Everyone knows how to do a dinner date. The morning date is the thing Saigon does well that almost nobody uses: it stays cool until about half nine, the streets are empty, coffee is cheap, and if it is not working you are home by eleven with the whole afternoon left.
The only requirement is getting up. These are in order of when you leave the house.
Six o'clock: the river
- Bạch Đằng Wharf Park, D1. Paved, long benches, railings at the water, Thủ Thiêm across the way. At six there are joggers, tugboats going past, river wind and no sun. From the Thủ Ngữ flagpole to Ba Son bridge and back is thirty minutes. Then cross the road for phở near Bến Thành, two bowls and one iced milk coffee between you.
- Turtle Lake, D3, the morning version. At night students pack the steps; in the morning it is quiet, people exercising, pavement coffee open from six. Less romantic than the river, closer if you live in D3 or D10.
Half seven: coffee on the pavement
30/4 Park, the strip of pavement between Notre-Dame and the Independence Palace. No café. A few women selling coffee from baskets, cardboard to sit on, and tamarind shade until nearly ten. Coffee comes in a plastic bag with a straw, 15k, plus a bag of bánh tráng trộn if you are hungry. The cheapest date in the city, and the easiest to talk at, because the noise around you is exactly right. Park on Hàn Thuyên.
From there it is two minutes on foot to Nguyễn Văn Bình Book Street. Twenty-odd bookshops on a street closed to traffic, free stone benches. Our game: each of you picks a book for the other for under 100k, no asking, then you sit and skim for ten minutes. You learn a surprising amount from what the other person chose.
Right next to it is the Central Post Office. Buy two postcards, each of you writes one to the other's home address, stamp, post. A few days later it arrives. The date leaves something you can hold, and those fifteen minutes are the part people remember.
Half nine: under the trees
- The zoo, D1. Honesty first: the enclosures are old, Google has it at 4.3 and we understand why. But nothing else in D1 has the gardens: trees taller than the houses, long paths, benches everywhere. Go in at eight or half nine, loop until half eleven, leave by the Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm gate. 60k.
- The History Museum, in the same grounds. Cool, empty, 30k, short water-puppet shows in the courtyard on weekends. Where you hide when it gets hot or the rain arrives early.
- Jade Emperor Pagoda, Đa Kao. A century-old Chinese temple, incense, a turtle pond. Saigon people come to pray for love, so going with someone you are dating is a half-joke to carry home. Fifteen minutes, cover up, avoid full-moon days.
Noon: eat, then go home and nap
A morning date should end with a good lunch and "go sleep, we'll see about tonight". Cơm niêu Thiện Lý in D1 breaks a clay pot at your table, which makes everyone laugh. Cơm tấm Mực if you want it simpler.
Already on the map
- Sunday morning: pavement coffee, Book Street, the zoo, four stops, under 200k for two.
- Early river morning: Bạch Đằng wharf, phở, the museum, for two people who can get up.
- Sunday afternoon on foot: the Jade Emperor, Turtle Lake, Cô Út steak, if morning is asking too much.
Everything here except the two lunch places is in the Dates that cost nothing collection.