This trip report will focus on the short trip that my wife, Nikki and I took to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam in the period from April 6-11, 2009. In the city we checked out some of the attractions such as Reunification Palace, War Remnants museum, Jade Emperor pagoda, Cu Chi tunnels etc. The trip report is split into sections and this first page will focus on the stay in Ho Chi Minh City. On the next pages you will find information about the hotel we used (Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon), an interactive Google map of Ho Chi Minh City and more photos from HCMC.
Please get in touch on gardkarlsen@hotmail.com if you have any questions or comments. All pictures are taken by Nikki and Gard with our Canon EOS 450D, Canon IXUS and Olympus mju 750.
Prelude
Nikki and I have been to Asia several times before and we have been to places like China, Thailand,Japan, Malaysia etc. But for a while we have been talking about expanding our horizons and this time it was time to visit some new countries. So in connection with a business trip to Malaysia, we decided to visit Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Siem Reap/Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Map of Vietnam. Map provided by www.worldatlas.com.
Planning the trip
I have to admit that we didn’t plan our trip to Ho Chi Minh City that well. The period leading up to the trip was pretty busy but we did buy the DK Eyewitness Guide for Vietnam and Angkor Wat. We also got in touch with Kate, an old class mate of Nikki from South Africa (currently living in Ho Chi Minh City) and she was a god send indeed. And we also organized the flights in and out of Vietnam, booked the hotel etc ahead of time.
Note: For flights in Asia you should check out AirAsia for cheap tickets.
From our experience, hotels in SE Asia tend to offer a higher level of luxury for a relatively good price per night. We mainly referred to TripAdvisor to pick our candidates. In the end it was between Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers and Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon. We ended up with the latter but in retrospect I think we should have gone for Sheraton (especially since I’m aStarwood Preferred Guest). The Renaissance cost us 170 USD/per night but when we booked it we accidently forgot to make sure breakfast was included. So we ended up upgrading to Club level for an extra 50 USD in order to get breakfast, lounge access etc. But if you stay in this area there is a great place called Juice where you can have a western breakfast if you don’t want to eat at the hotel. Here is the review of the hotel Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon.
Note: In Vietnam they use Vietnamese Dong. Right now 1 USD is about 17900 Dong. You can get Dong at ATM’s in Ho Chi Minh City and it seems to be the preferred currency. Make sure to check the exchange rate before you arrive in Vietnam as the exchange rates changes constantly
When it comes to vaccines you should check with your local authorities’ recommendations. Ho Chi Minh City and parts of Vietnam are considered malaria areas, so take necessary precautions.
The trip begins
After my business trip to Malaysia I flew to Bangkok and met up with Nikki there. And on Monday April 6th we got up at 04.45 AM in order to catch the plane to HCMC – I wonder who was the genius that decided we had to get an early start :-) At least we were able to have a quick breakfast at the hotel before we left. The taxi to Suvarnabhumi airport was about 400 Baht (about 11 USD) and the check in at AirAsia was quick – we did have to pay 300 Baht in overweight so make sure you check this when buying tickets. Our one way ticket from Bangkok to HCMC was 4574 Baht (about 130 USD) for the both of us. Our AirAsia flight was on time and at 07.45 we took off from Bangkok in an Airbus 320. I was looking forward to flying AirAsia again as they’re posters and ads feature pretty good looking flight attendants (what can I say...I’m a guy). I was quite disappointed when we boarded as the male flight attendant was not quite what I was expecting. Well, at least Nikki had something to look at ;-)
Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
The flight to Vietnam was only a bit over an hour and we landed at about 9 am. The landing strip was a bit bumpy and we passed by lots of old bunkers and old terminals. But when we came to our gate it turned out to be a brand new and shiny terminal. As I have a Norwegian passport I didn’t need a visa and I just went to immigration and Nikki had gotten her visa sorted out in advance so we both passed through immigration without any problems. My immigration officer was an older lady in a green army uniform. She resembled what I envision it would be like arriving in North Korea :-) After immigration we picked up our suitcases and these were scanned as we went through customs.
Note: make sure to check if you need a visa before you arrive in Vietnam. Rules change constantly so it’s probably best to organize this in advance.
Before we left for Vietnam and Cambodia I had heard that US Dollars were the preferred currency. But we decided to change some dollars into Dong and we started by exchanging 40 USD and got 680.000 Dong back! It is tricky converting when the numbers are like this so I downloaded an application on my iPhone and that helped me keep track of the currencies. There are booths in the arrival area where you can book a taxi. We paid 9 USD to go from the airport to our hotel Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon. There was also an airport tax when leaving the airport and that was 5000 Dong (30 cent) Make sure you have 1 dollar bills or local currency when paying for the taxi.
Coming out of the airport area and into the traffic was quite an experience. There were thousands of Vespa style motorcycles everywhere. They passed the taxi on the left and right hand side, some were driving on the pavement, some were carrying entire families, some were transporting goods etc. I guess the highlight was one guy on an old three wheeled motorcycle transporting a couple of 10 meter long ladders. It just seemed to be very, very chaotic but the traffic seemed to flow.
The weather was hot, humid and sunny as you would expect in South East Asia. In order to check what weather to expect, visit a web site likeWeatherbase. We enjoyed temperatures of up to 35 degrees celcius (about 95 Fahrenheit) with some rain showers.
When we checked into the hotel we went to the lounge on the 18th floor and got a great view of the city. The hotel is located right next to Saigon River (as the name indicates) and there were lots of activities on the river...barges transporting all sorts of stuff, small ferries transporting motorcycles across the river, bigger ships in dry docks etc. When I saw the river the first time it seemed to flow “upwards” and later on the evening if flowed downstream as I expected to...I guess this is due to the tide from the ocean?
Time to check out Ho Chi Minh City
After checking into the hotel we basically went out to wander a bit around town to get used to the city. Walking around Ho Chi Minh is a bit of a challenge because of all the motorcycles that I described earlier. This means that crossing the road becomes like an “Evil Knievel dare devil” stunt but as long as you walk slowly across the street, take it step by step and look at the bikers you should get the hang of it pretty fast. We got out of the hotel around noon and it was warm and humid. We started out by having a small lunch at a place that we found and it was a set menu for 30000 Dong (about 1.7 USD) for each of us. It was not a big meal but sufficient. On the way we also ran into a few people on the streets selling stuff – I did buy 10 postcards for 1 USD from one kid but I have to admit they were the most boring postcards I have ever seen. One young girl that I ran into wanted to sell me postcards after I had bought the first bunch so I said no. But she kept on following me and she was starting to ask me why and started pushing me around. It got a bit funny actually as it was all done in a friendly way.
After walking around Ho Chi Minh City for a day it was great to get back to the hotel. First of all the noise in the city is quite overwhelming – the horn is used in abundance and it is used in all forms of “communication” when driving. But it was also nice to get back to the hotel to take a shower as the city felt very, very dusty. I don't think I have felt anything like it since we went to Beijing a few years back.