Ben Thanh Markets and Grand Silverland Hotel ~ Day Seven ~ Vietnam July 2019

[DisneyDaffodil]

Index

We woke up at around 8am. As promised in the last report, we’ll show you photos of the room that we took this day. Our room had two double beds which were both really comfortable. We were overlooking the main road (which was a much better view than from our first hotel in Ho Chi Minh) but we couldn’t hear any noise from the road (probably as we were quite a few floors up). The bathroom was also very spacious and luxurious, with a big jacuzzi bath/shower. This is possibly one of the nicest hotels we’ve ever stayed in and we would 100% book this hotel again if we went back to Ho Chi Minh.

We went down to breakfast, which was served in the foyer (the same place they also had a restaurant in the evenings) The service here was excellent and very friendly, showing us to our table and bringing us coffee. The table we were shown to this morning was right next to the window, which overlooked the road and intersection, so we could watch the motorbikes and cars on the road.

Breakfast here was another buffet with a huge choice of normal (and some not so normal) offerings. I really didn’t know what I wanted this morning so had some very weird plates starting with one cheese bread and chicken nuggets, one of peanut butter and cake and another that was a really weird jelly/yoghurt thing (?) They also cooked a lot of fresh omelettes and eggs which they brought to the table, which Rob enjoyed. Here’s many photos of the food (with my weird plates first)

After breakfast, I messaged Ian and as he had a few household chores and Claudia was working, we decided we’d meet up with him at lunch at the Street Food Market which was literally around the corner from our hotel. After the long day of travel and walking around Hoi An the day before, we decided to spend a restful morning around the pool.
We headed to the rooftop, where the pool in this hotel was. This was, by far, the nicest pool at any of the hotels that we’d been to this trip due to the view and the use of the space. The roof was layered, with the pool and bar on the lowest level and two seating areas on the other two layers. There was a living wall, with loads of different flowers and grasses and the hotel sign on the top of the roof, which lit up at night. The view from the roof overlooked a large section of the city, including the Ben Thanh Market and Street Food Market. We spent a few hours here, sunbathing, reading and swimming. I was able to go in this pool, despite not being able to swim, as it sloped gradually to its deepest in the middle of the pool, which was easily avoided. Here’s some photos from around the pool that morning and of the view.

We went back to the room to change before heading to lunch with Ian. He brought our two other suitcases with him that he had kept in his apartment while we went to Hoi An. We took these back to the room before heading across the street to the Ben Thanh Street Food Market. We haven’t mentioned this previously in the trip report, although it had been a slight problem for the past few days, but Rob’s knee had been painful and today it had swollen up and was worse than it had been before. This meant that for the rest of the trip we took it a bit slower than we had before and spent a lot of the days relaxing rather than walking lots. Despite this, we did visit a lot of places and see parts of Ho Chi Minh that we wouldn’t have if we’d visited more attractions.
The Street food Market was somewhere I had been wary of before visiting Ho Chi Minh and had been determined I wouldn’t want to eat anything there. However, as soon as we entered and saw all the food and smelt the amazing cooking, I changed my mind. Every stall was serving fresh, well cooked meals and all of them were very clean (which was something I had been worried about). We wandered around all of the stalls first, looking at what they were cooking and Ian pointed out ones that he thought looked particularly good. It took us a while to decide what we wanted and I think I changed my mind about ten times. We all went to the stalls that we wanted food from and ordered what we wanted. The stallholders spoke good English and were very helpful when we ordered. We all agreed to meet back at the tables that were set up at the back of the market. There were also tables set up at the front.

Rob and I had the pork filled bao buns which were delicious. The pork was really tender and had a nice ginger flavour to it (which again, I don’t like ginger usually but somehow I do enjoy it on food like this) We hadn’t really tried bao buns before but really enjoyed them here and have had them since at home because we liked them so much.

I tried a banh mi, which I had wanted to try when in Hoi An but hadn’t had time for. It was ok, but not something special. It was just pork and pickled vegetables in a roll.

