SIN --> SGN: Vietnam on foot (Ho Chi Minh 3 days 2 night) ①

5 October (Sun) was the Hari Raya Haji holiday so most of us got the following Monday off which made it a LONG WEEKEND!

YT and friends decided to take a short trip using Tiger Airways' 1-for-1 promotions and visited Ho Chi Minh city! Ticket: <$100 per pax :)))

I've never been to Vietnam and frankly speaking, I didn't know much about Vietnam either.

Impressions of Vietnam... (this is going to be shallow!!)

1. Nguyen

2. Ha Long Bay

2. Pho

3. Baguette

4. Motocycles

5. Nón lá (conical hat)

6. Coffee?

Let's talk about my Vietnam-related encounters before the trip!

Friend A, who lives in Singapore, is a big fan of Vietnamese food.

I told him Vietnamese food looks very bland and unappetising.

He said it is better than it looks and he was the one who taught me how to pronounce "Pho" (it's not "foe". It's "fur" without the "r" at the end).

Friend B is a Japanese/Vietnamese mix.

When I first learnt of his origins, I thought he was kidding another friend.

I laughed REALLY LOUD. I even clapped, which was his signature.

He always claps when he's laughing hard.

Friend C took her family to Hanoi and she said it was really beautiful.

She made me realise that while I'm spending lots of time at work and making (what little) money, my parents are growing old too. 

I would love to take them to Europe maybe, put them in business class and 5-star hotels but I've already told you I'm earning little money.

Instead of "someday", why not let's do it "now"?

So I started thinking about Hanoi & Ha Long Bay... but in the end, I took them to Japan.

Because nobody can resist Japan. Especially when you tell your mum tickets to Hanoi is about $300 and that to Japan is about $400.

Yes, she's very good with numbers.

Friend D, a friend I made on the plane.

She sat next to me and I saw her filling up the immigration card.

"K. Nguyen" but she spoke with an English accent.

After borrowing her pen, I asked if I could ask her a question.

Maybe she thought I was lesbian, she looked a little startled. hahaha.

I asked how can I pronounce her surname. She said she had the same problem as a kid.

It's "new-win" by the way.

Then she asked how to pronounce mine.

Mine's something like "ng" when you say "bring".
It's difficult. 

We both ended up very amused :)

This year, thanks to Nam Nam, I started taking Vietnamese food in Singapore.
It wasn't too bad!
Pho and Bánh Mì have been approved.
Now, we shall travel to their mecca.

SIN --> SGN: Vietnam and food (Ho Chi Minh 3 days 2 night) ③

Things you should not miss out
1. French food
So I've talked about this French cafe and it serves mainly breakfast/afternoon tea items.
Still, the taste's good and the portion's quite big.
And let me repeat again, the owner is hot.

2. Pho
This dish looks unimpressive. You put some slices of beef into a clear soup with lots of garnishing vege... is this like tasteless or what? That's what I always used to think.
In actual fact, the broth is tasty and you can customize it by adding basil, lime, onions, chilli, bean sprouts, fish sauce, hoisin sauce, chilli sauce etc.

I personally like it with basil, chilli padi, bean sprouts and fish sauce.
(torturing myself by typing this at 1.35am... somebody save me...)

3. Banh Mi
I love bread. The french cafe sells very good pastry and bread too! E.g. Baguette, simple but good.
Anyway, back to Banh Mi. What I like about it is probably its French touch of pate (PAH-teh) in the baguette sandwich. They also add fish sauce if I'm not wrong (that'll be the Vietnamese element).
It's sweet, salty, sour, spicy all in one!!!

This is the stall. It's on the streets, don't expect it to be clean but maybe that's why it's extra tasty!

4. Banh cuon
This is their version of spring roll.
Also comes in a fried version.

We also tried Banh xeo, which didn't turn out impressive as I thought it would be.
Know the moral of the story? Don't put your expectations too high, people. It works with food as it works with your life.

Finally, learn some simple Vietnamese phrases to help make your trip smoother! (it will help if you know Mandarin as some words/sounds are similar)

Hello -- Chào (sounds like "jao", 早)
Thank you -- Cảm ơn. (gam urh-n, 感恩) 
I'm sorry -- Xin lỗi. (seen lo-ee) 

Everything else we made an effort to learn were the pronunciation of food :)

SIN --> SGN: Vietnam on foot (Ho Chi Minh 3 days 2 night) ②

We took a real early flight and arrived in Vietnam at about 9am.
Friends did good research so we were advised to take the "Vinasun" or "Mailinh" taxi.
Most of their taxis are decorated with something green so I'd really suggest you remember the names instead of how the taxis look like.
We have a colleague by the name of "Vina" and when you are in a Japanese place, use the suffix -san as salutation, so it was like Vina-san. Yes, trust Vina-san always.
Basically, whichever the taxi company, the safest way is to check that they will charge you by the meter :)

We stayed at the CAP TOWN HOTEL. It didn't look huge or grand from the outside but the rooms were spacious and clean. The hotel is located opposite a restaurant that sells Singaporean cuisine so sometimes, you can see a lady in Kebaya across the street from our window. Did that sound a bit creepy?

