Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City – Woke and Awake Travel

TO & FROM Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam

Plenty of flight options from Dublin, but Turkish Airlines come in well priced with good flight departure and arrival times.

Arrival roughly 24 hours after departure with a 6-hour GMT differential.

The area has a hot tropical climate with a winter dry season so best plan for Jan/Feb if you want the best of the weather, but heat and humidity are never far away. Daylight only 12 hours, so can be dark well before 7 pm.

Vietnam has Visa entry requirements; this can be done via an online application and arrival stamp.

See 1 under useful links

Arrival into SGN airport easy enough, and plenty of taxis, it is a short ride to city centre, but fix the price so no misunderstandings at destination.

Currency can be very confusing as VND 26,000 to the Euro, taxi ride should be about VND 180,000 (approx. €7). Only place you will have over 1M in local currency in your wallet and still be poor.

We chose the REX Hotel, as steeped in history,little bit of luxury and in a great central location.

The hotel has an outstanding rooftop bar, known as Five O’clock Follies a throwback to the war years when journalists wrote about the conflict, and GI’s enjoyed a cocktail.

Figure 1 View from Rex Rooftop Bar

It’s a perfect introduction to “Saigon”, and great spot to chill after a long flight with a few drinks and decent less formal dining option.

Day 1

The liveliest part of the city is the area around the Rex hotel, and along Dong Khoi street, striking at night is the People’s Committee Building, modelled on City hall in Paris, it is not open to the public.

Figure 2 Peoples Committee Building

Note Dame Cathedral, with a relatively unadorned interior is the largest church built in the French Empire completed in 1880.

Opposite is the General Post Office and one of the most attractive buildings in the city, very reminiscent of a railway station inside with massive vaulted ceilings supported by wrought iron pillars painted green.

Along Donk Khoi street you will next encounter the Vincom Shopping centre, full of all the leading fashion brands, the municipal Theatre adjacent is a more spectacular French-Colonial style building hosting classical music, concerts, and Vietnamese theatre.

Don’t miss the Caravelle and Continental hotels along the way, the former having a rooftop bar to rival that of the Rex.

Head down Dong Khoi street towards the Saigon River and you will find an Indian restaurant Tandoor, great spot for dinner, couple of blocks over is the Bitexco Financial Skytower with observation platform for spectacular city and river views.

See 3 & 4 in useful links

Day 2

One thing to be very aware of around the City is the amount of scooters, we learn to our cost that they target tourists, in all the noise and confusion they grab handbags from unaware pedestrians –so like many cities carry very little and keep the handbag on the inside. If you do have to report an incident, best to go back to your hotel who will inform you of the next steps. The Rex Hotel were fantastic and arranged everything for us to submit the details to the local police, not an easy task when you do not speak Vietnamese.

Figure 3 A Quiet Junction

Undeterred we pressed on to the War Remnants Museum, this museum pulls no punches and does not pander to the runners up in “US war of aggression in Vietnam”,

A very sobering experience and not one you would easily forget, especially harrowing if you were on the losing side, graphic images and videos portray the horrors inflicted and consequences dealt often to those most innocent and vulnerable.

See 5 in useful links

Head back towards District 1, and the Reunification Palace sometimes called Independence Palace stood in well-manicured grounds, the basement contains the military operations centre with maps and a bunker.

Plenty of references to political status

Figure 4 Union Square shopping centre.

See 6 in useful links

After cocktails at Five O’Clock Follies, the area around the hotel & immediate centre has fine restaurants for all tastes from native to Indian and all in between.

Day 3

North of the city centre Jade Emperor Pagoda is worth a visit, so to the Museum of Vietnamese History mapping the countries complex past. Next door are the Botanical Gardens and Saigon Zoo.

If that isn’t enough head to Ben Thank Market to pick up some souvenirs.

We hope you have enjoyed our look back at Ho Chi Minh City & to keep up with our travels you can follow us on

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