YowCH & Grace

Joseph had school holiday from 14 to 17 Oct 2019 for the PSLE papers marking, and we took this opportunity to travel to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam for a short trip. Esther and David did not go along as they had regular school. We flew Scoot and stayed at a budget hotel within the city centre.

Click on the maps below for larger ones:
Map of the whole trip:

Map of Ho Chi Minh City District 1 area:

DAY 1: Monday 14 Oct 2019
We packed only cabin bags which we checked-in as luggage (the purple and green bags). We brought along extra bags knowing that we will be buying stuff.

Samuel was very excited to go on a holiday.


Our first views of Vietnam from the plane:

We landed after a nice 2 hour flight, and took taxi from the airport to the hotel.

Here are some views of the HCMC streets. Traffic is generally very heavy in this city of 14 million people, and motorcycles are very very plentiful.

We reached Saigon Kiko Hotel at 3:30pm and checked-in.


We then walked out to the nearby Central Market to change SGD into Dong and had some snacks.

After snacks, we walked to Ben Thanh Market, the streets are busy, yet the city park is peacefully quiet.

Ben Thanh market – tourist shopping area. Bargaining is a must!



After shopping, we returned to Central Market for dinner.


After dinner, we returned to the hotel and the boys rested early. Grace and YowCH went out for a massage at 10:00pm and returned to the hotel at 11:10pm. We also booked a day tour for Day 2, for Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong River (about S$200 for 2A1C, Samuel free).

DAY 2: Tuesday 15 Oct 2019
We woke early to join the day tour at 7:30am, having breakfast in the hotel.

We were picked up by Hana Tour, and found out that we were the only ones on this trip (instead of a group tour, it became a personal tour!).

The streets were packed with motorcycles!

The drive to Cu Chi Tunnels is about 2 hours, and we had a short stop at An Ha Lacquer to see the local handicraft.


We reached Cu Chi Tunnels just before 10:00am.

There were some old war machines left behind by the Americans.

The tunnels were narrow and dark!




A medical tent:


Underground command centre:


Kitchen, workshops and display of traps.

We ate what the Viet Cong ate: tapioca and rice cakes with salt and grounded peanuts.

We left Cu Chi at about 11:10am and had package sandwich in the van.

Along the way, we passed by lots of paddy fields.

We had our lunch at Mekong Rest Stop at about 1:00pm and continued to the jetty at 1:50pm.

All these food for the 4 of us, part of the package tour.

At 2:20pm, we boarded the river boat for the Mekong River Tour, again only the 4 of us.



Joseph and Samuel got to drive the boat!

First stop, coconut candy factory.

The production was still mostly manual labour!

We bought some candies to bring home.


Next stop, an apiary where we had some snacks.

We bought some honey and preserved ginger.

The boys got to play with the pet python!

Next stop, we had tea break in the village along Mekong, and listened to Vietnamese traditional songs.


We boarded a sampan and rowed out from the village to the main Mekong River.



After getting back onto the river boat, we returned to the jetty at about 4:35pm, bought some souvenirs and left for HCMC at 4:40pm. The traffic was generally OK, until the last 15km to the city when the jam started.

We reached the hotel at 6:35pm, unloaded our stuff and roamed the streets for dinner at 6:55pm.

Here is a photo of Saigon Kiko Hotel.

We ate street food for dinner. The food was very nice.





We also bought instant noodles and drinks at family stores, very cheap (cup noodles plus 300mL Coke for D12,000 = S$0.70).

The boys and Grace slept at about 10:45pm while YowCH worked until about 12:15 midnight.

DAY 3: Wednesday 16 Oct 2019
We had our own free-and-easy tour on day 3. First, breakfast in hotel.

At 8:55am, we took an illegal cab (booked by the hotel bell-boy) to the Zoo.

We entered the zoo at 9:15am.

They had very peculiar statues in the zoo!



A reptile house, very old design.



A very misplaced castle to enter the herbivores enclosure.




