HCMC is a city that churns, ferments, bubbles and fumes. The streets are a jumble of street markets, shops, pavement cafes, stands-on-wheels and vendors selling wares spread out on sidewalks. It's impossible not to be infected by its exhilarating vibe.
As the most active city in Vietnam,HCMC offers an excellent variety of clothing, ceramics, ethnic fabrics and lacquered bamboo. Once you are in HCMC, you will surely get spoilt for choice of shops.
No one ever shopping here can deny that the range of merchandise inHCMC is truly interesting !! And yes, bargaining is considered the most common way too buy things in HCMC. Some often relish bargaining, others hate it. Yet, it is not that much complicated if you think of it as a a harmonious Yin-Yang balance. You want the item and the seller wants your money. The maximum price you are willing to pay is the value of your desire for the item. The minimum price the vendor is willing to accept is the value of their desire for your money.
Bargaining is simply a search for the Yin-Yang balance between your desire and the seller's. Frankly speaking, any item without a price tag can be bargained down to two thirds of its initially quoted price. However, should the items have price labels, there is almost no bargaining.
The Ben Thanh Tourist market is the main shopping area in Ho Chi Minh City. Here hundreds of stalls sell a wide array of goods from souvenir shirts to fine silk to cashew nuts. Housed in a massive space and it will take shoppers hours upon hours looking and buying bargains. Primarily because of competition from nearby stalls, it is quite common sight to see shopkeepers chasing and trying to convince customers who might not find prices cheap enough. Some even resort to holding on to the hand or arm of customers. Usually shopkeepers give discounts if you buy a large quantity of goods.
What does Cholon mean? It's actually China Town inside Ho Chi Minh City. It is the name of the Chinese district (District 5)in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), the largest Chinatown district in Vietnam. It comprises several markets, in which Binh Tay Market is the central one. Today, Cholon has become part and parcel of every itinerary to this significant city !!!
Managed to find the Hard Rock Cafe in HCMC ! Hard Rock CafeHCMC is located at 39 Le Duan Avenue, District 1in the Kumho Asiana Plaza, a new upscale complex for shopping and entertainment. This cafe is less populated and is less frequently visited by the tourists as well as the locals. If you are into western music then this is the place to be. At the Hard Rock Cafe, a music in bar you would get to hear the most popular songs western songs of renowned artists.
It isworthwhile to mention here that the Hard Rock Cafe HCMC needs to raise its standards to compete with the other music in bars, dicotheques and nightclubs of this city. The cost of the drinks offered by this music in bar is within one's budget.
Billed as the "Entertainment Capital for Tourists" Allez Boo has been a favourite hang out for travellers and tourists since it first opened in 1997. With its tropical, bamboo and thatch decor, open and airy atmosphere and friendly welcome, Allez Bo, this little corner eatery is certainly one of the busiest and most popular bars & restaurants in the Pham Ngu Lao / De Tham backpacker area, patronised by tourists and expatriates alike.
Allez Boo serves affordable one-plate meals and a good selection of Vietnamese and faux-Western in an open-air corner bar. With a wide range of beers, shakes, spirits and cocktails, the bar is also a great place to kick back, relax and watch the world go by!!
The Notre Dome Cathedral is one of HCMCs most outstanding landmarks. It is such a magnificient building located at the Paris Square inthedowntown area of HCMC, attracting not only Catholics but also most tourists for its neo-Romanesque style architecture and a sacred atmosphere.
HCMC's post office (Buu Dien) is a greatexample of French colonial architecture, was designed by Eiffel of Paris Eiffel Tower fame in the 19th century. The beautiful Central Post Office across the road from the Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the best looking colonial public buildings in Ho Chi Minh City. The Post office, doesn't sound like a place to visit unless you want to buy some stamps, but here, in Ho Chi Minh city, it is a place worth a mention and visit in and outside.
There are some polished wood phone booths of old, beautiful !!! People can also make overseas phone calls from the PO using their credit card or by paying a certain fee in of the booths.
Insidethe post office (Buu Dien), you'll see two historical maps, one is "Saigon and its environments"and "Telegraphic network in South Vietnam and Cambodia".
On the way to the Cu Chi Tunnels, the tour guide explained to us througha documentary film in the bus, showing how in the course of 20 years the people dug nearly 200km of tunnels !!
The Cu Chi Tunnel is a huge network of underground tunnels in the Cu Chi district, and part of a larger tunnel network underlying much of Vietnam. It became legendary in the war for facilitating the local guerrillas to win over the American troops.
If you are historians, or simply history-desirers and would like to figure out how hard and heart-breaking the Vietnamese people lived and won over the past war, you should come here and try a real supposed day of the Viet tough life in the underground shelter of Cu Chi by yourself.
For such a meaningful historical value, the tunnel is now absorptive to hundreds of thousands of tourists, particularly foreign ones, to come and explore the heroic and harsh period of the Vietnamese guerillas. An activity approved by the majority of tourists is crawling around in the safer parts of the tunnel system. Some tunnels have been made larger to accommodate the larger size of western tourists, while low-power lights have been installed in several of them to make traveling through them easier and booby traps have been clearly marked.
If you are fond of adventure and secret-exploration, this would be of great captivation to you! More importantly, touring Cu Chi, you would learn more about the war and the resilience of the Vietnamese. Hence, just come and explore a hard but heroic and resilient Vietnam on your own, you will surely never regret !!!
