Ho Chi Minh City

Favorite food:

My friends who live in Vietnam recommended lots of places, which I mostly tried. These were my most favorite of their recommendations

• Ngoc Chau Garden — a great restaurant to sample different things
• Pho Pha — very basic, but great Pho
• Secret Garden @131 Calmette — lovely vibe, and would be cute for a date
• Pizza 4P’s — I mean, why would you want to have pizza in HCMC? but after 18 days of Vietnamese food, I was excited when a friend recommended this, and it was great
• Le Than Ton (8/15 Le Thanh Ton, Ward, Bến Nghé, Quận 1) — a cute, weirdly colorful cafe (see below) with cheap and good food.
• Cong Caphe — try the coconut coffee “bac xiu”. I tried different coffee chains, and Cong Caphe is my favorite
• Lason Dragon — nice vibe and relatively good good

Lason Dragon

Le Than Ton

Touristy things to see/do:

Tan Dinh Church

Tan Dinh Church

Top of Bitexco Financial Tower

Took this photo from a cafe at the top of Bitexco Financial Tower

Notre Dame Cathedral

Took this while walking across the city

Street Food Market

Central Post Office

The Saigon Central Post Office

Simply being on a motrocycle (GrabMoto) in the bustling streets

Working Spaces

I was doing some work while in Saigon and tried a few cafes and co-working spaces. My favorite was called QSpace — it is simple, relatively small and quiet. There were mostly locals there.

The public library was also a great spot to work.

Public Library

Set up @Q-Space