Saigon is my favorite city in the world. Its pure madness. I spent three weeks there in February and had a blast.
Hotel: Saigon River Boutique Hotel
I paid around $20 for a windowless room. Window rooms cost $35ish. AC, safe, refrigerator. Free breakfast on the rooftop terrace with nice views. Its open all day, good place to relax with a beer or coffee. Excellent location in D1 near the river, 15 minute walk to the backpacker area. Very clean, safe and girl friendly.
http://www.saigonriverhotel.com/
Pool Party: Every Saturday at the New World Saigon Hotel (D1) there is a pool party. Usually filled with a mixture of age 20-30 expats, a few travelers and local girls. Local girls tend to be foreigner groupies/entertainment workers/hookers. Mostly 5-7s, you see the same girls there every week. Good way to kill an afternoon for $6 and its easy to pull from.
That tattoo lizard and her fake cans is there every Saturday.
Gym: The Manor. About a 5-10 minute ride from the center of D1. Its an expat apartment compound with a great pool (they don't monitor access to the pool) and a well equipped gym with free weights, squat racks and cardio machines. The gym was pricey for a day pass ($12-15) but memberships were around $50/month.
Food: My first night in town a Tinder girl picked me up on her motorbike and gave me a tour around Saigon. Never banged but one of my most memorable travel experiences. She then took me to this amazing restaurant. I don't know the name of the place but the address is: 33 Nguyễn Trung Trực, Bến Thành, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam. Its basically a garage and the doors are open to a smaller side street. Great place to relax, eat, drink and watch the world go by.
Another place is Bia Hoi Ha Noi. It caters to 90% Vietnamese and its amazing. Picture tiny plastic chairs, bamboo tables, endless 0.25c beers in cold glass mugs and family style eating. 10 of us ate and drank for hours with a total tab of around $40. The girls all stared and smiled at us and the dudes came over to toast, clank glasses and try to teach us some Vietnamese. One of the French guys in my group is fluent in Vietnamese, and they were floored. After the meal is over, they collect the mugs, flip the table over, sweep the food into a hole in the ground and wash the table for the next group. These places are all over the place. Highly recommended.