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Ho Chi Minh City (HCM City), formerly known as Saigon, is one of the trendiest places for tourists to visit. For many visitors it’s the first stop in visiting the whole of Vietnam, which is even trendier than HCM City itself. The city is a lively metropolis filled with a plethora of activities and is comprised almost entirely of modern architecture, with much of traditional Saigon having all but vanished. I visited for a long weekend, which was just enough time to get a sense of this cosmopolitan city. HCM City is divided into districts, and I stayed in and visited sights all situated in District 1, the heart of the city. I’d recommend a similar strategy if traveling with limited time.
There are non-stop flights from Jakarta and every major city in Southeast Asia. I flew on VietJet, a budget carrier, so the fare was reasonable. There are lodging options for every budget. I stayed in a wonderful, small hotel (60 Inn Saigon) tucked away in an alley in District 1; it was clean, quiet, and only $25 a night. Flights from HCM City also represent the easiest flight path for a journey into Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
This iconic market was built in French Colonial style in 1912 and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in HCM City. The market consists of approximately 6,000 stalls and vendors and sells everything from meat and produce to handicrafts and souvenirs. There are also numerous food and vendor stalls if you’d like a light meal or refreshment. The market is often crammed full of tourists and the merchants can be hyper-aggressive, but the place presents such an array of goods reflective of Vietnamese culture that it’s well worth a visit. Keep your possessions and wallet safe as unsavory types also inhabit the premises.
This small theater houses two water puppet shows every night, and there are several other similar theaters spread throughout the city. Water Puppetry originated in Vietnamese rice paddies in the 11th Century and served as entertainment for the populace. The shows feature an orchestra which accompanies the large puppets, who are manipulated by five puppeteers obscured by the set. Even if you don’t know the language, the simple folk tales acted out by the puppets and members of the orchestra are simple enough to understand without linguistic knowledge. Charming, visually appealing, and truly a delight. Also a great place to visit if you have been forced to travel with children.
I have always loved Vietnamese food in its American form, so I was eager to try the cuisine in its native setting. My favorite dish is Bun, which is vermicelli rice noodles, meat, bean sprouts, lettuce, mint, carrots, cucumbers, and a fish sauce all collected together in a bowl. The Bun I tried in HCM City was delicious, but somewhat different in that the diner assembles the ingredients a little at a time in the fish sauce bowl.
I also had to try Banh Mi, Vietnamese sandwiches on fresh French bread. I had an unusual version, which was vegan, using vegan sausage as the protein, rather than pate or meat. It was also tasty and worth seeking out.
Also, make sure to try Vietnamese coffee. I am more of a tea lover, but the iced coffee I tried at two different cafes were both better than anything you’d find at Starbucks or similar mass purveyor.
My most interesting culinary adventure in HCM City was my meal at Noir: Dining in the Dark. It’s a concept that has popped up recently in several major cities. At Noir, the diner eats their meal completely in the dark. I was guided by my waitperson to my table in a TOTALLY dark room and was served an 11-course tasting menu. Navigating the dishes and utensils was a challenge, but doable. I had more trouble trying to distinguish the foods I was eating. Each dish consisted of several ingredients, many of which were subtle or uncommon. During this experience I realized that I am an incredibly visual eater and need the visual stimulus to guide my tastebuds. After the meal, a staff person debriefs you and you learn about all the 11 dishes and their ingredients. I was embarrassingly inaccurate in my assessments, but I did learn that I need to learn to slow down and savor what I eat more completely—it leads to a fuller dining experience, whether you’re seated in darkness or in light. Besides serving deliciously refined food, another cool thing about Noir is that all the waitstaff is visually impaired…they are the ones who bring you the dishes and guide you through the experience. Noir is a great place in that it provides sustainable, meaningful work to several people who might not otherwise have that.
There are two popular places I chose not to see: The War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi Tunnels. Most people go to these two sites, but I wanted to focus on peaceful society. If I would have had more time, I would have visited the museum, but I had no desire to crawl through the tunnels the Viet Cong used to launch surprise military attacks. Many of the Cu Chi tours also provide the opportunity for tourists to shoot automatic rifles, something I am also especially not interested in. If you are fascinated by military history, these are probably great places to visit, but with my limited time, I had no problem skipping out.
I wanted to do more than experience the city, so I booked a tour through the Get Your Guide App that transported us 100 km from HCM City into the Mekong River Delta region. The Mekong River is Southeast Asia’s most prominent river, originating in the Tibetan Plateau of China and flowing through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and finishing its course at its mouth in Vietnam.
On our tour we did the following:
*Visited the Vinh Trang Temple with the tallest Pagoda in the delta, dating from the 1830s. The temple also contains giant Buddha statues and ornate places of worship.
*Checked out Kimmy’s Chocolatier to see a cocoa plantation and chocolate factory where we sampled the product.
*Took a motorboat trip down the main artery of the Mekong River.
*Jumped off the motorboat, and transferred to a small sampan, for a ride through the mysterious wetlands.
*Stopped at a place where they weave baskets. They also put on a traditional music performance for us.
*Went to an establishment where they make coconut candy, pop rice kernels to make crispy “pop-rice” treats, and create a strange schnapps out of rice and SNAKES! I tried the snake schnapps from a giant jar where there are dozens of snakes mixed in with the schnapps—it tasted like a generic German schnapps of indistinguishable ingredients and didn’t seem to leave me with any ill effects, except an uncontrollable urge to hiss at the people I was traveling with.
*Finally we visited Mr. Kiet’s Old House, an elegant wood house, fully furnished, restored recently by the Japanese, dating from 1838. An historic gem that transports the visitor back to another time.
We experienced quite a lot in one day.
I would highly recommend visitors make a similar trip, as it provides a glimpse into traditional Vietnam as a counterpoint to the hyper-modern HCM City.
