My first overseas trip for the year (and no plans for another one).
Our trip started early. We woke up at 4am as our flight was at 7.10am on 1 May 2015. We had breakfast at the SATS Premier Lounge @ T3. I believe this is one of the most basic lounges at Changi. Although the food was nothing special, it was nice to know that breakfast was taken care of as we took Jetstar and did not intend to get food onboard. I am happy to see that shower facilities are provided for even though we did not utilise them.
Flight was (more or less) on time. It was a full flight so they checked in our bag for free when we were at the boarding gate. Thankfully, we had no issue with lost luggages.
Reaching Tan Son Nhat International Airport, my first thought was "this reminds me of Changi!". The airport appears rather new and clean. Immigration took awhile so be patient.
After getting our bag, we walked out to see a few money changers and some stalls selling sim cards. Only one (mobifone) was open so thats what we got. I think it cost us 290,000VND (S$20) thereabouts for unlimited data.
To get a feel of the place, I have decided we should take the bus to town (we were staying near Ben Thanh market). No. 152 was the bus to take. Just walk out of the terminal and look to your right (2 o'clock). Once the bus starts running (ie. warming up), the driver doesnt wait long before he starts the journey. It was cheap too. just 5,000VND (S$0.33) per person. The difficulty with taking the bus is that you might not know where to alight. We asked the bus driver to let us know but we werent sure if he understood us. In the end we managed by checking google maps on our phone and recognising the major landmarks (Ben Thanh market, in our case).
First thing we did was to head to our hotel. We were very early (I think around 10,30am HCM time - HCM is 1 hour behind Sg) but luckily we only had to wait 20mins or so for our room to be ready. We stayed at Sanouva Hotel. The room was simple but had everything we needed - large TV, comfortable bed, toiletries, even a weighing machine. We would have been grateful for a kettle too as we had to keep buying bottles of water during our stay there.
Side bar - as we werent sure about how clean tap water was, we bought a bottle with a filter cap.
After checking in and taking a quick rest. We went out to roam the area to the west of our hotel (Pham Ngu Lao etc).
I wanted to get Banh Mi from a famous place but we were too early (11.30am) as they are open at 2.30pm onwards. In the end, we got Pho from a chain store. It must be noted that although we were at a touristy area (Pham Ngu Lao being just 2 streets away), the wait staff did not appear to understand English well. We also walked along Pham Ngu Lao - sooo many japanese food places and Bui Vien. We walked passed a market (think it was Thai Binh) along the way and got what we thought was Cendol for less than S$1. Long story short however, the "Cendol" was not sweetened and we pretty much threw it away.
We also dropped by ABC Bakery which was reviewed rather favourably online. It reminded me of local bakeries in Singapore. Just that they had a made-to-order sandwich corner and vegetable chips. Prices are similar to Singapore too. Got a large packet of vegetable chips here (80,000VND).
On our way back to the hotel, we dropped by Satra Foods for snacks and water.
After resting, we ventured out of the hotel to check out the area to the east of our hotel. I had initially wanted to check out the major landmarks but it was too close to closing time so we didn't manage to do so.
We first dropped by Ben Thanh market. We walked in from the rear (where the food markets are) and was hounded by people asking us to get food from their stall. It was overwhelming. We were glad to get out of the market.
After some walking we found ourselves around some malls. We checked out Parkson and Union Square. Both (imho) house rather high-end items. At Union Square, we had our first taste of Vietnamese Coffee in Vietnam - at Trung Nguyen. As I love eggs and bread, I also ordered a Banh Mi Op La. This is a simple dish, baguette with two (2) eggs and some soy sauce. The boy ordered a green tea with coffee jelly drink. The green tea is jasmine flavoured, which surprised us. This meal cost us less than SGD 15.
We then dropped by Fanny for ice-cream. It took us forever to find the place as Google Maps got the wrong address. The ice-cream was interesting but beware of mosquitoes.
Along the way, we went into Parkson and passed by a place and seemed like a place for locals to gather. On google maps, this area has no name and just seemed empty. When we were there, it was crowded, with performances, music and people taking photos.
After Fanny, we headed back to the hotel. We also went to the Ben Thanh night market. It was much less scary than the day market. I got loose (for sleeping) pants for 50,000VND (or RM 8) each and he got T-shirts (the I love Vietnam sort) for 50,000VND (or RM 7). The stalls here take RM.
After that we got some noodles from street carts and went back to our hotel for dinner. After the long day, and knowing we had to wake up early for our Mekong Tour the day after, we barely watched any TV before drifting to sleep.
What we noted on our first day:
- HCMC is flooded with bikes and cars
- In Ben Thanh/Pham Ngu Lao area, 90% of the traffic is bikes and taxis
- Most Vietnamese (even in high tourist traffic areas) don't really speak English
[Pictures to come later]
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