At the time of my stay of 3 months for professional reason in Vietnam of mid January to mid April, I have had the luck to be lodged on Saigon.
The city is a little rebel following Viet government because when the country decided to enter marked economy the capital Hanoi hesitated staying on the basements of the comunism when Saigon rushed in the new openings and got the mains markets.

Lived and impressions on the city:

Tentacular city and bruillante.
Constant animation in the city decreasing the night slightly to start again even more in the small hours.
From my room at 8eme stacks the attenuated rumbling noise of the trafic, occured mainly by mupets and motorcycles and its overnight appearance in the avenues made one think of an enormous snake . He wake up in the small hours and increase crescendo.This one begin here toward 3hoo and reache its apogee to 7h00.
The contrast between the middle air-conditioned of the hotel and the outside was here surprising at the exit , impression to choke by the temperature and pollution, 37 degrees even the night.
When i arrived in Vietnam and during one week I suffered from light irritations throat and nose due to this pollution, then one gets habit after.Human body is fantastic to adapt the nuisances.

Passing most of the time in the evening at work ,when i was coming back home toward 21h I hurried before its closing in a web café at the bottom of our hotel, and via Yahoo contacted my close relations.
In Vietnam personal computers are not a lot, the whole youth takes assault these web coffee and those are here numerous in city.
Contacts even telephonic are cheaper while passing by internet and it will cost you only 1 pound for 20 minutes of téléphone.It is better to inquire about internet tariffs in web coffee because they can often vary of10 times between them. After that, diner in the restaurant joins to the hote(Ciao Coffee) without game of words . yes! pure coincidence.

Often the agents of the company in the evening meet to drink a beer to the Apo (apocalypse) bouate in thi sach, free entry for the masculine sex, paying for the feminine gente and that is asia!
cost of a beer to 1 pound.Very good atmosphere.

The displacements make themselves either by taxicab or at the back of mupets, safer to use taxis but less expensive motorcycle, in principle but mind to agree before the race about the price.
On average 5000 dong for 2 km by motorcycle, the double for the taxi.With cab prefer use a companies and to insure that the driver puts the meter well to zero before your departure.

Walking require a good practice to clear the streets and avenues.
The Vietnameses have the right in Saigon to clear the red lights to head on the right.
This tolerance is due to the saturation of the circulation and perhaps traffic jam less important after that.

I think that the solution in futur will be in view to limit this traffic the transportation in commun.Tram,Bus,underground.
The transportation by bus currently not being at all finalized. Not of definite journey with acurate time, important delays therefore too uncertain system.

I had luck to be there at the end of January at the time of the chinese new year (chuck mung noi moi)Happy new year in Vietnamese. Dragons, gigantic nems, choirs on the pediment of the theater French vestige colonial .During this period more than 20 motorcyclists found the death every day against 15 usually.At the time of the THET FEAST Vietnamese drink more that usual and...

At random of a meeting on the place, facing the cathedral of red stone NOTRE DAME discussion with a friendly old grandad membership in the past the ( Enfants de troupes) former unit of french army speaking a good French .he told me to go several times to the consulate of France to tempt to get a pension of the France in reward of the services returned to the one here (war of algerie among others).

Creepings:
From time to time in the streets and I don't even speak of the yard where I worked , big rats leave out of a sewer left to disappear after.once upon, one of them disappeared in a crack of wall while touching lightly the leg of a Vietnamiene who didn't saw it even althoughshe didn't seem very frightened by them BEARK..!. Présence of big cockroaches 5 cm on the sidewalks. I found one dead in my bathroom at 8eme stacks, pass surely by the plughole.

Food:
When I didn't work, i often went every evening or nearly to eat in a japanese restaurant .The Bach Dong 33 Mac This Buoi street.
4 waitresses Viet and a Japanese very friendly .
Japs dishes of very good quality. Mainly customers where Japanese. Complete meal cost 7 pound.
Some times way to Bhan than Market one of the 2 main markets of Saigon or I bought fresh fruits, mangoes, fruits of the dragon, sorts of fragrant pears and the fish, or big living crabs with the clamps immobilized against the shell by a red cord that I cooked in court bouillon.HUMM !

Hygiene:I got sick only one time at the end of one month after eating during one meal between with colleagues in a restaurant raw clams (not problem told the waiter, everybody does it) and I was the only one sick during 2 days.
Yet a Vietnamese friend of mine warned me before leaving from Europe (everything cooks or boiled ) not uncooked vegetables.
During my stay the fever aviaire raged and now is increasing again, I believe
. One didn't find a chicken in city, but in the country one saw some almost everywhere, and ducks gamboling freshly on salads and other crop vegetables .
I had brought with me some pills of bleachas i see it , disinfecting bought in pharmacy, safer to use one in one liter of water to wash the teeth and to rinse the vegetables.Fresh water is not guarante without danger .I was counseled to be taken in sealed bottles or in fountains kind USED, mark counseled LA VIE and imitated even one found lavit like a lot of things in Vietnam.