Ho Chi Minh City

We visited Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for the first time during Spring Break 2009. We left Taipei on Friday 27 March and returned in the evening of 1 April. Gayle and Joannie Tsien were extremely hospitable and put together a wonderful first taste of Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam.


We took advantage of the China Airlines special this spring and got four free tickets with our mileages to fly from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam is one hour later than Taiwan, so our two hour and 45 minute flight meant that we got on the flight in early afternoon and arrived in Vietnam at around 4pm local time. We started the day with meetings at TAS -- for the boys' bi-annual parent-teacher meetings. Our meetings went quickly and we were able to leave TAS by 11am and arrived at the Airport with plenty of time to spare. Felicia and boys had a quick bite at the cafe at the Airport while I had a bow of noodles at the China Airlines lounge. The flight was on time and not particularly full. It was one of China Airlines newer Airbuses and it was fully equipped with inflight entertainment for every seats, even in economy. Slumdog Millionaire was on and all of us watched it while we enjoyed the inflight meal service.

The landing at Ho Chi Minh was smooth, though I noticed the tarmac was a little rough/uneven. The terminal building, on the other hand, was spanky new. In fact, parts of the airport is not fully furnished as yet. Immigration was a zoo, which reminded me of what landing in Bangkok was like 10-12 years ago. It took us about an hour to get through immigration with people (on wheelchairs) continuously cutting our line. We were met by Joannie, Nicky and Philip outside. They had a van waiting for us and drove us back to the Waterfront development, a gated housing complex developed by the Tsien family. As it was rush hours on a Friday, the ride back took about one hour. The Waterfront is a gated community of various single as well as semi-detached houses. It also features a large swimming pool and two tennis courts as well as a small club house. Our unit was right next to the pool and the tennis court. It is the first two stories of a four-story semi-detached house which featured three bedrooms and three bathrooms as well as a kitchen, dinning room and a small study. Overall size of the unit is over 2000 square feet. The Waterfront is located in District 7, or the Southeast corner of Ho Chi Minh City.


Matthew was a bit sick from the car so we had a quick dinner at the pho shop right down the street, called Pho 24. Pho 24 is a relatively upmarket chain pho shop which caters to the wealthy Vietnamese and foreigners. Meals are between $2-5 per person. A bowl of pho would cost around $2, as are the must-have spring rolls. A typical "set" which would also include a drink (Vietnamese iced coffee or Pepsi) would go for about $4. The place is clean and the food is tasty and is a favorite of the Tsiens.


While Gayle normally stays in her house which is about a five minute drive from the Waterfront, she stays with her family at the Waterfront when they visit. Their unit, a large, detached house with a large backyard is at the end of the complex, and about five minute walk from us. Philip decided to take advantage of our visit and slept over at our place during our visit. Apart from the master bedroom, the second room also featured a queen bed, allowing Philip and Matthew the share a room without too much inconveniences. Nick took the third bedroom which has a nice single bed. The accommodation was simple but contains all the necessary amenities, including satellite television and internet access.


Day two started with tennis with all of us taking turns hitting balls. The temperature was high but humidity was relatively low and wasn't all that uncomfortable. We had breakfasts at the club with the boys having western and both Felicia and I having the pho. The main activity of the day was to do the Mekong Delta Tour at My Tho. My Tho is Southwest of Ho Chi Minh City and it took us about two hours to get there. After purchasing the tour and a short bathroom break, we set off on our adventure. We took a small ferry for about 10 minutes to an island in the Mekong Delta. We walked around, passing the bees/honey farm where we tried some honey tea and took picture with an albino boa. We then went to a coconut candy "factory" and tasted some of the candies as well as making a small purchase. The next stop was for some local fruit, tea as well as watched performances of local songs. The last stop was riding on a small row boat, going through the jungle and back out onto the Mekong River. We were met by our ferry which took us to another island where we were met by horse drawn buggies. After a bumpy 10 minute ride, we were taken to a restaurant which featured the local "elephant fish"--fried, free range chicken (toughest meat I have ever tasted), jumble river shrimps and some fried rice. Our guide opened fresh coconut on our ride back on the ferry for us to enjoy. Overall, it was a fun tour.

Our dinner was at An Vien Restaurant in District One (downtown). An Vien is located in a small alley and in a old house. The interior is decorated in traditional Vietnamese style which featured quite of bit of dark wood, silk,..etc. Apart from the decor and the great atmosphere, the food was delightful. Gayle basically ordered everything on the menu. Pictures of this and other meals can be found on Gayle's Facebook album.

