Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Overview

Saigon is much more like Bangkok or NYC than Hong Kong in some ways.  There are lots and lots of little shops tucked in at ground level, with residential facilities above.  There doesn’t appear to be a lot in the way of zoning, either – you can have a metal fabrication shop next to a nail salon next to a jewelry store.  There may be some method to it, but we couldn’t figure it out.  Obviously in hotels and places that cater to Western tourists you find the really high-end name brands.

There are casinos here – one in our hotel, in fact – but they aren’t available to the locals.  You have to be a tourist and show your passport to go into them.  Nope, we didn’t.

Some things here are incredibly cheap.  While in the Hotel, we had laundry done, drinks 2 nights, one high end (5 star) dinner with wine, one snack-type dinner – and our add on charges were less than $250.00 US.  Similar services in the US or Hong Kong would easily have added $1,000.00 to the hotel bill.

We never got a good handle on tips, and the money conversion continues to fluster us.  For instance, you have a 2,000 dong note.  2,000 anything sounds like a good tip, right?

It’s 9 cents.

We’d all probably agree that’s not much of a tip, but you also have to consider things in the local economy.  I tipped the Canoe Captain 100,000 dong, which is a little less than $5.00 US.  Same for the other boat driver.  No idea if this was in line or generous or stingy.  Generally, we opt for over-tipping rather than under, but I’m sure there are times that we’ve come off as cheap.

Trying to convert money can be confusing to those of us who aren’t used to it.  We have converters on our phones (and they don’t need internet access to function) but if you’re in line at the 7-Eleven and there are 8 people behind you wanting to buy their chips and drink and you are fumbling – well, you just hold out money and hope the person behind the counter is honest about it.

Most of them are.  If we’ve ever been cheated, we don’t know about it and figure the Universe will eventually set it right again.

There was never a time we felt unsafe or worried about our wallets in Saigon, but we tend to be somewhat cautious in that regard, not going places where one ought to be concerned.  In part, that’s what we pay the guide for – to keep us from being stupid and going in the wrong place.