Ho Chi Minh Itinerary 4D3N – Day 1 Ho Chi Minh City

Although I spent most of my living years in South East Asia region, it was my first time visiting Vietnam. I saw some of my friends posting their photos in Instagram, those taken there in Ho Chi Minh City (previously named Saigon), and the cheap airline ticket promotion by those budget airlines made me wanting to visit it badly. But traveling alone wouldn’t be fun. Therefore, since months ago, I was asking around if there was anyone wanting to go together and if they were free.

Luck was on my side when my ex-school mate cum former roommate told me that she was interested to visit the country and would be free on the dates proposed. Yayyyyy!!! Finally I found someone to go together!!! We immediately purchased the tickets and booked the hotel room. I was asking my friend for advice and recommendation too on where to stay and place to eat. And just a week before departure, my hubby decided to join us too after knowing that his sister and her friends would be going too. So, after a long waiting, we were finally there!!! :)

 

Ho Chi Minh is the largest and busiest city in Vietnam located at the southeastern part of the region. It has more than 9 million people. It covers up to Cu Chi District and down to Can Gio, eastern to Long Binh ward, District 9, and west to Binh Chanh District. District 1 is the city’s central district. Many consulates and historical sights are located here. And that is where we stayed most of the time.

Landed at Tan Son Nhat International Airport - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

January is a good month for traveling as the weather is not so hot and most importantly, dry. We flew using a morning flight and took us about 1.5 hours from Singapore to Tan Son Nhat International Airport. The airport was opened in 2007, still looked new and bright.

Vinasun - 5 and 7 seater available - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

We took ‘Vinasun’ cab traveling within the city. It’s the more reliable and recommended cab that used meter all the time. However, some drivers were not so honest bringing us to longer journey although we could actually take the shorter ones. But the fare was rather affordable (short journey cost about 25,000 to 40,000 VND or US$1-2 and longer one – just like from Airport to our hotel in District 1 – was about 150,000 VND or US$7.5).

Once we checked in and left our luggage there, we booked some tour from our hotel’s tour representative. It’s kind of tricky that there wasn’t price tag on their tour package list. As first-timer we just took whatever prices that the lady offered to us and only days later we found out that we were overcharged.

Once settled, we were all quite hungry and took cab to our first destination for lunch: Quán Nem at 15E Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, P. Bến Nghé, Quận 1. Oh, btw, the number of the shop/house there was followed by alphabet from A to don’t know what, e.g. 15A, 15B to 15H, etc. So, make sure you get the right address with exact number when locate the place to your Taxi driver. Luckily I did a vast research before going there by finding out the location, printing the map out, locating the places we wanted to go on the map, getting the exact address, and so on, which made us easier to go around :)

Back to Quán Nem, this restaurant was rated by CNN as a place that served the best spring roll – a square shape deep fried spring roll filled with crab meat. We were shocked when looked at their menu. They only served two types of food: Cha Gio, the Crab meat spring roll, and Bun Chan, the vermicelli eaten with grilled pork and veggies, topped with Nuoc Cham (dipping sauce). We only ordered one each as we had no idea how big the spring roll is and how much pork and vermicelli served per portion. Also, we wanted to save our stomach for other kind of food :D

Our first lunch at Quan Nem - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

My friend, Arlene, recommended me this place. The place was quite packed with lunch crowd. We started our meal with Bun Chan. Three of us were quite unfamiliar with Vietnamese food, and seldom had a chance to eat other varieties than the common ones like Pho (beef kway teow soup) and spring roll. So, before starting, we turned our heads left and right spying around on how we supposed to eat it. Hehehe… Very suaku lah!!! :P

We finalized the steps as per follow: First, pinch some vermicelli using chop stick into the small bowl. Add some vegetable – since there are so many varieties of vegetables, just added whatever you like. Add the piece of pork meat and pour some sauce with pickles onto it. Voila!!! Ready to eat!!!

