Ho Chi Minh City Day 3 & 4

Third day in HCMC, today is the free and easy day, we has no plan yet, so I wake up early wanted to see the sunrise from the rooftop, but for the safety purpose, the rooftop was closed for access before 10am.

So I decided to have short walk since the sky is bright enough, I walk along the river all the way to the Ho Chi Minh Opera House, then I just realize it is so near to the Skydeck we went on day 2.

Along the river, I can see people wake up early and exercise there.

I walked by the exchange center, the design is so grand. Then I went to a bridge and saw there is a couple doing the wedding shoot, they are very lucky with good weather and background, I bet that the photos shall be very nice.

When i saw the Bank of Vietnam building,  i feel like I was in Shanghai.

This is really impressed, a city is in progress develop, but they are able to conserve the historical building well and make use of it to give new life in those building, so this remind me how many historical building was destroyed in Malaysia to give way for the modern city.

Although I missed the sunrise from rooftop, but there is another sunrise waiting for me at the bridge.

I continue to explore this city through the street, then I come across a morning market, market is the heart of a city, you can observe their daily lifestyle and food they take daily.

I continue my exploration, I come to the walking street just next to the tower, I can see people play badminton, exercise or jogging along this street, but I would say this look like a square instead of street as it is build in front of the Ho Chi Minh Statue and we can see the old city hall at the end of the street.

This morning walk also give me another surprise, as I saw those hotel that in my survey before I come and the Cafe Apartment where I discussed with my friends since day 1.

Cafe Apartment

After shooting the city hall picture, I cross the road to the opera house, in fact there is MRT construction, thus the opera house is covered and cannot see from the square, this was found out from the map.

Opera House

This area is good and convenience, thus this help me to make a good choice in my next stay in HCMC.

I continue my journey towards the hotel, I saw this bus station, I impressed by the idea by putting the bus station in the middle of the road, so the bus can just stop and continue move out from the station without blocking the traffic.

After nearly 2 hours of walk, I take a closer look to the church opposite the hotel as it has a very Chinese architecture,but there is cross on the building, and with this close look, yes it is a church.

Is time for breakfast, went back the hotel and meet my other friends, we decided to go Chinatown after the breakfast.

We took grab to Ba Thien Hau Temple, this is a century temple and we can see the Chinese community here still practice their belief and they spoke Cantonese and saw some read the chinese newspaper.

Initially wanted to go their market in Cho Lon (Chinatown), but I couldn't find it on the map for accurate location, so we just walk around and saw another temple, this temple has similarity to the Johor Old Temple as we can see the word  "義 興" around the temple and there are 2 schools next to the temple, and this is the chinese community council hall where they discuss the welfare of the community.

We move on to the Bui Vein Street again as my friend want buy bus ticket to Mui Ne and we finally have our massage there, but this is due to sudden rain and no place we can go, so can't comment much on the massage service.

After the massage, we walk to the place where I went this morning as after the morning walk, I know it is really near.

We pass through the market to see the price of the lotus seed that I want buy, so that I can buy when on the way back to hotel.

We went to the chain restaurant to have our lunch which their factory also just in front of our hotel.

After the lunch, all of us full with energy, thus we went into the market again to buy the souvenir and lotus seed as the market will close at 6pm, by no choice, we have to carry all things while continue our exploration of the city.

The rule of thumbs in the market is at least to bargain the price in 50%, then combine your purchase with others to further bargain and we are lucky, we bought it at 40% discount after few round of bargaining.

 We continue the journey and bring my friends to those places I went in the morning and they also surprise those places are so near to where we walk last 2 days.

As there is a football match on that day, we can see there is stage being setup at the walking street, luckily we come in the afternoon else might be jam up with people here in the night.

One of us wanted to go to the Japanese street, so after check through the map, it is just about 15mins away, so we walk there again. (Haha, need have exercise before go tour with me).

This place is really a lot Japanese and Japanese shop, the alley also look like in Japan, it is a good experience to have your massage here as well as they really wear nicer than in Bui Vein Street.

Then we end our day tour with dinner at the street food center near to the market.

Finally we can prepare to go home next morning. See you again HCMC.

Ho Chi Minh City Day 2

Just 5.30am in the morning, the sky is so bright, as will have our half day city tour with Saigon Hotpot this morning 8am, thus we all wake up early for breakfast.

The hotel restaurant is on in 14th floor, we can have our breakfast with the nice view. The foods is buffet with variety of local and western foods.

At 8am, our 2 local companions from Saigon Hotpot are waiting at our lobby, Tuong Vi and Thu Hoa,

Vi is with us on day 1 night food tour, she so shy yesterday night, but this morning, she can speak well with us today, Hoa is classmate of Vi, she is small size and she carry a big bag with her, so my friends ask what keep inside the bag as it seems heavy also, she just mentioned is her book for revision.

So again, we took Grab to our first destination, The Independent Palace.

Along the way, we ask about their studies, then only know that Vi have Korean language as her second major and Hoa have Japanese as her second major, so Hoa is lucky enough as I and another 2 friends are fluent in Japanese, so we talk with her with some Japanese language for fun, so she so surprise with our capability of using Japanese, but unfortunately for Vi as none of know Korean.

Upon arrival, we joke that they can buy kids tickets, so we can save some money, so they immediately take out the student card to buy the ticket, I would say the ticket is pretty cheap compare to Malaysia.

