It is not often that you are offered a fully paid trip to another country. While my company regularly sponsor their staff to meetings, conferences and student trips overseas, those usually involve manager-level staff or teachers. It is not common for regular staff like me to be accorded such opportunities. It was a partner platform conference, held at the capital of Vietnam. The catch was, it’s the first week of the Eid holidays. Day four to be exact so no wonder the usual suspect (managers) were not interested of joining. So they offered it to me and another colleague. You know how much I don’t like to spend too much time back in my home town. It was a no brainer. I quickly said yes. It was my first visit to the country.
The company paid for the return tickets and a nice hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh. We took the early flight to Vietnam and landed some time in the afternoon. Naturally, I did some extensive research about the country and the city beforehand. Even learned some Vietnamese on Duolingo (it was not very helpful). There’s a street right behind the Benh Thanh market, colloquially called “Halal street” where you can find a few muslim-owned restaurants there. We had lunch at Jamilah’s. The food was ok but it was nothing special. We checked into Liberty Central Hotel right in the middle of district 1 which is very convenient for shopping. The hotel itself is very nice and can easily be rated 4 stars back home. Pity I can’t bring my family or wife along cause I had the whole big room to myself.
In the evening, we checked out Saigon Square, a popular shopping arcade not far from the hotel. The price of the goods could even be cheaper than Benh Thanh and what’s more, it’s air-conditioned and not as crowded as the former. After a good night sleep, I wake up and tried the hotel buffet downstairs. Since finding halal meat is out of the question, I just picked any plant-based food that I can grab.
Our first culture shock during the visit is the traffic. I mean if there’s any traffic law in place, the road users seems to ignore them all. Waiting for the traffic light to go green is optional and the way cars and bikes wind through traffic was mind-blowing. It’s a surprise they don’t get into a lot of accidents every day.
Our conference was held at the British International School Ho Chi Minh. It’s a short 20 minutes taxi ride from our hotel. The school is nice and big and their toilets are immaculate. There’s over a hundred participant from all around south east Asia and we learned a few new things from our hosts. Since the first day ended around 3pm, there is still time for us to do some sight-seeing in town. We decided to visit the famous Independent Palace in the downtown area. It offered a local insight into the Vietnamese war and the atrocities that the Americans committed.
The conference ended on the second day at around the same time so we had some more time to explore the city. This time we decided to do a proper tour of the Benh Thanh market. We would be remiss if we visited Ho Chi Minh without visiting the market. You can find a lot more goods on sale in Benh Thanh like crafts, clothes, bags, coffee and more. Unlike Saigon Square though, Benh Thanh is always crowded and hot and some of the merchandise on sale is not that cheap. That said, if you’re looking for some souvenirs to take home, Benh Thanh is the perfect place to go.
I get to try the renowned Vietnam coffee while in the city. Let’s just say the robusta beans didn’t really agree with my tummy because I felt terrible for half the day.
On the third day, I went out bright and early for a walk around the city. I went as far as the Ho Chi Minh statue up until the waterfront to take pictures and experience the hustle and bustle of the city. We checked out at midday and had a quick lunch along halal street again before catching a Grab to the airport. We managed to try a few pho noodles, banh mi sandwiches and Vietnamese coffee while we were there. The verdict? Wish they had more flavour and spice. We were too spoilt for those back home.
So that concludes our 4 days 3 nights visit to Ho Chi Minh city. It might sound like a long trip but bear in mind we spend two whole day attending the conference so that leaves us not much time in the evening or the morning on our last day. Had we come for a real holiday, we’d probably visited more places and I can confirm, Ho Chi Minh is a shopping haven for tourists. Especially since the currency exchange is favourable to us.
