Back to Saigon Again 再び ホチミン市へ

(31 May 2009): Time flies - two months have passed since my last trip to Ho Chi Minh City. This time, my trip to Saigon started in a not so glamourous way on SQ 178, departing Singapore at 12:55 pm. The standard of service on SQ has slipped in recent years. It was rather strange that the air stewardess greeted the Caucasian man behind me instead of the both of us and offered me tea right in the beginning of the meal when I was dying to quench my thirst. I haven't taken budget airlines yet but think it's time to consider that. Who needs substandard service and meals for a few hundred more dollars? I can tolerate an-hour-and-a-half of discomfort on air.

This time, for lodging, I checked-in first into a university dorm. It cost me SGD30(about 300,000 dong). Minimal, spartan, and noisy but in some sense, a good experience, because it is very 'local' in flavour.

It was still better than my school dorm in Hanoi 11 years ago in terms of cleanliness or any house that I had stayed in during my student days in Vietnam except that it didn't have a big window that overlooked a field (a bonus) like my first dorm in Hanoi had!

My biological clock woke me up at 5:00 am the next morning. In Singapore time, it was 6:00 am. I ordered a typical western style breakfast:

Later in the evening, I checked into Renaissance Riverside Hotel. For the second time, I have to say that its front desk service truly requires vast, rapid improvement. The staff were slow in communicating whatever information you needed them to convey to your family members/friends. Lounge and restaurant services ranked the best, though.

I was persuaded to pay extra US$55 for lounge access and breakfasts everyday. I think the lounge was really redundant. It wasn't necessary in fact for someone who had errands to run. There was a coffee-maker in the room; the sofa set was hard and comfortable for reading as well. This is the first morning at the hotel when I had breakfast at 7 am.

The sun rays cut through the misty night of shower. The atmosphere was warm, but the food limited in options compared to the spread in the cafe downstairs.

After the conference , I rested and visited old places. I started my day with a walk along the riverside. It was glaring hot in the early morning. Outside the hotel lobby, I could spot a statue of Trần Hưng Đạo(1228–1300; 陳興道).

Born in Nam Đinh, his original name was Trần Quốc Tuấn (陳國峻). Under him the Đại Việt armies of the Trần Dynasty managed to repell two major Mongol invasions of Kublai Khan (Yuan dynasty) in the 13th century. Trần is thus a national hero and has been deified.

One of the unforgettable places I visited was the Independence Palace. It reminded me that this country was war-torn just three decades ago.

We were too early to enter the Palace when we reached at 10:30 am and were told to wait till 1:00 pm. Instead we took a stroll to the Notre Dame Church and the Central Post Office. The heat was oppressive so we headed for some cool drinks and a good light lunch at Quan An Ngon which was very close by.

At 1 pm, we stepped into this historic venue, the former Independence Palace, constructed during the American War.

The story of Vu Ngoc Nha etched in my mind, reminding me of the dangers of 'revealing too much'. Indeed, Vu must be one of the best intelligence in human history.

It takes an agile,versatile and determined people to win the war; people who can make do and make the best with anything they have:

Despite the trauma left by the war, the Vietnamese still give the most 'face' to the Americans. At the Conference's inaugural speech, 'United States' was mentioned first, although it starts with the letter 'U'; the rest of the countries of the participants followed in an alphabetical order with the European countries named first before the Asian countries.

After the trip to Independence Palace (now, Reunification Palace), A. read his book in the room while I dashed to the Ben Thanh market. There, I realised that everything I bought was cheaper than in my last trip for the simple fact that no foreigner was with me! Now I know the right prices. I bought a pair of sandals for Ro. and another for R.

In the night, we went to the Temple Club with S. and M. As usual, I found the service there rather haughty and the food 'no big deal'. But to me, this is probably the most beautiful restaurant in the world. It must be once a 19th century Buddhist temple, judging from the tablets and steles.

One dish stood out: the Temple platter with different kinds of rolls(la lot cuon thit bo -beef rolled in pepper leaves; cha gio -fried spring rolls; nem - rice noodle rolled in lettuce; nem tom- fresh spring rolls with shrimp).

La Fourchette, a French restaurant very near the Renaissance Riverside, is on my list of restaurants to visit. The prices seem reasonable, but A. did not want to try food other than Vietnamese.

Over dinner, M. told us about the 'dog-napping' cases among expats/locals in Saigon. Earlier that day near the Reunification Palace, I saw an old lady from the countryside selling puppies which she carried in a plastic basket for 70,000 dong each to a young girl on a scooter. So cheap I thought. But if your pet dog was 'dog-napped', the ransom would be 5,000,000 dong. That was what a Japanese expat paid to get her dog back from the thief who apparently knew 'automatically' who to contact.

