SaigonTraveler

Welcome To Saigon! This guide is inspired by the Singapore guide, Saigon version

Saigon and Ho Chi Minh city are the same, people prefer to call it as Saigon

TODO: update table of content

Table of content

• Travel
• Currency
• Power
• Communication
• Hotel
• Medicine & Facemask
• Coffee
• Eat
• Bar
• Shopping
• Tours
• Notes
• Human
• Resource

Travel

• Taxi:

  • There are 2 most famous local taxi brand. You can call them: Mai Linh (08) 38383838, Vina Sun (08) 38.272727

  • Grab & Uber: by app

  NOTES

  • After book a grab car or grab bike, they will call you. Make sure your phone number is updated to local number. Most likely they cancel your booking if they can't make a call.
  • I prefer using grab (bike or car), it's more common than Uber.

• Motobike (xe ôm)

  • Uber moto, Grab bike are new xe ôm service. They are both cheap and safe, you should try.

• Cyclo: if you want to travel around Ben Thanh Market while laying down to a comfortable chair, and definitely environment friendly.

Currency

Should exchange cash, we use VND (Việt Nam Đồng), 1USD ~ 22,713 VND (12 Nov 2017, 1:32 PM)

I often exchange money from this place (may be)

If staying in Ho Chi Minh City for few days, I suggest you exchange money here, the rate is better.

When you arrive to Tan Son Nhat Internation Airport, just exchange enough money for taxi, sim card (~40$/person).

You can use Master Card in coffeeshop, restautant or Taxi, but better to have some cash. Master, Visa, Nets, paywave haven't become common yet.

Power

We use type C & E/F (2 legs electric plug, round & square).

Vietnamese version (Source: Tinh te)

Communication

Phone number: definitely a Sim card with 3G registered (no ID needed). You will need it for booking taxi, translation, map.

Language: Vietnamese. In Dist1 and Airport, people also use English.

Hotel

Go to booking website (for example: http://www.agoda.com/)

I prefer stay in Hotel more than homestay in Viet name, though some homestays' service are very good.

Medicine & Face mask

In Viet Nam, we can buy medicine & facemask easily in any pharmacy.

Just go alongs any street, you definitely can find them.

I recommend to wear facemask when traveling because of the pollution.

Coffee & Tea

Saigon has a fanstatic coffee culture. People loves drinking coffee, discussing work & life, or reading book and working.

There are 2 kind of coffee beans in Viet Nam, Robusta and Arabica. And less than 10% coffee shops use Arabica beans.

You can find Robusta coffee in any coffee shop. There are 3 kind of coffee drinks

• Đen đá: Black coffee with ice, serve in "Phin"
• Nâu đá: Coffee with milk, serve in "Phin"
• Bạc sỉu: Coffee with more milk

"Phin" is special type of coffee filter.

For Arabica coffee drinker, there are less options than. I add an ! for arabica coffeeshop. It is not 100% accurate. I haven't visited all of them also.

My coffeeshops collection

Tips - You can use Foody app for looking for a place to chomp

Eating

Sai gon may be the best destination if you are looking for food.

• Phở
• Spring roll
• Snail & Sea food
• Broken rice (Cơm tấm)
• Bread (Bánh mì)
• Glunitous rice (Xôi)
• Bánh xèo
• Bún chả Hà Nội
• Appetizer

Some places

Drinking

Beer hoi, 333, Sài gòn (red, green, silver) are local beer.

Some places

Karaoke

Looking for a karaoke, here are some places

Shopping

• Sai gon Center, 65 Lê Lợi, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
• Ben Thanh Market (Chợ Bến Thành)
• Vincom Center - 72 Lê Thánh Tôn and 45A Lý Tự Trọng, phường Bến Nghé, quận 1, Tp. Hồ Chí Minh
• Cresent mall District 7
• [Sai gon Square] (http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Attraction_Review-g293925-d2475475-Reviews-Saigon_Square-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html)
• Aeon mall - a little bit far.
• Many supermarkets: Coopmart, Maximark, B'smart around the city, plus many small shops alongs street.

Tour

• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/saigon-by-night-29/ Saigon by night
• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/pick-up-and-city-map-airport-district-1-4359/ When you arrival to Sai Gon and don't know what to do :thumbup:
• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/vietnamese-street-foods-why-not-426/
• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/start-up-tour-an-adventure-into-start-up-world-of-vietnam-831/
• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/saigon-food-tour-1892/
• https://www.triip.me/ho-chi-minh/phu-my-hung-urban-area-tour-v1-2474/
• http://www.foody.vn/ho-chi-minh/tau-sai-gon Buffet in the ship around Saigon River.

Other

Workspace:

• http://www.worksaigon.com/#about
• http://start-saigon.com/
• https://dreamplex.co/
• http://saigoncoworking.com/

Human

• Human of Saigon to know more about human, lifestyle of Saigon.

Notes

• You may become a victim of pickpocket,
  • Watchout for valueable assets (phone, ipad, wallet) when going in the crowd
  • Don't pick your phone or walk alone in the street, especially at night.
  • Consider go back by cab

Please make sure this don't happen to you.

Resources

• https://www.triip.me/
• http://wikitravel.org/en/Ho_Chi_Minh_City
• https://github.com/rubysg/singapore
• http://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Travel_Guide-g293925-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html
• http://www.lonelyplanet.com/vietnam/ho-chi-minh-city
• https://boccommunityblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/viet-nam-co-bao-nhieu-quan-ca-phe-tong-hop/
• http://foody.vn
• http://google.com