One last day in Ho Chi Minh City

The weekends always seem to pass so quickly – regardless of whether we stay in Singapore or venture out to another city, Sunday always arrives way before I’m ready for it.

            Following our lovely dinner (and a glass or two of wine) on Saturday night, when I woke up at 8am on Sunday morning ready to play, I felt that I couldn’t really justify waking Nick up before necessary again, so I slipped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes I could find and I headed out into the early morning city to see the final few buildings that we had on our list to visit, and that I knew Nick had seen during his previously visits to the city.

            Thanks to the fantastic location of our hotel the main things that I wanted to see were all within a ten minute stroll, with an extra bonus being that I only had to brave crossing few roads, and I only had to face early morning traffic too.

            When I left the hotel I made my way first to the Saigon Opera House, where live music was being performed on the main steps, and where hundreds of bikes had just pulled up in the middle of the road to stop and listen. It was quite an incredible spectacle, and one that I certainly wouldn’t have expected to see at that time of the morning.

Live music and a captive audience at the Opera House

From there I wandered up to Notre Dame Cathedral (a miniature version of the real one) that the French built here to remind them of home, and the utterly beautiful post office which has become one of the most recognisable buildings in the city as it’s so spectacular and also out of place.

Notre Dame Cathedral 

After a quick coffee at a little local shop I then braved heading back to the hotel to wake Nick up ready for our lunch plan.

Lunch by the river 

Lunch by the river 

Not only had Nick found a fabulous place by the water for lunch before we had to make our way to the airport, it was made even better by the fact that you could get a free boat ride down the river to get there! 

River life

After a fabulous adventure taking the 15 minute route down the river, seeing a real mix of busy overflowing city and rural Vietnamese life, we arrived at The Deck, where we then passed the rest of our Sunday eating fantastic seafood, enjoying the view, and really just soaking up all the atmosphere and sights. At times, we felt so far away from the bustle of the city, but it was strange to think that the rest of the world was carrying on just a couple of miles down the country roads! 

Culture vultures

After a lovely first meal in Saigon and an early night in what might be the comfiest bed I have ever slept in, I woke Nick up by opening the blackout curtains to glorious (blindingly bright) sunshine at 7am on Saturday morning. I was in the bad books for a while after that. Thankfully we had a brilliant breakfast, a lot of coffee, and a private car waiting at the front door of the reception to help lessen the pain.

Disappearing into the hidden tunnels 

The first portion of our day was to be spent an hour or so away at the Co Chi Tunnels. The network of tiny tunnels (really tiny – no wider than the length of Nick’s foot) were created by the Vietnamese during the war with America, and as the main tool that resulted in the Vietnamese victory during the war, it was definitely worth the trip to take a look around the exhibition that are now open for tourists to visit.   

            The tunnels were tiny and terrifying, although they themselves were not as grim as the numerous traps and weapons that were on display. Pits with hidden trapdoors and cages, holes that were designed to grab soldiers with giant spikes directly into the armpit or thigh and scatter bombs that had been handmade in underground pits, the displays were real eye-openers! It was graphic, vicious and not the sort of thing that you would want to spend more than a brief morning looking around. It was incredibly interesting though – those American soldiers didn’t stand a chance!

            Having made it around the tunnels without getting caught out in any legacy traps, we then stopped in briefly to learn about the manufacture of Vietnamese lacquer art work (I'm not sure why - our driver just thought it was a great idea) before we headed back to the hotel for a quick cool down (the temperature in the jungle was pretty spectacularly sweaty) before we started out for our afternoon adventure.               

Learning about lacquer 

The rest of our day was then spent wandering around the town. We took a tour around the fabulous streets, in their bizarre blend of European architecture and completely Asian street life. We went to the huge and slightly overwhelming markets and we found a fantastic street food restaurant to stock up on a delicious pho and plenty of water to power us through the rest of our trip.

Hanging out with the locals 

Ho Chi Minh - the city of mopeds! 

Pho - breakfast for the Vietnamese, lunch for me! 

By five o’clock we were back at the hotel, showered and changed and ready for a cocktail to mark the Five O’Clock Follies tradition. Then dinner was at a fabulous French restaurant called Le Jardin, where we ate pate, steak and apple tart out in a glorious French courtyard. It felt just like the south of France (only hotter) and we dreamed that we were back in Europe whilst working our way through some fabulous wine until we were the last ones left at the restaurant and the staff practically begged us to leave.

