The Wenzel’s Big Adventure

Vietnam was the second country in our adventure, and we explored a considerable amount of it in our month there, so much so that I plan to split it all into a few entries. 

First up, Ho Chi Minh City.  We began the Vietnam leg of our trip in the sprawling Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.  The city is home to around 9.5 million people and bristles with energy.  The streets are packed with cars, scooters, bicycles and pedestrians, while the sidewalks are full of restaurants, food vendors, and small stores/shops; everyone in the city is an entrepreneur.  What surprised us most about the city was its clean and organized nature.  The sheer volume of people moving around is mindblowing, but it happens without significant issues or delays.  Although Vietnam is a developing nation, the parts of Ho Chi Minh City we visited were modern.  The biggest problem we faced, not only in HCMC but throughout Vietnam, was the language barrier.  English was not commonly spoken, so our Google translator got a good workout. 

Our apartment was located in a highrise complex along the Ben Nghe Canal. It was a one-bedroom pad with a hotplate, pull-out couch, and washing machine, which was also a dryer; such a great idea.  There was an oversized pool and children’s play area in an open-air area between our building and the one beside it. The property was within walking distance of street food vendors and a McDonald’s (street food for the children…).  After arriving on our first night, we gave in and had our first McDonald’s (and definitely not our last) meal of the trip.  I’m happy to report that Vietnamese McDonald’s tastes the same as Canadian McDonald’s.  

The first place we visited was the War Remnants Museum, and yes, we brought the twins with us.  We didn’t let them see all of the gruesome pictures, but we showed and explained to them what war is and the types of equipment used.  The facility had a play area we took the kids to when the other parent viewed the exhibits and photographs. Each level of the museum had rooms designated to different periods of the war, the battle areas, stories from the locals, artillery-chemical warfare, the last effects of Agent Orange and other chemicals used, a scale model of a prisoner camp and larger war machines (helicopter, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, etc.).  The audio tour we followed provided an in-depth look at the time leading up to the war with the French, the conflict between South Vietnam and the North Vietcong, the US’s involvement and gut-wrenching stories of locals being brutalized by US soldiers.  It was an eye-opening experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Ho Chi Minh.

We continued to traverse the city and soon found ourselves in the area home to the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, Saigon Central Post Office, and Book Street. Unfortunately, the cathedral is undergoing a major renovation, so all we could see was impressive scaffolding around the building. The post office, however, was quite impressive (as far as post offices go) and is still fully functional.  Inside, multiple vendors sell all sorts of trinkets and postcards, and we purchased a few cards to send back to Canada.  The post office was not without tears.  Hadley picked out a postcard she loved to send to her best friend. After writing in it and dropping it in the mail slot, it dawned on her that the card was gone and not going to her, but to her friend’s house. After some serious tears, Corey took her back inside the post office to search for an identical card she could hang in her room at home. After fanning through 5 boxes of postcards, she had to find a new favourite.  During this episode, Jack and I steered clear of the ladies and sat outside on a curb, enjoying goldfish crackers. A neat walking street dedicated to books ran adjacent to the Post Office.  The stores offered books in all languages and were very interesting.  Also, on the street was a small playground where the kids could run around.  

We stopped at the Ben Nghe Street Food Market, a few blocks away, for supper that night. The market offered food options from all over the world, not just Vietnamese. Jack and Hadley settled on pizza (their staple food), and we tried some local food: Beef Pho, pork belly banh mi, and chicken and pork spring rolls.  For dessert, we all had some coconut ice cream.  We sat beside a seafood stall with a bunch of tanks with live fish, shrimp, crabs and even toads.  As you can imagine, the kids loved this and spent most of the time looking in and banging on the tanks.  We made multiple attempts to stop them, but it did not work.  It may have been because the locals who owned the spot got a kick out of the twins and, at one point, pulled a toad out for the kids to touch.  Naturally, the guy dropped the toad while the kids were petting it. It tried to get away, but the guy was too quick.  The toad was put back in his tank after a laugh from the guy and more abuse from the twins.  

We ended our days in Ho Chi Minh either eating ice cream (sometimes from fancy artisanal places that make actual animal faces in your cup) or wandering the Bui Vien Walking street.  This street is home to an array of clubs and bars with a bunch of colourful flashing lights and loud music, as well as a bunch of hole-in-the-wall places with chairs on the street and cheap beer, restaurants and massage parlours, just the place you take kids when it’s past their bedtime.  Vendors walk up and down the street selling everything, including kid’s toys.  There were a few tears shed on this street when we would buy Jack a light-up sword that was as tall as he was, but all in all, the kids enjoyed people-watching with us and dancing to the pumpin’ music.  We’d stop to have a beer while the kids finished a snack and then head back to the apartment.

We also visited the Ho Chi Minh Zoo, which was almost entirely empty of tourists- it was great.  The zoo was in pretty good shape, and the animals appeared well cared for.  The kids were able to see a few animals we don’t have at our Alberta zoos, such as a pigmy hippopotamus, an Asian elephant, a hyena, and a Rhinoceros.  We had a good chuckle about the safety signage and its placement.  Walking up to the pigmy hippo exhibit, there were 3-4 signs saying, “Beware of dangerous animal.”  This led us to think that it was a crocodile or alligator pool we were walking to.  Upon arriving, we watched this cute little animal climb out of the pool and jump back in.  Later on, while visiting the crocodile, we noticed that there wasn’t a single sign posted saying to “be aware of dangerous animals” or “do not lean over the edge as you could fall into this pit of 20 large reptiles and get eaten”.  The kid’s favourite part of the zoo was seeing a full-size boa constrictor attempt to swallow an entire chicken carcass.  I admit that watching the snake’s jaw fully disconnect to get around the bird was pretty cool.  The snake was having trouble, though; instead of trying to swallow the carcass head or bottom first, it was trying to eat it sideways, which wasn’t working.  We watched for 20 minutes before we continued on.  We circled back after viewing the other reptiles, only to find that the snake had abandoned his meal. Jack and Hadley were upset that the snake had not finished his supper.

From the zoo, we set out, looking for a place to eat.  We happened upon a produce, meat and seafood market shutting down for the day.  The market had live chickens, ducks and seafood lining the street; the kids thought it was a pet store and enjoyed looking at all the unique creatures.  We explained to them that the animals were used for people’s food and pets, a concept they didn’t quite grasp at the time but understand now.  From the market, we found a tiny restaurant and decided to stop for a bite to eat.  We picked the place because A. We couldn’t find anything else (that looked clean or appetizing), and B. The few plates of food I saw looked good.  Ordering said food was a challenge, even with our Google translator.  The menu on the side of the building and the proprietors were entirely Vietnamese.  I was struggling to figure out what their dishes were and what was in them, and I was about to give up and keep searching when they brought in a guy who spoke a bit of English.  He was able to translate and explain what the dishes were.  In the end, Jack and I had BBQ pork and rice, and the girls had BBQ chicken and rice (the pork was better).  I was elated to have just had our first local meal with the kids, and then Corey pointed out that they were washing their dishes in a basin on the side of the road with a hose; we didn’t see any soap, so the jury was out on if any was actually used.  This cleaning method is acceptable for the locals’ digestive tract but not for our fragile North American bodies; we were worried about getting traveller’s diarrhea.  Thankfully, we did not and the experience still came out as a win.