Nearing the very end of our time in Vietnam, we took a flight down to the ancient city of Saigon.

Skip ahead if the local trivia will bore you! 🙄

Now known as Ho Chi Minh City, it’s name was changed in 1976 to celebrate the reunification of North and South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. The name comes from famed communist leader Ho Chi Minh who is credited with uniting the country.

SKIPPING AHEAD POINT…

The darker parts of Vietnams recent history are perhaps most evident in this city, where the war museum paints a picture that’s often very difficult to look at.

Upon arrival you reach a grand facade dotted with tanks, chinook helicopters and war planes that admittedly feel pretty cool to stand next to.

But close behind this lays a story of questionable motives, cruelty and weapons like Agent Orange that continue to impact lives to this day.

If you’re heading through southern Vietnam, chances are you will stop here for at least a night or two. It’s a heavy experience no doubt but I wouldn’t miss out the war museum during your time here – it’s definitely given me a more rounded outlook on the conflict this country has faced.

Dining in the dark

On the much lighter side of our stop in Ho Chi Minh was Jamie’s birthday. Unbeknownst to Jamie I’d booked us into a restaurant experience with Noir: Dining in the dark. 10 bonus points to anyone who can figure out the concept! 😅

As we arrived we were greeted warmly and shown to a lounge area where they told us more about the restaurant concept and why it exists – “all the waiters here are blind”. Not only does Noir provide employment opportunities for those that are visually impaired, but a % of the profits also goes towards support for these members of society.

We were given our very first taste of losing our sense of sight moments later when we had to play the following game blindfolded…

I got off to a good start but Jamie pipped me to the post and it must have taken at least 5 minutes for me to get all of my pieces fixed in. Already you begin to develop more of a first-hand appreciation for the challeges blind people face daily.

On to the main course of the experience… a 3 course dinner inside the completely dark dining room. We followed the waiter to our table with one hand on the shoulder in front – imagine a very, very mellow conga line!

As you lose your sense of sight your other senses are said to be heightened, and with strict instructions on which order to eat the 3-4 small dishes that made up each course, Jamie and I workd our way through the meal, trying our best at each stage to guess what we might be eating 🧐 here’s my best photo…

As it turns out my sense of embarrassment was also heightened when I did the one thing you never want to do in a completely dark restaurant with exclusively blind waiters… DROP A FORK ON THE FLOOR 😳😳😳

As we finished up with dessert we were taken back through to the lounge where we were shown all the dishes we’d just tried. We got a few of them right… and we got A LOT of them wrong 😅

There’s tonnes of these restaurants in operation around the world and I’d fully recommend giving it a go when you get the chance!