Ian had some noodle dish (we can’t remember exactly what he had). I also tried a sugar cane juice with strawberry flavour. The juice was made fresh at the stall and it was really interesting to watch them make it. The plastic cup was full of sugar cane juice and it was huge! The juice was refreshing although also very sickly due to how sweet it was. I couldn’t drink more than one sip. I really enjoyed it though.

We also had a couple of bottles of beer here. Rob was really excited about it, as it was Saigon Export beer, and only cost around 40 pence! While everyone sat having drinks after our meal, I got an ice cream from one of the stalls we had seen earlier. I chose the one that looked the prettiest (very good reason to choose something ) This also only cost around 40 pence. It was coconut flavour (but not too strong) and was really delicious.

Overall the food here came to around £12.
Now, I need to talk about something very important here. The most important part of this trip report, some would say. And that is: the toilets in Ben Thanh Street Food Market. I was very exited the first time I went into the bathroom here, as there were Disney Princesses and characters painted on all the walls! Today’s toilet had Tinkerbell on the wall (We went to the Street Food Market multiple times after this on the trip and I tried to go to a different toilet each time so that I could see which character was in which stall and take a photo of it ) I excitedly told everyone about it when I went back and Dad told us that there were superheroes in the men’s bathrooms.

Rob’s knee was still very bad so we decided to go for a short walk around the area but not go too far, so that he didn’t make it worse. As Ben Thanh market was nearby, we decided to go here, as it is one of the tourist sights in Ho Chi Minh. Again, we thought before travelling to Vietnam that this wouldn’t be something we’d enjoy. We didn’t particularly find this market exciting or interesting, as there isn’t really much to see other than a market of people selling mostly clothes. I guess it’s something you just do to say that you’ve been there but unless you’re looking to buy anything, it’s just a walk. The stall holders are more pushy here than anywhere else, but we just ignored them and continued to walk as we weren’t interested.
After this short walk, Rob’s knee was feeling slightly worse, as the floors are often uneven and it isn’t easy to walk around here. Ian popped into a pharmacy and bought Rob some Tiger balm to ease his pain. We decided to go back to our hotel so Rob could rest his leg (and for us all to rest) and Ian suggested we go see the Water Puppet Show. He would then meet us later that evening for food and probably drinks at one of Ian’s local bars. We decided this was a good idea and after resting up a little and changing, we caught a Grab car to the Water Puppet Theatre.
However, when we arrived here, there were already quite a lot of people queued up and the area was relatively busy. We joined the line but found out that there were no tickets for the next performance and only seats separate for the performance after that. We were disappointed but didn’t really want to sit apart so decided to give it a miss. Our tip would be to buy tickets beforehand for the day, as it’s difficult to get tickets just before the show.
We went and sat in the park nearby for a bit, which was really relaxing. Plus there were lots of dogs walking around and playing fetch with their owners, which was great. The parks here were much bigger than we’d expected them to be in the city and were often relatively busy and well used. There were exercise classes, musicians and dancing happening at different parts of the park, which we watched as we started to wander through. It was starting to rain a little now, so we decided to get a Grab car back to our hotel (we were kind of glad that we hadn’t got tickets for the next performance as we would had to have waited around in the rain for it). The road next to the park was extremely busy, with many lanes and fast-moving traffic. I didn’t think this was a great place to order the Grab from but couldn’t see any other options as a lot of the surrounding roads were similar and we didn’t think it was safe to cross them. Plus, we didn’t want to walk back towards the water puppet theatre because of Dad’s knee. So, we ordered the Grab from here. The Grab driver was great and stopped on the busy road for us to dive into the car (He probably was thinking what stupid tourists we were)
As we got back to the hotel, the rain started to get much heavier, so we rushed into the lobby. We went back to our room and all showered and changed, ready to head out again later to meet Ian. However, I started messaging him and he said that it had begun to thunder there and not long after there was thunder and lightning outside our hotel. This was an awesome thunderstorm and I spent ages stood by the window watching the forks of lightning. We waited for a while, hoping that the storm would pass so that we could meet Ian but it wasn’t to be. The roads were filled with water and it definitely wasn’t easing up. After lots of messaging with Ian, we decided we would stay and have a meal at our hotel that night and see him the next day, as it just wasn’t possible to meet in this storm.
So, having decided this, we went in search of the restaurant. For some reason we thought it was on the roof (what a stupid idea that was with the rain haha) so we went here first. I took some photos from here when we realised it wasn’t before we headed down to the lobby, where food was actually served.

