Visitor: Ho Chi Minh City

I have been in Ho Chi Minh City for the last two weeks and I am hoping to document my experience in this and (hopefully) few more blog posts. Basically it all started when I met Lawrence Sinclair last month in Bangalore and we talked about Ruby on Rails and East Agile (his company in Vietnam). I told Lawrence how both Nithya and I love traveling and would love to come over to Vietnam sometime and he offered me a two week consulting assignment in Vietnam. I accepted it and on 2nd August arrived in Ho Chi Minh (more on the journey and emmigration/immigration experience in another blog post).

I was expecting to see something like Bangalore but I was in for a total surprise (and a pleasant one at that). The city is big, not as crowded as Bangalore and hundred percent fun. First thing that you notice is that the cabs are very efficient here (if you follow this advice and get a good one) and as a result its very easy to get from anywhere to anywhere any time of the day. I have used the cabs as late as 4 AM and I have always had a very pleasant experience. Another thing that I loved about the city is the different kinds of cuisines that you can sample here. So far, I have tasted Vietnames, Korean and Japanese food and desserts and everything has been really good and reasonably priced. I never thought I would say this but the vegetarian food here is exceptionally good. Here are a few pictures from MoF (Ministry of Food), a japanese dining and desserts place

This place has a great night life and a lots of live music. A lot of restaurants have live music and there are some great places for rock lovers. Most places are open till 2 AM. There are a lot of cafes and clubs which are open all night and you can get some great food all through the night. Here is a picture of a place called Q-Bar which serves coffee and drinks till about 3 AM in the morning.