My Saigon: The Local Guide to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

My Saigon (2015 edition) is the complete insider native's guide to Saigon. It's your ticket to the street-level, local Saigon that tourists never see.

You'll learn how to get around and how to be safe from all the common pitfalls. You'll know who's who on the street, and understand the typical backgrounds and motivations of the people and places around you. You'll eat and drink like a hungry Saigonese local. You'll get up and running with cash, internet, a hotel room, and everything else you need.

Did you know that there's a cluster of bars playing live indie rock (for Vietnamese hipsters) every night, just outside the tourist center? Or that there's a hidden music bar where old-school aristocrats pay $20 a drink to relive 1960s Saigon? Do you know where to buy real Saigonese treats to bring back home, instead of the toxic junk sold at the tourist markets? Do you know where you can see a big Cao Dai temple, right in Saigon, without having to go on a silly bus tour? And there's an old-school Vietnamese massage shop, and a salon where movie stars have their hair washed (and you can too), and lots, lots more.

My Saigon also gives you a deep understanding of Saigonese culture, history, and language. One of the reviewers said: too much information! Ok, sorry, but I love to talk about Saigon! You'll learn some of the history and local insights that the official guides will never tell you. You'll learn fun local slang, learn some of the rudest words in Vietnamese (which have nothing to do with the bedroom or the bathroom), know places to make Vietnamese friends, and know the proper etiquette for picking up girls, or guys, or whatever you're into! And yes, I'm a bit of a history and culture nerd, so I make some digressions to explain some stuff deeply. Are my in-depth descriptions of streets and food and culture too much to read? Just flip the page!

My Saigon is going to be your super secret tactical tool for the inside info and deep explorations of the thickets of the city. Other sources can be your general preparation, for general and public info that you can easily find for free on most travel websites.

As for other guidebooks? Let me be a little bit serious here. I have three big problems with other guidebooks: 1) they make basic factual mistakes on every page, 2) they send you to tourist traps that Vietnamese people never go to, and 3) they treat us Vietnamese people as zoo animals, an exotic curiosity. According to those other guidebooks, we're all bucktoothed peasants in rice-paddy hats out to swindle foreigners. You can think of us Saigonese people that way if you want, but you'll miss out on the real Saigon if you take on that kind of attitude.

Come to my Saigon, where you can immerse yourself completely in the city and its culture and live like a local -- all without leaving your comfort zone (no Vietnamese language skills required). I hope to welcome you to my wonderful, glorious, bustling, spectacular city.

Enough talking! See you in Saigon!