Life relocating to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City). How my family spends the weekend

Xin chào! We are Papa-san, a Japanese husband, and Mama-san, his Vietnamese wife, living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! On this blog, we share information about moving to and living in Vietnam, as well as travel information from all over the country. If you come across an article that interests you, please start by following us first ♪ It's been quite a while since our last update, sorry about that 💦 Our child, now in 2nd grade, has entered summer vacation. Local schools in Vietnam are on a 3-month break from June until the end of August.Starting in September, I'll officially be a third-year student. So this time, we'd like to share what our family's everyday life in Ho Chi Minh City is like, especially how we spend our weekends. Ho Chi Minh City really does have overwhelmingly few entertainment options!

Ho Chi Minh City, popular among Japanese travelers, is also Vietnam's largest commercial city. The capital is Hanoi, but it's Ho Chi Minh City that's really developing. When we first moved here, there were hardly any shopping malls or high-rise apartments, but now it's surprising to see them standing everywhere as if it were the most natural thing in the world.   Ho Chi Minh City is like that, but in fact there really aren't that many spots where locals can go and enjoy themselves on weekends. Or rather, there are almost none at all. By the way, in Japan we used to live in Kanagawa, so on weekends we'd often head into Tokyo or Yokohama, or take one-night trips to places like Hakone or Atami. Ho Chi Minh City does have places you can visit on a day trip that are somewhat like Atami, but honestly, they're pretty underwhelming.   『Vung Tau, two hours from Ho Chi Minh City: my go-to way to enjoy it like a local』Xin chào! We're Papa-san, a Japanese husband, and Mama-san, his Vietnamese wife, living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam! On this blog, we share information about moving to and living in Vietnam, as well as travel information from all over the country. Feel…ameblo.jp

How Vietnamese people and expats spend their weekends in Ho Chi Minh City

ベトナムと言えば路上カフェのイメージがあるかもしれませんね。最近はエアコン付きのお洒落カフェも増えてきましたが。 実際、年代問わず多くのベトナム人がカフェで週末の時間を大切な人と過ごします。「そんなに話すことあるんかい」というほどみんなコーヒー一杯で長居するのが定番です。

おそらくホーチミン人の最も定番の週末過ごし方がこちらの「ショッピングセンターの散歩」です。 ホーチミン市内には、日系イオンモール、ベトナム系ビンコムセンターが幅を利かせていて、週末はどこも大混雑。まるで遊園地に来ているかのようです。

Inside the shopping center, there are food courts, a restaurant mall, a kids' club, a movie theater, and apparel shops, so it's used not only by families with children but also as a hangout and date spot for young people. During the last Lunar New Year, there was even news that 10% of the Vietnamese people living in Ho Chi Minh City spent their time at AEON. Game centers are experiencing an unprecedented boom! "GIGO" has also made its way in~

The game centers that are always found inside shopping malls have been getting more and more well-equipped year after year. UFO catchers are also hugely popular, and Japan's GIGO has expanded here too. Since the cost per play is 60 to 100 yen, it's nice that it's set a bit cheaper than in Japan. Whenever we go to the shopping mall, our kids always end up playing there, but the other day when I tried to add credit, it said, "Congratulations.I was told, "Since you've spent a total of 70,000 yen, you've been upgraded to Gold Membership" (;∀;). It's been about five years or so, since the COVID pandemic. Apparently, from now on I can play the UFO catcher for free three times a day... Maybe it's a Southeast Asia thing? Water parks are also a great way to spend the weekend.

Ho Chi Minh City is a hot and humid city all year round, so pools operate 365 days a year. Recently, several large-scale water parks like the one shown here have opened and are bustling with Vietnamese visitors. With water slides, lazy rivers, and wave pools, the quality is surprisingly solid. On weekends in Ho Chi Minh City, "popular local izakayas" are thriving.

Recently, more neat and tidy family-restaurant-style places have been popping up, but it seems Vietnamese people still feel more at home in this kind of place. This is a popular, down-to-earth pub, semi-open-air with a retractable roof, so it's fine even on rainy days. They have pretty much all the dishes Vietnamese people normally eat. We go there from time to time too, and what we always end up eating is shellfish dishes, fried rice or fried noodles, and skewered whole shrimp with the head on, among other things.I like a tomato-based sour hot pot called canh chua, so I sometimes eat this too. Air-conditioned restaurants are nice, but I find myself preferring the semi-open-air, old-fashioned izakayas. Regardless of whether they're wealthy or not, I think all Vietnamese people love them. Buffet restaurants are also gaining momentum year after year!

It's been about 15 years now. Buffet-style restaurants have become quite popular in Vietnam. You can enjoy a grilled meat (yakiniku) buffet for around 1,500 to 3,000 yen, and a seafood buffet for around 2,500 to 4,000 yen. These are also usually found in the restaurant areas of shopping centers. Since having kids, we don't go as often anymore (since they only eat a few bites, it feels like such a waste...).In the past, I used to go about once a week~. But cheap yakiniku buffets are really low quality, so I've had my stomach upset a few times. By the way, Japanese-affiliated companies Anrakutei and Gyukaku have also expanded here, and both offer buffets. Honestly, they don't seem very popular though... Honestly, there's nothing else like it!! "So? What else? What else?A lot of people probably want to point out something, and I thought about it myself, but honestly, there really isn't anything else... On weekends, we basically take a taxi or a motorbike about 20 minutes away to a shopping center, and it's all about eating, the kids' club, the game center, and window shopping (-_-;)     I think our family probably isn't the only one — many Vietnamese households likely spend most of their monthly income on food. Since there isn't much entertainment around, we're able to save on social/entertainment expenses, but it feels like that saved money just ends up going toward food instead. That's all for now, reporting from Ho Chi Minh City!!