Our stay in HCMC was supposed to be primarily a stop over on the way to Bali because that was the cheapest flight I could find. It’s not exactly easy to pop in and out of Vietnam, since you’re required to get a visa ahead of time. I am so happy we made the effort though. This city is amazing. We spent five days here in a little Airbnb ($20/night) in a not so touristy area of town. The French Colonial style building we stayed in had a little balcony that overlooked a bustling street below. It was fairly barebones but had the essentials. I would have stayed there for a month sitting in that balcony watching the world go by if we had the time. But five days was a good amount of time to explore and see what the city had to offer.

We had several restaurant recommendations from our friend Jow so our stay definitely revolved around food. Walking places in HCMC is hectic since traffic lights and stop signs seem to be optional, so we took our time by first scoping out our immediate area. It definitely wasn’t as touristy as the backpackers district, which was nice. There was a lot of great street food right outside our apartment. The best banh mis, pho and spring rolls I’ve ever had were all steps from where we stayed.

Other highlights aside from food included the markets (still sort of food), taking a Vietnamese cooking class (also still food), the views from Bitexco tower, all the rooftop bars (which involved food) and Vietnamese coffee (basically food). The Vietnamese central bank totally manipulates their currency to artificially devalue it and boost exports, so everything here is extremely cheap, which is a huge plus as a western traveller. Definitely do some shopping if you have the space in your suitcase. The city is also beautiful and has a ton of history so I recommend taking in as much of that as possible as well.