Vietnam

[luckygal]

Are Danang Bana hills and Hoi An worth visiting?

 

[travelherethere]

I just reached my hotel in HCM for a quick spontaneous weekend trip. First time here, feels very safe for female solo travellers if anyone is considering. Raining heavily now though, hopefully it clears up over the weekend. Anyone have any nice tourist friendly casual food recommendations for the area near the Saigon post office?

 

[keithchan]

Thanks for the heads up.
Heading to HCM in end Sept, will start comparing insurance quotes.

 

[abrokenheart]

30days . 90 days need to apply and pay money one

thanks! . jus did visa run and yup it’s 30.

 

[Innocuous*]

I just reached my hotel in HCM for a quick spontaneous weekend trip. First time here, feels very safe for female solo travellers if anyone is considering. Raining heavily now though, hopefully it clears up over the weekend. Anyone have any nice tourist friendly casual food recommendations for the area near the Saigon post office?

Hcmc has two seasons, wet and dry. Wet season from May to November. I went last month and it rained heavily everyday.

I would recommend HOA Tuc contemporary vietnamese cuisine. It is not exactly near post office but still in District 1 (opposite Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel).

 

[Dead Pirate Roberts]

thanks! . jus did visa run and yup it’s 30.

It’s always 30 days for singaporean passports.
The 90 days visa doesn’t concern us unless you want to pay for it. Can just do visa run like me. Before Covid was able to pay around 1.3m and got people do for me but now don’t have already

 

[travelherethere]

Hcmc has two seasons, wet and dry. Wet season from May to November. I went last month and it rained heavily everyday.

I would recommend HOA Tuc contemporary vietnamese cuisine. It is not exactly near post office but still in District 1 (opposite Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel).

Ahh ok. The rain stopped for a while so I walked around for a bit and then it rained again...

Thanks for the food rec! Will check it out. The Park Hyatt surrounding area felt a bit like Bugis but much much larger with tons of motorbikes!

 

[paladin]

Highly recommend the hot chocolate drink at Marou Maison.

There are many boutique shops near to Ben Thanh market, prices are half to one third in SG.

If you are a working executive and need tailored suit or clothes, find Binh Tailor (shorter time) or Bien Tailor (longer time needed).

 

[Henabi]

Are Danang Bana hills and Hoi An worth visiting?

Yes personally

 

[Henabi]

I just reached my hotel in HCM for a quick spontaneous weekend trip. First time here, feels very safe for female solo travellers if anyone is considering. Raining heavily now though, hopefully it clears up over the weekend. Anyone have any nice tourist friendly casual food recommendations for the area near the Saigon post office?

Don’t use your phone constantly while walking next to the roads.
If don’t have grab, go for Mai Linh taxi (green)

 

[paladin]

Are Danang Bana hills and Hoi An worth visiting?

Highly recommended. My family enjoyed the variety of attractions from theme parks, cable car ride, coconut forest boat ride, pottery village and iconic buildings, Hoi An memories show, river boat ride, tailoring, eating ( IMO, best banh mi in Vietnam) , etc

 

[travelherethere]

Don’t use your phone constantly while walking next to the roads.
If don’t have grab, go for Mai Linh taxi (green)

Don’t use your phone constantly while walking next to the roads.
If don’t have grab, go for Mai Linh taxi (green)

Highly recommend the hot chocolate drink at Marou Maison.

There are many boutique shops near to Ben Thanh market, prices are half to one third in SG.

If you are a working executive and need tailored suit or clothes, find Binh Tailor (shorter time) or Bien Tailor (longer time needed).

Thank you both for the kind tips!!

Had the ice chocolate and mini macarons at Maron Maison and they were delicious! Lots of tourists there buying the chocolate bars back. Starbucks is also everywhere and about half of Sg's pricing.

Managed to try the Ban Minh Bay Ho that was on the Netflix show. Not sure what the assorted meats in it were but baguette was nice. Also tried the popular Pho Le (beef noodles) place. Not really a meat person but the broth was yummy, it was quite sweet actually. It came with a whole tray of leafy vegetables which I wasn't sure was for what? haha...

Was walking around for an hour or so until it got too hot and then took grab. Prices were very reasonable, for a 4km ride was ~60000+vnd (sgd3-4).

Tip for anyone first time there crossing major roads - the orange light flickers non-stop at major road junctions. Just find a zebra crossing, hold up your hand and walk across like normal until you get to the other side. I was waiting for the light to turn orange for like 15 mins until a kind angmo appeared out of the blue and offered to help guide me how to cross the road. Basically the cars will stop and the motorbikes will all somehow manage to avoid you! Amazing!

