Shocked in Vietnam! First Impression of Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

My very first time in Vietnam, the country I've never been to, and I was very curious about it, because I've heard many different opinions about Vietnam. Somebody says that it's the cheapest country in the world, have the most delicious food for one me, and have very, very, very unique culture. So, I came here to Ho Chi Minh, very busy, buzzing city, to check it out and share the reality of Vietnam with you today. So, join me on my very first honest impression of Vietnam, first time walking to the city, first time trying their food, first time doing everything, and honestly, it was a bit different than I expected. And when I just arrive to a new country, the first thing I think about is how to stay connected and to not be worried about such things like Wi-Fi or where to find the local SIM card, I'm using today's video sponsor, Saily eSIM, for all my data needs. And honestly, it's a game changer. No more hunting for public Wi-Fi or dealing with those annoying roaming charges. 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And this is how we gonna get to the city right now, and it's very popular concept. To order a bike taxi here, thank you. In Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh, in all of South of Asia. So right now, we are gonna use this vehicle. And yeah, I was shocked at first when I used it, but now I'm kind of used to it. Yeah, it was fast. And it's probably our favorite way of transportation. And right now, we are near the metro going up. First time in the Ho Chi Minh metro, we always like order two bikes in the same direction, and then we are there. And right now, first time using the metro. It's like above the ground, so it's not underground lines. So let's see. And so this is how metro looks in Ho Chi Minh. And yeah, it's pretty big and pretty chill. The workers are very chill. So we just scanned our cards, and we get in very easy. And a bunch of people were very willing to help us. And it looks very cool and modern and developed. Similar like in Thailand, if you have ever been in Bangkok, and trained in school. And I hope we will get to the city very quick, because I'm so curious to see Ho Chi Minh. I haven't been anywhere else than our condo right now. So yeah, city center, super excited. And let's go. I didn't know it's a common concept, but lots of people are taking photos in the metro, like in the costumes, without costumes, with cameras. Never seen it in other countries. And so, as far as I understood, pretty much all the streets in city center looks pretty, pretty local and vibey. Like this street, for example, some street food is everywhere. It's a thing. Of course, the scooters, everybody is using their vehicles. And pretty, pretty alive. It's a Saturday today. Yeah, nice, nice, cozy little streets. Even in the, again, even in the city center, it's not as different from the neighborhood. There are a little bit far from the center. And right now we want to check out the Benton Market, because we are nearby. And yeah, we are very lucky with the weather, because most of the days in Ho Chi Minh were kind of hazy, but today it's actually pretty good. And another challenge is crossing the street all the time. It's like, wow, they're just driving, nobody's talking to Zebra. Zebra, it's a joke in this country. Through this cozy, decorated streets, we get into Benton Market. And all this first section, first of all, it's very, not wide, so very narrow, and it's not easy to walk. And people are literally trying on stuff on your way. So it's all clothing. And as I said, very, very intense. And it's even hard to breathe here. Oh, wow, so many, so many stuff. It's like indoor market, one of the biggest and for sure the most popular, the most famous. I'm mostly interested in fruit section. Oh, this is, this is all souvenirs. Wow, yeah, looks cool. You see all this little, little things, little stuff. And yeah, maybe it's a season, but lots of tourists here. Hello. Right now here in Vietnam, everybody is welcoming you to their shop. It's totally fine, it's okay. I'm stuck a little bit in the traffic here, and I see the food section. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Thank you. Oh, yeah, I feel the smell of Vietnam here, the smell of Pho. And yeah, people are eating, eating here different kind of. And what I really like is their buns. I don't remember how they called, but they are buns with different stuffing, with meat, with egg and the drinks. Oh, yeah, people know how to make drinks here in Vietnam. Yeah, thank you. And actually the prices are not as touristy as you may think about a place like that. Yeah, huge market. Not really. Yeah, we'll get a drink. I see 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven in Vietnam. Let's go. But the smell here is quite something, but super easy. Do you see it? Do you see it from the camera? Man is selling buns. Yeah, this is buns I was talking about. Wow, that's very interesting that this market is actually popular between locals as well as foreigners. Because, yeah, every time we are in a kind of a touristy place, look at this beauty, look at these decorations, you expect prices to be very high, unreasonably high. But here, actually, I looked a little bit on food, on food prices. It's slightly more expensive than in every other place, but it's such a vibe. So, I can pay for drinking juice here instead of some random street. And, yeah, today busy, busy, crowded. What I really like about Vietnam and what I really like about pretty much all the places I visit is the mix of very nice