HELLO, SAIGON!
There seems to be a gross mismatch between the Demand and Supply for information about Vietnam. In fact, X and I pushed the planning around because we had no material to work with. In the end, we simply booked a decent hotel, and figured we'd stay in if the place sucked. Fortunately for us, HCMC didn't disappoint! Have drawn out the routes we took. If you're heading there as well.. hope this helps!
Note:
Think about 4 in 5 of the travel articles I read about HCMC condemned the city as a haven for thieves and cheats - I beg to differ. Think it's sufficient to exercise due caution wherever you are. If you get bad vibes just by looking at a certain alley, then please don't go in. Also, if you don't feel safe, then don't take your big camera out :) I did all sorts of weird shit including sandwich the camera between me and X.. because I do actually believe in his ability to ward off attacks. Heh
Also, there are horror stories about cabbies taking you to weird, unrelated places - truth is many of the places have similar road names.. Le Loi/Le Lai, and the words just don't sound anything like English... or French. Take only the legal taxis, and use Google Maps to help!
Also, fewer photos than usual because .. I wasn't very comfortable with flashing my camera around... hahaha.
We arrived in Saigon via a short tigerair flight. Military fans will be pleased to discover that the airfield resembles abit of a military airport from 20 years ago. The hangars are of green canvas (?), and they reminded me of Pearl Harbor, and some of the jets still in operation look quite.. vintage. To get out of the airport, take the bus for just SGD0.30. The quality's exactly the same as when Singapore's bus rides cost that much. BUT if your first-world bottom can no longer abide the poor suspension and rickety ride of an 80s bus, you may either catch a cab, or book a ride from your hotel. This part of your journey should take about an hour over 8km, because of bad traffic. ALTERNATIVELY, you may choose to jog into town (it isn't impossible.. heheh)
We were met by a perky, corgi-like representative from our hotel, who brought us to our USD 15 ride. I'd booked the ride because of all the travel horror stories I'd read, about taxis demanding extortionate fares to transport passengers from the airport. I believe the extortionate fare may just be less than USD15... seriously..Given a second chance at this, I would probably cab. And you should too! :)
The route from the airport to the hotel was littered with AMAZING looking food places - either super chill and luxe looking (including a certain bakery called "Tous les Jours"), or just so dirty that the food had to be delicious. I would've snapped photos, but both my cameras were riding at the back of the car, in my luggage. So I settled for frantically scribbling the alphabets down.
I really shouldn't have bothered, because we discovered so much good food, we didn't have a chance to return :b We arrived in the town area near Ben Thanh market (where our hotel was) in slightly under an hour, and set out to explore the neighbouring area.
The Path we took:
Again, I was warned by well-meaning friends and colleagues to not eat the street food because it's unclean/expensive. But when I saw a Vietnamese guy PM-ing someone on Facebook with the words "Is that you, honey?" on his mobile, I figured I'd give it a try! After all, anyone who can communicate in English should be slightly educated... and I assumed that he would value his life over a contaminated Banh Mi.
1. Banh Mi
The Banh Mi was abso-fucking-lutely delicious. Filled with fresh greens, pâté, a special hot sauce and topped off with a fried egg, it was just the most scrumptious little meal sandwiched between a baguette (a fresh crispy one). Both X and I would both harbour fond memories of this first snack in HCMC throughout our trip, and then conclude it with a substandard one at Cafe Soi Da in District 3. Will be back for this one!
We continued meandering the tiny streets around Ben Thanh market in search of good food (I was really looking for steaming-good pho), and eventually chanced upon a set of zichar places just teeming with people.
2. 33 Xưa Và Nay
We settled on 33 Xưa Và Nay, the second one after turning left onto Nguyễn Trung Trực. We surmised that such places serve as local watering holes for the greater populace, because Timberesque places are quite expensive, and prohibitively expensive.
