✈ 4d3n @ HCMC, Vietnam

"Wan-der-lust:

noun

a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about."

Jack & I found some great deals on Jetstar 3 weeks before we flew. $0 return flight ticket from Vietnam can you imagineeeeeeeeeee???? :) So we booked an impromptu trip and spent the last weekends of August roaming about this foreign city.

Vietnam was nothing like Singapore. The road's messy, the architectures are old.

We reached our hotel at 1030am and managed to get a early check-in!

Famished by 1130am, we walked around our area in search for food and happened to chance upon one of our itinerary recommended food hunt. Two things that came right to my mind was Coconut Drink & Pho! We also ordered two spring rolls - a chicken and another pork skin but the latter was really not to our liking :/

Nha Hang Ngon

160 Pasteur, District 1, HCMC

At the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral. The group of Japanese that helped us took a picture insist we wear the Vietnamese cap haha

Central Post Office

While walking back for a nap, we chanced by another cafe we wanted to go. Decided that we needed coffee, we went in to have a drink & tart. Cafe L'usine is in my opinion the best and most beautiful cafe around Vietnam. We both like the ambiance of the place, the coffee and lemon tart! :) We also went back on the 3rd night for dinner.

Cafe L'usine 

151/1 Dong Khoi St., 1st Flr., Dist. 1

Baguette at Paris Deli for dinner which was unplanned. After we woke up from our nap, it started pouring heavily at night! We had no choice but to stop by Saigon Center. Not too bad though :)

Daily buffet breakfast spread for the next 3 days. I love PB & breads! but somehow, the PB tastes differently.

We took a 1-day tour with an agency to Cuchi Tunnel and Cao Dai Temple. The bulk of the time was spent travelling, our bus ride to the temple took about 3 hours!

Clear blue skies & temple

We had one of the best home-cooked styled food at a random shop along the highway by the tour guide. Love the sour spicy soup!

Cu chi tunnel and I was dead tired at the end of day

We ended the night with a zi-char style dinner at Ben Thanh Market. There were so much we felt like ordering but we could only have 3 dishes for 2 max! I loveeeeeeeeeee the bbq fish! If you're thinking of dropping by, go after 7pm when they set the stall up :)

Day 3 of the trip can be found here.

4d3n is just perfect for a short trip there :)

Medz

Birthday celebration for my girlfriends whom I've known for more than a decade. We had a delish dinner at Medz, a dining concept similar to Marche and it was more than great :)

The night ended with some drinks, desserts and usual girlies talk at Oriole Cafe & Bar. 

It was such a lovely Saturday night spent catching up with these girls <3

✈ Yoga Living // Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

 I found Yoga Living few days before my trip and was glad that they were offering classes on weekends. There were limited studios in Vietnam and I thought I had to forgo the thought of trying a practice there. Yoga Living has 2 studios - one located at District 1 and another 1 at District 3. Since we were only free on Sunday, we took the morning Ashtangah class.

We were greeted by an extremely spacious and clean place and 2 friendly Vietnamese who guided us a little. The studio was huge and there were about 20+ of us in the class. It was my first time doing a non-heated class, and also my first doing Ashtanga and I pretty much enjoyed it. We had the class with Eswar, who is an Indian and his class was pretty much easy to follow

The only thing the studio was lacking was mirrors. I was so used to having fully mirrored room but that doesn't really matter. The class ended shortly 1 hour later and I was happy with the practice. Anyway, 1 class costs 5USD and mats & towels are provided at no charge. Shower rooms & lockers were available too :)

Yoga Living
19 Vo Van Tan, District 3

Since we were around District 3, we roamed around and looked for Hoang Ty, which was famous for their Banh Trang, Vietnamese wrap. We ordered a set for 2 and it comes with a platter of green vegetables, pickled carrots, cucumber and raw bean sprouts.We had fun wrapping and it was definitely an experience!

Hoang Ty
70-72 Vo Van Tan, District 3

Coffee & Chocolate Cake at Highlands coffee, very common coffee place before we went for an 1.5 hour body massage at Cat Moc.

How I miss my Sunday now!

Graduation Photoshoot

One day, I would look back on these pictures and think, "how time flies".

Memories for keep definitely :)