Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh (Ho Chi Minh City) is the largest city in Vietnam and located in southern part of the country. It was formerly known as Saigon and renamed in honor of the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Hồ Chí Minh in 1976.

From Hoi An to Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh

As I went from Hoi An in Central Vietnam and in view of my tight schedule and the availability of domestic flights, I opted to fly.

Flight time was about 1 hour 30 minutes.

Arriving at Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh

As I had been to Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh quite a few times, I had no issue navigating to the bus stop at the airport.

If you wish to take the public bus from the airport to the city, go to the public bus stop just outside the terminal building to take bus #109.

The bus is an orange coloured mini bus and the fares are 8,000 VND for 'less than or equal to 1/2 route' and 15,000 VND 'from 1/2 route to the whole route'.

If you intend to use public buses for travelling, you can download the bus mobile application, BusMap, which covers areas like Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, Hà Nội, Danang, Binh Duong Becamex Tokyu, Binh Phuoc and even Bangkok and Chiangmai!

You can use the app to check the buses that you can take to your intended destinations. The app shows information like the bus schedules, stations (bus stops), vehicle number, speed of the vehicle, distance and arrival to the selected bus stop and can even show your live location on the route.

In and Around Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh

Popular places to visit include Chinatown, Chợ Bến Thành (Ben Thanh Market), Địa đạo Củ Chi (Cu Chi Tunnels), Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, War Remnants Museum (40,000 VND) and not forgetting the many floating markets at Mekong Delta.

Other activities could include a performance at the Saigon Opera House.

We are definitely not forgetting the delicious Vietnamese cuisine and the many street food vendors, shops, and restaurants serving a wide variety of dishes.

iseasywith.me Warning

As much as we understand that the locals are trying to make a living, be careful of 'cobblers' carrying a wooden carrier with a wooden handle approaching you and start cleaning your shoes, and offering you a pair of flip flops to change while they clean. Just politely reject them and walk on otherwise you may be slapped with a hefty cleaning fee.

Chợ Bến Thành

To me, Chợ Bến Thành (Ben Thanh Market) is just a place for you to check-in while you are in Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh as most of the stalls sell about the same products. I would not recommend having lunch there as you would be constantly touted as you move along from stall to stall and the food was mediocre.

Chinatown

Chợ Bình Tây

You can hit Chinatown early in the morning to take in the hustle and bustle of Chợ Bình Tây (Binh Tay Market). There is a food court in the market and you can try bún mắm (Vietnamese fermented fish noodle soup) (60,000 VND) and iced black coffee there.

Nhà Thờ Giáo Xứ Thánh Phanxicô Xaviê

While you are there, you can visit Nhà Thờ Giáo Xứ Thánh Phanxicô Xaviê (St. Francis Xavier Church).

Miếu Thiên Hậu

Another popular place to visit is the Miếu Thiên Hậu (Thien Hau Temple). Who knows? You could be in luck like me where there was a lions and dragons blessing ceremony when I was at the temple.

Địa đạo Củ Chi

As an adventurous and independent traveller, I would prefer not to go with travel agents. For Địa đạo Củ Chi (Cu Chi Tunnels), my research revealed that there were 2 locations which visitors can go- Ben Dinh and Bến Dược. The latter is 15 km further than the former, thus supposedly less touristy.

I went to Bến Xe Buýt Sài Gòn (Saigon Bus Station) at 23/9 Park to take bus #13 (20,000 VND) to the other end of the bus route at Bến Xe Củ Chi (Cu Chi Bus Station) and tranferred to bus #79 (7,000 VND) to Bến Dược Cu Chi Tunnel. You may want to inform the driver on bus #79 of your destination for him to alert you when to alight. It was surprising that both bus services were air-conditioned and quite comfortable.

Upon alighting, you should see a blue street sign that says 'Địa đạo Củ Chi' (Cu Chi Tunnel) with an arrow pointing to the perpendicular road across. You would need to cross the road and walk along the side road to the ticketing booth to buy your tickets (125,000 VND- 35,000 VND entrance fee, 90,000 service guide).

