Ringing in the New Year in Vietnam

 

After Hong Kong we went to Da Nang Vietnam. We have been there previously back in September 2024. Back then it was almost too hot to do anything so we mostly stayed in our hotel. Mjau, now we are only staying in a basic hotel, Dao Ngoc Hotel, that cost 10 euros a night. Mjau, we miss our previous Hilton hotel with a balcony with sea view, infinity pool and breakfast buffet.

We had ordered a private transport from the airport to the hotel via Booking.com so we could arrive to the hotel without issues. The first day we walked to the Vincom Plaza Shopping center to get some basic groceries as they are cheaper there. The pricing system in the nearby marts can be quite unreliable. First we had breakfast at the Bread & Butter bakery. We got a salted egg filled croissant and berry smoothie. On the way to Vincom Plaza we came across the Lapin Bakery & Dessert Cafe and wished we would have gotten breakfast there instead. They had more christmas decorations and played Disney music. Fortunately we are staying here for at least two weeks, so we can visit again.

Vincom Plaza

In the afternoon we got some delicious ostrich bánh mì from a street cart near our hotel. It was filled with vegetables and mozarella cheese and grilled ostrich meat. Fresh and scrumptious. We enjoyed our lunch while watching the ocean.

The next day we went to La Dulce Bakery & Coffee. We found it on google maps by chance and could not resist going there once we saw pictures of the pastries. We had our eye on the picturesque oreo cheesecake shaped like a mouse on a piece of cheese. As we got there we could not resist the cat shaped coconut mousse. The coconut mousse with pineapple and lime filling sounded too refreshing to resist on such a hot day. The outer cat layer was made of chocolate. It was almost too cute to eat! Mjau, we also got a delicious Tiramisu Coffee with liquor cream and tiramisu flavoured coffee. Although is not tiramisu coffee flavour? A conundrum. The drink was delicious although on the expensive side. The entire meal cost us 250 000 vnd (around 8 euros) and the cat cake cost less than 3 euros!

We were here during the New Years's Eve. There would be no big firework show so our butler tried to find a special NYE dinner at a restaurant at one of the beach hotels. Mjau, unfortunately they were all fully booked, at least the ones we were interested in. Once again we must suffer due to our butler's poor planning! How unfair! At least now we do not have to be embarrassed by our butler's raggedy clothes at a fancy restaurant. We walked along the beach for a bit then we went to Cafe Phuong for a Coconut Coffee. It is so yummy! We do not understand why it is not available in Europe. Perhaps due to the condenced milk? Anyhow, we plan to enjoy as many coconut coffees we can while we are here. Cafe Phuong is a really nice small cafe near our hotel. They have comfortable seats surrounded by plants, and a pond with koi fish runs in the middle of the cafe. There is even a small bridge crossing the pond! They even have fog rolling in sometimes to create a nice atmosphere, and water droplets falling from the roof to the pond. A true oasis in the city!

In the evening we went to the Bếp Ngon Việt restaurant on the same street as our hotel. They serve delicious Vietnamese cuisine. We had the bánh xèo hải sản. It is a crispy vietnamese seafood pancake that you roll in rice paper with some vegetables and then dip in a sauce. The server showed our butler how to eat the dish. We then walked to B&B Bakery by the beach to get some dessert. Mjau, they had a pretty Minnie shaped pastry that we could not resist. It had raspberry and lychee flavour and was really refreshing. Although the chocolate covering the mousse was not as nice as the cat coconut cake we had previously. The minnie one was also more expensive! We then walked along the beach to see if there is any NYE celebrations. We found one that had a big stage with dancers and occational fire shows. It was so crowded and loud we decided we do not want to stay there for four hours until midnight so we went to sit by the beach instead. Some Canadian man also started to flirt with our butler but they do not have time for romance! Mjau! We started to get hungry so we went to search for food. We ordered a pizza that would be ready around midnight. It was a 50 minute wait. We walked for a bit and went back after 40 minutes to check if the pizza was ready. Mjau the pizza was ready and the box did not feel hot. Mjau! We should have gone back earlier! There was a small stage on the beach with live music playing so we sat nearby listening to the ABBA covers while eating our Hawaiian Pizza. When midnight struck there were som small fireworks along the beach. None as spectacular as Disney of course! We could not see any large fireworks from the big stage so we were glad we switched places. We stayed on the beach until the live music ended.

