Written By Corey Jury

Xin Chào! (Hello in Vietnamese)

Ho Chi Minh was an amazing experience. It is a big city so there are several things to do, with lots of things to see. From my point of view, an 11-year-old kid, here is what I thought of Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam.

G’day, it’s me Corey telling you my story.

Vietnam’s Language

The language is not quite the best thing ‘about Vietnam’.  In my opinion, it is one of the hardest languages to learn. For someone to learn the language to seems physically impossible (of course it is not). In Vietnam, there is hardly any Vietnamese person that can speak English.  It is seriously hard to communicate with a local, especially when driving with UBER or taxi to communicate with the driver.

  Vietnamese Food

 Ho Chi Minh is overflowing with tasty food. The most popular meal you can buy is a nice, tasty bowl of soup, which is full of delicious fresh noodles. If I had to choose which country to have soup from a single country I would choose Vietnam out of all the other countries.

Sharing Vietnamese food with my younger and cheekier brother Lucas.

Vietnam, the land of boring temples

As an eleven-year-old kid, I find it confusing to have fun in a temple. Before we went to the fun, Mekong river where it is fun to cruise over and have tours, we went to boring temples, where people take photos and worship their religious religions (which was mainly Buddhism) while I just think, when are we getting out of here.

 Of course, the temple looks awesome but that doesn’t mean it’s fun for an eleven-year-old kid like me.

Lots of cool old stuff in Vietnam.

 Vietnam’s River, the Mekong

(More boring stuff, HUHHH!) The Mekong River flows from the Himalayas, then (sorry, I couldn’t figure out anything other than the word “then”) flows to the shores of Southern Vietnam. Vietnam’s River tours are a fun experience, there are four islands that we travelled to in the Mekong, one of the islands, you could buy coconut candy, wrapped in rice paper. The Mekong River is a good for tours.

On the Mekong River with my dad, thankfully I got my mother’s good looks.

The Tunnels of Cu Chi 

After an extreme, fun trip to Da Lat (I wish I could talk about Da Lat, but this has to be mainly about Ho Chi Minh, so keep reading!) we went to another fun (well, actually a lot fun-ner) trip to the secret hideout place of Vietnam called Cu Chi, a couple of hours away from the big city. It is a very, very popular place to travel for tourist. The Vietnamese people had a long, big, sad, harsh war against the United States of America. 

The Vietnamese hid in a safe place away from the Americans, in the Cu Chi tunnels, to protect themselves from the harsh air-raids, which frankly effected everyone from the war and the children. Therefore, the Vietnamese created a small, narrow tunnel to protect themselves from the harsh war. the tunnels are still around in the modern world of today. Cu Chi tunnels was a fun experience in my currently short life. Definitely a ten out of ten!

My brohter and I Inside the Cu Chi Tunnels

Vietnamese Shopping

Markets are big in every way in Ho Chi Minh and is unbelievably cheap and are overflowing with large crowds, it is hard to move around. The stuff is not the best of quality, but it’s still pretty good. If you want to pay for anything, then everything is cheap. I bought my Manchester United kit at a big market in Ho Chi Minh for about 10 AUD, it wasn’t original, but still it was better than nothing and I did not care. The second tallest building in Vietnam is the Bitexco Financial Tower, is a nice place for shopping and is the perfect place to view of the fantastic Ho Chi Minh City.

On the streets with some guy who thinks its cool to wear a donut hat.

Vietnamese Water Parks

I don’t have much to say about this one (well type). Ho Chi Minh is a hot, tropical city and there is only one place you should most definitely go to, to cool off and have fun with a bit of a splash. The Dam Sem waterpark in Vietnam is cool and full of excitement, with thrilling water slides and a massive wave pool. Again,  unfortunately not everyone speaks English at the waterpark and it is hard to listen to important safety instructions.

Flying fox at Dam Sem Water Park.

Vietnamese Transportation

Transportation is cheap and easy. My suggestion around Ho Chi Minh is UBER, it is cheaper and easier. The roads of Ho Chi Minh are crowded, with thousands of motorbikes and there are hardly any traffic lights. To make it worse, when you cross the road, you must just keep on walking and hope that the motorbikes will just drive around you, but watch out! The cars wont!

Lots of bikes in Ho Chi Minh.

Even though Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is still developing from the tragic war, I still reckon it is a good destination to travel. There is much more about Ho Chi Minh City I still don’t know, but hopefully I can get back there someday and see more of Vietnam.

What did you think of my story of Ho Chi Minh City, through an eye of an eleven year old? Please tell me in the comments.

Lucas and I at 4 Islands Mekong tour.