Ho Chi Minh City - Day 3

This is long overdue, I know but I only got the time to continue with the HCMC trip review.

On the third day, we booked a half day guided trip to the infamous Cu Chi Tunnel via our hotel. The half day trip costs USD 5 per person for transportation and light snack. Admission fee to the tunnel cost roughly about 70,000 VND (if my memory serves me right).

Demonstration on how to enter the tunnel

One of the trap used by the Vietcongs

Spiked bamboo trap

We were really awed by the complicated tunnel system. The length of the tunnel is believed to be 200 km and it stretches till the Mekong river and it has 3 levels altogether. During the War, the tunnel had become an underground city for the Viet Cong. It had a conference room, a hospital and many had married, bred and gave births there. It's really interesting and fascinating to hear (from the tour guide) how they lived, cooked, planned their sewage system, made their own weapons and even breathed underground for so many years without being detected by the US Army.

We also had the chance to experience walking in the enlarged tunnel for the visitors for 200 meters. It was so tiring having to squat while walking in such a small and confined space, not to forget it was dark! Can't imagine how it feels like in the original tunnel. Thank God I am not claustrophobic!

Don't be fool by this picture. It was pitch dark inside. H took this picture with the help of his external DSLR flash

We were also served with light snacks of boiled tapioca and pounded ground nuts. Dahla kelaparan masa tu tambah dengan hujan lagi, ubi kayu rebus pun sedap. Haha.

After we returned back to Ho Chi Minh City, the rest of the day was spend at Ben Thanh Market and also the night market nearby. Aktiviti ape lagi, shopping la! Dan kalau aktiviti shopping tu haruslah takde gambar bagai. Mana sempat kau nak sibuk tawar lagi, nak snap gambar la. Ei, tak kuasa kot aku. Haha.

But actually, takdela shopping banyak mana pun. I just bought some cotton fabrics and baju kurung for our family members, some souvenirs, that's all. But my husband went crazy and shopped for winter clothing and everyday clothing at their local boutiques because he said it was dirt cheap for men's wear. Which is somewhat true sebab murah la if you compared the price with Malaysia. Like 1 pair of good quality men's jeans of their local brand only cost RM 90. Kalau dekat sini, paling cikai pun mau RM100++

We had our dinner at Halal@Saigon and I love its pho! Really, can't get enough of the thick, rich beef broth. Argh sedapnya! Much better compared to one restaurant near the market that we went to. Not only it's expensive, the service also slow and food quality aren't that good. I can get more satisfying and authentic tasting pho at Secret Recipe or at Fat Spoon compared to what they served. We have to wait for more than 40 minutes for a plate of rice, pho and fish sauce chicken which didn't taste that good. Not to blow my own horn but I can cook 10 times better than that.

I think I wanna end the review on HCMC here kot because we did nothing on day 4 except for some sight seeing at the city and last minute shopping. So basically the activities aren't that much. Sadly we didn't watch any water puppet show (which is compulsory thing to do in Saigon), or went to Mekong River. We loved to go and was in our itinerary tapi last minute tu macam malas lepas tu sleep in. HAHA. Kalau bapak aku tau sure die jerit, nak tido ke nak berjalan oi.

But overall I love our trip to Saigon. We got to live up our backpacking days, I got to wear my Jack Purcell with my Vaude on my back and the fun thing was that I was there with the best travelling companion that I could ever ask, my own husband. Mari semua aaauwwwww.

HAHA.

Ho Chi Minh City - Day 2

After having our breakfast that consists of eggs, sardine (weird, I know), bread and Vietnamese coffee, our mission for day 2 was to go to War Remnant Museum. Growing up, museum is the only place that my dad would happily brought us to so I guess, going to museum has grown on me. So whenever I go travelling, I would make it a point to visit the museum.

War Remnant Museum primarily contains the exhibits related to the Vietnam War. And no, no display of Rambo there.

