Vietnam Street Scenes: Hồ Chí Minh City

Portraits from everyday life in Saigon! Ho Chi Minh city is hot, humid, and crowded. Everyone wants to live and work in the big city (with all its shiny lights). It feels even more crowded because people have a different concept of space here. They will start conversations with you and lecture you as if you belonged to their family. They will comment on how tall and lanky you are, and that it means you aren't eating enough. They will ask about your girlfriend, and if you don't have one, they may decide to set you up on a blind date with a girl whose dad is their best friend.

The temperature hovers around 30C - 33C every day of the year. 6 months of the year it rains, and for the other 6 months the sun shines so bright you develop a habit of wearing a baseball cap wherever you go.

People are generally nice to foreigners. They will want to be your friend. People are generally nice, open, and very friendly. You will live somewhere in District 1 or 3, close to the actions; and at night you venture out to discover the bars and clubs that are hidden away in alleys you don't even know the name of.

People work hard during the day and when night falls they go out with friends. Here you may be lucky enough to run the in circle of the 1%, living the high life, blowing thousands of dollars on a night out. Or you may be lucky enough to really get down and see how some of the locals have to live in absolute despair and poverty.
You need a great deal of patience to live in the city. Many of the things you take for granted in the developed world will not exist/will only be available for a fee. We do not have much (if at all) public transportation, and to really get anything done (shopping, banking, hospital treatments, education) you have to often travel to the "city" i.e. District 1/3. The distance technically isn't far, but the density of traffic and irregularity of transportation often makes the journey irritable. Having said this, foodstuffs are very affordable, you can easily get away with a hedonistic lifestyle should you choose to, people are very often courteous and polite, and the weather is (depending on how you look at it) sunny and tropical most days of the year.
Your lifestyle will largely depend on your income and age. Some people (mostly young/without children) treat living in Saigon as one extended break. Probably it's a good place to be if you're either young, broke and adventurous, or old and rich. In between, there's a lot of things you miss out on.
In short: If you're used to living in large, developed cities, and you have a bit of a temper or a tendency to rush things, you'll probably be frustrated at the state of things for at least a good half year upon your initial move to Saigon. To me, the key to really appreciating and enjoying life in Saigon, or Vietnam for that matter, is to take things one at a time and remember that most things don't matter too much :) Have a beer, observe, and be organized so that you leave plenty of time for mishaps/miscommunications. Because they're bound to happen. Enjoy the city!