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Ho Chih Minh is an impressive city


ev1lchris

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I was pleased with the city and I think in 5 to 10 years it could be as desirable to live in as Bangkok.

What I didn't like was the pushy touters. Plus I had a feeling like almost everyone wanted to take advantage of me for money.

If they added a Skytrain and cut down on the riff raff it would be a nice place to live.

Very beautiful women.

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The tube rail which I think is meant to be finished in 2017 should make commuting easy. District 7 is also a very easy place to live, eat and get around by walking and no touts when I was there.

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Are people still shitting behind bus shelters?

Not much use for the world are you, spreading brainless myths like that....

Not a brainless myth but reality.

There is a huge shortage of public toilets in Saigon (what the locals call Quan 1 or District 1). If you walked around the streets the predominant smell is that of urine. And if you walked behind the bus shelters you would have to dodge piles of faeces.

But maybe this has all been cleaned up now?

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I've spent a lot of vacation time in Saigon, not just D1. Not once did I come across faeces or the smell of urine. Vietnam has been building public toilets at a rapid pace since 2014. Look for the Viet bank signs, which I've seen in Vung Tau and SGN. Phnom Penh, on the other hand, stinks.

Edited by Kaoboi Bebobp
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Are people still shitting behind bus shelters?

Not much use for the world are you, spreading brainless myths like that....

Not a brainless myth but reality.

There is a huge shortage of public toilets in Saigon (what the locals call Quan 1 or District 1). If you walked around the streets the predominant smell is that of urine. And if you walked behind the bus shelters you would have to dodge piles of faeces.

But maybe this has all been cleaned up now?

There was a report in one of the Vietnamese papers a couple of weeks ago that anyone caught urinating on the streets has to clean it up. New toilets are supposedly being built.

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my memories of a visit about 10 years ago are of narrow tall houses like Amsterdam because of a property tax on the length of frontage.

then there were the terrible touts like the Arabs in morocco. my tout acquired me at the bus station and never let up for 3 days.

a good tout can be a useful friend if you don't know anything. This one wasn't.

he took me to a $10 hotel where the only thing that worked was the internal telephones.

the building being so small was arranged as a shop on the ground floor, storage on the floor above, the family on the next 2 floors and tourists on the 2 floors above that. There was no lift.

The upper floors of ho chi minh smelt of rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide) from a local factory.

the food was over priced and bad like chow chow, a sort of spam.

what was interesting was the fruit and vegetable market. the professional people like doctors and lawyers who worked for the Americans cannot get a job and so work there. I flirted with an ex American nurse who was happy to practice her English.

the interview form for all jobs requests details of the applicant's war service. of course they were not Viet Cong and so have a problem.

the travel agents all seemed to be white foreigners trying to sell trips to bo lat which was supposed to be so much nicer.

the best attraction was the museum of French and American atrocities including a guillotine and a 3.5 inch rocket launcher.

3 days was enough. later in bangkok i met a Vietnamese worker who confirmed to me that ho chi minh was best avoided. He told me that when friends came to visit him he did not know where to take them.

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Having worked and lived in Vietnam during the 1960s...was a bit apprehensive as an American returning to the place where the US was involved in so much unnecessary human strife, misery, and destruction...

I was not certain how the Communist Regime would accept a former enemy...

Could not have been more surprised when people's faces would just light-up when they found out I was a returning American...they seem to go out of their way to assure me that all had been forgiven...yet not forgotten...the biggest tourist attraction in HCMC (former Siagon) was the Vietnam War Memorial...I attended of course...and after viewing the captured US Military arsenal...and especially the pictures of people who were born deformed from the criminal use of agent orange to defoliate the Vietnamese forests...I could not put my mind around how they could now be so accepting of Americans...

Definitely visit Cam Ranh Bay and Nha Trang...you will not be disappointed...

Lovely people...smart...hard working,..approachable and lovely ladies...

Vietnam has progressed beyond my wildest dreams...from a war torn country to modern and thriving...

A must visit for anyone tired of the LOS BS....

I had the same thoughts when I went to work over there but I found the people to be friendly and helpful

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It was rely impressive between 1963 and April 1975.Early Asian culture just expanding into somewhat a modern world being pushed along by the sudden influx of American money, replacing the French strangulation on the City.

Edited by sanukjim
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I've spent a lot of vacation time in Saigon, not just D1. Not once did I come across faeces or the smell of urine. Vietnam has been building public toilets at a rapid pace since 2014. Look for the Viet bank signs, which I've seen in Vung Tau and SGN. Phnom Penh, on the other hand, stinks.

I think you will find those are ATM machines.

I didn't elaborate properly. Banks are sometimes sponsors of toilet facilities in parks, with an attached ATM.

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I'll be there next week for my first visit. Hoping it turns into an alternative to living in Thailand, although maybe not HCMC.

HCMC is going all out to improve everything, including the beautiful traffic-free squares, tree-lined streets, canal cleanups and dredging, canal boat tours and simultaneous building of at least 2 rail transit routes (a third is nearing approval) in a 6-line system, bypass expressways, the list goes on and on. In 5-10 years I think HCMC will surpass ugly, mall-obsessed Bangkok, which is destroying many of the things that made it attractive to tourists and expats including most of the night markets and street markets.

The big problem is visas. It's a piecemeal system, and you have to deal with back-door, expensive services for anything more than 3 months -- unless you have a job offer then the visa and work permit are handled by the employer. And there's no such thing as a retirement visa there.

Seems they are learning by other countries mistakes.

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Didn't think much of Saigon, a s**thole. First time I've seen rats sitting outside drains in a major city. District 1 a major turnoff.

Food in Hanoi interesting, technicolour spring rolls. Loved the breakfasts with fresh baguettes. Very cute water puppet show.

My pick of places are Danang and Dalat. Didn't get to see Nha Trang or Hue.

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