 

[Henabi]

the veggie can add into your pho.
Pho Le.... the pricing is like Pho Pastuer... getting more and more expensive. in fact, it's basically Tourist Price
A regular bowl is now like 90-100K

For pho, Nowadays I will just follow the locals and eat where they eat, which is equally nice and just 1/3 the price

Starbucks is mainly around the expats and tourist area afaik. Out side of this area.... Its cafes like Highland, Cong Ca Phe and Phuc Long.

cross the road in Vietnam.... JUST CROSS haha! don't need to hold your hands up. the cars, bikes will gradually slow down, let you pass and then move on as normal

We always wanna J walk in Sinkie.... we do it there in Vietnam XD

 

[paladin]

In Vietnam, just find a gap in traffic and cross, the cars and scooters will slow down and try to avoid you. That’s it. Just walk at normal pace, don’t ever run. The trick is to allow the vehicles to avoid you.

when in Vietnam, I don’t go to Starbucks…their cafes are much better, and some have egg coffee. I recommend this one.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3onrS5xD4iMNqePD7?g_st=ic
if you drink beer, the craft beer bars are nice too. But have control if you are solo female traveller.

if you are not allergic to seafood and snails, I recommend trying the local oc or snails. The local low chairs, low tables type are cheap and good but they do not speak English well, and may not be safe for you because many guys eat and drink beer together in groups, so I recommend this place where it’s clean, aircon and great variety of clams, snails, prawns, oysters, scallops, abalone, ark shell etc. try the razor clams in garlic butter, Babylon snails in cheese or grilled, ark clams in spring onion oil and peanut, garlic snail in fish sauce, ark scallop in spring onion oil and quail egg…cannot get these in Singapore.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QQCk893ppUwE6rcx6?g_st=ic

 

[paladin]

For pho, I go to this one where the locals go. It was a nice surprise because the entire street is shopping street with many boutique shops. After I finished my bowl of pho, I felt reenergised.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/a8hrB3QGJB3zySkB8?g_st=ic

 

[Standing Birdy]

Can try this beautiful restaurant. The food is good too.
https://goo.gl/maps/aExD7oYjaF7hbgPM8
Also try the coconut coffee at Cong Ca Phe

 

[travelherethere]

the veggie can add into your pho.
Pho Le.... the pricing is like Pho Pastuer... getting more and more expensive. in fact, it's basically Tourist Price
A regular bowl is now like 90-100K

For pho, Nowadays I will just follow the locals and eat where they eat, which is equally nice and just 1/3 the price

Starbucks is mainly around the expats and tourist area afaik. Out side of this area.... Its cafes like Highland, Cong Ca Phe and Phuc Long.

cross the road in Vietnam.... JUST CROSS haha! don't need to hold your hands up. the cars, bikes will gradually slow down, let you pass and then move on as normal

We always wanna J walk in Sinkie.... we do it there in Vietnam XD

In Vietnam, just find a gap in traffic and cross, the cars and scooters will slow down and try to avoid you. That’s it. Just walk at normal pace, don’t ever run. The trick is to allow the vehicles to avoid you.

when in Vietnam, I don’t go to Starbucks…their cafes are much better, and some have egg coffee. I recommend this one.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3onrS5xD4iMNqePD7?g_st=ic
if you drink beer, the craft beer bars are nice too. But have control if you are solo female traveller.

if you are not allergic to seafood and snails, I recommend trying the local oc or snails. The local low chairs, low tables type are cheap and good but they do not speak English well, and may not be safe for you because many guys eat and drink beer together in groups, so I recommend this place where it’s clean, aircon and great variety of clams, snails, prawns, oysters, scallops, abalone, ark shell etc. try the razor clams in garlic butter, Babylon snails in cheese or grilled, ark clams in spring onion oil and peanut, garlic snail in fish sauce, ark scallop in spring onion oil and quail egg…cannot get these in Singapore.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/QQCk893ppUwE6rcx6?g_st=ic

For pho, I go to this one where the locals go. It was a nice surprise because the entire street is shopping street with many boutique shops. After I finished my bowl of pho, I felt reenergised.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/a8hrB3QGJB3zySkB8?g_st=ic

Can try this beautiful restaurant. The food is good too.
https://goo.gl/maps/aExD7oYjaF7hbgPM8
Also try the coconut coffee at Cong Ca Phe

Thank you everyone for your super helpful recs!! I'm flying back tomorrow afternoon so will try to hit some of them tomorrow morning if possible. This was a really fun spontaneous trip. Thanks again for the kind and helpful tips and recs!!

 

[yewlun]

if chui went to go for 2 weeks plus viet tour.. how to arrange?
buget 3 to 4k. include air tickets and hotels room.
hanoi...banna hill good.. any other places?
any lady viet tour guides to follow or just do by own

 

[paladin]

if chui went to go for 2 weeks plus viet tour.. how to arrange?
buget 3 to 4k. include air tickets and hotels room.
hanoi...banna hill good.. any other places?
any lady viet tour guides to follow or just do by own

HCMC and Hanoi have free student tours for them to practice their English, but most of them would receive a tip (I gave like sgd 10-20) for half a day, you can consider if its win-win for you. Some of them study tourism.

one engineering student brought me to a residential estate which looked like Telok Blangah or Toa Payoh hdb flats built in the early1970s…with long common corridor, staircases at the sides, very nostalgic for me. Then I had com tam at coffeeshop below. The experience was like my early childhood. That’s as real understanding of how locals live and eat as it can get.

 

[paladin]

Btw, the free student tours can cover any places you want to go, e,g Chinatown, reunification palace, Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, etc, they can read Vietnamese and translate for you or bargain for you. On a few occasions, I brought them to the local market to buy local products like almonds, macadamia nuts etc, and they bargained for me because if you are foreigner using English, the locals will likely quote you double the price. After some visits when I roughly know the prices, I now buy them at the local markets myself and bargain myself because I am old bird already.