Day three was a relatively relaxing day. We went to a City Tour in the morning, visiting the Reunification Palace (old Presidential Palace) and the War Crime Museum which basically featured old US Army tank, canons, guns as well as a couple of fighter jets. There were also quite a lot of war pictures which really depicted the American as the bad guys. After visiting these two sites, one really have the give credits to the Vietnamese who were able to withstood the onslaught of the American with better weapons and money and still won the war!! While Gayle had planned several other interesting sights for us to see, we were soon defeated by the heat, and the whinny kids and decided to call it a day.

Lunch for the kids was at downtown, at a cafe, where the kids had pizzas and sandwiches. We had the Vietnamese sandwiches (baguettes with cold cuts) which we bought on our way back to the Waterfront. The afternoon was spent by the pool and just chill. Dinner was at the Brazilian BBQ place called, Au Lac Do. We have had Brazilian BBQ before but the last time we had it was in Singapore, many years ago. Au Lac Do is slightly different than the one in Singapore in that I believe the variety of meat here was slightly less that what we had in Singapore. Whereas in Singapore there was a salad bar, the salad was served to us at the table. Overall, the food was good, though I thought they weren't as generous with the meat as they should. We were full, but not "overly stuffed."

Day four featured the visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, Northwest of the City. Since Gayle wanted to join us on this tour, we delayed our departure until after a quick lunch at Pho 24. Since we have the morning free, we took a car (from Gayle's office) equipped with a driver and bodyguard/translator and went to the local wet market. The market was open air, but not too different from the wet market in Taiwan, selling very similar things. We ended up walking up and down a couple of streets and bought some really nice mangoes for about 50 cents a piece. We next went to a local supermarket and bought some drinks, snacks and dry goods to take back to Taipei. We set off for Cu Chi after lunch. The ride there was smooth and we arrived Cu Chi within two hours. The Cu Chi Tunnels were first dug during the war against the French almost 100 years ago. It is a large tunnel system that stretches over 200km long, having three sub-terrain levels. There are underground office, sleeping quarters, hospitals, dinning room as well as entertainment center. After a brief video, we were led to the tunnels by our guide who showed us various types of rooms and tunnels. While we have heard horror stories from people who have visited Cu Chi in the past, the tunnels have been "gentrified" to allow easier access without losing much of how it must've been during the war. The tunnels were small, dark and tight for large (American) people. There was even one room which had a couple of bats inside and gave us a scare. The guide also showed us huge bomb craters as well as traps and escape routes. The tour lasted about one hour and was well worth the trip.

We decided to have Korean food for dinner and went to Kumdo Restaurant near the Waterfront. As there are many Korean companies in Vietnam, the Korean food was very good. We had the usual BBQ beef as well as chap che, pancakes, and mixed rice. The kimchi was very good and there were lots of variety as well.

Day five was free and we had breakfast with our friends, Lynn and Sinh Bui. They are the parents of Vinh who was a classmate of Matthew in second and third grade at TAS. They picked us up at the Waterfront and took us to breakfast at a "Central Vietnamese" restaurant next to the South Saigon International School. The food is a little different from what we had before but equally delicious. Lynn ordered a wide variety of food and they were hard to finish. After breakfast, they took us for a short tour of the Phu My Hung Development Area before sending us back to the Waterfront. Felicia wanted to go shopping again and bought Joannie with us. We first went to the Dong Khoi, the main shopping street next to the Opera House. There we spent about one and an half hour, looking in each shops along the way. There were many interesting art pieces but none really grabbed us. Next we went to Ben Thanh market which is a mix of the Shanghai TaoBao center (counterfeit t-shirts,.etc.) and wet market. It was a huge complex (not air conditioned) of clothes, food (fresh and cooked) and other stuff. We spent about 30 minutes walking around before having some frozen yogurt and lunch at "Wrap n Roll" a Vietnamese roll-your-own spring roll place. The food was fresh with lots of vegetable and tasty shrimps, fish and meat and it was great.

We had our last dinner at Nam An, the sister restaurant of Vien An. This restaurant is located within a 5 minute drive from the Waterfront and is modern in decoration and the food is just as good. As it was our last night here, Auntie Neo-ping also came along for dinner. We also played a bit of tennis after dinner to work off all of the food we ate.

We hung out at the Waterfront on our last day. Felicia ordered a Taxi and went shopping again and came back just before lunchtime with Vietnamese sandwiches. Gayle's car took us to the airport shortly after 2pm and we spent about one and an half hour at the airport before flying back to Taipei.

Overall, our impression with Vietnam was very positive. Ho Chi Minh City was interesting, the food was very good and the price is right. Our stay at the Waterfront cost a total of just over $500, or about $100 per day, breakfast included. Of course, the Tsiens paid for a lot of the expenses such as the tour costs as well as several dinners and lunches. But, overall, we had a wonderful time.