3D2N Ho Chi Minh City Trip – Day 2

Day 2, breakfast was settled in the hotel. The cafe looks clean and spacious, not sure the reason, but we seems to be the only ones having breakfast.

Kless’s selection for breakfast.

At least Joey seems to be enjoying..

Breakfast is over, it’s time for the real stuff!

1st stop: Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. Established by French colonists, the cathedral was constructed between 1863 and 1880. It has 2 bell towers, reaching a height of 58m (190 feet). It’s also a popular place for taking wedding photos.

Joey poses in front of the bell towers. Those pink shades did come in handy.

The writings on the wall are so interesting. At least I can understand one of it =)

Joey still has a lot to learn about prayers. No laughing matters.

2nd stop: Main Post Office in Ho Chi Minh. Across the cathedral is the famed post office. This is another example of the magnificent French design. It’s massive high ceilings and numerous wickets speaks of another place in time.

It is exactly such retro things that captivates us in HCMC.

Time to take a break. Ice cream time!!

Coffee!! Hallelujah!

3rd stop: Saigon Opera House. This is a smaller counterpart of the Hanoi Opera House. Again it’s the architect of the French colonists. Too bad we were too early and the opera house is not opened yet.

4th stop: Saigon River. This river is important to HCMC as it is the main water supply as well as the host of Saigon Port, with a cargo volume of more than 35 million metric tons load/unload. It is here we took the 1hr river cruise. I have to say this is probably the heart of the entire trip.

This is the lady who is going to bring us around the river. She is so cute, along the way she will try to get us to take certain photos and even offered her help to take a family photo for us. Vietnamese people are generally very peaceable.

Joey was quite afraid of the boat ride and stuck to our sides initially.

But soon she is her usual self. Active!

I really love the colors of the boat, the red and the blue stands out so vividly against the blue sky. I love this group of photos.

 

You would think twice if you want to go into the waters. But the kids seems to be having fun. Simple life is bliss.

Some other interesting things we see along the river. A huge boat entirely made of wood.

Made shift tent.

Coffin shop.

Don’t miss this boat ride if you are in HCMC.

Lunch was Japanese food. Every country we go to, Jap food is never a miss. Actually the doorman at the hotel we stayed in thought we were Koreans. Maybe it’s because of Joey’s eyes bah..

Yummy!!

After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a short nap. With Joey, this is one trip I slept the most.

Wake up, we are going to the night market le! The night market is just the 2 streets besides Ben Thanh Market.

We realised the locals really like to eat shell seafood.

Photo only, you will find me dead before I eat that fish.

How can we not buy a traditional Vietnamese costume for Joey? Isn’t she cute?

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 =)

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.

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

Welcome to Vietnam!

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.

First stop – authentic Vietnamese food

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.

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

Wet market

Titbits stalls

Souvenirs

Shoes, lots of shoes

Of course, the famous Vietnam coffee

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.

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

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

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

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..

But I went out… =p

Found a quiet restaurant a few blocks away.

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

The traditional drip coffee.

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

Took this photo before I returned to the hotel room.

This is Day 1 in HCMC.