hurt like hell! They nearly made our ears deaf there |
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| Why does it look like a hospital? |
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| It's just Spa, I swear on god |
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| Walking back to the airport and having the same Banh Mi from the same uncle that we had on arrival :D |
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| Tạm biệt, Viet Nam |
