This Expat Life (Month 56): Ho Chi Minh City
After moving abroad in July 2014, I started compiling monthly roundup posts about life as an expat in Southeast Asia and all the nitty gritty that goes on behind the scenes here at Travel Lush. Check out my most recent monthly roundup posts Sept/Oct/Nov, Dec/Jan and February.
If you read my last monthly roundup post, you’ll remember that the month of February was a jam-packed one: I moved from downtown Saigon to the suburbs, hopped on a plane to Indonesia, went beach hopping in Kuta, Lombok, chilled out on the island of Gili Trawangan, and revisited all of my favorite cafes, beaches and street art spots in Canggu, Bali.
It’s kind of hard to top that.
By comparison, the month of March was rather dull (until the end of the month, that is).
March was mainly spent missing Indonesia, working, settling into my new apartment, coping with the unseasonably warm Saigon heat, and doing all sorts of prep and research for my family’s big trip to Vietnam.
Speaking of family, one of the reasons this monthly roundup post is so late is because I spent the first two weeks of April traipsing around Vietnam with my mom and sister. Sadly, the trip flew by way too quickly. They’re already back home in the States and I’ve quickly settled back into my Saigon life.
Our trip turned out to be pretty perfect. It was full of laughs, unforgettable travel experiences and just plain old quality time. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips that I feel incredibly grateful for. But it also seems surreal that I won’t see my mom or sister again for at least six months, if not much longer. Spending so much time with them reminds me just how much I miss my family.
I’ll stop before I get too emotional. After all, this is a roundup post for March so I’ll give all the details about my big family trip in the next few weeks.
Here’s what I got up to in March:
Getting used to living in the ‘burbs
I spent over a year living in the heart of downtown HCMC. While some people are put off by the chaos of downtown, I kind of love it. The constant stream of motorbikes, the food vendors lining the streets, the dozens of cheap vegetarian Vietnamese restaurants, the general hustle and bustle – it might drive me crazy from time to time but it’s a large part of what I dig about living in Vietnam.
Let’s just say that living in the suburbs is way different than living downtown.
To put it in perspective, I used to live in District 1 – the area downtown where most tourists stay when they visit. It’s packed with restaurants, cool cocktail bars, interesting museums and cool cafes. There is no end of things to do in D1.
I now live in Phu My Hung in District 7, about 25 minutes (without traffic) from downtown. It might not seem like a long drive, but it can take over an hour during rush hour or when it’s pouring down rain, which makes going downtown seem like an enormous effort.
Since I moved to District 7, I’ve visited downtown Saigon twice – once to retrieve a lost ATM card at the bank and again to meet my family at the airport. I think it’s safe to say I’m not likely to spend all that much time downtown anymore…though I should work on making more of an effort to get out of the bubble that is Phu My Hung!
Some people love Phu My Hung and others hate it. Right now, I’m on the fence. I’m happy to be closer to Aaron’s work (we can literally walk there in 15 minutes) and to live where his amazing co-workers live. I now go out for dinner or drinks at least a few times a week, so having more of a social life is a very welcome change. Living closer to Aaron’s work also means he doesn’t have to deal with what ended up being a fairly grueling daily commute.
That being said, there’s just not much going on in Phu My Hung. Truth be told, I’m a total homebody, so this doesn’t bother me too much. But still, I liked knowing that I had endless possibilities right outside my door in D1.
Adjusting to my new apartment
I really like our new place but it’s almost impossible to cool it off. I thought having a two-story loft would be great – and aesthetically it is – but having a second story means that cooling the entire space off is tough unless you’re cranking every AC unit in the house, which I’m not willing to do. During the day I place a fan a few feet from me to keep me cool(ish) and during the evening, we blast the AC which is unfortunately placed in the one corner of the apartment that no one uses. The air doesn’t really reach the living or kitchen area, the two spaces we inhabit most of the time.
While we’re saving on rent and commuting costs, our electricity bill has gone up by 150% which we were not expecting at all. We have been experiencing insanely hot weather the past month or so. I’m hoping that once the rainy season comes things will cool off a bit…but that’s not really likely!
Overall though, moving to Phu My Hung was the right decision. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we choose a new area of town once our lease is up next year. Only time will tell!
My family’s first visit to Vietnam
The most exciting thing to happen last month was the arrival of my family in Saigon on March 29. My sister and mom don’t do all that much traveling – and neither one of them had ever set foot in Southeast Asia before this trip – so I think both were a tad bit nervous and didn’t really know what to expect. I made sure to be at the airport to greet them so they wouldn’t be overwhelmed by touts or have to attempt to navigate the city solo right off the bat.
When Aaron and I got to the airport, we stepped out of the taxi and heard the screams of hundreds of teen girls and boys. (And no, this is not normal.) It turns out that we arrived at the airport at the exact same time a famous K-Pop band touched down in Saigon.
Hundreds of fans started chanting, screaming, singing and crying at the sight of the band. My mom and sister exited the airport just a few minutes after the band members. It was too funny. My mom later joked that she was quite impressed with Vietnam’s very enthusiastic welcome to her arrival.
We spent three nights in HCMC so they could get a taste of our life in the city. We even managed to book an Airbnb in our old apartment complex downtown, so they really did get a glimpse of what our life was like before our move to the suburbs.
We went temple hopping in Cholon (Saigon’s Chinatown), ate banh mi on the street, crawled through the Cu Chi Tunnels, sped down the Saigon River in a boat, drank all the Vietnamese coffee and sipped Saigon Special at a lively local beer hall. But mainly we just all hung out, which was ultra special for me since it’s the first time either one of them has visited me abroad.
In April, my mom, sister and I traveled to Hoi An, Hanoi and Bai Tu Long Bay (the alternative to Halong Bay). But I’ll leave all the fun anecdotes and pretty pictures for next month’s roundup post.
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I posted a whopping three photos to Instagram last month. What can I say, my new neighborhood just hasn’t inspired me to whip out my camera. But here are my top two!
How did your March shape up? Did you do anything interesting?
