Ho Chi Minh City - Saigon Vietnam

Outside Pho 24 in Saigon

Sunday January 17th, 2010

Most people here call it Ho Chi Minh City since the fall of Saigon in 1975. We call it Saigon as it is much easier to say.

We had a very easy flight down from Tokyo and by that time Mark and I were exhausted from the heavy traveling and slept most of the way.

We were really cramped on that flight as we were sandwiched in, but we managed ok otherwise on the Japan Airlines flight.

Here is a picture Mark took inside the Tokyo airport -




I always thought the Asian Airlines were far superior to the American ones, but after flying International on Continental my mind has been modified.

We had very good service on Continental and good food plus the seats were roomy and the flight wasn't full so we enjoyed it. It was still a very long time in the air 12 hours.

11:30pm Thursday night January 14th, 2010 -

Once we got to Saigon we sped through immigration and then downstairs our bags were speeding out of the luggage belt.

Mark was worried as he did not see his bag and after all the bags were unloaded Mark was very worried. Little did he know but his bag had been pulled off by someone on the other side and we finally found it.

After loading our stuff at customs we sped out of the front of the airport looking for my brother in law "Bi" and my Uncle Ton Anh. There seemed to be a million Vietnamese faces all waving signs and yelling at us. I finally saw my brother in law smiling and I yelled "Bi"! He ran around and whisked us up with Uncle Ton Anh to his waiting Van.

Here is a picture outside the Tan Son Nhat airport waiting for Harry's uncle to arrive with van.




The traffic was light and in no time we were at An An Hotel in the backpacker section of Saigon known for it western style hotels and late night eateries.

After checking into our Hotel we went up the street to a really cool late night bar and restaurant called G02 Bar. It is frequented by backpackers, Expats, and local folks wanting to stay up late. Go2 was still going strong when we got there so went to the top floor which is open air to enjoy the view and see the sights over Saigon. It is now 2 am yet the city is far from asleep yet.


Once we were seated we order a few Fosters beers and then looked over the menu. They had a mixture of items from around the world including Pizza and Hamburgers plus Vietnamese staples.

The center of the table was a Hibachi grill so we could freshly cook the marinated meat of choice. We chose wild pig which was marinated in lemongrass, ginger, garlic and Asian seasonings. It was delicious when we wrapped the grilled meat in the supplied lettuce.

The pizza was good considering we were in Vietnam and we devoured all the food quickly washing it down quickly with the ice cold Fosters.

The girl that works at Go2 came over and helped us with grilling the wild pork.

By this time it was late so we decided to hit the hay and worked our way back to our hotel just a half a block down. The streets were quiet except for a few girls that were dressed like they may have been working the tourist trade. They yelled to us being foreigners but we knew better than talk to any and just zipped back to Hotel.

We slept well and woke pretty early as we had so much sleep on the flights over.

Friday morning January 15th, 2010 - A nice start and a welcome surprise downstairs......


My wife's best friend Cathy came to visit us Friday morning and called me from the lobby of the hotel. I was surprised to see her as we were thinking she would visit us in Vung Tau. She is a dear friend of ours and we spent a week with her on our last visit where she went with us to Da Nang and Hue on our last visit November 2007. She was a real asset on that trip as she helped us with travel planning and translation along the way.

After pleasantries we hugged and then decided to go for a quick bite and some coffee at Bobby Brewers a local franchise aimed at the western tastes and ability to charge more than the locals.
We had lattes and Italian sub sandwiches. This set us back 158,000 VND or $8.00 US with a tip. Not too bad for a delicious breakfast and strong gourmet coffees.

The Best Pho in Saigon according to our host!

Pho is quintessential dish in Vietnam and my personal favorite thing to eat since my wife first introduced it to me over 8 years ago,

It is made from boiled beef bones that have had the fat skimmed carefully off leaving a very flavorful broth. The broth is then infused with ginger and onion that has been slightly burned plus a bouquet garni of cinnamon, clove, and star anise.

The resulting broth is then poured over rice noodles, and sliced raw onion and raw lean beef that cooks in the boiling broth as it is pored over this mixture in your bowl.

The side ingredients that you can add to personalize the Pho are; thai basil leaves, bean sprouts, Hot Chiles, culantro or saw tooth leaf, and then hoison Sauce and lastly Sriracha a Korean garlic chile sauce.

Here is a link to the complex recipe for Pho using ingredients found in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph%E1%BB%9F

Pho Tai Chin and side items personalize your Pho and make it delicious

Sriracha Sauce - one of my favorites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sriracha_sauce

The mixtures and depths of flavor to this dish are intoxicating and once you have it you will always crave it.

Pham Ngo Lau Street - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam

We went back to the hotel to prepare and organize as Cathy will come back to get us at noon and we will go shopping for some thoughtful items for Harry's family in Vung Tau.

We will take the Hydrofoil over at 5pm after we have had a chance to go to the best market in HCMC for gifts and fine wines.