Went to HCM, Vietnam from 30th Dec 2010 to 2nd Jan 2011 with 3 of my friends to celebrate New Year. We met at Budget Terminal @ 5.30 am, had our breakfast at Mac there and got ready for our flight to Vietnam with Tiger Airways. We got on the plane @ 7.05 am, the plane was soooo cramped (Don't like budget planes, cramped and no entertainment, Lol). Then the plane took off, and it was quite a shaking ride, and at 1 point, the plane did went down suddenly (My heart almost jumped out).
Anyway we landed @ around 9 plus (Vietnam Time) and we went to take a cab down to our hotel. The traffic there is sooooooo horrible and the air pollution is soooooo bad. The road is basically filled with motorcycles and motorcycles and motorcycles. Lol. And the cab driver was honking all the way to the hotel. The air is also having too much pollution due to the numbers of motor-vehicles on the road everyday. The traffic is like super heavy everyday, and it looks like it is impossible to cross the road. And the whole ride from the airport to the hotel, the cab driver was honking all the way. Other cars are also honking away. But weird thing is, the motorists will try to avoid you by swaying their way to another path when you are crossing the road. Hohoho.....
Traffic: Super heavy, everyday traffic jam
Air: Super polluated, there is so much smoke in the air (blurry)
Road Crossing: Almost impossible to cross. Get a male friend who will take the 1st step out and just walk across and try to follow him (hahaha....), the motorists will just try to avoid you.
When we reached the hotel, we were unable to check-in as it was too early for us to check in. So we left our luggage at the hotel and went out to look for our land agency around the area. One of the local people gave us some directions when we got struck at one of the roads. The people there are still friendly but some can get quite aggressive. Anyway we managed to find the tour agency and we also booked for Mekong Delta - 1 day tour for the 3rd day. After that, we walked the nearby areas to try to find some food for our lunch. We went to a roadside shop and had our lunch there. We ordered Chicken and Pork 'Pho' (Vietnamese noodles soup), Summer rolls (rice paper rolls that often include shrimp, herbs, pork, rice vermicelli and other ingredients wrapped up and dipped in nước chấm or peanut sauce.) After our lunch, we walked around the area and bought some fruits from the roadside vendors. We bought Mandarin oranges and longans. My friend opened up 1 longan and wanted to eat it. Instead he found maggots inside, so he threw the whole packet away (Ekkkk.....). Then we went back to our hotel to check-in (Weird thing with this hotel is they took our passports as deposit instead of photocopying them).
After check-in, we took a taxi to the big wholesale market in Cholon. It was big but it was super packed with goods and people. There is just a small gap in between the stalls and the stall owners are carrying big boxes and they will just push their way in. And it gets hot and stuffy in the market. But the market is quite organized in the sense that those stalls selling the same products are arranged together (like clothes section in 1 area, slippers/shoes section in another corner) and there are 2 levels. After shopping in that hot and stuffy market, we went for dinner (which made me soooo glad, getting hungry at that time. Hohoho....) We took a cab down to a restaurant in Distinct 1, we got 'chopped' by the cab driver. He took a longer way and the meter is jumping like mad. And the aircon was also not on, so we had to breathe in the pollution all way and a strench smell from a super dirty big drain (the water is black in color,don't know what is being thrown inside and don't wish to know too) near the expressway until our destination. And the stupid cab driver didn't even drive us to our destination, he just went into a road which can't do right turn and asked us to walk to the restaurant instead. So one of my friends tried to argue with him on the price and the aircon, anyway we didn't paid him the exact amount. Horrible cab driver....... Luckily we had a yummy dinner, we had chicken wings, pork ribs, sotong and a big hot pot. The food are quite nice and the total bill is not that expensive too for our meal (around SGD$30 plus). After the nice dinner, we went back to find some shopping areas near our hotel, but we cannot remember where are the places...lol. (Streets & traffic too messy already). So we took a taxi back to our hotel, took a nice bath (super sweat for the whole day) and went to sleep on the nice nice bed.
Day 2
Woke up early to have our breakfast provided by the hotel, my friends went back to get ready for our half day tour - Cu Chi Tunnels. We took taxi to the tour agency and we passed the agent for our ticket. But the agent was unable to help us print the e-tickets due we don't have our IC/Passport for verification and the e-ticket was not printed out. Stupid thing is the agent does not even have internet access and she asked us to send the softcopy to her. Haiyo....pek chey. In the end we paid for another set of tickets and the agent will refund us back the amount for the previous transaction. And we got on the bus just in time for the tour. The whole ride took around 1 and half hour from Saigon to Cu Chi Tunnels, and the tour guide was explaining to us of the tunnels' history. The tour guide's name is Lee, quite young and his english is not bad. Basically there is nothing much to do on the bus except to sleep, hohoho......
