Vietnam Relocation (Ho Chi Minh) Lifestyle. How to Spend Weekends with Family

Xin chào! We are Papa, a Japanese husband, and Mama, 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 catches your interest, please follow us first! ♪ It's been quite a while since our last update, sorry about that 💦 Our second-grade child has started summer vacation. Local schools in Vietnam are on break for three months, from June until the end of August.Starting from September, I'm officially a third-year student now. So this time, we'd like to share what our family's everyday life in Ho Chi Minh City looks like, and how we spend our weekends. There's overwhelmingly little entertainment in Ho Chi Minh City!

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 centers or high-rise apartments yet, but now it's surprising how they've become commonplace, popping up everywhere.   Despite being Ho Chi Minh City, there really aren't that many spots where locals can enjoy themselves on weekends. In fact, there are hardly any at all. By the way, back in Japan we lived in Kanagawa, so on weekends we'd often head out to Tokyo or Yokohama, or take one-night trips to Hakone or Atami. There are places near Ho Chi Minh City that you can visit on a day trip, similar to Atami, but honestly, they're pretty underwhelming.   『Vung Tau, 2 hours from Ho Chi Minh City. My go-to way to enjoy the local scene』Xin chào! We are Papa-san, a Japanese husband living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Mama-san, his Vietnamese wife! 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're curious…ameblo.jp

How Vietnamese People and Expats Spend Their Weekends in Ho Chi Minh City

When you think of Vietnam, you might picture street-side cafés, right? Though lately, stylish air-conditioned cafés have been increasing too. In fact, many Vietnamese people, regardless of age, treasure spending their weekend time at cafés with someone important to them. It's such a common sight that you might wonder, "Do they really have that much to talk about?" — everyone lingers for ages over just a single cup of coffee.

Probably the most typical way for Ho Chi Minh City residents to spend their weekends is walking around shopping centers like this. In Ho Chi Minh City, Japanese-affiliated Aeon Mall and Vietnamese Vincom Center hold sway, and everywhere gets packed on weekends. It's almost like you're at an amusement park.

The shopping center has a food court, restaurant mall, kids club, cinema, 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 Vietnamese people living in Ho Chi Minh City spent their time at AEON. Game centers are in an unprecedented boom! "GIGO" has also made its way in~

The game centers that are always found inside shopping centers keep getting better equipped year after year. UFO catchers (claw machines) are also very popular, and Japan's GIGO has even made its way in there too. Since one play costs about 60 to 100 yen, it's nice that it's set a bit cheaper than in Japan. Whenever we go to the shopping center, my child always plays there without fail, but the other day when I tried to add credit, it said, "Congratulations.I was told, "Since you've paid a total of 70,000 yen, you've been upgraded to Gold Membership" (;∀;). It's been about five years or so, since the pandemic days. Apparently, from now on I can play the UFO catcher three times a day for free… Maybe it's a Southeast Asia thing? A water park is also a nice way to spend the weekend.

Ho Chi Minh City is a hot and humid city all year round, so its pools stay open 365 days a year. Recently, several large-scale water parks like the one you see here have opened and are drawing big crowds among Vietnamese people. With water slides, lazy rivers, and wave pools, the quality is surprisingly solid. On weekends in Ho Chi Minh City, "popular izakaya-style pubs" are doing a booming business.

Recently, there are more neat and tidy family restaurant-style shops popping up, but Vietnamese people still seem more comfortable with places like this one. This is a casual izakaya with a semi-open-air setup and a retractable roof, so it's fine even on rainy days. It has most of the dishes that Vietnamese people usually eat. We go there from time to time too, and we always end up ordering the same things—shellfish dishes, fried rice or stir-fried noodles, grilled shrimp skewers with heads, and things like that.I like a dish called Canhua, which is a tomato-based, tangy hot pot, so I eat it fairly often. Air-conditioned restaurants are nice, but traditional semi-open-air taverns feel just right to me. Regardless of wealth, I think all Vietnamese people like it. Buffet restaurants are also growing more and more popular year after year!

It's been about the last 15 years or so, but buffet-style restaurants have become really popular in Vietnam. You can enjoy a grilled meat 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, I don't go as often anymore (since they only eat a few bites, it feels like such a waste...).Well, before, we used to go about once a week or so~. But cheap yakiniku buffets are really low quality, so I've actually had a stomachache from them a few times. By the way, the Japanese companies Anrakutei and Gyu-Kaku have also moved in, and both of them do buffets too. Honestly, they don't seem all that popular though... Honestly, there's nothing else quite like it!! "So? What else? What else?A lot of people will probably want to jump in and say, 'come on, there must be something!' — and honestly, I racked my brain over it too, but there really isn't...... On weekends we basically just take a taxi or a motorbike about 20 minutes to a shopping center, and it's eating out, the kids' club, the arcade, and window shopping (-_-;)     I don't think it's just our family — I imagine that in many Vietnamese households, most of the monthly income ends up going toward food expenses. Since there isn't much entertainment to spend on, we can save on socializing costs, but it feels like that saved money just gets redirected into food expenses instead. That's all for now, reporting to you from Ho Chi Minh City!!