Firstly, no matter what flight you take to land in Ho Chi Minh city, after you've check out from the airport, you'll have to take a taxi to the city area which is around District 1. Unless you have locals you can trust that are coming to fetch you, it is advised that you only take taxis that are Vinasun and Mailinh. Taxi companies are unregulated in Vietnam and the owners can charge whatever amount they want. They could even set the taxi meters spinning at an alarming rate. A rough guide would be a 5 minute trip from the time you board the taxi would not cost you more than 200,000 dong. I have taken many taxi trips that are approximate 5 to 25 minutes and the fares ranges from 20,000 dong to 300,000 dong.
If you notice the meter jumping at an alarming rate of more than 50,000 per minute, stay calm, do not argue with the driver, kindly ask the driver to stop and change a new taxi. There's no point in arguing.
Next up, hotels:
There are hotels every where in the District 1 area. You don't have to worry about having no room to stay in. The hotel staffs are friendly and the rooms are considered clean and neat. Some hotels even offer luxurious rooms. The hotel room ranges from 500,000 onward. You actually can get a pretty decent room at 600,000 dong. As I've said, there're many hotels. It all depends on you to select the correct one of your choice.
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| A friendly staff at the hotel |
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| My friend 'feeding' a staff of the hotel, fooling around having fun |
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| A view outside from the hotel lobby |
There are a lot of varieties of food there. Lots. I don't have time to take pictures of the food because its too nice and I gobbled up the food before I could take any picture.
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| Got a shock when I opened the egg. I tried a few and it was quite alright
Sight-seeing:
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| My happy Vietnamese friend sitting by the river |
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| A Nice view of the river |
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| A very beautiful place to dine by the edge of a river |
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| A church in Vietnam |
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| Unique gifts |
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| Pretty girl with so many bikers looking at her |
Finally, some local delicacies that I brought back!
The people there are generally friendly. The things there are pretty decent. It's just that you'll have to watch out for pick pockets, snatch thieves and cheaters. There will be many people selling things like sunglasses, lighters, fans etc. Please refrain from buying from them. They may act very pitiful in front of you and whatever they are selling is much much more expensive then what the shops are selling. There are even people walking around the streets with a shoe brush pestering you to 'clean' your shoe as they will brush it for you.
If you really want to offer them something, offer them food. you can then distinguish those really in need compared to those who act pitiful trying to cheat you. When you reject these people, they will give you a 'smelly', 'idiotic irritated' face which irritates me. Whatever they ask of you, just reject them.
It is best if you have a friend in Vietnam that could speak Vietnamese because most locals can't speak English. I am lucky because for me I have a good friend in Vietnam who could speak Vietnamese and she bargained and brought many stuffs for me! Those goodies above mostly are brought by her and sent to my hotel on the very last day of my trip.
Thanks to Thuy for buying so much stuffs for us to take back to Singapore! Also thanks to her for bringing us around sight seeing and eating a lot of nice food, translating for us, bargaining for us! I enjoyed myself and I will be back for more!
