Bun Mam
Bun Mam?
It's good?
Yeah it's good
When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh city I wasn't sure what sort of video I would be making.
But in Vietnam’s busiest city I thought inspiration would come easily. Sometimes I
get ideas from the research I do beforehand and sometimes I get ideas just from walking
around a little bit on my first day. But here I didn’t really have anything. And it was
nothing to do with this lovely city there’s so much to do here. I just had some sort of
creative block that I couldn’t shake. The energy coffee that changes your life. That’s
what I need. In fact I ended up thinking that I wasn’t going to make a video in Saigon at all
This is coffee for creativity and ideas, so...
And just as I started exploring one of the local
parks. Right when I least expected it. I ran into these two. This is Phan and Quoc. They
spotted me in the distance with my camera and they ran over and asked if they could
interview me for a video they were making. They are really nice guys and it turned out
that they make travel films too. We all added each other on Facebook and went our separate
ways. But later that night it hit me. Why don’t I ask them as locals what we should
see in Saigon? And luckily they said yes! Quoc’s first suggestion was a pretty iconic
landmark. In fact it looks like it could have been built for the Avengers. Way above the
ground on the 49th floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower is an insane perspective over the city
below. So the number one recommendation is the Saigon Skydeck at sunset. A place where
the madness of the traffic feels very far away. As you can see the weather today is
not the best so we didn’t get to see the view in it’s full glory but it is still
pretty cool to see. The tower was completed in 2010 and contains offices, a mall and even
a helepad. I haven’t seen many viewpoints in cities that has the river that literally
snakes all the way around it so you can walk around half of this floor and you can still
see the river. At night, there really is no better place to see the city lights. But as
tall and striking as the Bitexco tower is, it’s not actually the tallest building in
Saigon. Which is exactly where Quoc’s next suggestion took us. So we’ve come down the
river to the Landmark building area which features Building 81 which is the tallest
building in the whole of South East Asia. Landmark 81 was designed by the same minds
behind the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. So they know a thing to two about iconic buildings.It
had only just been completed when we were there, so it wasn’t open to the public.
We got our views from one of Saigon’s water buses. Which is a very affordable way to get
yourself around the city and also a cool thing to do in it’s own right. From talking to
Quoc and getting a local’s perspective , it’s clear that both the landmark building area
and the bitexco tower are a real point of pride for Vietnamese people. Bold iconic structures
that look towards to the future of the city. But Quoc also suggested that we take a look
at the buildings on level ground. Which feels a lot like stepping back in time. Much like
Hanoi, Saigon is is full of stark architectural contrasts. Gothic French colonial buildings
dominate the city centre, complete with detail and stylings that wouldn’t look out of place
in the centre of Paris. Most notably, you have the Central Post Office, a building so
ornate and beautiful, it’s hard to believe that it’s still a working post room. And
right next door, Saigon has it’s very own Notre Dame cathedral. Built entirely from
red bricks imported all the way from France. So the next recommendation is food related
which is always my favourite. I need to try a local dish called Bun Mam so we’re going
to go to the market now and see if we can find it. Ok so we just arrived at Ben Than
Market. Ben Thanh is one of the city’s biggest and best markets. The only trouble is finding
your way around it. At one end, you will eventually find the food stalls. Bun Mam? Which one is
it? Bun Mam. That one? Ok ok. We’ve found the place. Bun Mam is a specialité dish of
Southern Vietnam. So Bun Mam is like a Vietnamese seafood gumbo and it looks really really good.
The dish gets it’s unique flavour from a very specific ingredient. Fermented fish paste
is added into the broth giving it a very rich and tangy flavour. Bun Mam. It’s good? Yeah
it’s good! Admittedly fermented anything doesn’t sound that appealing but honestly
this is one of the tastiest dishes you can have in Saigon. So it’s got some prawns,
some pork in here as well. It’s really nice. Ok next on the list is visiting one the famous
walking streets. Saigon’s walking streets are a bit of an adult’s playground. Much
like the Khoa San road in Bangkok it’s mainly there for foreigners. There are plenty of
shops, restaurants and multi floor themed bars. So it can be a great place to sit down
with a cheap beer and do a bit of people watching. Thanks to a couple of friendly locals who
approached a lost looking foreigner, we ended up having the best time in Ho Chi Minh city
and it was a great way to round off our 4 weeks in Vietnam. Meeting my two new friends,
reminded me of all of the amazing, friendly people we met all across the country. Overall,
I’m just a little bit gutted that we didn’t get to see more. But that leaves the door
open to come back another time. The next episode is the start of a new chapter, as we head
on to south east Asia’s most unspoilt, but probably most controversial country - This
is Myanmar. Thank you so much for watching, but thank you especially to Phan and Quoc.
Make sure you go down to the description and. check out their channel and I will see you
next time.