Freshly arrived in Saigon 2 months ago, we already fell in love with this city!
First surprise : the traffic. We were especially shocked by the fact that they don’t stop at every red light or overtake the bus at less than 20 centimeter.
After 40 min spent in the cooling and connected bus, I arrived in district 1, here I met my friend in a little hidden guesthouse. After he packed, we went by Uber (lucky us!) to our new house, that we found easily on Facebook. Finding a place to live it’s not a big deal as there is a big network of expats in the city.
On our way to go, we discovered this amazing city with all those little shops selling everything that can be sold, the typical architecture with the contrast of narrow houses and brand new big buildings, the basic restaurants filled with little tables and chairs, filled themselves with foods and beers, all of those motorbikes that an entire family drives, holding sometimes a baby or a fridge.
Once at the house at 7 am, the good smelling barbecue made by a Vietnamese man for breakfast welcomed us!
After we met a French expat who is working here as landlord since 6 months. Thanks to him, we learnt many basic information that we needed for living in this city: where to exchange money, how to behave (the hand shaking movement to say “no/I don’t know”), how to drive in this crazy traffic and the cost of life.
Finally on week-end, my roommate and I decided to go discovering our new place, it was time to drive inside that traffic jungle, find out where to buy food and home stuffs and having parties in the famous Bui Vien street. For food, there is nothing easier, street foods and little restaurants are here to provide you a range of dishes from basic rice with meat to famous Vietnamese sandwich (Banh Mi Thit) and the typical noodles soup (Pho). The good news: You can take away everything!
For driving, it might look difficult because of the impressive number of motorbikes, but all actually drive in the same way : just adjusting your speed to the one in front of you and don’t give any care of the one behind you. After being aware of that rule, we are now enjoying the city much more than if we hadn’t learnt how to drive because motorbike is just life here!
Last but not least, partying in Saigon. Night life is just crazy and fun: you can drink for cheap, the city has a lot of different kind of bars and people from everywhere in the world ! Most of the big parties are in Bui vien street but thanks to its diversity, you can just find your own spot and enjoy the night life!
Finally, if I have to resume my life in Saigon in one word, it could be FREEDOM!
