07/01/2025
I woke up and puke a bit of last night's dinner, then I was all good.
My sistas drank coffee in our hotel room and we were good to go, saved so much time. My old man would need breakfast before starting anything.
The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum had very short opening hours, was like from 8am to 10 or 11am. And only a few days in a week.
No entrance fee. Getting in had to go through strict security similar to the airport. No water was allowed, my sis's swiss knife and my selfie stick had to be kept with them.
No photos were allowed inside, not able to sneak cos there were military guards at every corner. "Long" walk of 5 to 10mins, viewing of Ho Chi Minh's body was a swift 1min.
The outside area was open to public for photos, any time any day.
The front part of the building was blocked off though.
It seemed that we had to walk pass the Presidential Palace in order to get back to the entrance to collect back our belongings. Entrance tix was only a few S$, so we just went to see see look look.
Vietnamese likes their buildings in yellow.
Educate ourselves with old photos and history.
Ho Chi Minh's cars.
Portrait of him, made up of small pics of flowers.
Spotted Hmong costume worn by an old lady, it was exactly what I had worn for photoshoot in Sapa.
Tyre slippers.
Walked pass One Pillar Pagoda.
Ho Chi Minh Museum which we didn't go in.
Finally back from where we started, collect our belongings.
Public water dispenser. Even came with mugs. Although there's a rinser to clean the mugs but the way it worked couldn't clean the rims.
Not sure to laugh or cry lolxx...
Grab taxi to St Joseph Cathedral, we had Banh Mi nearby for brunch.
They had a 3 months old bull dog.
It was so cute but too active, couldn't carry it properly.
All ok, but Banh Mi 25 was very much tastier.
My first time seeing Hoan Khiem Lake in day light, my sisters first time seeing it.
It gotten a little bored somehow, we went for massage and nails.
Went to see St Joseph Cathedral. Beautiful building but we had seen better.
It was closed when we were there, so we didn't see the interior.
We were wandering around, Starbucks Reserve was irresistible.
Sis had a drink, I bought mints.
All pee before leaving lolxx...
Sis managed to find Cha Ca Thang Long. Previously old man and I couldn't find it.
It had a beautiful entrance.
We had early dinner around 5pm. I thought this restaurant would be full, but it was weirdly empty, soon we found out why.
We tried fish stomach, it's softer and better in soup.
The turmeric fried fish was fresh but lack of flavor.
Fish soup was very comforting, very fresh, not fishy at all.
Night fall lights up.
Hanoi was alive at night.
Colorful ceramic coasters, gave it a miss cos would be difficult to use on our glass table.
Since we were near, I brought them to this stretch of food street which I had been to with old man.
We had dumplings which looked and tasted like chinese 水晶包。
Roast pigeons, noms, no chance to eat in Singapore.
Ordered the S$2.60 rice roll platter again. Damn nice.
We had our last egg coffee at Note Cafe.
The cafe was very famous in social media, but coffee was normal. I was very uncomfortable with the shabby interior with very low ceiling and some corners were filthy. One staff requested to take a photo of us which we rejected.
Next day was a wee morning 8am flight, so there's nothing much we could do on the 12th day.
Vietnam is really underrated, why are Singaporeans forever stuck in Bangkok?
It's almost Apr while you are reading this, kinda drained from late nights heehee...
