This is my last post on our trip to Ho Chi Minh City. It was the highlight of our trip – visiting the Bitexco Financial Tower.

It’s one of those buildings that you can see from everywhere you stand in the city centre.

I thought it looked magnificent from far. And when someone told me that we can go up and see the view of Ho Chi Minh City from its deck at the 49th floor, I was there in a flash. I’m a sucker for views!

It was gorgeous even from below. Very futuristic. This is the Vietnam I had expected to see. The vintage, old-fashioned lifestyle of the Vietnamese wasn’t what I had expected at all.

It was a commercial building, so the only place for visitors was the viewing deck. Right below that disc that stuck out of the building. That disc was actually a helicopter pad.

The view was spectacular. We could see the CBD, Saigon river and far beyond. It was a 360° view.

Built in October 2010, the Bitexco Financial Tower is the tallest building in Ho Chi Minh City. It has 68 floors above ground level and has more than 16 elevators that can reach any floor in the building within 45 seconds.

We discovered that they had just constructed a restaurant at the viewing deck. It was going to be opened end March 2012, but they were opened for drinks when we were there. This was the grand finale of our trip, so I had a glass of wine and we sat in the comfy air-conditioned restaurant and enjoyed the view.

Mom is an iPhone addict. You can see where I get my genes from. Heh heh.

If I ever return to Ho Chi Minh City, I would definitely come here again.

Each ticket to the viewing deck of the Bitexco Financial Tower costs VND200,000 (~SGD12).

Have a great weekend!
 

I’m not a big fan of led tours. But I have to say that when it’s non-peak season, and just Mom and I and a nice big car and own personal tour guide, it’s pretty cool. Especially when the guide barely spoke English and we couldn’t understand each other. His attempts at small talk with us eventually died down to peace and quiet for 3 hours in a nice air-conditioned comfortable car enroute to the Mekong River.

Here we are at the Mekong River. Our guide helps Mom into the boat. Yeap, Dad would not have been happy to see this. Our tour guide looked like a tourist himself. And he had a cheeky demeanor that came across as a little ham sup overly eager.

The Mekong River reminded me of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. It was lined with houses and businesses, filled with muddy waters and occupied by numerous boats. There was also a floating market.

The Mekong was no small river. It’s the 12th longest river in the world and runs approximately 4,350km across Vietnam, Thailand, China, Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

Although we saw that there was plenty of transportation done on the river, I learnt (from Wikipedia, not the guide) that the water flow is very seasonal and varies alot, causing lots of waterfalls and rapids to develop. This makes it hard for navigation in the river.

If the people truly did struggle with navigation, we didn’t feel it at all. We were going at a good steady speed along the river.

Our boat was driven by a lady! She may look soft and gentle, but she was pretty tough handling a large boat!

It was like a private tour for us on the boat. Just Mom and I.

Except that when we peered over the boat, there were people swimming and bathing in the water. Duh! The water looked so dirty and smelly!

Well, I guess it wasn’t that private after all. Haha..

Part of this tour including a Vietnamese lunch along the river. And we were brought to this quaint little restaurant called Mai Quoc Nam.

There was only one other (ang moh) couple in the restaurant with another tour. So we had practically the whole restaurant to ourselves. Mom was really skeptical about the food when it arrived. And the other couple looked like they were going to choose to starve as they stared at the fish head.

The food turned out to be yummy! We devoured the fish, while the ang moh couple stared at us. I don’t think they’ve ever eaten fish that wasn’t a fillet. Haha..

It was a pretty good day for us. We stopped by some of the villages along the river and did some shopping. The rest of it was a relaxing boat ride.

I do recommend the tour especially for non-Asians. There’s alot of traditional Vietnamese way of life, culture and artwork found along the way in the tour that would be fascinating for most visitors. There are tours with the options to hop from boat to boat, or to wear the traditional Vietnamese hat and ride a sampan, and some overnight options.
 

Every travel website on Ho Chi Minh city said the Cu Chi Tunnels was a must see. So Mom and I booked ourselves on a half day trip to visit the tunnels.

