At 10 am, we were out and onboard the bus to Ho Chi Minh with our bus operator. The trip costs us 18 usd each and takes 6 hours to cross the border to Ho Chi Minh.

Bottled water and snacks were also provided on the bus.

En-route, we were dropped at 3 places to relieve our bladders. And all of the toilets were relatively clean!

At 12pm, we had already cleared Cambodia’s immigration checkpoint. Our bus driver took us to this mall for a 30-minutes quick lunch and toilets were VVV clean too!

The Vietnamese immigration checkpoint was in a mess and the queues were ill-defined. We had queued for a good 10-minutes and we were still well behind the lines but suddenly, someone in front called out my name.

And that’s when I moved passed everyone like a boss and met the immigration officer. Our tour guide had queued for all of us and the immigration officer would be clearing all the passengers onboard our bus and I happen to be the first to clear yay! 

When we arrived at HCM at 2pm, it was pelting heavily but thankfully, our hotel was only a 10 minutes drive away. The bellboy from our hotel was extremely helpful and sheltered us with brollies as we exited from our cab.

Our first room was a twin bed and we told the bellboy that we wanted a double bed and he hurriedly went down to the reception to have the room changed for us.

Our second room was everything we wanted: great view over the city, spacious, clean toilet, and featured a huge bed.

The swimming pool was also very clean and the hotel was meticulous enough to provide floats for those who couldn’t swim. Even though the pool was not exactly big, it was sufficient to fulfill our needs.

HOWEVER, it turns out our room had a faulty aircon! And we changed room again…

Our third room was situated on the forth floor this time round but..

“Eh b, this room doesn’t have a bathtub, ley!”

We decided not to change room for the forth time though it was obvious that we had been shortchanged. The room and toilet itself was still excellent, but the real challenge came EVERY morning at 5am… Sounds of roosters cuckooing  away!

As a light sleeper, I was woken up at 5am for the 4 nights that we stayed and this made the overall experience much less enjoyable.

(+) Facilities

All the facilities in this hotel were clean and well taken care of. We had no problems with any of them and we enjoyed the rooftop pool.

(+) Service

Like I have mentioned before, the bellboy was extremely helpful and immediately helped us to hail a taxi whenever he saw us leaving the hotel. The other hotel staff were also nice and polite.

(+) Location

Sunland Saigon Riverside Hotel is a 10-minutes walk to Pham Ngu Lao Street. There are many eateries around the hotel and we loved this restaurant just right in front of the hotel! We saw crabs and bought one to try in Vietnamese-style Fish Sauce and it was super amazing we had another one before we left! There is also a good takoballs stall 10 minutes walk away and excellent matcha soft serve near Pham Ngu Lao Street.

(-) Noise

At 5am, the roosters would wake us up. And at 11am, the renovation work at the restaurant continues the noise pollution. 😒

(-) Breakfast

The breakfast buffet spread is very limited and the quality of the food is not worth any mention.

Sunland Saigon Riverside Hotel

7/10: 302 – 304 Vo Van Kiet Street, District 01 70000, District 1 Pham Ngu Lao Area/Ho Chi MinhCity/Vietnam

27.80* USD per night inclusive of taxes and booking fees via Agoda.com

*Price varies from time to time