Where we ate breakfast in the morning had been turned into an evening restaurant and we were quickly shown to a table here. The service at the hotel was excellent and the waiters were attentive all evening. The menu was quite good, with a choice between Asian and Western dishes.

Both Rob and I had a Tiger beer to drink.

I was so bored of drinking water that I decided to have a non-alcoholic cocktail, which was something that they offered here (which is something I definitely hadn’t expected to find) When it arrived, it was unfortunately fizzy but the flavour was really nice and I enjoyed it despite it being bubbly (which is why I don’t drink most soft drinks) It was also really pretty.

Rob chose the Thai curry and rice. This looked really good and he enjoyed it.

I had the seafood rice, which had seafood in it, prawns on the side and an egg on top. This looked unusual but was delicious!

I chose the pork schnitzel with mash potato (Probably the most Western meal on the menu haha) This was really well cooked and came with mayonnaise on the side too, which I was over-excited about as I love mayo and hadn’t had any all week (this makes it sound like I’m addicted to mayo. I promise I’m not)

We enjoyed sitting and relaxing with our meal and drinks and chatting here. It had been a much more relaxing day than the day before, which was nice as we needed the rest. The meal and drinks came to around £30.

When we’d finished eating and drinking our drinks, we looked outside to see that the rain had eased and although it was still cloudy and the roads still had a lot of surface water on them, we could actually leave the hotel without being soaked. We decided to go to the bar opposite our hotel, as it was only around 9pm and we wanted to have another drink out.
This bar was very pretty (I liked the lights and giant gold cubes on the ceiling) and we sat on a table near the edge outside (although under a ceiling) so that we could watch the traffic going down the road and the lights of the city and the Street Food Market.

We had two drinks here. Rob had two Tiger beers. I had a Tiger beer and Long Island Iced Tea which was delicious but also extremely strong.

I decided that despite eating lots today (including one ice cream already), I really wanted ice cream which they sold here. They had a whole ice cream menu and I chose a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of Oreo. This came in a cute glass bowl with an Oreo on the side! The ice cream was delicious, as expected. Although looking back at the menu now I wish I’d had the green tea flavour (spoilers: I tried matcha ice cream later in the trip and it was AMAZING)

We can’t remember the prices for any of this, but it was slightly more expensive (probably more similar to UK prices) as this bar was attached to a hotel (although not ours, a different hotel across the road).
After we finished here, we decided to head to the nearby supermarket to buy a few beers for the room and I wanted to walk down the road to take photos of the Street Food Market at night and the front of our hotel. This all included a lot of street crossing all by ourselves. We were very proud of ourselves.
We went to the supermarket first to buy beers. I also saw lots of cute, cheap stationery here that I wanted to buy later in the trip.
We then headed to the Street Food Market to take photos. This took a while as I wanted to line up motorbikes perfectly with the market to take photos and videos of and this was the only time there were less bikes going past, typically. The Street Food Market looked very pretty lit up in the evenings.

We finished by taking photos of our hotel on the way back before heading back to our room. We had another drink here, while chatting before heading to bed quite late that night.

The next day we spent time at the pool, went for a walk around Ho Chi Minh (visiting a museum, Walking Street and a mall) and spending the evening at the Bitexco Tower for the Heineken Experience before having food at a Japanese restaurant.

[Melbatb]

Rob’s curry looks delicious - as do all the drinks!

The pool area looks fabulous - I love the greenery around it and the views!

It is a shame about Rob’s knee - not much fun when you need to walk!

It certainly seems as though you had got the hang of the traffic! I remember in Bangkok it felt like you were taking your life in your hand everyone you wanted to cross the road!

Looking forward to the next installment (Georgia being home has definite advantages )

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

Rob’s curry looks delicious - as do all the drinks!

The pool area looks fabulous - I love the greenery around it and the views!