The spring roll came quite late as it had to be served fresh from the deep fryer. The server came to our table and cut it into four. Quite a challenge to eat it for three of us hahaha… Hm.. the square shape was quite special though as I imagined the spring roll to be a slim and long cylinder shape. It’s quite oily and the taste was okay only. However the pork served in Bun Chan was delicious!!! And we were kind of regret for only ordering one portion because after looking around, we realized that 1 person supposed to eat one portion and not one portion for 3 hungry persons like us hehehe… :D

We left the place with full stomach though (thanks to the Vermicelli) and decided to start browsing the Reunification Palace. Walking around would be great no? To digest the food faster hehe…

The Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Once we stepped out from our Taxi in front of the Reunification Palace, we found out that the place was closed. No one was inside. That’s how the cheating story happened right on our first day there. Read the story here 

 

War Remnants Museum - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

So, while waiting for it to be opened, I remembered that there was a nice recommended Café nearby the area. We walked there, located just beside the park in front of the Reunification Palace and very close to Notre Dame Basilica Cathedral. 

At the Park opposite the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

It’s a great place to chill and relax. We sat outdoor enjoying the greeneries in front of us, at the same time looking out for the passing by street vendors, while some people came offering my hubby to polish his sandals. Sandals?? Polish?? :P

Creperie and Cafe - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Coffee break at Creperie and Cafe - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

 

Vietnamese Hot Coffee - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

  The journey to Vietnam would never complete without drinking its coffee!!! It’s a MUST HAVE thing when you travel there. So we ordered Vietnam Coffee to our liking. Hubby loves hot coffee with no milk. My friend, MG loves iced coffee with no milk, and as for myself, I prefer iced coffee with milk. So, through our journey we chose these three types of coffee for three of us :)

Banana Flambe Crepe @Creperie and Cafe - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

We ordered a plate of Banana flambé crepe too as a dessert. Although I expected there would be flame on my banana crepe (like what we did during school time serving our guest in front of us), unfortunately there wasn’t any. It’s just a normal crepes served with banana, syrup, and ice cream.

 

 

Reunification Palace Map - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

So, we ate, drink, and ate, and enjoyed until the Reunification Palace was opened. The ticket cost us 30,000 VND per person. We browsed around the area ourselves. You can read more about it here.  

Conference Hall inside the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Presidential Reception Room inside the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Game Room inside the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Helipad at the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

My favorite collection from the Reunification Palace - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

The decorations, furniture, designs shown really reminisced us into the past. What used to be luxury things almost fifty years ago looked very outdated in modern world. However, it was still a great collections and worth to visit.

Side view of Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

 From there, we walked to Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral, a famous and historical church constructed between 1877 and 1883 by French. There were visiting hours from Monday to Saturday: from 8am to 10.30am and from 3pm to 4pm. Therefore, we were very lucky when reaching the church at 3pm (we weren’t aware about the opening hour before visiting). 

Wedding ceremony going on inside Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Moreover, there was a wedding ceremony going on so that we could see how it looked like :) The interior was very beautiful. The original building materials were imported from France. Reminded me a lot of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris ^^

Surrounded by beautiful Vietnamese ladies :)

When we were in front of the church, we also found a group of beautiful Vietnamese girls taking photos with flowers on their hands. We ended up taking photo together as a souvenir hehehe…

Saigon Central Post Office - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

On the right side of the church, there was a very classic old building, yellow bright in color. At first my hubby thought it was a railway station, but later found out to be a Saigon Central Post Office.  We went inside and found a beautiful architectural design. At the left and right after entrance, there were souvenir shops for you to browse. I loved the place so much! I bought few post cards and stamps to send to my loved ones :)

Beautiful pictures on road side on our way to Hard Rock Cafe - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Before going back to hotel, we passed by Hard Rock Café shop at  39 Lê Duẩn, Bến Nghé, Quận 1 –near Intercontinental Hotel, buying a souvenir for myself ^^

Golden Dragon Theater - Vietnamese Water Puppetry - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

At 5pm we headed to Golden Dragon Theater at 55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai St., Dist. 1 to watch the Vietnamese cultural heritage art show, Water Puppetry. They have two shows per day: 5pm and 6.30pm. We were overcharged by the tour agent paying VND 160,000 per pax while my sister-in-law bought it only at VND 90,000.

Inside the Golden Dragon Theater - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

The theater was not big and very old. Somehow I felt a bit eerie but tried hard to ignore. We were seated at the most back row and only three of us sitting there. 

