Let's cut to the chase - the biggest relevation of today was the fact that The Observatory no longer sells balloons. Ho Chi Minh City banned them last year (somehow, my Google algorithm failed to make me aware of this). Doing some digging online, there were a few people who took way too many hits and passed out and the city government said enough is enough. This hurt, I mean a lot. Mostly from a reputation perspective, because I had played it up for a while - most pointedly rewinding a week earlier in Chiang Mai, telling them that the weak ass balloons ReD was serving was forgettable; "just you wait". Well, all I'll say is luckily Saga had good ones. Actually, let me add another point, The Observatory was still great even without them - at its core it is a really great club period. Actually, let me add a third point, which is more a preview of a piece I'll likely write on the flight - HCMC is changing, and in many ways for the better, but it is also getting more "professional" let's say, and banning people sucking nitrous oxide in your clubs probably fits with that shift.
Anyway, this is getting way ahead of myself here. Let's start with the first half of the day in Danang, or more correctly, in the My Son sanctuary area about 90 minutes outside of Danang. We booked a private car to take us there and back, which worked really well. My Son is honestly closer than 90 minutes if people weren't hyper vigilant of sticking to very slow speed limits in Vietnam (seems to be a way to reduce chances of crashes with motorcycles and cars - admirable, I guess), but you do see some nice scenery on the way. It's about equidistant from Danang and Hoi An, creating a nice triangle with the two.
The My Son Sanctuary is a large area with about 10 temple complexes built by the Cham people, a Indian originating group that ventured out into the wider Southeast Asia subcontinent spreading Hinduism - so these are very much Hindu temples. The Cham were around for about 1000 years, so the temples date from between the 4th and 13th century, though most of the main buildings still standing are more from the 10th to 13th century. Some are still getting rreconstrcuted - the US bombed a lot of it during the Vietnam War....
The first step is taking a short shuttle bus / cart ride from the entrance about 1km into the park. From the dropoff point, there is an elongated circular path that goes by all the temples areas. The path is about a km long, with majority of temples being at the end (the halfway point,, I guess). It was silly hot and humid, so this was all a bit of a tough go, but the temples themselves are quite serene. The main ones towards the back are really well built up and large. Like with any archaeological site this old, there is a certain just coolness (no pun intended) roaming around this remote area so far away from any modern civilization.
There were a ton of giant tour groups with guides, adn enough in English, that just by milling around we could overhear a lot of what they were telling their groups. To be honest, none of it was all that amazing to necessitate getting a guide, and probably spending 50-100% longer baking in this heat. In the end, despite going "fast", it still took us about 90 minutes to see all of it. I woiuld say that My Son is a must do if you visit this little section of Vietnam.
We got back to Danang around noon, with about 90 minutes to kill before we had to head to the airport. For lunch, we decided to just go back to Kenta, wanting another Bun Bo and to try some of their other offerings - the best this time being a lovely pork rib stewed in clay pot of lemongrass and ginger. It was lovely, Kenta is lovely. There's so many great spots that fit my "non-tasting, non-fancy" segment that I don't know what I'll have to do to that list as we go.
The flight from Danang to HCMC was uneventful as you would expect. The only notable bit was probably realizing just how close the airport is from downtown, as my window seat view gave me a view of the terminal on takeoff, and you can see the bridge that was near our hotel in teh background, and not like how say the Freedom Tower is at the background of JFK takeoffs - but like really in the background.
Before we knew it, we were descending into the urban maw of HCMC, and after a quick traipse through their lovely new domestic terminal (granted, maybe it isn't all that new, it's just I rarely fly domestic flights in or our of HCMC), we were met with the crashign reality of the urban maw - a drive from the airport to our AirBNB in the heart of the city that took roughly as long as the flight. Part of this is just the outright deference placed towards motorcycle riders. It's so slanted in their favor, for some of our trips we took separate motorcylces of Grab knowing it would be quicker (also they come much faster in HCMC at least). By the time we got to the AirBNB, it was dusk, which is the perfect time to make the 15-min walk from the AirBNB to the main promenade of HCMC to see the floodlights, the opera house, the glow of a city on teh rise.
Another example of the city on the rise was going to Pasteur Street Brewing for a few cold ones, but realizing first I had to do some googling to know which Pasteur Street outpost we wanted to go to - as since my last trip, the notable craft brewery has opened two larger brewpub establishments. We passed one later in the day and it was packed. The old & trusted was mostly empty, to the point I wonder at what stage they ax the original and just keep the brewpubs.
For dinner, we want to Laang, a reputable "elevated street food" option in the downtown, fit with its blindingly light blue decor. The weird part is there were only two other tables eating. Now, this is a Friday Night, and we shpwed up at 8:30. It was similarly empty my only other visit back in 2022. I have to assume this is just a weird coincidence because it seemingly stayed open in the 3.5 intervening years, and it has thousands of seemingly real Google reviews. Anyway, the food remained fantastic, the best thing being a rice noodle dumpl,ing of pork or an exceptionally bright and fresh squid salad. Actually, the best thing might be the strong, sharp, ice cold black coffees taht we all scarfed down at the start of the meal. Laang is a great option to try a bevy of Vietnamese classics - I just hope they do more tables on most nights.
I wanted to be an uber-traditionalist for my experiences, and go to Summer Experiment for cocktails and then The Observatory. We very much did those things, but my friends convinced me to do at least one new cocktail spot tongith (given we have a tasting menu tomorrow that will probably limit how many places we can go post). We did go to one other spot, Snuffbox which is a lovely speakeasy that serves some quite inventive things, including one take on a negroni that used Sichaun Peppers (the mouth-nubming one) in a pretty great way. In the end, glad they convinced me to try out a new spot, versus just doing the same ones over and over again (I would've suggested The Gin House, which used to be my HCMC go-to, until I learned it had shut down, for good this time).
While Snuffbox is pretty good, it isn't Summer Experiment, which continues to be super inventive, wacky and candidly should probably be higher on my favorite cocktails list. Had a mix of the classics - like their one cocktail which is basically ice cream, to new genius ones, like a Pho-tasting cocktail in the homage of a bloody mary. The crowd was graet, the scene was great. My friends were a bit disconcerted when we had to walk down the strange alley adn up three flights of stairs, but I told them something great would be on the other side, and I think their trust in me paid off for them.
And now we got to The Observatory, and while there are no more balloons, everything else is still great and more professional. They have a whole bunch of new branding under "The OBS" signage, which is noce. Their card machines worked without any fuss (was purely 50/50 before) and their drinks are still good and cheap. The music is still great, today being far more about the inside dark club where they had a guest DJ from Japan taht came on at 2am and probably kept going until 5am of whenever.
We left at 3am, because I had to take them to maybe the best part of HCMC, which is that super late night Pho and Pho Quynh. So many yaers later, it is still great. It is still crowded, it is still a scene, it is still everything you want to end a night. The pho comes out quick, the broth is brilliant, they give ample meat, and there is truly no way to make the experience better. And just shows, you don't have to get high (balloons) to have a good time in HCMC.