It is a shame about Rob’s knee - not much fun when you need to walk!

It certainly seems as though you had got the hang of the traffic! I remember in Bangkok it felt like you were taking your life in your hand everyone you wanted to cross the road!

Looking forward to the next installment (Georgia being home has definite advantages )

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Thanks Mel, it was a lovely relaxing day. Rob’s knee did cause a lot of problems for him for around two weeks after we returned home too, I’m not sure if it was the heat or the walking that caused it. It did stop us visiting a few attractions but it also made the last few days a time to relax and spend time together as a family which was an important part of the trip for us. We did still manage to fit a lot in the next few days though so hopefully lots more to show you of the city 😀

We felt we had made a major achievement each time we crossed a road here, the traffic was so crazy. The pool area was such a peaceful contrast to the chaos outside the hotel, we loved this area.

[stockport1965]

Lovely to take us back to your adventure, great photos!

We may change to the Silverland next year after your pics

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by stockport1965

Lovely to take us back to your adventure, great photos!

We may change to the Silverland next year after your pics

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I do hope you have a wonderful adventure next year too xx

I would recommend the Silverland in a heartbeat, fantastic service, such comfortable rooms and in a great location too

[Goldia]

Oh no what a shame about Rob's knee. I'm glad to see the interesting breakfast plates, I thought that yesterday too, but forgot to mention the meat and cheese plate, today we get bonus chicken nuggets!

Also, totally agree about knowing where the best toilets are so now if I ever find myself in need of the facilities i know to hold out until I find Tink. I always feel the best trip reports are the ones we are confident the writers haven't left anything out. I know that sounds sarcastic, but I'm being serious. Honestly, I'm not joking.

Ok back to the day. The ice cream did look very pretty and cost pennies, plus lucky Rob got a beer for pennies too. A great day of food, relaxing and a lovely time with your son. It really doesn't get much better than that x

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Oh no what a shame about Rob's knee. I'm glad to see the interesting breakfast plates, I thought that yesterday too, but forgot to mention the meat and cheese plate, today we get bonus chicken nuggets!

Also, totally agree about knowing where the best toilets are so now if I ever find myself in need of the facilities i know to hold out until I find Tink. I always feel the best trip reports are the ones we are confident the writers haven't left anything out. I know that sounds sarcastic, but I'm being serious. Honestly, I'm not joking.

Ok back to the day. The ice cream did look very pretty and cost pennies, plus lucky Rob got a beer for pennies too. A great day of food, relaxing and a lovely time with your son. It really doesn't get much better than that x

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Georgia and your Max should compare plates some time 😀 Georgia did feel chicken nuggets for breakfast was a treat

We certainly couldn’t be accused of missing anything out on our trip reports 😂 We find once we start writing, we just can’t stop comparing notes and want to write it all down

Food and drink was so cheap in Vietnam and tasted so good too, it was a real surprise to us. I think Ian got fed up of us saying how cheap everything was 😂 You are right about spending time with Ian (and Claudia) though, definitely what the trip was all about for us 💕

[justacey]

The Silverland was on our list of hotels to choose from but we certainly couldn't complain about our choice of Liberty Central.
My sister-in-law's bladder was/is quite weak and every time she returned we asked her for a score out of 10
I can't believe it was 2 years ago now that we were there. Reading your reports takes me back.

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by justacey

The Silverland was on our list of hotels to choose from but we certainly couldn't complain about our choice of Liberty Central.
My sister-in-law's bladder was/is quite weak and every time she returned we asked her for a score out of 10
I can't believe it was 2 years ago now that we were there. Reading your reports takes me back.

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I think the quality of hotels generally in Ho Chi Minh (and Hoi An) was excellent but we fell in love with the Grand Silverland

Georgia thought it was fantastic to find Disney characters in the middle of the city I think she would have loved to have visited the men’s loos too 😂

Is it 2 years since your trip there? Your report was very helpful for our trip. I’ve so enjoyed looking back at our photos while we’ve been putting the report together

[CrispyA]

The rooftop pool sounds great! Some really good food today as well and a very pretty ice cream - shame about Rob’s knee but it sounds like a slower pace was sometimes good