Thailand beyond solo backpacking

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Around Ben Thanh market

Ben Thanh bus terminal is just across Ben Thanh market,situated at the intersection of Le Loi Avenue, Ham Nghi Avenue, Tran Hung Dao Avenue and Le Lai Street.

It takes about 10 minutes to walk from Pham Ngu Lao Street. The buses here connects to Cho Lon Station: Bus 1 &56 (if you plan to visit Chinatown) Mien Dong Station: Bus 26 (for travel to Northern parts of Vietnam) and Mien Tay Station: Bus 2 (mostly to the delta region like Chau Doc ferry terminal to Cambodia)

Not far from the bus terminal is the 124th tallest building in the world,with 68 floors above ground and three basements, the building has a height of 262.5 metres (861 ft)--- Bitexco Financial Tower.

There's a helipad on the 50th floor.(Tháp Tài Chính-- Financial Tower)

An observation deck is also located on the 47th floor, below the helipad. At this height, visitors can see 360° view of the city. Visitors have to buy tickets before they enter this floor.

Each ticket costs 200,000 VND (about 10 USD).

Tran Hung Dao Road ends near this small little Central Park which is the city's main intersection with the Tan Hai Long Hotel 1 nearby on Le Lai Street.
Room rates starts fro USD56.

Ben Thanh market is most noticeable by the clock tower landmark.

Ben means the landing stage while Thanh refers to the old city.
Hence the name Ben Thanh is being derived.

Hardly can you see any street hawkers outside the market.
Ben Thanh is the city's main market. Near the main entrance aisle will be the clothes,fabric and shoes dominating the eye view.
In the middle section is the Vietcoffee, and Vinacafe (Vietnam National Coffee Corporation)stalls displaying their various variety of Robusta and Arabica coffee grown and produced in Vietnam.
On the eastern side is the food court area while the western corner has the vegetable greens and marine products.
There are security guards at all the entrance.

Phan Chu Trinh Street is on the right section of the market and most of the city taxis will be around here.

The main entrance faces the Quach Thi Trang Square Roundabout of Le Loi and Tran Hung Dao.

The back portion of the market has many flower shops and the road here is called Le Thanh Ton Street.
There were many goldsmith shop and restaurants around here.

A shop selling buddhist praying items.

The cyclo riders. will normally hang around near the wet market areas.

Durian season in Vietnam.
They call it Sau Rieng (one's own sorrows).
Durian has a very strong and tempting smell to the nostrils.
To some people it smells horrible.But mind you the fruit is very expensive.

Statue of General Tran Nguyen Han riding a horse just at the roundabout across Ben Thanh market.
A 15th-century warrior served under King Le Loi.

Benthanh Group(Tong Cong Ty Ben Thanh) established on December 26th 1997.
TRAN HONG TAM -Chairman of Management Board.
A very diversified conglomerate in the field of trading services,banking financials,Tourism,Postal - Telecommunication,Real-estate and Industrial manufacturing.
The group latest partnership was with Accor,a global hotel management group.

The Fine Art Museum is just less than a kilometre from General Tran Nguyen Han roundabout,the Saigon Hospital and Samsung Plaza.Ho Chi Minh Museum ,Blue Ginger Restaurant, Miss Saigon Seafood, Saigon Lemongrass Restaurant , Ciao Cafe, Vietnam House Restaurant, Q Bar, Long Phi Bar, Quan Vuon Pho, are also within a kilometre walking radius.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Cholon the Chinatown

Cholon's main traffic circle roundabout was so large and to cross over from one end to another needs a good marathon sprint.

Statue of Phan Dinh Phung,the great Vietnamese revolutionary rebel leader who wanted to oust the French colonial forces stands elegantly near the central entry point.

Born in 1847 and died at a tender age of 48 due to dysentry,he was a prominent Confucian court scholar. Unfortunately Phan's remains were disturbed after his death.

Ngo Dinh Kha, a Catholic mandarin and father of Ngo Dinh Diem—the first President of South Vietnam—was a member of the French colonial administration.
Kha had Phan's tomb exhumed and used the remains in gunpowder used for executing revolutionaries.
In order to honour Phan,the Marxist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh named their self-produced style of grenades after him.

Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) is a modern skyscrapper overlooking some of the older colonial buildings.
The biggest commercial bank in Vietnam with an operating network of 2,300 branches and transaction offices nationwide.

Agribank signed agreements with Phongsavanh Bank - Laos, Acleda Bank - Cambodia, Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on cross border payment from which customers and all parties benefit.

At the end of 2009, total assets of Agribank reached VND 479,000 billion, an increase of 22% compared with 2008; total funding resources reached VND 434,331 billion, and total outstanding loans to the economy reached VND 354,112 billion, of which outstanding loans to agricultural and rural areas was VND 242,062 billion.

Dai The Gioi Water Parks is just beside a new expressway and nearby is the meandering river.

Busloads of school children have just arrived and the facilities inside looked gorgeous.

The afternoon was very hot and going for a dip in the pool should be wonderful.

The water theme park is a short distance before the Cholon traffic circle and beside the Tau Hu Channel river area in Ben Ham Tu Ward 6,District 5 Ho Chi Minh City.

Entry fees between 25,000 VND - 50,000 VND.