At (i think) $20, we managed a few beers, 4 large dishes of snails, roast beef salad, and.. some bitter gourd egg - zichar with a Vietnamese twist. Can I just say that I hated the food? The snails were escargots with CHILLI (wtf), roast beef salad (okay this was fine..) and some other weird shit.. Like burnt rice with super hot chilli (see X's face below. HAHA). Zichar has frankly never been my thing, but X maintains that this was the most value-for-money meal ever.
33 Xưa Và Nay has a Foody (their HGW/UrbanSpoon/OpenRice) rating of about 7, by the way. And the beers were $1 a pop. Not too bad if you like that sort of food...
Exploring District 1 (Ben Thanh & Dong Khoi)
We walked so much on the first day, it's slightly surreal! We really just wanted to find American Eagle and the Opera House, but we ended up discovering so much more :) labelled our path in the order that we walked!
1. Ben Thanh Market
First, we popped by Ben Thanh market because it was said to be a "must see". Ben Thanh market is more of a must-not-see. There is nothing in there that I would've bought. For the record, there was Bath & Body Works, and all manner of perfume. Not sure about the authenticity though. Ooh and I also saw little snakes in jars for sale - apparently it's good for male virility (hence if you're in HCMC for some hedonistic fun, you know where to get your VPOWER)
X says it felt like Chong Pang when he was a kid. I just felt suffocated by the poor ventilation... heh. Take a walk anyway, you may just enjoy it!
4. Saigon Square
Fuelled by desire after reading about an "American Eagle outlet" in Saigon Square, we set out to find our favourite American bird. Saigon Square is diagonally opposite Ben Thanh market, and tourists have said it was "better than Ben Thanh", and also "come here instead of Ben Thanh". Naturally, my expectations were high.
However, the problem with these places is - you aren't really sure about the authenticity of the goods, and frankly, the difference between Saigon Square prices and U.S. online prices isn't that much. Sometimes I'd really rather get my aerie undies with the "Merry Aerie" tags on them :b
To their credit, the variety of brands is quite good. Apart from the usual GAP, Banana Republic goods, I also saw lower key U.S. ones such as Express and White House Black Market, which isn't so famous as to inspire designer fakes - hence I shall assume that they're real :b
BUT I wasn't in the mood to shop that day. We walked out empty handed and ventured down this dusty street away from the Ben Thanh area... and kept walking until we Nguyen Hue.
6. Cafe Xay Nguyên Chất
Here we spotted Cafe Xay nguyên chất. Or rather, a boyish man peddling coffee from the back of his bike. We figured we'd give it a try (after seeing a few people get their daily fix from him), and we tried to order off the menu... but..it was in Vietnamese, and his English was as good as our Vietnamese.
We intended to order 1 coffee with milk, but ended up with 2 - 1 with, 1 without, and both with ice. No problem though - his coffee tasted heavenly, and he prepared it like a barista would (shaking, with ice, and the whole shebang). I snapped a photo of his bike for memory's sake (it was so well painted I thought his bike belonged to a chain of street coffee peddlers, and I wanted to be able to find it again).
Naturally, I thought "Cafe Xay Nguyen Chat" was the name of some chain, and it would vaguely translate to.. Cafe belonging to Nguyen the Cat (well VIETNAMESE IS SUPPOSED TO BE INSPIRED BY FRENCH...), but no, Google Translate tells me that it simply means "Pure Ground Coffee", and of course I couldn't find any reviews about him. Guess he was a sole proprietor.
Catch him if you can!
7. Pendolasco
Just a tiny walk away from the coffee man, we'll find BROMA NOT A BAR. Some highly rated bar on TripAdvisor - but we didn't get to try it out. Instead, we walked a little further, and ended up at Pendolasco - a very ordinary (by Singapore standards) authentic Italian restaurant. At this point, I was quite ready to not follow TripAdvisor's advice anymore. It works for places like hotels... but doesn't really help if you want something other than a subpar luxury experience at moderately high prices. But I DID get my pasta fix :)
10. Opera House
Now stuffed with Pasta, we set out for our initial mission - to check out the Opera House - because its very function suggests a nice, air-conditioned experience. UNFORTUNATELY, we weren't allowed to go in because it was really just a theatre; and the AO show was on, hence the unticketed weren't allowed to enter.
