Barely Breathing Through The Holidays In Saigon, Vietnam (Part II)

Welcome back to our adventures in Ho Chi Minh City during our trip in December of 2022. To ring in the 2023 New Year, we returned back to Saigon (what HCMC was originally called) after a trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. If you haven’t read the first part of this Saigon series, I suggest you go back and check it out - here is the link. 

After spending some time in the colder Northern Vietnam (yes, they have different climates during the wintertime!) we are excited to get back in the groove of big city life. Hôtel des Arts Saigon - MGallery Collection - I'll refer to them as M gallery from now on - really treated us right the first time around so we are back to stay with them. We decided to spend December 30th taking a food tour with Saigon Tuk Tuk Tours, as a safe way to enjoy street food without the risk of enjoying street food.

Yes, that is a travel hack: only eat street food on a food tour, because they will always take you to places that serve food clean enough for tourists bellies. 

The Tuk Tuks are nice, new, and spacious, unlike the ones we frequent in Bangkok. We didn't really ride TukTuks all that often while in Vietnam so this was definitely more of an experience than the usual public transport. I loved riding around while watching the insane traffic "chase" us, it was a different perspective being on the road and seeing the motos weave through everything and everyone.

I won’t mention all of the food we ate, but I will mention a few that stayed on my mind: first, Bánh tráng nướng, which is Vietnamese pizza that originated in Đà Lạt and has since spread throughout Vietnam. It is a crispy, grilled rice paper base topped with a ton of ingredients — just like pizza. They usually put in quail eggs, grilled pork, tiny shrimp, scallions, cheese, and mayo. Oh boy, if I could have this again! I can't believe this hasn't been popularized in the United States. Here is the spot that they took us to: Bánh Tráng Nướng C002.

The next notable spot is Quán Nướng Giấy Bạc, where they served street-food-style spring rolls in freshly steamed rice paper, similar to cantonese rice noodle rolls, and you build your own roll from all the ingredients they laid out in front of you. While the fillings are pretty similar to what they served on the Vietnamese pizza (meats, scallions, eggs), and the paper is also made of rice, it tasted wildly different, especially served with fermented fish sauce on the side. Honestly, at this point, I'm getting pretty full!

Finally, one of my favorite street food experiences was dining at Quán Sủi Cảo Ngọc Ý. I would come back here on our own next time we come to Saigon. It was all on-street seating, on a street full of wonton vendors, and we ate wonton soups, noodles, veggies, typical Chinese style. I don’t recall the details of all we ate here, but it was more of a fantastic cultural experience.

After our dinner food tour extravaganza, we went back to M Gallery and enjoyed their rooftop bar, Social Club. The views were wonderful, drinks were great, and customer service were catering to the westerners. We won’t be joining them for New Years Eve tomorrow because we opted to “do it like the locals” down on the streets, so we took tonight to enjoy the beautiful views and upscale experience. 

Finally, we wake up the next day, and the anticipated New Years Eve is here. As the last official day in Vietnam, we head over to Bến Thành Market and spent almost the whole day shopping. It is a vibrant, chaotic maze of over a thousand stalls where you can find literally anything from clothing, spices, crystals, to random things like chess sets. I started obsessing over rice straws that were given to us at the hotel and went through several markets to find them to no avail. That is okay - we acquired everything else. 

Pro tip: Haggle. Start at 50%, laugh it off, and go from there. 

After shopping, we rested until the night came, and once the sun went down, we dressed up and got ourselves ready for the wild night ahead of us. We are staying central to Saigon and we could walk around the city to enjoy all of the festivities going around town. We didn’t realize what we were signing up for. 

We walked past April 30 Park, a nice, manicured green space where they set up a big stage that had EDM bumping and performers playing. We stayed and danced for a few minutes and decided to keep walking towards our main destination: Nguyen Hue Walking Street, where apparently a K-pop star will be performing that night. 

Getting to Nguyen Hue Walking Street turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Of course, we followed Google Maps walking directions, which led us to the big pedestrian sidewalks we have been walking through the whole time we were in Saigon. The difference is, this time around, the entire sidewalk was populated with motorcyclists and we were literally stuck in a physical traffic jam, on foot. To our left, right, front, and back, were motos. We had no where to move at any speed. 

Finally, I took charge and started climbing the fences, and we were able to pass all the motos. We arrived at Nguyen Hue Walking Street and the party is popping off! There is food vendors, a million of peoples, and of course, K-pop performer on the big screen. Like the sheep that we are, we walked towards the center, where we found ourselves stuck in the middle of a very aggressive crowd. 

At a certain point, I was shorter than everyone around me, and I was stuck. I could not move and there seems to be hundreds of people pushing against me from every direction. I cannot breathe, so I panicked. Mike sensed my panic and pulled us out of the crowd. It was much easier getting out from the back than trying to keep pushing in. 

A few months back, during Halloween, a crowd surge happened in Seoul, killing 159 people and crushing 196 others. All I could think about is how this was the exact same scenario and the last thing I want is to die wanting to be closer to a K-popstar I don’t even recognize. 

At this point, it is 10:30PM and we are tired of the craziness. No wonder tourists like us usually hide in fancy hotel parties during New Years! We simply are not adventurous enough for this. So we walked back towards the smaller party we saw earlier, at April 30 Park. We cannot imagine trying to leave the Nguyen Hue walking street past the countdown. 

On the way to April 30 Park, we stopped by a street food market, and ate a lot of incredible food. Of course there were music and performers too. We’re so glad we did this! 

We arrived back at April 30 Park 30 minutes before countdown. We danced our heads off, enjoyed the countdown, and kissed over the fireworks. It was a blissful experience and we are now only a 10 minute relaxing walk back home to our hotel. 

So, we discovered something about ourselves: we used to be young, but we are young no more. We will probably stick to hotel and restaurant events for New Years Eve internationally going forward. But this was one damn of a good experience to have. To wrap up the night - we stole a whole lot of fancy canned alkaline water from the hotel lobby and brought it back to our room. We finished the night with a chugging competition on who can hydrate the best. 

So, there is the end of our trip. We head back home the next day filled with experience, joy, and a little bit of regret. But all in all, this is what makes a great story in your life. 

Xoxo, Too Old To Party