Let me just share with you some insights from what I read and saw and experienced, if you are going to Saigon....
This is a city of motorbikes. Everyone seemingly has a motorbike even though the average wage is one US dollar (160 000 VND) a day.
I heard that if you befriend a local, they will spend their last few cents on a meal for you. They will refuse to take anything towards the cost (and you probably shouldn’t offer) and they will be genuinely honoured to eat with you. You can make a friend for life in seconds.
As a foreigner the Police will leave you alone. They know you bring money into the country.
Everywhere is manic with activity yet strangely serene. Eventually your ears will filter out the noise and you’ll fall in step with the traffic. You’ll wonder why the traffic seemed so scary when you first arrived.
Seventy percent of the population were born after the war. So you see lots and lots of young people - always lean and slim.
Don’t get too tied down with that communism thing. Vietnam is communist in name only. You don’t suffer a nanny state here.
Don’t worry about your personal safety. Or at least don’t panic about it. Vietnam is probably the safest place you will visit in Indo China( according to Lonely Planet). Just keep things close to you. Money belts are not needed. Stick you wallet in your pocket, like you do at home.
People will rip you off only occasionally. In the many taxi rides we took, I was cheated only once, when the driver took us in a circle when the place we wanted to be was just around the corner.
Find out what things cost. Don’t accept the rip off price but accept the reasonable price.
And yes people are poor here. Ignore the TV shops, the motorbikes, the cars etc. It’s for a (growing) select few. Most people still live in a one room home and sleep on the floor.
Learn to smile with people here. Smiling is important here. Smile when you’re haggling, smile when you’re arguing, smile when you’re asking for your money back. People will appreciate it and actually it’s a nicer way to live. If you’re being over charged make an “oh no” face, but do it half smiling. They’ll realise they’ve been sussed but they’ll smile back in a “I’ve been caught” way and most likely offer you the real price.
Relax…they can smell nervous tourists and it’s like a red rag to a bull. My son and I were at Ben Thant market buying fruits to bring home and here came a group of nervous, suspicious, kia-su Singaporean tourists haggling prices - they really put off the vendors!
Learn to enjoy it even when things go wrong. Get stuck in a traffic jam in a taxi between crossroads because the traffic light got faulty (and it gets faulty all the time!) and the driver will turn to you laughing, shrug and say: “Traffic bad”. Smile back. It's Saigon and not Singapore, remember?
Oh and they will call you fat (because they are not!). They will ask how much you weigh, how old you are, how much you paid for your T-shirt that you bought at Saigon Square. And they will shake their heads in disbelief that you paid so much more! Don't be discouraged. It is still so much cheaper and better than what you would get in Bangkok!
Enjoy the city. You can stroll into a serene park amidst noisy traffic and find some soul solitude instantly. You will find cute puppies on sale by the roadside. They eat them as delicacy. Try the food at the night market in Ben Thant. The ice coffee is like nothing you have tasted, ever! We had to go there a second night, just for the ice coffee. And there is a prawn dish cooked over a fire at your table. That's an experience because where else would a waiter peel the prawns for you?
Don’t feel guilty if you only eat in top restaurants. Your dollars will still pay for a wage here. And the total bill will be like a meal for four at McDonald's back home.
There is no where else like Saigon. People who have been here longer, have told me that only five years ago it was all bicycles on the road. Now it’s mostly motorbikes but more and more cars are starting to appear. Vietnam is changing. The change is here but McDonalds and Starbucks haven’t arrived yet. Nothing is ruined. Not yet.
So you better get there fast...before it gets too commercialized.
