helpful Local Tips For Traveling Ho Chi Minh City
I think, when visiting a new city and you want to really understand it, you cannot just only visit the landscapes though are the highlights to admire while exploring a strange place. Besides that, a place always has other simple things and will bring you the closest feeling, like beating with the same heart of that city.
It is surely that you have been heard about our big and bustling city – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). With the beautiful sceneries, the unique architectures and numerous delicious dishes, the shopping centers and markets also fascinate visitors everywhere when coming to this dynamic city.
And I will not bother you anymore, because we have a dozen things to do to really be able to blend into the hustle life in here. So that you can note some necessarily tips for your plan in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ho Chi Minh City
Weather in Ho Chi Minh City
With the tropical monsoon climate, the weather in Ho Chi Minh divides into two seasons: rainy and dry and the temperature is high and stable all year round. The rainy season starts from June to November with the sudden rains.
However, Ho Chi Minh´s rains often do not last long. So that, all over the year, Ho Chi Minh City always appropriate that be chosen as the ideal destination for your trip.
¨Sunny in the morning and rainy in the afternoon¨ is the familiar sentence when people talking about the weather in Ho Chi Minh. The big rains will come any time even though the sun is shining. Sometimes when it is suddenly rain, you have just wear the raincoat and it suddenly stop. Surely maybe we will go crazy but certainly, the erratic rain makes an unique Ho Chi Minh City.
Sudden rain in Ho Chi Minh
Transportation
How to get to Ho Chi Minh City?
This is the big city in Vietnam so that transferring to Ho Chi Minh City has many choices and very easy.
The first one is traveling from Hanoi by train. You can buy tickets at Hanoi train station with a variety kind of tickets like: soft chairs, hard chairs, beds… The fastest train – ¨Thong Nhat¨ (Reunification) between Hanoi – Saigon is 30 hours. For this choice, you will have chance to sightseeing the outside scene.
Another choice, you can transfer by bus with about 900.000 dong for a bed chair (inclusive food and drink during the journey). Transferring time is about 30 – 40 hours.
Booking for a flight will be the good option for you because it does not last much time to transfer. It takes only 1 hour 50 minutes from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh and the airfares are not too high. If you have the plan few months before your departure date, you absolutely can buy promotion and cheap tickets. Besides that, Tan Son Nhat international airport is located inside Ho Chi Minh city so it will have you save your time and transfer fee for moving.
Airport inside the city
Transportation for visiting in Ho Chi Minh
The public transportations which are provided in Ho Chi Minh are quite polite and plentiful. If you would like to visit and discover by yourself, you could go to each place by bus with a map.
Otherwise, it will be more fun when you rent a motorbike for moving with about 100.000 dong for 1 day. The rental procedure is very easy, you just have to leave your ID card and the rental fee.
If you are the careful travellers, choosing taxi for moving is the great choice with many good quality taxies like: Mai Linh taxi, Vinasun taxi, Hoang Long taxi…
Mai Linh taxi with green (or white) color – one of the best quality and prestige taxi in Vietnam
Accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City
Hotels and motels are the things you need special attention because you need a place to rest, sleep and relax to get energy for the trip. You should avoid renting rooms in the areas where so quiet and have less houses. In many situations, living in the crowded areas to ensure the safety for your property as well as other comfortable things.
There are many hotels for your staying with a variety price, from 200.000 dong to several million for 1 night. You can choose the hotel in the center or near some famous streets as: Nguyen Trai street, Le Thanh Ton street, Ben Thanh market area, Pham Ngu Lao and Bui Vien – 2 streets for foreigners. It may be provide the high price but it also help you to save the transferring in Ho Chi Minh, even though this city often has traffic jams.
What do you think about sitting on the top of high building? Let´s choose a high – floor hotel which has balcony or rooftop to drink a glass of wine or cocktail while enjoying the beauty of sparkling nightlife of Ho Chi Minh City. Just hearing about it can make us imagine a romantic night.
Shopping in bustling markets and centers
Thanks to the rapid development of modern and well-equipped shopping centers with famous brand names in fashion, cosmetics and more besides traditional markets, Ho Chi Minh City is an ideal venue for international and domestic shoppers. This is a true paradise for shopping with large number of big markets, supermarkets, outlets and shops. Goods in Ho Chi Minh are abundant in colors and categories, from ordinary items used in daily life to specialties in areas, from domestic products to the world’s reputable brands.
This city has a good selection of silk, fashion, lacquer, embroidery, and housewares. Prices are higher than elsewhere, but the selection is more sophisticated, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere makes it somewhat easier to shop, meaning that shop owners, especially in more upscale boutiques, aren’t immediately pushing you to buy.
Stores are open 7 days a week from morning until night. Credit cards are widely accepted (often with a charge of 3%-5%), except at local markets and street side places.
District 1 has the most shopping centers, markets and fashion streets in town, including Ben Thanh Market, Diamond Plaza, Parkson Saigon, Saigon Square Shopping Center, Miss ‘Ao Dai’ Building, Tax Department Store and Saigon Centre which offer a multitude of choices for shoppers to buy fashion products, cosmetics and other necessities.
