Vietnam tours, Ho Chi Minh City

Once dearly called “Diamond of the Far-east” with the luxury level overriding that of Hongkong or Bangkok, Hochiminh City is now the most populated city in Vietnam. Modern office skyscrapers, amidst Chinese style pagodas and food stalls along the street, create a dynamic urban area in very special sense. It is not overly tidy like in Singapore, nor is urban slumps omnipresent like in India.

Hochiminh City’s architecture and lifestyle is the reconciliation between American and Chinese influence, with many dots of modernity yet without losing Vietnamese traits.
Hochiminh City is as much historical as it is modern. Reunification Palace is definitely the place to visit, for its significance and archival of Vietnam War. Museums are abound and the admission fees are generally low: Hochiminh Museum, Revolutionary Museum, Vietnam History Museum, etc.
If you are tired of talking about the past and want to learn more about the presence, District 1 may fit a walking tour. Streets are lined with tall evergreen trees and you can easily walk around with a map. A few notable sights you will spot on the way are the city post-office, Notre Dame church, Ben Thanh market, etc…

The tourist hub is Pham Ngu Lao area, where gathers most travel agency, Western-style restaurants and bars and of course budget accommodation for travellers.
It might be a relief for some to know that Hochiminh City is also the best place in Vietnam for entertainment . The three main amusement parks: Dam Sen, Suoi Tien and Dai Nam are the three complexes with zoos, sceneries, water and non water games.

Ben Thanh Market

There is no Disneyland in Vietnam but these complexes do their job: they replace the fairy tales of Andersen stories with the folk tales in Vietnamese. In short, good places for family with kids!
If Hochiminh has things to win the rivalry against Hanoi, it is night life. Bars are open late and vary in style. Adding to that, Hochiminh has many tea-house which hosts live music performance of both Vietnamese and international artists.

However, if you really want to go local for night-life, hop into one of the street food stalls, order some drink and peanuts and chat until midnight.


Dining

Saigon is not a place where you will easily go hungry, regardless of your budget.
A glut of foreign business people with expense accounts has created plenty of elegant, albeit overpriced restaurants. You will find everything from enchiladas to dim sum here, although I can not imagine why anyone but terminally bored expatriates would even bother. Many of these places are pretentious and offer only passable food.
Vietnam tours recommend restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City:
Most of the Vietnamese restaurants which cater to the business community are quite Westernized. If you insist on a crisp, white table cloth, the best of these is Blue Ginger, housed in a former journalists’ club at 37 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia. Viet Nam House upstairs at 4 Nguyen Thiep Street is under the same ownership. Both are magnificently decorated. You can expect fabulous service and live music.
Lemon Grass, at 93-95 Dong Khoi Street, is a bit more modest and relaxed, but still fairly good. On most nights, a string quartet entertains diners.
But for those who want to enjoy real Vietnamese food and contemporary Saigon living, forget about all the tourist restaurants with their white linens and bloated prices, and instead dine where the Vietnamese do. . Thanks to cheap food and local whisky everyone makes merry in Saigon every night.

Notre Dame church

Don’t leave Ho Chi Minh City without trying one of the banh xeo (pancake) places on Dinh Cong Trang Street, one of the most unusual eating experiences in the city. About one block down this little alley you will find hundreds of people eating outdoors around an open-air kitchen. While you may receive a menu which includes a variety of banh xeo and other specialties, it’s just as easy to look at what other people are having and point. Except for some seafood dishes, the food is very cheap. Just keep ordering one dish at a time until you have had enough.
The small and sumptuously decorated Phu Xuan offers the traditional culinary specialties of Hue, Vietnamese cooking’s equivalent of Imperial court cuisine. Unlike most Saigon, flavors are rich and subtle, and dishes are beautifully presented. Although a bit more spendy than street food, Phu Xuan is a wonderful and relaxing place for a romantic supper or a small party. In District 3 at 128 Dinh Tien Hoang.
A final culinary curiosity is the Binh Soup Shop at 7 Ly Chinh Thang, in District 3. Before North Vietnamese tanks rolled down the streets in 1975, Viet Kong infiltrators used this little dive as their secret headquarters. While serving up helpings of noodle soup to thousands of unsuspecting Vietnamese and Americans, cooks and waiters here plotted sabotage, and ultimately, the fall of Saigon.