First meal: IT HAS TO BE BÁNH MÌ!!! well maybe because we got there at about 11am so the breakfast time was over and most shops were closed (point proven at our other bánh mì excursion).
In the end, we came to a French bakery place--une journee a paris (a journey in Paris).
Rating: 9/10
-1 on the price (I'm a budget traveller)
sub ratings:
food: 10/10, other than being slightly more expensive than the usual vietnamese food pricing, the taste was good!
boss: 10/10, perhaps in his 50s, still hot. plus, he speaks French.

To be fair, I'm not a big fan of macaroons. Till this day, I still don't understand how should a good one taste like. I've had expensive and cheap ones... let's just say the cheap ones really teaches you the meaning of "you get what you pay for". At une journey a paris, it's not too sweet and the biscuit was still crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. So I guess, it wasn't too bad?
We picked 2 flavours, lemon and a... was it some berries?

We would definitely come back again.

Next, to the Ben Thanh market place!

First, watch out for pickpockets! When you enter, there is a sign at each exit that tells you the structure of the place and some rules/guidelines to follow.
From there, feel free to roam around.
In the evenings, some stores will move onto the streets outside and it becomes a night market while the main market (indoor) closes.

Other places of interest:
The Saigon Central Post Office--quaint but busy with tourists. The post office kept its original architecture, even its interior and the vintage phone booths actually DO work.

 but here I'm pretending :)

The post office is situated right next to the Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica. Vietnam used to be a French colony so you can find a lot of french influence everywhere.

The 2 buildings are connected to the Independence Palace by a small park along Le Duan street.

The Independence Palace exhibits on the Vietnam war and the then president's living quarters.

Off city center:  Củ Chi tunnel !!!

Yes, it is small.

Yes, it's gonna be dirty.

Still, I'll recommend you go through the tunnel.

People lived underground but there is little oxygen so they dug holes like these for ventilation.

 Traps for the enemies, holy...

 The original size of the entrance into the tunnels... I tried, it's REALLY SMALL and with the cover on, it's REALLY DARK. PITCH DARK.

Story has it that some foreigners got stuck in the original tunnels (maybe it was a joke. or maybe someone really died or got injured badly from being stuck) so the Vietnamese dug a bigger tunnel, it's called the "European size". funny~ Still, it's still small and narrow.

This is what people ate during wartimes. Don't complain.

Singapore Love Stories

Today, I had lunch with 3 people.

One was proposed to recently. 

So lunch was about her filling us in.

The couple to wed is absolutely made in Singapore.

The other two are a couple.

Born and bred here but met elsewhere.

They enjoy declaring that they are not related in any way.

Actually, they are getting married.

Somehow they are related and they enjoy laughing at each other.

Lunch was nice.

Actually, I didn't think I was going to write about them today.

I didn't even think I was going to write today.

After work, I met this lady from China.

I thought she would have been the usual.

You know, we have stereotypes, especially after meeting some pretentious ones at her workplace.

We talked about several things, e.g. she has been here for 8 years already.

I happened to go into the reason for her coming here.

She said she was marrying over.

Stereotype would place her marrying a fat, old, rich guy who went to a matchmaking agency that picks girls from poor, backward villages.

Somehow that didn't cross my mind.

By then, I was already slowly putting my guard down.

She seems nice.

Anyway, they met through the internet, he was a teacher and she was the student.

Stereotype logic would have made her learn English. 

No, it was some online marketing strategy class he was offering.

Whatever, they ended together and she sounded really happy when she reminisced and also told me about her daughter.

Anyway, I didn't think I would be writing about her either.

I just thought that was a pretty nice story--cross-cultural though not long distance.

On my way home, 3 secondary school kids were in the way.

One said bye and walked away.

The other two continued in the direction ahead of me.

The boy stretched out his hand, gestured.

The girl reached out hers and their hands clasped.

The usual me would have thought,"ahh, young couple. Kids wasting their time and definitely breaking up before they reach adulthood."

Maybe I was tired, today stereotypes didn't really hit me.

I slowed down to walk behind them and I observed.

Yes, I made myself sound so nice. I could also have been a pervertic stalker.

I was only 2 blocks away and they walked reeeeeeeaaaaaaaally slowly.

The usual me would have really thought that these kids were being inconsiderate but somehow, I didn't want to disturb.
And a usual young couple these days would often have their hands all over each other.
But this pair just held hands.
Then, they started talking.

It seemed like the girl was confiding in the boy and he, too, responded.

Then I realized, the boy is Malay while the girl is Chinese.
Ooooooooooh~~~
Next, he held up his hand.

The hand that was holding hers and gave a light peck on her hand.

Awwwwwwww~~~ Even if they can't end up together, maybe they have something beautiful.

Suddenly, I thought I'd want to write about them.

And as I sat here thinking about how to begin, I was reminded of all the love I had seen today :)