Monday, May 24, 2010

HCM - Ben Thanh Market (Day to Night)

I LOVE YOU SINGAPORE!!!
Missed your warmth. Literally. Vietnam was wayyyy toooo hot!
Missed your orderly streets. Every road we crossed in Vietnam was a life threatening experience and major accomplishment for us each day.

This trip made me appreciate what I have (what you have given me) a whole lot more.

The ones who had been greatly missed :)
Such bliss to own a view like that. And weather was comparatively cool~
(Note: photo unedited and taken from a Canon point and shoot only)
 Back to the good ole days. Kaikoroku. Hanging out for the past 2 days was fantastic. Now I know the history of Canon :):) more about our rendezvous when I am done with Ho Chih Min City. (600 photos!!!)

Travel mates and our first vietnamese lunch. Pho24 opposite Ben Thanh market. Much raved about, this chain has several outlets all around HCM. No worries about not being able to find it. Only S$2.60 for a bowl of Pho. S$5.50 for a meal consisting of Pho, 2 fried spring rolls and a cuppa.
Condiments for Pho. Throw what you like into the soup. Weirdly, I learned the art of Pho eating in Sydney and that was where I got the BEST Pho so far! Perhaps is the larger amount of meat, better australian beef, and the more savoury soup stock catered to the caucasians. Pho24's was much blander.
The coffee is a MUST TRY though! Taste gao gao. But with a lot of gu ni (condensed milk), so kinda sweet. Somehow different from the light Vietnamese coffees friends packed back as gifts.. weird..
We went Ben Thanh market for some heavy shopping. Heavy hearted, that is. Super hot! Like chatuchak. Maybe even hotter...they have a map showing you what each section of the market sells. Wide range. Fabric to clothes, shoes, bags, souvenirs, sleepwear, wet market, makan stalls... basically everything.
We were done in a bit and took a breather opposite the market in Tutti Fruitti. Blends and yoghurts. We nua-ed (lazed around) there for almost 2 hours!
And we watched as the night market unfolded itself.....They erected temporary tentages along the sides of the road. And they do this E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. We are talking about E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Electricity wiring, roofs, tables, chairs, goods for selling, pots and pans for cooking......there was no sign of the existence of a night market there, cos everything is kept away (somewhere, we dunno where) during the day!
And we decided that dinner was to be done in the night market. See how the temporary eating place looks like.
A lot of food porn below :)
Right: FREE vegetablessss that came with the dish. They were wasted on us ;p
Prawns steamed in coconut juice (cost maybe about S$7 only???!!). And another plate of FREE vegetables wasted on us..
Seafood fried rice was fab! (S$10, fed 4 girls full to the max). Fried squid is actually calamari :) The best part about the prawns we ordered was the deshelling done by the staff before they throw it into the coconut :):):):)
The meal above cost us only S$10 each pax!
And we vowed to return for the grilled fish another day. We were tempted while standing by the roadside after dinner.

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