Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - October 2025

I left the Singapore office on Thursday afternoon and caught a Scoot flight to Ho Chi Minh City. I had paid (slightly) more for seat allocation so was sitting in Row 5. After a two hour flight we landed in Saigon. I have been here a few times before, but I didn't want to spend the weekend in Singapore, and I wanted to see my mate who is staying here.

The airport is crazy busy so I had booked a vip on arrival service where you don't have to queue. That worked perfectly, but I saw there was an ABTC lane which I could have used with my APEC card, and save myself A$40! I used the APEC lane on the way out.

I easily found a Grab and headed to the hotel, Au Lac Charner, in District 1. It took about 40 minutes to travel the 8.5km. Passed Independence Palace on the way...

I checked into the hotel and freshened up. The room is nice...

I have a nice balcony and this is the view to the street...

And across the road to Bitexco Tower...

No shower as such so I had to have a bath...

Then met Ian at a bar about a 15 minute walk away. I love it here, despite the heat and the crazy traffic. 

We sat outside and had a beer...

That's my landmark as I'm staying across the road from it...

The next morning I used my AllTrails app and went for a long walk. Had a coffee on the way.

Walked past Independence Palace where I had been before...

Stopped for a coffee. I had cash for this one...

Traffic!

Flags line the street...

Nice colonial building...

This guy is cutting hair on the street!

I ended up walking next to the river...

I'm staying across the road from Bitexco Tower so I used that as my landmark when out walking...

The famous Ben Thanh market. Very busy and not my thing..

Went back to the hotel and had a swim...

I had a nap and went for a walk to the 'Walking Street' Bui Vien. It is just like Khao San Road in Bangkok - very noisy. I just walked through...

After that, I met Ian for dinner in District 4, which is just across the river. This is crossing the river...

Saw this in the Gents of one of the bars we went to...

The next morning I went for a massage then had a coffee...

Ordered a coffee from here. They took Mastercard but another place I tried did not.

I had a nice lunch. This is tofu which was so soft on the inside...

I headed back to the hotel for a swim and then had a nap.

In the evening, I found a rooftop bar called SolLuna and had a drink...

Then I headed to dinner at Heart of Darkness, a craft beer place.

I got up early Sunday morning and headed to the airport. It was easy going through passport control as I used the APEC queue and security wasn't too bad. I found a restaurant and had some breakfast. the Vietnamese coffee was very sweet...

I got a whole row to myself on my Scoot flight. Nice views on approach to Singapore...

I landed in Singapore at about 1230 and I don't fly out until 1930. I wanted to do a lounge crawl so I walked from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1. However the Qatar and Qantas lounges don't open for a few hours. So I caught a Grab to an Japanese Onsen I know and had a steam and sauna.

Came back to the airport and went to the Qatar lounge and had a late lunch...

Then I moved to the Qantas First lounge and had a mimosa or two...

When I checked into my flight from Singapore to Sydney I saw that I had been upgraded to First Class!

I've never flown First Class before so was looking forward to the flight. I boarded first and checked into my 'suite'.

The freebies are better than Business Class!

I had the Negroni as Maybe Sammy is a great bar in Sydney...

We had to wait at the gate as if we left too soon, we would arrive in Sydney before curfew. As it turned out we got to Sydney quickly and had to do a few laps until it turned 6am. we were the first plane in and I was through passport control and into an Uber very quickly.