21 Jun 2022 - SGN Day 1: Exploring Ho Chi Minh City (Ben Thanh Market, Cafe Apartment and more)

We began exploring the city and since Ben Thanh Market is very near to our hotel, we went over to take a look.

Unlike some of the reviews that we had read, it was not crowded in the market when we were there.  We were not sure whether it's because today was a weekday or many stalls had closed down since the number of tourists had significant reduced over the last 2 years.  Anyway, we'll probably walked over again on our last day of the trip, which is a Saturday, to see if there is any difference.

From Saigon Centre where we had our lunch, we took a 5 minutes walk and arrived at Nguyen Hue Walking Street.  On both sides of the street, there are many shops, restaurants and cafes.

There is one building along the street, which is a must-see for all tourists, called the Cafe Apartment.  It's actually a very old apartment building but turns into many cafes, restaurants and co-working spaces.  We will come back later to see the building lights up.

From the walking street, we could see one very prominent tall building with a helicopter pad near the top.  It is called the Bitexco Financial Tower and there is actually an observatory there too called the Saigon SkyDeck, which we will be visiting in one of the following day.

We then tried to walk to a famous statue of a historic military leader (Trần Hưng Đạo) but the road is impossible to cross with all the bikes and cars around.  We had experienced such traffic condition when we were in Hanoi previously so we weren't really surprised to see it here too.  However, it's still quite fascinating to see how these cars and bikes maneuver on the packed roads without following all the traffic rules, if it even exist.

Now back to the Cafe Apartment.  As the sky gradually turned dark, the building began to light up.

At this point, Tracy had a very back toothache.  She took panadol hoping to relieve the pain.  Fortunately it did, or otherwise if the pain persisted, we may have to cut short our trip and return home tomorrow.  Once she felt better, we continued to walk along the walking street towards the City Hall.

There is a statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of the french colonial-style city hall.

On our way back to our hotel, we again passed by Ben Thanh Market and saw all the stalls were already closed.  We then went to a pharmacy to purchase some gels that will help relieve toothache.  As for dinner, we went to a nearby convenience shop to buy some instant noodles, biscuits and beverages.

That's the end of day 1 of our trip.  Tomorrow will be an exciting day full of adventures.  :-)

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21 Jun 2022 - SGN Day 1: Our first meal in Ho Chi Minh City

After a short rest in our room, we decided to find a place for our lunch.  The moment we walked out of our hotel, we can feel the heat......the weather was really hot!  As such, we decided to go to some indoor place with air-conditioning.  About 5 minutes walk from our hotel, we arrived at Saigon Centre, which has a shopping mall at the lower floors of the building.  Takashima seems to be the anchor tenant of the mall.

Food outlets are mainly at the basement level and the top 2 floors of the mall.

After looking around, we decided to have our lunch at Saigon Street Cafe.  This will be our first meal of this trip.

Following were what we ordered.  We all enjoyed the food and it's a great way to start our trip.

One thing we wanted to achieve during this trip was to try out the coffee at all the popular cafes.  The first one that we tried is Starbucks, which is what we all are familiar with.  Going forward, we will try out the coffee from all the popular Vietnamese cafes.

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21 Jun 2022 - SGN Day 1: Check in to Adora Hotel

After touching down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport at Ho Chi Minh City, we took a Grab Car straight to our accommodation, Adora Hotel, where we will be staying for the next 4 nights.  Main reason for choosing this hotel is its location (walking distance to most places of interest), has a family room that allows 4 people and of course, the price is very reasonable.

Though we reached before the official check in time, we were given our room since it's ready.

The room is not very big but comfortable enough for all of us to stay for the coming few days.

This room came with a Jacuzzi bathtub.

We took a short break in our room before venturing out to explore the city.

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21 Jun 2022 - 5 days 4 nights Ho Chi Minh Itinerary

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam. Situated in the south, and in the southeastern region, the city straddles the Saigon River and covers about 2,095 km2 (809 sq mi).

Following is our 5 Days 4 Nights Itinerary for this Ho Chi Minh trip.

Day 1: Check in to Adora Hotel, First meal at Saigon Street Cafe, Exploring the City

Day 2: Hotel Breakfast, Quang Minh Lacquerware, Cu Chi Tunnels, Mekong Delta, Highlands Coffee

Day 3: Hotel Roof Garden, Independence Palace, iSushi Japanese Restaurant, War Remnants Museum, Phuc Long Cafe, Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, Ho Chi Minh Book Street, Saigon Central Post Office, Opera House, Saigon Centre, Katinat Saigon Cafe

Day 4: Saigon SkyDeck, Noodle Noodle and Bookstore, Cafe Apartment, Trung Nguyen Legend Cafe, Nam Giao Restaurant

Day 5: Ben Thanh Market, Checkout and Lunch at Saigon Centre, Aerial View of Ho Chi Minh City

21 Jun 2022 - Back at Changi Airport to board a flight after 2.5 years

It's really happening.  We were about to go on our overseas travel for the first time since Dec 2019, about 2.5 years ago.  This is the longest period when we did not get to travel, thanks to the pandemic.  Anyway, glad to be back at Changi Airport and one thing that never change is our excitement prior to  boarding the plane.

