| dissolved | Places |
Below is a basic table of the weather in Saigon. I've omitted much of the year for brevity; however, I've omitted the rainy months. You may, therefore, assume that any month I've not included will be rainy and cooler.
| Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | ||
| Temp (F) | 80 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 84 | 86 | 84 | |
| Rain (inches) | 4.5 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 8.7 |
There isn't any special reason to avoid the rainy season, except that it may complicate travel somewhat (especially in the delta). Many roads aren't paved, and they can become quite treacherous in the rainy season. I enjoyed the late April weather, as it was extremely hot with occasional drenching rains -- more or less what an American expects from Southeast Asia, rightly or wrongly.
Our room (a small double) was $20US per night, and well worth it. Larger rooms (some with balconies) are around $26US (the beds seemed larger too). I did not make any reservations; we simply walked up and got a room. The desk clerks will ask for your passport; this is standard procedure, so don't be alarmed. They'll keep it until you check out. If you stay somewhere shady, you can probably talk your way out of it, or maybe convince them to keep a photocopy, rather than your real passport. Since the LeLe has a safe, and good security, you may as well save the effort and let them have your passport.
Contact Information:
LeLe Hotel
171 Pham Ngu Lao St.
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam
Phone: (84.8)8368686
Fax: (84.8)8368787
lelehotel@hcm.fpt.vn
If the Le Le is too expensive, there are innumerable "rooms for rent" in the two alleys on the same block as the Le Le. Most of these are around $3, with some as low as $1 (dorm-style) and others as high as $5-10US per night. Nevertheless, I still recommend the Le Le if you can afford it -- the private shower and A/C was priceless.
On the high end, various Western hotel chains are setting up shop in Saigon. These places are exactly the same as everywhere else in the world, and they cost the same too. Personally, I don't see any reason to spend $200 per night in Saigon. But hey, if you simply must stay in a Hilton, at least you can. I would suggest, however, that you consider spending your money in a local hotel, rather than pouring more into the coffers of giant international corporations.
Around Pham Ngu Lao there are quite a number of Westerner-friendly cafes and restaurants (meaning that they have non-Vietnamese menus on hand). You'll find the largest crowds at the Kim Cafe and the Sinh Cafe. Personally, I preferred eating at Kim, and used Sinh mostly for making travel arrangements. I can't say that I ate much at either place; they make nice cafes, but the food is merely acceptable. With that in mind, my actual restaurant recommendations are:
Contact Information
Sunshine Indian Restaurant
236 De Tham Street
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: 84.8 8368154
Contact Information
Zen
175/18 Pham Ngu Lao
Dist. 1
Ho Chi Minh City
Phone: 8.360393
If your Vietnamese isn't great, and you're put off by the idea of wrangling independent passage everywhere, consider booking your excursions through the Sinh Cafe (on De Tham). The prices are reasonable, the arrangements are on the up-and-up, and frankly it's nice to be able to skip the hassle of handling things yourself. Having said that, for heaven's sake, have the decency to show up for the trip ON TIME. Buy a clock if you have to.
The Sinh Cafe trip to Tay Ninh (stops at Cu Chi and the Cao Dai Holy See) is a reasonable day trip. As I recall it cost something like $4, including a passable meal, and was in an A/C bus (priceless, given the stunning heat on the day we went). If you're not fascinated by the Cao Dai religion (I was), and don't care about the war, then maybe you should skip this trip.
Sinh Cafe runs a number of Mekong Delta trips, all of which seem worthwhile. I only had time for the one-day excursion, which was about $8. Completely worth doing. The Mekong is pretty nifty, and we got caught in an early monsoon storm, which was surprisingly fun. If you've got extra time, you might consider a multi-day Mekong Trip.
The best thing offered by the Sinh Cafe, however, is the "Open Tour", which is basically the Vietnamese equivalent of a Eurail pass -- it's a deal where you pay a set price (varies depending on how far you want to go), and then you can get to your eventual destination at your own pace, aboard various Sinh-arranged vehicles. For example, if you want to stop for three days at DaLat, then you simply get off the bus, and get on another one three days later. HOWEVER, do NOT lose your ticket! If you do, you'll have to pay all over again. DaLat is highly recommended by other travellers, and I was told that Vung Tau is "skippable", although the beach at Ho Coc is supposed to be pleasant (head north from Vung Tau along the ocean).
While in Saigon, you should visit Cho Ben Thanh (Ben Thanh Market), just because it's insane. One warning: if you are vegetarian, or squeamish, DO NOT go all the way to the back of the market -- that's the meat section, and the vendors will be actively slaughtering animals. Be careful in Cho Ben Thanh; some of the vendors will charge outrageously inflated prices for Westerners. The favorite trick is to say "twenty" when you point at something (and you naively think they mean twenty thousand dong), only to have it end up being twenty dollars U.S.!
This is a catch-all area.
The reasons why to go are simple: Vietnam is beautiful, the Vietnamese are extremely friendly, and it's fairly inexpensive for a Westerner (due to the financial problems in Asia). I'm going to use the rest of this space to discuss odds & ends . . .
Expect to spend some money -- there's no point in scrimping & scraping in order to save a few thousand dong here & there. It's a vacation; have fun and treat yourself right. Besides which, the Vietnamese are inordinately friendly and very hardworking -- they deserve a few extra dollars. We always tipped heavily, and was accordingly well-liked. Over the span of a week, I'd guess that I spent maybe $30 more than I really needed to, and it was worth it. My whole two week vacation (not including airfare) cost like $600, and maybe a full third of that money was spent in Hong Kong.
Being an American wasn't a problem; I think that the USA is more obsessed with the war (and accordingly more resentful) than Vietnam is. As long as you're not pompous about it, nobody minds Americans. In fact, we were relatively sought after -- the perception being that Americans spend more money. From what I saw, this is probably true. Here's a quote that two different Vietnamese told me "Australians have the time, but Americans have the money".
Immunizations are probably a good idea. Although you really needn't worry too much about getting anti-malarial agents, you should have a fairly wide range of shots. I got Hep-A and Hep-B, Japanese Encephalitis, and Typhoid, plus Tetanus/Diptheria and TB boosters. My friend, travelling with me, skipped the Hepatitis shots (you don't really need them, I just figured what the heck). If you go for the full list of shots, you'll need to plan several months in advance, as the Hepatitis drugs take place over months. The other immunizations can occur over a few weeks. The cost varies, depending on where you get your shots. If you go for the full spectrum, expect to pay several hundred dollars by the time you're done.
Photocopy all of your important documents before you go. Although I never needed it, I suggest you consider getting a copy of your birth certificate as well.
Getting a Visa isn't very hard -- I used a Visa service to save the hassle (and speed the response time), but you can do it yourself if you want to bother. If so, send a fax request to the Vietnamese embassy in Washington D.C. Expect it to take between 2 to 3 weeks.
As far as travel agents go, if you're in the Chicago area you might try:
Deepak Patel
Contrail Travel Inc.
180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 505
Chicago IL 60601
312-984-9831
cwontrail@aol.com
. . . Deepak is no longer arranging travel, although he still works at Contrail, and can hook you up with someone competent. He did a standup job for my friend & I, so I'd personally trust his recommendation. I never would have heard of him, except he's done work for a company my friend works for. The travel agent I found was
terrible; they just pushed super-expensive package trips, and were kind of abusive
to my friend that was doing a lot of the legwork (he took the photo of me below). Watch out for sleazeball agencies; they're unfortunately kind of common. I imagine they'd be fine if
you just wanted a package they already had, but the second you pick something different they
go bananas.
Some photographs, edited for use on the web (so don't hassle me about image quality):