After buying the tickets, walk along again and follow the directional signs, enter the forested area until you reach a shed where there would be guides there to usher you in for a video and introduction about the tunnels before one of them lead you deeper into the forest and show you the different type of air vents, tunnels and traps.

You would get a chance to uncover a camouflaged entrance to a short tunnel, lift the cover, get in and down, scoop some dried leaves onto the cover, lower it after you to cover the entrance, move along the tunnel and get up from the other end.

You would experience going into and moving through tunnels.

At the end of the tunnelling tour, there would be a treat of sweet potato that you could dip in crushed peanut, which was food to the soldiers during the war.

After visiting the tunnels, just take the reverse way for the buses you took to get there to get back to town.

You should be hungry by the time you reach Bến Xe Buýt Sài Gòn. Walk about 700 m to Pho Hung (241 Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward) to reward yourself for a good day.

Mekong Delta- Chợ Nổi Cái Răng

As with Địa đạo Củ Chi, I did my trip to Cai Rang floating market on my own.

Most travel agencies would take their guests to Cái Bè floating market as it is the closest to Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh at about 100 km thus it has become quite touristy. I decided to visit another floating market which was a little further and where I could be there in time to experience the hustle and bustle of the market yet be able to get back to town in time for dinner. Cái Răng floating market came out on top of my list. It is about 166 km from town and is supposed to be the most famous and biggest floating market, and hopefully due to the distance, would not be touristy.

Back to the research table, I found out that trading activities start from about 0400 to 0500 hours until about 0800 to 0900 hours. If I joined a tour group, I would likely miss the activity as such tours usually leave town at about 0800 hours and by the time I got there, the game is over. I did not want to arrive the night before as well due to my tight schedule. I read one could take a sleeper bus to Bến Xe Cần Thơ (Can Tho bus station) and take a bike/taxi transfer to the pier to get a boat out to the floating market so that is the plan.

The website for the sleeper bus mentioned that the company operated hourly trips leaving for Cần Thơ and it would take about 4 hours thus for me to arrive at the floating market in the middle of the trading, I planned to take the 0100 hours bus.

I tried to book a seat on the website as it had a Vietnamese/English language selector but unfortunately, English was not applied throughout and I had issues selecting the seat as well. Emailed and messaged them, and manged to get the booking done on the phone with a staff who spoke simple English.

The bus station was in District 5 and I was staying in District 1. Fortunately, the bus company had an office in District 1 and provided a shuttle service to the bus station. Meeting time was 0000 hours so after my night's itinerary, I just had to freshen up and proceeded to the meeting place.

The bus was quite luxurious and passengers had to change to the slippers provided before boarding and given a plastic carrier for their shoes. There were 34 beds and the aisles were quite narrow. You can adjust the inclination of the bed to a certain extent. Facing the bed was a panel with a display screen (which did not seem to work), buttons, USB port and holders for your small items. There was also a curtain for privacy.

The bus arrived at Bến Xe Cần Thơ at about 0330 hours.

The bus company also provided the shuttle service to the port. Make sure that you communicate with the driver to send you to Bến Ninh Kiều (Ninh Kieu Port or show him the photo below!

Upon arrival at the port, you would get people promoting their boat rides. Someone is likely to approach you to offer a boat all to yourself for a hefty price. If you wish, you could take up the offer else you could walk around the area and you would see a few ticketing booths. I bought mine at a booth near the entrance of the port for 100,000 VND. The boatman would wait until it was filled to its capacity before leaving.

The boat would pass under a flyover with the Chợ Nổi Cái Răng sign so standby your cameras for a selfie. The tour brought guests through the floating market where you would see how boats displayed their products on a tall pole to tell surrounding boats what they were selling. You would also experience some boats coming by to sell their products like food and fruits. The tour would also drop by some foodstuff shops and noodle shop along the way. The whole journey took about 3 hours.

Back on land, I explored the surroundings including the walking street and markets like Chợ Cần Thơ (Can Tho Market) and Chợ Tân An (Tan An Market).

