{"id":320,"date":"2011-09-24T20:38:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T12:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mylast365days.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2014-01-11T04:28:39","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T04:28:39","slug":"adventures-in-saigon-vietnam-the-best-pho-ive-had-in-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/adventures-in-saigon-vietnam-the-best-pho-ive-had-in-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Pho I’ve Ever Had: Adventures in Saigon, Vietnam 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"saigon-adventures1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though I\u2019d been to Vietnam before, I\u2019d never been to Ho Chi Minh City\u2026 which according to my friend Andy was \u201cwhere it\u2019s at\u201d \u2013 so of course I had to give him a visit. I had been to Hanoi on a prior trip, but Andy said Saigon had more of a city life so for most of this trip we checked out a lot of cafes, clubs, and local spots.<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When I got to Andy\u2019s place, I was greeted with a red Vietnamese flag. It was a national holiday and if you didn\u2019t put up the flag you would be fined Andy said. Haha very interesting, but not a surprise.<\/p>\n

Right after I dropped off my bags Andy had some plans ready to go!<\/p>\n

\"first<\/a><\/p>\n

First dinner in Saigon<\/p>\n

We went to a Japanese style bbq restaurant. It was pretty nice and the water and ice were drinkable without having to buy bottled water. We got too much meat in our system so had to do a little pumping iron pose\u2026 and we were getting pumped to go out!<\/p>\n

Anyways next up after dinner was a chill hookah place. It was strewn with red satin curtains hung everywhere and had a cozy feel. Andy said it would be nice to open up a place like that in the future. It was a good pre-party hangout location. After hookah we hit up\u00a0Model Club<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"club-andy-philip\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We had a group of friends at the table and it was my first experience going to a club in Vietnam. So how was it inside? Compared to the clubs in China, it wasn\u2019t as big or as packed, but I usually don\u2019t like it so packed where you can\u2019t move. We had a good group of people at the table and ate, drank, danced, laughed. It was a good first night.<\/p>\n

Afterward we got some late night noodles. It\u2019s funny because normally after going out in the states… I would get either korean bbq or pho.. but in Vietnam we got some other kind of noodles when I was totally craving pho. Even those this wasn’t the pho that I sought after, it was still good.<\/p>\n

The next morning however, my wish was granted \u2013 I wake up all groggy in the morning around 11:30am and stumble out of my room\u2026 my eyes half open… I walk downstairs. Halfway down the flight of stairs Andy opens his room door and groggily says \u201cif you\u2019re hungry just go downstairs and eat some food\u201d. I have no idea what he is talking about.. but I am half awake and a little hungry so I just keep walking downstairs.<\/p>\n

I get to the kitchen and Lo and Behold!<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pho Fantasy Feast<\/p>\n

I see an entire freshly cooked meal laden all over his kitchen table. There is a fresh steaming pot of beef stew ready to fuse with the freshly cooked pho noodles. There is sliced chicken, basil, fish sauce, and the oh so aromatic toasted garlic flakes. WOW! The smell, the first bite.. I had like 3 bowls.<\/p>\n

\"Best<\/a>
Best Pho Ever<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Best Bowl of Pho<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t forget the taste of this bowl of Pho. I think I would have to go back to Vietnam just for this pho alone.<\/p>\n

So eventually we all climb out of our half-awake states; I tell Andy I want to do at least one touristy thing and then we can do all the cafes and partying possible. There were 2 touristy things to do on my to do list. 1 was the tunnels + AKs, the other was the Reunification Palace.<\/p>\n

\"Reunification<\/a>
Reunification Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reunification Palace, formerly known as Independence Palace, was the equivalent of the White House for the President of South Vietnam. It was also the last stand and site for the end of the war. But yeah\u2026 unfortunately when we got there it was CLOSED! I think either we got there too late or it was due to the holiday\u2026 so I had no choice but to get some\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vietnamese<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2026Vietnamese Coffee! Also known as \u2018ca phe sua da\u2019 is delicious iced coffee with condensed milk.\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s not a trip to Vietnam without some Vietnamese coffee! It\u2019s super strong and got me pretty wired.<\/p>\n

After I got all wired we went to dinner with Andy\u2019s friend Tommy and Tommy\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tommy was hilarious! He was an international model and traveled to all these different parts of the world in the past and over dinner and drinks he kept throwin down all this knowledge. It was interesting and he was comical at the same time. In the picture above we went to a local pub bar type place.. but it\u2019s different from bars in the US because at this bar there are girls that work there that hang out by the bar and you can select for them to accompany you while you drink. The way it works is you ask some to join you and then at the end you give them a standardized tip. In Vietnam and many parts of Asia this is pretty commonplace. At the same time you don\u2019t have to ask them to drink with you. We just sat for drinks and there was also live music so it was a cool spot to chat and hear Tommy\u2019s stories. At night we went to\u00a0Shadow Club<\/strong>. There are mainly a lot of tables all lined up in there, but didn\u2019t really have a dance floor. Tri dropped by too and we ended going to some cafe afterward.. we ordered food.. the food came.. but by the time the food came we were passed out. hahaha..<\/p>\n

