June was a good month.
A very good month. Now that I'm almost through July, I can say that with conviction.
Traipsing beyond the borders of our sunny isle through Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for a relaxing, pampering 4D3N stint was just part of it - albeit a big part.
My June visit to HCMC was not my first. I've been there twice before: once in 2007, next in 2009.
Not many people would think of HCMC as regular destination to visit in South East Asia, especially when you consider her alongside her more high-profile, more happening neighbours, such as Bangkok, Bali, Phuket, or Kuala Lumpur.
For me, my reasons for the multiple visits are mostly to visit family rather than to visit the city per se.
Nonetheless, HCMC has enough charm in itself, and I'm only beginning to realise that with age and through the lens of a more seasoned traveller.
You might ask what makes HCMC worth visiting (or you might not..)
Regardless, I think every travelogue worth its salt should include a list of "Top 3 Highlights", so here we go!
Kelly's Top 3 Highlights of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
1) Food!!
Have you ever tried Vietnamese cuisine? It took me a while to really appreciate it for what it was, but it was only on this most recent trip that I realised how much I liked it.
Fresh herbs, meats rolled up in delicate rice paper, and sweet chili sauce with drizzles of fish sauce have to be the main accents of (Southern) Vietnamese cuisine, from what my taste buds tell me.
Wrap n Roll is a great one-stop place to sample a huge variety of rolls!
(If you couldn't already gather from the name..)
A variety of spring rolls that I sampled - everything can be wrapped!
Fried spring rolls, even seaweed!
The Vietnamese pancake, Banh Xeo, is a lightly fried crepe filled with minced pork, shrimp and A LOT of beansprouts.
Vietnamese food aside, other cuisine options are plenty, and their standards pretty high as well!
What's best are the reasonable prices as compared to Singapore. A fine dining experience in a lovely top-notch French restaurant cost me approximately $100SGD for a 5-course meal.
I felt as though I'd eaten my way through the city by the time I left after four days!
2) Wandering around the streets
It's really quite an experience that's quite unlike any other, trust me.
For one, taking in the architecture that seems confused between its French colonial past and its own local trappings is something in itself.
For another, crossing the road in HCMC is totally in a league of its own. Picture a wall of motorcycles, some with a family of four squeezed together, some with a piece of bulky furniture teetering precariously albeit being secured to the vehicle with a string... And some completely disregarding traffic light signals...
You gotta cross with eyes wide shut and a stare for the motorcyclists, or you'll never get to where you wanna go.
3) Getting pampered and living the good life
Yeah that seems like a pretty sweeping statement, but I do mean it in every sense!
Pampering myself was what I did a lot of: Getting a Thai massage for approximately SGD$45, getting foot massages at SGD$15 (although Clem will say he had a terrible experience!)... The last two times I visited was similarly spent this same way.
So anyway, reminiscising about happier times, in my bid to survive til November!
Private spa that we visited for our Thai massage. Which made me feel like a contortionist, by the way.
Trying to enjoy cheese.
We are seriously not high-brow cheese people.
My littlest cousins whose company and cheer (and sometimes plenty of fighting) we came back to every night.
Too cute!
Til the next post...
We're almost at the weekend, everyone!
