HCMC II Day 1: Silverland Ben Thanh

In Jan this year, the Hubby spontaneously suggested a short trip over the Vesak Day long weekend. We considered Hat Yai and Kuching but the air tickets were too expensive! I then proposed Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon to the locals), as I had an enjoyable experience the last time I visited and majority of the family have not been to Vietnam. We found reasonable tickets via Singapore Airlines at $304 per adult and $240 per child! 😀 

After the kids returned from school that Friday, we took two taxis to Changi Airport Terminal 2 to catch our 5.15pm flight.

Mini 'Gardens by the Bay' at Terminal 2 Transit

Super excited to board our plane

Our plane eventually departed at 5.30pm and we had a simple dinner onboard

The flight was only about 2 hours, which meant the crew had to prepare for landing while they collected our trays! We arrived safely at Tan Son Nhat International Airport Terminal 2 at 6.30pm (Vietnam is 1 hour behind Singapore).

By the time we cleared customs, it was 7.30pm. We collected our luggage and headed to the Taxi Stand.

Airport Taxi Stand

I had intended to take only the Vinasun taxis as I had done in my previous trip or Grab. However, the Hubby was approached by a man wearing an orange colour shirt and out of convenience accepted his offer of a taxi, not realising that it was an unfamiliar company.

Our driver dropped us at Ben Thanh instead of the entrance of our hotel as he claimed that he was not able to drive to the entrance (utter nonsense!). The journey was only about 30 minutes but we were charged an exorbitant VND700k! It was the worse taxi service I've ever experienced and vowed never to be taken advantage of again!

We dragged our luggage on a 3-minute walk to Silverland Ben Thanh as I fumed about the terrible taxi experience! 😡 My mood improved immediately when I saw our hotel. It was very aesthetic!

The beautiful lobby of our hotel

Outdoor cafe seating area

The hotel used to be called Silverland Central when I last visited and has since been renovated in 2023. The hotel had won awards for its architectural design!

One of the tables at the lobby

Complimentary welcome fruits

Complimentary welcome drinks and snacks (which were super tasty!)

We had booked two Sense City Family Rooms at S$183 per room per night. Each room accommodates 3 adults and includes complimentary afternoon tea.

There was only one family room on each floor so we had to split up. It was quite inconvenient accessing each other's rooms but we addressed it by requesting for more room cards.

Corridor to our room

One queen bed and one single bed

TV, side table and sofa

Tea and coffee

Fridge

Bathroom

Bathtub with working jets!

View from our room window

It was 8pm by the time we had unpacked and we were famished! Fortunately, there's no lack of good food in the area as our hotel was conveniently located near Ben Thanh Market! It was one of the reasons for choosing this hotel!

The Hubby scanned the streets and spotted Ancua Saigon. It was the word "seafood" that probably caught his attention! 🤭

Ancua Saigon restaurant
(Address: 196 Lê Thánh Tôn, Phường Bến Thành, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam)

Live seafood in tanks, including super large clams!

Clockwise from left: The menu; fried tang hoon; egg fried rice

Super large and fresh clams! Very juicy! 😁

Cheese-baked giant prawns

Plain giant prawns

The restaurant was running a promotion and gave us complimentary bahn mi and crab meat dip with minimum spend.

The crab meat dip was super incredible! We wanted to buy another serving but they do not sell it!

It was a great first meal in Saigon for the family! Looking forward to more awesome food to come!

Continue to >> Ho Chi Minh City II Day 2: Saigon Center & Ben Thanh Market

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Saigon Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Beijing-Shanghai Day 7: Jingan Joy City, Flight Home & My Reflections

For some strange reason I had woken up at dawn and managed to catch the sunrise!

Couldn't see the sunrise directly but you can see it's reflection on the buildings

Good morning from Pudong Shangri-la!

I went back to bed and woke up much later with the family and walked to Super Brand Mall for breakfast.

Dian Dou De Restaurant

The Hubby had brought the rest of the family to this restaurant for breakfast when the Eldest and I were at Disneyland and wanted the Eldest and I to try the food because they liked it.

