{Vietnam Diaries} Ho Chi Minh Day 2.5 & 3

Tat Son Nhat International Airport, we meet again! Funny (or gross and disgusting) story: Once we got on the Vietnam Airlines plane from Nha Trang, our seats were literally the last ones on the plane. I glanced at the person next to us to find a flight attendant blatantly picking his nose while staring at passengers getting on the plane. The whole time I was thinking:

And then, mm mmm mmm (in Ilisha's voice) you know you ain't right for that. Trust and believe I didn't touch anything he handed out. 

By the time we landed, it was only 8am! We decided to head to the hotel and take our time walking around the attractions all around and exploring the area. Our first stop was the Independence Palace, which is one of the main landmarks in Ho Chi Minh. It was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. 

^Two very nice government workers(?) working outside. The girl on the left helped my mom and I walk across a really busy street (which my mom captured below as the motorcycle tries to run us over.)

After we successfully crossed the street, my mom mentioned how they are definitely not ADA friendly. You know how in the US there are little curb thing so things with wheels (whether it's a wheelchair or a cart) can cross the street without dropping? Well here in Ho Chi Minh, there are ropes and these metal bars on the floor (below) that you have to hop over at each intersection. Weird.

We came across a department store called Diamond Department Store. Their prices were so pricey. My mom and I (since we had time and nowhere to be) walked around inside and it was similar to Sogo in Hong Kong (the prices certain reflect Sogo) and Macy's in the US. It was funny that one of the section of the store was dedicated to Papaya USA (www.papayaclothing.com) and it was literally marketed like a higher scaled clothing company, similar to Zara. Their prices, if you look at their website is like Forever 21 or cheaper and their quality is comparable to Wet Seal. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is- their clothes sold at the Department Store in Vietnam are priced at millions of dollars (US$100+) for a blouse that goes for at most US$20. 

Yep.

At the very top floor, there was a food court! It's the first food court in Vietnam I've ever seen so it was definitely interesting. Most of the sections serve Vietnamese food (who would've thought). This is the first time I've seen or even heard of Lotteria! My first thought was-- is this the McDonalds of Vietnam? After some research, it turns out that it's actually a global fast food chain that started first in Tokyo. Very interesting!

Our next stop was the Central Post Office and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The Central Post Office is a working post office and it is also the city's main church. The building was constructed when Vietnam was apart of French Indochina and the architecture is absolutely beautiful. A lot of couples were in their wedding outfits taking pictures around the area as the Post Office is located right across from the Cathedral. I believe my mom counted up to 12 couples and then stopped because there were too many.

Crossing the street, we landed right in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral, which is one beautiful architecture. It is interesting because they said that all the original building materials were imported straight from France. And the tiles destroyed and damaged by war was made in Ho Chi Minh to replicate and replace the original, which reminded me a lot about Bosnia and the infrastructure that was destroyed because of war and then the Bosnian government took the original pieces and recovered the building/bridge/statue. 

^One of the two pictures we took together on this trip.^

^Like I mentioned earlier, there were a lot of couples taking engagement photos and getting married. This group's bridesmaids were all wearing yellow. (I only took this to show yellow is not a bad color for bridesmaids. Bahahaha)

We settled at Highlands Cafe to rest a bit. I had the Passion fruit Mojito, which is non-alcoholic and my mom got an Iced Vietnamese Coffee with condense milk on the side. 

The BEST Passion Fruit drink ever! The mix of mint leaves and passion fruit was a genius idea.

Tasting my mom's Vietnamese coffee for the first time without condense milk. SO STRONG. Worse than black coffee.

It was our last day in Vietnam so my mom wanted to reward us by getting mani pedis together! This is the third time I've gotten my nails done (second time for pedis) and it still feels so weird. I have a bajillion nail polishes at home so I usually do my own nails. It's weird to have people touch my hands/feet. But it was so great! Very relaxing and I came out with perfect french tips. 

We each had two girls scrubbing the dead skins off our nails and the total was VND$400,000 which is (USD$20). It was considered expensive in comparison to other nail salons in the area, but well worth it! (My mom also had to bargain for this one. They originally wanted to charge us close to VND$500,000.)

Compared to other nail salons we saw in the area, this one was of the best quality (or at least we think it is.) The other ones were a lot cheaper like mani for $60,000 + pedi for $60,000 making it only $120,000 per person. But it was inside a hair salon that was busy and overcrowded (that might mean that it's real good as well. Who knows!) 

The rest of the time we spent walking around the Bến Thành Market and watching people try to persuade us why their coffee is better than 50 other coffee stands within the 1 foot radius. This has definitely been an eye opening experience. I never thought I would have the opportunity to visit Vietnam and experience the Vietnamese culture up close and personal. The pros were definitely the cheap food! Cons would have to be the bargaining we have to endure for every situation where we had to buy something (even water) and traffic! I uploaded an earlier video of actually being in that craziness but below are two pictures of how a family of four with little kiddies can be on one moped. 

Notice the little girl squished in the middle

That's it for Vietnam! 

xoxoxoxo

{Vietnam Diaries} Nha Trang Day 1.5 & 2

Nha Trang Day 1.5

We made our way to the airport around 3PM. Below are just two pictures of the domestic terminal Tan Son Nhat Airport. Although it is an international airport, the domestic terminals were pretty run down. There were tiny cockroaches running around.

Two and a half hours of waiting and a 35 minute plane ride (yes, the plane ride was 35 minutes) later, we arrived in Cam Ranh/Nha Trang! It's interesting that it takes 35 minutes by plane vs. 8-9 hours by car, similar to SF to LA in a way. I slept the whole plane ride here since I was still jet lagged. The taxi ride from the airport in Cam Ranh to our hotel in Nha Trang was 45 minutes (longer than the plane ride there), 38 km away. I managed to fall asleep and apparently I was snoring in the taxi while my mom was freaking out about whether the taxi driver was going to take us somewhere to sell our livers since the road to the hotel was by the countryside with no street lights or anything. We made it to the hotel! It was around 9 or 10PM but it felt like 3 in the morning.

