爱自由，爱旅游..Love Life, Love Travel..: 【越南】Day 1: Lunch at LCCT （机场午餐） > LCCT （马来西亚亚航机场） > Tan Son Nhat International Airport （越南国际机场） > Seventy Hotel Check In > Lunch at Pho Hung Restaurant > Fanny Ice cream (Addr: 6A Tran Hung Dao St., Dist 1, HCMC) > The People's Committee Hall （胡志明雕像市政厅）> Ben Thanh Night Market（槟城夜市场）

I don't write my blog quite some time and now I'm update my blog with my group trip to Vietnam. The trip started with booking cheap flight ticket during Airasia ZERO fare promotion period on last year. I booked with the price of RM 231/pax for KL>HCMC>KL flight on 20 September 2012. It was really cheap! As a leader of the tour, I'm make sure all my friends who join my group trip get the excellent service from me without any charges and the most importantly is affordable trip.

Before departed to Ho Chi Minh City, I had searched and gathered a lot of trip information via Cari Forum, related websites as well as blogspots. Finally, I managed to book with Vietnam local travel company, [Viet Vacation Travel] for 6D5N Ho Chi Minh City>Cu Chi Tunnels>Mekong Delta>Muine Package Tour based on good recommendation from the blogs I read and Cari Forum especially for group tour in Vietnam.

One day before our trip started, my friend, Lui and I reached LCCT by flight and stayed at Tune Hotel-KLIA-LCCT Airport which cost us RM64.22/pax. The room was super duper small that I ever stayed in my life. The others reached LCCT on next day morning by bus. Before we departed to Ho Chi Minh City(HCMC) at 12pm, we had lunch at LCCT.

View from the flight when landing.

The flight supposed arrived at 12.55pm (Vietnam Time) but landed about 25 minutes late at Tan Son Nhat International Airport as it was rain heavily. We took another 30 minutes for immigration checked and searched for baggage. We were surprisingly as many people waiting outside of the airport seems like we are K-pop stars...haha... I brought my group to find my name and lucky we found it. The director of the company, Mr. Tran Law personally came to airport to pick us up. He is very friendly and funny too.

Note: Backpackers can choose to take the following two types fo transportation to reach either Pham Ngu Lao Street or Bui Vien Street from Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

1. Taxi

Remember, the taxi fare from airport to Pham Ngu Lao Street is only USD 7 to 8/taxi. But, some of them will count you USD 8/pax. So, be careful, don't be cheated! Get the most trustable taxi, Mai Linh or Vina Sun.

2. Bus

Get [152] bus from the airport. The bus will come every 15 minutes, the last round is 6pm. The bus fee is based on the backpack / baggage size. Small bag (~ VND 3,000), big baggage (~ VND 6,000).

Seventy Hotel

The location is perfect as it is right in the middle of the bars and located at the heart of Ho Chi Minh City and backpacker area (Pham Ngu Lao St.). It's only 15 minutes walked to Ben Tanh Market or Ben Tanh Night Market so you can do some shopping there conveniently. It's near to tourists attractive places like Notre Dame, Post Office, Reunification Palace, The People's Committee Hall and War Museum. Anywhere, we had our own private 16-seats van, so we didn't need to walk ourselves to the attraction places.

Hotel Information:
Seventy Hotel
(Tel :+84 8 3837 9855 / +84 8 3838 6221)

Address: 70 Bùi Viện St., Phạm Ngũ Lão Ward, Dist 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Map location of Seventy Hotel.

Note: Hotel staff will keep your passport during check in and will be returned to you after check out to proof that you're foreigner because prostitute is illegal in Vietnam and Vietnam people cannot stay overnight in the hotel.

The hotel staffs and receptionists are very helpful and friendly people. They speak fairly good English too which is a big add value for foreigners. Triple room was big with window facing busy Bui Vien street but little bit noisy at night, bed was comfortable, WiFi was decently fast. We were also pleasantly surprised by the different choices for breakfast (noodles to bread, coffee/tea or juices). On arrival, we were served with welcome drink. In short, we liked the hotel very much and will definitely recommend it for couples/single travelers.

