$1sgd = 16,000dong.
Dangers: stay alert for snatch thieves on bike, especially using hand phone or photo shooting with hand phones or cameras. Taxis exploiting charges on tourist and custom officers demanding corruption.
We were chatting off our experiences and they were surprised that we were actually on our own, hasn’t book any tour packages or known anyone there. I am shocked, that airport custom officer actually asked for bribery, 'intentionally' delaying our clearing time so as to collect Singapore money from us. Ridiculous!!! 2 Singaporeans in front of us were actually 'demanded'. When it was my turn, the officer ask for my flight confirmation for return trip and claimed that I am not allow to pass through if I does not have it. Immediately I pulled out my printed confirmation slip and shoved it to him, (what bullshit reasoning is that); can’t I buy a single trip ticket? Retards. He reluctantly stamped my passport, and I stretched my hand in and pull out my passport (smiling fakely and saying thank you).
So we decided to part the 3 Singaporean men that we met to start off our lost journey to a city we never been to, 1 of them stops me and offered to give us their Vietnamese contacts; so as if anything happens to us, give them a call. I was shocked of their passionate and warm care towards us as fellow countryman; I took down their number and gave them mine.
Double Single bed in Hong Vy 1 Hotel
We made our way to hire a taxi to our hotel (Hong Vy 1 Hotel @ Hai Ba Trung; District 3) and were actually charged 500,000dong (normally it should cost around 250,000dong)! What the hell, as that cost about 30sgd!!! Service is definitely good, and that fellow drives a mini bus. We seriously don’t need such a big vehicle.
As we check in to our hotel, and settled down, instantaneously Thomas (1 of the SG man) called me and said that 1 of their friend (Billy) is also first time here to Ho Chi Minh, and asked if we want to share to book a minibus to bring us around the whole day. After some discussion, and the places that they and us wanted to visit, we agreed and decided to meet for dinner to further discuss on the agenda. Next, I approached the reception to help me to purchase a local prepaid simcard that cost 100,000dong ($6sgd) and ventured out on our own for lunch.
Our first meal in Ho Chi Minh city with Saigon Beer
The local food is kind of different from Chinese style of food, as they mainly consist of vegetables (raw), cut chili, lime and soup based rice noodles (pho). Poor Ashton is struggling with the greeneries. Hahahaha…!!!
I tried their Saigon beer, hmmm it’s light, taste like Heineken and feels beverage... The kind that won’t get drunk. After a slow and relaxing lunch, we started venturing and wandering into the crowded and busy streets of Ho Chi Minh. We came across a few billiard saloons, and decided to pop in for a few games... They had tables with no pocket, probably playing sneekers, but we just stick to our 8 ball game.
The ladies actually help us to rack every time we finish the game and serve us drinks, if only SG has these facilities.
So we continued wandering down the streets after our game and headed for some authentic Vietnamese massage, arghhh I felt all my bone cavities easing themselves... But it’s definitely good....
Time always flies during fun times, and it’s soon dinner time and we are supposed to meet the 3 warm countrymen of us, Thomas, Koh and Billy. We deeply appreciated and respected their care and seniority over taking care of us. We took a taxi down, and directions were given to the cab driver via my phone from their Vietnamese friend (Xuan Thuy (XT)). The dinner was sumptuous and lots of ice breaking conversations were made and we actually clique along very well!!! It seems to be fated for us to meet in Ho Chi Minh a foreign land. Haha
Raw Oysters for dinner!!
So well goes the ice breaking dinner session and we've decided to be together tomorrow for the day trip visit to Cu Chi tunnel and Tay Ninh Hill temple, as they will pick us up from our hotel.
Leftovers of the night... 24 bottles of Tiger Beer
Day 2:
Ashton Playing
All of them relaxing in the minibus
Thomas playing his best piece
My turn to play too.!!! keke
It is a very fun night as we carry on to a karaoke for some ‘serious’ singing 'competition', kbox style with song books to dedicate songs. We challenged a lot of old English songs, Hokkien and Cantonese songs, reminds me so much of my younger days when I went karaoke with my family. Also, realized that they do likes to play guitar as well and Thomas told XT to bring a guitar for our road trip tomorrow! We ordered a lot of finger food and drank about 24 bottles of Tiger Beer which cost 150,000dong a person ($10sgd)!!! Amazingly no one was drunk, and back to hotel at around 1am local time... Time to rest well for tomorrows' adventure..!!!!