It turned out that we were the only customers for the day, so instead of a tour bus/van, a posh sedan came for us instead. We felt like royalty seated at the back. That was the only highlight of our tour.

Our guide turned out to be a middle aged Vietnamese man who spoke little English. We struggled trying to understand his commentary and he could barely understand us when we had questions. We finally gave up and just followed him everywhere he wanted to take us to, and depended on Google on my iPhone for the rest.

Cu Chi Tunnel was ridiculously commercial. I’m doubtful how much of what we saw was 100% original. This used to be the Viet Cong’s base in the 1968s when they fought the Americans. There were life size mannequin-dummy dolls to illustrate the lives of the soldiers in the war and booby traps demonstrations.

Tunnels were opened for visitors to climb into for an experience of life underground. And there was a live rifle firing range if visitors wanted to try shooting with some AK-47 machines.

We would have stayed here underground forever if we had a choice. The outside was SO hot that day! But it’s not comfortable at all to stay for more than a few minutes in the tunnels. It was not easy to maneuver through these tight spaces. It was pitch dark in there, except for our torch lights. We were panting by the time we completed a 40m journey.

Probably the most interesting feature for me was the rice paper making segment. See, I did say this place was completely commercialised.

A lady demonstrated how the Vietnamese rice paper that is used to make fresh spring rolls was made. There was a solution of finely ground rice and water. A thin layer was spread on to a flat surface to create a crepe-like piece.

A lid was placed over the sheet of rice paper to allow the paper to be “cooked”.

Then a rolling pin wrapped in a soft wet cloth was used to roll over the rice paper to lift it off the stove.

The sheet of paper was then gently lifted and then transferred to a cane panel.

Now I know why rice paper always have those lines on them. They are from the cane panel surface! The rice paper was then left in the sun for 24 hours to dry.

So much work goes into one piece of rice paper!

So yeah, go visit Cu Chi Tunnels if you have time to spare and don’t mind a 3 to 4 hours journey (to & fro). If you like commercial gimmicks, you will also like taking photos with a bomb blast crater or posing with rusty tankers and mannequin soldiers. No judgement here because I do quite alot of weird and silly things every day too.

Just remember to slap on your sunscreen and mosquito spray! I was badly feasted on by the mozzies on the tunnel grounds. That was definitely a mood killer!

A good way to see Cu Chi Tunnel with a tour is to combine it with the Mekong River tour. We did a full day Mekong Visit and it was great. More later..
 

What do two gals do in Ho Chi Minh city other than eat and get massages?

Sight-see, of course.

But first we had to beat the traffic. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh was CRAZY! We’ve been warned by friends of the riders. But when we first saw them come charging, Mom and I had a huge scare!

I’m not kidding. We have no idea how they manage to maneuver through this mob.

You would expect them to be mafia tough male riders. But no, a large percentage of the riders were females! Here’s one getting through peak traffic wearing pink and a face mask. It’s a dusty situation!

I was constantly amazed at the powers of these super heroes.

One fellow could text AND ride at the same time. This was peak hour traffic too.

I spent a morning analysing the way they moved while having breakfast at the hotel. I finally realised that they didn’t need a system to move because their system was to give way. All the vehicles operated on a squeeze-my-way-through-but-always-give-way mode. Which is why they always gave way to us when we crossed the road. Not without a few honks though.

It was almost impossible to take any shot of a building without having riders in it.

Here’s a shot of the iconic City Hall building. See? Riders.

And the Opera House.

And the huge Ben Thanh Market.

Every shot has a rider in it! Haha..

Everyone says the Ben Thanh Market is a must-see, but Mom and I were not impressed. Perhaps it’s because it’s quite like the street markets (pasar malam) in Singapore and Malaysia. Or maybe because it was 40°C outside (which means 150°C inside), and we were being baked like roast chicken.

It was the usual expected stores selling knick knacks, tit bits, Vietnamese coffee, clothes & accessories and fake goods.

The one thing that looked interesting was an entire section of food stalls. They were mostly closed when we were there. But I would have loved to sample some local delights. If only it wasn’t so hot inside..

