Holiday in Ho Chi Minh City: Day 4

Day 4: 10 May 2009
It's free and easy city tour. Being a Sunday, our first destination was the Notre Dame Cathedral, where we attended mass. The 9.30am mass was in English, with a sermon and some songs sung in Vietnamese. After that we walked across the street to the post office, famous for its colonial architecture. Here we bought some stamps, souvenirs and took photos. Julian enjoyed running around, looking at butterflies and watching the seeds from the trees spin as they fell to the ground when the wind blew.


[Notre Dame Cathedral from the inside]


[Notre Dame Cathedral from the outside]


[Post Office]

Next we took a taxi to Ben Thanh market. We had lunch at Pho 24, finally tasting the famous Vietnamese pho ("faah", important to have the low and rising tone). Then we went into the market for shopping. It's like our bazaar. After a hot afternoon, we tried more Vietnamese ice-cream. This time we went to Bach Dang, a short walk away from Ben Thanh market (towards the Opera House).


[Pho Bo: Rice noodles in beef soup]


[Vietnamese Ca Phe: When poured into the glass it becomes ca phe sua da (iced coffee)]


[Ben Thanh Market]


[Bach Dang Ice-cream]


[A wire-man's nightmare]

After that we went back to the hotel and took Julian for a swim in the pool. For those whose children like swimming, this is not the place for it. The pool depth starts at 1.6m and reaches 1.8m at the deepest. But since we had told him he was going swimming and he had already seen the pool, we had to keep our word. Fortunately Daddy could tip toe and take him for his swim :-)


[Fun in the pool]

At night, we went sighseeing at the Opera House, and walked to the Saigon Riverfront. Dinner was at another Pho 24 outlet.


[Opera House]

Then we went to the Thuong Xa Tax supermarket (near the Opera House) for some shopping. Actually, for certain items like clothing and foodstuff, this was a better place to shop compared to the Ben Thanh market. It turned out to be cheaper without the hassle of bargaining. But alas, we already "paid the price" of shopping at Ben Thanh! However, souvenirs like keychains, fridge magnets, etc. are cheaper at Ben Thanh (with some bargaining of course).