Leftovers of the night... 24 bottles of Tiger Beer
Day 2:
Blessings that we did not suffer hangover the next day when we woke up, and an amazingly well rested and good sleep throughout the night. As everyone would have felt, we do feel slightly skeptical if they will just back out last minute saying that they do not want to go for the trip or might just exploit us on the expenses. We have our own contingency plans (secret). So, we woke up at around 0800hrs local time, prepared ourselves for the day and went for breakfast in the hotel, waiting for their call. As usual, I’m using every opportunity when connected to Wi-Fi to monitor on my equities that I am targeting to sell, and discussing with Ashton on our strategies towards the market and plans.
They did called us, around 0930hrs informing us that they will be late as the traffic is holding them up and we can wait for them at the lobby around 1000hrs and so we did.
Here they came! Stopping on the opposite side of the road, we saw Billy alight with Xuan Thuy (XT) hopping around and waving towards us. That is indeed a very happy scene as we bounce our way out waving back too. We greeted each other cheerfully when boarding the minibus, as promised Thomas did brought a guitar(which belongs to Khanh but she doesn’t know how to play, haha!!) so we can play along the way to Cu Chi Tunnel which is about 2 hours’ drive away. Thomas indeed played his guitar well and nice; inspired me on a few new techniques on strumming and freestyle playing of different songs, a pick really does made lots of difference. Everything started well, and happy, continuously chatting and joking with each other all the way till our destination.
Ashton Playing
All of them relaxing in the minibus
Thomas playing his best piece
My turn to play too.!!! keke
Finally, we arrived at Cu Chi Tunnel, the first locations that we wanted to visit and is on the top of our agenda in Ho Chi Minh. XT indeed does an amazing job as a tour guide bringing us around, arranging meals for us as well as purchasing entrance fees.
At the entrance going to the war site.
The Cu Chi Tunnels filled the memories and realistic feel of everything that I had read and researched on, including documentaries I have watched. We saw booby traps, dugged trenches, and self-made meeting rooms, bombs making shelters, kitchen, and operating theatre; the rain came and it was pouring for a while before it subsided to mild drizzles which actually gave the trail an even more realistic feel; having the jungle feeling as well as the tough living conditions the Viet Cong were going through during 10 years of war with the Americans.
Taking cover..!!!
Ash entering the complex network of tunnels
Inside the tunnel, body half bend and scrambling through...
So after a walk through the jungles, in drizzles and were slightly drenched, I didn’t have much opportunity to use my Canon Eos M but mainly shooting pictures with my IPhone 5. We settled down for lunch on their floating platform, and the food there is definitely expensive as it is a tourist attraction, so we just have to make do (anyway how expensive can it be). It is quite a reasonable size group consisting of Thomas, Koh, Billy, Koh’ s friend, Xuan Thuy, Ngog, XT’s daughter Khanh, Ashton and me. They just started to realized actually I ate quite a lot and kept giving me the stunt and shock face, so embarrassing.
Everyone is so happy during meal time
Vietnamese coffee
Destination next is Tay Ninh Hill temples; it is a place where we started having our adventures in climbing and exploring. So there we go on another hour drive to the location, with very badly conditioned roads. We arrived, and there have cable car to sit! (The kind that ascend to halfway of the mountain where the temples are located.)
Tay Ninh Mountain behind us
Squeezing in the cable car while ascending the mountain
Did some prayer and took some funny pictures, we started taking the stairs up to the higher temples, Koh and his friend did not follow us as they have already been there, so Billy, Thomas, XT, Khanh, Ngog, Ash and me go ahead with the ventures.
Ash flying stance..!!!
The stairs is quite steep and tough and it is definitely not easy to climb if one did not exercise much. Billy and Thomas were sweating profusely, while the 3 ladies were climbing and dragging their feet up but they were shocked and (probably ‘cursing’) because Ashton and I ran past them to the top of the stairs! Laughing and taking pictures along the way (hahaha). We are excited probably it reminds us of trail running, and we just dash up.
