Ho Chi Minh City

Palace, Cholon and the tunnels over three Saigon mornings

Three days in Ho Chi Minh City split neatly into the colonial centre, Chinese Cholon and one trip out of town. Day one covers the cathedral, the post office, the Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum; day two is temples and markets in Cholon; day three goes to the Cu Chi tunnels or the Mekong Delta.

Eat com tam at a pavement stall by 7am, then walk up Dong Khoi to the red-brick cathedral and the Central Post Office, whose iron-vaulted hall is still a working post office. The Independence Palace opens mid-morning; go straight down to the basement, where the radio rooms and war maps sit untouched since April 1975. After lunch, give the War Remnants Museum at least two hours. Spend the evening on the Nguyen Hue walking street, when the heat has dropped and families come out.

Day two heads west to Cholon. Arrive early at Thien Hau Temple on Nguyen Trai, before tour groups, and look up at the incense coils that burn for weeks. Walk on to Binh Tay Market, a wholesale hall where dried fish and paper offerings are sold by the sack. Ride back for the water puppet show at the Museum of Vietnamese History, timed for the afternoon slot, and end with a rooftop drink above Dong Khoi.

Day three is for leaving town. The Cu Chi tunnels lie north-west, about two hours by road, and are best reached before 9am; the alternative is a long day in the Mekong Delta. Either way, start by 7am, because traffic out of the city thickens quickly and the afternoon heat makes crawling through tunnels hard work.

Broken rice, snail stalls and Cholon noodles

Order com tam for breakfast, banh mi at any hour, hu tieu in Cholon and snails on Vinh Khanh street in the old District 4 for dinner. Saigon's best cooking comes from pavement stalls, and many of them sell out or pack up by mid-morning, so eat early and follow the crowds.

Com tam, broken rice with a grilled pork chop, a fried egg and pickled vegetables, is the breakfast of office workers and taxi drivers, sold from stalls that are often gone by mid-morning. Banh mi here is bigger and richer than in the north, layered with pate, cold cuts and pickles inside a crackling baguette.

The Chinese community left its mark in Cholon, where hu tieu, a clear pork-bone soup with springy noodles, is the standard order, and where small family shops sell roast duck and steamed buns. For an evening of seafood, go to Vinh Khanh street in the old District 4, a row of open-fronted restaurants famous among locals for oc, snails and shellfish cooked with tamarind, garlic or coconut milk. Point at the tanks; nobody minds.

Desserts and snacks are a world of their own. Look for che, sweet soups of beans and jelly over ice, and banh xeo, crisp turmeric pancakes you wrap in mustard leaves. Ben Thanh Market has food stalls inside, though prices there are higher than in the side streets. Finish with ca phe sua da, strong drip coffee over condensed milk and ice, the drink that keeps the city moving.

Tet flowers on Nguyen Hue and the September downpours

December to February is the most comfortable time to visit, with highs near 32C, cooler nights and almost no rain. March and April are the hottest months, the wet season runs from May to November with a September peak, and Tet in late January or February brings flower streets along with closures and sold-out transport.

Nights in those months drop to about 23C, and January averages only about 12mm of rain. March and April are the hottest, touching 35C, with humidity building until the first storms arrive in May.

The wet season runs from May to November and peaks in September, when the average rainfall reaches about 490mm. Storms usually break in the afternoon, flood low streets for an hour and move on, so plan museums and markets for the morning and keep a rain poncho in your bag. Hotels are quieter and greener parks are a fair trade.

Tet, the lunar new year, falls in late January or February and transforms the centre. Nguyen Hue is turned into a flower street lined with installations of chrysanthemums and apricot blossom, and crowds come out at night to take photos. The flip side is that many family-run restaurants close for several days, and trains and buses out of the city sell out weeks in advance. At the Mid-Autumn Festival, usually in September, Luong Nhu Hoc street in Cholon fills with lantern sellers, and 30 April brings parades for Reunification Day.