Van Transfer from Da Lat: for the first time on our bus and van travels, we were seated in the front row in the middle seat and window seat next to the driver. In Vietnam, and with this particular driver at the helm, this was a total experience and kept our eyes glued to the road for the full 8 hour journey. He drove like a mad man maneuvering constantly into incoming traffic if there was so much as a 100m opportunity to gain ground on vehicles in front of us, bullying his way back into the right lane miraculously only seconds before a potential collision 

Motorbike street food tour: Like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City is known for its street food. A popular Airbnb Experience here is a street food tour on the back of a motorbike hosted by local  university students. We were super excited about the prospect of doing another tour on the back of a bike after our Easy Rider experience in Da Lat and couldn’t wait to join the flow of motorbike traffic in the city streets. Our drivers and guides for the day were Huey and Long, two nice and engaging university students who we would consider friends by day’s end. The highlights included:

• Chuoi nep nuong: our first stop was tucked away on the corner of a quiet alley and busy boulevard. We were here to try chuoi nep nuong, a delicious sweet dish consisting of banana filled sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf and grilled over charcoal. Once charred, the sticky rice roll is cut up and served in a bowl filled with coconut milk and topped with sesame… yum. It was here that we also learned one of our most important lessons from Huey – the best food is served in the alleys, not the major streets
       
• District 3 Apartment Block: Huey and Long felt it important to show us more than just food and the streets but also how real people lived in the city, so they took us to the oldest apartment block in District 3 built by the Americans in the 70s. We toured the massive apartment block, peaking into the open windows and doors of individual units as we walked by, and learned a bit about how people lived from Long. We also tried Bot Chien, a stir fried rice cakes dish topped with fried egg, scallions, and papaya swimming in a delicious concoction of chili, soy, and fish sauces
  
  
• Corner coffee shop: What was supposed to be a quick stop to try Vietnamese coffee from a local shop turned into an afternoon of playing cards. In search of a new card game, Jessie asked Huey and Long if they ever played cards. They smiled, took out a deck of cards, and  proceeded to teach us “Forward”, a ubiquitous card game played (and gambled on) across the country during the Tet holiday. We sat playing hand after hand – at one point, an older Vietnamese man at an adjacent table saw we were playing, stood up, and without saying a single word aided Doug throughout one hand to victory in a dazzling display of skill and experience
  
  
• Ho Thi Ky: At some point we decided we needed to put the cards down and finish the tour. Down a narrow unsuspecting and quiet alley just before the Ho Thi Ky Flower Market is the Ho Thi Ky food street – our next stop. We sat down inside one of the low key restaurants off the alley to try Hu Tieu Tron Kho, a dry mixed noodles dish with shrimp and pork (for Doug). Huey and Long were also indulging in a bowl, which is when you know it’s going to be good. The dish comes together by mixing in a delicious concoction of sweet soy sauce, tamarind, chili, and pickled garlic, and is also accompanied by a bowl of warm and flavorful broth to sip on in between bites. It was very similar to the Pho Ga Tron we tried in Hanoi and our favorite dish of the tour (and maybe even in Vietnam). After the delicious bowl of noodles, we walked up the flower market to see the beautiful arrangements sourced from the same farms we visited in Da Lat 

Cu Chi Tunnels: The Cu Chi Tunnels are a fascinating network of underground tunnels located in the north of the city where the Viet Cong lived and based their guerilla war efforts in the 60s and 70s. Today, the well preserved tunnel complex has been turned into a museum popular among tourists looking to visit the tunnels and learn about life in the tunnels and the Viet Cong’s clever tactics during the war. We enjoyed our time there crawling through the incredibly narrow and claustrophobic tunnels (which have been widened 3x for tourists!) and learning from our guide Sunny about the various booby traps laid by the Viet Cong, clever ways the Viet Cong outsmarted American troops (like wearing shoe soles pointed in the opposite direction to make them untraceable), and what life was like underground (they ate nothing but Taro root for 20 years!). There is also a shooting range onsite, which we found a bit ironic and terrifying given anyone can fire automatic weapons there and it seems antithetical to the purpose of the museum. On the way back to the city center, we also stopped at an art workshop that employs people handicapped by Agent Orange during the war which was neat to see and support 

War Remnants Museum: The War Remnants Museum is a must-see for all Americans traveling through Ho Chi Minh City. The museum covered a much broader scope of the war than what we saw at Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi, starting with the war with the French in the 50s all the way up through post-war efforts to increase relations between the two sides and veterans involved, and contained several exhibits each looking at the war from a different perspective. We spent hours making our way through the various exhibits in awe of some of the more horrific implications of American actions that we didn’t fully appreciate till now. We found two exhibits particularly impactful – one a collection of photographs and vignettes captured from journalists around the world that died while covering the war and another dedicated to the devastating impacts of Agent Orange on both Vietnamese and American people to this day. It was difficult to contemplate (even if weighted to the Vietnamese perspective), especially the photographs and details from the My Lai massacre front and center in the photographer exhibit     

Buu Dien (Central Post Office): Buu Dien is a beautiful and imposing French colonial style building still functioning today as the central post office. We admired the architecture outside and inside (it almost felt like a time capsule) and decided we’d spend some time writing and sending postcards   

Bun Vien (aka “Walking Street”): Bun Vien is a popular tourist street consisting of one huge and crazy bar after another, very similar to Kao San road in Bangkok. It was close to our hotel, so we walked over one night and did one lap up the busy street taking in the sites and sounds. It felt like Kao San road x 10 and Vegas. Not our speed but worth a walk for anyone in the area