I gotta call bullshit. I've lived in Saigon for five years and the only expats that fit that description are the losers that haunt Bui Vien. But there's a Bui Vien in every city in every country in SE Asia.

How exactly do you integrate with Vietnamese culture when you don't speak the language or have any other connection to it? You see this stupid argument on the expat groups on Facebook all the time, people slagging off on expats that live in the more western districts because somehow living in a western style apartment isn't "authentic Vietnamese living". It's a giant pile of bullshit, imho.

If you mean "have local friends" or an integrated social circle, almost everyone living here long term has that. You can't live here for a long time and not have it.

Maybe you got stuck in the teachers on paid vacation circle, but everyone I know here doing stuff outside of that doesn't even remotely fit your description.

I agree.

Unfortunately, in Saigon - we get a lot of the BroPackers and they tend to all convene in the Backpacker Area, Bui Vien.

I also have local friends.

I did a motorbike trip with my local friend to the Southern Vietnamese city of My Tho in the Mekong Delta a few weeks ago.

Quite normal to have local friends.

living in Saigon since 2006 to date and agree with jawngee.

I lived a year in Hanoi and left in May this year.

I can't speak for HCMC, but what i experienced wasn't much different from how you describe Saigon - it's full of loud and disrespectful foreigners (backpackers, many English teachers) living in their own little bubble of cheap booze, pot and western restaurants.

That being said, I can only recommend my experience, it's an amazing place to immerse yourself (even if you live in a relatively western area like Tay Ho), amazing food and the extremely low costs allow you to pursue ventures for much longer than you'd be able in the west (if at all).

I just got back from a trip in Vietnam, I made my way from North to South in just three weeks so my sample size is pretty small, but I pretty much agree with you although the bros/backpackers are definitely not limited to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi was my favorite place, it's a crazy yet charming city where you can't escape the green of the jungle - I've never experienced anything else like it. I will definitely go back, it's one of my favorite places on the planet. The only caveat for me is in fact the smell of pollution, as mentioned in the article.

I'm a US citizen (ông Tây) who lived in Saigon (legally) for ~12 years (2001-13) and spent time in Ha Noi and all I can say is that Saigon and Ha Noi are really different.

It seemed that people who loved Ha Noi did not care for Saigon and visa versa.

You seem to be in the Ha Noi group.

Saigon is a worthy place to visit full of people from different parts of Vietnam and around the world. It is culturally unique.

Been living in Saigon (legally) since 2006. Count me in the Saigon group. My wife is from Hanoi (where we met) and she moved to Saigon. The climate is much milder and the city has less red-tape. They told me there is even a migration of Vietnamese from North to South..

Yeah, no. Maybe if you only stick to Bui Vien street.

I met a lot of great foreigners through the HCMC Javascript Meetup and at various co-working spaces in Saigon. There really are some great people in that town.

You have to stay for more than just a few days to figure out where the good people are. That was likely your issue.

when was the last time there was a javascript meetup... unfortunately that seemed to have died down a bit now

Yeah I think that the organizer has been pretty overwhelmed with work recently. Maybe you guys should talk about someone else picking it up?