I suppose I should update this thread... Seeing as I opened it and got great advice
We went to HCMC in Late August and BF hated it, actually I mean he absolutely loathed it!

It seemed we did nothing but queue, queue, queue our entire time there and the taxi drivers were next to useless... I will never slag off the Bkk taxi drivers again after experiencing HCMC drivers!

I enjoyed the Museum of American & Chinese Atrocities & the Cu Chi tunnels... but BF was bored off of his face!

We stayed in the Pink Tulip and whilst the room was good and the location good - I got locked our twice! Now I wasn't out that late (maybe 2am, BF had gone home early as he was bored) but they had already shuttered up the shop house and the "night porter" was fast asleep... It took around 15 minutes of banging on the shutter to get someone to open the shutter (on both nights!)

The gay scene was also pretty disappointing - although there were plenty of pickup opportunities around Bui Vien Street - if I had been there alone

So my advice for HCMC - is to never take your Thai BF with you... go and enjoy it alone!