Returning to intoxicating Ho Chi Minh City

I was greeted with a blast of 32-Celsius-degree heat, prompting me to quickly shed layers meant for airplane temperatures and a cacophony of beeping horns from automobiles jockeying for position at pick-up points.

Sunrise view across the Saigon River. Photo by Samantha Coomber

My airport transfer turned up late, apparently delayed thanks to the notorious traffic, which I reacquainted myself with as we slowly inched our way to my Dong Khoi Street hotel. Invariably, my taxi got gridlocked by a sea of motorbikes, with riders glancing down at me with the most disarming of smiles.

My first hour back in Vietnam and this is just what I expected – and missed. After reluctantly leaving during the Covid 'Delta variant' outbreak in mid-2021, after more than three years away, finally, I'm happy to be back in intoxicating, one-of-a-kind, Ho Chi Minh City, my former home.

In the ensuing weeks ahead, I discovered, however, there are a considerable number of developments and changes I didn't expect, but in a pleasantly surprising way. Not only has Ho Chi Minh City bounced back to normal life post- pandemic but is, for the most part, positively thriving, with a feel-good factor and vibrant energy so strong, you could almost plug it in.

A pulsating city on the move

Soon after check-in, I'm forced to get techno-savvy fast, downloading essential apps to book taxis and tours, order food deliveries and translate Vietnamese/English, which appears all part of everyday local life (and a Godsend). Meanwhile, giant digital billboards seem to have taken over downtown, invariably running advertisements with good-looking youth promoting anything from beer to iPhones.

International tourists have returned, although even for peak season, I don't recall quite as many as this, in what is now considered a 'must-go' destination. I can hardly get a seat ahead of the snaking queues at popular Western restaurants, especially, Instagram favourites and anywhere banh mi related. In HCMC's historic center, I'm in danger of being knocked over by the swarm of tour groups monopolizing the pavements, while every night, visitors fill to capacity the new, open-top double-decker buses ploughing through the neon-lit streets on sightseeing tours (looking so much fun, I'm tempted to jump on board myself).

Downtown malls are filled with shoppers laden down with international brand bags, their excited chatter in the crowded food courts reverberating up the multi-level atriums. The city now boasts three Michelin-starred restaurants, while my favourite local eateries, hidden away in more traditional neighborhoods, once again enjoy brisk business. These include the family-run pho and bun cha joints I regularly frequented, like many, forced to pull their shutters down during lockdowns in Covid's latter stages.

It was during those unprecedented 'Delta variant' months in 2021 that countless downtown establishments cease to operate, some for good, which was sad to witness. Now I discover sophisticated new restaurants, rooftop bars and boutique stores have burst on the scene or reacquainted myself with die-hard favorites relocated to more affordable addresses. Additionally, several long-running major projects have finally seen fruition: the cable-stayed Ba Son Bridge, distinctive for its backward sloping, curved pylon, opening in 2022 and much-anticipated Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien metro line, making its inaugural runs days before my return in January.

Opening to much excitement (including mine, riding the metro out to Thao Dien), TIME magazine swiftly ranked this amongst the "World's Greatest Places for 2025."

A metro train runs on the track to the left of the Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City, with the country's tallest building Landmark 81 in the background, January 2025. Photo by VnExpress

Even Bach Dang Wharf has undergone a remarkable transformation, from a shabby, underutilized stretch in the center, to a bustling, shiny waterfront zone. Tourists, expats and locals now flock to the pier, not only for the riverside open-air cafés – hugely popular in the balmy evenings – but also, for the excellent new tourist-friendly boats that ply the Saigon River: a Bangkok-style, river taxi (Saigon Waterbus) and sightseeing cruise boats (Saigon Water Go), serenaded with live music.

Ho Chi Minh City’s infamous traffic isn't the same – actually, I'd swear it's got worse. There appears to be far more cars clogging up the streets, plus crossing the road seems even more hazardous – if that's possible. Souvenir tee-shirts sold in tourist haunts like Ben Thanh Market and Saigon Square increasingly feature designs that poke fun at the Saigonese lack of respect for traffic lights.

Reaching new heights

From the city center to the outer suburbs, the number of high-rise buildings has ramped up. True, some remain half-built, but along with pretty much elsewhere in the city, even those skeletal towers come to life come nighttime, attractively illuminated with bright fluorescent hues; so too, the cluster of drab residential tower blocks along the riverbanks. The Indochina-era, Notre Dame Cathedral, undergoing long-term renovations and engulfed in scaffolding, is itself magically transformed post-dusk into a giant grotto of fairy lights.

From the upper deck of a nighttime cruise along the Saigon River and my heavenly suite on the 38th floor of a downtown hotel (perched above an equally luxurious shopping center), I'm totally in awe of a glittering nighttime skyline that is starting to rival Hong Kong or Bangkok. The stars of this dazzling show are undoubtedly those well-established architectural masterpieces: the 68-storey Bitexco Financial Tower and Landmark 81, Southeast Asia's second tallest building.

Arriving here for the first time in 1998 (when I used to hail a taxi on the street, message home from Internet cafés and did the "airport run" in 15 minutes), over the years, I've witnessed first-hand Vietnam's largest and most cosmopolitan metropolis develop and reinvent itself on the global stage and flourish in stature. But it's especially pronounced on this visit.

Some things however never change. Yet to lose its enduring charm, Ho Chi Minh City is still impossibly alluring, infectiously buzzy and endearingly nutty. And as I inch my way back to the airport, mighty hard to leave.