Sai Gon Center
If you are in Ho Chi Minh City with a limited time frame, you can visit Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Square or An Dong Plaza for a one-stop shop experience. Keep in mind that Ben Thanh Market, albeit convenient, can be much more expensive than the other markets due to its central location and frequency of tourist shoppers. When shopping at Ben Thanh Market, you should start with 40-50% of the original asking price and negotiate from there. If the store owner doesn’t accept the lower price, you can just easily go to the next stall. In comparison, you should expect to get no more then 10-20% discount on goods that you purchase at Saigon Square. You will see more locals shopping at Saigon Square or An Dong Plaza. Wherever you choose to shop, you will be impressed with what Vietnam offers.
Ben Thanh market
¨Must – eat¨ foods in Ho Chi Minh City
Street foods make such a fundamental part of Ho Chi Minh City travel experience. There are many popular street food in Ho Chi Minh City to explore where smell and flavor of tasty food are merged with exciting atmosphere to form irresistible eating venues. Travelers can wander on the streets from evening until midnight, stop at many small restaurants to try delicious local dishes like banh mi (banh mee), pho, bun, hu tiu Nam Vang, banh tam bi, banh tang tron, com tam suon… If you want an over view of Vietnamese cuisine, Ben Thanh Market is also a good place to go.
¨Bánh mì¨ (Banh mee – Bread)
On every road and street corners or alleys also have small carts selling bread. You will have a variety options to choose the one for you like: bread with ham, pate, pork and inclusive radish, carrot, slice cucumber…. to make the bread more delicious.
¨Bánh mì¨
¨Phở¨ (Noodles)
Pho is the famous dish coming from the North to Ho Chi Minh. When move to here, Pho has some changes to suit with the taste of the South people. You can recognize it when you look at the noodles. It is thinner than noodle in Hanoi and the broth is sweet but not salted like Pho Hanoi. Today, the noodle in Ho Chi Minh is have more other changes like noodle with fish, ostrich…
¨Phở¨ in Saigon
¨Hủ Tiếu¨
As Hanoi is famous for ¨Phở¨, Ho Chi Minh is also famous for another noodle named ¨Hủ Tiếu¨. This is the popular and favorite dish of people in the South with the sweet flavor of the broth. There are many types of Hu Tieu like Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Phnom Penh noodle), Hu Tieu My Tho, Hu Tieu with beef or famous Chinese fishing Hu Tieu.
This dish is easy to eat with meat or fish and broth. Just simple but the broth is the important soul of this food. It is cooked from the pork bones to bring the sweet and salted taste.
Hu Tieu is the dish which has the same age as the Southern. Travelling to Ho Chi Minh, you should not to forget trying the best dishes to enjoy a unique taste of Southern cuisine.
The delicious¨Hủ tiếu¨
¨Bánh tráng trộn¨
Travelling Ho Chi Minh City without eating ¨Banh trang tron¨, for sure that you will feel regret. This dish is the mix of chewy, soft, salt, fat, sweet, sour, spicy. All is contained in a small plastic bag, mix it up and invite you to enjoy. It is considered like a representative of a vibrant, diverse but harmonious city.
¨Bánh tráng trộn¨ in plastic bag
¨Cơm tấm sườn nướng¨ (Rice with grilled ribs)
¨Com tam¨ also is the simple dish and almost be in every road in Ho Chi Minh City. If you come here without enjoying ¨Com Tam¨ means as have not ever set your feet in Ho Chi Minh. This food is often served with the materials such as ribs, fried egg, rolls,…
“Com tam” spreads throughout the country, but only in Saigon it becomes the culinary culture of the city with 10 thousand people. The “coverage” density along the big street to small alley, from small vendors to the luxury restaurants. “Com Tam” was voted by CNN and honored the Asian Record Organization as one of the 10 most attractive dishes in Ho Chi Minh City. Whether the “Pearl of the East” has all culinary elite from around in Vietnam and all over the world, but “Com Tam” still has its own remains a certain favored position in the hearts of Ho Chi Minh people.
¨Cơm Tấm¨ Broken rice
Things to note
Recently, security in Ho Chi Minh street is quite complex, so you should remember be careful when on the road, do not wear the jewelry, handbags, cameras, phones … With small handbags, be sure that your money is devided into some small parts and the important documents are left in secret box at your hotel. Because in Ho Chi Minh street, it still has many pillages and the victims of these incidents offen happen to the foregners who do not know and think about this situation.
During your trip, you should bring a map or use map on your smartphone, it is highly effective in the road or when you go by a taxi. The first thing you need is to choose the prestige car company, then, in the car you should pay attention to the driver. May be almost drivers are honest but there are still a few drivers willing to cheat the travellers through charging double or triple price. Otherwise, they can take you to the winding roads to increase the taxi fees.
In addition, you should be wary of the person who seem to be have friendly and good attitude for helping you to carry your luggage. When it´s done you’ll be forced to buy something they sell that you think you never need for your trip, or suddenly luggage dissapears with that elegant person.
Enjoying street foods is the most exciting experience but when eating, you should ask about price before decide to eat. Besides that, you also need to care about the quality of those foods. Of course for shopping, when you want to buy any items, you also should doing like that.
Shopping in Ho Chi Minh city
A variety street foods
However, Ho Chi Minh City is a city that always vast and interesting for anyone arriving here for the first time. Super busy and extremely exciting is what will be considered about this young city. And although you are tourists coming from the big country with the first time discovering Vietnam, travelling Ho Chi Minh City still best choice for many tourists who would like to come to just enjoy and discover its vastness and diversity.
Sources: Internet
HCMC Car Rentals & Travel 