Thursday 27th October 2022
Yesterday was a long (but very fun!) day, up at 4am and didn’t get to bed until 1am. So we had a bit of a lazy morning, and didn’t leave the hostel until 10.30am when we went to get our bus. Ngoc, our tour guide from yesterday, had very kindly booked our tickets for us. Although we could’ve done it ourself online, the bus tickets include a free shuttle to the bus station and there’s no way we’d have managed that with our non-existent Vietnamese. We also realised that a lot of buses go to Saigon rather than Ho Chi Minh City, apparently the central districts are more commonly referred to as Saigon, with Ho Chi Minh City meaning the much wider city area.
We picked up some water, then walked to the main road to patiently wait for our shuttle. We had no idea what it looked like, and I was starting to get a little anxious when there was still no sign of it 5 minutes after it was due. However, shortly after this a mini bus drew up and took us to the bus station, where we went to the ticket counter to purchase our tickets. It seems that in Vietnam it’s quite common to book/reserve tickets, but then you don’t pay for them until you get to the bus station. The Can Tho bus station is quite big, so it was very helpful that the bus tickets were printed will the full details of our journey, including the registration number of the bus.
We then had a bit of a wait before we boarded the bus. We travelled with Phương Trang – FUTA Bus Lines, and again it was a sleeper bus and we had to remove our shoes before boarding. This bus was fancier than the one we got from Ha Tien to Can Tho, and the seats/beds had curtains across them so you had more privacy.
We had wanted to book seats on the bottom level, but ended up on the top, which meant there was a lot of swaying from side to side as we drove through the bumpy streets of Can Tho. Once we’d left the city, the highways were in good condition and so it was a smooth ride for most of the journey. The bus was also air conditioned and had wi fi so it was a pleasant enough journey.
We stopped at a bus station along the way. As we couldn’t understand the announcement (which was in Vietnamese), we had no idea how long we’d be there for. I got off the bus to use the toilets (which were very clean), and then quickly rushed back to the bus. It seemed no one else was in a hurry to board, so I got some dong from Pete, then went back into the bus station to get us some snacks – a Bahn Bao (or steamed bun) and some fried poppy seed rice paper cracker things.
The steamed bao wasn’t as nice as some of the Asian ones I’ve had, but it was interesting. As well as meat, it had whole quail eggs inside of it. The rice paper crackers were pleasant enough, but a bit bland. They’d have gone very well with a sweet chilli or mango chutney dip.
At the bus station was the typical throng of taxi drivers to greet us. Phương Trang / FUTA also seemed to have their own branded taxis. They also provided a free shuttle into Saigon centre (district 1), so we got on that and then got a Grab to our hostel once we arrived.
We stayed at the Phan Anh Backpackers Hostel, which is centrally located in district 1. It was excellent value, the room was clean with air conditioning and a fridge, and this is the first place with we’ve stayed with a proper shower cubicle that doesn’t flood the entire bathroom.
We dropped off our bags then set out to explore, and also to see if we could Pete’s sunglasses repaired. The coating was coming off the lenses, and there were two official Polaroid stockists nearby.
Close to our hostel was Bánh mì chả cá nóng, a little street vendor selling some kind of deep fried fish Bahn mi and which had a queue of motorcycles getting takeaway. We decided to follow the lead of the locals, and ordered one to share – our first Bahn mi (or at least filled Bahn mi) of our trip, and it was delicious!
Next we tried to navigate the traffic, which as expected was pretty crazy! Much busier than Can Tho, and quite a few of the motorcycles took to using the pavements and beeping at pedestrians to get out if their way!
We managed to navigate to the two Polaroid shops, but it was a less successful trip. The first couldn’t help and the second was either closed or had ceased to exist.
It then started to rain, very heavily. So we sheltered under a conveniently placed umbrella and ordered a Grab to Pizza 4P’s Ben Thanh. Yes, I know….eating pizza in Vietnam should be frowned upon, but it’s one of the most highly rated restaurants on google and has a wood fired oven.
They do half and half pizzas so we ordered one with a Vietnamese name (some kind of Vietnamese style beef) and a miso scallop with broccoli. The scallop pizza was lovely, but I was a little disappointed by the beef. It was more of a rich beef stew, tasty enough but not as much of a Vietnamese flavour as I was expecting.
We followed this with a second pizza, this time four mushrooms, with extra Parma ham on one side, and garlic and soy beef on the other. The mushroom one was excellent, definitely my favourite of the four flavours.
By this time the rain had stopped and it was getting late, so we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 