Saigon Trip 2 - April 2009
Last month, I went to Ho Chi Minh City again. This time without hubby, without kids. Just with my parents, my aunt and my brother. My sister-in-law was still in HCMC then, but was going to fly back to SIngapore with us after our trip.
The trip was kind of like a make-up trip to make up for the lack of shopping during the December trip. For my mom, she was not able to shop to her heart's content because of my other aunt & uncle, who were not interested in shopping at all. For me, I was not able to shop because of the kids. This trip also had other purposes. For my mom, it was like her last ditch at freedom before she had to assume of the role of my niece's babysitter. For me, we were hoping that an absence of five days will cause Roll Roll to wean.
I was there for 5 days and all we did was 买东西，吃东西，买东西， 吃东西. Shopping and eating.
We ate Hue food at a restaurant called Sen Hue. Got it from a guide book. Very expensive and mediocre food. What a waste of money and calories!
Vietnamese Coffee Shop. This is an old French Colonial era building converted into a coffee shop. This kind of shops are very popular among the young Vietnamese. The cute part is that they can be hidden in some alley and from the main road, you won't imagine that there are such places inside!
I find it interesting that in HCMC, you can be at a place where there are no interesting shops or amenities anywhere except for one lone shop, e.g. an ice-cream shop, and the place would be crowded. I mean, how in the world did the people find that shop in the middle of nowhere?! I suppose since almost everybody has a motorbike or scooter, it makes everywhere accessible to everyone. The shopping habit of the Vietnamese is very different from us. For us, we are spoiled by convenience. We want everything to be under one roof. Movies, makan, shopping, amusement centres, etc. But for the Vietnamese, they will ride to one place to buy one thing, then ride to another place to buy another thing, and so on.
Besides, Sen Hue, we also went to Wrap & Roll, which is like a fast food chain. I quite liked it but was a bit overwhelmed by the different kinds of dips for the different rolls. We also went to Pho24, which is another chain. However, in my opinion, Pho24 is adulterated and expensive. More for tourists. Don't know why almost every guidebook will recommend it. Goes to show that one can't really rely on guidebook's recommendation. I much prefer the Pho place that my sister-in-law brought us to last December.
This time round, we took a day trip out to Vung Tau island. It was a terribly hot day and we all got instant tan. Thankfully, it was very windy. Vung Tau is about 90 minutes by ferry (very fast, like the HK kind). It is a favourite weekend getaway spot for the locals. In actual fact, there is really nothing much to see there. It's just a chill out place. The beach is really nothing much, I heard. There are much better beaches elsewhere. I think the place has so much potential. It's a pity they did not develop it properly.
Star attraction of the island. Climbing up this rocky hill to see the Jesus statue. It is a much smaller version of the Rio de Janeiro one. Haha...if cannot go to Brazil, then go to Vung Tau.
Climbing up the rock hill is quite tedious if you are not very fit and if the weather is really hot, like the day we went. Thankfully, there are sheltered rest stops along the way.
Along the way, there are many sculptures like this, based on biblical stories.
An islet off Vung Tau. There is a temple on it and during low tide, you can actually walk across to the islet.
View of the city area from the top of the hill.
Sea view from the hill.
There are many resorts on Vung Tau island and we went to a restaurant in one of the resorts for lunch. Seafood is cheap in Vung Tau. According to my sister-in-law, all the seafood you get in HCMC comes from Vung Tau. We had a groupa that was over 1 kg and cost us only S$30+. When my sister-in-law heard how much such a fish will cost in a Singaporean restaurant, she actually went to buy 2 huge fish and brought it to Singapore!!! The fishes were caught and frozen while alive, so they were still very fresh. When my mom steamed the fish, there was absolutely no fishy smell. I noticed that straight away because I don't eat fish and am more sensitive to fish smell than an average person.
The veranda where we had lunch was right next to the sea.