At one point, it got so hot that we literally got outside to get some fresh air.. and discovered that Ben Thanh Market was surrounded by shops and small restaurants. It turns into a night market and eating area after Ben Thanh is closed!

One of the nicest buildings we visited in Ho Chi Minh City was the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It’s a much smaller, less grand version of the original Parisian one – see my post on Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris. But it’s just as pretty.

We didn’t do alot in the city because it was really too hot and we just felt like melting the whole time. The good thing was taxi rides were relatively cheap and we could get to places that were a few minutes away for about USD1.00. We tried to walk (an attempt to burn off some calories after gorging on so much beef pho), but the sun was just burning our skin away.

Night time is the nicest in the city. That’s when Mom and I would go for a stroll and find a nice spot to eat at again. Heh heh…

Up next – Mom and I get treated like royalty..
 

The one thing I was very excited about in Vietnam was the food. I love Vietnamese pho and fresh spring rolls, and I warned Mom that I could very possibly want to eat those every day.

I thought it would be the easiest thing to eat since I know Vietnamese food relatively well. Except that this was both our virgin trip to Vietnam and we didn’t know till we arrived that not every Vietnamese spoke fluent English. All my Vietnamese friends do, so I had assumed that everyone in Vietnam would too!

I wish I had know this earlier and learnt some Vietnamese words before we came. Because it was NOT easy to communicate with the Vietnamese. Especially when it came to food. I had to gesture alot. Point alot. And wave my hands alot.

We ate beef pho every day. But I could never pronounce Pho Bo in the right way. The waiters grinned every time I ordered.

Asking for extra soup or condiments was relatively easy. I would point at a particular item and go More! More! They get it in one way or other in the end, but not without me feeling silly first in the restaurant. In one restaurant, the waitress didn’t even know the word More! *faints* Asking to change the rice bee hoon noodles to pho noodles in a dish was impossible.

The pho always came with beef fillet, beef flank, beef meatballs or oxtail. We liked beef flank and meatballs. So I remembered their names pho bo chin and pho bo vien (pronounced as “veen”). Quite easy.. bo chin (no chin) and bo vein (no veins).

Mom and I were pigs. We slurped up every drop of soup every time. And then asked for more soup. They hate us.

We ate lots of these fresh spring rolls too. They are my favourite and I make them alot – see Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls recipe here.

To my disappointment, I discovered that these rolls tasted better outside Vietnam than inside Vietnam. Duh. They were rock hard when they were served. And it was like that in 4 different occasions in different restaurants. Try explaining to the waiters that the rolls were too hard. In one restaurant, we tried explaining and they brought us chilli sauce, thinking that we wanted to dip the rolls in sauce. Duh. We finally gave up on this dish and stuck to deep fried spring rolls instead.

The one thing I absolutely adored everywhere was Vietnamese coffee. It was ridiculously rich and fragrant. I loved having mine drip into some condensed milk. I’m a snob. It looked like it tasted better that way.

Thick drip coffee poured over ice. Yummmmm..

There were lots of street vendors selling food in the city. I ended up eating street food because I couldn’t take their pictures without feeling like I should buy something. This wasn’t South Africa. Asians don’t enjoy having their pictures taken by strangers like that.

I tried some of those home street-made waffles and they were delicious! Although I did spot her drop one on the floor and did the 5 seconds rule on it. =p

We had a fabulous time eating in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Mom is now battling a massive bout of food poisoning. She practically hogged the toilet onboard on our way home. =(

More on Ho Chi Minh city later..
 

It’s my Mom’s birthday and I took her on a getaway to have some girly time together.

It’s been years since we’ve done this and I was psyched for a very fun and tiring time ahead. You see, my Mom is the real Energizer bunny. I’m just the imitation. She has a tremendous amount of energy. I groan when I think about keeping up with her.

So I’ve finally managed to convince Mom to put on a face mask, put down her iPhone, stow away her Facebook and email and goodness knows what else she does on her laptop. And now that she’s finally fast asleep, I can think of the day we’ve just had.

My agenda in Ho Chi Minh was clear – pho and massages. Rest, eat and relax. Fortunately, Mom agreed to my plan.

