We visited Ho Chi Minh City, which was formally known as Saigon. In fact till today, the Vietnamese still calls 'Ho Chi Minh City' (Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh ) as 'Saigon' (Sài Gòn) that like when u say it in day to day conversations. But in the office or formal sessions, events, they will use 'Ho Chi Minh City'.
in the past during the French colonisation, Saigon was the capital for the French colony Cochinchina. 1 of the tour guides from 1 of my day trips, told us that, 'Saigon' meant 'city of forest'. This city only got its name as HCM City when the communist took over in 1975.
We decided to travel to HCM city after much considerations... hahaha... it was more on the cost factor. initially we had wanted to travel to hong kong... but because it was too pricey to head there during this time of the year, we decided to give HCM a try. u maybe wondering why not head to the north?? Coz the weather is lousy at the end of the year. its pretty foggy there and u can't get to see beautiful scenery.
We took Tiger Airways there... but my flight schedule was changed from early morning to late morning. hmmm... so we only managed to reach HCM city at around 1.10pm their local time. by the way, HCM city is behind singapore time by 1hr. so u can say that we've got an extra hour when we reached there... =P
budget airport
Doesn't this remind u of the walkway in hospitals??? lol
anyway this is the walkway to the gate to board the plane
anyway this is the walkway to the gate to board the plane
When we touched down at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport, we had to booked a taxi which will bring us to our hotel. Anyway until now i still can't really pronounce the name of the airport. hahaha... i think Vietnamese language is really very difficult. i mean after been there 3 times, i only know how to say 'Thank you' in vietnamese... hahaha... think i'm a total failure. anyway at the airport, we also changed singapore dollars to vietnamese dong. its more worth it to change SGD to instead of USD. (Due to the recent drop in USD) we got pretty good deal. coz SGD 1 = 15 960 vietnamese dong. after changing the money we went to the right end of the arrival hall where it was the booth of 'Mai Linh' Taxi. It was mentioned in Lonely Planet guidebooks and also some of the travellers on tripadvisor that this particular company was the most reliable. and it was really cheap to book the taxi to the hotel. it cost us USD 8 and the taxi was able to transport all 5 of us in 1 taxi. this is really cheap as compared to booking a taxi from the hotel. Coz the hotel was going to charge me for USD 22 if they arranged for a taxi to pick us at the airport. a huge difference isn't it???
We also booked 2 day trips with Mai Linh. hahaha... y i booked the day trips so quickly was because the day trips were too cheap to give it a miss.... i mean for a day trip to chu chi tunnels & cao dai temple it cost us USD 9 and a day trip to the mekong delta (Cai Be & Vinh Long) was USD 15. And i was thinking since the taxi is reliable, perhaps the tours should also be reliable. that's y i decided to book the day trips on the spot. i decided to keep day 4 free at the moment. coz was still deciding whether to book another day trip or to juz walk around the city.
Welcome to Ho Chi Minh City
block of flats. very dirty indeed
Lady carrying her wares crossing the road
from the airport to the hotel is pretty near, which should take about 20min by car. But because of the constant traffic jams on the roads... it took us about 40min to reach our hotel! and my brothers & parents were amazed by the amount of motorbikes that u can see on the roads.
Trapped in the traffic jam
lots of motorbikes on the roads
and the noise! goodness... everyone horns they vehicles. so its terribly nosiy in the city. u can say that is a culture shock for them. but not so for me coz i've been to Hanoi before, so i roughly expected such conditions.
finally we reached our hotel. I've made reservations at Hong Hoa Hotel, 185/25 Pham Ngu Lao St, District 1. link: http://www.honghoavn.com/
The rooms were really clean, air-conditioned rooms and there was cable programs for the tv. my parents and brothers were pretty satisfy with it. hahaha.... coz if its juz me and my frens on backpack trip... i would usually stay in places cheaper than this... but i was afraid that my parents and brothers may not be able to take the dirt. my parents stayed in 1 room whilst i shared the room with my brothers. and this hotel is situated very near to all the cheap tour agencies that u can find in HCM city, lots of shops selling food and its about 10 min walk to the Ben Thanh market. Yeah u've got pratically everything at your convinence. It a good stay. =D
anyway after we dumped our bags, we decided to walk around the city to navigate our way around and also to ease our empty stomachs. Coz by then it was way past our lunch time. we walked and came to a locals' wet market. we saw a stall selling Hủ Tiếu (it comprise of rice noodles, pieces of pork, lots of vegetables and the soup base is made of pork bones). it was 25 000 dong per bowl.
My bowl of Hủ Tiếu
My brothers posing for a photo @ the stall
and we juz sat there and ate with houseflies buzzing around us. after that we went to Ben Thanh market. as we were walking someone on a motorbike stretched out his hand wanting to grab my mum's necklace. but he only managed to grabbed my my mum's shirt but the hold was not strong... juz a brush. this was really shocking! i mean i've never encountered this in all my travels to the various countries in South-east asia. it really made us realised that its not safe in HCM city. so i 'parked' my parents and a brother at the center of the city with the staute whilst i took my mum's bag and necklace back to the hotel. to prevent any more such things happening.
me & mum in front of the Tran Nguyen Hai statue
After that we went into Ben Thanh market (Bến Thành Market). This is big market place in the heart of HCM city. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures in HCM city. and today its being considered as one of the icons of HCM city and is a very popular place with tourists.
Ben Thanh market (Bến Thành Market)
the market is an indoor market... hahaha... so u can get away from all the traffic noise.. but then inside the building... its really hot. we juz walk on the main walkways of the market.. hahaha... and we bought some lotus seeds. which u can juz buy and eat on the spot as snacks. its much healthier than potato chips.
after walking around it was close to time for dinner.... so we walked to the restaurant that was recommended by my vietnamese friend. the restaurant is Quán Ngon. its on 138 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa. pretty easy to get there. link: http://thodia.vn/quan-ngon-ho-chi-minh-2/menu.html (sorry the website is in vietnamese) my friend told me that u can eat almost all sorts of vietnamese food there.... and the price is really resonable.
i quite like the ambience... really nice... but only thing was we were all bitten by mosquitoes whilst waiting and eating our food. hahaha... seems like i was bitten more here by mosquitoes than when i was in singapore. all of us ordered bbq pork with broken rice.
Mum & dad getting ready to eat
but our drinks were different. anyway why we ordered this was because i told my family that my friend told me i must definitely try this dish when i'm in Ho Chi Minh city. Coz this is the famous dish here! hahaha.... so i decided to give it a try since i'm here. and i must say i was not disappointed... this dish is really good and the price is really reasonable. 36 000 dong for that dish.
bbq pork & broken rice
well... u may be wondering why is it called broken rice and not normal rice. My friend told me that in the olden days, because the main body of the rice grains were sold. Hence the poor people were only left with the tips of the rice grains after they were being sift. Therefore, in order to survive, the poorer people ate the tips of the rice grains with dishes. that's y its pretty common to find steamed broken rice in vietnam. Coz that's what the people eat.
we also ordered a plate of stri fried water spinach. and we were really surprised when the veggies appear. coz it was juz a plate of kang kong stalks. there were no leaves! hahaha... but we juz ate. after dinner... it was back to the hotel and we call it a night (it was only 7.30pm then). coz tomorrow we've got a long day ahead.
Decorated roads of Ho Chi Minh city at night (For the upcoming New Year's celebration)
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