The next day we went to a nearby cafe, Solis Cafe, for breakfast. Mjau we decided to try the Salted Coffee, another Vietnamese specialty, and a breakfast croissant sandwich. Mjau we were not big fans of the salted coffee. We much prefer coconut coffee. The croissant sandwich was much larger than we expected. So large that we did not eat anything else that day until a light fruit snack in the evening. After finishing the croissant and coffee we still could not get over our disappointment over the salted coffee so our butler ordered us a coconut coffee. Much better! We stayed at the cafe studying Japanese for quite a while. We took a big break during our trip to Taiwan as we lost our motivation. Mjau, we are studying Japanese by reading a Moomin novel. It takes us almost an hour to get through a couple of pages, but we have already started to learn and remember some kanji!

Another morning we went to Nomad's Kitchen for breakfast. We got the pancakes with seasonal fruit and homemade cashew "nutella". Mjau, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of fruit. There was fruit inbetween the pancakes, not just a few pieces sprinkled on the top. The cashew nutella spread was also delicious. Although we wish there was more of it.

After breakfast we walked to the Vincom shopping mall to buy some water and fruit as it is cheaper there. A 1,5 liter waterbottle is 8800 vnd at Vincom while it is 12000 vnd from the mart across the street. Mjau, our butler remembered it being cheaper. Perhaps it is better to just buy from the mart and save ourselves the long walk of dodging scooters and cars while crossing the roads. On the way back we decided to visit the Lapin cafe that we previously walked past. We got a croissant and a coconut coffee. This coconut coffee was not as delicious as the other ones we have had. We wonder why the cafe is so popular. We will not be visiting again. There are much nicer and cozier cafes.

We visited Solis Cafe several more times as it was nearby and we liked the upstairs seating area. We had eggs benedict with salmon and a beetroot pineapple juice. Mjau! Our mouths got tingly from the juice so we know it was fresh pineapple! Another time we had an almond croissant and nutcracker latte. Mjau, the latte was delicious with an interesting ginger flavour. We also visited the Cửa Ngõ Café that is quite popular with tourists due to being instagrammable. Mjau, it was alright but we have been to better cafes. We had an iced americano and a taro mousse cake. Mjau! We were so disappointed that it was not a real raspberry on the cake! It was a tasteless candy! We were on the hunt for some chocolate treats so we decided to visit some bakeries in the area. We got a brownie from Flour Garden that we were disappointed by, it tasted a bit stale. We found another bakery, Tian Patisserie, that people on the google maps reviews complained had cookies that were greasy and too soft. That sounded delicious so we knew we had to visit. We got a pistachio sourdough croissant and a chocolate cookie. The cookie was delicious with a soft, almost gooey, center.

Mjau we had pancakes and a pumpkin spice latte for breakfast at Puna Specialty Coffee & Eatery. Unfortunately our butler got food poisoning, we suspect it was from the fruit, and was bedridden for a couple of days. Mjau! We wanted to visit cafes and go sightseeing! Now we had to watch them lie in bed and at most go to the mart across the road for crackers and water or a short visit to the beach for some fresh air.

After three days of misery our butler was finally able to stomach some food so we went to the beach and got a pizza. Mjau! It was nice to finally eat something besides crackers and bananas. What are we, parrots?! We also had another hotel, Bac Nam Hotel, booked for our last five days in Da Nang. This hotel was less than 6 euros a night. The room was quite large and the television was better. We think we prefer Bac Nam Hotel over our previous hotel. The bed is slightly too hard but it could be worse.

We paid another visit to Cafe Phuong. We really like their coconut coffee. We also had an almond croissant. We have to say it was one of the strangest croissants we have had. There was no almond filling which we actually preferred, as the filling is often too overpowering. Strangely inside the croissant was another smaller croissant. Perhaps the croissant was pregnant?

On Sunday we finally went to see the Dragon Bridge show. Fortunately we found a nice place behind two parked scooters so no one could stand in front of us and block our view with their phones. Mjau we saw a couple holding up their phones to film the show. We could see that the wife held her phone so that it blocked the dragon on the husbands phone. Fools! The show started with the dragon breathing fire a couple of times. The dragon then spit water several times. We only got slightly damp. The people standing right in front of the dragon got soaked! There was also a night market by the bridge. It was crowded and not nearly as interesting as the ones in Taiwan so we only had a quick look before walking back to our hotel.

We found a small cozy restaurant close to our hotel, The Tamarind Tree. We got a vietnamese chicken curry. Very delicious. It reminded us of the curry soup we had in Sapporo as it had a coconut base as well. After paying they give you a free banana as dessert! We went there on our last day as well and tried their banh xeo. Delicious and so different from the other place. The pancake was not as crispy and therefore easier to roll in the rice paper. The pancake was also much more flavourful.