After the wonderful dinner, we went to Dong Khoi, to a money-changer EXIMBANK with the most reasonable rates and reliable service. This money changer will move to 135 Dong Khoi soon. Earlier upon arrival, I changed my currency at the airport which offered 17,800 dong to USD1. It wasn't fantastic; but it was convenient and I only changed US$250. A. changed US$50.

The People's Committee Building, the Opera House and so forth glowed in the night; the place looked like scenes from Disneyland.

In the morning, we took another stroll, this time turning at the corner around the Majestic Hotel side and past Nguyen Freres, the decor shop. It was closed on this early Sunday morning.

I wonder if the Mango shop I saw was real or another imitation effort? The clothes in shocking pink on the models didn't quite fall in line with the omnipresent black Mango apparel.

We left Saigon with the thought that we would return very soon. It's an interesting city with varied textures created by colonialism, war, struggle, nation-state building, commercialisation and globalisation.

Back to Vietnam ベトナム 再訪

(March 26): I'd to go to the South. It was a travel made comfortable with stays at two five-star hotels, one of which is the Windsor Plaza Hotel for its proximity to the bus-station where Mai Linh vehicles arrive and depart.

I was surprised to find Pho 24 across the Hotel, so I went there for dinner on my first night. No regrets. The young waiters and waitresses were pleasant; the pho and the nem ran were reasonably good.(Pho bo,beef noodle, and sinh to bo ,avocado juice, in picture.)

The restaurant was also clean and more spacious than the one downtown.


The next morning, we tucked in pho, cornflakes, rice porridge, egg, fruit, and toast for breakfast. The coffee, bland and characterless, was not at all invigorating. We gulped it down like water. I realised that in the cafe in Windsor Plaza, only the nuoc mam ( fish sauce ) tasted real. Even in an agriculturally fertile country like Vietnam where vegetables and food stuff are normally cheap, the ketchup and chilli sauces in the cafe look like 'dyed glue'. So I ate my sunny side-up sans ketchup. Food is terribly average here.

At night, J. wanted to taste the shark's fin of Vietnam. I obliged and took her to the Chinese restaurant at the fourth level. There, I had my first shark's fin soup in Vietnam in 11 years! It was going to be my first and last. I didn't enjoy the food. Although service was great and I was enchanted by the intricate Chinese aesthetics and Vietnamese handicraft, the kang kong rau muong with fu -yi ('fermented beans' as the Vietnamese lady articulated precisely in Cantonese), and the fried noodle we ordered were salty.

We spent SGD 44 on three dishes, the soup included. After that, we enjoyed mango juices from concentrate - compliments of the hotel - on the 25th level. To our surprise, there was a small 'Equinox Restaurant' a la Saigon beside the terrace where we were sipping our drinks. The restaurant had great ambience enhanced with wood panels and a 'cool' wine cellar. It was soothing being inside. I wondered how its food would be? The menu did not seem exciting at all.

Looking down on the buzzling streets from 25th floor in the strong breeze was rather exciting. But it was better looking afar. The city at night was rather different from developed urban cities. It was not head-spinning like Hong Kong's. A twenty-five storey building seemed like an architectural feat already:

The next morning at 6:30 am, we left for the outskirts. The lovely kitchen staff prepared us two bentoo in plastic boxes. Each one had a hard-boiled egg (unshelled), a big juicy Fuji apple, sweet Vietnamese bananas (chuoi tieu), two slices of French toasts sandwiching a slice of thick ham and melted cheese. This was a breakfast packed with warm thoughts and certainly tasted better than the whole buffet we stuffed ourselves with yesterday morning.

The journey outwards to the countryside was rather smooth. The bus sped; the passengers were quiet, unlike those from the 'far western end of the Mekong' in my last trip. The seats on the bus were far apart. The conductor - a young man- helped an old woman got up the bus even though she was accompanied by her family members. There is great respect for the old in Vietnam.

Halfway, we got down and waited for another bus. It's a smaller Mai Linh van which came after 20 -30 minutes. That Mai Linh staff was not helpful. But another traveller who was boarding a different vehicle helped us with information. He pointed to where the bus number was painted on the van. We got up the correct van, which later became packed with passengers heading westward along Kien Giang (a Mekong tributary).

Along the way, we saw a lady motorcyclist hit another motorcycle. She braked and helped the driver of the other bike who had fallen off to get up; then she uttered something and they moved on in separate ways again. J. baulked; she couldn't believe her eyes! There should be some detail exchanged on which insurance company to call or something like that, she thought. Nope - this is Vietnam, I told her.

The weather was fine - very sunny and breezy. The van stopped at a station for the commuters to lunch and relieve themselves.

Hygiene has improved over the years. J. was surprised; she thought it was much cleaner than rural Malaysia. I bolted out of the van into the toilet. Indeed I thought sanitation had improved -the toilets were OK. We brought along our clean tissue and papers and that was wise.

