After talking about it for five years, and to celebrate our 5th anniversary, my partner and me decided to spend this summer in Japan!*
*I decided and pulled the trigger by getting our flights lol.
We like to take our time when travelling, hanging out in each city and also doing walks/hikes around, and since it's M's first time in Japan and my first out of Tokyo we decided to take a pretty typical route 😀
🛬 Osaka (5 nights); 🚅 Nara (1 night); 🚅 Kyoto (5 nights); 🚌 Takayama (4 nights); and lastly 🚌 Tokyo (14 nights) = 1 month!
💜 0. STOP: Hồ Chí Minh (Vietnam)
I have spent almost all July in New Delhi (India) doing an intensive hindi course and visiting my nani in Punjab. My flight to Osaka was super cheap (200€) if I did a loong layover in Vietnam (18h), so ofc I had to!! M is flying from Spain and we timed our flights to meet the same day at Kansai airport.
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| Airport coord: everything is from Westside except chunni (scarf). |
My flight arrived in Hồ Chí Minh at 06:00 and immigration took around an hour to get through. The first thing I did was buy an eSIM for 3.5€ (through my Revolut app) and get 1mill Đồng in cash (~32€) out for the day.
You can go to the city center via Grab taxis or the local buses, which I found to be very efficient and cheap. I took the 152 to District 1 (where the War Remnant Museum and other touristic spots are). It was just 5000₫ (0.15€) and took around an 45min!
First I got my nails done at Unnie. I searched for nail and hair salons on Google Maps and randomly chose this area in District 1 which seemed to have many shops with good reviews. I was so tired that I didn't feel like sitting for an intricate design so just got my usual square nail refill in white.
The nail technician was probably the most meticulous I've experienced! She was very gentle and asked me in every step for my approval with shape/application/etc. The refill cost was 450.000₫ (~15€).
Next I went for a hair treatment and wash/cut at Amour. I can now add my own experience to the excellent reviews. For just 1 million ₫ (~32€) I got a deep scalp message, keratin treatment and a much needed hair cut. They went to great lengths to make me comfortable not just by asking/explain each step with Google translate but also getting me a drink (I went for a Vietnamese Ice Caphe which was SO good) and even offering me a charger for my phone before I even thought of it.
While I got my pampering session done, I couldn't help but notice the store next to them had been busy pretty much ALL morning, which can only mean one thing!!
GOOD FOOD! I'm such an idiot though and bought THREE Bánh Mì by accident 😅 An elderly man approached me asking so I gave him one of the extra. Then I went to a park to look for somewhere nice to sit and ended up giving the second extra to very kind man who was offering to clean my shoes (50.000₫) and we had lunch and a good chat.
While I love spending time in India, talking to strange men comes with too many problems there. I have to act a lot more guarded than what's natural to me because even just smiling or being polite has caused me problems. I did not get the same feeling AT ALL the whole day in Hồ Chí Minh. To be able to talk with strangers safely is wonderful!!
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| Reunification Palace |
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| Notre-Dame of Saigon |
My next stop was the War Remnant Museum, which I really didn't want to miss. The Museum is just 40.000₫ (€) and walks you through the torture, war crimes and suffering caused in the Vietnam war.
Warning: it's an intense and heavy experience. I ended up crying. They dont sugar coat anything and the horrible part is how well documented it all is. There's photos and photos, videos, letters, first hand accounts, torture devices, even embryos, and too many dead... there's too much I'm feeling related to this, while Gaza is being starved to death. So it was actually pretty jarring to see tourists (French) trying on hats at the museum shop and doing funny selfies 🙃 Maybe not the place?
After the Museum I wanted to think so I took a walk towards the riverside.
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| Street cafes setting up for the evening. |
I sat down by the Saigon river and had an ice tea while watching the reflected sunset.
At 19:00 I got the last 152 bus back to the airport and security wasn't too bad (30min). I had dinner at one of the restaurants in the food court.
All in all, I LOVED Hồ Chí Minh and have put Vietnam next in my list of countries to visit. I was very impressed with how walkable, safe and clean the city is, how open and friendly the people are and the food is AMAZING. I really recommend visiting!
Next stop, Osaka!
~~Ran
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