Ho Chi Minh City - Cho Ben Thanh Market & Empress Hotel

After visiting Thailand, I flew to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in Vietnam. HCMC is in the southern part of Vietnam. Vietnam is officially known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Vietnam neighbors China (not sure if I knew that beforehand), Laos, & Cambodia. China neighbors the most countries in the world but that’s another story. Vietnam has closely to 100 million people. The spoken language is Vietnamese – another tonal language. HCMC is not Vietnam’s capital, northern Hanoi is. HCMC (formerly Saigon) used to be the Capital of South Vietnam. Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City – nice way to make a sudden stamp I thought of the ‘old’ man. However, HCMC is Vietnam’s largest city and its economic engine. The surrounding southern area is the rice basket of Vietnam.

Unlike Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan – the other countries I visited during Spring Festival – Vietnam requires a visa. Thankfully, obtaining a visa is easy today. You can apply and pay an initial fee online. In ~ 2 days, you receive an email and a form that you need to take with you upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam’s largest airport – though comparatively small). Once at the airport, I had to wait around 20 minutes for the visa to be completed/issued and pay $25 U.S. cash. After that, you clear immigration.

Vietnam does not have any subways or anything like that (not yet) so transportation from the airport is bus or taxi. The airport is about 5 miles from the downtown/tourist areas. I didn’t really want to take a taxi so opted for the bus. I was able to locate the bus. The bus was 4,000 dong ($.19). Since I’m talking currency here – let’s briefly talk about the currency. Vietnam is one of those countries where the currency seems outrageous because of its very large denominations. First of all, 21,000 dong (VND) = $1. The notes (I was never issued any coins during my stay– they are rare) are 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, & 500,000. I exchanged $110 during my time there – 3 nights – and had 2,000,000 + dong. It seems weird to walk around with 2 million plus dong; seems to be a lot but it’s not. In fact, you will see a lot of prices listed in USD in Vietnam but payment is expected in VND. The reason being is you’re probably subliminally more likely to buy something with a price tag of $20 than 425,000 VND. And, unlike Thailand and Singapore where I had exchanged money in Shenzhen before I left for the trip, I had not for Vietnam. The Shenzhen money exchanger didn’t even carry VND; it’s worthless outside Vietnam. So I had to exchange money while there. But getting back to the bus, I knew I wanted to be dropped off at Cho Ben Thanh Market. My hotel was located near there and I knew the market was near a bus station. I also knew the market had a large clock tower. After approximately a half-hour bus ride (due to the absolutely insane traffic congestion – mainly from mopeds), I finally thought the bus was nearing my stop and I hopped off hoping it was the place I wanted to be; it was!

 

Cho Ben Thanh Market (the beige building with the clock tower across the street – see 1st pic below) is one of the most interesting places in HCMC – and one of the symbols of HCMC. Lots of vendors selling all types of stuff. Bargaining is a must. It’s also where you go to get real Vietnamese food. But before I could go there, there was 1 problem. How was I going to get there? In front of me was a huge traffic circle with non-stop traffic with no crosswalks, red lights, elevated walkways; nothing. I had just gotten off the bus and it felt like I was in true Vietnam. It was insane. It was mind-blowing. And it was extremely hot – even in January! I had read about this problem (crossing the street) before I came and now I was faced with it. Not only that (as I would soon realize), this would be a constant theme throughout my stay. It was by far, the #1 unpleasant experience I would (like many other tourists) have to endure during my stay here. You literally just have to walk out in traffic – right in front of traffic! You just have to take a slow, steady, straight pace (no sudden or herky-jerky movements) and somehow they avoid you – but it took me about 5 minutes standing on the corner until I had the courage to do it – not having health insurance outside of China didn’t ease my mind either – nor did their hospitals.

But somehow I made it to the other side and instantly a guy started talking to me in English asking me where I’m from and where I’m going? I kindly tried to ignore him and focused my sights on the Market. It was around noon and I thought I would take a look inside and see if I wanted or could eat lunch there. I went inside and walked around a bit and I noticed a stall with the word ‘vegetarian’ on it. A lady asked am I hungry? I asked do you have vegetarian? She said yes. Would I like rice or noodles? Noodles I said. And, of course, just like S.E. Asia style, it had meat in it when I was served. I ate what I could and left. By the way, Cho Ben Thanh turns into a night market after 6p. After 6, vendors and tents pop up all over the sidewalks selling goods. Makeshift restaurants pop up as well.

I started to walk to my hotel and just couldn’t believe the amount of traffic and scooters. There is simply no safe place to walk or cross streets. Take a look at the photos below. I simply stopped and took some photos. As you can see, the traffic is ridiculous. On some of the pics, you would think I’m standing in the middle of the road. But if you look close, they’re driving on the sidewalks! Again, nowhere is safe! One day I was walking on the sidewalk and the tiny cable of my headphones (that's attached to my iPod) I was wearing got caught on a scooter’s handlebars as he rode past me; that’s how close they get. I mean come on, how far could the cable of my headphones have been away from my body? An inch or two? He stopped and I cursed him in English; he had no idea what I said.

These pics below are of my hotel. I stayed at the Empress Hotel in downtown HCMC. The hotel was nicer than I thought and definitely reasonable ($20 per night). It’s a colonial-style hotel with 7 floors and about 40 rooms. The rooms had A/C, free Wi-Fi, minibar, Western toilet, shower/tub, safe, & sat TV. The staff was nice and the hotel had a little roof-top area where you could look over the city.

 

After checking-in, I did a little sightseeing...