Located on the Saigon River, Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam’s major port and largest metropolis, with an estimated population of over eight million people. For many, Saigon – as it’s still called by all – can seem to be one chaotic mess of traffic-clogged roads and urban bustle. But most of them have since been seduced by the hidden charms of one of Southeast Asia’s liveliest cities.
Teeming markets, sidewalk cafés, massage and acupuncture clinics, centuries-old pagodas, sleek skyscrapers and ramshackle wooden shops selling silk, spices, baskets and handmade furniture all vie for attention amidst this surreal multi-colored city.
7.00 Get up early with some of Ho Chi Minh City’s (HCMC) more colorful locals and head to Ho Thi Ky flower market. The best time is around 5.30am, when the sun is not quite up and there is a palpable sense that the day is just about to begin. This is when the market is at its most frenetic. To get up to speed with the vendors, grab a piping hot caffeine-laden ca phe – Vietnamese coffee – from a hawker stall and explore. Even if you are not an early riser, try and make it before 9am to soak up the atmosphere and wander among the old buildings and colourful, fragrant blooms.
10.00: If you are feeling plucky, flag down a xe om (motorbike taxi) and join the fray with the six million other mopeds swarming the streets in no particular order. Ask for Ben Thanh market, one of the busiest spots in HCMC. Popular with locals and tourists alike, it is a great place for silk and lacquer-ware, and to stop for a snack. Try a bowl of pho – a dish of noodles, broth and thinly sliced meat, which is the staple breakfast for most Vietnamese but can be eaten throughout the day. Those with a sweet tooth should round it off with a slice of banh chuoi nuong, a sticky banana cake.
11.00: A short walk away is the Fine Arts Museum. Step inside its beautiful ocher walls and admire the architecture and art. Then stroll up Le Loi, the boulevard that will take you towards the grand City Hall, where the People’s Committee sits. The interior may be off limits to the general public, but the ornate cream facade provides HCMC’s most photogenic backdrop. The statue of Uncle Ho – the moniker for the Communist leader Ho Chi Minh after whom the city was named – remains ever impassive to the clacking of camera shutters and tourists posing in his shadow. Continue up and turn onto Dong Khoi just before the elegant colonial Opera House. Here you will find up-market boutiques and local labels rubbing shoulders with Gucci and Louis Vuitton, but take a little time to explore the warren of lanes with their myriad silver shops, cafés and silk couture. Then cross Nguyen Hue to Ton That Thiep, a favourite haunt of expats and packed full of eccentric boutiques such as Gaya, Saigon Kitsch and So Co La.
12.30: Crossing Le Loi once more, wander up Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, stopping to explore the Reunification Palace. This was once the command centre of the South Vietnamese government and the building has been left pretty much as it stood when communist tanks rolled through its gates in 1975. Sample some great Vietnamese fare at local prices at the ever-popular Quan an Ngon, or head to the light, airy bistro Au Parc, in sight of the pink spires of the Notre Dame cathedral.
14.00: Walk to the War Remnants Museum where the relics of the Vietnam War are displayed in all their terrible glory. Be prepared: as well as the retired hunks of military junk and replicas of the ‘tiger cage’ prison cells, there are walls of harrowing photographs documenting combat scenes, wartime injuries and the horrific legacy of Agent Orange, still causing cancers and congenital defects three decades later.
15.00: Take a cyclo tour of Cholon, HCMC’s Chinatown. Here, Vietnamese script gives way to brightly coloured Chinese characters and Chinese architecture and traditional medicine shops abound. Chinese dragons watch over garish, glittering traditional wedding costumes and ornate Chinese pagodas punctuate shop fronts and apartment blocks. Of these, Phuoc An Hoi Quan, Quan Am and Thien Hau are well worth a look. Daring carnivores can stop at a street stall and sample deep-fried duck heads, a slippery length of pork intestine or even (brace yourself) thit cho – dog meat.
17.00: Head for pre-dinner drinks. Popular spots include La Fenêtre Soleil, a quaint slice of Victoriana atop a winding flight of unkempt stairs, or Pacharan, for a jug of sangria and maybe a tapas appetiser.
19.00: Dress up a little for a table at Mandarin, where you can find authentic Vietnamese dishes in a refined, traditional setting. The food is exquisite and the service world-class.
21.00: After a delectable dinner, tour some of the city’s top watering holes – the elegant lounge bars at Temple Club, Cantina Central and Xu are all perfect places to unwind over your favorite tipple, and Level 23, at the Sheraton Hotel, has arguably the best view over the city. No matter where you start off, those with enough energy inevitably end up at Lush nightclub. Finish off with a nightcap, nestling into the subterranean cubbyholes of Q Bar.
Late: Leaving the night owls behind you, wander the last few metres across Lam Son Square to the sanctuary of the Park Hyatt – your personal slice of colonial-style luxury and the perfect place to enjoy a well-earned rest.
