Day 15! A nice and hot day of wandering around the crazy streets of Ho Chi Minh City. Officially over 2 weeks since I’ve left!

I woke up at 9am for my second day of adventure in Vietnam! I ended up chatting with a person from Germany who had biked from the north to the south of Vietnam and was now heading into Cambodia on her bike!

It honestly really inspired me and I am now very tempted to do something similar! I think it’d be so amazing to see every stretch of the landscape while also caravaning with backpackers I meet along the way!

After we finished chatting I headed out to breakfast for another Banh Mi!

I also got myself my first smoothie of the trip! A very good mango smoothie that had mango chunks. Now unfortunately… I’m pretty sure this smoothie had milk in it and that definitely had its affects on me today.

After I finished eating I wandered through a park and took my time going back to my hostel!

It’s very interesting, Ho Chi Minh has a lot of parks just like London. But it’s a lot nicer out here than back in the chilly UK!

After stopping back by my hostel I went out on an hour long walk to a Chinese temple.

The walk was actually fairly treacherous… this is not a great city to walk in. The sidewalks disappear and don’t get me started on crossing the street!

Usually people just move out of the way but it’s definitely quite scary the first few times!

I ended up arriving to the Cholon Chinese Temple…

I’ll be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed and exhausted so I admired it and then booked a $2 Grab car back to the hostel.

On my way back to the hostel, my smoothie started to kick in… and it ended up taking a toll on me all day.

It’s pretty unfortunate that the thing that upsets my stomach is a smoothie and not the street food!

But I didn’t let it fully stop my plans. I pushed on and after chilling for a bit I went on a 40 minute walk to the Jade Emperor Pagoda!

Unfortunately you couldn’t take pictures inside. But the outside was gorgeous and shady!

The inside was decorated with different generals and figures! Two of note were right when you walked in. The general who defeated the green dragon and another general who defeated a white tiger.

After wandering around the temple for a bit I decided to cool off in the shade.

While I was sitting here another solo traveler came and sat next to me!

Her name is Dora and she is from Berlin!

We actually ended up chatting for a long time, maybe 30 minutes to an hour! She was very nice but told me a story about how her friend had broken her arm after tripping while walking and they spent a full day in the hospital!

A good reminder that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows in solo travel land and that at any time you could get hurt.

On a positive note, for an x-ray, cast, stitches, and the doctor visit, it only cost her friend €130 before insurance! Which is a relief and pretty crazy to hear!

We parted ways and I grabbed another cheap Grab back to my hostel.

I meant to go back for a nap but instead my hostel desk told me about a bike shop they were close with that would help me out if I was wanting to ride around the country.

So I hopped on the back of her husbands scooter and we rode to the shop.

The owner was very friendly and helpful and even offered to give me a bit of a lesson to help refresh my skills before I go!

I’m seriously considering this option. I have friends that have done it in the past and have met countless travelers that have done it as well and it sounds amazing!

I have 90 days in Vietnam… why not try and make the most of it?

I wanted to try something new for dinner so I headed to a Com Tam restaurant and had a seaweed soup and grilled chicken with rice.

It was okay! I’m sure there are better versions of this elsewhere so I won’t write it off yet.

My stomach was still not feeling the best so I ended up just relaxing, taking a shower, and then going to bed on the early side!

Tomorrow I’m test driving a bike from a solo traveler that’s much cheaper than the shop and then also probably going to go to the shop as well and test drive theirs and get a lesson!

I’m looking forward to leaving Ho Chi Minh on whatever form of transportation… but I have one more day left in this crazy city!

– Elie