Once done, I went back to Bến Xe Cần Thơ to buy another ticket (165,000 VND) on a sleeper bus back to Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon

Remember I mentioned about the Notre Dame Cathedral in Sapa? Here is the cathedral with the same name, but in Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.

I walked from Chợ Bến Thành to the cathedral only to find its 2 bell towers wrapped under scaffoldings. It is however still one of the most visited places.

Saigon Opera House

If your schedule allows and if any performance interests you and its schedule coincides with your visit, you can consider spending a relaxing evening watching a performance. I caught the A O Show when I was there.

Bảo Tàng Chứng Tích Chiến Tranh

Bảo Tàng Chứng Tích Chiến Tranh (War Remnants Museum) (40,000 VND) exhibits artifacts, photos and stories from the Vietnam War which include those which illustrated the effects of Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used by the U.S. military during the war, and the imprisonment system used during the Vietnam war. You would be greeted with a collection of U.S. military equipment such as helicopters, planes and tanks at the entrance of the museum.

iseasywith.me Public Service Announcement

The exhibits can be graphic and emotionally intense thus may not be suitable for some people.

Countdown Party

I did my countdown to the new year in HCMC on Nguyen Hue Walking Street and the whole street was full of people. There was a concert before fireworks exploded at midnight.

Food & Beverage

Phở and bánh mì are the 2 dishes not to be missed when you are in Vietnam.

For phở, I have suggested Pho Hung after your Địa đạo Củ Chi trip as it was near to Bến Xe Buýt Sài Gòn. I tried the Pho Hung Special (90,000 VND).

After phở, you can walk a few doors away for bingsu (yes, bingsu in Vietnam!) at Sul Bingsu (219 Đ. Nguyễn Trãi). If you find a whole bowl of the same flavour overwhelming, you can request for a half-and-half bowl i.e. 2 halves of different flavours (170,000 VND).

After your bingsu, you can hit Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa (26 Đ. Lê Thị Riêng) for your bánh mì fix (62,000 VND). Though the pricing is higher (62,000 VND), the long queues speak for themselves and their banh mi was chock full of ingredients.

When you are in Chinatown, you can try bún mắm (60,000 VND) at the foodcourt in Chợ Bình Tây.

If you have the McDonald's mobile application installed on your phone, you can change the Country setting to Vietnam and check if there are any deals. I had my vanilla cone at 50% off (10,000 VND->5,000 VND). 😁

For your coffee breaks, you can pit stop at the popular Cafe Apartment on Nguyen Hue Walking Street or at under-the-radar Ton That Dam Apartment (14 Tôn Thất Đạm), both buildings where apartments were converted into cafes or bars.

For Cafe Apartment, you can choose to take the stairs or elevator to your intended cafe. If you choose to take the elevator, there was a refunable usage fee of 3,000 VND per person. Just remember to inform the staff at the cafe when you order your food and drinks to have it refunded. The cafes there also feature balcony seatings where you could take sefies of yourself enjoying your latte with Hồ Chí Minh City Hall from a different angle.

Personally, I enjoyed the rustic feel at Ton That Dam Apartment. Just take a look at the photos below. 😁

The cafe which I went was very cosy and home-like. I tried the Black Sesame Cookie (40,000 VND), Apple Cinnamon Tea (60,000 VND) and Creme Mocha (70,000 VND).

If you are looking for a supermarket, check out co.opmart Cong Quynh supermarket (a big one was at 189C, Cong Quynh Street, District 1) to stock up a trolley load of snacks and drinks for the night or some local snacks for your families, colleagues and friends back home.

Another popular dining place in Ho Chi Minh is Pizza 4P's. I tried their Salmon Fettuccine (185,000 VND) and Half & Half Pizza (Salmon Miso Cream & Soy Garlic Beef- 265,000 VND). Though highly raved, I found it overhyped and overrated.

You can also try Noir for dining in the dark experience. In this case, dark means total darkness where you would just use your 4 other senses of hearing (the server's instructions), smell (the wine, if you have wine pairing), taste (the food and wine) and touch (the crockery and cutlery) to have your meal.

Departing Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh

Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh was the last leg of my 2022 Vietnam adventure and the next stop was home sweet home to Singapore.