Originally Posted by
stephem
The same can be said about Bangkok (the part about being good for "a single guy looking for...")!! Even Singapore is the same-- I lived in Joo Chiat, so had to walk through the girls to get to the market.
But in all seriousness, I completely disagree with your characterization of Saigon. While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, my family (and many of my colleagues and their families) routinely would take weekend trips to Saigon from Singapore. There are some nice hotels, nice restaurants, good shopping, etc. It's simply wrong to suggest that all there is to do here is pick up hookers. Additionally, Saigon is one of the easier places to get in and out quickly, so the notion that you should only see it as part of a larger tour of the country is in my mind really bad advice. In fact, if you want to see the "rest" of Vietnam, my advice is to skip the 2 main cities and just get right on the road to other places., since that transit will really eat up lots of time!
Plus Jetstar has supercheap flights from SIN to SGN, so I'd skip KUL and spend a couple of days in SGN.
I'm not going to get into a debate with you about Saigon, except that it most certainly NOT one of the easier places in SE Asia to get in/out of quickly, compared to what's already on the OP's list of options. Not to mention having to spring for the trouble and cost of a Vietnam visa, all for only a couple days? Seriously?! It's just not a compelling enough destination to warrant the trouble at this time. For a first trip to SE Asia, the OP is better off sticking to what he's got, though I'm not jumping for joy at CGK but if that's the pivot point that makes the trip cost-effective, who am I to judge?
Your or my opinion of Saigon is really beside the point. It simply doesn't make sense on this sort of mileage-run focused type trip of such short duration, for the OP to waste good LH mileage-earning opportunities on flying Jetstar to Saigon, or even to go to Vietnam on this particular trip. I think no matter how his flight selection limitations end up between CGK, SIN and BKK, the OP will certainly be able to hit some highlights in each location, see 3 very different places, and have a rewarding trip, even if it is brief.