Our First Time in VIETNAM - Exploring Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) #saigon #hochiminh #vietnam

we're in the amazing city of Saigon in Vietnam we're gonna check out the shopping such a cool Market relax at one of Saigon's many coffee shops explore the peaceful temples they're all beautifully decorated taking all the smells at the markets in Chinatown I've basically done for lunch now okay things have just got interesting and immerse ourselves in Saigon's vibrant nightlife we did not very interesting place here to be at night that's for sure so come join us good morning we are in Saigon Ho Chi Minh City we're a little bit confused as foreigners to what we call the city because the name was Saigon for many centuries and many people still prefer to call it Saigon however the official name now is Ho Chi Minh City so we're probably going to be using both names interchangeably throughout the video so I hope you don't mind we've just left our hotel and we've just stumbled across this really cute street it's actually called the Ho Chi Minh City book Street and it's full of cute book shops and gorgeous cafes it's just a really nice spot to sit and have a coffee and it's filled with beautiful trees so it's actually quite cool in this part of the city there's local artists here and people just selling all types of things as well not just books it's a really really nice Street I love it it has so much atmosphere it is actually quite busy as well foreign [Music] you can see the Saigon Central post office which is a famous landmark here in Ho Chi Minh it's located just across from the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon the post office building is a French Colonial building that was built in the end of the 19th century some say that it was also Eiffel who built the Eiffel Tower that actually designed the building but not quite sure about that one but anyway it's a very nice looking building so we picked out this really cute card and we're going to send it to my grandparents Australia from the famous Saigon Central post office so I'm gonna write a letter now [Music] hello I just wanted to post this so unfortunately the famous not Saddam Cathedral of Saigon is closed for Innovation so we can't go inside also the outside is covered in scaffolding so not too much to see in this case so we've just left the cathedral and we're on our way to the independence Palace and we're just walking through this really cute Park in the middle of the city here such a nice place just to sit and relax and the trees are really gorgeous but yeah just a place that you can sit and get some shade it's pretty hot today so it was a bit of a welcome relief I have to say walking through this park the independence Palace used to be the home and workplace for the president of South Vietnam and it is also considered to be the site of the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War in 1975. [Music] [Music] we have arrived at the famous bintang market and it's an indoor market telling lots of handbags shoes sunglasses lots and lots of different materials as well hello [Music] we've definitely got to a section where they're selling lots of spices because I can smell it all and especially dried fruit and nuts and also souvenirs there's so much to see here there's a more spacious section in the middle but then you've got all these little side Alleyways going off that middle section it's a little hard to walk here because it's very busy certainly very very colorful here that's for sure we've reached the food court and a food area so let's see what they're selling here I think they're selling all traditional Vietnamese food and it all looks really fresh see lots of spring rolls our favorite also selling juices and smoothies what is this razor clams okay never seen them before Oh My God's moving they definitely took the name Fresh Food Market to like a whole nother level oh my God it's like slipping out that is definitely fresh it's still alive and moving very interesting oh my God it just went back in so I've noticed that there's a lot of places selling snails and also a lot of people eating snails yeah I guess that's because of the French influence here [Music] foreign I think so if you want a bargain in here you have to haggle pretty hard they start quite high with the prices I think you could probably Hackle a little bit harder but anyways he was pretty nice that ladies there's lots to see lots too too lots to buy so you can spend quite a few hours if you like there's also a part in the market where they have loads of beautiful materials so you can actually get some custom-made clothes made so they have tailors here the material is really beautiful really good quality I actually really love the Vietnamese ladies outfits I think maybe Ella you should think about getting one they're so beautiful such a cool Market I would definitely recommend coming here it has such a great atmosphere and I'm sure you could get plenty of really good Bargains here [Music] we're at Cafe curva and the cafe is decorated so nicely so they've got paintings of Saigon back in the days and they've also got a vintage motorbike they've got a vintage telephone in the back so cute and has such a great atmosphere in here they've also got this really cute balcony outside where you can sit and Overlook the different streets I'm very excited to try this coconut coffee it almost looks like ice cream on top oh my God yum it's almost like a milkshake consistency that's delicious I think that's actually my favorite one so far it's like a coconut smoothie with a hint of coffee but it kind of tastes a little bit caramelly and then it's got like that sweet flavor but then it's not too sweet it's just perfect [Music] thank you [Music] we have just arrived at Boise Street and it is crazy we did not expect this I'm not even sure if you can hear what I'm saying right now because everything is so loud it is so busy here there's so many clubs dances it also makes it really hard to walk to through here because you have so many scooters coming through the walking Street there's loads of bars and restaurants in between as well it's a bit stressful and chaotic [Music] oh