Vietnam Historical Trip. Day 1-2: Ho Chi Minh City

Hey, everyone!! It's time for us to share our moment while travelling to Vietnam.

We've been alternating in visiting between East Asia and other parts of the world for the past years. It all started when I was traveling alone to Egypt for a company business trip in 2008. Since then, I have been contemplating planning for a holiday circulating the continents each year.

The best part was we had covered this French-colonized country from the south to the north, visiting its three cities, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang, and Hanoi.

It was midday when we were outbound to Ho Chi Minh City; our Vietnam Airlines flight arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport almost 2 hours later. After settling down with the necessities at the airport, VietnamDrive took us to the Sanouva hotel in District 1. It's located downtown and in the middle of a shopping paradise for locals and tourists. It's only a 5-minute walk to the infamous Ben Thanh market.

The hotel check-in was a breeze, and it didn't take us long to immerse ourselves in the crowds just in front of our stay. One thing that we noticed was a bunch of Malaysian shops scattered in that area, being textile shops as well as restaurants. More interesting is that most of the shops, even the Ben Tanh market, accepted Malaysian Ringgit for the transaction! We don't have to scratch our heads on the rate conversion; a ringgit equals five thousand something dong... errr, am I getting old?

Started to explore the shopping district

We set out to explore the shopping district in Kita putar Halim.

The atmosphere at Ben Tanh market was vibrant and bustling.

On the following days, VietnamDrive arranged a river cruise along the Mekong River. Throughout our week-long stay in Vietnam, we were taken care of by their excellent service. The drive to the Mekong River took more than two hours before we stopped at Cù Lao Tân Phong in the Cai Lậy district.

Then, we were taken onto a boat to visit a local village situated along the river. We've seen the locals making the rice crackers and sticky rice. There were also other delicacies that should be tried out, like bánh bèo and bánh chưng, among others. Rice in Vietnamese is bánh.

The Mekong: River of Life to the local people

We learned the rice cracker-making process

The slices were left to dried after steamed

The rice cracker with sesame seeds

Communication barriers left us with the fruits puzzled

A popcorn-like, another kind of rice cracker making process. It's a sticky type.

Then, it mixed melted sugar.

before being flattened and cut into pieces.

A typical scene along the river while we set sail to the next stop.

A quick detour to the Vietnamese coffee shop

Let's take a brief rest, guys!

Kính chào quý khách means welcome!

Cruised in the waterways of murky river  

There were varieties of sampan boats we've seen here

We stopped for lunch at one of the authentic Vietnamese local food places. The spring roll was wrapped with fresh cold vegetables and served with fried freshwater fish. The Vietnamese lunch was absolutely delicious! 

Next up on the Mekong River tour was lunch, which was included in our tour

Had lunch at a very quaint restaurant and sumptuous meal

We got back to our boat as the tour has ended.

Backed to the hotel in the evening, we had Malay dishes at one of the nearby restaurants before we called it a day.

Sup campur dan daging masak lada hitam