Back to finish up my (2nd) posts on my Ho Chi Minh trip last holiday season!
If you haven't
>>> Part One Right Here <<<
Lets continue with day 4. We woke up and got coffee at Phuc Long Coffee near our hotel. Phuc Long is like the "starbucks" in Vietnam. A super popular coffee joint like starbucks/coffee bean in our country :)
Right to left:
Phuc Long Tea Latte (35,000 VND)
Coffee Latte (35,000 VND)
Cappuccino Blast (49,000 VND)
Milk Tea (30,000 VND)
Verdict: the best was of mine!! My Phuc Long Tea Latte (recommended) was surprisingly good, not too sweet/boring/the standard flavours like the rest.
Cab-fie
Settled our brunch at the famous saigon lunch lady's stall, her famous vietnamese noodle dishes menu rotates every day of the week from mondays - sundays, which makes it so famous I guess~
Here's a great guide to her menu weekly: click here
The Lunch Lady
Address: Phường Đa Kao, District 1 (Quan 1), Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Opening hours: 9 am – 3 pm, better to come for lunch since its called lunch lady haha
Opening hours: 9 am – 3 pm, better to come for lunch since its called lunch lady haha
the hamsomes
& da damsels
Many side vendors accompanying her stall. Can't really appreciate the vietnamese rice rolls (Goi Suon - fresh shrimp, lettuce and basil roll)
The fried food especially the fried prawn like pancakes were good tho!
Chose to come on a Monday where Bun Thai (40,000 VND) is served.
The noodles had a udon-like texture (called Bun canh), very chewy and the crab based broth was similar to thai's tom yum. Beef, squid, prawn, quail eggs in each bowl. Superb!
me smiling with the most unpopular spring roll amongst us hahaha only wm like this kinda thing I swear .......
A pho shop - Pho Phuong - I wanted to try was spotted near the lunch lady but we were too full and had other lunch plans in awhileee haha
Walked around the back alleys of HCM to look for good ootd locations for Louis
Headed down to Angelina Jolie's favourite restaurant that serves traditional healthy vietnamese cuisine in HCM city for lunch!! She likes it, I must try it!! hahahahaha
Cuc Gach Quan
10 Đặng Tất, Tân Định, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
9.30 am - 11.30 pm
Their overpriced fruit juices that wasn't sweet at all, haha had to spam honey/syrup!!
Đậu Hũ Trứng Chiên Xả Ớt
(Deep Fried Home Made Tofu with Lemongrass and Chilli) 90,000 VND
Flower Soft Shell Crab
Ordered two plates of these, very good!!
Cá Chẻm Chiên Giòn Sốt Chanh Dây
(Crispy Sea Bass with Passion fruit Sauce) 90,000 VND
Super unique way of dressing sea bass in passion fruit sauce heh
Bông Bí (Pumpkin Flowers)
First time trying pumpkin flowers stir-fry in garlic, surprisingly good!
Overall a great experience and one of the better vietnamese meals suited to all our tastebuds, all the food tasted so fresh and brings a homely feel. But of course food prices here are a little more steep compared to all the affordable food we had in HCM :)
No doubt angelina's favourite restaurant hahaha so my friends have to take ootd here
Spent the day wandering to other districts and other markets like Binh Tay Market & An Dong Commercial Centre before we concluded that HCM isn't suited for us to shop. Bkk is better lolol.
Decided to catch a movie just like what we usually do in developing countries to burn some of our time but the movie timings weren't great.
Not to worry hahaha its good that we had each other's company so we just roamed around before its time for dinner and then drinking sessions in our hotel rooms for both the couples ;)
Dinner settled at Dao Snail Restaurant, LOL some popular hangout for the vietnamese for some cheap seafood or rather shellfish OR SNAILS.
Ốc Đào - Nguyễn Trãi
212/C79 Nguyễn Trãi, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
beer all dayz
Nghêu - Clams in a spicy lemongrass broth
Õc Mõ - Some snail served stir-fried in sweet and sour sauce and lots of lard hahahaha
Cockles
Sò Ðiêp - Grilled scallops sprinkled with scallions and peanuts
Kang Kong
My fav dish and the one which tasted most normal cause its just grilled prawns LOL
overall the food was so-so since i had like high expectations of this place, but for this amount we ordered, price was cheap!! But food wasn't very spectacular haha, don't expect too much!!
another kind of clam thing which was goddamn hard to chew HAHAHA
I think we all had cup noodles after that and william finally got his banh mi hyunh hoa!!! I guess thats the only vietnamese that suits him LOL
DAY 5
hotel breakfast starring my super burned bread LOL
Spent around 90 SGD each for the one full day private day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnel and Mekong River!
