Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam + Add a trip

Tan Son Nhat Airport

After clearing customs and leaving Departures, you will be accosted by taxi drivers from Sasco Taxi Company. This is the "official" airport taxi service, which means, they have a monopoly on having their cars closest to passengers. Sasco is widely known to control first access to passengers and has been criticized for heavy handed and brutish techniques by the Vietnamese press and tourists. Still, there has been no action to control them despite the bad press.

I always say no, walk past the Sasco drivers and request a metered Vinataxi cab (They are the yellow ones. Clean, smokefree, generally honest). There will be a person with a walkie-talkie from Vinataxi, or another company if you wish, once you break through the SASCO wall and they will take care of you.

Everywhere

I've been drinking water from the tap here for five years and with no problems. What usually sets first time visitors apart from expats living here is the paranoia about water/ice. Sure, get bottled water if you want. It's available everywhere. But you know, it's probably worse for the environment by drinking those if you're conscious about that type of thing. Ice is safe. I'm not backing this up scientifically, but through empirical evidence of my own experience. I like ice. I need ice for my "sinh to" (fruit milkshakes).

One tip I usually give to first time visitors, on your first breakfast, order some yogurt. It's produced locally (Vinamilk brand, for example) and thus you are eating local yogurt cultures. For some reason, again not a scientific study but through my own experience, those local cultures sort of prepare your body to digest other local stuff. It's like preparation...

About street food in general: It's generally good tasting and I suggest you try it. But I usually don't eat it (I know, a lot of people will kill me for this, and I'm Vietnamese), but I prefer to eat in restaurants. I've gotten food poisoning enough times through street food that I can still feel the sharp abdominal paints hurled over porcelain in some dark godless toilet stall. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, you never want see a repeat. My experience, it's generally the soups and noodles which are most susceptible to this (read: pho, my goi, bun ho hue, etc.) Fried, barbecued and fresh street foods are mostly always safe in my opinion.

Everywhere

As far as I know, there is not a place to buy a SIM card at the airport. But I could be wrong.

The easiest way is to pull up to any of the mobile phone shops that are on practically every street corner and blog throughout Saigon and purchase one there.

Generally, in Vietnam and Thailand, unlike Singapore, you do not need to provide your passport and other info. At least that's been my experience living here for 5 years and getting countless SIM cards for visiting friends. It's around 10 dollars or so for a SIM card. The major networks here are Mobifone and Vietel. I use Mobi, but there aren't any real differences. You also get some credit on your phone too, often more than the amount you paid for the card itself. When you need to recharge, simply pull up to the shop you bought the SIM or any of the million other shops and get it recharged. You can buy a card, but the best thing is to say how much you want, generally beginning in denominations of 100,000 VND (around 7 dollars). Simply hand over your phone and let them input the recharge sequence. And then you're off to begin text messaging/talking.

Everywhere

Anyone that lives here will tell you, with the exception of driving your own motorbike, the quickest way to get from point A to B in Saigon is to take a motorbike taxi, or "xe om". Generally speaking, from anywhere within the main areas of the city, you can pay 20,000 VND or less (That's just over a dollar).

Precautions: Times have changed. Everyone now must wear a helmet since December 2007. A xe om will have an extra one for you. You have to wear it. I just mention the following, since some of my friends have mentioned it: Use your instinct when choosing a xe om. Yeah, some are either a) terrible drivers b)drunk c) horny. Normally, none of this factors ever really pose a problem, but keep it in mind. Use your judgement. Best choose an older driver, and generally, young men aren't xe om drivers anyhow.

As far as robberies-in-motion, best to allow the xe om driver to keep larger packages/bags in the front of the bike between his legs rather than have it dangling off your shoulder for someone to swipe if so inclined. Generally xe om's use older bikes and thieves have fast new bikes, so once they get your stuff, you can forget chasing them down.

Agree on a price before you hop on the bike. You can use your hands to indicate price, or write it down if you don't speak enough Vietnamese.

Finally, watch your legs and don't touch the exhaust pipe from the bike (or a nearby bike). You will then have the "Saigon Kiss", a round burn that will mark you for life. A souvenir perhaps.

178A Hai Ba Trung, District 1

Delicious Vietnamese cuisine in a quaint old house fully decorated with Vietnamese furnishings.