12.10.2010 - Free and easy HCMC

We had a free day in HCMC. It was always good to have a free day at the end of a journey, whether to buffer any unexpected change in schedule during the countryside tours, or simply to rest.

There was a saying... if you can't beat them, join 'em. So we rented a Honda motorbike for USD$6 a day (quite cheap lo) to move around. The guy in the shop was a bit hesitant... 'take good care of my bike ya, it's a new bike you know...'. Went to a nearby petrol station to top up the tank, then explored HCMC.

First we stopped at Ben Thanh market for breakfast. You thought eating at a market was cheap? My piece of advice: DON'T EAT THERE. Gosh their noodle soup and drinks cost almost double of what we paid eating at the roadside, even slightly more than restaurant prices. Big tourist trap!

I must say the BBQ pork was very delicious. Ryan would have finished a whole plate if we hadn't stopped him.

Then we checked out the shops around Ben Thanh market for some surveying of prices. Stuffs at the fixed price shops owned by the Ben Thanh market group was sold quite reasonably. But those shops inside the market area (not a fresh market la... something like Central Market in KL, tourist market)... their starting price was four times higher than at the fixed-price shop. And if you walked away with that you-think-I-am-an-idiot-meh look, they would try to persuade you to bargain... 'how many do you want?' (I want none, to maintain my sanity, TQ) ... 'how much do you want ?' (I want it free can ah?). If you have lots of time, you could spend a whole day sparring with the sellers while sharpening your bargaining skills. We had other plans. Bye bye.

Giant sized durians sold outside the market.

Ryan enjoyed the vrroomm vrroomm around HCMC. Traffic was crazy. You thought red light = stop and green light = safe to go? Not here. They had no regards for traffic lights. The rule of the road was... 'just go only, other people would be clever enough to avoid you'. With that principle we conquered the streets of HCMC.

After a few wrong turns, we found what we wanted, the HCMC zoo. Ryan had never been to any zoo in Malaysia, and yet visited his first zoo in HCMC. Typical tourist.

Nice trains, but was not in service.

Some interesting stuffs around the zoo...

Porcupines.

Sun bears. I heard that bear paws were very delicious if braised over slow fire.

Sunflowers.

White tiger.

Nice kitty.

Skinny lion. I am sure Ryan could roar louder than that fella.

Mousedeer maybe.

Hippo.

Mountain goats. Ah would make nice lamb kebabs.

Elephants.

Toys.

After the zoo, we wanted to check out Dong Khoi area, the more affluent part of HCMC, where luxurious hotels, classy shopping centres and designer shops were located (there was a Louis Vuitton).

It began to rain, so we had to seek temporary refuge in Parkson supermarket, which happened to be a 'higher class' place in Dong Khoi. I remembered our guide telling us 'these shops are for you guys to shop, not us'.

In Malaysia, you get car parks in the basement. In HCMC, you get a huge motorcycle park, and they charged entrance fees.

The entrance fee was for valet parking services. You see how crammed the parking place was? I just had to cincai park the bike somewhere, without locking it. Then when somebody wanted to leave, the parking attendant would push my bike and slot it into the parking space. Nobody locked their bikes in motorcycle parks around HCMC. When I returned to the motorbike parking outside Ben Thanh market, I just had to show my parking ticket... the attendant would then go and search for my bike and bring it to me. Nice? The danger was... what if the attendant could not remember where he parked your bike... real nightmare. Solution: install motorbike alarms.

Parkson in HCMC looked quite similar to the ones in Malaysia.

Eating ice cream while waiting for the rain to stop. That was the Pho24 noodle soup franchise shop at the back.

Back to our favorite restaurant for dinner. Nice atmosphere, polite staffs, and a looong menu which offered Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Western, even Italian food.

Our rented motorbike.

The rain stopped after dinner. So we went to visit the waterfront which faced Saigon river.

Saigon River Cruise... dinner on a ship.

Nice hotel.

Besides that you could find many Vietnamese couples hugging and smooching along the waterfront. Fortunately or unfortunately they didn't have JAIS to police over their 'public display of affection'.

Then it started to rain again, so we had to go back to the hotel and returned the bike. The city dwellers did not seem to mind the drizzle, here they were still kicking shuttlecocks in the park, with minimal lighting.

A favorite HCMC nightlife... watching people pass by while having a drink with your pal, with little table and chairs.