Onboard on a horrible flight on Jetstar. Seriously, they didn’t clean the toilets while on the ground. The toilets stank even though I was the 3rd person onboard to use it immediately after take off. They also screwed up the meal I had ordered for Mom when I made the booking, and missed to let us board first even though I had paid for priority boarding. This was supposed to be her birthday treat!!! Argh.

We were grateful to arrive in Vietnam.

First impression – WATCH OUT for crazy riders!!!!

Second impression – Lots of old historic buildings. Love the vintage charm.

Best thing of the day – Beef Pho, spring rolls and Vietnamese iced coffee. Yummmm…

Lovely view of District 1 from our room.

And best foot reflexology ever (made Mom sleep.. not easy!) at Glow Spa, Saigon.

Great first day in Ho Chi Minh. 8am start in the morning. I am going to be so dead.

More later..
 

–
 

Thanks for taking part in the Argan Oil giveaway. Here are the winners. They were both selected with the Random Number Generator.

#16 Carolyn (en******3@hotmail.com)
If I have the bottle, I will gladly pass to my teenage daughter to use to heal her acne on her face..

#58 Wendy (we*******h@hotmail.com)
I’m getting married end of this year and i wish i could get rid of the wrinkles around my eyes and my dry hands & feet..

Congratulations, Carolyn and Wendy! You both win a 50ml bottle of 100% Pure Argan Oil worth SGD69.55. I will be contacting you shortly to send it to you. I hope enjoy it!
 

I’m a sucker for aerial views.

And every time I am on an airplane, I want a window seat. I’m not shy about it. I’m a woman in her 30s looking like a kid on her first airplane ride whenever the aircraft takes off or lands. You’ll find me with my nose practically pressed against the window, looking out.

I love everything about what I see out there. The runway and the mountains..

The airports and the airplanes docked there..

Clouds. Especially clouds. I love the occasional surprise of beautiful clouds when I lift the window shades in the middle of the flight.

The beautiful land from high above..

And my favourite view of all. Seeing Singapore..

The sight of home always makes me happy. =)
 

So continuing on my trip to San Francisco, this was a trip to see my friend, A. We’ve been friends for a long time and she was going through a rough time in her life. I had decided to make it rougher by living and eating off her. And making her my chauffeur. Haha..

And that’s what she was for a day. My chauffeur. She had intended to take me to Muir Woods, which was supposedly an hour from where she lived. But we got lost. Blame it on us chatting and getting distracted the map from Google Maps the GPS, we drove all the way to Point Reyes instead.

By the time we got to Muir Woods, it was 4 hours later. Haha! My friend was exhausted and starving. But the ride was wonderful for me. I got to see a little of the outskirts of San Francisco and it was very scenic.

Muir Woods turned out to be amazing.

It was a conservation area and the state protects it for the redwood forest. There were super tall sequoia trees in the park that were like 1000 years old.

These trees were super skinny and amazingly tall. My head had to be tilted all the way back to see their tops.

They aren’t fat like the kauri trees in New Zealand but they are very pretty. Probably also worth big bucks since it’s redwood. Anyone wants to sneak in and go chop some trees? =p

It was a lovely park and a great place to take a walk on a weekday when it’s quiet and peaceful.

Big thanks to A for driving me there! And we are so not using Google Maps for going to Muir Woods next time. =)
 

Only a handful of the people closest to me know this – I like firing guns.

So when I was in San Francisco, I rallied a couple of old friends to go to the gun range with me. I thought it would be interesting to write down my experience since Singapore prohibits gun ownership and almost all girls have never touched a gun unless they visited a gun range overseas or served in the police force or military.

I was excited.

I haven’t shot in a long time. Seeing all the bullet shells on the floor and the target sheets up there got my adrenaline pumping.

I forgot to bring pictures of my enemies for my target sheet. So I decided on a plain target sheet.

Yes, I know I know.. it’s totally unexpected of me. But it’s the truth. Shooting (not the camera, this time) is something I learnt many years ago and developed a liking for it.

I like the control that I have over the gun. And I’ve always believed in learning about them not to kill, but to know how to use one. If a gun ever landed in my hands, I would know how to use it if I had to.

