Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 3)

Breakfast for Day 3 was....... beef noodles at Pho 24 again!! Ha ha. I got addicted to the noodles there. This time, I found my perfect combination - two slices of lime, some cut chillies, some basil leaves AND one spoonful of chilli paste plus one spoonful of their brown paste into the soup base. PERFECTO !! :)

After breakfast, we took a stroll to the Ton That Dam Street Market. Rather quiet as it was a Monday morning -

Live seafood for sale

Stall selling all sorts of liquor

Something we don't get in M'sia!

Locals having breakfast at a roadside stall

Mother hen and her chicks
Elyssa was scared at first! Realised she had never seen a real chicken before

It was a pretty hot day so we stopped by at a supermarket to get some sunblock. Found a nice bookstore for Elyssa to enjoy some reading. (she was wearing her New Dress No 2. I just love all her new dresses!)

Less than 2 hours after our breakfast, we stopped to eat again! Finally spotted Pho 2000 which is supposed to be a chain comparable to Pho 24 (and where they proudly displayed that Bill Clinton ate there before). I wanted to try Pho 2000 to compare with Pho 24.

Comparison : Clearer soup base, bigger chunks of meat with softer "slurpable" noodles.
Verdict : Taste wise, Pho 2000 was better BUT I discovered I got really, really thirsty after that. Must be more MSG. So, Pho 24 is still the winner for me!

Beef noodles and fried spring roll at Pho 2000

After our meal, we took a cab to Cholon, the Chinatown of HCM to visit a cluster of pagodas there. We were slightly disappointed that their "pagodas" were actually more like typical chinese temples!

Snapped some photos anyway, since we were already there. Elyssa hated it cos it was dark and smoky ;)


The last "pagoda" that we went to - Giac Lam Pagoda was more like a pagoda we expected. This was had a really huge compound with lots of statues, a tall stupa, a big prayer hall and chanting monks.

Before leaving Cholon, we had iced coffee at Trung Nguyen a popular local coffee chain. It was really nice and aromatic! Forgot to take photo though.

After taking a cab back to the city, we decided to have an early dinner (since we booked tickets to watch the Water Puppet show at 8pm) at Lemongrass. It was our second visit and again, the food was fabulous.

Lemongrass Fried Rice and Crabmeat Fried Glass noodles in claypot

Spicy and sour Fish Soup

This was absolutely delicious!

Cosy ambiance at Lemongrass

(our dinner bill was approx RM40 )

After our yummy dinner, we walked back to the hotel. Hubby went for a swim while Elyssa and I enjoyed snacks by the poolside.

Elyssa enjoying her pink guava

Happy girl posing for mummy

View of the Saigon river from the poolside

Daddy in action

Looking down at the Saigon river

Around 7+pm, we went for the Water Puppet show. We booked the tickets from the hotel the night before which turned out to be a good idea cos we got really good seats on the 5th row of the hall. (too near the stage is no good either cos I think the people on the 1st row get a little wet)

The show itself was in Vietnamese though! Got a little boring in the middle but overall it was interesting and I still rate it as a "must-see" for first timers.

Photos from the Water Puppet show

3 musicians on each side of the stage

Just outside the hall

We finished off Day 3 with pizza, sandwich and milkshake at the comfortable Ciao Cafe -

- End of Day 3 -

Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 2)

We started Day 2 with a quick breakfast of beef noodles (again!) at Pho 24. I really enjoyed the noodles this time - squeezed in 2 slices of lime, added cut chillies and some basil leaves. Yummy!

Then, it was off to our first stop for the day - Ben Thanh Market. It's basically a huge indoor market selling all types of goods, kind of like Chatucak market in Bangkok.

Exterior of Ben Thanh Market

Shops in the Market

Need to really bargain hard in the market! Lot's of stuff available. We didn't really had anything particular in mind to buy, but ended up with lots of kids clothes.

Some of our loot -

Polo Shirts for Elyssa

Pretty Dresses for Elyssa

Little dresses for Baby

I absolutely loved what we bought! Loved them so much that we went back the next day to buy more!

Had our lunch at one of the stalls in the market -

Seafood and chicken noodles
It was nice until I saw a baby cockroach at the table area - that affected my appetite!

Photo of the food stall

After lunch we shopped around a little more, then walked to a nearby ice-cream shop (the previous night, we saw that the shop was packed with customers)

Coconut Ice-cream and Avocado Shake @ Bach Dang

Ordered the coconut ice-cream cos I saw that most of the customers had this on their table the previous night. Ok lar..... nice but I'm not really a fan of coconut ice-cream. I enjoyed digging the coconut flesh more than the ice-cream itself! The avocado shake was nice and refreshing.

While waiting for our ice-cream, hubby took a photo of this electric pole with loads of cable running through. Looks pretty scary! Very common sight in the city.


After the ice-cream break, we walked back to our hotel to get some rest.

Hotel - for this trip, we redeemed our Marriott Vacation Club points for 4 nights stay at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon. A comfortable 5 star hotel but the absolute best part was its central location in District 1. We could walk to most of the city attractions (only took a cab on Day 3 to visit Chinatown) and I liked the flexibility of walking back to the hotel to take an afternoon nap and a nice shower before venturing out again in the evening :)

Hotel room @ Renaissance Riverside

After resting, we were all ready to go out again. Just couldn't resist letting Elyssa wear her new dress. Nice eh?

