Hey all, HOCHIMINH CITY is the commercial capital city of vietnam. It is something new and refreshing about this city. In a way, it resembles somewhat like any other city of India, especially with its amazingly growing number of two wheelers on the road.
I landed HOCHIMINH CITY airport after a 1.5hrs flying time from Singapore. The Airport is clean but I had to spend more than an hour to pass through immigration. I guess its the same in any developing countries in Asia.
Once you are out of Airport you will be troubled by many cab drivers and better to choose the one hotel arranges for you. In the month of March, city is hot around 32 to 34deg, and it is not easy to drive a car in the middle of 100s of two wheeler.
The district is well developed with all the facilities and attractions of a developed city where the rest of the city is lagging behind in everything.
There are few good shopping malls, but to shop in vietnam we must really try the small shops which sells handicrafts, curios and garments and fake watches. The big business in Vietnam is fake DVDs, CDs, CD ROMs etc. You can get anything related to computers and media for less than a dollar anywhere in the city.
Cab drivers are mostly reliable but never adventure in trying motorbikes. They normally charge a lot and its no fun in arguing with them.
For site seeing, there are plenty of historical places, of all Cu CHI Tunnel is worth watching. One day site seeing in the city will costs around 30 to 50 usDollar depending upon mode of transport. For Hindus, there few Hindu temples in the district 1, still maintained well.
It is quite amazing to see typical south indian architecture hindu temples in the middle of the mostly chinese vietnamese crowd.
This place is worth visiting for guys who are interested to see diffferent culture, from the tourist point of view, it has all the attractions for shopping, heritage sites, night life etc, all at very reasonable rates.