Saigon

So I went to HCM over the weekend. I arrived there early Friday morning and since it is one hour behind there I gained an extra hour. Checking out from the airport was easy enough, within 5 minutes I was out. Cuc picked me up from the airport and took me to the office. They are operating in a very small office, just 2 tables and it's sort of a shop house where the boss lives there as well. After chatted over a cup of tea, the driver took us to the hotel. The hotel is located in the center of town where I walked everywhere to eat and to shop.

After checking in to the hotel, I freshen up and went out to walk around. We had an appointment with the local agent only at 2, that was why we had time to go look see look see first. I told Cuc that I didn't want to go to shopping complexes so she took me to Ben Thanh market which is about 5 minutes walk from the hotel. The market has almost everything; clothes, fabric, handbags, shoes, lacquerware, household stuffs and there even have manicure and pedicure services there. I bought some jewellery boxes which I found out later that it costs cheaper to get it from outside. You see, there's a stretch of stalls just around the market which has very fair prices and you don't have to bargain. You have to have very good bargaining skills if you buy from inside. I took it for granted that Cuc would bargain for me, turned out I am a better "bargainer"! I really like those boxes with nice vietnamese girl painting on it. Anyway, the first trip there was just to survey and data gathering. We had lunch there, again I told Cuc I wanted to go local rather than going to restaurants. I had pho, the beef noodle soup. Cuc introduced me to this Vietnamese blended fruit juice and it tasted so yummy! We had the strawberry juice! I finished the whole glass with almost just one sip!

Then we went to meet the agent, Suong which only took half an hour. Again her office is very near the hotel so I decided to walk back and this time on my own since Cuc has to go back to the office. Parkson Grand is a big departmental store there. I went in for a quick tour. I am more interested in the small shops. So I took a slow stroll back to the hotel. On the way back, I saw an internet cafe and I went in to inform people that I'm safe in Saigon. I took my shower and rested a bit before venturing out again. I went back to Ben Thanh again and bought a bags and some other souveniers. That was when I discovered I got conned when I only paid half the price that I paid in the morning for the same box! There are many shops to browse on the way back to the hotel. I met some local Chinese and they all speak Cantonese. Most of them think I'm Japanese. There are many motorbikes on the road and you have to be pretty skillful to cross the road. In the beginning, I was confused by which side of the road the traffic are coming from since they drive on the left hand side. After a while, I got used to it.

The next day was busy with the product launch and showcase. The lunch was at the hotel and boy I tasted the best beef stew! It was so tender and the cravy was thick where we ate with bread. Nice home made bread. So yum! I tasted many local stall food and I ate in the market like the locals do. There's this man on the bycle selling baquette that has pork meat in it. Vietnamese make good bread, French influence. The picture on the right one of the cafes in the hotel where the exhibition was held. The picture on the left is of a river which you can overlook from the cafe. People do travel by the river.

I did have a good time in HCM City. We might want to go back there next year for a "proper" holiday. I didn't have a chance to sigh seeing this time, only shopping.