Living in a Non-Tourist Neighborhood in Ho Chi Min City

Our apartment building, top floor, Robin waving

 We arrived in Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon) on January 8/26 & as is our usual choice, we had booked an apartment on Airbnb. This one was rather unique! We trudged up 4 long sets of stairs, opened the door to a bedroom with another door to an outdoor area/terrace with a kitchen & a walled off small room in the corner, no roof except the higher roof over the deck & it turned out to be the bathroom. Initially we thought there was no bathroom! There was a toilet & “wet shower”, but no sink. You had to go from the bathroom into the bedroom, then out another door to the deck to be able to wash your hands! Strange but we got used to it. The outdoor deck made up for the rest - we spent many hours sitting out there, enjoying the weather & watching local life unfold below us. And we got to try out a projection TV, not a fan. 

Our outdoor deck

Kitchen area

Our lane below

Bedroom, door to bathroom & out to the deck

Bathroom

Projection TV on the wall

I found a route to run in the mornings thru the local neighborhood & along the river - dodging vendors set up on the sidewalks selling fresh veggies, fruit, meats, seafood as well as carts offering coffee, drinks & food plus the ever present motorbikes parked every which way & driving also every which way!

Very old woman grilling meat every day

On our last day I noticed a dental office offering a deal on a check-up & cleaning, $10! So we both went back & after a short wait we each got our own dentist & assistant, had a checkup complete with a photo wand that did video & photos of inside your mouth & had our teeth cleaned! And a good job. 

Waiting room, chatty reception staff

Inside my mouth, sorry, a bit gross!

We visited the large Ben Thanh market, no shopping for us as we have no room in our bags, but we did buy cashews & dried mangoes and stopped for lunch a couple of times in the food court. 

Tasty pork chop & rice

Crispy fish skin snacks

We finally found a restaurant serving Vietnamese curry, delicious & then wandered thru Bui Vien street, the busy nightlife area. 

A local temple, food cart

Unfortunately the air quality was pretty bad most days in HCMC, we wore masks on the Waterbus that we took to see the city from the river. 

A massive screen showing ads

While we were in the downtown area we checked out a few sights that we had visited last winter. 

Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral, still covered in scaffolding 

Opera House

Noodle bowl - Bun Thit Nuong

We like to eat, but definitely tired of always having to go out, so we were very happy to find a take away restaurant just down our lane selling Bun Cha Hanoi with spring rolls & noodle bowls for the low price of $2.60. 

While we were in HCMC we spent some time on planning our onward travel - we came to the realization that we would have to cancel a planned week on Koh Chang island, Thailand due to the Canadian government travel advice to avoid all travel within 50 km of the Thailand - Cambodia border due to current unrest. So we switched to a different Thai island & made a reservation. We also booked our airfare to Sri Lanka for mid February, so we are definitely headed there & we are so excited! And we have applied for & received our visas. 

Not too much excitement for us in HCMC, mainly relaxing & watching the world go by - & eating. 

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And we even had McDonald’s, Big Mac & salted egg dipped ice cream

We left HCMC on January 16/26 & made our way to Cambodia.We chose the Giant Ibis bus company as they used a big bus with luxury seats and provided assistance at the Cambodian border for visas. The bus cost $50 each & our visas cost $55 each, good for 30 days. 

The trip was over 8 hours with a couple hours just getting out of HCMC. We enjoyed watching the countryside go by - rice fields, lots of cows, factories, poor areas with farmers living in stilt houses & then a sharp contrast with some very fancy modern houses. 

Traffic in HCMC

Rice fields 

Fancy house

Entering Cambodia 

Chinese casino, many in Cambodia 

Farm with a stilt house

Ornate gates entering villages

Typical sight

Crossing the Mekong River 

Quite the load!

Many beautiful temples along the way

Huge lotus leaves

We have settled in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 2 weeks, looking forward to enjoying Khmer food, exploring, trying to learn some basic Khmer (Cambodian language) & figuring out a new money system. 

Still Living the Dream!