Strawberry + Granola

Banana + Almond

Hello Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

This trip was a little different from the usual trips that we have had in the past because this time we decided to travel with two of our friends which made this trip a couple trip. It was our very first couple trip to HCMC; no light bulbs, no extras. Everything was perfect and I would say it was fun to explore the world with a few extra travel buddies. Plus I have a girl friend to shop with me at HCMC.

In this blog post, I will summarize everything from our HCMC trip such as the Airbnb we stayed, places we visited, food we tried and some other teeny-tiny details here and there. I hope by doing this way, you guys are able to have an idea on what to expect from your HCMC trip (if any of you are planning to visit HCMC).

Okay, without further ado, let's get started!

First, let's talk about our accommodation in HCMC. There are a total of 24 districts in HCMC but you will find most of the museums, restaurants, night markets, landmarks and etc. in District 1 and District 3. For this reason, one of my Vietnamese friends suggested us to live around these 2 districts because it would be much easier for us to travel around and this would also save us a lot of time from traveling as the traffic could be quite congested sometimes and the public transports there were not really reliable.

We then decided to stay somewhere around Bến Thành area in District 1, a place with unlimited restaurants, cafe and night markets. In short, that is where all the good food at. There are quite a number of hotels and Airbnbs available around that area so accommodation wise, you don't have to worry about not able to find a place to stay in District 1.

Since we were traveling in a group of 4 people (or 2 couples) so we decided to rent a whole apartment unit with 2 bedrooms on Airbnb. The Airbnb that we rented was Beautiful Apartment in Downtown Saigon (ITA) hosted by Thuy. I highly recommend this apartment if you are traveling in a bigger group (maybe 4 persons and above) because the apartment is spacious enough to accommodate the four of us with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (yup, private bedroom and bathroom for each couple). And of course, there is a dining area and kitchen which is equipped with microwave, refrigerator, kettle and etc. There is also a washing machine in the apartment so good news for those who wish to do their laundry (no more expensive laundry service from the hotel 😁).
Next up, food.

We ate at a few restaurants or food from the street markets and now I am going to list some of our favorites restaurants or food that we ate in HCMC. ⚠ Spoiler alert ⚠ We had Italian food in HCMC; don't judge me because you will thank me later. 😏

Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant 👉 Đèn Lồng Restaurant (FB: https://www.facebook.com/denlongrestaurant/).
They serve quite a variety of local Vietnamese food at a reasonable price and every dishes that we ordered was delicious! 😋 Our dinner there was about $50 for 4 persons so yeah, I would consider this as a cheap good food to try in HCMC. Definitely don't forget to try their Seafood Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf and Grilled Pork On-a-stick, these were my two favorite dishes at Đèn Lồng Restaurant.
To avoid any disappointment, you do need to make a reservation first if you are planing to have your lunch or dinner there because the restaurant tends to be quite packed during peak hours. We did not make our reservation and we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for our table to be ready (which was still acceptable in my opinion).

Address: 130 Nguyen Trai, Ben Thanh, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam.
Operating hours: 10 AM - 10 PM

Our favorite non Vietnamese restaurant 👉 Pizza 4P's (Website: http://pizza4ps.com/)
Don't judge us for having Italian food in HCMC. We were walking around Bến Thành area and we could not find a restaurant to satisfy our starving stomachs (because we had been eating Phở or some other noodles for the past 2 days now and we had to eat something different). We then found this place on Google where it has tons of good review so we decided to give it a try (you can never go wrong with pizza).

There are more than 10 pizza flavors available on their menu and my personal favorite was Burrata Parma Ham Margherita (as shown in the above picture 👆), mainly because of the huge burrata cheese on top. If you love cheese as much as I do then you will definitely love this because 🧀 + 🍕 = HEAVEN!

They ain't lying when they say there is always room for dessert and I ain't lying when I say I am a little obsessed with cheese. 😆 So here it goes, I ordered Camembert Cheese Ice Cream as my dessert and hey, this was ON POINT. 👌 Seriously, it was so good and I almost wanted to go back there the next day to have another one.


And lastly, don't forget to make your reservation.

Address: 8 Thu Khoa Huan, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
Operating hours: Monday - Saturday: 10 AM - 2 AM, Sunday: 10 AM - 11 PM
Operating hours: 2:30 PM - 11 PM

Our favorite street food 👉 Bánh tráng

Bánh tráng or known as the Vietnamese Pizza (that was what my Vietnamese friend told me), it is a rice crepe with lots and lots of toppings, just like pizza. 🍕


I do not have the exact location to this night market because they were only there for some time and would move to another place. If you see the word "Bánh tráng" at a restaurant or night market then just order it, that is the right word for this (verified by my Vietnamese friend 😉).

Our favorite cafe 👉 Partea at The Café Apartment (FB: https://www.facebook.com/letspartea/)
Okay, let me be honest. The only main reason why we loved this cafe so much was because of their super cute decorations. Seriously, it was because of their cute decorations.
Besides than the cute decorations, it was also a good place to chill and relax. Since it is located at the fourth floor, you get to enjoy your tea with an amazing view.


