Vietnam Trip 2014

I made a trip to Vietnam with two friends for a few days over the Easter week and we visited Ho Chi Minh City as well as Dalat. We flew by Vietnam Airlines to both destinations and our total airfare came up to be about SGD350. That's not too bad for a full-fledge airline. Overall, the fligth experience was quite ok except for the delays in the domestic flights.

Out first day started with our flight to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore in the evening. We reached HCMC at around 7pm+ local time and took a taxi to our hotel to check in. I also managed to buy a prepaid SIM card at the taxi kiosk for 190,000 VND and it came with 600MB of internet data usage. It took us quite a while to locate Little Saigon Boutique Hotel as it was hidden deep inside a small lane even though it is city centre. The room is pretty small and nothing to shout about but it's just USD30 per double room right in the city centre.

After settling down, we headed out for dinner at Quan An Ngon, a restaurant that is very popular among tourists. It's my first time trying Bún bò Huế and I kinda enjoyed the tangy and tasty soup. Our sumptuous meal came up to a total bill of about SGD40+ for 3 pax.

After our dinner, we proceeded for a walk in Bến Thành Night Market before heading back to hotel.

Our second day began with us hunting for Bánh Cuốn. We soon found out that Bánh Cuốn Hải Nam was closed for renovations, so we headed for Bánh Cuốn Thiên Hương instead. We also ordered Cà Phê Sữa Đá (iced coffee with condensed milk) to complete our breakfast. The coffee was so aromatic and not too bitter due to the generous amount of condensed milk added. There was one plate that was served before Bánh Cuốn  and I was wondering whether it was Bánh Tôm. Anyway, it tasted quite nice and Chả lụa (sausage/ham) wasn't too bad either. But I suspect Bánh Cuốn at Bánh Cuốn Hải Nam woulkd have tasted better.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to Notre Dame Cathedral for some sightseeing. We also went to Saigon Central Post Office before heading to Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (Bảo tàng Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh).

Next, we headed Chợ Bến Thành, the shopping highlight for all tourists to HCMC. After all the haggling and buying what we wanted, we went to Pho24 across the street for our lunch. No prizes for guessing my favourite dish in Vietnam.

After our delightful lunch, we went back to the hotel to collect our luggages and headed to the airport for our domestic flight to Dalat.

For more photos, please check them out here.