Visiting Saigon, City of Ho Chi Minh - Part 3 Final

Chaotic !! this is what I meant. You get bikers rushing in  from all directions all at once the  moment the lights turned green. Put me behind the wheels in that traffic, I'll be caught smacked in the middle of the road unable to maneuver.  LOL

Day time - view from our hotel balcony at 8am in Vietnam time

This is what I meant with you can never go hungry in Vietnam. Roadside vendors such as these are on every road and every corner offerings coffee, milks, rice, fruits, bahn mi (Vietnamese sandwich, my kids called it Viet Subways) almost everything edible. This was at the corner of our hotel. There's another one across the road right in front of our hotel.

We also had the opportunity to brunch at one of  Vietnamese famous home chain of Restaurants,  Pho24 and a restaurant simply named Singapore Food that offers Wantan Noodles and Braised Pork and Chicken/Roasted Duck rice.

Visited one of the oldest temple "Thi Hou Kung'" in District 5 - Chinatown,  if I recalled its location correctly.

This outcome was due to a mis-communication with the driver. Intended trip was to the said magnificent Cao Dai temple, the driver heard only 'temple' and probably my pronunciation of "Cao Dai" (Cow Dai) sounded more like' China' and brought us here, thereafter it was too late to visit Cao Dai..sigh

Outside and inside, lots of old intresting carved wooded structures. Apparently its over 200 years old

The last day - shopping

I am very sure it's the most famous landmark in Ho Chi Minh,  Ben Thanh Market, the one that makes your wallet lighter if not broke once you stepped in. 

All kinds of everything

The roundabout where General Tran Nguyen Han stood at the intersection in front of Ben Thanh Market who served under Emperor Le Loi during the war against the Chinese in the middle of 15th century. It shows him riding a horse and releasing a pigeon at the same time. It is rumored that he was the first to introduce carrier pigeons to Vietnam.

When one is having fun, you forget about the time and day until

you woke up one morning and realized

Gosh !  it's time to say goodbye.

 *      one last memory     *

Killing time with shadow play while waiting for boarding at Tan Son Nhat Airport with the tower in view, oblivious of others, luckily this section is located at a very far end corner from the ticketing counters and so spectators were minimum.
before we flew home

Oops !!...not in this

but this

LOL

Hope you enjoyed the final bits and pieces as much as I enjoyed putting this last part.

Stitching wise, I have signed-up my first International exchanged in the first week of July, I have begun stitching but having second thoughts on my choice of design, also  hoping this will inspire me back to serious stitching. Will see how it goes.

Thank you all for coming by and for your wonderful comments in my last post.

Have a good wonderful weekend everyone.

Visiting Saigon, the City of Ho Chi Minh Part 2

We took the 7am flight into Ho Chi Minh and jag lag or no I ushered everyone all seven of us into the waiting In nova Van  at our Hotel on arrival after a two hours flight for another  two hour journey on the road to My Tho Port.

Our tummies was all growling, having had a very early breakfast at 4am on our way to the airport, we had to stop for quick  breakie along the way. The driver told us this is 'famous' (the restaurant). We encountered problem with ordering as none of the waiter/waitress speaks English and our supposedly English speaking driver spoke an alien English whom I could only understood one word in every sentence he uttered and vice versa. So aided with the menu  pictures, we pointed, nodded, sign language and lots of okays. We did pretty good by the looks of our food and the boys got there first taste of  Vietnam beers.

We cruise the famous Mekong Delta River, I read earlier it offers an insight into the lives of those living by the river, I saw none, it's now all commercialize or it's people are no longer living by the river, however the two day one night cruise may offers a lot more and sounds more interesting but which I will not know since I took the one day cruise.

On our Mekong tour, we visited an island with lush tropical forest where we had a chance to sample tropical fruits and learn about their cottage industry producing coconut candy and bee farming. We were lucky to have a guide who could communicate in our local Cantonese dialect and kept us captivated on the island.  Travelling on a sampan was probably the highlight for the adolescents, both was rather delighted with the ride and  crocs farm was a bonus. 

On  a wet drizzling afternoon of Day 2, we took a  walk and explore the Notre-Dame Basilica, another famous landmark must see according to my web search. It was established by the French colonists between 1863 and 1880 at 190 feet in height with a neo-Romanesque style architecture. 

There is a saying that your visit to Vietnam is incomplete if one did not watch the Water puppetry performance at the Dragon Water Puppet Theater that dates as far backs to 11 century. The 45 minutes puppetry shows mainly the local folklore and  village lifestyle which are pretty amusing. Can you imagined those puppets are manned by people summered in waste height waters?

We took a tricycle ride through the high end of the city where designers brands are located after this to go on the Saigon River Cruise for our dinner with traditional entertainers on board offering a night view of the city.

Hopefully I'll have the final in Part 3

Thank you for visiting and am glad you enjoyed the first part.  Thank you for leaving me your comments and have a wonderful weekend.

Saigon, the City of Ho Chi Min Part 1

Visting Ho Chi Minh was a great experience. I envisioned it to be rustic and a lil' bit dusty like Thailand. Surprisingly I was so wrong. The city had the perks of a modern city although the traffic is well, a bit more chaotic.  One thing definitely, you can never go hungry in the city. We had the opportunity to taste a variety of  the famousVietnamese Pho (noodles);  Pork Pho, Beef Pho and Crabmeat balls Pho for breakfast daily besides English breakfast.  Breakfast is served ala carte from 7am to 12noon, it was included in our room reservations.


I'll be as brief as possible coz it's going to be heavy with photos.

Pho Beef

When you are a hard core coffee drinker Vietnam is haven

Basically we did all the tourist thingy

War Remnants Museum, as the name suggest it's all  things remnants from the war

either captured or abandoned

Its  indoor museum houses an extensive catalog of the War in Vietname inclulding the effects from Agent Orange which is truly heartbreaking. 

Cu Chi Tunnel is the famous and legendary battleground of the Vietnam war. 

It's an underground network with connecting tunnels at a distance of 250km and divided into 3 levels.

Two of the many various death traps that cripple you once fallen into

Fancy finding me in the underground sewing room?

The first part of the tunnel literally had you crawling in. I only went in the first section of the tunnel and already felt claustrophobia

The young forest after Agent Orange which was replanted in the 70's

Heavy downpour that afternoon forced us to take shelter at the Souvenir Shop

We had corns and beers while waiting for the rain to stops.

Have a read about the War in the Cu Chi Tunnels if it interest you. 

Our journey ended with a late lunch at a restaurant that caught our sight on the way to Cu Chi.

 

a very country setting

Coal grilled chicken with coal grilled rice

Clams ginger and lemon grass

Fried Spring rolls 

Grilled fish

After meal desserts

 This is actually our Day 2

............Continue Part 2

Thank you all for visiting me in the last post. Hope you will enjoy this as well.