Couchsurfing in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh Skyline

After nine nights in the small towns of the Mekong Delta it was a relief and somewhat of a culture shock for us to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The traffic, the lights and the throngs of tourists took us quite by surprise at first and it took us a few hours to adjust to the hustle and bustle of the city after the slow pace of life in the delta.

The traffic in HCMC moves and flows and pulsates like a living organism. 

We spent two nights in a hotel and then moved a few blocks up the road to stay with our couchsurfing host, Dung Le. I haven't couchsurfed since I met Ric three years ago, but with our tight budget and ambitious travel plans we thought it might be time to find some free accommodation and experience life as the locals live.

Dung ushered us into her kitchen, sat us down and gave us cold water and chilled fruit before showing us to our room. There was no couch this time, we had our own room with a double mattress, pillows, sheets and a fan. Dung lives with her mother, son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and husband in a three story house right in the center of HCMC. Their home is like a rabbit warren with ladders leading up through tiny hatches to reveal whole floors above. She made us feel right at home and cooked for us in the evening. We tried to return the favour by cooking for her and her family one night but I'm not too sure is Grandma enjoyed the garlicky spaghetti and meatballs! We had such a great time couchsurfing with Dung, it really enriched our time in HCMC and hopefully we'll keep in touch.

Dung (right) and her mother and granddaughter.

We visited the botanical gardens and were surprised to find that the ticket price also included the city zoo. The flora and fauna wasn't that special and seeing the animals cooped up in tiny crowded cages isn't really our thing, but the shaded park that houses the zoo made a pleasant break from the heat of the sun. From the zoo we walked for ages to find the ancient Cantonese 'Jade Emperor Pagoda', it's old and crumbling, nestled in between blocks of flats, hotels and shops, which is why it was so hard to find!

Jade Emperor Pagoda

One of the main stops in any tourist's trip to HCMC is the War Remnants Museum, a mainly photographic museum that documents the war crimes committed by the Americans between 1954 and 1975. Galleries include: the international anti-war movement, showing protests  around the world against America's invasion of Vietnam; the legacy of the war crimes, showing how second and third generation Vietnamese people continue to be affected by the DNA-altering chemicals used as weapons of war; photographs from the war taken by war-time photographers. In addition to the photo exhibits there are also displays of bombs, weapons and instruments of torture used by the invading forces, as well as survivour testimonies. I found the displays at the museum very informative and not nearly as one sided as they might have been. The collection of war-time photos was incredibly moving, amazing photography that captured the action on both sides so vividly. I was equally horrified by the images of the dead, mutilated bodies, as I was by the survivours' testimonies. In Vietnam there is no benefits system like there is in England, children born with deformities resulting from the chemical warfare used by the Americans have little to no hope for the future. It is a depressing reality that it is often the poorest and weakest people in society that suffer the most hardship.

On a lighter note, we spent our final day in HCMC at Dam Sen Water Park, the best water park I have ever been to outside of Florida. It was mid-week and the park was quite, we had the slides almost to ourselves, the other visitors (Vietnamese teenagers) preferring to canoodle in the jaccuzzi. We had a fantastic day whizzing down the slides and chilling on rubber rings in the lazy river.

I really loved HCMC; the wide streets lined with tall trees, the shaded parks and squares with their distinctly European feel, the towering narrow buildings, the crazy traffic, the street hawkers selling coffee from a cool box outside Starbucks, the brightly coloured Communist propaganda posters on every corner, the buzzing De Tham tourist area, the power walkers in the central park... The city had a great feel to it. I hope we'll go back there again some day, soon.

Communist propaganda posters, Ho Chi Minh.

How to get to...

Dam Sen Water Park: take the number 11 bus from Nguyen Trai (behind 23/9 park) going South. Get off at Dam Sen bus station and carry on walking for 10 minutes, the water park is on the left. Cost = 5,000