Day 42: Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh City

Claire: It still blows my mind how locals wear jumpers, jackets, boots and coats when it's 31 degrees outside! I do love strolling the streets and watching people go about their everyday lives though. 

We stroll to Nguyen Hue Street, the main promenade in the city centre running from a statue of Ho Chi Minh down to the Saigon River. It's really wide and feels very Westernised with its openness and modern high rises surrounding it.

We'd been reading about The Cafe Apartment though which is an old residential apartment building on the avenue that's now been turned into coffee shops, boutiques and co-working spaces. From the street below it looked so vibrant — with cafe balconies, plants and fairy lights. Unfortunately by the time we got there Gav was pretty much melting and the idea of climbing 8 flights of stairs didn't really tickle his fancy... 

So we visited the super cool and air-conned The Workshop just around the corner which was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. We're very much appreciating Ho Chi Minh City's cafe culture! 

Following on from yesterday's history lesson we crossed a bridge out of the city centre to District 4 to visit the HCMC Museum. A grand ol' building, the exhibition kinda attempts to tell the story of the city's fight for independence through photos, ceramics and maps, etc.

When you pay a 40p entrance ticket you can't really expect the world, however a little explanation of each artefact would've been helpful to paste the stories together in some kind of timeline...

Our last night in the city we thought we'd treat ourselves to some swanky (not happy hour) cocktails at a rooftop bar with 360 views. Our experience was ruined for several reasons and we really begrudged handing over £20 for 2 drinks (especially when we've been having beers for less than a quid our whole trip) but we paid and left on the hunt for something more our cup of tea. Then we reached Bui Vien Street... eeeeekkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

But all ended well with a scrummy Vietnamese dinner at the lovely Restaurant Den Long. Lots of food, wine and beer (and all for £16.68 incase you were wondering!).

Gav's day 42 takeaway

• I'mmmmm mmmmmmeeeeellllllllttttttiiinnngggggggggg
• Sky bars (by which I mean bars in the sky) are such a great idea. But the people running these things usually seem to get carried away thinking they're so high and mighty the normal rules of decent service and value for money doesn't apply to them! And that's generally everywhere, not just here.
• But one thing that we have noticed specifically out here is that museums and the such close at lunch for a good hour and a half. I know I'm a city snob and expect everything open all the time but come on, since when does a museum in a capital city need to close for lunch? Especially when there's literally nothing surrounding the building and punters are left pondering the baking hot streets mmmmmmeeeeellllllllttttttiiinnngggggggggg away.