Ho Chi Minh 2016 Day 5: HCMC

DAY 5: 13 JUN 2016

Night view of the traffic in Saigon

Today is dedicated to the sights in Ho Chi Minh city!

There wasn't much for us to do as we do not fancy visits to museums.

So we decided to start our day a little later.

Since it was our last day in HCMC, we decided to try out the pho shop which Amanda

visited two days ago.

However, upon getting onto our cab, the driver told us the top 4 pho rankings in HCMC

and mentioned that the one we wanted to go is only in the 4th place.

And so, he brought us to his no. 1 pho shop in HCMC, which is Pho Hung.

We didn't really understand what he was saying as he was speaking Vietnamese.

So off we went to Pho Hung instead (:

Pho with round beef slices

One thing I learnt from this episode is to trust the recommendations of the taxi drivers.

The soup was so tasty even without adding in the sauce.

The pho was smooth unlike the ones we have eaten so far.

The one we ordered costs 62,000 VND per bowl and they were really generous with their soup.

Hands down the best pho I have eaten on this trip.

After eating our brunch, we decided to tour the famous sights in HCMC.

I mean take photos of the buildings per say.

Independence Palace

Notre Dame

Saigon Post Office

Interior of Saigon Post Office

Statue of Ho Chi Minh

The sights were located really close to one another and so we walked to all of them.

We checked off all the sights in a jiffy and we decided to head to a famous

cafe, L'Usine Le Loi.

Interior of L'Usine Le Loi

This place serves an affordable brunch menu compared to the ones in SG.

We ordered some desserts and small bites to share, and one of them was the carrot cake.

It was nice and moist, just how I like my cakes to be.

Thereafter, we headed to Ben Thanh market which was just round the corner.

It was a quick visit as there was nothing much that interests us.

As it started to pour, we took a taxi to Beautiful Saigon Spa, located along De Tham street.

Amanda and I grabbed a 60 minutes foot massage for 250,000 VND,

while Phoebe and Michelle settled for a manicure session.

Although the massage was a tad pricey compared to Bali and Bangkok,

the masseurs were really good and it was great to relieve all the exhaustion.

On the other hand, their manicure session wasn't professional at all and it was sloppy.

But it was really cheap, so they got what they paid for.

There is also another place you can visit for a massage, known as Temple Leaf Spa.

This place was recommended by a friend of ours, and it is located near the post office.

After our massage, we headed to Banh Mi Huynh Hoa, for a quick early dinner.

This place serves only one type of Banh Mi which is filled with lots of meat, 

vegetables and pa te.

Each Banh Mi costs 33,000 VND, double the price from those bought from street carts.

Banh Mi from Banh Mi Huynh Hoa

This is the best Banh Mi I have eaten in my entire life!
It was so tasty and the serving was huge.
The one I had was the spicy version, and the chilli was real hot, mixed with the pa te.
For those who can only take a bit of spiciness, please ask for the normal version.

Oh, do note that the place only does take outs, and there are no seats available.
We had ours at the huge Starbucks located at the roundabout (:

Night traffic in Saigon

We took a short walk back to our hotel and took a taxi to the airport.
Our ride costs 133,000 VND.
Cheap (:

This trip basically had lots of travelling from place to place, but definitely
more relaxing compared to our European trips.
I wouldn't return to HCMC anytime soon, but I really like Vietnam a lot.
Hope I can pop a visit to Hanoi in the near future!

That's all from me! (: