Eva's tips - Ho Chi Minh city in 3 days. It leaves you wanting more!

As you know if you read 2 posts ago, we planned a sort of last minute-ish long weekend trip to Ho Chi Minh City.  It was a great getaway, and in this post I will share with you what we did and some tips for anyone planning a similar trip.  Summary of the trip is that Ho Chi Minh is a chaotic, frenetic city that somehow leaves you wanting more.  At least it did me.

The visa-on-arrival-letter-thing worked like a charm.  We did the letter online, received it within a couple of days for the family.  Then we had to get pix taken (not smiling, which was funny), and arrive at the airport with US$45 each person in dollars or Vietnamese currency.  We waited about 10 minutes and that was that.  Visa in passport.

Our hotel was the Signature Saigon hotel.  It was a perfectly good 3 star experience.  Not superduper fancy but the buffet breakfast (included) was good, everything was clean and fine.  The room had 2 big beds and one pull-out big couch/bed.  The shower was a big rain shower with a radio in it which was fun for the kids especially, and the wifi was ok in the room and good in the lobby.  I would recommend the hotel.  US$110/night for the room.

Now what did we do?  Arrived late Friday night - flew jetstar, a budget airline, which was great.  We had arranged for a driver from the hotel.  At first we didn't see him and I had that thought 'uh-oh'.... then we realized we had to exit the terminal where there were a lot of people. Our guy was front and center with a sign.  so far so good.

Day 1 we were picked up for our pre-arranged day trip to the Mekong delta.  Any web surfing will reveal the name of the tour guide operator Jason Superstar.  He was unavailable but we used his guide  Mr. Vu.  Great day.  The driver came to get us in a new SUV and we drove the 2 hours to Cai Be where 'Mr. Vu.', an energetic 25-year-old from the Mekong area who studied tourism, met us at the car with a cheerful "hello my family!!"  We went on a longboat complete with hammocks, saw the floating market, disembarked and walked through a real market complete with live poultry, and ended up having lunch at Mr. Vu's family home where they have lived for generations.  The food was amazing, the experience was personalized and fabulous.  The driver brought us home by about 5 pm. Had a great dinner that night at the Temple Club, a restaurant that could be in NY but for a fraction of the price.  Highly recommended.

Mekong delta

my banh mi place... how I miss that sandwich!!!

details from the place we got banh mi every
day - one day twice!  a dollar for pure bliss.

Day 2 - Saturday we were happy to be able to take our time in the morning - went down for the breakfast buffet.  We went to check out the cathedral.  It was closed but still nice to see from the outside - then checked out the post office building next door.  The goal of the day was to see a water puppet show - - so we went to the theater and bought tickets for that - an adventure to find the place - all walking - once we had the tickets, we had plenty of time so we went to the reunification palace nearby.  Now this is not exactly a 'palace' a la Versailles, but rather it was the government building back when South Vietnam had its own government, and it has been kept frozen in time.  Very cool, at least to me, and had a vibe kind of like the UN HQ in NYC.  Must have been the time when it was built.  The furniture is all still there and the signs tell you where meetings were held, what happened, etc.

After that, we let the kids play in the playground for a while and took a cab back to the hotel for a little rest/freshen up before the puppet show.  The show did not disappoint!! Water puppets are an old Vietnamese tradition.  The routine we saw has been performed for hundreds of years.  Great experience.  After that, dinner in a less impressive restaurant and then went to the night market to scope souvenirs

Day 3 - Another popular day trip from Ho Chi Minh is to see these tunnels called the Cu Chi tunnels, from the war.  At first I was reluctant to consider this trip since the thought of going in a tunnel does not appeal to me.  However, we met so many people who had been and as it turns out you don't have to go in the tunnel.  So we considered going on Sunday, our last day, but after deliberation we decided that we would rather spend our last day wandering around the city and not in a van for several hours.

So... we decided to go check out 2 things - a pagoda and the war remnants museum.  Took a cab to a pagoda which was nice but, as it turns out, closed until 2:30 pm.  I guess it was not our weekend to go inside places of worship.  We looked around, took some pix, and decided to walk to the war remnants museum.  Along the way we stopped for a drink and had amazing spring rolls.  We got to the museum and, you guessed it, closed for lunch.  Took that opportunity to eat lunch at a great vegetarian restaurant named Hum.  The museum was, as the reviews had said, strong for kids.  We took turns going inside with our 11-year-old.  The little ones stayed outside looking at the helicopters and tanks and playing with the yo-yos that the waitress had given them.  The museum is worth seeing.  It does have some strong pictures, especially the babies born to agent orange victims.  It is not a pro-American slant.    But I'm glad we went and I'm glad my son saw it.