Water Puppet Performance @Golden Dragon Theater - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Despite those feelings, we felt grateful by being able to watch it ourselves there (not only in front of TV). In fact, we felt amazed by it! The colorful lightings, the live singing, sounding, and music played by multi-task players at both side of the water, the various puppets shown during the 50-minutes show and played by very talented artists behind the curtains, the money we paid for was so much worth it! Only too bad all the conversation and song was in Vietnamese language and we had no clue on what they were talking about. If there was a display of the translated words in English or Chinese (like what other theater/establishment do), it would be very much better!

 

When you are in Vietnam, do like what Vietnamese does :)

We went back to hotel after the show. Oh oh, I started feeling hungry. We had a dinner appointment at 8 but it was only 6 pm plus. As the sky started turning into the dark, we decided to walk around our hotel looking for some food street seller. When we almost gave up, suddenly I saw many people sitting in a row on roadside holding a bowl of noodle, and ate happily. To their opposite, there was a lady sitting down and cooking her dish. I didn’t know how it was called but it looked delicious. We ordered one bowl to try. However, upon first few spoons of trying, my hubby and friend had already screamed asking for more. Hahaha… We ended up ordering the second bowl and sat using a small plastic stool near the seller, slurping all the soup and noodles out from the bowl satisfyingly: D

Seafood Dinner at District 7 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

At 8pm, my sister-in-law and her friends fetched us by Taxi to Nha Hang Restaurant at 46/11 bis Nguyễn Văn Linh - District 7 to eat seafood for dinner. There, we met Lone for the first time. He ordered clay pot clam cooked with lemongrass, boiled vegetables dipped with pork oil and chili, steamed red snapper, fried chicken, and grilled prawns, ate it without rice, and accompanied with Bia Saigon, the local Saigon beer. We ate until very full and finished everything as it tasted delicious. That’s how our first day ended. Didn’t realize that we visited many places and tried so much food around. Ooh… that’s what travel should be!!! Stay tune for my Day 2 Itinerary and read about our trip to Cu Chi Tunnels plus our Ca Keo or Goby fish dinner…. ;)

The Dusty Sneakers: Kisah Kawan Di Ujung Sana

The Dusty Sneakers Review

My bestie, Celipu, lent me this book almost two months ago and I managed reading it this month only. It’s an Indonesian story book written by a Balinese man, Teddy W. Kusuma (his role as Twosocks in this book) and a Chinese Indonesian from Jakarta, Maesy Ang (her role as Gypsytoes). Find out more about the two authors here. They wrote a blog too (in bilingual languages: English and Indonesian language) that depicted their activities in their lives.

The book was written in Indonesian language, which I personally found the language they used was very formal and polite. There was a word that I kept wondering what it meant “surel”. After few chapters only I realized that it meant “email”. Hehehe… They both can write and speak English and somehow I wonder if they have any plan to translate this book into other languages. Go International, that’s what I thought!!! :)

Just like any other writers, they both like to write and read, also traveling! That’s what the book was about! Both of them took turn in writing their traveling stories. Gypsytoes wrote about her traveling journey when she was studying in Amsterdam while Twosocks wrote his stories when he traveled around Indonesia, and once they met up in Bangalore in India, when Gypsytoes had to travel there to do some research for her thesis.

Other than traveling stories, they also wrote about their hometown in Indonesia. As said above, they both came from different places: Twosocks was from Singaraja, Bali, while Gypsytoes was from North Jakarta. Different background, but they both shared the same passion: drinking tea, talking about book, traveling, etc.

It’s light and refreshing stories. Somehow, it’s just like sharing your travel experience with your loved ones when you both were separated. Not very details information about each destination that they went to, but it gave us some knowledge about the places they’d been to. Their friendship were so sweet and Twosocks’ story and language was sometimes funny and naïve. Very nostalgic, indeed!!! :)

Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

MUST VISIT!!! - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

It’s the only destination that I thought I must visit during my stay in Ho Chi Minh. I heard about it before and often saw the photos where people’s head coming out from a small underground hole. I was wondering how small the hole inside the tunnels look like, whether I could fit into it, or whether I dared enough to go through it, etc.

We booked a tour through travel agent from our hotel once we arrived. We found out few days later that it cost us a bomb at rate of US$40/pax for Classic Cu Chi Tunnels half-day tour, while others could offer us as cheap as US$10/pax.