Okay, so due to our failure of doing one tourist thing the day before the first thing we did the next day was to check out the Reunification Palace again. This time it was open and I got to check it out (Unfortunately I did not have time to check out the tunnels and AKs this trip because that location was about 2 hours away from where we lived and we didn\u2019t have enough time).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a glimpse of what\u2019s inside:<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures7\"<\/a>
Helicopter at the Reunification Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"saigon-adventures8\"<\/a>
Commanding Room is for Commanders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"saigon-adventures9\"<\/a>
Pictures on the wall in the Reunification Palace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The inside is what you could expect \u2013 it\u2019s just some different board rooms, offices, library room, theater room, etc. Then there\u2019s a helicopter and tank on the premises. Walking through it was a little boring, but at the same time when you realize it was a part of history and then see all these pictures of the war and slaughter, it\u2019s pretty moving that I\u2019m standing in the same place where tanks crashed through and people fought with their lives and struggled through so much.<\/p>\n

Upon leaving, I was however touristed into buying some over-priced useless artifacts. Anyways, we headed to meet up a friend and get some coffee. I wanted to try some more food and though it wasn\u2019t dinner time I wanted to try the banhi me and beef stew which I often have in San Gabriel on Valley Blvd. I may have not ordered the exact thing I was looking for but it was pretty good. I was hoping the beef stew would be thicker and more suitable for dipping the bread in.. but overall the taste was still good. With that, I will note one thing \u2013 at least from what I saw, though Beijing has a lot more modern looking buildings and some bigger more developed establishments.. the one thing that always nags at me in China is that when I\u2019m eating, I\u2019m not quite sure what I\u2019m eating.. I often get this it\u2019s half food, half synthetic feeling\u2026 and I did not have that feeling in Vietnam. Everything I ate tasted good and tasted like\u00a0real<\/strong>\u00a0food.<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures11\"<\/a>
Beef Stew and Banh Mi!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For dinner we went to a really local spot and had some other kind of Vietnamese noodles. I was pretty full after already eating like 2 hours before dinner, but I remember the soup and noodles were really tasty.<\/p>\n

\"Spring<\/a>
Spring Rolls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After dinner we went to a more western club lounge called\u00a0Lush<\/strong>. It was my last night and I had to catch a flight the next morning plus we had gone out enough so we took it easy and then headed out around midnight.<\/p>\n

\"saigon-adventures13\"<\/a>
I’m Actually Imitating the Picture Behind Me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So the next morning I\u2019m at the airport. I\u2019m sitting by my terminal… and then suddenly this URGE for pho starts rising and 30 minutes before it was time to board my flight I run upstairs to the restaurant area and frantically search for some pho. haha! I figured it would be a while since I could get some good authentic pho in Vietnam so I should get one more farewell bite. =P Though airport food is not known to be the best ever, I figure it is still a Vietnamese airport so the pho should still be pretty above par.<\/p>\n

\"Airport<\/a>
Airport Pho<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Airport<\/a>
Airport fried spring rolls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was wrong. The pho was very average. The fried spring rolls were slightly tastier. Not the best, but still tasty. The size of those spring rolls reminded me of filipino lumpia.<\/p>\n

Overall I had a good trip. I didn\u2019t really go to Vietnam to do anything crazy or do too much sight-seeing. I happened to have a break between work and I hadn\u2019t seen my friend Andy in a while so it was the perfect timing. I got to see his pad and personally see and hear what he\u2019s been up to in Saigon (and he\u2019s been up to a lot). It was a good breather in the sense that I didn\u2019t worry about work, training, housing, planning for those few days.<\/p>\n

On the other hand it was still action packed because we squeezed in so much in these few short days. So the journey doesn\u2019t end here. There was a reason this trip was cut short. Originally I was planning on staying 1-2 weeks, but life slapped me in the face and said I had other plans.<\/p>\n

Find out what was so important that I had to reduce my pho eating days in my next post! \u2013\u00a0The Life of a Stuntman in China: The Truth Behind \u201cThe Shaolin Temple\u201d!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though I\u2019d been to Vietnam before, I\u2019d never been to Ho Chi Minh City\u2026 which according to my friend Andy was \u201cwhere it\u2019s at\u201d \u2013 so of course I had to give him a visit. I had been to Hanoi on a prior trip, but Andy said Saigon had more …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,12],"tags":[69,70,94,1180,218,319,340,350,430,450],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-travel","tag-andy-le-tong","tag-andy-tong","tag-best-pho-ever","tag-food","tag-ho-chi-minh-city","tag-pho","tag-reunification-palace","tag-saigon","tag-vietnam","tag-world-travel","column","twocol","has-thumbnail"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/saigon-adventures3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eMwQ-5a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1117,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/1117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alfredrocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}