Ash running up the stairs, with shock faces behind.. haha
Leaving them way behind as we ran up the steps.
Halfway through the stairs, we can see that erosion and weather changes has actually caused many rocks to tumbled down, deforming hand railings; but not to worry, the rocks are not loose, in fact they were very much embedded into the ground (which we access and realized as we climbed our way up). It is tough, I don’t deny on that, and they decided not to move on after hitting the last proper step of the staircase. I can see that Thomas is determined but Billy held him back due to physical fitness conditions and the terrain that they are going to encounter. Ash and I proceed, moving cautiously, switching on the GPS on my watch and checking on the compass on my IPhone in case we lost of way down.
Looking for routes
Stepping between boulders climbing upwards
Halfway through, we heard someone was behind, turned around we saw Khanh, she was following us quietly, so we slowed down to wait for her and up we go further. The climbing is tough and certain parts require us to use our arms to pull ourselves up to get footing on the next boulders. We saw a poster on 1 of the tree with a miserable and sad faced baby on it with Vietnamese words, it looks creepy as we do not understand what it is referring to, luckily Khanh was around to translate and saying: Save the environment for future generations, do not litter (in my mind, interpretations was actually, several infants died here, proceed cautiously OR this place is haunted with spirits of infants) so it was my imaginations in an evening partially dark foreign jungle. Finally we did not explore further as it is getting dark, and the rain is starting to come down. Seems like the route to the temple on the higher ground has been abandoned due to the terrain. Tracking all the way down, my GPS indicated that we had climb 510m up from the foot of the stairs, with the rest stopping at 240m mark, and us further climbing boulders and exploring further another 270m. Khanh was caring enough to tear her last piece of tissue into 2 for the both of us, so nice of her…
Her last tissue in her hands.. hahaha
Decided not to go further due to weather conditions
It’s a long drive back to town as we finally reached around 2100hrs local time to have our dinner there and some beer(for cooling purposes, haha) we cooked live moving fishes on grill!!!
Dinner time lo..!! before ending the day...
Wriggly wriggly live fishes on the grill...
Sorted out the expenses for the day which cost us about $60sgd per pax (damn good price!!!), back to hotel around 2230hrs, and we decided not to go for massage but just showered and fainted on bed in less than 5 min. Yes, we do clique and communicated very well, and really enjoyed each other company, so we are on again the next day for adventures to Mekong River!
Day 3:
Woke up, showered and feeling some aching in my thighs from yesterday climb, I quickly log on to SGX to check on my equities. Made an overseas phone call to my broker to sell them off!!! (Discovered that I have lost my OTP token the minute before I set off to Airport, hence unable to do online trading!!! Wtf). Now I can go for Mekong trip with a peace in mind.
Long journey again to Mekong River after they pick us up from hotel; where we took the river cruise to Honey making places, and braved the storm in the middle of Mekong River! Quickly keeping passport, camera, wallet, lens and IPhone in Ziploc bag, I was already preparing if the boat were to overturn due to the strong wind and waves, and how to swim over to grab Ash if he is sinking.
Setting off on Mekong River
Fortunately we arrived safely at the restaurant where we are going to have our lunch. We had a pot of Tom Yum ‘steamboat style’ and also some Vietnamese side dishes, wraps, raw vegetables, lime, cut chili and Pho. I’m famished, and so I started wrapping those vegetables, stuffing pho and chili in and squeezing lime onto them and ate them! I started seeing weird faces around me, frowning faces seeing me eating my wraps, I felt alienated. Did I eat it the wrong way? Anyway I later found out that is because not many people enjoy eating this way though it is the correct way of eating, because there is too many raw vegetables, but I find it quite tasty and ate 3 of them. Hahaha!
Meal time happy faces..!!
My self innovated Saigon Wrap..:p
Deep Fried Giant Gourami served in a unique way.
After lunch, we continued our journey to our next location around Mekong River and berthed at our next locations, where fun starts! Took horse carts rides where it starts to drizzle again, uses banana leaves to shade as umbrella, and was tricked to ‘hang flower’ performance! They gave us a bunch of fake flowers, and some performers in front singing traditional Vietnamese songs, and we are supposed to give them money stuffed in the flowers they gave us. Boring!