I think this company is worth recommending as the guide they provided us could speak in english fluently, and he was helpful and kind. Basically the full day was detailed and planned well, so we could travel to these popular HCM sites at ease sleeping in the fully air-conditioned van.
>> Here's the link for the tour we opted for (Not sponsored)
The Cu Chi Tunnels are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi District of HCM and this Vietnamese wartime history site has became a tourist attraction.
Personally, I found it to be my favourite hcm attraction as it was really interesting to listen to our guide and hear more about the vietnamese war stories. It took around an 1.5 hour drive from HCM to reach.
hand-made vietnamese trap doors :O
the guide kept comparing asian's body sizes to the caucasians the vietnamese was fighting against at that point so its like these trap doors were built for the soldiers to hide from the enemies. I think william and louis both were too tall to fit.
perfect for wm hahaha
r we cool yet?
actually not climbing cool-y
paid an overpriced sum and had an deafening time trying out the AK-47
HAHAHA @ WM
eating the tapioca snack and drinking hot tea (omg sweat to death) as we experienced war-time vietnamese supplements :(
As we went further from the heart of HCM towards the Mekong river, we reached My Tho, which are one of the provinces that comprises the Mekong Delta Area, Mekong river is a major river in southeastern asia which links all the way from china, laos, thailand, cambodia, then vietnam.
shades the entire day cause tour too early for me to apply makeup lolol
our lunch (included in the getyourguide package) at mien tay. some restaurant located along the mekong river.
looks. so. gross. Its actually the fish scale, lol I thought it was like water insects bitting this elephant fish at first.
I think the food didn't look that good but neither did it taste good. Had quite a variety of dishes included fried rice but i think my favourite food was this cracker LOL. But lets not complain since its included in the package. I don't expect part of the tour package food to taste good.
suppose to wrap the fish in rice rolls and all
my can't wait for dinner face hahaha
all of us tried this snake wine alcohol shit except wm hahahha
should have lost weight for the horse :(
in love with the coco
honey-bee farm with complementary fruits accompanied by vietnamese folks performing some music and then its all about the tipping of da money.
Took the sampan and then back to our boat.
My bosses
Chio bu on the boat
Finally back to reality after the day tour!!
Our guide kindly dropped us at our dinner location cause we requested!!!
Pizza 4P's
8/15, Lê Thánh Tôn, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
7 am - 11 pm
Dinner was settled at one of the most popular pizza place in HCM's ranked 11th on tripadvisor. Recommend you guys to book cause we almost couldn't get seats as it was already crowded by the time we reached.
bombastic hairstyles
Started off with
Petit Mozza Sushi 4P's
kinda shaped like a sushi but I think it was some kind of italian cheese below?
Wm thought that their pastas was even better than their pizza's
We had the Shrimp and Mushroom Fettuccine, in some sort of cream asparagus sauce and drizzled with almond flakes. Yummy!
Had Prosciutto Margherita Pizza x Spicy Seafood Pizza
and Salmon Miso Cream Pizza and the most unique of all - their 4 Cheese Pizza which you can drizzle it over with honey !!
Topped our pizzas with their homemade buratta cheese~
ended off the meal with a dessert! Apparently one of the best joint to have pizzas in Asia but I think there is still space for improvement. Prices not as affordable there but worth the visit :)
some viet dessert near out hotel we had nightly :P
DAY 6
So the guys spotted Marukame Udon near our hotel!! The first time I had it was in Seoul and it was so good. To think it franchised in hcm too!
Marukame Udon - Udon & Tempura
215 Lý Tự Trọng, Hồ Chí Minh, Bến Thành, Vietnam
Menu differs from seoul's one slightly! I think they adhered it to vietnamese's tastebuds hahaha
wm's cold udon!
louis's kinda cool tonkatsu udon (ramen concept!) with runny egg tamago :O
the usual spicy beef udon. william's
and my carbonara udon which tasted the most warped LOL. there's bacon and cheese okeeeeh
finally some good food, udon and tempura
45 min cab ride to some super deserted amusement park in HCM !!
