Monday, April 4, 2011

3D2N Ho Chi Minh City Trip – Day 1

Kless was the one who planned for this trip entirely on her own. Booked the air-tickets and hotel room. Checked out numerous websites and decided on the itineraries. She is the mastermind of this trip!

This trip was also planned as a birthday trip for Joey. She turns 5 years old in a week’s time. We wanted to spend more time with her not having to always take care of Jayne.

So off we go, to a country we have never dreamt of even putting it on our “countries to visit” list.
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam.

The last time we were at Budget Terminal, there was only Hans, now it has been replaced by Joey’s favourite McDonalds. Breakfast is the way to have a happy family =)

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Technically this is the 2nd time Joey is on a flight. The 1st time was to Bangkok which I think she totally do not remember now. Anyway, she was excited to be sitting on the window seat.

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We bought this 64-pages Barbie colouring book to ensure Joey was occupied on the 2-hour flight.

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Welcome to Vietnam!

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If you are taking the taxi from Tan Son Nhat International Airport to District 1, remember to ask the taxi-driver to on the meter. It should be about 100,000-120,000 VND. The rate we had was about 10,000 VND = S$0.60. A word of advice, don’t expect much cleanliness in HCMC. Smoking even in aircon premises is not uncommon.

Blue Diamond Hotel (recommended by a friend) is just 5mins walk from the main Market. In fact, we were able to walk to most of the places of interest from our hotel.

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First stop – authentic Vietnamese food

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Coconut is Joey’s favourite drink in HCMC. Maybe it’s just so refreshing after the walk in the humid weather along the streets.

Don’t think this is a simple drink, it’s 100% passion fruit juice. Super nice and sour! My kind of drink!

This is like some salad for every table, but really not our style, we left it untouched. But still it looks good on photo la..

After lunch, it’s the much anticipated walk to Ben Thanh Market.

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This is a square size market with almost everything you want to buy in it.

Wet market

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Titbits stalls

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Souvenirs

Shoes, lots of shoes

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Of course, the famous Vietnam coffee

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We stopped by one of the many small stalls selling drinks in Ben Thanh Market.

The coffee is super super sweet, so don’t stir everything first, try before you mixed all the milk.

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I am so happy to be able to spend some quality time with Joey.

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Back on the streets, I found this special tapioca delight. The colour is enticing enough to part with just 20,000 VND.

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This is not what we will normally find in Singapore. So 70’s…

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Joey never walked so much in her life before, a little after 6pm, she started to complain she is tired and wanted to go back to the room for the day. OMG!!! We are on a holiday leh!!! Still then, there is no choice and since this is a trip for her, we just have to go according to her pace. Hopefully she will be well rested for more walking in Day 2.

Dinner for Kless and Joey was room service. Nothing special..

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But I went out… =p

Found a quiet restaurant a few blocks away.

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The stir fried beef in coffee sauce is definitely best I had ever. Hmmm, maybe I was just too hungry la..

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The traditional drip coffee.

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So nice to see some English text in HCMC. I read from page 1-10.

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Took this photo before I returned to the hotel room.

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This is Day 1 in HCMC.

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