I see someone holding fire so what did Thailand kind of just stand there at night next to the pole here they've got a routine down and they're working in a bit more than the ones at the time [Music] if you were to have a drink here this is probably the spot because it's not that noisy there's very loud music down there and very loud music down there but not so bad here it's certainly all happening that's for sure very colorful very busy [Music] [Music] done exactly the place you go for a romantic dinner or a quiet conversation that's for sure it's a yeah pretty hard to it's pretty hard to hear anything in there hello loud we just had a little visitor there it's only very Lively it's not even nine o'clock now so I can just kind of picture what this is like around midnight or so so I think it's gonna get really crazy the later it gets that was a really stressful walk through boyvian street it's loud it's just hectic there are people everywhere there's these like fake security guards that are trying to get you to go into all their bars and restaurants so now we're off to find our taxi we're gonna go head back to the Comforts of our hotel foreign Street which is a really nice Street full of brand name shops such as Louis Vuitton Dior it's also where you can find the Saigon opera house which is a beautiful French Colonial building and you can also find lots of shopping malls along here with really nice shops too [Music] we just saw this beautiful couple getting out of this gorgeous vintage car they're getting married today and they just had a quick chat to us it turns out they're actually Aussies as well they're from Melbourne they look so beautiful and they're wearing the traditional Vietnamese clothing we wish them the best today for their wedding so we've just been walking down these large boulevards here in the city and we've just come one street over and we've found a local market we're in the fruit and veggies section at the moment but they also sell Seafood and Meat there's also cloves and household goods they have ornaments for the temples it looks like a very local market so not really a touristy spot at all it's very interesting actually because you have all these old buildings and then you can see the skyscrapers popping out in between all the old buildings we are at binte market and you certainly get greeted with a lot of different smells so the first thing I could smell when we arrived was lots of fish and you could smell spices here you can see all different like dried fruit nuts some like dried fish and dried meat very interesting Aromas so this Market is two levels and then they've also got an outdoor area with all the markets outside as well it's definitely more of a wholesale Market not really like a touristy Market but it's very interesting to see all the different things that they're selling so I can see lots of fabric right now all so colorful and so beautiful we are definitely walking through the Hat section at the moment so they've been saying again seems to be divided into different sections and this is definitely the kitchen section where they are selling pots and pans and all sorts of things for the kitchen we've just seen a load of rice papers thinking about bringing some back home because we have just fallen in love with the fresh spring rolls here seems like there's a bit of a motorbike traffic jam at the moment certainly a hive of activity it's so busy people are busy packing things in bulk ready to be shipped off I guess to the rest of the world or the rest of Vietnam definitely the fish section here looks like dried fish with chili flakes so not fresh fish but dried fish oh there's a dead rat dead rat dead rat dead rat it's not what you want to see in our food market I would definitely say that I don't need lunch today because walking through this Market you totally lose your appetite because of all the smells I've basically done for lunch now I can go another three four hours wild food I feel like we've just eaten this market we've got dried shrimp over here this is definitely the dried Seafood section for sure I have to smelt some things that I've never ever smelled before good smells who did some getting used to interesting smells let's just say that so interesting seeing all the different types of food in this market and we have just come across all these different types of mushrooms I've never seen so many different types of mushrooms before okay that was certainly a really interesting Market binte Market is actually located in Chinatown so it's about 20 minutes drive from the city center oh it's a really cute Street actually take a look at this it's very colorful very pretty here with all the flowers and the trees all the decorations it's a very colorful area foreign [Music] busy intersection here at a really colorful street I'm loving all the shops with all the Chinese and Vietnamese decorations following a local successful so always follow a local and stay on the other side of them because they know how to do it [Music] thank you there are a number of really nice temples in Chinatown and they're all beautifully decorated this one actually has so much incense burning and you can see all the different coils burning on top when you're walking under it's a little dangerous because when the wind blows all the ash falls down nearly got hit quite a few times but absolutely beautiful Temple it's actually people having photo shoots in here in the different courtyards foreign [Music] Square Market it's quite a nice Market a bit more orderly not as chaotic as the bintan market it's a pretty tight pretty crowded in here but it's a really cool Market I'm loving it and the people here are not so pushy which is really nice so you can actually look at some things without feeling stressed it's a complete and utter Maze of small tiny little Alleyways and streets there's actually really nice stuff and I would say better quality than at the bentang market you know you're still obviously getting all your fake brands and things like that but things just seem to be better quality here I would say haven't checked out the prices yet so that could also reflect the prices as well so it might also be a bit more