Vietnam - Ho Chin Minh Final part

Our last lunch in HCM at Wrap and Roll. Another one of those sterile places serving Vietnamese food with a twist. Our first dish, yummy sotong!

Cant remember what is inside this curry puff looking thing

Yup! this is an example of a plate of grass that annoyingly appears on our table every meal! 
ahhhh very addictive fruit shake! so addictive that I crave for it the moment i step out of the shop. In the words of piggy 'you have been whining about wanting to drink fruit shake after we left [wrap and roll'
Vietnamese wrap with a fusion twist. Looks like chee cheong fun! This ought to be my favourite, the chee cheong fun skin is so thin and smooth that it slithers down your throat! Perfect skin is what makes a good chee cheong fun, not the fillings!
It seems weird without some carbo, so I had to order a plate of fried rice. This place dont serve noodles, if not it would have been a bowl of pho! 
We seem barbaric eating so much compared to the other tables. We attracted stares and dagger eyes from others either because of the amount of food we ate or because of our irritating laughters. Piggy kept complaining that I am a messy eater and I had to defend myself that she was no better in terms of dining etiquette. If you could catch a glimpse of her 'veryyy clean' plate, she irritatingly vacuum up every morsel of food on her plate in contrast to my extremely 'messy' plate of wasted food. 

After lunch, yet again we went for a walk and ended up at the Tax Dept store, formerly known as Russian market. This is the street that we went up and down several times hunting for food and places of interests. 
A rather retro looking war world 2 hotel. 
Ended our trip with a visit to the War Museum. Whether or not you are a museum person, i really think this is a must-see in HCM. At least it gives you a glimpse into the recent history of Vietnam. I guess at the end of the day, no matter where you visit, no matter how boring or interesting a place is, it is important to catch a glimpse of the culture, history and yes Geography of a place so that you can leave a place with the brain feeling a little bit more enriched.

Having said that this is a must-see in HCM, I really have to add that this museum can be highly bias and in many ways propaganda in nature. Bearing in mind that this museum was set up by the government just a few months after the Vietnam war, and the purpose was probably to unite the Vietnamese and promote a political cause that Northern Communist government  is here to save the country from the ruthless, violent Americans. It was a glaring one-sided view of the Vietnam War. Nevertheless it tells us how at the end of the day, no one benefits from a war and the ones who suffer the most are the civilians. 
It is a museum with many photographic exhibits of the war taken by local and foreign correspondents. It is really quite stomach-churning seeing the photographs. Really very sad =(
Live exhibits of the war machines
Flight home - this is my air craft food. Vietnamese curry chicken rice

Vietnam - Ho Chin Minh Part 3

Day 2 begins with a tour of Mekong Delta... 

Our first stop - honey making farm?! erm but then again it is really not exactly a farm, we were herd into a little hut to drink honey. erm so where are the bees? I don't know... 
Next stop, making of coconut candy. I was reluctant to try cos i never like coconut-based candy but well it turned out not too bad, the candies were nice and warm, freshly made. Tip: never ever buy anything from touristy places like that, just pop over to supermarkets or any markets and you will probably get it at a much cheaper price!

Dragon fruit plant! Pitaya or Dragonfruit as it is commonly known,  is a cactus. The flowers bloom only at night. I guess they are creepers that creeps onto the host plant, depending on it for support. Errmmm when i took the photo, the dragonfruit was seated comfortably on the tree... I suspect (should have gone to touch it!) it was placed there by the people for the sake of us tourist. The fruit should rightfully be hanging off the leaves
Next stop: went on a row boat through the little stream.
Lunch, rice with pork chop. And with this it marks the end of a tourist trap!
Dinner at Quan An Ngon, apparently it is a must-try for all first time visitors to HCM. They have a branch in Hanoi too. It is street food in a sterile environment,  very popular with both tourists and locals and of course locals with foreign friends! When we left at about 7 plus, the place was packed! Well... i think it is a good introduction to Vietnamese food, as to whether or not the food is good, I really wouldn't know cos it is veggies and veggies and more raw veggies... so i can be highly bias when i have to consume or even just set my eyes upon mountains of greens!
This is mince beef on sugar cane. Well in most cases in Singapore, I would have happily eaten the meat off the sugar cane, full stop. But here in HCM, we were introduced the proper way of eating (oh yes, there is a lady who had to teach us 'how to eat'), slice the meat off the sugar cane, wrap it with vermicelli, bean sprout, basil leaves, lettuce and rice paper roll. 
My cocktail, creatively named yellow cocktail cos it is yellow
The server recommended the Vietnamese pancake. Not too bad, but erm too many beansprout =/ yes at this very moment I can hear Ann screaming at me! 'You are sooo narrow minded! you need to open up your mind and learn to eat your greens! blah blah blah!!!' and I still maintained that 'you like it or you dont like it! nothing to do with being narrow-minded!' but yes i believe some food are what you call 'acquired taste', at this moment i still have not acquired the taste of bean sprout!
This was my main, pork chop with vermicelli! Piggy had pho! I should have just stuck to pho instead! Didn't enjoy the vermicelli, thought it was kind of plain. But oh well... yes yes keep an open mind. 
The paper roll that we used to wrap everything!
After dinner we went for a walk and after our walk... yet again, we settled down for food! We end off our night with ice-cream at Kem Bach Dang. I ordered the mixed fruits ice-cream in coconut and piggy ordered the longan ice cream. We decided to make a switch after one mouth of our respective ice-cream. So in the end she had mine and I had her's.