We start our our in the Independent Palace with some brief on the history of this place by Vi and Hoa, they are well knowledge of the history of this place and they interact with us with some quiz along the briefing.

These tanks and fighter are replica from the actual units, but it also stunt me with its looks as we used to see these in the history text only.

We walked along the garden path to the main entrance, it is really impressed and grand.

Minister Meeting Room

State Banquet Hall

First things we saw after at the entrance is the grand staircase, this is replica staircase as it was destroy when the bomb drop on it, but the bomb didn't explode, else we might not have chance to see this grand building.

Hoa explain to us the color of individual room play a big role, in the meeting room, the main color is green, as green is able to calm the mind of people, so that the minister can make right decision during their meeting.

The main color in State Banquet Hall is Yellow, this color bring joy to the people in this room, so they can enjoy the meal with joyful heart.

Another significant that I like in this museum is their painting, all the painting was draw with meaning and to show the history of the country.

In second floor, there is a carpet that have 4 dragons and 2 phoenix, Hoa and Vi give another quiz, where is the 5th dragon, but this is not tough quiz, as chinese traditional belief, the missing dragon is the president of the country who stay in the palace, the meaning of few phoenix also is Men has more power and balance with Ying Yang, also the phoenix are surrounded by dragons is to show men to protect women.

The private resident area also show how the presidents family lifestyle. Most of the room is design with the combination of western and eastern culture design.

After this place, we walk to Notre-Dame Cathedral, is just a short distance from the Independent Palce, but unfortunately, the cathedral was closed for renovation, this has make a reason for me to come for second time in future.

After few shot in front of the cathedral, we cross the road to the central post office, I love the architecture of this building, also there is statue of those people who give significant impact in the communication world.

The interior design has consider the air flow, so that it will not feel hot inside the building and it is so impress to see such old building is still well functioning.

While all my friends walk around the post office, Hoa and Vi bring me to see a old man, this man is more than 90 years old, he is the writer in this post office, today he still actively help the tourist to write their letter or post card and I feel he really enjoy it.

After walk around, I came out the idea to let Hoa and Vi to write a post card to me, yes I force them to write, haha, but really appreciate this as it will be a highlight of the memory of this trip.

After post our postcard, we went to the cafe that missed on first day, this cafe is located very near to the Post Office, and is inside an old building, this is really intag place, you can easy took nice picture from every corner.

We tasted the coconut milk coffee, it really nice and I now miss the taste.

In fact, our tour is end here, but we feel that we shall treat our local companion Vi and Hoa a lunch, so we ask them to bring us to a nice Vietnamese restaurant located opposite the Ben Thant Market, the restaurant is inside an alley, if without them, I think we can't find this place.

All the dish they order is super delicious and we really enjoy it.

Finally, our guided tour ended in our hotel, we really appreciate their service and I definately will recommend Saigon Hotpot to any of my friends who come to Ho Chi Minh City in future.

After a short rest, we proceed to our night tour as per my plan, we took grab to Bitexco Financial Tower, as it is heavy rain, so we thought can some shopping in their shopping mall, but we disappointed as there is nothing much in the mall, but luckily the rain slower after a while, so we walked to the Skydeck admission counter, the tickets are bought from Klook, and is really cheaper than we purchased at counter, we bought a combo ticket that allow us to go the World of Heineken and the observation deck, in this combo ticket, we will have 2 bottle of Heineken, a snacks and one bottle of Heineken that with our name on it.

The redemption of ticket is very easy and fast, so we take 15 sec to 49th floor and change another lift to 60th floor to the World of Heineken.

While waiting the tour start, we took many photo at the waiting lounge and is really excited.

The tour begin with an introduction of the Heineken Company , then we see and fell their brewing ingredients.

we also experience a 4D show to see how the Heineken being brew from raw materials until bottled.

After the show, we enter  a gaming room to play some games, then we guided to a skybar, the master Bartender teach us how to serve a perfect beer, we thought is just a show, but we invited to try to pour the perfect beer and we can taste it, wow, this really fun and we also learn the Vietnamese way to toast.

The guided tour end here and we invited to take the beer to enjoy our beer in this sky bar. we really enjoy the view, although we plan to see the sunset here but due to rain, so the sky was covered by heavy clouds, as the sun set quite early, thus we can have a night view which out from our plan.

The night view is really nice and we chat a lot just like we went to normal bar.

After enjoy the drinks and view, we went to the observation deck, as this deck is lower than the World of Heineken, thus there is no much surprise, so I would recommend next time to buy combo ticket so you can enjoy more.

In this observation deck, there is some show case on their traditional costume, but I feel that the design in the street is much nicer than the exhibited. 

Is time to collect our bottle, once we reach ground floor, we just need show them our ticket, then they will look for your named bottle.

Is time for dinner, is just about 7.30pm only, so we took Grab to Bui Vien Street, this street is walking street in night, but in reality, there is motorbike drive along the street, so we have to take care when walk on this street.

The street is full of pub and spa, so people who like the noise, here is the place, but for me, I just want to see the place only. As we drank 3 bottles of beer, thus we not really hungry, so we start looking for the Banh Mi, the Vietnamese style burger, haha.

We found one stall outside the restaurant we eat on first day, and seems not bad, we order and eat there and enjoy the music.

As walked whole day, we can't find good massage spa, so we head back the hotel and rest.