We were one of the first customers

Various dim sum and noodles

Mango dessert, fried noodles and roast pigeon

Yummy red crispy rice rolls with shrimp, a must-try in Shanghai!

Super cute piggy bao and fried "chicken" crispy balls

Super cute avocado dessert

The food was generally better than what we had at Bao Yue Lou the day before (but also slightly more expensive if I had remembered correctly). 

After breakfast, the Littlest showed me what she and her brother did when the Eldest and I were at Disneyland.

Marvelous Fun Land

She had fed the rabbits and played with soft clay with her brother

The Lego shop

We headed back to our hotel to check out and left our luggage at concierge. We had some time before we needed to be at the airport so we met up with my dad for lunch and final shopping at Shanghai Jingan Joy City mall.

Dad came to pick us up!

Joy City

The Hubby chose Jing Nan Feng restaurant for our lunch.

Jiang Nan Feng, a restaurant specialising in Shanghainese food

The food looks so good!

Family photo

Drunken prawns, xiao long bao and plain noodles (for the picky Littlest of course)

I can't remember what vegetable this was but it was super yummy!

It's a must to eat paofan in Shanghai!

The very cute capybara (I think) and other food we tried

Complimentary gachapon for the kids!

After a sumptuous lunch, we explored the rest of the mall and did a lot of shopping!

Super long escalator

We found a lot of cute and interesting stuff at Loft

The mall was filled with toy shops! Kids had a blast!

Top Toy again because this Mummy wanted more blindboxes! 😅
I managed to get this super cute My Melody in pyjamas 😄

It soon came time for us to head back to Pudong (how fast time flies!) and we hailed a DiDi to IFC Mall.

IFC Mall

It's a pretty atas mall with many luxury brands

Final shopping at City'super, the supermarket in IFC Mall

There's always time for ice-cream!

We walked back to Super Brand Mall for the last time during this trip and had our dinner.

Final photos with the Shanghai Tower & Oriental Pearl Tower!

We had dinner at this Japanese restaurant at the first floor

The Boy's favourite food!

Vegetables and yakitori

After dinner, we returned to our hotel at 9pm and hailed 2 cars via DiDi to Pudong International Airport. The journey took about 50 minutes and cost approximately S$20 per car (super affordable). We arrived at the airport just before 10pm.

Pudong International Airport Terminal 2

Boarding our flight at 12 midnight

Awaiting departure

We were once again served our meals at 1am 😮‍💨😓

We were really tired but thankfully the flight was only 5 hours. We arrived at Singapore Airport Terminal 3 at around 5am.

It's good to be home! 🥰

My Reflections

We really love Beijing and Shanghai! The cities were modern, clean and efficient! We averaged 20,000 steps a day easily due to the sheer size of China! 😅

It was great that we speak the language and had no issues with communication. You'd need to know Mandarin to communicate as most of the locals cannot speak English. Consider using translation apps if you don't speak the language.

China's WiFi does not support non-China apps such as Google Play Store, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. You can only use these 'foreign' apps with your local roaming data. We realised on hindsight that we should have downloaded Chinese apps before the trip to save on data. Key apps to download: Alipay, WeChat (for chatting and payment), Weibo or Tiktok (for entertainment), Baidu (search engine) and Amap (for navigation).

It can be difficult trying to figure out Alipay and WeChat Pay for the first time as they were foreign to us. It took us awhile to understand the process but once we did, it was very seamless! Don't bother bringing cash as everyone uses digital payment and hence do not have change (you'd need to pay the exact amount).

The cons? Let's just say there are rude and inconsiderate people everywhere and we have met our fair share in Beijing and Shanghai! The drivers can also drive as aggressively as Singapore! 😅

However, we have also met really lovely people who had given us great advice on where to go. 

We planned to visit the following attractions on our next trip to Beijing:

• Universal Studios Beijing
• National Museum of China
• China Science and Technology Museum
• Henan
• Xian

Other attractions in Shanghai:

• Xintiandi 
• Suzhou

Overall, we had a great trip and will definitely be back! Can't wait! 😍

<< Back to Beijing-Shanghai Day 6: Expo, Yu Yuan & Nanjing Pedestrian Street

~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Beijing & Shanghai, China 

as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!