After 20 minutes at the terminal, the journey continued. The driver, a stout sun-browned man in his late 40s /50s, dropped us along Quoc Lo (the national expressway)after the Cao Dai Temple. I understood why he chose that spot to drop us. It was the only place where we could see some human activities - some men were chatting and enjoying some icy water outside a family shop. I negotiated for motorbike-taxis.

I asked the driver (the owner of the house where we alighted). He replied 10,000 dong for a person and said he was going to take us two rounds- both J. and I separately. I answered 'No'. Muttering something, he sped to get his neighbours. After a few houses, without success, he came running with a scrawny man. We were on our way...Toot, toot.

We arrived at the hotel. Tuan, the cleaner-turned-concierge, rushed to greet us and our luggage very quickly disappeared with him. He appeared beside the front desk in the rural hotel, smiling, and waiting for us. Indeed, he was a good 'concierge', though he explained that his job was only temporary. Dung the front desk lady had left. There was a change of management, explained Tuan. Dep ('The Beautiful'), another younger girl, took over. She's sun-burnt, pleasant, soft-spoken and sweet.

She quoted me at first in US dollars. When I broke into Vietnamese, she diverted my gaze to another price list-this time, in Vietnamese dong. She gave me a room which she said was good. I was surprised when I opened the room on the fourth floor. It was the last one I stayed in in my last trip - the same room where I was springing up and down when the dengue headaches were searing my head apart. It was bright, overlooking the main street with a big window and a tiny verandah - without any table and chairs. I looked out of the window-my heart screamed: "I'm very glad to be back!"

I unpacked everything and went out to visit my friends. Somehow I didn't find myself very productive. I wasn't in a mood to chat. Why? I wonder? The heat was sapping up my energy. In the night at 6:30 pm, J. and I took our dinner of caramelized fish in claypot,

bitter gourd stir-fried with beef, squid and a hot pot of mustard greens and fish balls. It was a fantastic dinner of the freshest ingredients:

At 7 pm, D. came to pick me up. We sped off and looked for Uncle Q. but he didn't want to chat with us. So we went back to D.'s home. There, at the second level overlooking the river, D.'s Dad was watching TV lying in a hammock tied to poles in his home. D. brought up a huge fresh coconut which he said was from Ben Tre. I sipped it as I was explaining to D. everything that he wanted to know about how to fly to Singapore.

At about 9:15 pm, his Dad was asleep on the hammock. I went back to the hotel.

The next morning, we had some awful breakfast buffet. D. appeared at 7:15 pm. He said he would be back in a while. I told him the bus would leave at 8:30 am but he had to be, as usual, late. J. refused to wait.

When we reached HCMC, the van stopped at a terminal somewhere far away from the Central. We took a taxi to Renaissance Riverside. The front desk wasn't very fast. We waited but finally went up to our room at the 11th floor. When we opened the door, wow! the view from the room was beautiful.


I scooted off to the bookstores. Prior to that, J. made sure that her request to go to Cho Ben Thanh was heard. It was a big mistake to take her along. I obliged her - again. But after shopping, we managed to reach the hotel in the evening in time to wash up for dinner.

At night, we went to Quan An Ngon. As usual, the crowd was there but we didn't wait very long. The Guest Relations girls have been great so far. This one was very pleasant.

I ordered a list: shrimp lotus salad (nom sen tom), bun thit nuong cha gio (this is simply the best!):

In addition, we had bo bia ('poh piah' as we call it here are small papaya rolls with some crushed peanuts), nem tom (shrimp summer roll), banh cuon (steamed mushroom roll with some meat)(see first picture in this entry) and cha gio (sliced ham). Finally, I had a do den (black rice dessert), which unfortunately tasted bad.

J. slurped all the way. She couldn't wait to put down her chopsticks on the table while scooping up soup with a spoon - all utensils in one hand! Both diners and the workers were all busy!

The next morning, I rose to a beautiful sunrise at the Mekong while J. was still in her sleep. The panoramic view of the river was serene...

Later, we packed and went down to the restaurant for wholesome excellent breakfast. I couldn't help recalling the more inferior quality of food at Windsor. But, Windsor's front desk and overall service was (at that time) warmer and more memorable than that of Renaissance. The Renaissance Riverside staff did not have any special characteristics that put them a class apart from those at other hotels. They were 'corporate' cold; but ack! breakfast was excellent.

And the jams and sauces could not be more authentic:

So I will come back here very soon.

On the way home,the Tan Son Nhat Airport's new international terminal,although basic in its functions, it's clean and efficient.

I am glad, I didn't meet that indespicable driver from the North who demanded tip all the way throughout my journey the last time. That was in the year 2007-already two years have passed! I only regretted that I didn't have time to feedback to TNK across the Bui Vien Motel because I have lost its business card. However, even that front desk officer at TNK, a young Mr Vu from Sadec, was belligerent. That was probably why the thought of going back would cause stress.