Saigon 101

xin chào!ツstri

We just got back from Ho Chi Minh City a few days ago! I prefer to call it by its former and informal name, Saigon, so it will be what I refer to it from now on.

Saigon is the capital city of the bustling Vietnam, and it was the first time in Vietnam for us so we were really excited. Also, we watched a lot of Vietnam War films (read:American) prior to our trip and we're pretty much war geeks so...... yes, excited!

Lets start with the basics:

Our Accommodation:

After much research and advise from my friends who have been to Saigon, we decided to stay in District 1 (which is also my advise to any newcomers to the city). 

Saigon is split into several districts. You can go to the many different districts as I read that they're all very different. District 1 is the touristy place, 2 the upcoming booming place, 3 the hipster kinda place, 4 the less developed, 5 is where Chinatown is, and 7 is sort of like Singapore, home to lots of Koreans and Japanese. To be frank, District 1 is really already very big and we spent 5.5 of our 6 days there.

We (ok, I) drafted out the places we want to go and checked hotel reviews online and finally ended up with Avanti Hotel. Avanti Hotel is directly a (busy) street across the most (in)famous market in Saigon, the Benh Thanh Market.

The hotel is relatively easy to find. You have to walk a flight of stairs to get to the Lobby, but don't worry as there are elevators to take you up to the rooms above.

We were actually pleased with the hotel because of its location; it was in a prime location close to lots of food and shopping. Also, to be frank, the area of the hotel (near the Market) is considered as middle-class. The higher end hotels like Sheraton are a ten-minute walk away and is visibly much cleaner and less stressful for road-crossing (more on that later). The room was nice too except for the fact that the shower heater was not hot enough. Sometimes it isn't hot at all. But I am unsure if that was just our room (2nd floor). The hair dryer did not emit hot air either. Aside from that, we really enjoyed our stay!

Also important to note: check if the power sockets suit what you have. I made the mistake of forgetting to check and left my universal charger back home so I had to live in favor to my BF the entire trip :-(

More info on Avanti Hotel:

Website

Contact:

188, 186 Lê Thánh Tôn, Bến Thành, Quận , Hồ Chí Minh, | Vietnam

Phone: (+84) 8 3822 8066

It is advisable to have the addresses of places you want to go in Vietnamese. We took a taxi from the Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport because our hotel airport transfer transport never came (still wanted to charge me again, assholes!!!) and true enough, the driver did not know where Avanti was, so it was a good thing I had the address in Vietnamese ready (printed out and glued on a tiny notebook, no less #kiasu).

Money Matters:

I arrived and left Vietnam still not figuring out their money. I swear we didn't know how to use the really small notes like 500 VND and 1000 VND. I brought and converted BND300 (which wasn't enough but also, more on that later) which I converted in Brunei before going. Money changers are quite abundant where we stayed so its OK. The rate was similar to Brunei too, around 1 to 16.+

Food is cheap, even at the higher end places. A meal for two would account to around less than BND30? Again foggy because I don't pay for food so I am not entirely sure. I should have little sections where I let my BF have his sessions on food prices when we travel, lol. We didn't take a lot of public transport except to and from the airport, and that one time to and back from District 5....... Also more on that later. The fare to(and from) the Airport is around 450,000 VND. Much cheaper on Grab, so I suggest you take that.

Saigon has lots of international brands too like Zara, Topshop and big brands like Hermes and Bottega, and they accept credit cards in many places. It goes without saying that the small stalls and the market do not.

Travel SIM:

I tell my bosses I get a travel SIM to every country I go so I can study their travel SIMs as research..... :-) If my bosses happen to see this, it really is what I do :-)

Progresif does Prepaid Roaming now, so if you're roaming to Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, you don't have to switch SIMs anymore and can roam like you're on local land! Excellent.

Ok, so I researched mobile operators in Vietnam and read that Viettel is the best (if you don't agree, please leave a comment!) so that was what we got. They conveniently have it in the airport before you cross customs to exit. We opted for the "Unlimited" Data 4G SIM with no voice and SMS, and it was VND100,000 per SIM for 7 days. I say "Unlimited" because I am not sure when it throttles and how much it throttles..... Info is not clear on their website and the language barrier...

From our experience, overall it was OK; but many times it was just 3G and not 4G like marketed.

Weather:

We were there from 21st to 26th September 2017, and apparently its the rainy time. True enough, it was. It drizzled everyday!! The days would go from sunny to gloomy really quick, and it was really humid so we were sweating like mad every single day. Pack all your light clothing! And prepare to sweat. The entire time, AAR's "Sweat" was playing in my head........

Will blog about our adventures in Saigon next!

xxx