Seeing and reading all the stories on the war were really heart breaking especially the killing and suffering of the innocent people. Apart from weapons, Agent Orange was widely used by the American to fight the Viet Cong and due to effect of the chemical agent, the generation post-war is suffering from its toll. War is inhumane and it sometimes push the limit to the boundaries.

The museum was then closed for lunch so we went out to lepak somewhere before continuing out visit. We went to this cafe,

NOT! Haha.OMG, so scary ok if the cafe is really in operation. It looks like a haunted cafe.

After spending good another 2 hours at the museum, we then went to Ben Thanh market, to what else, to shop!

No pictures were taken because yours truly and husband were busy 'mengirai duit'

HAHAHA.

Fabrics like cotton, silk, chiffon are going cheap at roughly RM10/meter. Bargaining skill is not needed much because prices are (almost) fixed. Well, unless maybe if you buy in mass quantity, then probably you'll get a cheaper price. We didn't buy much though, just enough for souvenirs to bring back home.

Review for day 3 continues...

Ho Chi Minh City - Day 1

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh was awesome despite the crazy traffic. When I say crazy, it's really crazy. No exaggeration there. HCMC is the largest city in Vietnam with population of 9 million and the city's main transportation is motorcycle in which everyone owns one. So you do the math and tell me how to cross the street when it looks like this?

Trust me when I say that it was quarter of the total madness

I cringed and hold my husband's hand tightly. And prayed that we made to the other end safely.

The journey from LCCT to Tan Son Nhat International Aiport took roughly 2 1/2 hours and our flight arrived at 9pm (local time) as Vietnam is 1 hour behind Malaysia. After settling our legal documents, we proceeded to our hotel via taxi. We bought a taxi coupon at a stand next to the exit. The company is called Saigon Taxi & the total fare is 10USD per car. When we arrived at the hotel, the driver wanted to con us by asking for another 2USD . It was apparently for the alleged airport tax. My husband refused to pay and insisted for a receipt which he (the driver) couldn't produce. I was on the verge of paying actually but lucky my husband refused. The next day we then met another Malaysian couple (whom we met on the arrival day) and their driver didn't ask for any additional charges. So, be careful of (some) taxi. The most reliable taxi companies (taken from Wikitravel & upon advice from the hotel) are Vinasun and Mai Linh. No haggling necessary as they're using meter, all the time. Beware of taxis looking like the mentioned companies. We saw varies of VinaSUM, VinaMET and Mei Linh on the road. These could be scammers.

We stayed at the brand new (budget) Green Suites hotel which I booked via Booking.com. The published rate is 26USD/night (with breakfast) and we stayed there for 4D3N. For a budget hotel with less than 3 stars, the hotel seemed impressive. Clean room and bathroom (you have no idea about how anal I am with hotel bathroom), with air-cond, cabel tv (yay!), hot shower and basic amenities. The only thing that I hate about the hotel was the water pressure was so low and it took ages for the hot water to come out. Breakfast was a no-fuss menu with about 5 selections. Limited choices for Muslim though. For breakfast, we ate eggs and breads for 3 consecutive days. I think never in my life have I eaten that much of eggs. Well, beggars can't be choosers, can they?

On our arrival day, since it was already late and most of the shops were already closed, we decided to take a walk to the Night Market near the (in)famous Ben Thanh Market. The market is 1 km from our hotel and it took us about 15 min to get there. Here, you can find lots of relatively cheap stuffs such as ready made baju kurung(!), sportswear, lacquer ware, souvenir. I used the term cheap loosely as it really depends on your bargaining skill. My bargaining skill sucks to the max so I left it to my husband. But despite of a lot of people telling us the way to get a cheaper price is through bargaining, I saw that most of the sellers refused to lower down their prices.

We also saw a lot of Malaysian flocking the night market and other shopping area (esp. the makcik-makcik) Due to that, Malaysian are an easy target among the sellers and hence, they refuse to lower down the prices. Undoubtedly the prices are cheap compared to what we have in Malaysia but hey, buying it at much lower price doesn't hurt either, right?

After spending 1 hour there, we then headed back to our hotel to get some rest.