Day 19

Time to settle our bill at the hotel, well, we didn’t get scammed, to my surprise. After paying, he said, “OK I will give this to the boss. Now you pay me”… I just laughed it off, no way you are getting a tip with this attitude, mate.

Back to Hanoi, we are getting used to this now, quick 6 hours minibus-speedboat-bus combo.

This afternoon Hanoi was amazing. The rain has cleared the air and the roads were closed in the old town due to the night market.

We loved it so much, we got to experience a completely different side of this massive city, and we are now huge fans.

Our dinner was a bit of a hit and miss, the place was so busy, but the food was a bit average, I think we have been spoilt with amazing food so far, so a little drop in quality becomes very obvious.

Day 20

We are off to Ho Chi Minh, otherwise known as Saigon for the next couple of days.

The first few hours of the day, taxi, flight, taxi, is becoming easy for us now, 6 hours just went so quickly.

Our first impression of the city was great, it feels much more modern than Hanoi. Our hotel is very funky tonight, we were staying in a capsule, which is exactly what it sounds like, basically a box to sleep in. The hotel itself, however, is quite modern, so we had a lot of fun with the rooftop swimming pool and bar.

We went for a walk, found the city very exciting.

The streets are wider and therefore the air is significantly cleaner compared to Hanoi, which we really enjoyed. We had a superb meal and a lot of beers to wash it down with.

Day 21

We slept surprisingly well, I loved that I could work out in the morning, then go for a swim, all this before breakfast.

The War Remnants Museum is on the cards today, it was a dramatic experience for us. Seeing the pictures of the destruction of this country, the chemical bombs, napalm, maximum security political prisons… It was extremely moving and tough to see. It is worth a visit, just to see the level of damage modern warfare can achieve.

We were keen on grabbing a bite, so we took a walk to Ben Thanh Street Food Market. So many choices here, dumplings, bbq, pho, sweets, awesome place to eat cheap and delicious food.

The market itself is also massive, if you want to buy clothes, souvenirs etc. this is the place to go.

We switched hotels, to somewhere cheaper, I always try not to make us too comfortable, because that makes us lazy, haha.

I’m the evening Evie started watching When they see us, a Netflix series about the wrongly convicted Central Park Five, what an unbelievable TV show. After spending the day seeing the horrors of the war, I think it made her quite emotional, so she cried a lot on this show. There is so much injustice in the world and we are so privileged, we are blind to it, almost.

To make her happy I went for some food, but there was a massive storm so it took me about 1 and a half hours… took a motorcycle back, scary experience for sure.

Day 22

I have to do a couple of important things today, print our Cambodian visas and sort out my Indian visa.

Our host has kindly printed them out and I have received my Indian visa in hours, all sorted!

We were so tired today, ended up spending almost all day in out room, sleeping and basically recharging ourselves.

Went for some food though and visited the local markets but it was a lazy day really, and to be honest we loved it! It’s been 21 days of doing stuff every day, so one day of rest is acceptable.