just back from HCM and wanted to share on food and shopping!
We stayed at A&Em Corp Royal Palace Hotel. Location was great (only 3 min walk to Ben Thanh Market), rooms were decent. But service and staff very very rude. Book deluxe room - that's good enough. About 60SGD a night and comes with jacuzzi in toilet (mine didnt work though).
For shopping, Ben Thanh seems very over rated.. have to bargain very hard to get a decent (not cheap) price. Preferred Saigon Xa Tax trade centre where prices are lower but bargain less - eg, men's shirts at 130-140k VND (about 8sgd). Another place I bought lots of dresses was Lucky PLaza, along Nguyen Hue and down the road from Xa Tax trade centre. Dresses for only 150-200k VND - ie 8-12SGD! And very very decent quality. Children's dresses were real cheap too, from Saigon Square 1 along Le Loi. About 100k VND - SGD 6. Note that all prices are after moderate bargaining, ie about 80% of quoted price. Ladies shoes were pretty cheap too at a side lane next to Ben Thanh market. Got good quality leather pumps at 250k VND (fixed price - no bargaining) - thats about SGD 14.
For food, we tried the following :
1. The famous Pho2000 - quite nice. Pho at 42k VND (SGD2.50). Shrimp spring rolls were nice too. our meal there cost about 10sgd for 2 bowls of pho, spring rolls, 1 lemon juice, 1 coke.
2. Le Jardin - fantastic and cheap french food. Google for tel no as you need to reserve beforehand, or end up at the bar counter like we did. We ordered an aperitif (kir cassis), vegetable soup(very nice despite the dubious green colour), starter (pate - great again), 2 mains (hubby took some beef dish, i took salmon/sole - ok only) and 1 dessert (fanny's ice cream - passion fruit which was refreshing, and strawberry - nice). Total came up to less than 30SGD! damn cheap!
3. Quan An Ngon (a vietnamese restaurant highly rated in tripadvisor) - seems very very popular with tourists and caucasians - however, food was very very mediocre. not worth a visit IMO. would have gladly returned to le jardin anytime for the price paid. we ordered 1 mango juice, 1 coconut, 1 skewer of grilled chicken, 1 small bowl of crab soup, spring rolls, and steamed shrimp in coconut juice (which tasted like steamed shrimp in water). total was about 20sgd. ex for vietnamese standards.
4. 3G Trois Gourmands - fine dining french food. the best meal of our trip. expensive though, but we didnt mind it as we were celebrating a special occasion. Nice ambience, and set menu was at 45USD for a choice of 3 appetizers, 1 main course, cheese platter, 1 dessert and complimentary dessert wine (or some sort of alcohol served after the cheese platter). very very reasonable considering quality and amount of food. you can't get that in singapore for that price!
5. Food court above Vincom Centre (an atas shopping centre) - nice variety of local food to try out in an aircon environment. food priced at around 2-3GD.
Ooh.. also got a pedicure at one of the nail salons opposite Ben Thanh. 85k VND (only 5SGD!) for a pedicure which includes cuticle trimming, etc. took about 45 min and the lady was very very detailed. They used OPI nail polish, so it was a bit pricier compared to the nail salon next door (sorry I can't remember the name of the salon, but there were 2 nail salons side by side).
Hope to help all those going to HCM! Was there only 3D2n and managed to do all of the above, plus sleep in and afternoon siestas. hehe.