A day in Ho Chi Minh

We landed at just after 6am in Vietnam’s capital Ho Chi Minh. We only had a day of exploration before flying north to Hanoi. Our logic was to start in the colder north of Vietnam and work our way south towards sunshine.

After collecting our luggage, getting a wildly cheap taxi to our hotel and checking in, it was time to wander around. I’ll be honest, the traffic is pretty overwhelming at first. There are scooters everywhere and everyyyyyone is honking near constantly.

We had read online that you don’t wait for the traffic to stop in Vietnam because it never will. You just start slowly walking onto the road, continue at a steady pace and the traffic will just go around you. It’s true, it does, but it felt pretty unnatural and intimidating at first. 

We first visited Ben Thanh market - it was huge! We weren’t really planning on adding to our backpacks on day one, so we just looked around.

Next stop was Book Street - my cup of tree. This is a nice little pedestrian street lined with open air cafes and bookstores! I would have loved to buy some books but my kindle is far more travel friendly!

Nearby was Saigon Central Post Office. It’s well known for its architecture as it’s a hybrid of French and Vietnamese influence. It was pretty and the interior had quite an European vibe.

It was around about then that I started to get very hungry and we stopped at the most random street stall. Given it was day one, we were probably a bit ambitious going to a stall at which there were absolutely no English signs - but we got the banh mi! 

After a rest at the hotel (we had coveted a lot of ground on very little sleep), we headed out for dinner as per our hotel owners recommendation. She recommended a ‘com tam’ (broken rice) restaurant. It wasn’t so much a restaurant but an open shop front with small stools spilling out the front. They only served one dish - broken rice! It’s made of fractured rice (aka broken rice) with a fried egg and pork chop on top - sounds simple but they did something to make it very tasty!  

Not far from our hotel was Bui Vien, a well known party street in Ho Chi Minh. We thought we’d just walk by and see what it was all about - it was an absolute sensory overload! 



That brings our first day in Vietnam and one day in the capital to a close - we plan to swing back through Ho Chi Minh on our way back to Melbourne.