Five O'Clock Follies cocktails on the roof 

We wandered back to the hotel, stopping at one more French bar (opposite) for a final glass of wine we returned to the cosy comfort of the worlds most amazing bed after a long day out in Saigon!

Adventures in Saigon!

Technically speaking, you’re supposed to call it Hi Chi Minh City now, but seeing as all the locals still refer to it as Saigon, I’m going to go with that title too. It sounds a lot more exciting and exotic to me, so why not!

            After finishing up a long work meeting at 4pm on Friday afternoon I made my way to a Starbucks just underneath Nick’s office in the CBD, passing the last hour of my day working through emails until it was finally time to go, and we shuffled off to the airport ready for our weekend adventure.

            Saigon promised to be the most ‘Asian’ place that I have ever been to, with all the blogs and reviews that I had read stressing the importance of not getting run over when crossing the road, and the strange mixed attitudes towards Americans (that no doubt would be echoed against the British to an extent too by accident). I was getting a bit over excited about the whole thing, which I think Nick might have found a little bit tiring.

            After just an hour and a half in the air we touched down at Ho Chi Minh City airport, ready to make our way to the waiting car that would whisk us off to our hotel.

            As Nick had been to Saigon a couple of times before with big groups of boys, staying in the backpackers region for a couple of pounds a night, he decided that as we were going on a bit more of a grown up trip, we ought to stay somewhere lovely. And so it was that we were dropped at The Rex Hotel, one of the oldest hotels in the city, and one of the most famous.

            During the war, the rooftop of the hotel was where the American war briefings would be held each day at 5pm, in a routine that became known as the Five O’Clock Follies, and that we felt the need to mark with a cocktail or two in the open air.

            Having marked our arrival with a quick drink with a view, we made our way to a local restaurant that Nick was desperate to revisit. It was a no frills type of restaurnt, with big tables scattered over three floors, and small open kitchens lining the perimeter. At each of these bases there were local chefs, each specialising in one or two items from the menu.

We were a little late arriving, and so the menu was a bit limited by the time we got there as some of the small kitchens had already closed down for the day (sadly there was no Pho for us at this meal), but we still kicked off our trip with some local fresh spring rolls, rice, veggies and a meat kebab or two. It was a delicious way to start our holiday, and as we had plans to be up at 7am the next day, it was a lovely low key way to ease ourselves in to Saigon. 

Yet another weekend away!

I’m definitely not going to complain about the fact that I get yet another weekend away this week! Once I’ve had a client lunch and a two hour meeting this afternoon I will be making my way to meet Nick from his work, and then we'll be heading over to the airport ready for our weekend adventure to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as I really would quite like it still to be called – it has more of a ring to it, and apparently that’s what all the locals call it still too!).

            This is the first weekend away that Nick and I have been on without other friends joining since the Shock & Awe adventure over a year ago, so it should be a lovely weekend of mooching around, a bit of sightseeing and let’s face it, a lot of eating!  I can’t wait! Apparently Ho Chi Minh is a city of motorbikes, and the traffic is so crazy that it's terrifying to just try and cross the roads. Fingers crossed we come back in one piece! 

Entertaining Daddy’s buddies

Over the past few months Nick has had a string of family and Godparents making their way through Singapore, and as such there have been a handful of drinks and dinners booked in to meet up and spend some time with each of them.

            As such, when dad informed me that two friends of his (who I have never met but have been assured they are lovely) would be passing through Singapore on their way back from visiting family in Australia, I knew it would be no problem to meet up with them and take them for a nice dinner – Nick and I are entertaining pros now, don’t you know!

            Working on the assumption that if they wanted to eat selections of local / Chinese food they would be able to do that themselves during the rest of their stay, we organised to take them to PS Café, one of my favourite places, and where you’re guaranteed to get some really lovely western food without any chicken feet or pig organs hidden in the middle of it.

            We met at 7:30 for a lovely long dinner. There were a couple of glasses of wine, huge main course portions and a little coffee at the end. We didn’t go too overboard, and try as I might I couldn’t persuade them to try one of the massive triple tier cakes for pudding, but it was nice to be able to offer them a bit of hospitality while they were in town, and hopefully they will only have positive things to report back to dad when they get home in the next few days!