Ho Chi Minh / Saigon – Starting point for the Mekong Delta!

The first impression of Ho Chi Minh (HCM), formerly Saigon, awaits us during the bus ride into the city on the day of arrival. We soon notice that in Vietnam the prosperity of the population in general but also the level of technology seems to be a bit higher than in its neighboring countries.

 

Breathing space before the two-day trip to the Mekong Delta

We do not follow a fixed plan in Ho Chi Minh as this city serves us as a starting point for the Mekong Delta trip. Here we live rather than that we are stereotypically hustling from one sight to the next.

The big city of Ho Chi Minh is ideally suited to refill our batteries, enjoy a higher standard of living and receive small amenities such as a foot massage or even a meal completely adapted to our wishes. Accordingly, we determine our plans for Ho Chi Minh in a much laid back manner.

Arrival

Bus

The easiest way for us is to book the bus from Phnom Penh as it doesn’t cost much, the trip is rather short with 6h and we wouldn’t gain any time by plane in this case. Also, if you are coming from another Vietnamese city a bus transfer is easy. But in Vietnam we think the train is the more comfortable and better alternative. You will read about this in the next but one section.

Airplane

Ho Chi Minh has an international airport “Tan Son Nhat International Airport” and is therefore easily accessible from all over the world! For this reason HCM is suitable as an entry point to Asia. The airport is located just outside the innermost, urban districts. The trip to the city takes 10 minutes by bus. Of course, cabs are also available for further transfer to the final destination within the metropolitan area of HCM.

Train

Especially within Vietnam, the train is a good means of transportation. Vietnam has an international reputation of being an Asian railroad nation, which we can confirm. For an Asian country, the trains and train routes are exceptionally good. The main axis of trains in Vietnam is according to the country shape from south to north and vice versa. This means that Ho Chi Minh is accessible by train from all over Vietnam.

Living city life in Ho Chi Minh

The colorful, Asian city chaos offers enough variety of sensory impressions so that we do not get completely bored besides the planned Mekong Delta trip. Accordingly, we set off on foot to the vegetarian restaurant “Humus” and enjoy the evening walk. Thus, we see District 3 as another district of HCM.  In District 4 we find more local stores and cafes, but we are in this district on a Sunday, so all stores are closed and we are only left to look through various shop windows.

Self-determined vegetarian food in Ho Chi Minh – Health Farm

A real insider tip seems to be the vegetarian restaurant “Health Farm” (we found it only on Tripadvisor).

We didn’t know the restaurant concept beforehand at all and therefore we don’t want to withhold it from you. Before we can get our dinner we go on a shopping tour inside the restaurant. Thereby we put together the uncooked ingredients for the dinner ourselves directly on the plate. Afterwards, we hand over our desired composition to the chef who cooks up a delicious dish. We have not experienced this before and we found the concept quite unique. A surprising side note: As we have already noticed in other Asian countries, there is a vegetarian version made out of tofu or seitan for all kinds of animals. In the Health Farm, this selection alone takes up an entire wall of shelves.

If you like to eat vegetarian and self-determined: Take a look at the Health Farm (Tripadvisor)!

Accommodation

Our hostel the “Eco Hostel” is located in the middle of the tourist district in District 1. Here the streets are lined with bars, cafes, restaurants and tourist offices and we almost exclusively see tourists wandering these streets. Our hostel is clean and through the cabin-like beds (you can only crawl into the bed at the narrow side, i.e. at the foot end, the other sides are walled up) we have some privacy despite the 10 person dormitory. The best thing about the hostel is the roof terrace, where you can enjoy a beer with a great view of the neighborhood. Here we also meet many travelers with whom we can exchange ideas. This exchange is always a real highlight, because it gives us even more cutting-edge travel ideas or real experience reports.