After lunch, we went to another local coffee shop in Vung Tau to chill out. Had to climb a bit again.
View of the coffee shop.
View of the sea from the coffee shop.
Vung Tau ferry terminal.
One thing I noticed about HCMC was that there didn't seem to be a lot of street hawkers selling snacks and tidbits, like in other cities. There were many roadside street hawkers selling Pho and coffee, or their sandwiches, but I didn't see any selling snacks. For a while, I wondered whether Vietnamese snack or not. Then one day, I found these hawkers outside Benh Thanh market. One of them was selling something that looked really like our Chai Tau Kueh. But according to my brother, the taste is totally different.
My sister-in-law's mother brought us to this place for authentic Vietnamese food. I must say the food is very good.
The spread. Vietnamese food is by and large very similar to Chinese food. That's why my sister-in-law said that she had no problem adapting to our food at all.
That restaurant is famous for this burnt rice. Like our 锅巴.
The rice is cooked in this kind of claypot. Then one waiter would smash the claypot and throw the rice to another waiter at the other end of the room. The second waiter would catch it with two plates and the throwing and catching sort of broke the rice up a bit. It was quite a performance. The outside of the rice is kind of hard and crunchy while the inside is soft like normal rice.
Apart from these Vietnamese places, we also ate at the Japanese Restaurant next to our hotel. One of our favourite places. We also went to a Korean restaurant near our hotel and it was horrible. We left without eating there after waiting for quite a while for food to come and swatting numerous flies while waiting.
One of the must-try is the ice-cream! Must go to the ice-cream place, Bach Dang, and try the coconut and durian ice-cream! Yum!
As for shopping, well, my luggage was overweight. 'nuf said.
Oh! Besides shopping and eating, I also went for a massage. It was not the cheapest. In fact, the place was a bit up market. But compared to Singapore, it was still cheap. There are plenty of massage places but many are quite dodgy so I didn't dare to try.
I have grown to like HCMC. I think I prefer HCMC to Bangkok or Phuket. Right now, it is still quite 'untainted'. I hope it won't become like Bangkok, but I suppose it is only a matter of time before it does.
The trip was kind of like a make-up trip to make up for the lack of shopping during the December trip. For my mom, she was not able to shop to her heart's content because of my other aunt & uncle, who were not interested in shopping at all. For me, I was not able to shop because of the kids. This trip also had other purposes. For my mom, it was like her last ditch at freedom before she had to assume of the role of my niece's babysitter. For me, we were hoping that an absence of five days will cause Roll Roll to wean.
I was there for 5 days and all we did was 买东西，吃东西，买东西， 吃东西. Shopping and eating.
We ate Hue food at a restaurant called Sen Hue. Got it from a guide book. Very expensive and mediocre food. What a waste of money and calories!
Vietnamese Coffee Shop. This is an old French Colonial era building converted into a coffee shop. This kind of shops are very popular among the young Vietnamese. The cute part is that they can be hidden in some alley and from the main road, you won't imagine that there are such places inside!
I find it interesting that in HCMC, you can be at a place where there are no interesting shops or amenities anywhere except for one lone shop, e.g. an ice-cream shop, and the place would be crowded. I mean, how in the world did the people find that shop in the middle of nowhere?! I suppose since almost everybody has a motorbike or scooter, it makes everywhere accessible to everyone. The shopping habit of the Vietnamese is very different from us. For us, we are spoiled by convenience. We want everything to be under one roof. Movies, makan, shopping, amusement centres, etc. But for the Vietnamese, they will ride to one place to buy one thing, then ride to another place to buy another thing, and so on.
Besides, Sen Hue, we also went to Wrap & Roll, which is like a fast food chain. I quite liked it but was a bit overwhelmed by the different kinds of dips for the different rolls. We also went to Pho24, which is another chain. However, in my opinion, Pho24 is adulterated and expensive. More for tourists. Don't know why almost every guidebook will recommend it. Goes to show that one can't really rely on guidebook's recommendation. I much prefer the Pho place that my sister-in-law brought us to last December.