Suoi Tien Amusement Park
120 AH1, Tân Phú, Quận 9, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
the whole theme park is like Buddhist themed I think (?)
deserted water park in the deserted theme park
fake harry potter castle o.o
cream-fie with my bae :*
This is what we came here for (the guys ._.''')
oh yeah some go-kart action
with my go-pro
do i look like a racer yet
contestant one: louis saw (winner)
contestant two: william tan
and me!!!! contestant three - the banger. Banged the wall like 2 times super hard because I didn't know how to turn my go-kart at first and my neck almost flew out wm was like OMGGG EUGEEENIAAA LOL
wah i look so pro but actually the guys already won me by dk how many rounds thats why they are behind me HAHAHAHAHA
not so cool after the race
Contestant goku
contestant why my hair so flat
AND OMG I FOUND MY CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND I DON'T REGRET GOING TO THIS SHITTY THEMEPARK AT ALL CAUSE THERE IS A CROCODILE FARM IN HERE
ME GETTING EXCITED
omg my babies and wm's dream handbag babies (?)
I'm in love with da coco hahahah super into this kind of exotic animals ok
watch my instavideo at #photastic 4 #pinkytravelogue for that jaw dropping crocodile snaps I recorded!!
the largest croc I ever seen
we kept buying meat to feed the crocs from this grumpy viet staff -_- who was so rude -_-
we da crocodile hunters
haha super fun experience watching the crocodiles being so active and playing tug of meat with us ^-^
48 Bistro
48 - 52, Lê Thị Riêng, Bến Thành, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Whats leaving hcm without trying some french food from a previous french colonial? 48 Bistro is located down the stretch near Banh Mi Huynh Hoa, means walkable from out hotel :)
yummy french onion soup :)
garlic fried rice requested by wm~
even though the plating of the food doesn't look that appetising, but the food at 48 bistro was actually good and affordable! They offer super decently priced steaks and mains!
Louis's foie gras flavoured steak!! Remember to change your fries/wedges sides into their mash potato cause its way better! everyone was aiming at louis's upgraded potato carbs!
wm's herb chicken~
william's steak with mushroom sauce, good as well!
I opted for some fish, which tasted a little fishy so I'll recommend the meats here instead of seafood :)
Last night in hcm so we decided to hunt for more banh mi!
Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai
Bến Thành Quận 1, 37 Nguyễn Trãi, Bến Thành, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
apparently so popular it get sold out quickly so its only opened from 5 pm - 7.30 pm
Instead of the usual Banh Mi pate, banh mi 37 serves grilled pork!!
One Banh Mi here contains around 5/6 pork patties all charcoal grilled and flipped with chopsticks drenched in a sauced with tastes almost like yakitori. (16,000 VND)
and we finally found a shop which served fertilized duck egg which louis has been harping about since day 1 LOL
omgggg I didn't want to try this
but I did, lol but technically i only tried the juice of the egg, according to louis "taste like chicken essence" and the egg yolk of the embryo which didn't taste so bad. I didn't have the courage to taste the part with the duck at all LOL
louis had two of this I HAVE NO IDEA HOW
so william tried and unlike me, he gave it a huge bite into even the body of the baby duck he almost vomitted HAHAHAHHAAHA evil face behind
before his puking expression still look so confident LOL
mandatory photo with the busy traffic in hcm
Went back for a quick bath cause weather was so hot haha and we were off to
Chill Skybar
AB Tower, 76 Lê Lai, Bến Thành, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
a super popular rooftop bar in the heart of saigon with a stunning view of the city
spot the stark tower from here!
our overpriced cocktails and beer for the view
can't believe i'm at a skybar and not have any makeup on my face, times have changed
pretty gf of mine
cheers to the last night in hcm!
DAY 7
Ended the last meal of the trip at a popular bfast place in hcm!
Banh Mi Hoa Ma
53 Cao Thắng, Phường 3, phường 17, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
7 am - 10 am
rustic and perfect back-alley seatings
Apparently Hoa Ma serves the best Banh Mi Op La - the combination of a personal sized vietnamese baguette served with fried eggs and ingredients in small personal sized pans
look at this yummy combi of spam
best kind of vietnamese fare to end our trip!
:)
angel hair pasta for airplane food *.*
it was an awesome trip with my buddies :D
You have a very nice trip there :D I hope I can visit Vietnam in the future.
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