That's the plane that we'll be boarding.  The flight time to Ho Chi Minh city is slightly more than 2 hours.

Though it's a short flight, we were served with a full meal soon after take off.  

See you soon, Ho Chi Minh!

20 Jun 2022 - Plan and Book tonight, Fly off tomorrow morning!

Today is the start of the last week of June school holiday.  Due to delay in passport renewal, we had originally gave up on our plan to travel during this school holiday.  However, once Tracy got notified last Friday that she will be able to collect her passport today, we immediately started planning for a short trip.  It's going to be very challenging because we only have one night to settle all the bookings and purchasing.  This was what happened today.

Once Tracy and Jerlene collected their new passports from ICA building this afternoon, they immediately sent me their new passport details so that I can update them into the system.  After which, I was able to purchase the air tickets to Ho Chi Minh city, which is one of the few destinations whereby seats are still available on the flights.

When I got home after work, I started settling all the other logistics such as hotel booking, travel insurance, day-trip purchase, activating credit cards for overseas use, covid certificates download, Wifi router rental and some last minute packing.  And we did all these within 2 hours, and guess what, our flight will be tomorrow early morning.  This is one of the quickest planning and preparation for an overseas trip so far.  Though a bit stressful, we were super excited about the trip, which is our first since 2.5 years ago when we travelled to Dubai.  Stay tuned for my posts about Saigon!  :-)

18 Jun 2022 - Northshore Plaza, the First Seafront Heartland Mall

We decided to explore new eating place for lunch today and ended up at Northshore Plaza, the first Seafront Heartland Mall in Singapore.  After walking one round the mall, we were a bit puzzled because we did not see any seafront view.  Suddenly we realized there is a bridge that connects to another part of the mall across a road.

We walked right to the end and finally saw the sea.  :-)

We had our lunch at a cafe called "Downstairs (楼下).  Initially when I saw the menu with the word "Downstairs", I really thought the cafe is downstairs and tried to find a staircase or escalator to go down.  So blur......  Inside the cafe, there is an area where it brought back lots of good memories of 30-40 years ago.

After lunch, we had ice cream at Creamier before heading home.

13 Jun 2022 - i Light Singapore

The main reason we came to Marina Bay tonight was to participate in "i Light Singapore", which is Asia's leading sustainable light festival held here annually.  First held in 2010, the festival showcases light art installations created by Singaporean and international artists.  These artworks are designed with energy-saving lightings and environmentally-friendly materials to encourage festival goers and the general public to adopt sustainable habits in their everyday lives.  Good thing is admission is free.

Below are some of the light installations all around the Marina Bay area.  First exhibit we saw was a "Plastic Whale" where people queued up to walk into the internal of the mammal while hearing it breathe in distress.  The main objective of this installation is to create awareness to the general public that these creatures are struggling to survive in their increasingly polluted homes.

Below installation is called the "Eyes of the Sea".  It is upcycled by ironing and reshaping discarded plastic bottles to resemble captivating ocean waves and casts wave-like shadows on the ground.  It has the same objective as the "Plastic Whale" above.

Next is "Ruffled Ice", which turns trash into visualizations of melting icebergs and ice caverns by using plastic waste collected from several organizations including plastic recycling company.

Below installation is called "Alone Together".  It captures unforgettable and personal moments of adopting to a new normal as a nation and reflect how the pandemic has impacted our daily lives.

The following installation called "Keep on Moving" is inspired by Chronophotography which is an antique photography technique that captures movement in several frames of print, before layering them in a single frame to display phase of motion.

This last highlight below is probably one of the most fascinating installations in the festival.  It's called the "Firefly Field", which simulates the ever-changing bioluminescence of fireflies when they take to the air at dusk.  Watch the video below to see all these "fireflies" flying around at the Promontory.

Though today is a Monday, the entire place was packed with people.  I cannot imagine the crowd over weekends.

13 Jun 2022 - Spectra, a Light and Water Show @ MBS

Our break from work continues with a visit to MBS.  Every night at 8pm and 9pm, there is a free outdoor Light & Water Show called the Spectra at the Event Plaza.

This 15 minutes outdoor show presents in a 4 parts story as we immersed ourselves in the beautiful symphony of dancing fountain jets, colourful visual projections, advanced lasers, and lava and mist effects, led by an orchestral soundtrack.

The show reflects Singapore's journey to becoming the cosmopolitan city of today, and was developed with Australia-based agency Imagination.

Take a look at this spectacular and free entertainment in the following video.  The later part of this video contains some iLight Exhibits which I will blog about in my next post.

13 Jun 2022 - Finally got to sing in a proper KTV after more than 2 years

Today, both of us decided to take a break from work and took a day of leave.  First we went for a movie (Top Gun: Maverick) after hearing all the good reviews.  Then we went for a quick lunch before going for our KTV session, our first in more than 2 years.  Most of the more popular KTV outlets had been fully booked but we managed to get one at Cash Studio @ Bedok.

We need to do this more often as the 2 hours session is definitely not enough.  :-P