HO CHI MINH CITY – VIETNAM

Wearing Ao Dai – Vietnam National Dress

Going to Vietnam has always been my dream for a long time. For new year holiday i was planning on going to NTT (Eat Nusa Tenggara) but for some reasons i canceled it and decided to go to Vietnam & Malaysia instead. I had more reasons to go there since i have some good ‘online’ friends i’ve known for pretty long time so i wanted to meet them badly.

I should have bought the tickets earlier so i could get so much cheaper L, for the whole tickets (2 domestics & 4 International tickets) i spent about Rp. 4,300,000 or USD 322. For many people it’s cheap but since i knew i could get so much cheaper than that, i think it was a lot L. But doesn’t matter cause i really wanted to do this trip so in one day i flied from Sumbawa to Lombok, then continue from Lombok to Kuala Lumpur then finally from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh City.

Independence Palace

Super tired but was so excited about being in HCMC, after exchanged my USD 70 to VND at the airport, i took taxi to a Restaurant where my friend works. Her name is Anna, met her couple years ago on a language learning website called Sharedtalk. It was so nice to finally meet her, i had dinner at the restaurant while waiting for her to finish her work then she took me to try some street food with her Scooter. As i heard many times, Vietnam has so many delicious street food.

I stayed with Anna during my trip to HCMC, she was free in daytime so she took me to drive around HCMC, the next day we drove to the Independence Palace, also known as Reunification Palace in District 1. It is a landmark of HCMC that used to be home and workplace of South Vietnam President during Vietnam war. It’s a 4 floor buildings where we can see the President Office, Banquet Chamber, Minister’s Cabinet Room, Conference Hall, etc. To enter the palace we had to pay entrance fee VND 20,000 or USD 1.

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

After visiting Independence Palace we went to Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica which is still in District 1. It is a cathedral established by French colonists with Virgin Mary statue in front of it. When i was there there were some couple taking pre-wedding pictures awww sweet and sucks -,-. Btw right next to the cathedral, there is a book street where we chilled at for awhile, taking some pictures then had lunch. There is also another famous landmark next to the cathedral which is Saigon Central Post Office. It’s one of the oldest building in HCMC, i thought they didn’t use the office anymore but they still do. I just can’t imagine how they still can work with hundred of people visiting their office every single day. They sell some kind of Vietnam Souvenir inside.

Book Street

Inside Saigon Central Post Office

After that we continued driving to see Bitexco Financial Tower, it’s the tallest building in Vietnam, about 262,5 m. We could see the view of HCMC from the skydeck but we didn’t do that. We even went too close to the building that we couldn’t even take a good pictures of it -,-. We just parked the scooter in front of it and walked around to try another street food and took pictures in front of Ho Chi Minh Squares and of course we also went to Bến Thành Market, 1 of oldest and most famous landmark of HCMC. Very popular among tourists who want to find souvenirs or local handicrafts. We didn’t buy anything tho cause my friend said the market near her house is so much cheaper so we just explore around the market a lil bit. I have no pictures of Bến Thành market tho....:(

Bitexco Financial Tower and surroundings

Ho Chi Minh Squares

All those places are close to each other so you can just visit all in one day. It’s just the traffic was so horrible, but i admire their driving skill, i feel like they are so good at driving in a very crowded street. I felt very safe driving with Anna but almost got a heart attacked few times -,-. That day we went to so many places and at night after Anna finished her work we continued hunting street food. To be honest i’m into foreign food but i wated to try everything,not so everything. Besides, driving around HCMC at night was fun, not so crowded and street food everywhere.

The next day i had an appointment to have lunch with other Sharedtalker friends, Thinh & Windy. But before we meet them, Anna & i went to Lê Thị Riêng Park, an amusement park in District 10. There is no entrance fee, we only have to pay every games we wanna play. But unluckily it wasn’t open yet till 3 pm so we only walked around the park taking pictures.

Lê Thị Riêng Park

Then we drove for another 10 minutes to a restaurant we planned to meet up and it was sooo amazing to meet Windy & Thinh, we talked online for awhile then met in real life. That trip was seriously more meeting friends than visit places, well i visited many places there but meeting those amazing girls was just wonderful. They gave me lots of cute gifts and they were super friendly that made me feel so sad to just spent a lil time with them cause they were busy that day. We talked a lot about food, languages,,,,,,,boys!

Sharedtalkers meet up

Thinh, Anna, Me & Windy

Thinh met me again a bit later to give me another gifts and windy had to work while Anna & i had an important mission to do that day, to find Ao Dai rental place! Yea i always wanted to try that Vietnamese National Dress. Seen them a lot in Beauty Pageants :D and it’s just beautiful so i talked to Anna about renting it till we finally found a studio where we can rent it but i was just too lazy to go out so decided to do the photoshoot in the studio. I paid VND 400.000 for that include make up and 2 dresses. I’m never good about posing for photoshoot but the photographer helped a lot :D. They emailed me the files few days after that. I like how i look in it, i look pretty.....after they photoshopped it -,-.

Ao Dai Photoshoot

We didn’t have enough time to go to the market for shopping that day and i was pretty tired so i took a rest a lil bit while Anna was working and she picked me up again after she finished working to have dinner together with her friend and cousin. We ate Pho, a famous noodles in Vietnam, i always love noodles but there is some kind of leaf that Vietnamese and also Thai people use in almost all of their food. But to me it tastes terrriblleee, so Anna always told the seller not to put any leaf in my food.

The next day i flied back to Kuala Lumpur and spent couple days there till New Year Eve. But i was soooo sad to leave HCMC & Anna. She was so kind and sincere, she never really believed that i would come to visit her but i really did and no matter how annoying she was, she treated me so good. I like how she always took my arm whenever we walked or how we dressed up the same. Even tho it was a short visit but HCMC is like my 2^nd home already, cause Anna is there and i know she will always welcome me,,,,,,umm i hope -,-