11. A little bit of shopping
Or so I'd hoped. I just love shopping when I'm overseas. Similar to how men are more inclined to sleeping with prostitutes/drink/gamble when they are on holiday, I believe women are more inclined to shop more. Unfortunately, while the Dong Khoi area DOES have the big names (Ferragamo.. Parkson.. etc) the variety's just nothing compared with what other more advanced (on the fashion front) countries can offer. But I was really just too affected by the heat to venture out again, so we settled for exploring Parkson.
Bad idea, because it began to storm. Armed with just a tiny brolly and cxy's hoodie, we made a plan for me to wear the hoodie, and for cxy to use the brolly.. and hence we doubled back, dashing across the road to the LV. At that point, the rain pretty much doubled in volume. > : )
X stared at me dubiously. "Cannot la..." he began.
"Yes we can!" and I grabbed his hand and pulled him under the sheeting rain AND the water draining from the rooftops. Haha poor guy.I'd totally forgotten that while girls' clothes dry pretty quickly, thick berms take a much longer time to dry.
Luckily, we found ourselves right up the alley we were looking for. Laughing before an audience of disappointed looking tourists who couldn't leave because of the rain. The alley in question is quite a famous one along Dong Khoi - it sells Vietnamese art. If you go right down to the end, you'll realize that you may turn right, and enter L'Usine, or turn left and discover the newly opened Cafe Catina.
L'Usine has been reviewed many times on TripAdvisor, and is said to be an ultracool place to visit. But I just had to pop up to Cafe Catina for a look, because I was drawn to the al fresco seating area. I was greeted by their lady boss at the top of the stairs, who tried to offer me her Vietnamese local delights (not my fave).. but she was so warm and encouraging, we just couldn't say no.....
And hence we waited out the rain with our iPad/books in this cozy little cafe with a delicious banana cake, and the most uncomfortable seats.
Next up, we headed to Hai Ba Trung (the next street) for a dinner - deserves a post on its own! Coming up soon :)
Note:
Think about 4 in 5 of the travel articles I read about HCMC condemned the city as a haven for thieves and cheats - I beg to differ. Think it's sufficient to exercise due caution wherever you are. If you get bad vibes just by looking at a certain alley, then please don't go in. Also, if you don't feel safe, then don't take your big camera out :) I did all sorts of weird shit including sandwich the camera between me and X.. because I do actually believe in his ability to ward off attacks. Heh
Also, there are horror stories about cabbies taking you to weird, unrelated places - truth is many of the places have similar road names.. Le Loi/Le Lai, and the words just don't sound anything like English... or French. Take only the legal taxis, and use Google Maps to help!
Also, fewer photos than usual because .. I wasn't very comfortable with flashing my camera around... hahaha.
We arrived in Saigon via a short tigerair flight. Military fans will be pleased to discover that the airfield resembles abit of a military airport from 20 years ago. The hangars are of green canvas (?), and they reminded me of Pearl Harbor, and some of the jets still in operation look quite.. vintage. To get out of the airport, take the bus for just SGD0.30. The quality's exactly the same as when Singapore's bus rides cost that much. BUT if your first-world bottom can no longer abide the poor suspension and rickety ride of an 80s bus, you may either catch a cab, or book a ride from your hotel. This part of your journey should take about an hour over 8km, because of bad traffic. ALTERNATIVELY, you may choose to jog into town (it isn't impossible.. heheh)
We were met by a perky, corgi-like representative from our hotel, who brought us to our USD 15 ride. I'd booked the ride because of all the travel horror stories I'd read, about taxis demanding extortionate fares to transport passengers from the airport. I believe the extortionate fare may just be less than USD15... seriously..Given a second chance at this, I would probably cab. And you should too! :)
The route from the airport to the hotel was littered with AMAZING looking food places - either super chill and luxe looking (including a certain bakery called "Tous les Jours"), or just so dirty that the food had to be delicious. I would've snapped photos, but both my cameras were riding at the back of the car, in my luggage. So I settled for frantically scribbling the alphabets down.
