Ho Chi Minh

We spent four nights in Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon), which is a relatively short time but it was enough for us to understand that it is similar to Hanoi in that it is a big and extremely busy city, especially in traffic. As in Hanoi, the streets are full of scooters and cars and during rush hours even the sidewalks become additional traffic lanes for scooters. We spent two nights each at the Park Hill Hotel and The Royal Vista, which were a bit outside the city center in a less busy area.

During the little time we had in the city, we took care of some organizational tasks but also visited a few places as part of the mandatory sight seeing. We visited the war museum, the Notre Dame cathedrale, the Cafe Apartment (really recommended when you are there), and the Saigon Skydeck in the Bitexco Financial Tower to catch a great view over the city during sunset. We also wanted to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels (tunnel system from war times) located outside of the city but the limited time we had did not allow for it. Besides the sight seeing, we of course checked out various restaurants including a Burgermeister, which reminded Matthias of his favorite restaurant at work with the same name in Zurich Oerlikon. The burgers were decent but not the same.
On Christmas Eve, we visited the Moon 1984 rooftop bar for drinks and snacks. This bar is noteworthy because of its reception including a Christmas themed photobooth and gifts we received before even going to the bar. Marina got a blinking Reindeer hairband and Matthias some Christmas socks. Why not, right? After having drinks there, we went straight to the restaurant called Truffle & Co. to enjoy some of their amazing truffle dishes.

The most notable organizational task we had to do was to visit the Saigon Central Post Office to send a customized Vietnamese lantern to Marina’s goddaughter. This post office was built in 1891 and is still in operation today, so it was at least as much a sight to see as it was a place for us to get one of our tasks done.

And just as fast as we came here, we went to our next and previous destination, Phu Quoc.

Another two restaurants a bit outside of center Ho Chi Minh:
- Margheri Pizza (Great Italian food! Try the tiramisu.)
- Roti Mojo - Indian Restaurant (Huge portions of Indian dishes)Læs mere