First time in Viet Nam, exploring Saigon & eating good street food

Arriving at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Ho Chi Minh)

18 hours of flight time later – I made it to Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam! I landed at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport around 9:30 am. Immediately the humidity wrapped around me like a warm welcome as I was getting off the plane.

They say arriving to your destination city in the morning helps with jet lag symptoms, but I think that didn’t apply to me as I ended up staying up the last few hours prior to landing.

I may have paid the price for not taking a nap during the 3.5 hour flight from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh city and I immediately felt the sleepiness starting to take over.

Most people actually leave the main city to visit family in the countryside for the New Years celebrations in February. So actually the city is quieter during this time than usual. But on our arrival, the airport was extremely busy this Saturday morning.

Walking out of the airport was like walking onto the red carpet (I’ve never done this, but I imagine this is what it feels like). There was just a sea of people sitting and standing outside waiting for their friends and family.

If you have family in Saigon, likely you will be greeted with not one family member, but the whole family – which is why I think it was so bustling at the arrivals exit. I met my cousins and auntie for the first time and we took a couple photos before jumping into a taxi to head to our hotel.

In a future blog post, I’ll be sharing what to do when you arrive to the airport including tips on immigration, SIM cards, currency & getting a taxi to your hotel (stay tuned!)

Exploring Saigon

I like to take it slow on the first couple days of travel. Especially when you do a big trip like this and cross many time zones, you need to slowly get adjusted.

After checking into the hotel, washing up my face and changing out of my airport clothes, we took a walk around the neighbourhood. There were so many street vendors selling clothing, fruits, food and more – I felt completely over stimulated from the amount of stuff, people and motorists on the street.

Street food I ate on my first day in Viet Nam

We had a late lunch at a street vendor at a local market near our hotel. I luckily had family who lives in Viet Nam help pick out safe street food vendors to try, as you see a lot of meat that often sits out in the heat. You want to be careful not to get sick while you’re out travelling!

Here are some must try Vietnamese dishes & desserts:

Bún Măng Vịt

Duck noodle soup with bean sprouts & banana leaf

Chè Thái

Vietnamese dessert made with assorted sweetened beans, wiggly jellies, creamy coconut milk and crushed ice

Cà Phê Trứng

Egg coffee dessert with crushed ice

Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang

pork & prawn clear noodle soup with a quail egg

That’s it for day one of my South East Asia travels!

In future posts, you can expect more like this where I go through my day, as well as separate posts highlighting more details on where to go, how to navigate the city, what to eat and more. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about Ho Chi Minh city, let me know in the comments below or send me a DM on instagram!