Three Days in 'Nam

In Bali, at the moment -I am so excited to be here! I still owe you the last part of the Cambodia-Vietnam trip review, so this is it. We stayed for 3 days in Vietnam. From Phnom Penh, we flew Vietnam Airlines to Ho Chi Minh City or what was called Saigon in the past.

Path to Temple Bar 

War remnant museum

Our hotel, Aquari, was located in  the center of district 1 in Ho Chi Minh City. First impression of the city was I thought it was pretty chaotic traffic-wise. For those who are not used to being in Southeast Asia, traffic in most cities will seem pretty chaotic. What made HCMC more chaotic to me was that only there Have I seen people riding motorbike, quite nonchalantly, on side walks along with pedestrians. Now, that's uniqueness isn't it?

Quan An Ngon 138

Temple Bar interior

Quan An Ngon Menu

We arrived late afternoon and spent our first early evening swinging by Ben Thanh Market and trying to find a decent food court to eat at. Ben Thanh Market is a local traditional one where you can find souvenirs and food stalls. Most of the merchants didn't speak much of English so trying to find out what's in the food that they had would have been just impossible. Considering that Vietnamese use meat in a lot of their dishes, I probably would end up eating things I do not want in my food, namely pork. The sanitary factor was also a reason why we decided to skip eating there.

Delish breakfast pho at Aquari Hotel

Ben Thanh Market

Ended up eating mediocre Korean food at a food court located in a small mall-like building, except that it wasn't very big. After asking around if the city had malls, we were shown a department store called Diamond Plaza. Sorry Viets, but that is not my definition of mall :D. We were finally directed to Vincom Center, which matched what we thought malls would be like. Everyday in HCMC, we stopped by either Vincom A or B for a bite. Bonus for me was that Vincom had a couple bubble tea shops, Chatime and a local franchise called Tea Cup. Ended up with the latter one most often.

Highlights of the trip were the visit to War Remnant Museum, delicious breakfast buffet at Aquari, haggling souvenirs at Ben Thanh Market, and eat-outs in the city. I love love love this Viet restaurant called Quan An Ngon located on 138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia St. Many patrons are locals, a sign that it's indeed the food that Vietnamese themselves would approve as good, authentic Vietnamese food. Prices were awesome there, average dish price was $4-$5.

We also gave this high-end restaurant called Temple Bar a chance. A dark pathway led us to the entrance of the restaurant, which was pretty cool I thought. Food was good but not as tasty as Quan An Ngon's. Our bill (for two dishes and two drinks) was only a little less than $30.

War Remnants Museum is one sad place as it portrayed what the Vietnam War did to many innocent lives. For more info please visit www.warremnantsmuseum.com

Vietnam you were so good to me! Hope to go back one day!

Statue of Tran Nguyen Hai, HCMC Center