After the museum, the little kids only wanted to find a playground so find one - make that 3 - we did. The simple pleasures, right?  Turns out we found a beautiful park right in the middle of the charming chaos that is Saigon.  Tao Dan park is a great break for kids and adults.  We negotiated for souvenirs at the  Ben Thanh market - even taught my son how to bargain - and then found another playground meandering back to the hotel.  We didn't have the room anymore, but we got our final banh mi and watched the world go by for our last hour in Vietnam.

All in all it was a terrific weekend and a fascinating glimpse into this country of 90 million people.  I for one am looking forward to my next trip to Vietnam.

Street vendor

Water puppets

spring rolls

crossing the street is not easy - motorcycles never stop.  Look at the masks they wear to protect from the pollution.

They think of everything here - the new library

You would think that this post has to do with our fabulous long weekend in Vietnam.  And it was fabulous. But that will have to wait while I tell you about the coolest urban place we visited yesterday (Saturday)..... The newest branch of the Singapore public library system in a mall!!! Yes they think of everything here....  First I will describe Singapore living as a local did to me when I told him I was moving here... He said "Singaporeans love to shop and eat".   He was right.  The malls here in this small island are really out of control.  They often go up 4 stories and down to basement 3 or 4 and are always packed with people.  Orchard road, which is walking distance from my apartment, is the 'fifth avenue' of Singapore.  It is mall after mall, literally connected to each other, with all the designer shops you can imagine.  And in addition to expensive, amazing restaurants, each mall has a food court where you can get a great asian meal for way less than $10.00, closer to $5.00.  In another post I will describe the food experience in detail.  It's amazing.

But I digress.... back to the library.... in my family we are readers, and it pained us to leave our wall-to-wall book collection in the U.S.  Actually we gave much of it away to friends and to the library donation box, and the rest is packed up in hopefully weather-resistant boxes in my aunt's garage (thank you again!!).  The move here converted us to a basically kindle family, although I still can't resist a good used book sale.  Retail books here are much more expensive than in the U.S. so although Kinokuniya is a book lover's paradise, we refrain from buying retail books as much as possible.  This Orchard Library is 2-story, brand new and design-themed and inspired.  So in addition to the regular collections it is a beautiful space and has a special section dedicated to design and architecture.  Maybe this will lure my mom back to Singapore for another visit.

A view of the seating area 'amphitheater style' on the first floor

stairs inside the library - everything super modern

Even the bookshelves are cool looking

we tried to get a library card but came to the realization that it's not possible at this particular branch. There is not counter at the branch - nobody working there - it's all "e".  To get a library card as a foreigner we have to go to a branch with a counter and pay about $50, which we will do asap.

Just to show you some of the books.  So excited!

As a mom I couldn't be happier to see the glee in my oldest son's eyes at the idea of a new amazing library nearby.  As it turns out they don't have an official kids' section in this branch but he did manage to find a book he's dying to read.  We're going to get libary cards soon and start using them!! What a great idea.  A library in a mall.  This country thinks of everything!

so next post I will tell you all about 3 days in Saigon....

Vietnam - planning stages of a long weekend

One of the greatest things about living in Singapore is its proximity to destinations in southeast Asia.  There are budget airlines (scoot, jetstar, tiger airways to name a few) that charge relatively little for flights to Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc....

That being said, it is shameful that in our 16 months living in Singapore we have been to exactly ONE destination (Bali, to be covered in depth in another post someday).  Why, you may ask, have we not traveled more?  Well, in the beginning we were getting settled.  Then six months after arriving I started working full time so I guess I was getting settled with that.  Also I went from having all the time in the world to having precious (few) counted free days.  Summer came and my husband took the kids to see his family in Spain for 3 weeks and then I took them to the U.S. to see mine for 2.... so I guess the answer is no good reason and, like I said, shame on us.  Oh, and we are also bad planners and in general reluctant to spend large sums of money.

We have made it our mission to start seeing the region, and so, in our typical last minute style, last week we booked flights to go to Ho Chi Minh city (the one that used to be called Saigon) to leave this Friday.  I thought I would write about the process of planning for the weekend and then follow up with how it was.

FLIGHTS:  One of the motivations for choosing Ho Chi Minh was its proximity to Singapore (a 2 hour direct flight - perfect for a long weekend).  Next was the price.  Using jetstar airlines, the total for five of us roundtrip is around US$750.  Not bad.  The flight back was $9 each plus tax (special rate!).  I can't resist a deal. Then again our return flight lands in Singapore after midnight.  Not ideal with 3 kids but they don't have school all week, so I figure they'll recover.  I think after experiencing the jetlag of flying around the world, landing at midnight with no jetlag seems like it will be no problem.  And it gives us the whole day Monday to explore.  We leave Friday afternoon at 7:50 pm. so we have just bout 3 full days.

