What I loved about staying long term in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam!

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backstreet in Ho Chi Minh City


I am currently on a food trip in South East Asia and I like to take my time, 1 month at least. So I had some habits I loved I picked up while I was in Ho Chi Minh and I wanted to share it!

What I loved doing in Vietnam 

My routine changed or adapted a little bit to the local's life in Ho Chi Minh, and I wanted to share that with you.

Waking up early

Especially when I stayed in District 2, I was next to a house that owns a lot of chickens.

So I would naturally wake up around 4am.

This actually helped me to avoid the massive crowd in Ho Chi Minh. 

The food stalls are open around 6am, so I don't have to line up, and the aunties have some time to chat a bit. Rush hour is around 7:30-8:00am, they will be so busy that it has a chance of things go left.

So I liked being up early in the morning :)

Visiting the free "gym" facilities in the park

I loved the park, it's so beautiful!! 

People walk and run around the park, and there will be a shared facility to work out for free. It's open 24 hours, every district will have a park like this, and it's free. Perfect for shaping up and controlling your health.

Going for a walk to taste different street food every day

Every street will have a food stall, so I tried to walk different routes to taste different Banh Mi, Com Tam, and coffee. After a while, I would have my favorite shops, so it becomes a simple habit to take that route.

Chatting with friendly and helpful locals

I met a bunch of friends while I'm in Ho Chi Minh. I will be eating a lot of food happy which probably looks funny to them, or I will be talking in English or Japanese, and it draws the local's attention. If you are happy, then you will attract some interesting locals.

If you're in District 1, 2, or 3, people speak English very well. I feel that the Vietnamese are also very motivated to improve their English, and will be happy to have a chat with you.

When I took the local bus, I would have confused look how to pay for the ticket, then a local English speaker talked to me and showed me how. 

I would then tell them, "Xin chào, cảm ơn" which means, "Hi, thank you." Then a lot of times, they will ask "Where are you from?" Then the conversation that starts there is usually very interesting.

I've found out that Vietnamese are polite and super helpful, but very shy. So it won't really be them that will talk to you unless you need some kind of help. And that's very similar to my country, Japan.

Hope it gave a different perspective!

I think when you think of Vietnam or Ho Chi Minh, it's more of cheap beer and cigarettes, banging music in Bui Vien Street (Backpacker's street!), very tasty coffee, and a war museum.

Although that is all nice, right now I focus on food only. And to sustain my long travels, I try to have a budget and spend on things that make me happiest, and the rest will be minimal.

I hope this post gives you an idea of what kind of a life you can have in Vietnam!

Follow me for more to come :)

    In this blog, I post my food trips around the world, as insights into Japanese food in comparison to all the different cuisines I encounter through my trips. I have traveled to many places in Japan, so I will be sharing what I know to better plan your trip to my home country, Japan!
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Follow Ryu Aomi for more to come :) 

In this blog, I write about my food trips of the list of countries I want to visit. 

I also love to experience how locals live in each destination, and share what I learned.

After closing my travel business in Japan during Covid, I realized I didn’t have the right mindset to sustain the business, and got into Buddhism, mindfulness, knowing myself more.

I realized I wasn’t very materialistic and loved engaging in cooking, nature, and good relationships. 

To know more about me, I wrote it here.
Here are the SNS channels I have, but I mainly focus on Twitter at the moment.
I started blogging in Japanese, too! I hope it becomes something useful for those who are interested in Japan and who study Japanese and plan to live there.

These 2 books changed my life. 

If things are great, keep it up! You’re in the right path. If things aren’t working out for you, then these helped me a lot.

Good habits are essential to achieve your own way of success!
Managing relationships are challenging, but it’s a skill you can learn.


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