Another evening we also tried Emo's Homecooked Vietnamese Cuisine. We read reviews and someone complained the portion sizes were small so we decided to order two dishes ans they looked quite small in the pictures. Mjau! We do not know why someone would complain about the sizes! The portions were quite large. We still managed to finish everything. We got a red tilapia fish with passionfruit sauce and caramelized pork belly. Delicious but so filling! It was nice to also try the pork belly with passionfruit sauce.

One day we also walked across the Dragon Bridge to the city. Mjau, we prefer to stay by the beach. Terrible traffic and sidewalks and not as cozy cafes around. At least the area around the river is nice to walk. There are nice sculptures and flowers.

On our last day we finally managed to visit the bakery we have had our eyes on. They are closed on weekends and close quite early compared to the other ones. The workers there are deaf so you have to write down your order or communicate by pointing. We got the coconut coffee and pineapple banana coconut cake. We were a bit disappointed by the cake so we got the pumpkin pie also. It was only 30k for one piece of cake. That is less than 1 euro so we did not feel bad.

In the morning we booked a taxi to the airport through Booking. We get 10% discount and do not have to worry about being scammed. Fortunately we arrived two hours early as the lines were quite long. We did not have to wait long for our flight. We got the last row all to ourselves. Mjauhihi fortunate, as when deboarding the plane they let us through the back door so we got to leave first! We decided to take the local bus 152 to the city center. It only cost 5000 vnd per person. If you have luggage that counts as a seperate person, so it was 10k for us. Mjau there is also a 109 airport shuttle from terminal 3, but it is more expensive.

Mjau our butler tried to check in to the wrong hotel. Mjau, we are staying at the Palace Saigon, not Prince Saigon. How humiliating! After leaving our luggage in our room it was time to get something to eat. It is now 18:00 and we have not eaten anything since breakfast. We ended up finding a nice little place in the Cafe Apartment, Madam Quyên. We got the vegan vermicelli with crispy spring roll and vietnamese iced tea. Mjau, they played instrumental Disney music in the background so we knew we had come to the right place! We then headed back to our hotel to wait for our sisters to arrive with their butler. Mjau! They went to Hong Kong Disneyland without us before flying to Vietnam. Hopefully they will see our message and not try to check in to the wrong hotel as well.

Mjau the morning we got up pretty early as we were excited for the breakfast buffet. There were some beef stew, stir fry noodles, steamed buns and bacon and sausage. There was also pancakes and omelettes, croissants and bread. There was also fruit so we got our daily vitamin intake. Hopefully they have something new tomorrow and not the same breakfast all week. Mjau, one of the butlers accidentally put too much chili on their watermelon! What a fool! After breakfast we walked around the city to the post office, book street and notre dame. Although the notre dame was under construction and not the prettiest to look at. We pretty much did everything we set out to do on our first day. Now it is only cafe visits left!

After resting our tummies we went to the Cafe Apartments and had bahn xeo and coconut coffee from the same place as the previous day. Only one of our butlers ate. We then headed to another cafe, Nhà hàng - Cà phê Casa Đồng Khởi, where our other butler ate some Phở cuốn (pho rolls). We also had some pretty and freshly pressed juices.

We then went back to the hotel and in the evening we got a crispy pork belly banh mi from a corner shop in Japan Town. Mjau they even gave us a free churro. Not bad for 30k vnd.

The next morning the housekeeper was slow to get to our room so we had to find something to do so that they could clean our room and give us new bottles of complimentary water. We went to the Saigon Center to kill some time. After returning to the room at around 12 the housekeeper had still not arrived to our floor so our butler abandoned us alone in the room to go to the gym. After over an hour when our butler returned the housekeeper had just finished. Mjau! The day before they finished the cleaning while we were at breakfast which was perfect. 

There is an upcoming concert in front of our hotel that they are practicing for so the music is quite loud. Mjau so much thumping like a club! We saw one of the artists, Captain Boy, practicing from our balcony. We got lunch from Madam Quyên again, this time some thin rice papers with pork and shrimp. We then got dessert from Sugar Bakery next to our hotel. We had an earl grey mousse cake with a coffee center. It came with a mini macaron! We also got a banana cake to go.

We went back to the hotel and this time Hòa Minzy was practicing for the show. They had a dragon and lion dance as well!

One morning we decided to walk along the river all the way to Landmark 81. Vinhomes has some really nice apartments, buildings and parks near the river. As we took a closer look at the river it was quite a ghastly sight. So much trash! A nice reprieve from the inner districts of HCMC. We got some snacks from the grocery store at Vincom and had a picnic at Vinhomes Central Park. Such a nice park with a Japanese garden with koi fish. We took the free bus GRP03 back to our hotel. So convenient! We got back to our hotel and enjoyed the delicious chocolate muffin we got from an artisan bakery near Landmark 81. After a while our sisters returned with their butler. Mjau, they had also gone to the Vinhomes Central Park after us but had not known the Landmark 81 was there. They also did not see the free bus so they paid for the metro! Mjau! They were following us we believe.