I really shouldn't have bothered, because we discovered so much good food, we didn't have a chance to return :b We arrived in the town area near Ben Thanh market (where our hotel was) in slightly under an hour, and set out to explore the neighbouring area.
The Path we took:
Again, I was warned by well-meaning friends and colleagues to not eat the street food because it's unclean/expensive. But when I saw a Vietnamese guy PM-ing someone on Facebook with the words "Is that you, honey?" on his mobile, I figured I'd give it a try! After all, anyone who can communicate in English should be slightly educated... and I assumed that he would value his life over a contaminated Banh Mi.
1. Banh Mi
The Banh Mi was abso-fucking-lutely delicious. Filled with fresh greens, pâté, a special hot sauce and topped off with a fried egg, it was just the most scrumptious little meal sandwiched between a baguette (a fresh crispy one). Both X and I would both harbour fond memories of this first snack in HCMC throughout our trip, and then conclude it with a substandard one at Cafe Soi Da in District 3. Will be back for this one!
We continued meandering the tiny streets around Ben Thanh market in search of good food (I was really looking for steaming-good pho), and eventually chanced upon a set of zichar places just teeming with people.
2. 33 Xưa Và Nay
We settled on 33 Xưa Và Nay, the second one after turning left onto Nguyễn Trung Trực. We surmised that such places serve as local watering holes for the greater populace, because Timberesque places are quite expensive, and prohibitively expensive.
At (i think) $20, we managed a few beers, 4 large dishes of snails, roast beef salad, and.. some bitter gourd egg - zichar with a Vietnamese twist. Can I just say that I hated the food? The snails were escargots with CHILLI (wtf), roast beef salad (okay this was fine..) and some other weird shit.. Like burnt rice with super hot chilli (see X's face below. HAHA). Zichar has frankly never been my thing, but X maintains that this was the most value-for-money meal ever.
33 Xưa Và Nay has a Foody (their HGW/UrbanSpoon/OpenRice) rating of about 7, by the way. And the beers were $1 a pop. Not too bad if you like that sort of food...
Exploring District 1 (Ben Thanh & Dong Khoi)
We walked so much on the first day, it's slightly surreal! We really just wanted to find American Eagle and the Opera House, but we ended up discovering so much more :) labelled our path in the order that we walked!
1. Ben Thanh Market
First, we popped by Ben Thanh market because it was said to be a "must see". Ben Thanh market is more of a must-not-see. There is nothing in there that I would've bought. For the record, there was Bath & Body Works, and all manner of perfume. Not sure about the authenticity though. Ooh and I also saw little snakes in jars for sale - apparently it's good for male virility (hence if you're in HCMC for some hedonistic fun, you know where to get your VPOWER)
X says it felt like Chong Pang when he was a kid. I just felt suffocated by the poor ventilation... heh. Take a walk anyway, you may just enjoy it!
4. Saigon Square
Fuelled by desire after reading about an "American Eagle outlet" in Saigon Square, we set out to find our favourite American bird. Saigon Square is diagonally opposite Ben Thanh market, and tourists have said it was "better than Ben Thanh", and also "come here instead of Ben Thanh". Naturally, my expectations were high.
However, the problem with these places is - you aren't really sure about the authenticity of the goods, and frankly, the difference between Saigon Square prices and U.S. online prices isn't that much. Sometimes I'd really rather get my aerie undies with the "Merry Aerie" tags on them :b
To their credit, the variety of brands is quite good. Apart from the usual GAP, Banana Republic goods, I also saw lower key U.S. ones such as Express and White House Black Market, which isn't so famous as to inspire designer fakes - hence I shall assume that they're real :b
BUT I wasn't in the mood to shop that day. We walked out empty handed and ventured down this dusty street away from the Ben Thanh area... and kept walking until we Nguyen Hue.