We felt hungry after reached HCMC. So, our tour guide, Mr. Tran Law recommended us to try local dish, PHO which is considered as the famous dishes in Vietnamese Cruise. Where to try it as HCMC have many PHO shops like Pho 24, Pho 2000 and etc? He suggested us to try at Pho Hung Restaurant.

Pho Hung Restaurant

It's the right place to choose and few minutes walked from our hotel.

Address: 10 Nguyen Thi Nghia, P. Ben Tanh, Q1

Website: phohungnguyenthinghia.com or www.phohung.com.vn

PHO is a rice noodle soup cooked with pork or chicken and served with row bean sprouts. The main ingredients of PHO consist of: the broth made from beef bones, beef, rice noodle and different kinds of spices as ginger, star arise, parsley, green and white onions, chopped or shredded. PHO usually is served with a side plate full of fresh bean sprouts, special basil leaves lime and sliced chili pepper. PHO is consumed at any time of the day. It is believed by the local people to be a very healthy dish. It is used to cure a fever or a cold. Treating illness with food is very common in Vietnam.

LHS [up]：Noodle soup with beef (Pho Hung Dat Biet), VND 65,000 RHS [up]: Noodle soup with chicken (Pho Ga), VND 65,000 [Bottom]: Vegetables & herbs (add on for noodle soup)

I ate one of the best soups in Ho Chi Minh City, Pho Hung. I have absolutely photographic proof of its existence as below, but I will never forget the soup’s perfectly balanced taste. Rich drumstick. Chunks of tender meat perched atop a nest of fresh rice noodles. While the noodles soaked up the liquid, a mountain of herbs added new tastes. Freshly-squeezed lime provided a subtle but perfect punch to the flavourful broth, cut off by the urgency of the chili oil that followed. I had already polished off the bowl.

Pho Ga

Traditionally a cup of freshly brewed coffee with sweetened condensed milk, either hot or with ice is served after a hot bowl of PHO.

After filled up with Pho, we continued for ice-cream hunter.

Fanny Ice Cream （越南新派雪糕）

It's located at 6A Tran Hung Dao St., Dist 1, HCMC which near to our hotel and few minutes walked reached Ben Tanh Market. It's considered as famous ice-cream shop in HCMC. Ice cream is produced by using traditional methods, with 100% natural ingredient sources chosen carefully without preservatives, colors and flavors. A variety of flavors can be choose from and the furnishings into a variety of shapes and therefore ice cream lovers is a must go have a taste and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Environment inside Fanny Ice-Cream Shop

Fanny ice-cream menu

Different flavours of Fanny ice-cream we ordered. One scoop price: VND 34,000 to VND 43,000 (depend on flavor you choose)

Fanny ice-cream receipt

Total cost: VND 596,000. Wow! So expensive! Could you imaging eating ice-cream which cost you more than half million. Haha...

Group photo inside Fanny Ice-cream

Group photo in front of Fanny ice-cream shop

After tried the ice-cream, we walked to The People's Committee Hall as the time was still early.

The People's Committee Hall （胡志明雕像市政厅）
It was built in 1902-1908 in a French Colonial style. The building is not opened for public or for tourists.

Vietnam Language: Trụ sở Ủy ban Nhân Thành phố

Address: 86 Lê Thánh Tôn Bến Nghé, Quận 1, HCMC, Vietnam
Ticket: Free

Ben Thanh Night Market（槟城夜市场）

At Ben Thanh Market, you can expect to find almost everything that the locals might need in their day to day lives from fresh meats and vegetables to clothes, domestic items, pots, woven baskets, shoes, souvenir, bamboo ladders and so on. This is most regularly visited of the markets. It is also the most central and located in one of the busier past of the city where the streets and alleyways surrounding the market place fill with food stalls.

In front of Ben Tanh Night Market

Be prepared to haggle hard for what you want! It's part of the experience.

Wrap & Roll

We took the dinner at Wrap & Roll which located just nearby to our hotel. It delivers a unique dishes that serve already wrapped and rolled and also there are those that you can do yourself by using the fresh vegetables, fresh herbs and dry paper. It was a good experience for us as we never do this in Malaysia. Eating at W&R is a very healthy choice due to absence of preservatives together with simple but refine cooking process. Moreover, eating rolls with the various sauces specially created by W&R introduce different flavors which makes W&R a truly uniqueness.