expensive just checking out some shirts here at this store and each shirt is a hundred thousand dong which is about six Australian dollars so not actually too bad at all so I just bought two T-shirts they're only a hundred thousand dong each so that was a pretty reasonable starting prize so I did actually haggle for that price it's nice this Market here that at least they give you some reasonable prices to start with I would definitely say to visit here if you're coming to Saigon it's pretty cool so it just stumbled across the Saigon Center here in the middle of the city and it's a really nice shopping center it has about four different levels it has all your usual brand names Ella and I are just about to go shopping for some skin care hopefully they have what we want but yeah just a really nice shopping mall and a nice place to escape the Heat and go to the bathroom I have to say the sun has just set and I have to say the city really comes alive at night it gets really busy but also the buildings are beautifully lit up something that's really interesting at night is that all the small restaurants actually start setting up all over the sidewalk it can actually be a little bit tricky to walk sometimes because there are so many seats that you have to step around and over certainly lots of smells that you can smell when you're walking past these small restaurants they bring out all the little plastic chairs and the tables and everyone's sitting around seems like a really social kind of event they also have mats that they put down on the ground as well to have little picnics so it's really cute families getting together friends getting together just a really cute Vibe when we first arrived into Saigon we weren't really sure what we thought about the city it just seemed like a big modern Concrete Jungle but the more that we're walking around the more we're starting to see the beautiful sides to Saigon and some of the really gorgeous little streets and markets and some of the culture as well there's actually a lot of really beautiful coffee shops around the city so yeah it's definitely a nice place to come if you want to just sit relax and enjoy some coffee and something I learned yesterday is that Vietnam is actually the second largest exporter of coffee in the world I did not know that okay so we just stumbled across this place called Turtle Lake apparently a very popular place with the locals it's a lot of concrete walkways crossing over each other generally it's a pond with stagnant water smells a little like sewage but it does seem to be a popular place where Vietnamese families and very cute couples so I'm not really sure what the attraction is to this place maybe it has some sort of like historical significance but if you know let us know in the comments down below [Music] we stumbled across this Market called The Box market and it's so cute they've also got live music playing and they're mainly selling cloves here and they've actually got prices on all the clothes and it's quite reasonably priced which is really good we've just reached the food section we've walked through all the clothes and then we came to this little spot in the market which looks really interesting okay so I can see some like fresh fruit juice or kebabs they look really good there's like some games that you would find at the festival some more clothes I can see back here whoa it's actually a really long market so there's different sections so there's a close section and then there's entertainment and food area and then I can see like another clove section back there all right it certainly gets busy on the roads here in Saigon and the number of motorbikes is just crazy never seen anything like it [Music] we are down in one of the Central walking streets in downtown Saigon and I have to say it's all really happening at the moment there are people skateboarding just people walking around having a good time people playing some game I don't know what it is they're like badminton and soccer mixed together so it's kind of like a shuttle but they kick it but it's really cool it's very satisfying to watch actually okay things have just got interesting so we've gone from random dancing to some interesting rapping to a snake on the street we have a snake now posing with some anime people it's definitely vibing here on the street so you know where the entertainment is because you get crowds of people just circling around and creating this large Circle where the entertainment in the middle no there's just so much random stuff going on there's anime characters walking around there's people singing people dancing you can have your photo taken with a python there's people eating in the middle of everything they're selling food they're selling toys balloons people seem to be having a lot of fun there's lots of cute little dogs running around kids scooting around our little hoverboards and now we're walking past a store with eggs and fried squid yep that's fried squid very vibey though lots happening there are people standing like statues that starts moving if you put money in their box underneath them very interesting place here to be at night that's for sure [Music] we had an amazing time here in Saigon the people have been just so friendly and beautiful and we've just really enjoyed exploring the city as you can probably see I'm getting a little emotional because I don't want to leave I'm such an amazing stay you're gonna make me cry as well all right well this has made an emotional roller coaster um but we'll see you next time on living the Joe live what do you think about the Vietnamese people hot do you want to elaborate a little bit more about what you mean by hot I don't need to elaborate it's hot so if there are any nice Vietnamese boys watching you can comment if you would like to go on a date with my daughter that's too bad

Channel: Living the Jo Life

Views: 191,612

Keywords: Saigon, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Ben Thanh Market, Bui Vien Walking Street, chinatown, Bin Tay Market, Saigon Square Market, Saigon Center Shopping

Id: 5SsstYfk_SM

Length: 21min 21sec (1281 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 02 2023