Ice cream in coconut topped with watermelon, longan, dragon fruit and strawberries

Vietnam - Ho Chin Minh Part 2

Day 1 - Part 2

This posting marks the second half of our major stoning day in HCM. This day is a walk, breathe carbon monoxide, eat, drink, stone, eat, eat, walk, stone, laugh, eat eat eat, take photos, eat day! I miss my story books! Should have brought along a story book to read, then again, I know i will probably end up stoning rather then reading. Pig brought along her work, travelled everywhere with it, but never seem to have done anything at all... despite her relentless 'bored bored bored I am borrreddd!' 

Our next stoning pit stone takes us to Sofitel Saigon for a chocolate buffet!

This is part of our little booth. 
The only proper photo I have of the chocolate buffet! The rest turn out too dark and yellow and boo hoo hoo i forgot to take a photo of the 'buffet spread'. The rather pathetic chocolate buffet spread that left me hungry at the end of our 3 hour stoning. Ohhh how i regret not taking a photo!
After the buffet, the sky was already dark and because it was drizzling we decided to take a cab to Diamond plaza, a spanking new shopping mall in the heart of HCM. 

This photo is taken outside the HCM Post Office along Dong Koi Road. Pretty building yeah? I think this is probably one of the prettiest building in HCM. 
The interior - thats Mr Ho Chin Minh staring at us.
The Notre Dame Cathedral - one of the many landmarks in HCM, just opposite the post office. 
After shopping at the Supermarket, Parkson, we had dinner at the popular franchise PHO24 (there is an outlet in Millennia Walk, Singapore). My special bowl of Pho, with different parts of the cow. 
Piggy likes fried stuff... so this is ordered specially to entertain her. 
So this is the end of piggish day 1, dinner. Boring as it may seem, I think once in a while, we should be thankful that we are bored. Boredom is a blessing, can be a blessing, it is just a matter of perspective. 

Vietnam - Ho Chin Minh Part 1

Day 1

Stayed at Chancery Hotel - an old retro hotel that has just been refurbished. 

Woke up early on the first day, decided to take a short walk in the park just outside our hotel while piggy is bathing and getting ready for breakfast. 

People in the park, jogging, playing tennis and exercising to the tune of 'I'm a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world, wrap in plastic, its fantastic!'
Breakfast
Very plain and ordinary breakfast, but this omelet here is certainly THE saving grace. My cheese, onion and ham omelet, very yummy! I think it is the cheese that gives the omelet its yummy flavour and nice chewy texture.
Vietnam's national fruit - Dragon fruit. I love this! but piggy always have negative comments towards this poor innocent fruit. Her classic line "wahh you make the fruit looks so tempting, I shall go get some." [back with fruit] "eeee not nice!" 
View from the hotel's restaurant. 
HCM popular market - Ben Thanh market, I wonder why do people rave about this market, it is just like another market in South East Asia, in fact much smaller than places like Chatuchak market. 
The clock tower, icon of Ben Thanh
After walking here, there everywhere, risking our lives, beating the traffic, we just had to chill a little bit, escape from the heat, before continuing on our journey. One of our chillout stops after booking a Mekong Delta tour from T.M. Bro Cafe. [If you are ever going to HCM, avoid this tour agency at all cost!]

Highland Cafe - an upmarket franchise cafe you can find all over HCM. You don't get Starbucks here, but you sure can find many Highland cafes.