How they dug the tunnels - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

We departed the next day at 8am from our hotel together with 4 other participants. The journey took us about one and a half hours. There were two different sites to experience the tunnels: Ben Duoc – contains part of the original tunnel system, usually visited by Vietnamese, and Ben Dinh – the tunnel had been modified to cater the foreigner’s size and mostly visited by International tourists. Eventually we were brought to Ben Dinh site. Along our way there our tour guide explained to us what the tunnels are about together with the history of the war where the Viet Cong fought in the war using their Guerilla tactics, etc.

Watching the movie before started walking around - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

The Cu Chi tunnels were the location of the Vietnam War and the Viet Cong’s base back in 1968. It was about 120km long and as deep as 12 meter underground. The original size was about 60cm width and 80cm height. However, they’ve resized it into 80cm width and 150cm height so that it’s accessible for Western tourist to experience it. They used it as hiding spots, as well as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon storage, and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters to resist from their enemies. Once we entered into the location, we were brought to a place to sit and watch the black and white propaganda movie.
 

Various booby traps with Punji sticks - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

After that we went through a long way road showing many things such as: various tunnels entrance, different types of booby traps with Punji sticks – bamboo and metal spikes (they all looked so scary as their purposes were not to kill the person, but to make the person who was injured to suffer slowly from the metal spikes that pierced through their body parts), a destroyed American tank, mannequin showing the Viet Cong’s uniforms (how they dressed like), etc.

Shooting range in Cu Chi Tunnel, Vietnam

There was a shooting range too where you could have a chance to fire number of assault rifles and light machine gun by paying some additional money (around US$1.20/bullet). Therefore, you could hear some gun shots while you were there, which made the war environment seemed to be alive! :)

The exit gate from the tunnels - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

After those exhibits, we finally reached to the tunnels site. The tunnels were not for the claustrophobic as it was dark, small, and stuffy. According to our guide, the tunnels that we tried were 100m length and divided into 5 exit holes (1 hole for every 20m). So, if you thought that you had enough or couldn’t accept it anymore, you could anytime go out from your nearest exit hole.

Inside the Cu Chi Tunnels - Vietnam

Three of us tried entering into the tunnels. However, we didn’t finish it into the last exit as the tunnel got tighter and smaller after the 3rd exit. We had to bend down and crawl too as the hole got smaller (not suitable too for those who had a back pain). I had to turn on my phone’s torch light at all times as it was really dark! My friend was almost losing her breath after bending down and crawling through it, and I decided to get out at the 3rd exit door. Wearing the long pants would be recommended as well!

Steamed Tapioca with grated peanut dip served with tea - Cu Chi Tunnels

Once done, we would proceed to place where we could sit, drink a cup of tea, and taste the steamed tapioca dipped into the mixed of grated peanut, sugar and salt. It was the food that usually easily available during war times.

Making dep lop or sandal made of tire rubber - Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

It’s such a great experience and a MUST VISIT place if you are visiting Ho Chi Minh! Try to find the cheaper tour that provides you with the same thing (transport, guide, and entrance). I heard that the entrance ticket cost less than US$5/pax.

Viet Cong dressing (hat, black and white checker shawl, and sandal made of tire rubber)

Personally, I feel very happy being able to visit this place and learning some history from the Vietnam War and what’s going on around the country from our tour guide. Because all through my life, I’ve only learned about Indonesian history, that’s it. And local people are the best person to tell us their country’s condition, aren’t they?

Another dream came true... :) @Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

So, finally, I too had a chance to take the photo like the above :)

Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan - Hotpot and Grilled Ca Keo or Goby Fish in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan - Hotpot and Grilled Ca Keo or Goby Fish

Last night a Vietnamese friend, Lone, brought us to try their popular local dish called Ca Keo or Goby fish at Ba Huyen Thanh Chuan located at District 3. It's a pretty big place and very crowded, with 97% filled with local. They sell mainly the Hot Pot or grilled Goby Fish.

High and low tables and chairs, air con and non air con room, indoor and outdoor. We managed to sit inside the air con room with high table and chairs - more convenient for foreigners although I prefer sitting on the low ones ^^

Một, hai, ba, vô! (pronounced mot, hi, bah, yo) means 1, 2, 3, Cheers!!! ^^

We asked Lone to order for us as the menu was all in Vietnam language with few pictures inside. After waiting for a while, finally our food arrived. Dadadada......

