New Year’s Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City

I spent the New Year's holiday in Ho Chi Minh City, on Dec 28, 2025 to Jan 2, 2026.

The flight from KL was just over two hours. It was right in the dry season, so there were no rainy days. The mornings and evenings were cool.

For meals, I went to local restaurants, where the food was cheap and reasonably good.

I spent five nights and six days relaxing.

I stayed at a mid-range hotel near the airport. The surrounding area was a suburban town, with convenience stores, mini supermarkets, and many local restaurants and shops.

The hour-long drive to the city center was a surprise (it wasn't a long distance, but it took a long time due to constant traffic. On January 1st, a holiday, it took less than 30 minutes each way).

To top it off, there was a surge fare when boarding from the city center.

The outbound fare was about 600 yen, and the return fare was over 1,000 yen.

(On January 1st, when the roads were clear, the round-trip fare was under 500 yen.)

   

Ho Chi Minh statue

The HCMC Metro was extremely convenient.

Only one line with 14 stations opened about a year ago, connecting the city center to the eastern suburbs.

I've used Ban Thung Station, the starting point in the city center, and the next station, Opera House Station (near Takashimaya), many times. From these two stations, you can walk to the city's major tourist attractions and large shopping malls.

I've also used a station when I had trouble finding a restroom.

Although I say subway, only three stations are underground. When you head out to the suburbs, the line becomes elevated, offering views of the scenery outside. You can even see it crossing a large river, a tributary of the Mekong.

Large shopping malls were visible nearby at each station, and it seemed like a large commuter area had already been created.

Planned routes were also listed on the route map posted at the station, and if all of them were completed, the area would be on par with Bangkok or KL.

   

A station of HCMC Metro

As usual, I traveled cashless, but my attempt to travel completely cashless failed.

My policy of "traveling with minimal luggage" meant I only brought a three-day's worth of clothes, so I needed to do laundry along the way.

I looked online and found that there seemed to be a coin laundry in the city center (card payments accepted). However, I felt hesitant to go into the city with all my laundry, so I asked at my hotel and went to a nearby dry cleaner.

They only accepted cash, so I decided to pay the next day and withdrew 500,000 VND from an ATM.

Two days' worth of laundry (T-shirts, underwear, two pairs of socks, and one pair of pants) came to 46,000 VND, or about 275 yen.

Every day, I ate nothing but pho and bread, and drank Saigon beer (I think the bakeries there are of a higher quality than those in Malaysia).

On New Year's Day, I wanted to try some Japanese food for a change, so I went to Tonkatsu Wako in Takashimaya.

I was impressed by how delicious the regular rice, or Japanese Gohan,  was.

    

Takashimaya in Ho Chi MInh City

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