Backpacking in Vietnam and Cambodia: Part 1 of 4 (Ho Chi Minh City and Nha Trang)

Backpacking is one of the most exciting and thrilling adventures i’ve ever experienced. It really is an adventure in every sense because very little – or nothing is planned beforehand. This turned out to be the best part of it all: letting your instincts and self guide you from one place to another. Backpacking is so different than a traditional vacation where most things are pre-planned out in an itinerary. However, it is what makes it a unique and exhilarating experience! Click here to read part two of the adventure.

Three friends and I went on an 11 day backpacking trip in Vietnam and Cambodia in early December. We booked our plane tickets on a Thursday, and five days later we were on a plane headed towards Ho Chi Minh, the capital city of Vietnam. The only pre-planning we did was research reputable hostels to stay at (via hostelworld.com), and that was it.

Day 1 (Ho Chi Minh)
We arrived in the late afternoon, and checked into the Nguyen Khang Hotel located in the Pham Ngu Lao District, also known as the backpacker district.

Since it was dark by the time we settled in, we walked to the Ben Thanh Market about one mile away from our hostel. The Ben Thanh Market is a popular marketplace in Ho Chi Minh with small stalls selling everything from clothing to watches to fabrics – a great place to bargain. Unfortunately, it was closed since it was after dark, but there is a night market just outside with places to eat and shop around for goods. We ate at an open-air food stall and ate delicious food: catfish, meat skewers, and other Vietnamese dishes.

Eating dinner at the night market outside Ben Thanh Market

Delicious food for dinner! All for around $5 a person.

After dinner, we headed back to the backpacker district to find a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels for the following day. In this area, there are several tour agencies where you can book full-day tours or bus rides, but most of them are similar in itineraries and prices.  We found Fantastic Tour (www.fantastic-tour.com) and they proved to be our “go-to” agency for booking tours and train tickets. We booked a full day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels for $6 USD which included an English guide and transportation to the location which was about 45 minutes away from the center of Ho Chi Minh.

One example of how people hid underground in the tunnels.

Day 2 (Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang)
We left bright and early with our tour group of about 10 people to see the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cu Chi Tunnels is an underground community where people hid during the Vietnam War in the 1960’s. They stayed down there to protect themselves from the bombings and violence in the city. It was literally an underground community in every sense.

Squeezing our way through the underground tunnels.

Coming out from the tunnels - fresh air again!

After our all day tour, we got our belongings, ate a quick dinner, and headed to the train station where we took an 8 hour overnight train ride to Nha Trang. We booked four tickets in the “hard sleeper train” which was the overnight cabin, where we could sleep. It ended up as a 6 person cabin, and two random strangers were on the two top bunks above us. If you travel in Vietnam, riding the train is a great experience and I definitely recommend it for everyone!

Our train

It was a very tight squeeze inside the train!

Inside our cabin (three bunks on each side)

Day 3 (Nha Trang)
We arrived in Nha Trang at 6 am, and by a miracle we found our hotel/hostel. We forgot to write down the name of the hostel we booked online (via hostelworld.com), but we just knew it was “Saint something..” Well, after driving around aimlessly in the taxi, we found our destination, the Saint Paul Hotel.

The Saint Paul Hotel. That's us with the owners!

Nha Trang is a beach city located along the Eastern coast of Vietnam. It was the host for the Miss Universe competition in 2008, so you could imagine it being a beautiful location. We walked along the warm sandy beach while gazing at the never-ending crystal blue water. It was quite relaxing.

The beach – crystal blue water!

During lunchtime, we were walking along the beachfront looking for a good place to eat. I asked a random woman passing by, and she invited us to join her to eat with her friends! She was a backpacker, originally from London, who has been traveling for the past 20-something years. Her friends were two brothers from Colorado who took off one semester of university to travel around Southeast Asia. They met on a bus ride, and decided to travel together for a bit!

Lunch with new friends!

During lunch, they highly recommended going to the mud bath in Nha Trang. We really had no clue what this was, especially since they didn’t know the name of the location, but we hopped in a taxi and told the driver to take us to the “mud bath.” Well, this mud bath turned out to be one of the most amazing things ever, and quite a surprise find!

This is a MUST if you’re ever in Nha Trang. The place is called Thap Ba Hotsprings, and for around $5 USD, you and your group are given a private mud bath. After the mud bath (no time limit), you rinse off in the showers and head over to your own private mineral bath water. Then, you finish at the hot water pools, similar to a large swimming pool. You can easily spend 3 hours or more here relaxing and lounging.

My friends and I in the mud bath!

We ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant that we randomly found while walking on the streets. I say “restaurant,” but it was more of an outdoor area with small tables and chairs, filled with people drinking and eating. It had interesting foods such as: eel, frog, goat, lama and more!

Small tables…small chairs!

There’s a really cool bar in Nha Trang called Why Not Bar, and mostly backpackers and foreigners hang out there. My friends and I enjoyed going there – twice! It’s a fun place to hang out and relax. I’d definitely recommend going there – just ask anyone, and they will probably know where it is!

Day 4 (Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh)
We spent the morning and early afternoon at the beach, ate lunch at a posh little restaurant, and then headed to Thap Ba Hotsprings again – yes, it’s that addicting! Then after dinner, we boarded the 11 pm overnight train back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Lunch on our last day in Nha Trang.

Relaxing on the beach

Backpacking in Vietnam and Cambodia: Part 2 of 4 (Phenom Penh, Cambodia) next…

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