Fresh Goby fish

First they put a plate of various vegetables, vermicelli, and sauces. Then they will bring the portable stove to cook our Hot Pot. The fragrant soup was then put to boil. The fishes were already inside.

Lone poured the vegetables down to the pot

Lone then put the vegetables in followed by the vermicelli then covered it until it's boiled and ready for us to eat.

Grilled Goby Fish with Tamarind sauce

While waiting the grilled Goby fish arrived. We dip it into the tamarind sauces prepared separately on a small plate. Hmm.... nyummy! It smelt really great but must eat it carefully since there were lots of bones.

Non air con Ca Keo shop

Overall, it's a very good meal and very great experience. The next time you come to this city, come down and try it for yourself :)

Cheated by coconut seller around the Reunification Place in Ho Chi Minh

Xin chao! It is "Hello" in Vietnamese language ;)

Yeah, Hello from Saigon, or commonly called Ho Chi Minh! I chose to go to this place since it's only 1.5 hours journey from Singapore and the ticket was quite cheap. Quite near too! The airport is located very near to the city area. So when it's landed, you could see many houses and buildings surrounded it. Cool!

We took cab to our hotel that is located at District 1 and cost less than S$10 to reach. We went out continuously almost a whole day and I'm dead tired right now, therefore can't share much to you.

However, I want to share a very interesting story happened to us this afternoon.

We took cab and reached the 'must-visit' Reunification Place right at 12pm. The gate was closed when we got there and no staffs around. We walked around it quite aimlessly, not sure what was going on.

Suddenly a Vietnam guy walked beside us carrying his coconuts loaded in two baskets connected with bamboo stick on his shoulder. He was smiling to us and started talking in English informing us that the place was closed for lunch break and would only be opened at 1pm. He recommended us to visit the War Remnants Museum instead, which located not faraway from there.

He kept smiling and asked where we were coming from. We entertained him as he was very friendly. He said we were pretty and handsome, looked like Vietnamese people. Then he told my hubby that he was strong and muscular.

Suddenly he put his loads into my hubby's shoulder. And my hubby said it was unexpectedly heavy lah! The guy asked me to take my hubby's photo together with him since he was with the load. Still smiling and laughing to make us feeling comfortable.

My hubby felt that we might want to help him by buying his coconuts. The guy immediately put two coconuts, opened, put the straw and handed it to us. We felt something wasn't right as we didn't know how much it cost. So we asked the seller immediately before consuming it and asked him to stop opening it before we agreed with the price.

He then said "One fifty thousand." I was like, "What? How much?" He repeated it by mumbling the same thing. We looked each other then my hubby asking him, "What do you mean? VND150,000 (equal to S$9)?? Brother, I saw you a nice guy that's why I told my wife to buy coconut from you. But now you said it's one for one hundred fifty thousand dong??" with a raising tone, a bit almost exploded! Lol!

The seller immediately clarified, "No, no! It's not 150,000. I was saying one for fifty thousand." Tricky, wasn't it?

We visited a restaurant before reaching the place and I saw the same coconut was sold at VND28,000. Therefore, one coconut cost VND50,000 each was still too expensive! We refused and he tried to bargain, "Ok, ok. I give you VND70,000 for two!"

We insisted to say no and bargained to settle this matter fast by asking VND50,000 for two. He finally released us. At least we felt worth it paying that amount rather than 50,000 each. And we were laughing at ourselves after that. Also, the guy bluffed us 'cos when we reached the War Remnants Museum, it was closed for lunch break too! We had to walk back to the initial place and when we walked back, we walked past many other victims (mostly foreigners), either holding the loads, or taking the opened coconuts from the seller and we understood the situation clearly this time!

And funnily, when we met up with my sister-in-law who happened visiting this page too this afternoon with her friends, they were cheated too and paid VND50,000 each for every 3 coconuts that they took. Lol! I never read about this when searching the info about Ho Chi Minh online, but I'm going to write it here, right now, to prevent others being cheated by this 'over-friendly Vietnamese coconut seller' around the Reunification Place and below is their photo together :D Cheers..... (Before realized of getting cheated ^^)

Cheated by coconut seller in Ho Chi Minh,  Vietnam