My Google Maps Addiction, and Why You Should Use It, Too

Today I'd like to talk about how I log what I do for fun around town. It's really nerdy!

For several years now (maybe 4?) I have been using Google Maps to document all the cool places I've visited, what I've eaten, and all the great coffee I've had to drink.

It sounds kind of inane now that I'm saying it out loud, but I absolutely love using this service, mostly on my phone. It has even become something of an addiction, I'd say! 'Must get rid of the yellow marks...!'

Here's the overview of my immediate neighborhood, for example:

• Blue checks are the places (cafes and restaurants, mostly) that I've visited and reviewed.
• Yellow checks are the ones I haven't been to yet but want to visit. 

The orange ones are the standard google maps suggestions, which are sometimes accurate for your interests and sometimes not. I don't let Google track my location, so these are pretty random for me, personally.

Let me tell you about why this is a great way to explore HCMC, or any city - click through for more!

The 7 Coolest Cafes in Tan Dinh, District 1, HCMC

Cafe Time is Life. You know I speak the truth.

I moved into my new place October of 2019 here in Tan Dinh ward, District 1, and I really couldn't be happier with the location. It's full of street life, services, good food, and great places to explore.

Fortunately, there are also a bunch of great cafes to while away the hours with a book or your laptop and remote work. If you're anything like me, you love to find a good new cafe, especially one that lets you linger for a little while and take your time soaking up the leisurely pace of life that permeates Southern Vietnam.

Here are some of my close-to-home favorites...

A Weekend at Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho

Last weekend I needed to get out of Saigon's traffic and get myself into a quiet, green area, stat. Fortunately, Sieu's colleague broke his leg (I mean, that part's not great, obviously), and he needed to deliver his work computer and materials to him at home in My Tho for extended work-from-home. Opportunity buzzer sounds!

We packed up for three days and two nights to travel to the closest city southwest of HCMC and set about looking for a place to stay, eventually landing on Giao Diem Homestay, which has a big ol' garden and DOGS. While it isn't very close to the city of My Tho proper (about 8 miles/14 km), that was just dandy for me. I generally subscribe to a more isolationist, and decidedly lazy, view of vacation. Going out and doing things? When you just did things all week?? That's how they get you, man.

Click through to learn all about Giao Diem Homestay, My Tho!

Saigon Survival: How To Navigate Markets and Haggling

Ben Thanh Market is one of the oldest (and most highly valued) buildings in Saigon, and it's huge, crowded, and fascinating.

Learning how to haggle successfully has been one of the most infuriatingly difficult obstacles to enjoying Markets. But let me make one thing clear: Markets are the most interesting and reliable places to buy a wide assortment of things, all under one roof.

That means no jetting around on your moto/bike with increasingly heavy loads and/or slowly putt-putting along until you find the one half-hidden shop that you've heard has what you need! Meanwhile, central markets will often speak in a little English, and are quite anxious to help you... if they think they can make a profit.

Unwanted touching, a lack of common knowledge, and complicated social interactions outside your native language... there's a lot for an introvert to dread about going to Market in a new country, but you know what? It's totally doable. And the more comfortable you become at market, the faster you'll discover new things, people, situations, and more - Vietnam's bustling, dense, and outright sunny street culture is nowhere more reflected than in the local market.

At first, market is a hectic, nonsense sea of insanity, with people reaching and grasping like the zombie lake in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and you're certain you'll drown in a mass of soggy language difficulties and have no chance of escape.

But is that accurate?

ABenAbroad's Saigon

Me and my Mom!

I've done a lot of talking about services, food, drinks, and products I've come across in HCMC, but it's not always easy to compile those into a cohesive whole.

Today, I'm beginning that process.

That's right: this is going to be a full map of everyplace I go: from getting ink cartridges to a haircut, drinks to my favorite restaurants, I've begun compiling everything here on a brand new post!

It may not look like much yet, but stay tuned. It is roughly half the places I've been to and utilized in the past 15 months, and I'm sure I'll be exploring even more in the future. I will continue to update this map with locations and small commentary, as well as reviews to my blog if I publish them.

Mentally Mapping the City

I never appreciated what I had in Chi-town.
God bless you, grid system.

"Where in the twisted hell am I??"

is something I find myself saying pretty much every week, whether it's because I'm lost in some maze of alleys or because I've just realized that I'm living and working in Vietnam (both can be equally disorienting). Let me try to give my definitive answer on locating myself in space and time* here...

I never really knew Chicago until I biked it. The same holds true for Saigon. This time, however, I've got a few extra cc's under me!

Sure, I took public transportation all over Chicago prior to biking, but it was always a passive, stare-out-the-window kind of knowing. It wasn't until I had to navigate and triangulate my position on two wheels in motion that I truly felt I knew where I was, and how I'd get to where I wanted to go. It was a good feeling.

A similar process of knowing is happening here in HCMC, but the difference here is that the City is so massive and the map is so unpredictable, it would take years and years of non-stop exploration and practice to effectively know it all. Hell, even my taxi drivers don't know it all! When I took taxis, they often had to stop and ask another driver for directions. I stick to the places I need to get to, and add to my repertoire as I need to.

So that's something I've been doing in my spare time - figuring out just where in the sam hell I am...