Facilities here includes indoor swimming pool, hydro massage bath has many resources, a wet sauna (separate male and female separately) within the pool area and the slides.

Along Ben Ham Tu Road,there's nothing much to see and less traffic.

Businesses along this stretch deals with toiletries, bathroom wares and fixtures,renovation and flooring shops,carpentry woodwork and iron grills.

Jollibee-a Philippines fast food restaurant chain giant is at the corner junction along Tran Hung Dao with Nguyen Bieu.

The food at Jollibee is definitely an interesting combination of both American and Filipino food fused together for a unique experience for your taste buds.

Jollibee started in Cubao,Quezon City Philippines by Tony Tan Caktiong,a Filipino Chinese entrepreneur whose ancestors were from the Fujian Province,China.

Chua Long An Buddhist temple is inside this alley.
This entrance is two blocks from the American International School (AIS)[Trường Quốc tế Mỹ AIS],a private, coeducational school that offers an educational program from kindergarten through grad 12.
The address is Nguyen Van Cu Street, Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, District 1,off Tran Hung Dao Road.

A statue of a standing Buddha greeting dwellers in this community as one passes the alley.

Buddhist flags were seen hung all around the temple gearing up for the Wesak Day celebration which falls on the 17th May.
Wesak day is "Buddha's Birthday".

A pagoda shrine inside the temple's compound.

In Buddhism, the swastika signifies auspiciousness and good fortune as well as the Buddha's footprints and the Buddha's heart.

The swastika is said to contain the whole mind of the Buddha and can often be found imprinted on the chest, feet or palms of Buddha images.
It is also the first of the 65 auspicious symbols on the footprint of the Buddha.

Altar of the past Abbot memorial.

The minority races in Vietnam also have their fair share of religious practise.
The Hindu Temple along Phan Van Tri near to An Binh Hospital.

Hai Nam Temple,a place for the Hainanese chinese along Tran Hung Dao Road.

Benh Vien-An Binh Hospital is a very large medical care centre.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Wall Street Securities Joint-Stock Company,Vietnam

The Ho Chi Minh City branch of Wall Street Securities Joint-Stock Company is at No. 255, Tran Hung Dao St., District 1, HCM City

It is in the HMTD building.(HMTD tòa nhà văn phòng)

The head office is at :No. 212, Tran Quang Khai St., (No. 1, Le Phung Hieu St.,),Hoan Kiem Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam.

The company's main theme is"A class of Properity" (Dang cap của sự thịnh vuợng)

Wall Street Securities Joint Stock Company (WSS) shareholders were Cable and Telecom Materials Joint Stock Company and Duc Giang Garment Company, and individuals who have many experiences in finance – banking sector.

Besides, WSS also attracts many strategic interests from domestic as well as global financial institutions. In this same building is the Kim Eng Securities Ho Chi Minh head office located on the first floor,with branches in Chinatown near Cholon,Hanoi,Hai Phong,Danang & Angiang.

Kim Eng Securities is Asia's leading investment broker with its homebase in Singapore.
Foreigners wishing to invest in the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchane (HOSE) are required to register through a custodian licensed bank namely: The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Chartered Bank.

Currently the local stock market is in a very bearish mode as seen in the technical chart.

The market has been slumping since it's high registered on the 2/03/07 @ 1,147.66 and went into a suicidal mode on the 23/2/09 @ 243.81 points.

Vietnam's financial market is the first to undergo tremendous correction while global markets are skyrocketing.
Some brokerage houses are in a dire state so it's a golden opportunity for foreigners to snap up some of these companies as given time,Vietnam will be the first to recover and will become an Asian Dragon next to China as their chart pattern is similar to that of the Shanghai Stock Exchange which is hoovering bearishly. **Listed stocks

The entrance arc with a multi-storey tower.
The owner of the land possibly a local ethnic Chinese has rented out be be used as motorcycles parking area and some food stalls.

The structure and architecture design is so unique but the place looks neglected. The oval entrance is majestically grand.The owner must have a belief of Chinese "feng-shui"

The front door is the most important element of good feng shui.It allows energy to flow freely thereby bringing postivie changes,good luck and wealth.

You'll noticed that the top first storey is an octagonal opening and the Chinese called it "pak kwa"

The Feng Shui Talisman, called Pak Kwa, represents the union of Feng Shui with I Ching (The Oracle of Change).
The talisman is represented by the symbol Yin Yang (Tao) surrounded by 8 trigrams. In Feng Shui, it is said that Pak Kua keeps away evil. It is often found hanging at the door and inside the house to bring good luck and dispel disaster.

Inside view of the arch entrance compound acting as motorcycle parking ground.

Motorcycles are still the dominant means of transport in Vietnam.The 125cc categories are most sought after.

It is illegal for a foreigner to own a motorbike in Vietnam. However, it can be registered in a Vietnamese persons name. You will still need the papers to prove to the police (if you get pulled over) that the bike is not stolen.

If you do get pulled over by Police and don’t have any papers, they may turn a blind eye in the way of a bribe. Worst-case scenario is that they confiscate your motorbike and you’re left in the middle of nowhere with your ride impounded.

“Motorbike for Rent” signs are lined up all along Pham Ngu Lao, De Tham, and Bui Vien streets. VND50,000 (just over US$3),one can easily rent for the day.