Elyssa at the hotel lobby

It was only 5+ pm, but we were hungry so decided to take an early dinner at a nearby restaurant that was recommended in our Lonely Planet guidebook.

Lemongrass Restaurant (Nguyen Thiep Street)

Grilled pork with noodles

This was soooo good!

Part of hubby's set meal
Prawn cakes, stewed pork in claypot, pork ribs, lemongrass seafood soup etc

After our early dinner, we walked over to the Tax Department Store. (no idea why it's called that - reminds me of our Inland Revenue!) We ended up spending almost 2 hours in the supermarket there! Wanted to just stock up on mineral water and Vietnamese coffee as souveniers but saw that the clothes were really cheap. Fixed price so we knew we won't be paying cut throat prices.

Hubby bought an elaborate dragon silk shirt for CNY. I bought some silk nighties AND I just couldn't resist buying more of the cute little dresses -

5 little dresses

And yup...... I went back the next day to buy more ;)

Shopping can be a tiring affair! We walked around a bit after then we started looking for food again. :)
Randomly walked into Sen Hue Restaurant serving Hue cuisine and again this turned out to be a fantastic decision.

Appetizer - steamed rice rolls, yam balls and prawn & pork cakes

This was absolutely YUMMY!!!

Spicy Black Fish Noodles

Superb!

Yummy Fried Spring Rolls

Yam Dessert

Exterior of Sen Hue Restaurant (Nguyun Hue Blvd)
Our bill was approx RM40. Very reasonable

Lots of good buys. Lots of good food. Yup, we were happy indeed at the end of Day 2 :)

-End of Day 2-

Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (Day 1)

Just back from a 5D, 4N holiday in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. 5 days is pretty long for a small city like HCMC but with an almost 3 year old Elyssa and my almost 5 months pregnant belly, we wanted a relaxing free and easy holiday. Main aims were to have a leisurely look at the city and to enjoy the food :)

--This is going to be another set of my long winded one-post-per-day holiday story! --

Day 1
We took an Air Asia flight and arrived at HCMC airport around 10+am. Took a cab to the hotel (USD8), freshened up a bit then started our city tour.

Our first meal in HCMC - Pho Bo (beef noodles) @ Pho 24
Pho 24 is part of a big chain with plenty of outlets around the city. I thought the noodles were nice but nothing great.

Street book fair near the hotel
Nice festive atmosphere here. We discovered later that this fair was set up in conjunction with the Lunar New Year.

Walked around to see some of the key sights around the city -

Municipal Theatre

Notre Dame Cathedral

Main Post Office

Then stopped for early afternoon tea (I did say this was meant to be a relaxing and eating holiday!!) -

Refreshing Fruit smoothies @ Wrap and Roll

Vietnamese spring rolls and Banh Xeo (pancake)

After the break, we walked over to the Nguyen Hue Flower Street. We were pleasantly surprised when we discovered it earlier that day. It was a street filled with elaborate decorations and flowers for the Lunar New Year. We had no idea that the Lunar New Year, also known as Tet was celebrated at such at grand scale there! It was really lucky that our trip coincided with this grand one week annual affair. (the busy road in the middle of the city was closed to traffic for the whole week). The place was absolutely packed though.

Some photos of the Flower Street -

Elyssa with her daddy
We bought this new lightweight stroller just a week ago. Luckily, Elyssa happily sat in it for most of the holiday.

Bicycle Flower display

Cute little Vietnamese boy

More flower displays

Chinese calligraphy booth

Weaving Demonstration

After the Flower Street, we walked back to the hotel (more on the hotel later). Hubby took Elyssa for a short swim in the pool while this pregnant mama had a nice late afternoon nap :) Had our baths then it was time to walk out for dinner -

The streets were nicely lighted up

Plenty of motorcycles!!

This was a common scene. I have never seen so many motorcycles before.

Pre-dinner snack
We tried this fried egg in a french bagguete from a roadside vendor. Simple but surprisingly good! The bagguete was toasted over a small charcoal fire.

We were actually planning to have dinner at Quan An Ngon, a place highly recommend in our Lonely Planet guide. But we couldn't find the place (later discovered there was a small error in one of the maps) so we randomly walked into a restaurant serving Vietnamese cuisine. Turned out to be a absolutely fantastic decision !!!!

Dinner at Rex Royal Court Restaurant

Our Seafood Hotpot - filled with fresh prawns, fish, mushroom etc. Came with noodles too.

Fried Spring Rolls. The BEST spring rolls I've had in my life! Love the presentation too.

Traditional Music Presentation during dinner

Traditional Dance Presentation

Interior of the Restaurant

Elyssa enjoying the dance performance

Finally -a photo of the 3 of us

It was really a lovely dinner experience. Food was great and the best part was the ambiance. Reasonably priced too. (our dinner was about RM80)

After dinner, we walked around to enjoy the night scene.

People's Committee Building

Flower Street

Elyssa and I at the Flower Street

Roadside Vendors

Grilled octopus

Multi-coloured glutinous rice

Elyssa fell asleep during the after dinner walk so we ended Day 1 with a late night dessert at a nice sidewalk cafe -

Smoothie and Ice-Cream @ Angelina's Cafe

- End of Day 1 -