After a long ride, we finally reached the place. We were 1st brought to a hut where there was a video showing on the history of Cu Chi Tunnels. Then we went in, the guide showed us a manhole that was being dug on the ground. And a guide from the camp demonstrated to us how the soldiers hide inside the small manhole. Then the guide asked who wanted to have a try, 1 guy and 1 ang mo kid went to have a try. The guy almost got struck in the manhole, lol. Then after this, we were shown a trap with bamboo spikes. It was a rectangle area, created with a door that will turn 360 degrees and the bamboo spikes are planted at the bottom (Scary....). Then the guide showed us a super big termites nest, which was being used to cover the smokes during war times. Then later the guide showed us the weapons and traps that were being made during the Vietnam War. After that we went for guns firing, 2 of my friends went and tried to fire with real AK47 guns. The price is based on how many bullets you want to fire. The gunshots are super deafening, super loud. Another friend and i went to try the corn that was selling near the shooting range. The corn was so plain, no taste one, not very nice to eat. After that, we walked past a guy who was making slippers using the rubber of tyre. Then we got to try to walk inside of the tunnels. You are free to try 25m, 30m, 60m or 100m or more. First the guide let us try 25m, we went down, it was super dark inside and we had to squat down to walk in the tunnels. But it was a good experience to get a feel how it was like inside the tunnels, hohoho.......After that, we went to the kitchen where we had a snack, Cooked Tapioca with peanut and salt (but the guide was saying with sugar, we can't really find the sugar. Lol) After that, we left the tunnels and we went to a handicrafts factory. It is created by the Vietnam Government for those handicapped (as a result of war) to let them have a job. They used egg shells to create nice arts and then sell them for a price. After that, we went back to Saigon which was around 2 or 3 plus (Vietnam time). Actually we wanted to walk to the War Remnants Museum, but we ended up eating our lunch at Angel Garden, which we just happened to come across. It was a internet cafe style place, the place was nicely decorated with christmas deco. We ordered our food and drinks. The food was nice, but the portion is abit small for a normal meal and it is a bit more expensive. After that, we went down to Ben Thanh Market @ Distinct 1. It is also a big market that sell everything, coffee, sweets, clothes, etc. My friend bought 2 different types of coffee, 500g each, total amounting to around $27 SDG. But the coffee prices were much lower when we went further in. (The moral, don't buy from the stalls outside, walk further in and you will get a cheaper prices.) After shopping in the market, we went back to our hotel to put our things and rest for a while. Then we walked to find shopping malls there. We went to Saigon Centre and it was sooooo empty inside, not many people are shopping in the shops. Eventually we walked for a while and then went off. Then we walked further down to another mall, which had a very big supermarket. We went in and shopped for coffee and snacks. (And i managed to find Mung Bean Cake which selling much much cheaper than the ones i saw in Ben Thanh Market. Luckily didn't buy from the market.)
We bought a lot of stuffs back, then we went out. The road is closed for New Year's countdown and the road was decorated with green lights and there are alot of beautiful deco at the roundabout of the main road. Everyone was getting ready for the big countdown party there. Then we walked to MOF for our dinner. When we wanted to order, we called a waiter. He kept laughing and when he saw us, his 1st question was asked us whether we are calling him and he spoke in a girly way. And he keeps laughing, don't know what is so funny. But he gave us comments on the food, whether it is nice or not nice. So we took his advice and tried the dishes which he said not bad. (Hmm... his recommendations are quite ok.)
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We wanted to try the hotel spa, but it was packed. So we reserved for 11pm but we all ended up sleeping instead. Hahahaa......
Day 3
Woke up for early breakfast again but this time we were getting ready for our 1 day trip - Mekong Delta.
We reached the agency at 8am, and got on the bus. It was a 2 hours bus ride to the jetty and the tour guide.....'best'. We don't understand anything he was speaking, in english don't understand, in vietnam language, also don't understand.....Anyway he didn't say much throughout the ride, so we just sat back and enjoyed the bus ride. Then we reached near the jetty, which we still had to walk for a short distance to take our boat ride. We waited for everyone to go for toliet break and headed for our boat ride. We went to a snake wine farm, coconut candy farm and then we had our lunch with vietnamese food. One of the waitresses also sung us 2 vietnam songs, it was like singing opera while having your lunch (Basically, cannot eat when she started to sing). There are 5 dishes, only the dish with pork is slightly better than the rest of the dishes. The fried fish was having a very bad smell too. And the soup is very sour. After the lunch, we went back to the boat and travelled for 1 hour to our next destination, which was the mekong market. We didnt walk much around the market, the vendors were selling fresh fruits and vegetables. After that, we headed back to Saigon. Along the way, we stopped for a break @ Mekong Rest Stop. Then we continued our way back. After we reached the agency, we went to KFC for our dinner. We got a 6 pieces family meal and we went to the beef noodles soup eatery next door for our 2nd dinner (Hohoho...KFC not filling....don't like the original chicken & the whipped potato). Then we went back to our hotel to rest. My friend was trying to pack all her stuffs in her small luggage bag but she can't squeeze in. So she got my the other friend to help out and agreed to pay her 10 bucks if she can squeeze all the stuffs in the luggage.Lol, and she managed to do it. After that, we all went to bed.
Day 4
Joke of the day: "There is a very big 'Chris' statue standing outside of the Cathedral, why don't go and take a photo of it?" (-_-")
We went to post office and bought some postcards which we posted to each other. After that, we went to the Coffee Bean opposite the streets and went back to hotel for check-out. Then we went back to the 1st restaurant where we had our lunch there. After that, we went to the airport and waited for our flight back to Singapore. The flight back was shaky and my ears were blocked most of the time on the flight. Glad it was so a short ride back to Singapore. We reached Singapore Budget Terminal @ 8.30pm which marked the end of our Vietnam trip.
Hotel Stayed: Hoang Hai Long Dragon Hotel
Places Visited:
1. Cholon Market
2. Ben Thanh Market
3. Cu Chi Tunnels
4. Mekong Delta and Market
5. Independence Palace
6. Notre Dame Cathedral
7. Post Office
8. Saigon Centre
9. TAX Supermarket
10. Zen Plaza