In the evening we went on a hunt for a nice restaurant to have dinner. We walked around the Japanese town again and ended up going to Quán Bụi Central. Very tasty dinner and it had won Tripadvisor awards. On the way back we went to Marou and got some chocolate for dessert. There was an event again in front of the hotel. We think it was a football event. They had vietnamese flags and were beating drums. On the screen it said Happy Halloween so we are still unsure what the event was about.

One day we went to visit another Cafe Apartment. This one was less known to tourists we believe. As it was quite hidden. On Google Maps it is called 14 Ton That Dam. We ended up going to the Snuffbox Speakeasy. It is Saigon's first speakeasy bar. We really like the design as it is French Colonial. The drinks were quite expensive. Even by western standards. We got the coconut creamery. On the way back we went to SOKO Cake Bake & Brunch as it was right around the corner and our sisters have been talking about going there. We had the S'mores latte that was delicious as well as a delicious french toast. It was also scrumptious with interesting components and textures. 

In the evening it was finally time for the concert! Mjau! Au even made a fan sign for Captain Boy. Although on the first attempt she accidentally started writing Cattain Boy. Mjau! Spelling is not easy for baby kittens! (Later on the housekeeper found Au's fan sign, much to her embarrassment, mjauhihi). The concert was quite long but it was nice to experience it from the comfort of our balcony. We were quite startled by the fireworks and at times a bit scared by them. The best performance of the evening was Hoa Minzy as she had Lion Dancers and a dragon in the performance. Mjau! We realize now that we have gotten the order of events wrong! The concert was of course before the football/Halloween event! This is what happens when our butler does not let us update our blog immediately!

We also visited the War Remnants Museum, although we mostly stayed in our purse as the material could be quite gruesome. We also walked to the Tan Dinh Parish Church, a catholic church from the 1870s, that  is famous for its pink colour. Mjau, we would much rather visit the pink Disney Castles. In the evening we got crispy soft shelled crabs with plum sauce for dinner at Rice Field. We also had a passion fruit mojito. 

On our last day we went to Ivoire Pastry Boutique. They had really interesting and pretty pastries. We were a bit worried they would not be tasty but decided to give it a go. We got a pecan cake in celebration of the year of the horse as it had a horse printed on rice paper on the sides. It also sounded interesting with pecan nuts and it also had a fruit flavour but we cannot remember which anymore. It was nice but we would like to have more of the crunchy pecan layer. The winner was the pandan coconut egg tart. They heated it before serving so the filling got runny. The flavour was still delicious with the warm flaky crust.

After our cafe visit we walked to the Ho Chi Minh City History Museum. The entrance was only 30k and they had several interesting artifacts. They even had a mummy! Our favorite was perhaps the exhibit of Cham artifacts or the exhibit of artifacts retrieved from shipwrecks. It was interesting to learn about the history of Vietnam and HCMC. We got to learn about the chu dau ceramics, the first export of Vietnamese ceramics in the 1400s. They were primarily made for international export and have been found all over the world. Mjau, we wonder if they had Made In Vietnam stamped on them?

After the museum we walked around the area and found a small chocolate shop: Binon Cacao. They had several different chocolates with free samples. We tried Vietnamese coffee, cashew butter, rosemary & nibs, matcha & banana, roasted garlic and some other less interesting ones. The roasted garlic was surprisingly tasty, it was witch white chocolate but would have been interesting to try with dark chocolate. The rosemary one had a strange aftertaste that almost reminded us of Hershey's kisses. We bought a bar of black tea & fruit crunch and also got a slice of cake from their cafe. Mjau, we were slightly disappointed by the cake. The caramel layer did not taste like caramel, or anything at all really, and we think it had too much gelatin as the consistency was a bit odd. The roasted almond on top was delicious and we would have liked for there to have been a layer of crushed roasted almonds all over the cake. In the evening we went out for drinks so we could spend the last of our Vietnamese currency. We went to the Hotel Continental Lounge and had a coffee based drink. Mjau, it was called "I love you" so it was quite embarrassing for our butler to order the drink! Mjauhihi, no bother! Their misery is our entertainment!

Mjau, all in all we were happy with our stay in Ho Chi Minh City. The hotel was the perfect location, we just wish the Nguyen Hue would have been closed for cars and scooters all the time. It was only some evenings that the street was closed from traffic. Those evenings were wonderful!