08/07/2010
Today I woke up late almost 9.30 am due to world cup and holiday mode on. Hurry up going downstairs to catch the breakfast that lasted til 10 am. Our day plan was easy and relax, walking around the city to visit landmark buildings of Ho Chi Minh City. We didn’t take any tour (which usually costs around $10), we went around by ourselves: War Remnant Museum, Reunification Palace, Notredame Church, Post Office building, Opera House, People Committee Hall, and Revolutionary Museum. That way we could go anywhere we wanted, and total costs we spent not even $5. One funny thing when we went to War Remnant Museum by cab, the driver who could not speak English ask us: “voom voom voom?” like a gun/bomb shooting sound, to make sure our destination. This museum really made us depression with all the bloody pictures during Vietnam war with US troops.
We had lunch in a famous Vietnamese foods restaurant named Nha Hang Ngon or Quan An Ngon. From internet we noted the address was in 138 Nam Ky Khoi Nghai but it was moved to another street nearby, Pasteur 160. We love the seafood with sweet and sour soup! I think I like Vietnam soup more than Thailand tom yam. We also ordered Bánh chuối (Vietnamese Banana Cake), it was good if we’re just not too full.
In the afternoon we went back to hotel to take shower (it was raining season there but the day was freaking hot!!!) and got some rest while waiting for my local friend’s coming. She then took us for dinner in a small restaurant that is famous among local people for its yellow rice (we’d already had enough Pho (noodle soup), so now we tried rice foods). After that, she took us to a local coffee shop: Trung Nguyen (she said there’s one in Orchard Singapore, I didn’t know!). Their coffee maker is really unique, small and made of aluminium. There we chatted many things especially about Vietnam (for example on how their government banned accessing Facebook :P). Not just enjoyed the trip, I also learned a lot.