Muddy trail to horse riding
Money stuffed in flower...:(
Duet performer
Horse cart riding..
Finally we gave finish our flowers, and moved to take the sampans, the one that was used during Vietnam war and also the river meanders that they took to Mekong River. I seriously love it! Rowing our way through the overgrowth and hanging Palm leaves, it’s so Vietnam… like the ones we saw on television.
This is not Ca Sau (crocodile) is a kid swimming in the river..
Rowing happily
Maneuvering through the meanders..
So nicely taken
Group photo
Our day trip ended, as we made our way back to our hotels, to wash up and arranging to meet later for dinner; Singapore Hainanese chicken Rice in Ho Chi Minh! Business idea.
So much food.!! super hungry..!!!
Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice in Ho Chi Minh
We spent about 2 hours in hotel slacking and resting until about 2000hrs where we meet them at their hotel in district 5 (we stayed in district 3), to go the chicken rice place. It doesn’t taste fantastic, and the chickens were not as tender either, probably we do have our benchmark for chicken rice, hence having expectations on what we are going to get.
After dinner, we spent the night strolling along the night markets and finally chilling out at Sheraton Live band lounge till around midnight and headed back to hotel to rest.
Machiam got style, hidden grins.. hahaha
Night view of Ho Chi Minh
Last night in Saigon lo..!!!
Day 4:
Initially we felt that time is passing very slowly because we have done so many activities and it is only the 2nd day, but now with a glimpse, it is the last day. Without wasting time, we woke up at 0730hrs local time to get prepared and pack all our stuffs before heading for breakfast along the streets.
Ashton boring face with so much vege... hahaha
I seriously likes this breakfast a lot..!!! filling!!
Street stalls
Equipped with the map that we have, we navigate our way to the War Remnants Museum (another must go place) in Ho Chi Minh along the road Le Quy Don. At there we saw weapons that are used during the war, Napalm bombs, and Chemical Agents that leaves scars until today, 32 years after the war. Stories that I’ve read at the museum seems to have differ from the ones that I have read online and saw on YouTube documentaries. It was stated that the Vietnamese do not want to have the war and the Americans have insisted on continuing and fighting, although the initial fight was in the name of Democracy to prevent the spread of communism. There is a slight confusion between the facts read and the facts that was seen there, the image that was portrayed and the information that was put across. Nevertheless, we did not really have enough time back there in the museum as there so much articles, and information to be read and see, 4 levels of exhibitions that allow us to ‘visually’ walk through the war till its aftermath.
War Remnant museum
With some heavy feelings, we decided to head back to our hotel to check out as it is about 1200hrs local time.
After checking out, we went to Saigon center to meet up with Thomas, Billy, Xuan Thuy, Ngog and Khanh for lunch where we have our final catch up before heading to airport for our departure. There at Eastgate Café, we had our heartfelt conversation and warm laughter before parting and I do felt the unwillingness to farewell as we boarded the taxi to airport.
Upon reaching Ho Chi Minh airport I realized that I have forgotten to take my driving license from the hotel! So forgetful, I wonder if it is because there is too much things going on in my mind that I kept forgetting things recently. I decided not to go back to retrieve it as time for checking in is almost there and we might miss the flight if there were jams along the way to and fro airport. Fortunately, I manage to message Khanh on Facebook and she helps me to call the hotel and retrieve it for me the following morning to pass to Billy who is flying back the following day. Khanh, I really appreciated your warm help and the biggest thanks to you, yet apologizing for the inconvenience that I brought to you to make a trip down to the hotel.
Wrapping up, this is indeed a trip full of unexpectancy and blessings. Blessing for us to meet 3 of our fellow countryman, Koh, Thomas and Billy at Ho Chi Minh airport, offering so much advices and assistance to us as first timer there. The seniority, pro-activeness and leadership that you guys shown are fantastic. You guys definitely made our trip much more wonderful and time efficient. A bigger Thanks to you all!!! Also, to Xuan Thuy, Ngog and Khanh for being such a wonderful host.
For more pictures, can view on my Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Devilish.Reborn/media_set?set=a.10151493152316770.1073741832.634286769&type=3
