Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Damien Chung
- Aug 19, 2022
- 12 min read
Updated: Dec 23, 2022
I wanted to get a good Vietnam local experience, so I decided to book a stay for 2 weeks here in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the biggest and most well developed part of the country, upon arriving at the airport, several stalls of sim card vendors were present offering cheap local sim cards. I went and got one and wanted to know how to check my balance but they couldn't really answer my question even though it would be fair to expect that someone selling sim cards should know the ins and out of it. Once I got my sim card sorted, I proceeded through immigration which was much easier than I thought as there were still a lot of strict entry requirements into Vietnam but I wasn't being checked for those documentation. I proceeded to the baggage claim which has a few more vendors selling sim cards, but not until I got out to the entrance to the airport where I find stalls advertising the sim card for a much cheaper rate, I am not sure whether those are accurate pricing but I would not rush to get a sim card inside the airport since there will be options to buy them once you get your luggage.
I checked the bus in advance that will take me to the inner city, but there was no clear signage of where bus pickup will be, and once I saw a few vans stopping at a section, I went over and saw a few bus stop signs, after waiting for 15 minutes I still haven't seen the bus so I went up to one of the shuttle van to ask whether they are able to get me close to my hotel, but they don't speak English so I open up Google Maps and show them my hotel, after a few minutes they came back to me saying they don't go there and told me to get a taxi. With my Grab account handy from my time in Malaysia, I open up and booked myself a Grab ride. The ride cost over $10 which is still cheaper than most Western countries, the sign of motorbikes rampaging the roads were more apparent as we get closer to the city, and the sheer chaos of traffic, was really shocking to me, I have not really heard or seen much of Vietnam through media so I didn't really know what I was getting into.
Upon arriving at my hotel, I spent a bit of time to relax and found a vegetarian restaurant to dine in. This restaurant (Quan Chay Veggie Saigon) is somewhat hidden up on the first floor with no clear signage, based on Google Maps there may be different sections of the restaurant so there may be another room to dine in that I didn't realise. There was no one dining in the room I was on but at least it has air conditioning as the weather outside was muggy and hot. I ordered a Pho, an authentic traditional Vietnamese dish that is a must try. The dish has a good variety and mixture of vegetarian friendly items, some of which I do not know what it could be but some that I could recognise includes tofu, beansprouts and mushroom.
After that delicious meal, I took the opportunity to walk back to my hotel and explore the city a little, I walked past the Nguyen Hue Promenade where the Ho Chi Minh statue is placed towards the northern end, although I didn't walk to that part as I was on the southern end of it. They were also setting up the commemoration for the reunification of the region, a public holiday in Vietnam.
I got back to my hotel and started doing a bit of work and relax, also enjoying some lovely views out towards the Saigon river, and planning my dinner. I found this restaurant just to the north of the city, but when I got there, it was apparently closed but Google Maps was saying that it was open, and this is where I started to learn the unreliability of Google Maps here in Vietnam as businesses don't update their business hours or being updated by their customers, so there will be many false information where it states that it is open but in fact it isn't. I walked around the block to find something to eat that has vegetarian options, and found a restaurant nearby (Lien Toa Vegetarian Restaurant) while discovering a bustling eatery street around the area.
After spending the entire 2nd day inside my hotel room planning what to do as I didn't pre plan my trip which I usually do for my travel, I spent the day at the pool and planning out what my next few days will be like. The third day I spent going around the biggest shopping malls in HCMC, expecting it to be huge with such dense population, it was about as big as a small size shopping mall which they called "Mega Mall", I was fairly surprised by how little shopping malls are in HCMC when there is massive population residing here.
On the 4th day, I walked to the "book street" where they have a variety of literature displayed along the strip and some book stores. Opposite was the Notre Dame Cathedral which was under renovation so there is plenty of scaffolding erected around the building. I then continued my walk towards the Independence Palace where the government used to be and the president staying in throughout the Vietnam war and the site that formerly ended the war.
After all those steps taken, I was starving and trying to find some good food. I walked towards the Saigon Centre shopping mall where the intersection outside of the mall got closed for construction and I needed to do a detour, where I stumbled upon this restaurant called Pizza Logic and they were advertising lunch deals, so I got in and ordered myself a pizza that comes with some side dishes.
