Ho Chi Minh City 2015 Day 3

[Here is the photostream of Ho Chi Minh City 2015, for those who prefer pictures to tell a story. 🙂]

Banh Mi

Holidays always come to an end too soon! Today was our last day. After breakfast at the hotel, we chilled a bit in our room before checking out. Left our luggage with the hotel, while we went for some final eats and drinks.

Hubby especially picked Hatvala Tea & Coffee for lunch, as it was supposed to specialise in tea 🙂 Unfortunately, due to the massive construction just outside the cafe, they have stopped serving food 😮 Nonetheless, the staff was very kind to allow us to bring in food from outside. So we went to the Banh Mi stall just next to the cafe, ordered a combination flavour Banh Mi (VND15,000), and brought it into the shop so that we could enjoy the drinks. Hubby had a Iced Latte (VND70,000), while I tried the Mountain Mist Tea (VND75,000).

Interesting timer!

The banh mi outside the hotel was still more delicious, as the bread this time was not as crispy. Coffee was ok, tea was quite lovely, and I loved the timer! The tea leaves were supposed to be infused for only 3 minutes each time, and I was given an entire flask of hot water to make tea. Interestingly, I must have done at least 3 rounds of tea, but the strength of the tea remained consistent. Very enjoyable experience!  Unfortunately, we did not stay long, as we had to get back to the hotel to pick up our bags.

Grilled Steak

On our way back to the hotel, we could not resist making a quick trip to Chef Lap, a French restaurant opposite the hotel, because the bread was simply insufficient. Ordered a medium rare Grilled Steak (VND169,000++) to share, but it ended up being almost well done 😦

Oh well, we made our way back to our hotel, grabbed our bags and took a taxi to Tan Son Nhat International Airport (VND130,000~S$8). This was not as comfortable as the private car that we took on our way to the hotel, but certainly much cheaper!

Big Bowl Pho

We still had some money left, and our last meal was really quite disappointing.

So we decided to spend all our $$ and order Big Bowl Pho (VND150,000~S$9.30) at the airport while waiting for our flight.

It was definitely on the expensive side, and the noodles itself were not nice, but at least there were plenty of meat. There was also something homely about hot soup, so we felt somewhat happier. There were not enough time to try anything else anyway, as we walked very briskly to catch our flight back home 😛

Useful Links:

• Hatvala Coffee – 44 Nguyen Hue, District 1
• Chef Lap – 122A Pasteur, P. Ben Nghe, Quan 1, Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam (Phone: +84 839147534)