From Frankfurt to Ho Chi Minh City

Getting to Vietnam took us a full day. We left Frankfurt Airport at 21:45, had a 1 1/2h stopover in Abu Dhabi, and landed in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) at 19:05.

The first hurdle was getting to the hotel. I had looked up our options before the trip and we wanted to take the shuttle bus into the city center. But as soon as we stepped out of the airport, one after the other of the Vietnamese taxi drivers stepped up and offered their services. Taxi-Ride into the city for 20$. It took a bit of persistence to shake them off, and in the end we found our yellow shuttle bus, Line 109, paid a fare of 40000 vnd (approx. 1,60 €) for the two of us, and got on.

It was raining when we got to Vietnam and it kept raining all evening. We walked through the rain to our hotel, 'Town House 23’, which is fairly central, close to Ben Tanh Market.

We started to get a bit worried that maybe picking the rainy season for our trip had not been the smartest idea. Nevertheless after a short break at the Hotel we put on our rainjackets and went outside for a night walk, before we would finally fall into our beds.

Then we realized that actually rain is not so bad in Vietnam. It was warm enough so the rain didn’t feel uncomfortable, so we walked around our neighborhood and had a local beer (Bia Saigon) in one of the little bars set up with plastic children's chairs on the side of the road.