Ho Chi Minh city - any updates?

[blueboy]

Anyone been to HCMC lately. Appreciate info on hotels, bars, saunas
Thanks

[Surfcrest]

Tet (Year of the Tiger), or Vietnamese (Chinese) New Year swings around on Feb 14 and lasts about a week.
You will find a great deal of things will be closed for this week as Vietnamese people spend this time with thier families.
I was in HCMC at Tet in 2007. It's definitely the wrong time to go.

[Beachlover]

Anyone traveling about Asia should be mindful of Chinese New Year... 13/14 Feb... around these dates, millions of people are traveling home to be with their families.

[nanette]

I spent last christmas eve in Saigon(HCMC), and it was a fantastic experience, from the multitude of city folks jamming up the streets to partake the very beautiful & colourful lights decorations all over the important business buildings & touristic roads...Millions of people on foot as well as the ubiquitous motorcycles, that it was very difficult to move around...but it was something to experience...

met a few gay contacts from Gayromeo...went to two gay bars - Q-bar & Vila, both near the Sheraton Hotel..both bars were full of the city gays, but they were not as flamboyant as their counterparts in Thailand...but they were horny as any gay man...relatively easy to find contacts on Gayromeo, and none of them had asked for money in exchange for a good time.. :happy7:

[martin911]

I spent 4 days there last june
best advice is to go on to gay romeo -i met guys from it when i was in HMC,HUE,and Hanoi --addresss in Hmc are difficult --i was in a taxi going to meet a guy at his house for some fun and taxi was a long time trying to find it even with my new friend on the end of the phone to the taxi driver

There are a few gay bars near the Diamond shopping centre ,get the guys to meet u at Diamond and you can then go to bars nearby --I was never asked for money either --they just want to hook up with westeners from what i saw >

[Beachlover]

I went to a gay sauna when I was in Vietnam (not HCMC)... Vietnamese boys can be horny buggers. Very cute and not shy to show off a little too.

[bjbjboy]

Interesting about Vietnam.
When I was in HCMC about 10 years ago, went to a really busy gay bar, which was fun but nowhere to play---hotel had quite tight security. Any hotels to recommend where you can bring new friends?

[nanette]

Beautiful Hotel, 62 Bui Vien street, Pham Ngu Lao - US26/night - no problem bringing in guests.
A nice small & new hotel & uncluttered, with very friendly staff.
My friend came to visit me & we walked past the reception without any question from the ever smiling receptionists.
I met my new friend on Gayromeo, & he was all too eager to try out his bedroom skills. As on several previous occasions with Vietnamese boys, he was pleased when I presented him with some new underwear(I always carry a box of new underwear size M to be given away as momentoes :idea: ). No hint of expecting money after the meeting. :happy7:
I also had the chance to try out massage by a blind masseur at The Association for the Blind, located in a building at the circus end of Pham Ngu Lao street, about 15m into the left lane.
For the 1-hr massage in an air-cond room I paid 50,000dong(US2.5). There were 6 beds with glass & curtain partitions, and the masseurs didn't speak much english. However this was not for hanky-panky massage. In an adjacent room in the complex was a sauna for men. As I was waiting for my turn for massage(being a sunday, the place was quite crowded), I noticed many men coming in & out of the sauna. Each customer was given a key to the locker & 2 towels. I didn't enquire about the price or inspect the room, but the crowd didn't appeal to me, although a lot of them appear horny. I prefer picking boys on Gayromeo. :occasion9:
Out of about seven hotels in Saigon & Hanoi, I only had an isolated incident when a guest was not allowed in as it was past 10pm. But it saved my day as I wasn't too keen to have him stay for the night. However these are small hotels(room rates US20-50/night), but my general impression is that you have no problem bringing in guests, especially if you're paying for two persons. I have no experience with five-star hotels.
Vietnam has a lot of potential for fun.