street cafes, very fancy, modern, good looking and some super old school, but at the same time very cute little, I don't know, street sugar cane juice and different kind of fruit sellers. It's very interesting mix all the time. And here there is a very strong tea culture. I lived in one neighborhood probably like a week and every day I was ordering the delivery of their tea, bubble tea and their wonderful drinks. So, this culture and even the Vietnamese coffee, oh wow, we should try the Vietnamese coffee. Yeah, we should. Yeah, we should. I had one, it's rocket fuel. Oh, yeah. It's like a super strong americano. Just gathering on the street, people just sitting on this plastic chairs and their tables celebrating something. It's super unique. I haven't seen it in other Southeast Asian countries. So, yeah, very cool, very unique concept. Now we are approaching one of the main buildings here in Ho Chi Minh. It's Independence Palace and we were told that unfortunately it's closed for visiting right now. Here it is, a very fascinating building, looks super cool and lots of people is gathering around and from here we can just see it like that. Ah, let me in, let me in. Yeah, we are late birds today. It's already like, I don't know, 4 or 5 p.m. So, yeah, no wonder why and everywhere there is, there are lots of Vietnamese flags. I don't know, they really like to put them everywhere and yeah, the entrance is closed. People want to go in but not today. We also were told to come tomorrow. I don't know if we will, but just nice to see it. Of course, we will. I've never seen a big communist squared building in my life. This is so unique. Yeah, we are from Ukraine, guys, we saw a bunch of them. I mean, it looks nice, actually. They painted a bit, but the city structure is freaky. You know, you have this one big government building, you have a big square, you have park on the side, literally the same city planning as in Ukraine. Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know why and how is it connected, but in Ukraine, this type of like square, white square, and then some important building and then the park, yeah, it's super common and everywhere Happy New Year! Happy New Year! We don't like celebrate Lunar New Year, but we celebrate whatever this country is celebrating. That's our policy. Wow, such a nice greenery here. Yeah, they are very good at gardening and here behind my back there is a war museum and yeah, Vietnam has a long history. So, this country was at war like for many many years and comparably not so long ago they just started to rebuild and build their cities, their infrastructure and Ho Chi Minh as the historical master said. Ho Chi Minh was renamed recently, like 30 years ago, something from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh is a very important figure in their history also. We saw some videos, some stuff, some information before coming. It's on very single, on every single money bills. Yes, yes, Ho Chi Minh we see on every Yes, and here we see, if you look a little bit closer, we see old fly vehicles. Fly vehicles? I don't know how to call it. Helicopters, jets. I'm here for you. Thank you. Yeah, all these men's words, I don't know. I know that in Vietnam they do crazy good manicure. That's what I know. I did it for like very low price and it's crazy good quality. That's my content. Wow, do you hear the bells ringing? That means we are in Notre Dame, but not in Paris, in Ho Chi Minh. Unfortunately, it's covered right now, so we cannot see the building. I'll probably leave some shots here, how it usually looks. And here is the mother, the mother, the big mother. And it's interesting because Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam was influenced mostly by France. It was colonized for a long time by France and we see a lot of French development. For example, this white square and yeah, I don't know, the post-communist and communist countries, they just love putting flowers everywhere. They are flower lovers. And here is, I don't know, it looks like a market or it's some kind of station, but again some French looking building. And yeah, probably it's 5 p.m., that's why bells are ringing. And very nice, yeah, super freaky like cathedral and in the middle of some other district. We see diamond mall here, lots of other very modern buildings. I feel like here you really feel like how life was here like 100 years ago. For me personally, especially if you see the old picture, you can imagine this whole cathedral. This was one of the few squares. This exact corner didn't change that much, you know. Yeah. And everything behind it. Everything like this building, this building and the coffee shops and all of that, it's completely new. Wow, beautiful birds! Very nice vibe. Man is playing on the this thing. How to call it? Violin, I guess. Violin, yeah. Yes, he is. So we were curious what's inside the building, because it looks, not sure, not sure, very familiar, because we have the stations like that, but and I think it was the station, but it's a post office right now. It's Vietnam Post and you can get your stuff. Yeah, it does look like a post office. Yes, yes, and I saw it also somewhere that you can buy the postcard and like send it or, yeah, to your family where you're from. It's very nice. And here in the middle, I was talking about Ho Chi Minh, that you see them on pretty much every, yeah, even huge line. Here people write their love letters and Ho Chi Minh, the big boss, big, big G of Vietnam, big G of the city. It's very cool, it's like a crazy old post office and it's very interesting, because it was the post office like 