Vietnam Trip (21/10/06 - 24/10/06)
I am
finally back from HCMC, Vietnam.
Thanks to Tiger Airways for this horrendous trip. We started our journey as
early as 445am in a taxi to catch the 650am flight. After checking in, we
saw a long queue at the Han's counter. These people are waiting to
buy breakfast because Tiger doesn't serve food on board. We were not sure
whether the stores in the departure hall are open so we asked. The nice
guard reply, "I not open the shop. How I know? " He left us with no choice but eating
at Han's.
The
flight was only 1hr 45min. We reached HCM at about 730 local time. We
can't even check in into the hotel because it was too early. So we left our
bags in the hotel and took a walk on the street. There are hundreds and
thousands of motorbikes greeting us on the street with their exhaust gas.
Crossing the street is a challenging task here. Luckily we were trained in
Malaysia
before. The only thing we need to take note is that the traffic
actually comes from the left hand side. After having brunch in a local cafe, we
walked along the busy street again. Our next stop was Ben Thanh Market, a
smaller version of Chatuchak in Thailand.
Just imagine how stuffy it is. Ben Thanh Market is packed with many tiny stalls
selling all kinds of commodity from souvenir to fabric for making "ao
dai", the traditional costume. The food court here is also selling
delicious local specialties such as pho (vietnamese beef noodles), fried spring
rolls, grilled meat rolls on sugarcane, rice paper rolls etc .
At night,
we had our dinner at a famous seafood restaurant, Ngoc Suong Saigon. Although
the food is tasty like any other restaurant, the interior setting of
the restaurant is just so grand that made our spending value for
money. 7 of us spent 1.5mil (rich leh) for prawns, crabs, fish, lamb,
greens etc. It's about SGD23/pax. We end our first day quite
early because the Mekong Delta day trip is waiting for us on the next
day.
On the second
day, Nyugen Chew left Vietnam
and 6 of us continue our trip in Vietnam. We joined a day tour in
Mekong Delta by taking a bus provided by a local
travel agent. The bus journey was so hot and painful because the road
was bumpy and the bus driver was constantly using the honk as a preventive
meassure. Moreover, the bus was moving at the speed of 50km/hr... It
took about 3hrs to reach a jetty where we started the boat trip into the
villages. First of all we cross the Mekong River
to watch coconut candy production. Then we change to a smaller sampan as the
river gets narrower and shallower. We had a chance the row our sampan and
experienced the life of fisherman for once. After that, we stop at a
few stops to watch small bee farm, python and listen to the
vietnamese songs live. There were 4 islands at that area namely, turtle, unicorn,
dragon and pheonix. The Mekong Delta trip is quite relaxing until the
torturing bus ride back to HCMC again. At night, we had dinner at Vietnamese
House. It was very disappointing because we were served with the local
food which is available everywhere outside yet paying 3-4 times more.
We
joined another local tour on the third day organized by the same tour
agent. This time we chose a historical and educational trip to Cu Chi Tunnel.
This short also started with a terrible bus ride. We de tour to a handicapped
handicraft factory and bought some souvenir. After 2hrs, we reach the place.
During the vietnam war, the vietnamese fought the US soldiers in the forrest. They
dig tunnels all over the place to hide from the US soldier. By walking (half
squatting) through one of the tunnels, we learnt much about their tough living
condition underground and their strong fighting spirit. We were shouting
for torch light and making a lot of noise in the tunnel. If we were the
vietnamese soldiers we would be dead meat. This half day tour
was short and we were back to HCMC in the evening. That is the time to worry
about the multi million dollar question again "Where to eat dinner?"
Strolling along Nguyen Hue Street,
we found an international cafe, The Central Cafe that offered nice food at
moderate price. After dinner, my symptoms of food poisoning started to manifest
. My stomach pain get worse in the middle or
the night and i suffered high fever, too. Luckily I am going back to Singapore soon.
