Chào Ban Saigon: Ho Chi Minh City Day One

After 28 hours or so traveling from America, we finally made it to Vietnam. The plane ride was pretty boring but after arriving it was obvious that Ho Chi Minh City was a different kind of place. The weather was hot and sticky, even though it was almost midnight, and motor bikes crowded the street rather than automobiles. After getting a decent night’s sleep our first real day on the trip began. Starting with breakfast at the Victory Hotel, they served a meal full of authentic Vietnamese dishes like Chả lụa, phở, and salted eggs. All of these dishes I’ve had in America, but they were a little bit different from the ones in the US.

After arriving at the University of Economics and Finance, we mingled with the Vietnamese students and they welcomed us with a ceremony filled with Vietnamese dancing and singing of American pop songs.
 

 Even though the students were all from Vietnam, they speak fluent English with a somewhat strong accent. After we finished the welcome ceremony and had a language class, we visited the US consulate. This was the place where the Tet Offensive took place in 1968, and being on such a historic site was both interesting and humbling.

It was really interesting to see both sides of the picture by reading the memorial plaques from both the United States and Vietnam on opposite sides of the consulate wall.

After visiting the consulate, we had dinner at “Wrap and Roll” which was a restaurant that mainly served rice paper roll dishes. It was a fun time and afterwards I was so tired from adjusting to the different time zone and climate that I concluded my first day in Ho Chi Minh City and went to sleep.