Our Back Packs: Day 6 - Ho Chi Minh City

The day started off lazily as we've woke up early for the past 5 days to fulfil the pre-planned tasks. We proceeded to the bus station from our hotel and found the interchange to be in a mess. There is no clear signs for the buses available, nor is there a proper bus stop to wait for the bus. The locals were just standing by the road, waiting for buses that never really stop. There is a need to hop on to the bus as quickly as possible for there are a lot of buses at the interchange ready to speed off.

Chinatown

With no prior knowledge of the exact stop, we gambled and took a bus to Chinatown. During the bus ride, we peered left and right to spot any signs or directions, and before we know it, we arrived at the bus terminal. Our arrival was greeted by yet another thunderstorm, for the second consecutive day. Zzz. Waited quite some time for the rain to subside before we ventured into the old market of Chinatown.

There is a 2-storey tall building that is similar to Ben Thanh market. It is packed with shops that sells all sorts of stuffs, ranging from clothes to spices to daily groceries, one can practically find every cheap bargain in this old, worn out building.

The search for a good local restaurant for lunch was long but we eventually arrived at a decent looking noodle shop. We soon realised that there is no menu in the shop but luckily for us, an English speaking Vietnamese happen to be eating at the shop. Bun Mam and Vietnamese spring rolls were the food we ordered as recommended by her.

Separate dish of raw vegetables and BARK to be added to the noodles.

The noodles came together with a typical Vietnamese soup, sour and spicy with LOTS of raw vegetables. There was also brown, thin and long vegetables which we were told later that it was the bark of the tree trunk! Surprisingly, Weiyang guessed it right this time round.

"You can have the rest of it." Said song after his first bite.

Not too bad for a meal but the same could not be said for the spring rolls. Wrapped within the spring rolls are thick beehoon and raw UNCOOKED vegetables. It is truely advisable to eat them with the thick brown sauce provided. The taste is extremely raw and over-fragrant, a smell too strong for the taste buds of foreigners like us. Look at Song's expression above as he munched the spring rolls!

Walked down the street and found an interesting chicken rice shop and decided take a shot at it. The meal consisted of fried rice and steamed chicken, or so we thought. The hanged steam chicken was fried before it was being served. Steamed then followed by fried, What an interesting way of cooking! For your info, the meal was something like Singapore's Nasi Ayam! Nostalgic..

On our way back, a roadside stall selling BBQ bananas caught our attention. The BBQed bananas are served with a thick layer of coconut milk. The warm and fragant bananas mixed with the sweet and tasty coconut milk was 'heavenly'. At an astonishing price of 2000VND per piece, ~ SGD$0.15, it was a pretty good deal! As the old lady selling it couldn't speak English, we had a hard time communicating. Luckily for us, the young pretty lady in green was able to speak a little English and rendered her service as our translator. Cheers :)

Fabulous roadside durian

Met up with Darren, WeiYang's Singaporean friend, on an internship to work in Vietnam. An initially dull and boring day came to life when Darren saw some of his Vietnamese friends. They turned out to be the President, VP and marketing head of Saigon Hotpot! Song has been liasing with them for weeks in the buildup to this trip, regarding our City tour of Saigon.

Saigon Hotpot is a voluntary club formed from students of various Vietnamese Universities, providing free guided tours to tourists in Saigon. What a coincidence to meet them there and thats where our adventure in Ho Chi Minh City started.

We were surprised by the amount of languages they know as we chatted along the way. They are fluent in Vietnamese, English, Chinese, and Spanish/Japanese. Thats 4 fluent languages we are talking about and it ain't a simple feat. However, after the experience at Cambodia, such multi-linguistic skills is not as shocking anymore.

Went on to relax and chitchat at a local cafe with Darren and Saigon Hotpot. During our conversation, President Ha mentioned that she was invited to a Posh club - L.U.S.H. She then invited her newly acquainted friends to join her for the party! Whee..Off we go!