The elephants’ shed is similar to KL zoo.




A large monkey cage:

Displays of frogs.

And birds.


Samuel was very excited about having seen both white and orange tigers.



Some more birds near the exit.

We left the zoo at 11:10am and walked to the Central Post Office.

We saw very old style buildings amidst modern buildings.

We snacked on street food, D25,000 (S$1.50) for a bowl (which we shared).


After snacking, we reached the Central Post Office at 11:50am.



We bought some post cards and sent them home. WE also bought some souvenirs.


After the Post Office, we crossed the road to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral, but it was closed due to renovations.


Next was a short walk across two streets to Ngon Restaurant, as recommended by YowCH’s colleague, reached at 1:05pm. We ate fancy and tasty Vietnamese food, and very costly (but our bill was less than D900,000, hence about S$55.00, similar meal in Singapore would be about $120.00).



After lunch, we walked to Independence Palace and entered the palace at 2:30pm.


Joseph’s photo of the place had nice sun beams!


The palace is so luxurious!


The basement is a battle bunker, and the war time equipment was set up to show how it was in the 60s.





Presidential jeep and car.


The great round carpet at Level 2.

A wide angle view of the garden.




We went up to the roof, where the lounge and helipad were.


After the Independence Palace, we walked to the nearby historical exhibition in a neighbouring building within the compound.



We left the place at 4:20pm and went to Luu Van Lang (Shoe Street) to shop for shoes.

Samuel’s favourite drink, fresh coconut juice.

Then we went to Ben Thanh again, Grace bought some cloth and YowCH got her a bespoke Ao Dai, made to measure on the spot.


At about 6:10pm, we took a cab to the Water Puppet show and arrived at 6:25pm, just in time to catch the 6:30pm show.


The show had live musicians and singers! It was quite full, too (about 85% seats taken).

The story is about life in the Mekong River.



At the end, the puppeteers walked out from behind the stage. The show was about 45 minutes.


Having spent almost all our Dong, we walked back to Central Market to change more Dong.

We then walked to a shop near our hotel and had dinner at about 8:10pm.

After dinner, we bought snacks at convenience stores and street food.


The shell fish were very nice! We chose 3 types and the lady cooked in 3 different styles!

The boys had supper, then they slept at about 11:15pm.

YowCH and Grace went out for massage and returned to the hotel at 12:35pm, and slept shortly after.

DAY 4: Thursday 17 Oct 2019
The last day! YowCH woke early at about 6:15am to sort photos, and the family woke at about 7:30am.

After breakfast in the hotel, we went out shopping again, starting at 8:50am.

We went to Luu Van Lang to buy more shoes and Ben Thanh for more clothes and cloth.

We had coffee near Ben Thanh, and shopped some more.

We returned to the hotel at 11:40am, packed and checked-out at 112:00noon. We had lunch at a nearby Burger King at 12:20pm.

After lunch, the hotel helped us call a cab and we reached the airport at 1:25pm. We quickly checked-in and crossed the immigration.

We boarded the plane and Joseph had some nose bleed right after we sat down!


The flight took off on time at 3:10pm.

Last views of Saigon.

We landed in Singapore at 5:45pm and had dinner at Terminal 2 Soup Restaurant.

After dinner, we took a cab home and reached home at 2:40pm. We left with 5 bags and we returned with 7!

Here is our loot from these 4 days in Saigon.

And the Ao Dai dresses for Esther (off-the-shelf) and Grace (bespoke):

Samuel made a sketch map of the hotel room at home to describe the room to Esther. Rather accurate!

We thank God for a great holiday for us and watching over Esther and David as they attended school. The trip was rather short but refreshing and good family time. YowCH had to endure endless messages from work, though.

We spent the following:
Air-tickets: $776.60
Hotel (3 nights): $251.00
Taxi rides in SG: $20.84 + $28.00
Spent Dong: $1,335.00
TOTAL: $2,411.44 (not too expensive considering we bought lots of clothes and shoes)

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