The cruise ship sailed up the Ho Chi Minh River and we docked right by the Ho Chi Minh city, the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of 10 million. Vietnam has a population of 100 million making it one of the most populous in the world.
As I’ve been here before, I decided it was the perfect city not to do a cruise tour but to adventure by myself. I decided to find the Hop On Hop Off to see the city again.The first complication I found was that Vietnam does not have a Hop On Hop Off, but the Big Bus! But I found it!
I was amazed by the number of motorcycles everywhere, parked along on the street and on the sidewalks and zig zagging through traffic. According to the Big Bus, there are 8.5 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh, 77% of the people own at least one.
When I got off, I went for a walk, but it was so crowded, hot, and humid that as soon as I saw a Starbucks, I stopped for a cold iced tea lemonade. Then, I took a Grab (Uber in Asia) back to the ship. The trip cost me $1.95—yes, a dollar ninety-five—and I felt so bad that I gave the driver the maximum tip allowed: another $1.95.
The next day, Jackie—one of the solo travelers—and I went looking for a store that sold birthday cards. We wanted to get one for another solo traveler whose birthday we were celebrating that evening. Using the Maps app on the iPhone, we had a general idea of where to look.
After walking for about 30 minutes, we found this little shop that sold school supplies, and luckily, they also had birthday cards. As usual, we asked if we could pay with a credit card—no. Then we asked if they accepted U.S. dollars—also no. They only took Vietnamese dongs.
So, we set out to find a bank to exchange our money. We spotted one across a busy street, but there were no traffic lights. We watched how the locals crossed, then followed their lead and stepped out. Motorcycles weaved around us—it was intense. The picture shows the intersection, not a narrow street.
At the bank, a teller understood enough English to know we wanted to exchange dollars. She asked for our passports, which we didn’t have. We explained that we only had copies, since the cruise ship holds the originals. After checking with the manager, she agreed. I wish I could have taken a photo of how carefully she examined our two twenty-dollar bills. Finally, we each received 480,000 dong.
After we left the bank, we saw a market nearby and decided to take a look. They sold fruits, vegetables, fish, grains, and many other goods. We didn’t see any tourists—this was clearly a market for locals. 
Upstairs, we found rows of stalls filled with fabric. There were many types and colors, stacked from floor to ceiling.
Once we crossed the busy street again—somehow making it a second time—and bought the birthday cards, we looked for a place to rest. We found a coffee shop and ordered iced tea. Mine was orange-flavored, with some other ingredients I couldn’t identify – it was delicious!
After that, we decided it was time to walk back to the ship.
We wrapped up two fun days celebrating Jennifer’s birthday with dinner at Toscana, one of the ship’s specialty restaurants.
P.S. On the map, the blue arrow points to the sea, the green arrow shows the Ho Chi Minh River—which we cruised along to reach the city—and the red arrow marks the center of Ho Chi Minh City, where we were docked.
This featured blog entry was written by Susan.Mercer from the blog Cruise Around the World with Susan.
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