After a satisfying lunch, I went into the Saigon Centre for a stroll before heading back to my hotel to freshen up and relax before dinner. I was looking for something near the hotel, but given it's located in Japan Town, many restaurants there were Japanese, but I did find a Thai restaurant about a 10 minutes walk away (Golden Elephant), and boy did I regret forgetting to ask them whether it is a spicy dish even though it is not supposed to be. After dinner, the full monsoon rain was coming down and without an umbrella, I wasn't able to get anywhere. I spent around 30 minutes outside the restaurant trying to find a Grab ride to get me back to the hotel but no one was accepting my ride and prices were also high. Finally the rain cleared and I was able to walk back to my hotel with some light drizzle.
On my 5th day, I met up with a friend that I knew from my flight training, he took me to the outer suburbs where he had breakfast and then dropped me off in the city as he had to head off to work later in the afternoon. I find it puzzling that they serve complimentary dim sum (Chinese dumplings or snacks) on top of their regular Vietnamese food, since many countries I've been to or lived in, they serve this in a Chinese restaurant usually between late morning and early afternoon.
Later that evening we met up again, he wanted to go to the "lounge", which sounded like a bar or somewhere people go to socialise and chill, since there's one just a few doors down from my hotel, he took me there. It definitely has a "lounge" vibe but mixed in with extremely loud music and "balloon" filled with laughing gas, that was not something I expected. I am not the kind of person who does drugs or anything illicit, and I did fell out of place because I didn't know whether it is a safe substance, so with a balloon in one hand and a phone in another, I search up the effects of laughing gas and luckily there's no real threat for a small consumption, so I took it very slowly and ensure that I stay as safe as I could be.
The 6th day I walked around the northern side of the Nguyen Hue promenade via the coastal walk near my hotel, then after I had lunch in Be An Vegetarian Restaurant before heading to one of the 2 gay saunas in the city. I chose the NaDam Spa which is located in the northern part of the city roughly 30 minutes by car. You can check out my review of that place in a separate post.
The 7th day I went out with another friend of mine that I met from my flight training days as well, she took me out for a full day of food galore which made me stuffed and skipped dinner, as my tiny stomach can't handle that much food in one day. Some of the places we went were Be An Restaurant, TWG Tea inside Takashimaya department store in Saigon Centre, and Pi Vegetarian Saigon.
I took the 8th day to rest up as I had booked a full day trip to Mekong Delta on the 9th day, and oh boy was it a full day trip. We started in the morning heading to the Buddhist temple near the river, after spending half an hour at the temple we took a short ride to the ferry terminal where we boarded the ferry to explore 2 of the 4 biggest islands around that region, the first stop was to a little village where they serve local fruits and have a bit of a singing performance before we headed off visiting a family owned coconut candy factory. After that, we headed to another section of the island where we were given tasters of some sort of cream that is edible and has healing elements, but it was more of a sales opportunity for the locals than an experience, then we headed on a smaller ferry deeper into the island where we get to an animal farm of sorts, they have crocodiles, porcupines and snakes in a well/cage right next to where we will be having our lunch. Since I am a vegetarian and a few people on the tour as well, we got sat at a separate table with a similar amount of food quantity to the meat based table next to us with double the number of people, after some effort we were able to eat more or less the whole thing. After a tasty and filling lunch, we got on the kayak to sail on the narrowest part of the river, a 30 minutes return journey later, we switched 2 more boats back to the mainland and on our way back to the city, but things went a little wrong when a fuel truck or some hazardous material spilled on the highway causing us to divert to an alternate road which took 3 times longer for us to get back, for a little over 2 hour journey to a 5.5 hours journey to get back to HCMC, that was a record breaking tour duration for the tour guide and us, we could have done 2 tours for that same duration but instead we were stuck in a tiny van for 3.5 hours. Midway we had a bathroom break in this really high end, modern cafe with clean toilet and a walking distance from a petrol station as well. I found that rest stops are actually fairly common along this route with many spread along the route on both sides, with restaurants, cafes, stalls and relatively clean toilets for people to freshen up and take breaks which I thought was really well thought out and a great opportunity for businesses to set up.
