What better way to spend your birthday than going on an urban eating adventure around Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City)? Seemed like a good idea at the time- walk around eat pho, drink beer, find cake.
The days celebration started off with a stroll down to the Post Office to send some postcards home to the geriatrics. Amusingly it costs more the buy 1 stamp than it did to buy 10 postcards. And you have to glue them on yourself.
The post office is located across from the NotreDame Cathedral. Both stunning buildings oozing of French influence. Also a hugely popular spot for business to hold photoshoots. I’m sure that there are quite a few late nights ahead as Thea poor people have to photoshop us out of their photos! I just don’t think we fit into the Vietnamese bridal image. Not enough kawaii going on over here!
Our next stroll took us to the Renumerfication Palace. The gardens here are stunning to walk around. The Palace itself has been turned into an open museum with many of the rooms containing original decaying items such as tanks, helicopter and James favourite a Jeep. With the entry fee at 30,000VND it’s well worth the money and time. We spent a good two hours walking around. Note like a lot of places, there is a shut down period to buy tickets over lunch time. We found out the hard way.
The afternoon was spent wondering around Benh Tanh Market, eating pho and eventually heading across to the backpackers district. When we visit the city again we will definetly stay around here. The general feel of the area is much more friendly, less pushy and generally easy. Yes we did see a lot of expats around! The shopping around this area for food and clothing is a lot easier and friendlier then the bigger markets. Lots of laneways to find yourself lost in.
After an afternoon nana nap it was time to hit the town and celebrate! On a rooftop bar. We stumbled across the Rex Hotel rooftop bar and blew our entire days budget! Hint-don’t go here. The decor is strange and scarey. Giant cartoon elephant statues, a rotating spiral, seaside birds and wooden bird cages. It just doesn’t make sense. And then there is the $$$$$$$. James beer alone cost more then entire meals we had in respectable places. As a birthday treat we devoured a creme caramel. Which was amazing. If you do decide to patron here enjoy the people watching. We saw at least three groups of well off backpackers leave before ordering a single drink, with looks of horror on their faces at the price tag. To put it in perspective you are being charged Melbourne prices.
The highlight of the evening was stumbling across the BBQ Garden! I’ll be honest the fairy lights in the trees caught our attention. This place is an open air DIY BBQ grill! We knew it was popular as we actually had to wait to get a table. Great service, great food and even better drinks! All at a reasonable price.
All in all a successful celebration in Saigon for James birthday!
