"Saigon -- Exciting a ..." a Ho Chi Minh City Travel Page by Ewingjr98

Saigon is dirty, crowded, and a bee hive of activity. However, it is a great hub for traveling around southern Vietnam, and it has a few great attractions and hidden gems that are worth visiting.

I spent four days in and around Saigon during September 2003. Soon after arriving in town and checking into our hotel, my friend Vince and I began wandering around the congested streets. Little did we know how pedestrian un-friendly HCMC is, or how convenient the motorcycles are!

On 15 September, We began by walking from the Bong Sen 2 Hotel on Hai Ba Trung Street to Mei Linh Square at the Saigon River. The first big challenge was just trying to cross the major street called Ton Duc Thang that runs parallel to the water. Lucky for us, a motorcycle driver, who would soon become our tour guide, pulled out into the street screening us from traffic and enabling us to cross safely! We walked along the water's edge fending off motorcycle and boat touts, passing in front of the modern Riverside, Grand, and Majestic Hotels. Upon turning the corner at Ben Nghe Channel, we saw the pink Ho Chi Minh Museum and headed in that directed until our motorcycle buddy let us know it was closed. We then wandered down a few busy side streets trying to lose this guy... finally he was gone.

Our next stop was the Reunification Palace, then Notre Dame. Walking down Le Duan Street, we passed in front of the US Consulate then finally the botanical gardens. We returned to the Notre Dame via Nguyen Thu Minh Khai Street and past the Opera House on the way back to our hotel. In the course of two hours, we saw most of downtown HCMC!

That first night in town, we met a couple of great Vietnamese girls. One of the girls invited us to her mother's house the next day for lunch. Her mother lives about one hour north of HCMC by taxi.

We me the girls the next morning, 16 September, rented a taxi, and away we went to parts unknown. On the way there, we stopped at a nice Buddhist temple and had a few glasses of the drink made from crushed sugar cane. We were worried about the local ice in our drinks, but had no problems. Upon arriving at the girl's house, we were warmly welcomed by the mother, despite her lack of English. She immediately brought us fruit and coffee and bought some coconuts from the local farmer for a cool drink.

The house was amazing. The peak of the roof was probably 25 feet high and very steeply pitched. The front half of the house was the living room. The walls only went about half way up to the roof so you could look over the wall into the next room if you had a ladder. In the living room, they had a wide wooden bed with no mattress, a couch, two chairs, and an ancient TV. The next room was the kitchen. It had no table or chairs, and the back part of the room was curtained off for a bedroom. To wash my hands I had to put on slippers and go out to the cistern (a concrete tub to store rain water). There was a small faucet near the ground to get water. The bathroom was even more unique; as they had a squatter and a plastic scoop for "flushing" the toilet. Next to the bathroom at the back of the house was the other bedroom.

For lunch, the mama-san made us a great meal of fish, rice, veggies, and other odds and ends. We sat on the floor and scooped helpings of each of the dishes into a bowl. With no table, I had to hold the bowl in my left hand and use the chopsticks with my right hand.

After about three hours at the farmhouse, we got back in the taxi (the driver waited for us the entire time!) and headed back to HCMC.

After returning to HCMC, we met up with the same motorcycle driver from the day before. Figuring there wasn't much to lose, we negotiated to pay him a few dollars for a quick tour of the city. He drove us first to the Reunification Palace. We spent about 30 minutes at this large building that used to be the presidential mansion for South Vietnam. This building was completed in 1966 and today it remains virtually unchanged since the end of the Vietnam War. The highlight of this palace is the downstairs command center with period maps of the Vietnam War, an old communications room, and other interesting tidbits. Walking outside, we found our motorcycle drivers waiting for us like lost puppies.

Our next stop was The War Remnants Museum, supposedly the number one tourist attraction in HCMC. Formerly called the "War Crimes Museum," it still has an accusatory air about it with constant reminders of the "atrocities" committed by the Americans. But hey, the victors write the history books.

Our third stop on the quick motorbike tour was Cholon, to the Bin Tay Market, about twenty minutes farther southwest. We spent about 15 minutes here, but I just wasn't that impressed by the heaps of junk at this "Wal-Mart on steroids."

The final stop of the afternoon was a temple on a side street in Cholon, I think it was Phuoc An Hoi Quan Temple.

Upon returning to the hotel, we made arrangements with our new friends -- the motorcycle drivers -- to take us out of downtown HCMC for a good cheap dinner. They drove us south, past the Ho Chi Minh Museum to a small restaurant along the main road. We had a great dinner of beef, peppers, rice and Ba Ba Ba (333) Beer. Toward the end of our meal, it really started to rain, so our drivers ran across the street to buy us ponchos for the ride home.

That night, as all of our other nights in HCMC, we enjoyed the nightlife around our hotel at the bia hois and bars such as Apocalypse Now and Wild West. One evening I did take stroll around to the Opera House, the Hotel de Ville, the somewhat (in)famous Rex Hotel, and Lam Son Square. I did this walk alone after dark and almost got my pocket picked in the deal.

The next morning, 17 September, our motorcycle friends took us to My Tho on the Mekong River. We returned late that night and were exhausted!

On 18 September, we slept in fairly late, then took the hydrofoil to Vung Tau.

We returned to HCMC early that afternoon to meet the girls again. This time one of them invited us to her apartment for a late lunch. We took a taxi to her place and hiked up the six or seven flights of stairs in a huge old building. Her apartment was tiny with only a kitchen and one large bedroom for the two girls who lived there. Luckily, it had a very high ceiling, so they had built a second bedroom above the first with 2" x 6" boards, plywood, and a ladder. They served us fresh fruit and cooked up a nice lunch of seafood and rice. We hung out for a few hours, just relaxing and watching music videos on their tiny TV.

The morning of 19 September, we caught a taxi, checked out of the hotel, and flew to Hanoi at 1000.