100 years ago and right now it's still the post office. And you see how many beautiful souvenirs, cards you can buy here and make a very, very interesting present. Very uncommon. Yeah, for Lunar New Year's, for every kind of New Year's, but definitely worth visiting if you're in Ho Chi Minh. We saw this chain many times crossing the street and very promising, so we decided to chill a bit, because we were like walking all day long, and have some Vietnamese coffee. They are also big coffee beans producers, so I'm very curious to check it out. We, Danny made the order, I wanted something funky, but he sticked to classy, but it's okay. I think we can still test it, so let's go. Wow, very cool cups. The cups are just like a masterpiece, I don't know, super stylish, so let's try it right away. This is Americano, and yes, sitting very cozy. Oh, oh wow, it's super sweet, unexpectedly. Wow, for real, if you order coffee in Vietnam, be sure that you order without sweetener or condensed milk if you don't like it, because it's sugar bomb, literally. What? Is it sugar bomb? Yeah, I told him no sugar. And after drinking some, I feel like we are approaching a different area, because it became more and more modern, more and more, in some way, in some way walkable, I was about to say, because this wide street, really, really fashionable and luxury stores, and yeah, we haven't seen the modern area yet, that's why we are going forward to see it, and yet this thing is everywhere, I don't know how to call it in English. Amaranth sickle. Yes, it's like a communist, communism party symbol, and it's probably the first country where I see it hanging around casually everywhere, and I was so shocked, because in where I'm from, and in all pretty much post-soviet countries, it's banned in some or another way, and yeah, and here it's like, it's okay, it's okay, and wow, another cool building, some French, French development, French architectures was working, and some gathering, looks like some concert is going on, or some celebration, another like, very, you know, similar to our squares type of thing, yes, and in the middle of the square, we see the Ho Chi Minh probably, my guess is, yeah, and we see the tall tower with I wanted to check it out here, just, yes, yes, we came closer, and now we know for sure, it's Ho Chi Minh, big G, big G of Saigon, and as I said, fancy, fancy area, we see Cartier, Fendi, and all the most luxury brands on the street, interesting, interesting, wow, such a, wow, so lots of people, so, so, so gathering, something like that, yeah, looks very similar I think for now, we walked all the city today, and we saw many cool stuff, and right now, we are looking at the modern development of Ho Chi Minh, and they have good amount of nice buildings, nice skyscrapers, I like it my way, and from here, we actually see the tallest tower of Ho Chi Minh, and video about this place, this building is probably coming soon, because we were already inside, and here, the beautiful skyline of Ho Chi Minh, we are near the Saigon river, this is the river that is floating all around the city, and when you actually spend a little bit time here, you see, like, there are lots of different sides of this river, and yeah, and unfortunately, it's very polluted, like, the pollution is probably the biggest issue here in Vietnam and in Ho Chi Minh, because sometimes, you walk around, and it's even hard to breathe, and you see in the water the lots of trash inside, but I'm sure that Vietnamese people can fix it, and here, walking, just such a vibe, wow, so nice area, especially in the evening, when the lights are shining, when all this decoration is here, and you see the skyline, and you're near the water, yeah, very cool area, and very cool place, and honestly, I enjoyed a lot our day here, oh, and a very freaky bridge, I don't know if you see it from here, but I'll probably leave some pictures, and we are getting closer to the business, and I really believe that Ho Chi Minh in five years would be much cooler, even more developed, even more of these buildings we will face, we will see, and observe, and enjoy, because, yeah, Vietnam has a long history, and right now, I'm feeling like they just started their own things, and what I appreciate a lot about the countries is that they have their own products, they have their own coffee, their own chains, and their own products, like products to eat, they have lots of fun stuff, and yeah, this area is very nice, and I see that it's new, the area we walked today was very nice, and very new districts is coming soon, you see the buildings, it means that economics is working, and is working good, so yeah, God bless Ho Chi Minh, God bless Vietnam, I think soon it's gonna be probably one of the best cities, it just needs some time. Guys, a couple of facts about me, if you're new here, hello everybody, I'm Lisa, I'm a professional dancer from Ukraine, if you want to check out my dancing stuff, you are welcome to my Instagram, and I started YouTube not so much more time ago, so I just started, it's just the beginning, and if you liked my content, if you appreciate my work, you can easily support me by signing up to my Patreon, it's an app where I share a good bit more than on Instagram or on YouTube, and where by small donation you can make me a little bit happier, because I invest a lot of my time, energy, and money in my professional growth on YouTube, and you can become a part of this growth by signing up to my Patreon, or if it's easier for you, you can do it with a PayPal, all the links I will leave in the description, and yeah, I'll see you on my next adventure!