Family of Four Traveling the World, Exploring New Countries and Learning a Lot Along the Way
Because of the price being so cheap and the fact that we wanted to expand our adventures everywhere possible, we decided to take the night train from HCMC/Saigon to Da Nang for our next stop. Scott booked us in a “soft sleeper” which was basically a tiny room with two bunk style beds. The toilets were at either end of the train car (one end being a western toilet and one end was an eastern toilet)….
We had a relaxing final few days in Saigon. We wondered out and tried some more “authentic” Vietnamese food. One we went to try was a sort of a crispy pancake type thing filled with sprouts and pork and shrimps. Because it was so highly rated and evidently featured on food tours, we went to Banh Xeo 46A to test this new food out. I can safely say that it might have been the only food we ate in HCMC that we didn’t like. The place was interesting and the open air kitchen was impressive to watch, but I’d skip on the food….
The presidential palace (also known as Independence Palace) is a pretty cool stop.
We stood on the roof of a presidential palace. A real palace. Next to the helicopter that the president took around. 
To be fair, it hasn’t been used as the Presidential Palace since the end of the Vietnam war in 1975 when the North Vietnamese tank busted through the front gates of the palace and raised their flag, but still. Bragging rights. You can do the same when you visit Ho Chi Minh for only $5USD for the entire family.
The decor hasn’t changed since the war ended, …
To better understand what we were eating at some of the markets, we took a family cooking class. We ended up taking the class with Saigon Cooking School. One word: AMAZING. We met our chef at the market where she walked us through various vegetables and meats that we were unfamiliar with. Then we went back to the kitchen. We prepared pork fried spring rolls (so much easier than I thought), a fresh lotus stem salad with prawns, and BBQ pork with fresh noodles.
The kids weren’t crazy about the salad, but everything else was incredible. As a bonus, we now have a good idea as to how to make …
Ho Chi Minh is a very busy city. It’s estimated to have about 8 million people with around 6.5 million scooters. It is wild. I mentioned in another post how crazy it is to cross the street. I tried to video crossing one here:
Because the city is so populated and so busy, but with relatively small space, vendors are set up along every alley and every street selling food. We have tried some pretty amazing food for an absurdly low price. Our family of four can easily eat lunch for …