6. Cafe Xay Nguyên Chất
Here we spotted Cafe Xay nguyên chất. Or rather, a boyish man peddling coffee from the back of his bike. We figured we'd give it a try (after seeing a few people get their daily fix from him), and we tried to order off the menu... but..it was in Vietnamese, and his English was as good as our Vietnamese.
We intended to order 1 coffee with milk, but ended up with 2 - 1 with, 1 without, and both with ice. No problem though - his coffee tasted heavenly, and he prepared it like a barista would (shaking, with ice, and the whole shebang). I snapped a photo of his bike for memory's sake (it was so well painted I thought his bike belonged to a chain of street coffee peddlers, and I wanted to be able to find it again).
Naturally, I thought "Cafe Xay Nguyen Chat" was the name of some chain, and it would vaguely translate to.. Cafe belonging to Nguyen the Cat (well VIETNAMESE IS SUPPOSED TO BE INSPIRED BY FRENCH...), but no, Google Translate tells me that it simply means "Pure Ground Coffee", and of course I couldn't find any reviews about him. Guess he was a sole proprietor.
Catch him if you can!
7. Pendolasco
Just a tiny walk away from the coffee man, we'll find BROMA NOT A BAR. Some highly rated bar on TripAdvisor - but we didn't get to try it out. Instead, we walked a little further, and ended up at Pendolasco - a very ordinary (by Singapore standards) authentic Italian restaurant. At this point, I was quite ready to not follow TripAdvisor's advice anymore. It works for places like hotels... but doesn't really help if you want something other than a subpar luxury experience at moderately high prices. But I DID get my pasta fix :)
10. Opera House
Now stuffed with Pasta, we set out for our initial mission - to check out the Opera House - because its very function suggests a nice, air-conditioned experience. UNFORTUNATELY, we weren't allowed to go in because it was really just a theatre; and the AO show was on, hence the unticketed weren't allowed to enter.
11. A little bit of shopping
Or so I'd hoped. I just love shopping when I'm overseas. Similar to how men are more inclined to sleeping with prostitutes/drink/gamble when they are on holiday, I believe women are more inclined to shop more. Unfortunately, while the Dong Khoi area DOES have the big names (Ferragamo.. Parkson.. etc) the variety's just nothing compared with what other more advanced (on the fashion front) countries can offer. But I was really just too affected by the heat to venture out again, so we settled for exploring Parkson.
Bad idea, because it began to storm. Armed with just a tiny brolly and cxy's hoodie, we made a plan for me to wear the hoodie, and for cxy to use the brolly.. and hence we doubled back, dashing across the road to the LV. At that point, the rain pretty much doubled in volume. > : )
X stared at me dubiously. "Cannot la..." he began.
"Yes we can!" and I grabbed his hand and pulled him under the sheeting rain AND the water draining from the rooftops. Haha poor guy.I'd totally forgotten that while girls' clothes dry pretty quickly, thick berms take a much longer time to dry.
Luckily, we found ourselves right up the alley we were looking for. Laughing before an audience of disappointed looking tourists who couldn't leave because of the rain. The alley in question is quite a famous one along Dong Khoi - it sells Vietnamese art. If you go right down to the end, you'll realize that you may turn right, and enter L'Usine, or turn left and discover the newly opened Cafe Catina.
L'Usine has been reviewed many times on TripAdvisor, and is said to be an ultracool place to visit. But I just had to pop up to Cafe Catina for a look, because I was drawn to the al fresco seating area. I was greeted by their lady boss at the top of the stairs, who tried to offer me her Vietnamese local delights (not my fave).. but she was so warm and encouraging, we just couldn't say no.....
And hence we waited out the rain with our iPad/books in this cozy little cafe with a delicious banana cake, and the most uncomfortable seats.
Next up, we headed to Hai Ba Trung (the next street) for a dinner - deserves a post on its own! Coming up soon :)
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