Travelogue: Ho Chin Minh ( Day 1: Ben Thanh Market + Notre Dame Cathedral + Independence Palace+ Saigon central post office)
Back to update more about my trip. Be aware that there are more pictures than words over here.
In case you have missed out my accomodation's post:
On Day 1, Dad's childhood friend hosted us throughout the whole 3 days 2 nights trip and we were so thankful for his great host. With aid of his help, we managed to cover many tourist attraction and also to adapt their food culture in Ho Chin Minh.
He met us at the hotel and brought us for breakfast as we were starving! With a walking distance from our hotel, we were dropped here to Quan An Thanh Binh restaurant. This was also our first Vietnamese meal for the day,
A small run-down looking of the restaurant. For Vietnamese people, this is considered as a high standard restaurant but to Singaporean like us, we would think that we are having our food at hawker centre.
Do not judge the book by its cover. Although the shop doesn't look appealing but the food served was delicious. I can't exactly remember how much each dishes cost. But with all the food that we ordered, we spent less than $30. And in total, we have 7 types of Vietnamese dishes to try for.
We have somehow taste like Chee Cheong Fun, Pork slice noodles, Pork slices with vegetables, Crab meat Mee, Omelette with Crab meat fried rice, Vietnamese Vermicelli served on our table.
This Goi cuon or fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce for three pieces at 24000 dong or approximately $1.20 shall be the highlight of our meal. It consists of pork, prawn, vegetables, bún (rice vermicelli. and considered to be a very popular appetizer among customers in Vietnamese restaurants.See the deveined prawns. Is it mouth-savoring?
Quán ăn Thanh BìnhDirections
Restaurant • Bến Thành
Address: 140 Lê Thánh Tôn, Bến Thành, 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Phone:+84 8 3823 2412
After a satisfying meal, we had a good walk at Ben Thanh Market to digest all our food. Bến Thành Market is a large marketplace in Hồ Chí Minh City. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures and important symbol of Hồ Chí Minh City, popular with tourists seeking local handicrafts, textiles, áo dài and souvenirs, as well as local cuisine.
We walked down an aisle and saw many stalls selling coffee powder. Vietnam was well-known by their coffee. Many foreigner would fly over to HCM city to bring back a large weight of coffee powder. I am not a coffee person so I couldn't tell which coffee is nice to drink.
However, my attention went out to their local handicrafts and I was drawn to space and hard to decide what to get as a souvenirs for my friends. Dad's friend warned me to scout around first before making any decision because most of the shops will purposely marked up their price if they know that you are not from their country.
As usual, I came out empty-handed because I want to save the best for the last and also I roughly know how much they have marked up the price and prepare to unleash my bargain skills on the last day of my trip.
We continued our journey to some of the tourist attraction. Along the way, we saw an old man whom he carried a load of coconuts along the streets. Like a samsui woman, he has to lift up his load, balance it on his shoulder and walk around selling his coconut drinks. However, he would deliberately stopped you and asked whether do you want to lift the load and take a picture.
Do not get con by his gracious act. If you fall into his trap, that's it! You have to pay a large sum of the coconut drinks and he will do it by FORCING! Many of the Caucasian fell for it!
One thing about HCM city was their traffic flow. Living in a city with million people, travelling is not accessible enough if you are driving. Therefore, there are thousands of motorcycles passing by on the road everyday! People in Vietnam do not obey the traffic rules and JAY-walking is very common over here. Do not expect the driver/ rider to stop for you while you are crossing the road.
If you are there, simply walk across the road like a boss! They won't knock you down but they will slow down their speed to allow you to cross over safely. Some will detour around you to pass through. You will be hearing honking sound everywhere.
We arrived to our first tourist stop. The Notre Dame Cathedral. Ask any local people about the location of the city’s center or its symbol, the answer would definitely be Ben Thanh Market or Saigon Notre Dame Cathedral (officially Basilica of Our Lady of The Immaculate Conception).
While the market stands at a modern and crowded corner of the business district, the ancient cathedral is located in a very peaceful picturesque corner in the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City.
Beautiful place will definitely leave us with photos spam with the church. We wanted to enter in but the building was closed for maintenance work. What a luck we have!
