Vietnam Adventure Part I - Ho Chi Minh City

I'm sorry for the delay. I absolutely suck. I know. Anyway, here is a run down of my holiday to Vietnam along with some of my favourite photos. 

Rachael and I set off early on Saturday morning to Suvarnabhumi airport. Booking flights there at the earliest possible time seemed to make sense when I was doing it. More time in Vietnam right? However, after a long term a taxi at 5am on a Saturday morning did not feel good! While at the airport having a cuppa who should we meet but Pippa and Paul who were on their way to Myanmar for the week. They stopped to have a cuppa with us then jetted off themselves...have you blog posted yet Pip?!

One good think about an early flight meant that we had a great view coming into Vietnam. I even had a window seat (pretty amazing I didn't have a panic attack!). 

The Mekong Delta

First glimpse of Ho Chi Minh City.

Once we landed we drew out some Vietnamese Dong to go with our USA Dollars and got a taxi to our hotel. Our hotel was called Lan Lan 1 and was really near the Ben Thanh Market (or Ben10 market as we continually called it). 

Hotel room 1 - not bad!

After dumping our stuff, we headed out for a look around. As we were so close to Ben10 market, we popped in and found our first Pho Bo (said Fu(r) Bu(r) but continually called Po Bo). This is one of the dishes you have to try when in Vietnam so we thought we should. How good can a bowl of clear beef soup with noodles be? Well...I didn't expect it to be this good! Amazing! We had lots of other Po Bo while we were away but nothing beat this first one in the market.

Pho Bo

After we had refueled we went for a wander around and found our hotel was in a great location for...well, everything!

Reunification Palace

People's Committee Building

Notre Dame Cathedral

Ben Thanh Market

Range of animal parts on sale at Ben10

Market map

Obviously this wander left Rachael and I exhausted and in need of some sustenance and rest. So on our way back to the hotel for a nap, we found a pretty little French cafe so we stopped there for some tea and cakes!

 

Macaroons in Ho Chi Minh!

Going...

Gone!

The next day we took a walking tour around the city, led by Miss Rachael Walker, orienteer extraordinaire. Here are the things we saw...

The other side of Ben10 market after crossing the deadly
roundabout.

The Fine Arts Museum

The windows were some of the prettiest things there.

Painted glass on the front doors.

The chandelier in the entrance hall.

All the floors were tiled with beautiful patterns. 

There was also a little art gallery shop where there were hundreds of original paintings and sculptures.  

Pig!

Pretty artwork.

Stacks and stacks...

...and stacks of canvases for sale.

Monument by the river.

Ho Chi Minh (Uncle Ho) statue outside the People's
Committee building.

And then we stumbled across this little gem! Au Parc restaurant. It was tucked away near the Notre Dame Cathedral and didn't look too exciting from the outside but inside...

Bright yellow and very Mediterranean!

Chicken kebab wrap with salad. Oh so good!

New York Cheesecake - mmm!

Almost managed it!

On the final day we went to the War Remnants Museum. Lots of people had told us about it but we thought we should go and see for ourselves. It was pretty harrowing and not pleasant but definitely worth going when you're in the city. 

After having visited lots of different places for Pho Bo and going to some lovely Vietnamese restaurants in the evenings we were drawn back to Au Parc as their lunches were so good! 

Tomato and feta dip with pomelo and orange juice.

Apple crumble with ice cream and caramel
and chocolate cheesecake. 

So on Tuesday we said goodbye to Ho Chi Minh city and it's lovely French patisseries, phenomenal Pho Bo, gorgeous French men, terrifying traffic and warm weather to get another early flight to Danang airport, 40 minutes away from Hoi An.