Short escape to Ho Chi Minh part 2

Huifenn says: Makan Makan 

After the drama with the hotel receptionist, we went out to look for food. 

Our first meal at Ho Chi Minh, at Vietnamese cuisine. The shop is located nearby our hotel. 

The price is average, and the food is not too bad too. 

This is crab paste noodle. Fabulous I would say. Lol 

Beef noodles. Two thumbs up. 

Lenny ordered this. Mee hoon? Not too bad actually, but it is just too green and dry for me. Not my type

The famous, but I think overrated Vietnamese spring roll. Yeah, same, it's just too green for me. I hate mints. Wrapped with pork and bean sprout, with mint leaves? It's just yuck for new. Lol 

Final product, I respect on how Vietnamese consume vegetables. They are healthy.

Oh ya. The drinks. As u can see from the photo. Super rich coffee. Lol. U have to wait for the ice to melt before u drink. Lol. And rainbow ice I think. Some colourful sago with santan. Yea, felt like drinking raw santan. normal longan ice with lotus seed. And chendol. Pretty much like Malaysian chendol. Just super thick santan. 

We paid 390k dong for this meal. 

After the very satisfying dinner, we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe. 

We actually attempted to walk from Ben Thanh market to Hard Rock Cafe. And know what, we have no sense of directly at all. 

While walking, we stopped by few travel agent shops to ask for the price of cu chi tunnel and Mekong river trip. Mostly cost above 300-400k dong. 

At a shop opposite to luxe hotel, we asked for the price, he charged us only 5usd for cuchi tunnel tour. And 9usd for Mekong river tour. The price is so much lower. We decided to book cu chi tunnel trip first (just in case if it is fraud we will just loss 5usd lol, play safe). We paid 500 dong for 4pax to cu chi tunnel tour without entrance fees (110k dong per person). 

We realiZed that we cannot be able to walk to Hard Rock Cafe. We are walking away from it based of the map. Lol. So we decided to go with taxi. We were so afraid of taxi scam, after reading blogs about how people get scammed from taxi driver. Lol. We stop by a hotel lobby and asked the bell boy the directly to Hard Rock Cafe. He said he helped us to call for a taxi, 40k dong to hard rock. Oh yea, we paid 40k dong for a vinasun taxi to the destination. 

Starbucks is just beside Hard Rock Cafe. I got my Starbucks tumbler. And I am so happy. Lol 

Welcome to the family pretty. 

To be continue. Lol 

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Short escape to Ho Chi Minh

Huifenn says: part 1

Arriving at Tan son nhat airport around 3pm. We bought 2 SIM card, 200k dong each for 9gb, which is pretty affordable, and for the 5 days stay there, we do not face any poor connection. Even at cu chi tunnel or Mekong river. Recommended. lol. 

After that, we attempted to asked few people around the airport on which bus we should take to Ben Thanh market. Trust me, google translate is the best innovation ever. Lol. 

We managed to catch up on a bus opposite to Burger King, if I am not mistaken the bus number was 152 or 52. Don't really remember. Blue colour. 10k dong for each, including luggage. Around rm2 after convert, which is soooo cheap, compared to taxi probably rm60. 

Duration from airport to Ben thanh market took around 45 minutes?  It's an air conditioned bus, it was quite crowded and doesn't have pleasant smell. Well, what do you expect from rm2. Lol. Overall we are quite satisfied, I guess? And we felt independent by taking bus. Lol 

Our hotel, city hotel 35 is very near to Ben thanh market, to be precise, just few steps from Ben thanh market, and Ben thanh night market is just below the hotel. Really good location. 

City hotel 18, the sister hotel, where we had our breakfast everyday is just located opposite to city hotel 35. They are operated by the same company. 

One of the thing that I am really pissed off is the receptionist. Upon our arrival, we checked in to the hotel, the reception requested 4 of us to give her our passport. We gave it to her, she asked us to go to the room, and leave the passport there for her, with an excuse that she need to photocopy the passport. After few argument, we went to the room and left the passports with her. We said after we drop our luggage and toilet relief we want the passports back. 

So after 20 minutes I guess, we went to the hotel lobby and wanted to go for dinner, we request to have our passport back. The receptionist refuse to return it back to us. I told him, we need to go out, and it is impossible for us to go out without the passport, what if police wants to check our passport. 

She refused to return it and told me, she is the citizen for decades and the police never check her passport. I was like what the heck? i insist to get back the passports, and I just staring at her. Lol. I saw she already photocopied our passports, but I don't understand why she need the passports. Then she returned the passports back to us unwillingly lol.