Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (December 4, 2025)
I have come to rely on Grab to get me where I need to go. Like Uber in the US, Grab works directly with airports (like Tan Son Nhat International Airport: SGN) and has pickups down to a science. In fact, they are so efficient that they warn you not to book your car until you are already at the pick-up spot as your car may already be there ready to take you (as in within 2 minutes or less)! There may be public transportation options in Ho Chi Minh City, but door-to-door for less than $4 USD (99,840 VND) with a click of a button is ultra convenient.
Grab was formerly part of the Southeast Asian operations of Uber
Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam where I will spend the next 11 days until I fly back to New York on Monday, December 15th at 9am local time, arriving at some time around 10pm ET having flown for something like 22 hours. Yay! I’m going to do my best to be well rested on this trip so that I can maximize my time with my family for the holidays. But for the next 11 days, I’m going to be fully present to HCMC (which is the acronym for Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon).
After getting settled in my hotel, I decide to have a “spa day” and check out the local massages here. For the record, I still think Thai Massages are the best as they incorporate stretching in addition to the massage itself, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep exploring. So far, I’ve noticed that the Vietnamese massages separate out focused head, neck, shoulders and back from legs and feet (i.e. as separate offerings) vs. “full body” massages.
After a little (or, more accurately quite a lot of) pampering and down time at the spa, I shower up and get ready to meet Violet (Thuc Anh Phan) and her husband, Cuong for dinner. It was wonderful to meet them in real life — especially after working with Violet (virtually) for more than 3 years on Zoom.
Cuong, Violet (Thuc Anh Phan) and Bill Carmody at Hum (Yum!)
So a couple of things. What I love about this first dinner is that the restaurant, Hum, is whole food, plant-based. If I lived here in HCMC, not only would this be my favorite restaurant, but I think I would become a regular if only to improve my health and extend my life. I’d love to go whole food, plant-based regularly, but have struggled with the meal prep at home. Not an excuse, just a deterrent I must overcome as this kind of food is what my body craves.
When I met Violet, the first thing she did is hand me a gift:
This is the story of the hugely successful “Water Puppet Show”
If you recall in an earlier blog post, I talked about attending one of the more creative “only in Vietnam” cultural events, the Water Puppet Show. Since I had shared my interest and fascination with Violet, she went out and got me the story behind the stories on water. Which, by the way, is awesome, because the one part I didn’t share is that rolling in 10 minutes before the start time didn’t give me enough time to procure an English language audio device to help me understand each of the stories being told. This book will remedy that error on my part and help me better understand what was being shared.
And, of course, our dinner was lovely and a great way to entrench here in HCMC. Violet even invited me to join her and her husband (the following day) as they visit a spiritual mountain outside HCMC. Unfortunately, I already had a previous commitment meeting with another incredible human being, Tue Tri Tran, who was introduced to me by none other than Nick Craig. (More on that tomorrow).
How’s this for a “Wish You Were Here” photo? Love it!
Both Violet and Cuong had a wonderful time and I look forward to hearing all about it when we meet up again in two days. I’m sure this is a place I could visit either as part of my current HCMC plans this next week or in a future visit. Especially as I continue to increase my own spirituality and depth of connection to unique mountain landscapes.
For now, I’m fully here in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and look forward to deepening my understand of the southern Vietnamese culture as I so enjoyed learning about the north in Hanoi and central as part of my Hang En Cave experience. So much to love about Vietnam.