Once we booked the flights I breathed a sigh of relief.  We did it!  We're going somewhere!!  Wow.  So easy!  Just like flying from Miami to New York!

And we are.  We did.  But there are still things to do before wheels up.

VISA:  Oh yeah, we are going to another country.   Every flight from Singapore is going to another country. We need visas!  Visas take time and money.  The traditional way is to go the embassy, fill out the paperwork, drop your passport, payment, and photos and pick them up several days later or, for a higher fee, even the next day.  For Vietnam they have a VOA (visa on arrival) system that is not exactly as the name implies.  What you need to do is find a Vietnamese travel agent online and pay them per person for a letter that allows you to get the visa upon arrival.  At first it sounds almost fake but after talking to friends who have done it and reading scores of comments on trip advisor, we realized it's legit.  The travel companies have names that sound official like vietnamvisaonline.com (aha!  not .gov or .vt or something.  I know I know).  So today we did it - paid about US$90 for the letters for the five of us, submitting flight info and passport numbers, and hopefully in 2 days - Wednesday - 2 days before departure - we should receive the letters via email.  We print them, bring passport pix and US$45 each in US or Vietnamese currency and no there are no ATMs in the immigration section.  So if we do not receive the letter on Wednesday panic will set in.

HOTELS:  I know you always need a hotel for a trip.  Yet another step that ends up using up hours of time on the ipad.  Today I compared the process to finding a great shell at the beach.   What if there's a better one?  How do I know?  There are so many!!! We hope to book a hotel tonight for around $100/night.  Let's see.

WHAT TO DO:  As stated earlier, we are not the best planners.  We plan on doing a bunch of walking around, eating, visiting markets, temples, maybe one of the 'water puppet shows' that are common in Vietnam.  What else is the area known for?  Trips to the Mekong Delta.  I have been emailing with a guide who does day trips.  For US$210 one of his people will pick us up in an air conditioned van from our hotel at around 7 am, drive the 2 hours to the delta region, and we will spend the days doing fun activities (think those long boats, floating markets, people wearing those cool hats...) and have lunch before being deposited at our hotel at around 5 pm.  Sounds great right?  So why haven't we booked it?  Because we are slackers and bad planners. I think we'll do it though in spite of my hesitations.  (one of my kids tends to get carsick... what if it rains? )  Yes, we'll do it.  Right after booking the hotel.

PACKING:  Packing should be an interesting process.  We opted to not check in bags since it was an extra cost and we figured that with all the permitted carry on allowances for 5 people it should be no problem to pack for 3 days.  Famous last words?

Now that I have shared the process of planning our last minute getaway to Vietnam, I look forward to experiencing it and sharing the actual trip.

and you call Miami a melting pot?

The cultural mix of people in Singapore is astounding.  They say Singapore is 75% ethnic Chinese.  Looking around I guess that sounds about right - definitely most people look Chinese. And most of those people are from southwest China, many from an island called Hainan.  What about the other 25%?  Malay would be the next largest group.  I read that 15% of the population is of Malay origin.  Malays are usually Muslim and the women sometimes wear a headscarf with the face showing.  The next group is Indian.  As for cultural places to see, there are a lot of Chinese temples and Indian temples, all of which are gorgeous, colorful and super-interesting.  

Of course in addition to the nationalities already listed there are tons of people from other parts of Asia, a huge Japanese community for example, and also a lot of foreigners here for work for a few years since Singapore is such an important financial hub for Asia.  You see tons of Australians, Brits, other Europeans and Americans.  And a general mix from all over the world.  Seems like people come here to shop and eat and there are plenty of places to do both.

There are temples that are well known, especially the Chinese and Indian temples in Chinatown.  But the best ones for me are when I am walking along the street and all of a sudden I stumble upon a temple I had no idea existed.  And that happens a lot.

Singapore has 4 languages - English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil (spoken in southern India).  Every official sign is written in all four of these languages.  The way I have experienced it so far, Mandarin is to Singapore as Spanish is to Miami.  Not exactly, necessary but extremely handy, especially when ordering food.  I have begun an online Mandarin program.  My children study Mandarin in school; the older ones 4 days a week.  Today for the first time one of my sons was able to read a character in a sign. 

If the buildings, the people, the language of Singapore represent this beautiful mix of culture imagine what I and many others consider the best result of all this mishmosh... the food! I haven't even begun to describe the amazing flavors that are a result of the people who have populated this island.  My palate thanks me every day.

sign on a public bus.... in the 4 languages of Singapore

  

detail from Indian temple

detail Chinese dragon from a dragon dance

Year of the horse decorations Chinatown

Indian temple

Sari shop little India

Chinese temple entrance