This time round, we took a day trip out to Vung Tau island. It was a terribly hot day and we all got instant tan. Thankfully, it was very windy. Vung Tau is about 90 minutes by ferry (very fast, like the HK kind). It is a favourite weekend getaway spot for the locals. In actual fact, there is really nothing much to see there. It's just a chill out place. The beach is really nothing much, I heard. There are much better beaches elsewhere. I think the place has so much potential. It's a pity they did not develop it properly.
Star attraction of the island. Climbing up this rocky hill to see the Jesus statue. It is a much smaller version of the Rio de Janeiro one. Haha...if cannot go to Brazil, then go to Vung Tau.
Climbing up the rock hill is quite tedious if you are not very fit and if the weather is really hot, like the day we went. Thankfully, there are sheltered rest stops along the way.
Along the way, there are many sculptures like this, based on biblical stories.
An islet off Vung Tau. There is a temple on it and during low tide, you can actually walk across to the islet.
View of the city area from the top of the hill.
Sea view from the hill.
There are many resorts on Vung Tau island and we went to a restaurant in one of the resorts for lunch. Seafood is cheap in Vung Tau. According to my sister-in-law, all the seafood you get in HCMC comes from Vung Tau. We had a groupa that was over 1 kg and cost us only S$30+. When my sister-in-law heard how much such a fish will cost in a Singaporean restaurant, she actually went to buy 2 huge fish and brought it to Singapore!!! The fishes were caught and frozen while alive, so they were still very fresh. When my mom steamed the fish, there was absolutely no fishy smell. I noticed that straight away because I don't eat fish and am more sensitive to fish smell than an average person.
The veranda where we had lunch was right next to the sea.
After lunch, we went to another local coffee shop in Vung Tau to chill out. Had to climb a bit again.
View of the coffee shop.
View of the sea from the coffee shop.
Vung Tau ferry terminal.
One thing I noticed about HCMC was that there didn't seem to be a lot of street hawkers selling snacks and tidbits, like in other cities. There were many roadside street hawkers selling Pho and coffee, or their sandwiches, but I didn't see any selling snacks. For a while, I wondered whether Vietnamese snack or not. Then one day, I found these hawkers outside Benh Thanh market. One of them was selling something that looked really like our Chai Tau Kueh. But according to my brother, the taste is totally different.
My sister-in-law's mother brought us to this place for authentic Vietnamese food. I must say the food is very good.
The spread. Vietnamese food is by and large very similar to Chinese food. That's why my sister-in-law said that she had no problem adapting to our food at all.
That restaurant is famous for this burnt rice. Like our 锅巴.
The rice is cooked in this kind of claypot. Then one waiter would smash the claypot and throw the rice to another waiter at the other end of the room. The second waiter would catch it with two plates and the throwing and catching sort of broke the rice up a bit. It was quite a performance. The outside of the rice is kind of hard and crunchy while the inside is soft like normal rice.
Apart from these Vietnamese places, we also ate at the Japanese Restaurant next to our hotel. One of our favourite places. We also went to a Korean restaurant near our hotel and it was horrible. We left without eating there after waiting for quite a while for food to come and swatting numerous flies while waiting.
One of the must-try is the ice-cream! Must go to the ice-cream place, Bach Dang, and try the coconut and durian ice-cream! Yum!
As for shopping, well, my luggage was overweight. 'nuf said.
Oh! Besides shopping and eating, I also went for a massage. It was not the cheapest. In fact, the place was a bit up market. But compared to Singapore, it was still cheap. There are plenty of massage places but many are quite dodgy so I didn't dare to try.
I have grown to like HCMC. I think I prefer HCMC to Bangkok or Phuket. Right now, it is still quite 'untainted'. I hope it won't become like Bangkok, but I suppose it is only a matter of time before it does.