Address: 42 Nguyen Hue street.District 1, 700 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Operating hours: 8 AM - 10:30 PM

Our favorite place to visit 👉 Củ Chi Tunnels

We booked our half day tour to Củ Chi Tunnels from Klook for only $17 per person which included both transportation and entrance fee to Củ Chi Tunnels. Củ Chi Tunnels is located about 50 KM away from our hotel and it took us nearly 2 hours to reach there. There is no direct public transport to Củ Chi Tunnels (from what I Google-ed so far) so joining a tour group had saved us a lot of hassle, all we had to do was to sit back and relax until we reached our destination (seriously, I slept throughout the 2 hours bus ride).

At the end of the tour, I would say it was a very fun and informative trip. Our tour included a local English speaking tour guide and her name is Love. Ms Love was really friendly and she made the tour really enjoyable for everyone. She even explained to us the history of Củ Chi Tunnels and let us experience ourselves crawling through the tunnels. You don't need to worry about being too big or tall and not able to fit into the tunnels because some of the tunnels have been made larger to accommodate tourists.

Click here to book a tour from Klook.

Okay, that is it to this post. I think I took longer than I expected to summarize everything for you guys (maybe I was just being lazy). I hope that this post is able to help you or give you a rough idea on what to eat or do in HCMC. So people, what are you waiting for? 😉

Have fun.

The girl who loves to travel,
Rachel.

Quiver by BOW

Water tumbler compartment

Besides than the card slot and water tumbler compartments that I really love, here are all the other compartments available in this one multi-bag, cool huh? We have one quick access pouch at the front where you can put your phone inside, a huge shoes compartment (I'm wearing a size 7 and that is why this is considered huge to me) and more pouches for your clothes and toiletries or whatever you wish to put.

I have been using it for the past one week and yes, this is the perfect multi-bag that I need in my life. Whether I am going to the gym right after work from the office or directly from home, this is it, the one bag that I need to fit everything nicely. On the left side of the picture below is when I go to the gym after work, I have my shoes, food container and wet tissue in it. Now you get what I mean when I wrote "huge shoes compartment" earlier, you can literally fit another pair of shoes or sandals in it. On the right side is when I go to the gym directly from home, I just carry some important things that I need such as my water tumbler, wallet, wet tissue and keys.


This will be my second card slot when I don't put my water tumbler in the designated water tumbler compartment and this is what we call versatile, haha! I tend to simply stuff my things in whichever reachable pocket.

World's best multi-bag?

OF COURSE! It is what I was looking for earlier and it is basically everything that I need in my life. I am really satisfied with my purchase and I will definitely recommend Quiver to my friends and family; in fact, I have already brainwashed one of my friends to get Quiver as her gym bag. 😝

Before I end this post, if any of you guys who are interested in buying Quiver or interested to know more about it, do remember to check out the links at the end of my blog.

That is it for today's review post, thank you for reading and I shall update you guys soon on another blog post. See ya! 👋

Love,

Rachel.





Useful Links
Kickstarter ⇨ https://www.kickstarter.com/?ref=nav
BOW ⇨ https://bowforbold.com/
Quiver on Kickstarter ⇨ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1823465426/quiver-the-worlds-first-multi-bag

Gudetama Cafe Singapore

First thing first, let me show you guys on how this cafe looks like on the inside. Beware, lots of cute lazy egg decors ahead! Seriously, this is like another version of Disneyland; it is a happy place with happy people and you will not want to leave this place afterwards, sounds like Disneyland huh? 😂

We were a little greedy with our food (since we were there already so why not?) and we ordered an appetizer, two main courses and a dessert. I know right, that sounds a lot for two persons but surprisingly, we managed to finish them all! Not a single food wasted! 👍

We got the Gudetama Lobster Onsen as our appetizer, basically a lobster bisque served in a bread bowl with some salad at the side and Gudetama decided to have some spa moment in our hot soup (ahhh, how relaxing it is).

 Gudetama Lobster Onsen ($16.00)

I am a seafood lover and I decided to try their Lazy Surfer, assorted grilled seafood with Brazilian rice. Honestly, I had no idea what a Brazilian rice was and what kind of yellowy sauce that was served with my seafood but this dish was delicious. 😋👍 BTW, what does "bo chup" means? 🤔

 Lazy Surfer ($28.50)

BF ordered "Shiok" Pork Ribs as his main course and I was only interested with the FRIES! You can have the pork ribs all to yourself but leave those fries alone, those are mine! ✋ And I want some of those veggies as well, that is what I call a balance diet (actually that was the worst diet advice ever, haha)! 👍😂 

"Shiok" Pork Ribs ($38.50)

Honestly, we did not expect much from Gudetama Cafe, we thought usually themed cafes serve like okay kind of food because they focus more on the "theme" but not really on the food. Not trying to say that all themed cafes food are awful but usually they just kind of taste normal to me. But Gudetama Cafe has proved us wrong, according to BF, their pork ribs were one of the best that he has tried so far, it was worth the price he paid. Thumbs up from him. 👍