We stayed at the Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel & Spa and it was definitely a luxury hotel in a very popular city in Vietnam. Nha Trang is a coastal city east of the South China Sea. It is well known for its beaches and scuba diving. Once we arrived in our rooms, we had chocolate truffle pops waiting for us! Too bad neither of us likes chocolate.. But their hospitality from check-in to the room was exceptional.

Our view from our balcony of the private beach down below. So beautiful!

The city side of Nha Trang. 

I can stare at the view of the South China Sea all day. We went to sleep right away and woke up the next day still admiring the view! Night time vs. during the day. 

Our main objective of this trip was to relax from the hustle and bustle of city life. Eventually we decided to explore the hotel a bit more as the hotel offered a lot of amenities! The Sheraton has panoramic bay views throughout the hotel, the outdoor reflecting pool, fitness center, cooking school, more than seven restaurants, and bars. 

The hotel lobby. Love the spiral stairs! 

So very spacious.

I still can't get over how pretty the hotel is! We eventually made it through the hotel and explored the city! It's obvious how different Nha Trang is compared to Ho Chi Minh. Nha Trang has a more laid back environment verses Ho Chi Minh, which a metropolitan area. Everybody is here is also really nice. The biggest difference from the two cities is that everybody is trying to cash out in the metropolitan area, mainly the cost of anything around Ho Chi Minh is 30-40% more than Nha Trang. There are tourist areas in Nha Trang, mainly the beach areas- which is probably the city's most profitable area, but the rest of the city consist of locals meaning their prices are much cheaper. An example would be the first night in Ho Chi Minh on the street, my mom and I had pho for VND$40,000 vs (later I'll post pictures) VND$20,000 a bowl in Nha Trang. Same kind of setting, on the street in the mini chairs but half the price. 

There are still a lot of people in Nha Trang but there is a significantly greater number of people in Ho Chi Minh City. 

I love fruits. Ever since we've been in Vietnam, there are SO many different kinds of fruits ranging from rambutan to my favorite- dragonfruit! They have fruit stands on every corner and if they don't, there are ladies on bicycles with baskets of different kinds of fruits for sale. 

We stumbled into a local market at around 7-8am in the morning, so still quite early but everybody was awake and already eating breakfast (pho)! We went upstairs and discovered this warehouse looking place with individual food stands. We didn't understand what they sold but it was definitely interesting to see the local market. 

Outside with more fruit and vegetable stands.

Everybody seems to know where they were going wheezing by my mom and I. There were so many things to look at that. Several stands were selling the pho noodles (bun?) and others were selling lots of foreign spices like shrimp paste and marinated veggies.

My mom noticed a lady selling shaved(?) coconuts for VND$10,000 and she really wanted to try it so we got one! I've never had real coconut juice before. Well I guess Amar tried to chop one before but kind of failed. It's very interesting! The juice however was warm so it didn't really appeal to me but my mom enjoyed it. 

The first (malnourished) kitty I saw! I saw plenty of malnourished puppies but everybody knows that I have a soft spot for kitties :'( 

^From the left, the third moped bike is decked out in LV. Lol!^

These moped motorcycle machines are the local's main source of transportation (like you've seen earlier in my first Vietnam Diaries video). The Cantonese cyclo guy told us that everybody drives these because they are manufactured in Vietnam and so it is much more affordable. My mom and I have seen a whole family (mom, dad, child, and another child) on one of these. Every time I see crazy traffic, I can't help but wonder how many accidents happen a day. I did notice that everybody is really careful about driving- which involves a lot of honking. Crossing the streets in the beginning was such a challenge! We had to overcome our fear of getting run over and just step into the street and the cars and mopeds will just go around you. 

After wandering away from the local market and all the people, we saw this lady (below) cooking her meats for the day on the street. It was probably like 10am at this point and we were starving so we sat down and did what we did best-- feast! 

Our order of pho with unknown parts of beef and quail eggs. The broth was sososo good. 

Our brunch for the day! Mmmm with my mom's grilled chicken over rice. 

After breakfast (yes, that was breakfast), we decided to go buy some banh mi for lunch later on so we don't have to leave the hotel. 

VND$10.000 for one sandwich! (USD$0.00047 each)

A church we stumbled upon walking back to the hotel. How pretty!

Once we got back to the hotel, we laid out our purchases before heading down to the pool to relax. Rambutan, lychee, dragonfruit, mango, and our banh mis. 

The water was so cold! But it was hot out so it somehow evened out. Swimming in that pool felt like I was swimming out in the ocean. So beautiful. I was updating my blog, enjoying the sun, and tanning. (I ended up with a sunburn X_____X It's very uncomfortable traveling with a sunburn.) We decided to take a nap and ended up sleeping the whole day away. 

Nha Trang Day 2

It was good that we got a lot of rest as we had to wake up early the next day to catch a flight back to Ho Chi Minh via Vietnam Airlines. Our flight was early morning and the taxi driver who drove us from the airport to the hotel was the one who drove us back to the airport. He was a great driver! My mom asked him to take a stop at the local bakery to pick up some breakfast (below).

^Airport taxi special. The meter was running the whole time and by the time we got from the airport to the taxi, it was at VND$578,000 verses their specials from the airport to wherever in Nha Trang VND$380,000 and from Nha Trang back at VND$250,000.^ 

Nha Trang Domestic Airport (below)

Từ biệt, Nha Trang!

xoxoxoxo