A taste of Ho Chi Minh City

We took the morning flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (also known as Saigon) by default because mileage tickets (for Sofia and yaya) were wait-listed for the afternoon flight and I wanted to make sure that I saved myself the SGD$700 difference for both tickets combined. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were able to have a good look around our part of the city (District 1) and I was able to ensure that yaya knows what their food options are for lunch while I'm at work.

Arriving at the airport. Fif loves sitting on the luggage carts.

We just settled in our room long enough for me to take a picture and post it,
but we were raring to go out.

The hotel provided us with an information pack on the tourist attractions nearby.

The Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon.
It doesn't look much like the one in Paris.

This street vendor across the road gave off the same vibe as the bouquinistes!

There were also food sellers similar to the ones in Thailand.
She's very friends and gives anyone who looks interested a free taste.

This building looked extremely familiar.
I'm so sure we were here before. I think the tour guide took our picture from head to toe with no background to show we were in Saigon.

It was the Saigon Post Office with the architecture by Gustave Eiffel.
Yeah, the eiffel tower guy.
From my spot here, we did all the highlights on the map, we just needed to turn around (in the same spot).

We saw a bride on the way to the cathedral.
Note to self: If I get married in a sunny/rainy country,
I will have my umbrella made to match my gown.

There was also a lot of vendors selling paper cut-out pop-up cards

My friend was getting the vendor's hopes up, letting her think he might buy. 

We also went inside the post office for a look and discovered it's a real post office that looks frozen in time.

I can just imagine that these ATM booths used to be phone booths for long distance calls.

The coverted the corridors in front into souvenir shops.
There were reasonable price tags on everything so you get the feeling that people don't haggle here.

Statues of Vietnamese women.

Vietnamese women in lacquer.

More lacquer art.

I want to pick up one of these black and white ones with women for my beach house.
They were tagged at around SG$5-6.
Thought bubble: that's such a steal!

Some of the statues were just weird.

From the post office looking out.

They also had a lot of colorful useless junk.

Sofia was starving when we finished looking so we walked and walked and walked till we found this place. I remember we used to just eat at corner pho places... but this afternoon, every corner pho place we saw just not acceptable.

My Vietnamese friend recommended this chain because he knows I love Vietnamese Spring Rolls. 

This was my favorite one. The rest deserve a separate post.

It started raining so we took a cab to the Ben Thanh Market which was otherwise, just a 15 minute stroll away (according to the hotel concierge).

We found a taxi that was willing to use his meter, but he first claimed this was 50,000!
WTF???!!! He ended up charging us 20,000VND instead (a little over 1 SG$1 or around Php40). 

Ben Thanh Market was all that I remembered,
but I didn't remember the haggling to be as tiring as China.
I may be growing old.

I loved the Pho shirts because I was (and still am) craving for Pho!!!

My friend Tus bought one.
It looks like he had too much Pho! Hahaha. 

The only think I bought was Vietnamese Coffee to try...
from the same stalls that have Snakes and Scorpions in bottles. (also another WT?)

That's all. Goodnight folks :)

Tomorrow the work resumes. Just Saying.