See the bullet shell in the above picture that flew out from the gun when I fired a shot?

Here’s me with my coach and friend, Jeff. He’s the best teacher in the world. Super patient. He was the first person to teach me to shoot and was totally patient when I was nervous and shivering.

Jeff is an ex-cop and has a personal collection of guns. We shot with two of his Sig Sauer pistols and one of them was a rare West Germany vintage cop gun Sig P225.

Each pistol uses a single magazine column that holds eight 9mm rounds.

To begin a shooting session, it is every shooter’s responsibility to fill up our own magazine.

The bullets are pushed one at a time into the magazine.

Once you are ready, everyone stands back while you fire away. That’s my tiny friend, A shooting away. Beside her was this pai kia looking guy with big guns and ammo and every shot he fired sent the room rumbling.

You have to stand back when someone is shooting in case the bullet shells hit you. Those fast flying hot shells will hurt if they hit your face or worse, go down your shirt.

I fired several rounds and guess what my target sheet looked like? =)

Yeap. I’m pretty good at this thing, even though I haven’t shot in a long time. I have to admit though, that my very first round was crap. But once I got comfortable with the pistols, it was a breeze.

Jeff introduced me to his rifle for the first time. Although it shoots so much faster, so much more accurately with less recoil, it weighed a ton and I could barely carry it. So no, no rifles for me for now.

I think I’ll go check out the gun ranges in South Africa some day.

Please don’t leave negative comments about the rights and wrongs of firearms. I live in a country where firearms is a very sensitive issue because of the social problems that are caused by them. Learning how to shoot is for knowledge and to learn the basics of marksmanship. It is not to kill. That’s a completely different matter altogether. I like knowing that if a gun landed in my hand, I would know how to disarm it or use it if I had to.
 

Photos credit: All shots of me were shot by my friend, A.

If you’ve read what I wrote earlier about Why Book An Apartment For A Holiday?, you wouldn’t be surprised that I had booked myself an apartment for my stay in San Francisco.

Roomorama graciously provided for my stay and helped me hunt down the best apartment that would suit my fussy needs. I gave the Roomorama team a hard time with my request. So I was very impressed when they worked with their team in San Francisco and found me an apartment that met all my needs! They were so ready to help out.. which is one great reason I will be booking with them again.

When I was in San Francisco, it took forever to find the apartment because it was an old building tucked behind a bunch of buildings and there was only a small driveway to drive to it. But once I found it, I discovered it was a building built in the 1960s. The interior had obviously been restored but they kept some parts of the stairway to the apartment lined with probably the original old fashioned wall paper.

How quaint! I was fascinated. There were some old ceramic tiles on one wall and what looked like a secret compartment. I tried to pull this cover but it wouldn’t budge. Yes, I’m kaypoh curious like that.

The only thing I didn’t like about such an apartment was having to climb the stairs. It’s not fun to lug a large luggage bag up a few flights of steps.

But once I was in the apartment, all my physical pain was forgotten. The apartment was gorgeous!

There was a beautiful dining area, a couch that could be expanded into a bed, and a lovely lounge. Check out that quaint fireplace in the corner!

I loved the old fashioned feel of these couches. Perfect to sink into with a glass of wine and chit chat all day.

It was an extraordinary apartment. So huge for a one bedroom! It only costs from USD150 a night!

The kitchen was large, clean and very well equipped.

It came with one bedroom and one toilet and a separate laundry room outside the apartment.

And the best part of the apartment was the view. Oh my goodness.. the view was amazing.

I could see practically all of Downtown SF from the windows.

At night, the city turned into a magical display of sparkling lights. It was beautiful.

Thanks heaps, Roomorama! You guys have been fabulous.

And now the great peeps at Roomorama are giving away a USD100 Roomorama voucher to a lucky reader for your next holiday!

For a chance to win the Roomorama voucher, all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post and say which is your dream holiday destination and why.

The voucher is a USD100 (~SGD130) credit and is valid for use with all Roomorama bookings.

Contest ends Wednesday 21 December 2011, at 11.59pm UTC+8.

The winner will be picked with a Random Number Generator.

Good luck!