Day 1 (Afternoon): Walking Tour of Ho Chi Minh City

Day 1, Afternoon.
August 19, 2012


Coming from the Cu Chi Tunnel (and we haven't had lunch yet) so we decided to go back to the main city and find somewhere to have lunch. Good thing, a Pinoy family whom we shared the Cu Chi Tunnel tour with, mentioned that there is a good Pho Hoa restaurant near the Reunification palace where we are set to start our walking tour.

I believe, because of the goodness of food available in Vietnam, they deserve another blog, so the Pho Hoa experience will be made there.

After having the best Pho Hoa we ever had, we passed by the Coffeebean and Tea Leaf store in HCMC. We planned to have our tradition by visiting every CBTL we can during our trips, but we decided, this won't be possible since not all the places we will be going have CBTL.

So from Pho Hoa restaurant, we walked towards the Reunification Palace (just straight back up from Pho Hoa restaurant). Though we earlier decided that we will be going inside, many of the foreigners just took their pictures outside and proceeded to their walking tour. A two-dollar entrance may be worth it, but we decided to copy the other visitors.

The Reunification Palace

As we crossed the street, on the right of the Reunification Palace is the Notre Dame Cathedral, a Catholic church in HCMC. It was a depiction of the European influences in Vietnam, as it reminds us of the true Notre Dame Cathedral.

After the Notre Dame Cathedral, we decided to take a taxi to Ben Thanh Market to buy pasalubongs since we will be leaving for Phnom Penh the next day. There we bought our tshirts at 60,000 VND (about 3 USD) each. Do not forget to haggle! (Tshirts were costed out to be 80,000 VND, a one dollar makes a difference). Keychains are at 3USD for 10 pieces and ref magnets are at 2USD a piece.

After Ben Thanh, as many of my officemates wanted a TNF (The North Face bag) and  after searching Pinoyexchange on tips for TNF bags buying, we decided to go to Saigon Square as recommended by many of the Pinoys.

To find the store, from the entrance of Saigon Square, walk straight ahead until you reach the dead end, turn left and the first store on your left is where Pinoys buy their TNF bags. You will know that when you start talking in Tagalog and they will immediately say, "Oh, Filipinos!".

When we were there, a Pinoy Pilot of Vietnam Air was also there buying bags (its his business). He even told us that that there is another store (na suki nya) that sells the same bags at a lower price. to find the store, from the main entrance, walk straight ahead. The second to the last corridor on your right, the corner store is the store where we bought all our bags.

Her prices are as follows, since I bought 5 bags, I got a discount:
TNF Hotshot (Original) : 15 USD
TNF Alborz (Original): 14 USD
TNF Almira (Original): 14 USD
TNF Melinda (Original): 14 USD

After buying this, we decided to go back to our hotel and rest for the next day.

Few reminders when on the road:

1. Do not take the rickshaw as much as possible. Naloko kami dito! One rickshaw driver told us that it will cost us 150,000 VND for the three of us, from Ben Thanh Market to Saigon Square which is about 10 minutes walk. Since we are too happy to ride the rickshaw, we agreed without confirming. When we arrived in Saigon Square, it eventually became 150,000 VND for each of us! :(

2. There are many Pinoys in Vietnam. You will find them in groups as noisy as you, or alone (just like Sir Audrey, the Pilot). Make sure to be friends with them. A Pinoy family was one of our tourmates in Cu Chi Tunnel and we would take their group pictures as they would take ours. Kumbaga, gamitan lang!

3. Be friendly to the vendors and store owners. During our stay in Vietnam, as we talked in Tagalog, we were always asked where we came from. A typical conversation will be:

Us (talking in Tagalog, as in super ingay with comments since they do not understand us): Ganito kasi yun....blah, blah, blah.
Vietnamese: Ow, are you from Malaysia?
Us: No (smiling face).
Vietnamese: Thailand?
Us: No.
Vietnamese: from the Philippines! Manny Pak-yaw! (that's how they pronounce Pacquiao's surname, no kidding)
Us: (smiles) Yes.

4.Do not be afraid to haggle. Do not forget to smile. And say, "But I don't have money anymore." (with the paawa face, it works!)


In a day, we were able to experience Vietnam. Though we were not able to tour the whole of Vietnam, at least we would be looking forward to another trip in Vietnam. :)

Up next: Food trip in Ho Chi Minh City