This morning we started out with working out in the tiny little fitness gym in our hotel. It was basically a small hotel room that they emptied out and converted to a small gym. There was an elliptical and a treadmill and basic small weights in kg. We worked out for 30min then headed down to our breakfast buffet.

There were a lot of options! There was the basic bread and eggs and deli meats with cheese. There’s a Vietnamese vegetable and egg drop soup. There were a variety of protein options such as braised beef and carrot, chicken and bell peppers, fried fish, roasted vegetables, fried noodles, fried rice, sausages, etc.

There was also a noodle soup station that included hu tieu, pho and mi xao.

We decided to get hu tieu as our first breakfast. It was served with thin rice noodle, thinly sliced pork and greens. The broth was tasty and light. It was good! Tomorrow I will try the pho!

I also tried their fried rice and fried noodles. The fried rice was dry but the noodles were good! It was served with a generous portion of green vegetables, mushrooms and broccoli.

The braised beef was tender and the carrots were soft. Fried fish was good and flaky on the inside. Chicken was a bit dry.

Afterwards, we started to explore nearby the hotel, which we accidentally ran into Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon and Saigon Central Post Office.

We tried to find coffee beans but most coffee shops didn’t sell whole beans. Then we went into Diamond Plaza Mall, which ended up being a place where young teens play dress up and take pictures of themselves. It was also a mall full of designer brands.

We then walked across the street to Trung Nguyen Coffee, which happens to be the supposedly number 1 coffee back then. It was a very big coffee cafe with like 4 corners of differently aesthetic environments from indoor and classy to outdoors and tropical.

We ordered two egg coffees, which are always served hot. My mom says it’s okay because they also serve iced teas on the side for free (instead of water) so we’ll be able to stay cool.

Our egg coffees were very aesthetic. Each was placed in a smaller vessel of hot water to keep it hot. That vessel is then placed on two long leaves on a wooden platter with a sunflower seed cookie, that was crispy and crunchy and thin.

The egg coffees themselves were very eggy and creamy, but mildly sweet. We both liked it!!

Then we walked to across the street to a place called Mai Xuan Canh, which is a place my mom’s niece recommended as the best mien ga ever.

After ordering and sitting down on plastic chairs and tables, we quickly realized we are eating at a place with no prices already. But it’s too late..

I ordered bun ga and my mom ordered mien ga. Then I switched some of the noodles with her so that I can try too. (Bun are the white, thin, round rice noodles and mien ga are the thin, round, glass noodles). I thought the mien ga was good! The broth smelled and tasted very flavorful and deep. It was very comforting to slurp even while I was sweating in the heat. The shredded white chicken were savory even though it was small, thin pieces.

My mom said to not use any of the wet wipes because they’ll charge extra. When we decided to pay, the lady asked if we used any of the napkins. We said no so she charged us 110,000 for both bowls, which comes out to be approx $5 for both bowls. So cheap!!!

We walked back to our hotel room to do a shower and rinse. Our bodies are drenched in sweat.

After we showered and relaxed in our hotel for about 1-2hr, we took a taxi to meet up with my mom’s two sisters to visit another one. They talked and caught up. Then we went to meet up with some cousins because they wanted to take us out to eat.

They took us to a restaurant called Be Vang. It looked like a really expensive Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant, especially for Vietnam. The cousins spoiled us.

The quail was probably my favorite from tonight’s dinner. It was so crispy and flavorful and savory sweet if that can be both at the same time. Bird is super skinny and you barely get an even close to enough meat. Skin is super thin and crispy.

They spoiled us with the aunts and me our own serving appetizer of abalone. It’s meant to be eaten together with the radish and onion salad. The abalone was so bomb.

The steak was served perfectly seasoned and medium rare. I couldn’t ask for a better medium rare piece of steak. So simply cooked and perfect.

This was kind of a fried creamy filling… I wasn’t sure what was in there but yummy.

Squid was delicious!!

Freshly squeezed pineapple for juice hit the spot in this hot and humid weather.

The baby was lobster was delicious. The buns were plain but tasted good somehow.

Apparently they used the heads of the baby lobster and made soup out of boiling them. Broth was good and lobster egg was amazing with their eggs.

We ended with a variety of ice cream scoops each. It was delicious and refreshing.

Thank you Anh Bao for the dinner! You’re a hilarious cousin! Got back home and in bed by 10pm. Exhausted and sleepy.