I spent my 10th day going to watch a movie in the Imax theatre, located in one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city, the Landmark 81 which can be seen from my hotel room. There's a shopping mall inside as well, I was surprised by how cheap the Imax ticket was, I was seated at the premium zone and it only cost me $8, in comparison to Australia or NZ where tickets can go to $40. After the movie, I had lunch inside the mall Italian restaurant, as there was no other suitable food for me, so I had to pay a premium for a pretty basic pizza. After that I went to the park directly next to this building, there's a structure where you can get up top to get a good view of the park and the Saigon river but given it had just rained and not built with the greatest of safety in mind, it was a little dodgy in my opinion.
The 11th day was a day of history lesson, by visiting the War Remnants Museum which was brutal and saw how it has affected the lives of many permanently, and some spans generations even until today. It is truly priceless and a must for people who visits Vietnam to check out some of the war museums to learn, educate and be reminded of how high the price of war could be for any country, and that we must not repeat this. After a couple of hours there, I took the opportunity to visit the Pride cafe which is not too far from where I was. This is the only LGBT friendly premise I know of that is branded openly and is a social space. The entry was not obvious which lead me to go around the entire block looking for the entrance but you will have to search for the number and one of the stairs leading up to the cafe will have a small place card showing that you're in the right spot. I love the design of the space, it's decently sized and it seems like they host live events there. I ordered a drink and chilled for a couple of hours as it was brutally hot outside and after all that sweat from the museum I was only grateful to have some air conditioning. The time I was there was quiet and only saw 1 or 2 people so I assume that it is going to be more vibrant during the evening or weekends. I was still hoping to try the restaurant I wanted to go to on my first day, and knowing their actual opening time after seeing the sign on my first visit, they are called Here & Now Vegetarian and I tried out their claypot tofu, let's just say the portion is barely enough for a baby so I had to get a second round just to feel a bit more satisfied, and it wasn't cheap either.
I wanted to go outside of HCMC to see what the other parts of Vietnam have to offer, so on my 12th day I found a ferry service that goes to Vung Tau, the ferry terminal is located 10 minutes from my hotel by foot, and the service will take just over 2 hours each way to the southeastern end of HCMC, a tourist town that is somewhat a budgeted version of Disneyland. I didn't know what the town has to offer, and right off the ferry is a gondola that leads to the top of the mountain, I didn't know what they have up there but from the posters it seems a bit like an amusement park. I bought the ticket which covers all rides within the amusement park and also the return gondola trip. I went up there with a very sad and depressed looking park, barely a couple of souls and most rides were collecting dust, I thought that was probably the closest thing to a horror movie set in an amusement park, a sign of the tourism industry in most countries and also the impact it has on places that caters so much for tourism. I didn't stay up there for too long as the end of my tour brought along the insane wind and rain, I got back to the gondola station but the service was still running as per usual, I didn't feel safe getting on it as it doesn't seem there's any safety oversight and a very relaxed approach to it, so I got on after about 10 minutes when it seemed the weather settled slightly. I was looking for somewhere to have some meal before returning but didn't have much time left before the next ferry service so I went to the closest pizza restaurant (yes I know I had a lot of pizza in Vietnam), and a quick stroll along the beaches and then got back to the ferry terminal for the ride back. The ferry is fairly comfortable with air conditioning, there are power plugs on the side of the seat but I didn't try it as I do not have any local compatible plugs, on the return trip they even provide a packet of snacks which is a nice gesture.
I spent my last day just resting up and packing, but I do want to share some photos of meals I've had at this Vietnamese restaurant right outside of my hotel only a minute's walk away, they seem to be a hot spot for foreigners as well. My first meal was not pleasant as I suppose the meal I ordered wasn't the best option, but after that I found something that worked for me and I find it to be of good value, even one of the staff was recognising me after going that frequently, the staff are also able to speak good English so it is definitely one that I can recommend for foreigners who may not feel comfortable enough to visit the other local restaurants but still want to enjoy some good local cuisine. This place is called Quan Bui (19 Ngô Văn Năm, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam) right in the heart of Japan Town.
HCMC is a vibrant and modern city, insane traffic and brutal motorbike riding, a place where you can find some leftover reminders of the history it once went through, but it is truly a well developed city of the 21st century. You will find plenty of good food, with a good number of people working in the hospitality sector that can communicate in English, and not too far from several well known tourist destinations such as Mekong Delta and a short flight to Phu Quoc or Phnom Penh.
My 14th day got to an early start, waking up at 3am to catch my 6am flight to Da Nang, where I'll be spending 3 days in Lang Co, a resort town that is owned and operated by Banyan Tree (ALL). You can find my post here.
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