We continued to walk and stopped by the saigon central post office. The Post Office offers all kinds of traditional postal services like mailing, selling postcards or stamps (there is a big array of stamps to choose, which ranges in price from cheapest ones). I bought one set of post stamps for Boyfriend's mum because she has a hobby of collecting ancient stamps. She was smiling from grin to grin when I handed it over to her.
Inside the Saigon central post office, foreign money exchange is also available and they have a better exchange rate compared to Singapore. Do stop by at their souvenir shops to purchase some of the handicraft cards home. One card costs 50000 Dong ($3.20)
Spotted this aunty who sells home-made waffle biscuits and butter soft cakes. I am tempted by the waffle biscuits. Uncle helped us with the purchase and we got a free packet of soft cakes! A packet of this costs 50000 dong.
Next stop: Independence Palace whereby we have to pay 20000 dong for each person which is equivalent to $1.30. The palace was built on the site of the former Norodom Palace, a landmark in Ho Chi Minh City and designed by architect Ngo Viet Thu. As Vietnam was split into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, the building served as presidential home and workplace. Today in most locals' minds, the palace is remembered vividly as a marked end to the war.
I doubt my parents don't enjoy as much as I do. They simply walked around aimlessly without knowing what was the history behind each. Dad snapped photos of all architecture and I wondered does he know what he was taking of?
But nevertheless, with just a $1. we went in for fun! At least I build up some knowledge of Vietnam war.
More shopping ahead beside Ben Thanh Market. If you can't get to buy anything from Ben thanh market and do not mind spending a little more on apparel, you may want to drop by to Saigon Square as they sell similar but price differ things. Not only that, you can escape away from the hot scotching sun and enjoy a cooling air-con in Saigon Square.
The stall vendors won't hassled or pulled you if compare to those stall vendors in Ben Thanh Market. This giving us more freedom and relaxing feelings to scout around. The most "popular'' brand that you can find here would be addias, crumpler bag, nike etc.
We spotted tons of designers fashions and footwear here like Louis Vuitton, Channel and Gucci handbags. Be mindful that they are all not authentic. But I was surprise that fake goods can look so real!
We have been walking from morning till noon and we were dying of thirst. Uncle Li bought us to Cafe 77 for a short break and he recommended their fruit juice here. Although it is a cafe, their aircon is not working. The whole area looks so dirty and I even spot cockroaches on the mat. Such an environment, how am I going to enjoy my drink? I quickly finished my drink and went back to my hotel to have a good bathe.
After all the wash up, it was already 6pm and the night sky started falling in. It was ironic that the sky turned super dark when it is only 6pm! Nevertheless, we proceed on to have our dinner at Pho 24, a popular restaurant which sells PHO.
Ordered a bowl of steaming hot phở bò (beef noodles soup) and can opt for tái/ chín/ nạm (fillet/ flank/ brisket). We also had a plate of fried spring rolls to share. All Pho comes with a side of vegetables which none of us dare to try! It looks so RAWWWW to consume.
The beef soup was nice and soothing. The serving size seemed small though, and the meat was just a few slices on top of the soup. A bowl of this costs $2.50.
Getting more excited now because this is the last stop of Day 1 and I actually leading them to a decent cafe which I'm dying to try their cakes here. A more decent cafe that resemble alot more than Singapore. I took quite a while to look for good cafes in HCM and L'Usine Le Loi appeared on the top list. So coincidentally, I happened to pass by while we were on the way to Saigon Square. I told myself to remember the direction.
L’usine has a boutique (a pricy one at that!) on the ground floor and a café bakery upstairs which was empty when my family arrived. They offer homemade cakes, sandwiches and snacks as well as a nice range of tea, coffees, juices and alcohol drinks.
As we were still full after our Pho dinner. We ordered Red velvet cake and Carrot cake to share. As sharing is caring, the cakes turned out to be VERY DELICIOUS when being shared. The cream cheese on the red velvet is sweet and definitely love by me as im a sweet-tooth girl.
I can't even explain to you how amazingly perfect this carrot cake is. It's moist and sweet. The texture is flawless. Many people will think that carrot cake it oily and some even have a naive imagination of carrot cake that was sold in a hawker center. To disappoint you, this is not! Its a sweet delicacy!
That's all for my Day 1 trip! I took a while to refresh what I have done for these trip!
Till then for Day 2.
