HCM City/ Saigon (6-7 Apr 06)

Ho Chi Ming City gives me a totally different impression as compared to Hanoi. Though the number of motocycles on the road is not second to Hanoi, but the roads in HCM City are obviously more organized and well-kept as compared to the capital city. At least you can see 1 or 2 out of 100 motorists wear helmet. And more cars on the road, thus experience some traffic jam during rush hour. Some roads in the city center are one-way traffic, with 2 or 3 lanes.

We had less than 24 hours in HCM City, thus, didn’t have time to see much, but, the first moment we reach the city centre, we could see high rise buildings like HSCB, Citi Bank, shopping mall like Parkson, and familiar names of those international class hotels like Renansasse, Sheraton…etc. Some hotels have Casino, one of the promiment ones, is called Rex Hotel, the lighting at nite, give you a bit of Las Vegas feel!

The business opportunities here seem to be quite encouraging, as you can see all those foreign bank set up their HQ here in HCM City instead of Hanoi. Cafes, restaurants and trendy shops along the road sides are quite inviting.

The air quality is better here, thus, you can afford to have a drink at those western-style outdoor café. Many classy western restaurants with modern live band are found here too.


Things I like most in HCM City are those nice buildings left by the French.
Passing by their Opera, Central Post Office, Museum, Church…you would think a moment that you were in Europe (of course, kua jeong a bit la :P)

To blend into this very special west-meet-east-culture here, we didn’t go for local food for the 1st meal we had in HCM City. We had pizza and spaghetti instead, in a small, cozy western restaurant. The feel was not bad at all!

Business....yes, we met with only 1 customer in HCM City. Finally, the 1st customer in Vietnam we met that located in a proper office building, with air cond, and Engineers here, speak relataively good English too.


To me, HCM City is quite a good place, but, I hv too little time here. I will come back again to discover more!

p/s: all these photos were taken with my h/p, thus, don't expect good quality photos here