the land of the blue dragon (vietnam) pt. 1

May 20, 2025

We’ve made it to ‘Nam.

It’s good to be back, and it has been interesting revisiting this city that I had seen a few years prior with new eyes.

ho chi minh city #

We spent one of our first evenings in the city going on a food tour. Whilst it was an enjoyable time, it was a little underwhelming as they showed us foods we were both already quite familiar with - bun bo hue, rice paper rolls, banh mi. The highlight for me were these leaf wrapped meat rolls which were paired with a delicious peanut satay-like sauce.

food tour final meal — The final meal on the tour.

no 14 ton that dam #

My favourite thing about Ho Chi Minh City was an apartment complex simply called No. 14 Ton That Dam, which was just its address. A similar, more popular spot to go to nearby is the ‘Cafe Apartments’, but I found this a little over-touristy, whereas this was spot was perfect for me.

You enter the building through the driveway.

Some of the criss-cross stairways in the building.

The cool, graffiti-laden interior of the first floor.

memento saigon — Memento Saigon, a particularly floral cafe/bar hidden behind a door.

myself and walid — Myself and Walid, a friend I made from our hostel.

whisfee cafe — Walid having a coffee at Whisfee Cafe.

railway walk #

One afternoon, I decided to follow a self-guided walking tour alongside the railway in HCMC, which was a nice way to get acquainted with some of the lesser known streets in the city.

houses by railway — The houses were very close to the train. I couldn't imagine sleeping here peacefully.

The walkways had lots of little decorations like this.

approaching train — The train approaching.

bikers waiting — Bikers waiting patiently.

The train controller had to manually pull out the metal gate and wave the train through.

traffic — Traffic on the side of the tracks.

One of the busy paths alongside the railway.

vietnamese woman — A delightful woman who I chatted to briefly about her experience working with Americans during the Vietnam War. She explained it was why she was good at speaking English.

the cafe apartments #

Myself and Walid spent a little bit of time checking out the Cafe Apartments, however I wasn’t terribly impressed and found it overly touristy.

The greenery throughout the building was a nice touch.

museum of traditional vietnamese medicine #

Thought I’d educate myself on Vietnam’s traditional medicine history.

spice bags — Bags full of god-knows-what.

The botanical illustrations were very impressive.

mushroom replica — A large replica of some mushrooms.

pottery — Pottery, assumably to store some medicine.

can tho #

After Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to go on a bit of a Mekong Delta journey before reaching Cambodia, and our first stop was a town called Can Tho.

floating market boat tour #

We stayed in a homestay with a lovely woman called Ms. Ha who woke us up early (around 5.30am) to take us on a floating market boat tour.

homes by the mekong — The homes by the Mekong.

Many boats would be floating by with various produce on them. You could go up to them to purchase goods if you'd like, but we just sailed by.

noodle factory #

As part of our floating market tour, we stopped off at a local noodle factory.

noodle woman — A woman prepping some noodles.

noodle staff — Ms. Ha (pictured wearing sandals) chatting to the staff.

noodle factory workers — The working conditions in the factory were cramped and it was incredibly hot inside. I don't know how these women do it.

Some of the buckets used to process the noodles.

ms ha unimpressed — Ms. Ha looking unimpressed.

blender — A blending contraption of some sort.

rice paper making #

On this same tour, we were taken to a rice paper factory where we learnt how to prepare rice paper, run them through a flattening machine and dry them on some sun racks.

A local cooking the rice paper over steam.

alt — Laying the freshly cooked rice paper out onto the drying rack.

spinning the wheel — My turn to spin the wheel.

rice wine brewing shed #

We got to see how rice wine or ‘happy water’ is prepared.

rice wine machine — This is the entire setup.

alt — The distilled rice wine is then slowly dripped into this plastic bottle on the other end.

tofu shop #

We also got to observe a shop preparing fresh tofu.

tofu workers — The long tofu blocks being prepped by the workers.

sa dec #

Our next stop along the Mekong was to visit Sa Dec, a town known for its flower farms.

staying in a flower farm #

We stayed at Maison en Bambou Phong-Le Vent, a homestay right in the middle of a bunch of flower farms, which was a perfect way to get immersed in what the town is known for.

farm buildings — Assorted buildings around the farm.

pathways — To get between parts of the farm and homestay, you had to walk over walkways suspended above water.

alt — This was just one farm. I've read estimates of there being up to 1500 families each growing their own flowers for sale.

xeo quyt forest #

We visited the Xeo Quyt Forest for a day, which is a 52-hectare mangrove forest that also has a history of being a base used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam war.

We drove our motorbikes there, and had to hop across the Mekong river on a ferry.

motorbike ferry — Taking a motorbike on a ferry wasn't on my bingo card, that's for sure.

jade walking forest — Jade walking through the forest.

vietnam war relics — I couldn't quite figure out what these were for. I think they were Vietnam war related.

sun spot — A little bit of shine touching the floaters.

A few friends we made as we were leaving.

chau doc #

Our final stop along the Vietnam Mekong was the town Chau Doc, right near the border with Cambodia.

Whilst here, Jade and I become friends with a guy called Rob who also happened to live in Fitzroy North, only minutes away from where me and Jade’s previous sharehouse was. Pretty crazy coincidence.

It was good to chat shit with him and talk about how Queen’s Parade (a street in Clifton Hill) is a pretty crap place to go out. We talked about home for a little while, and he told us he was ending his journey soon and heading back home to start a family with his partner. A nice little surprised on the border.

tra su cajuput forest #

The main draw near Chau Doc is the Tra Su Cajuput Forest, which is a huge ecosystem spanning 850 hectares which plenty of waterways to take boats down.

lotus plants — Lotus plants along the water.

having beer — An evening beer at the Victoria Chau Doc Hotel. There were many mosquitoes.

Finally, we had to make the call to take a boat up the river into Cambodia. We’ll be back soon enough to continue our second leg of Vietnam.