A friend and I stayed in Saigon for approximately a week in late April 1999, and I fully intend to return.

Saigon is an extremely busy city, and is not for the faint of heart -- if you have visions of casual bike tours down old French promenades, forget about it. The streets are packed with hundreds of thousands of bicycles, mopeds, small trucks, and private cars. There are few traffic laws, and most people seem to ignore traffic lights completely.

Having said that, I *love* Saigon! Some of the best food I've eaten in my entire life I bought here. Some of the most relaxing days I've ever spent were spent sitting in a shady cafe, watching the traffic stream by. If you're in this section of Asia, and don't mind a hectic lifestyle, Saigon can be a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.

If you choose to visit, I recommend contacting the LeLe Hotel, which is in Pham Ngu Lao (ie., the backpacker district):

LeLe Hotel
171 Pham Ngu Lao
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: (84.8)8368686
Fax: (84.8)8368787
lelehotel@hcm.fpt.vn

My friend and I paid $26 US per night for a double, which included A/C and a private shower. You *can* pay much less in Pham Ngu Lao, but frankly I think that's shortsighted. The LeLe is spotless, has 24hr security, and is family-owned. There's no reason to go stay in some multinational chain when places like this still exist.

For food, I recommend the Sunshine India Restaurant and Zen:

Sunshine India Restaurant
236 De Tham Street
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: (84.8)8368154

Zen
175/18 Pham Ngu Lao
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
(Zen is in an alley off Pham Ngu Lao, hence the funny address)

Sunshine India Restaurant was some of the best food I've ever eaten, and Zen is a great buddhist vegetarian place -- I strongly recommend the Chinese Mushrooms Braised in the Clay Pot. As an added bonus, the staff at Sunshine India Restaurant do a pretty good job keeping the street vendors away from you. Zen tends to ignore them.

Once you're in Saigon, consider contacting the Sinh Cafe for additional local travel arrangements -- they can handle all sorts of daytrips and weekend excursions. The Sinh also operates their own bus system that runs the length of Vietnam. For approximately $40 you can get a bus ticket that will take you all the way to Hanoi, AT YOUR OWN PACE. In other words, you can get off the bus, stay somewhere for a few days, and catch the next bus up the line.

One last note regarding Saigon: don't be afraid to spend money. Sure, you're paying three times what a local might, but whatever you're buying is STILL going to be cheap compared to the US. I bought a meal for two people, including three appetizers plus assorted drinks, plus a gigantic forty-percent tip, and the whole thing cost me $8.

Besides which, the Vietnamese people are VERY hardworking, and they deserve your extra money. Being stingy with a few dollars here and there will only hamper your enjoyment of the trip, and you probably won't save enough to buy a pizza in the US.



Recommended: Yes