Vietnam: Saying goodbye to Ho Chi Minh City

Date: 31 October 2019

I began my last day in Ho Chi Minh City with a visit to the Saigon Skydeck at the Bitexco Financial Tower.

Bitexco financial tower grey skies — It was time to move on

Once the rain had subsided, I carried my tripod and walked to Nguyen Hue street.

Ho Chi Minh city junction Vietnam — This was my final evening in the city formerly known as Sai Gon… even though all the shop signs still use Sai Gon

I had already been there but I decided to shoot more timelapse sequences.

The Cafe apartment building Saigon Vietnam — I shot another timelapse of the famous The Cafe Apartment building

Lotus fountain Nguyen Hue street Vietnam — As the sun set, people were crowded around a fountain

Lotus fountain Nguyen Hue Vietnam — The lotus is the national flower of Vietnam

Lotus fountain Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam — The lights change colours

Next, I set up my tripod in front of the People’s Committee Building.

People's committee building at night Vietnam — It’s a grand French colonial-era building

People's Committee building Ho Chi Minh Vietnam — It looks even better at night all lit up

You may watch the timelapse video here or at the end of this post.

People's Committee building Saigon Vietnam — After shooting from different angles, I decided to wrap up

I packed up my tripod and camera, hailed a Grab taxi, and went back to my hotel. I unloaded my gear and stepped out again on foot with just my phone camera. It felt like a such a relief after spending hours lugging heavy camera gear around in humidity all day. I cannot wait until phone cameras get good enough to replace DSLRs!

Fish and chips saigon Vietnam — For my last meal… believe it or not… I had fish & chips 🙂 Hey, at least it was *Vietnamese* Basa fish

Ho Chi Minh city park at night Vietnam — Post dinner, I walked back to my hotel room through a public park

Date: 1 November, 2019

The next morning, I checked out and hailed a Grab bike taxi to get to the airport.

Tan Son Nhat airport Saigon Vietnam — Apparently Grab bike taxis aren’t allowed inside the airport drop off area, so I had to walk. I only had my camera backpack and a trolley bag so it wasn’t too much of a hassle.

The departures section is upstairs. Arrivals is on the ground floor.

Departures Tan Son Nhat airport entrance — My flight to Bangkok was VietJet, the same carrier I flew in from Phuket

Tan Son Nhat airport Vietnam — Tan Son Nhat International airport is the official name

Ho Chi Minh city airport departure gates — My flight to Bangkok was delayed by 45 minutes

Vietjet flight over Ho Chi Minh city — Bye bye Ho Chi Minh City

This was a good first visit to Vietnam. I like it when I plan an itinerary and I get to see and experience everything as planned. As I mentioned at the start of this series, I do wish to visit the northern half of Vietnam — Ha Long bay, Sa Pa valley, and Ban Gioc waterfalls are all very high on my ‘must see’ list. But I wanted to go to these places only after I had procured a drone. Something I was hoping to get from Bangkok — and I would succeed in that.

All that will be in the next few posts from Bangkok.

Given this was the last major international trip I made before COVID shut down the travel industry, even working on these blog posts gave me a chance to re-live those memories. So it’s with a bit of sadness that I write this concluding blog post. It maybe a while before I get a chance to return to Vietnam but until then, hẹn bạn lần sau! (see you next time!).

Timelapse of Ho Chi Minh City from around Bitexco Tower: