Ho Chi Minh City

The downtown area of Ho Chi Minh City is now officially called District 1, though you will still hear some people call it Saigon. Stick to either District 1 or Ho Chi Minh City - that way, nobody will be confused or offended.

Orientation is quite simple in this city - a relief if you've been travelling to other Asian destinations. Since the Vietnamese language uses Latin-based lettering, signs are easy to read. However, street numbers can sometimes be confusing, as they can comprise a generous quantity of letters as well as numbers.

Budget travellers tend to congregate around Ð Pham Ngu Lao at the western end of District 1. Cholon (Chinatown) has plenty of cheap rooms, but Western backpackers are still rare here. Travellers with a little more cash prefer the more upmarket hotels concentrated around Dong Khoi St at the eastern side of District 1. Pham Ngu Lao and De Tham Streets form the axis of Saigon's haven of budget eateries.

The famously muddled Tan Son Nhat International Airport is only 7km (4.3mi) from the city centre. Trains, including the infamous Reunification Express from Hanoi, arrive from the north into District 3, just north of the city centre. Dirt-cheap buses - formerly unreliable and unsafe, but now undergoing a welcome urban transit overhaul - run from a variety of locations around the city, including Cholon (for Mekong Delta connections) and the Binh Tranh District (for all northern destinations).