I went to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam in 2017 with my best friend!
Brief verdict from me: I really liked the historical journey of the city, but honestly I am not a city-person when it comes to travelling, maybe because I AM a city girl myself. The whole town is just packed with cars, bikes, people, every corner - not my kind of thing.
But of course, I enjoyed the museums and the history lessons. I never knew Vietnam in this light, and coming to HCMC has definitely opened up a whole new experience for me to learn about this country. I told myself I'd read more about the Vietnam war but I never did. Time to buck up :P
Brief verdict from me: I really liked the historical journey of the city, but honestly I am not a city-person when it comes to travelling, maybe because I AM a city girl myself. The whole town is just packed with cars, bikes, people, every corner - not my kind of thing.
But of course, I enjoyed the museums and the history lessons. I never knew Vietnam in this light, and coming to HCMC has definitely opened up a whole new experience for me to learn about this country. I told myself I'd read more about the Vietnam war but I never did. Time to buck up :P
Pink Church / Tan Dinh Church
HCMC is basically a very packed city, where most of the point of interests are really near to each other, but except for this pink church. So take my advice, once you've reached HCMC and get yourself settled, come here first! This is all the way in another district, so taking a cab there with all the jam would take you around 40 minutes.
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| Every girl's dream! No just kidding, but come'n it's a pink church let's just have a photo shoot here. |
HCMC is basically a very packed city, where most of the point of interests are really near to each other, but except for this pink church. So take my advice, once you've reached HCMC and get yourself settled, come here first! This is all the way in another district, so taking a cab there with all the jam would take you around 40 minutes.
Cafe Apartment
Cafe Apartment is a must go IMO! It's basically an apartment where most of the lots are cafes/art galleries/tea house/souvenir shops and it has around 8-10 levels.
Cafe Apartment is a must go IMO! It's basically an apartment where most of the lots are cafes/art galleries/tea house/souvenir shops and it has around 8-10 levels.
Fees required to take the elevator all the way to the highest floor, then climb down. But personal advice, just climb it. Save the money!
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| Can you pick a cafe? |
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| Thinker & Dreamer Cafe |
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| A quote I strongly believed "The right time is always now". |
Phone case from @zeblours
Check them out!
Some other snapshots of the alleys at the apartment:
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| View from the cafe - that's HCMC almost ALL the time. |
War Remnants Museum
Warning: You'd definitely leave this place very heavy hearted if you have finished all levels of the museum, especially the top level - where they talked about how the Vietnam War finally ended and how the war left an irreversible genetic effects to the people of Vietnam.
Notre Dame Cathedral
The hard thing about seeing churches/cathedrals of Vietnam is trying to fit them into the small frame of your camera phone. My face was almost on the floor fitting them into the frame.
Good thing now they invented wide-angle built in camera for phones already!
Central Post Office
The insides of the post office actually reminded me a lot about Hogwarts.
Just the vibe.
Book Street
Book street is just beside the post office, where you can see open styled book stores that has all kinds of genres.
City Museum
I actually really like the architecture of the City Museum. Check out their perfect walkway!
City Hall
Saigon Opera House
They have free tours everyday, organized by university students that wants to improve their English, hence they bring foreign tourist and practice the language! (Cute, I know) .
Free tours are at specific time but held several times a day, just check it when you're there!
Expect just a very brief tour about the history of the opera house, where they also bring you around the theater halls to catch a glimpse of the interiors.
Tzu Chi Tunnel
Highly recommended, just book a ground tour with your hotel/hostels and you'll definitely not regret it. Tzu Chi Tunnel is a living proof of how the Vietnamese used to fight against the US and French. You get to even experienced how they used to live inside the tunnel, underground, where they preserved an entire complete unit with bunk beds, kitchens, and even hospitals.
However, not recommended for claustrophobic people.
Fret not, just take the brave step in, and within every 100/200 m you have a chicken exit where you can leave the tunnel immediately, as some people do get very suffocated.
It's damp, smelly and very stuffy inside.
Backpackers Street
Famous for fruit juices and mainly where the backpackers hostels are!
Food Street/ Bazaar near Backpacker's Street
Stumbled upon this random food street right opposite of the backpackers street, where you can sample some of the Viet street food!
Highly recommended cos it's so damn good.
Bonus! What to eat?
Traditional Viet must eat:
Coconut fried rice
Fried spring rolls
Tofu with salted spring onions (5 STARS for this)
Fried calamaris
Broken rice - which I feel is similar to our economy rice;
You start off by choosing from a range of source of proteins - (beef, mutton, chicken, pork, fish....) then your veges etc.
I paid RM9++ for this so.. quite an expensive economy rice, but the meat portion is fair enough.
I honestly have no idea what's this but it's so damn good. The wrap is made out of rice wraps, so it's really crunchy and the insides are mainly shrimps and a bunch of other ingredients I can't tell but taste so good together.
I believe this is a street food so do get one if you ever come across one in the night markets!
Phoooooo sureeeee you have to try it.
Blended coffee so good!
My favourite of all. I fell in love. What are Malaysians doing with their French bread seriously.
Banh Mi, which is the Viet version of Subway is the best sandwich I've ever tasted.
And best of all it's damn cheap, with meat and all it's only less than RM6.
I had it every other day I was at HCMC.
Cafe Culture in HCMC
Vietnamese coffee is famous, and hence the cafe culture in HCMC is really prominent, where you get to see cafes just at every corner of the city.
Heck, they dedicated a whole building of apartment for cafes!
Best of all, the spending is lower than that of Malaysia's.
Cost friendly, good coffee, nice ambiance would be some of the points I used to describe the cafes in HCMC.
Thank you for reading and I hope you'd enjoy HCMC like I did.
THANK YOU FOR STILL CHECKING THE SPACE!
xoxo