Viet Nam Part 1: City Tour

I went to Viet Nam with my sister and my Mom last week. I wasn’t really too thrilled when I first heard that this year’s destination is Viet Nam. I mean who goes to Viet Nam??? There’s like practically nothing to see there apart from rice fields right? But whatever I wanted to leave so off we went to Viet Nam.

LOOOOOONG post ahead. I want to impart every detail! =)
VERY PHOTO HEAVY!

We flew with Cebu Pacific. Our flight was at night (11PM) and though I have flown at night before I never realized how pretty it is to fly in the evening! You see the city lights from below and it’s absolutely beautiful. They disappear after a few minutes though. Haha! When the plane goes higher there’s nothing to see since it’s pitch black outside. =))

Just arrived at the airport.


Dinner. Indian food!

Waiting for our plane! =)

About to take off.

We landed in Ho Chi Minh (formerly known as Saigon) at about 12:25 AM. No it doesn’t take 1 ½ hour to get to Viet Nam. It actually takes about 2 hours. Viet Nam is one hour behind from Philippines. ;)

 

Outfit. Wore me harem pants coz I didn't wanna wear denim while traveling!
Also, I wore slippers the entire time. Didn't bring any other footwear of sort! =))

Money exchange! That's my sister being a millionaire! Haha! 2.5M right there! =))

Okay listen up! TIP: When you’re arriving late at night make sure you’ve already booked yourself at a hotel (Especially if you plan on staying at the backpackers area). Weird as it may sound some hotels close in Ho Chi Minh. We being the adventurer that we are decided to not book before arriving so when we got there all the hotels were closed and WTF what we gonna do? The area also looked quite shady  (it's very safe though) which didn’t help at all since my Mom started to have a mini panic attack. But then again, you can just knock at the hotels and the receptionist (who is most likely sleeping) will accommodate you. If the hotel is full try the hotel next to it.

The backpackers area is an alley in Pham Ngu Lao St. lined with CHEAP AS hotels. So you have tons of choices! If by some weird luck all the hotels are fully booked just walk around the city since there are SO many hotels scattered all over. Only, I assume they won’t be as cheap as the ones in the backpackers area.

So anyways, a few minutes later another group of travelers arrived and we just decided to follow them and check if the hotel they were staying at had free rooms.

Luckily they did. We stayed at Red Sun Hotel. It was $25 per night so that’s about 1000+ pesos…with FREE breakfast! MAD CHEAP! The room was a bit small but it was really clean! Not bad as I expected! In fact, it wasn’t bad at all! It was pretty nice for $25! Plus the receptionist Yen, was SO nice! She was very accommodating. Helped us with everything! We had noodles that we wanted to eat before sleeping and we asked her if there was hot water she said no but she offered to make some for us. And she even delivered it to our room. =)

Rooms were basic but very neat. =)

The next day I told them that we should tour the city since from what I’ve read online you can go to all the tourist spots on foot. We met a Filipino family in the dining area who suggested we book ourselves a city tour from a travelling agency since it would be much easier. It was too late though so we just decided to tour the city ourselves.

Breakfast time!

They offered bread, egg (three different style of cooking to choose from obviously I chose omelet), fruit and juice (or coffee).

Before we headed to explore the city we went to a travel agency right in front of the alley to book my Mom’s flight to Hanoi and our itinerary for the next day which I shall elaborate on the next post.
 

The backpackers' alley.

Booking flights and tours. Took FOREVER!

My sister fell asleep!=))

All the hullabaloo took an hour or so it was about 11AM when we finished and we were starving so we decided to have brunch.

Bun Bo Hue!

The food was okay. Nothing spectacular.

Iced tea. Literally. When we ordered them we thought it was Lipton or Nestea. But it was just tea. With ice. =)))

And then...haha. The thing about this restaurant is...they had cute waiters! Hahaha! Friends please meet our baby boys. =))))

BUSOG NA BUSOG! Haha! They were very game on posing with us. =)

Cute story: So we wanted to take a photo so we asked the baby boy with my sister to take a photo for us gow naman si baby boy. Kaso he couldn't really speak English. Before taking the photo, bumwelo muna si baby boy ng isa malalim na hinihinga and then muttered 1 2 3. It looked like he was about to pass out trying t get those words out of his mouth. Tapos when he was going to take na the empty plates he asked naman the baby boy with me what he should say. So cuuuute!

Anyway, city tour proper na! Touring the city by yourself is far more recommendable than booking a city tour which would cost you   a few dollars (about 10 I think I forgot). So TIP: Do the city tour by yourself! As long as you can read a map (I can’t I suck SO bad but my Mom’s really good!) you’d be perfectly fine! Plus if you do the tour by yourself you can go at your own pace. No tour guide telling you that picture time is over since you have to get to the next stop!

First stop was Ben Than Market. This is their Divisoria. Clothes, accessories, shoes, souvenirs, food…everything you want you can buy here. Frankly, I think the clothes were mediocre. Nothing spectacular or to go crazy about. The souvenirs were nice. The accessories were GOOD and CHEAP. I never tried the food. Also the food area smelled strongly of durian. Haha! So even if I wanted to try and eat at the food area I couldn’t since I hate smell of durian!

Souvenirs.

Took a photo because the dragonfruits amuse me! =))

Next stop was the Reunification Palace. From what I’ve read from other travel blogs there isn’t much to see in there so we never went inside. But if you’re really curious and don’t mind spending money to see rooms with chairs and tables then go ahead. A lot of people were also amused by the fountain and took photos with it but I found it rather uninteresting…or maybe I just got sick of fountains since we have those in every corner in my university! Haha!

The Palace.


Walking around in Saigon.

Mothergoose and sisterette.

Mom enjoying the 50,000 dong buko juice.

Our next stop was the Notredame Cathedral. This I got really excited about because I’ve read about this from other travelers. It’s a French-built cathedral which occupies scenic Paris Square  It was closed  though when we got there but I had fun walking around the cathedral.  =D

Naka shades since very TIMYAP ang fez ko nung mga panahong yan. =))

Cong Xa Paris. Haha!

Saw blue telephone booths which reminded of the infamous red ones in England!


Nagenjoy sya masyado sa mga halaman. =))


The Cathedral!

Next stop was the Post Office. It was right beside the Cathedral so that was good. Well it was just a post office really.

Cute ATM booths inside the Post Office!

Inside. They sold souvenirs and shit. =)


Last time I traveled naka-sight din kame ng nagfo-photoshoot. Wedding rin ang theme. Bet ko sana to take a photo with the groom kaso nadiscourage ako baka awayin ako ng bride. =))

 Next stop was the War Remnants Museum. This is the one I’ve been really, really looking forward to seeing. Bet ko talaga ang museums and interested ako sa mga happenings sa war! Bet ko kasi making sundalo. Seriously. Anyway, as the name states it’s depicts the horrors of the Viet Nam war…somehow disturbing but I like it! Entrance is 15,000 dong.

Mainly they had (VERY disturbing) photos and war paraphernalia inside. That may seem really boring at first but if you actually look at the photos and read what it says it’s actually very interesting. That is if you’re interested in war and that kind of shit. Now I like these kind of stuff so I enjoyed our visit  very much. If that doesn’t interest you still…MARAMING BEAUTIFUL BOYS!!! Oh ano pupunta ka na? Haha! If you’re a guy I’m pretty sure you’re interested in wars I guess. And I’m not sure if there were many pretty girls since the hell I care but I’m pretty sure there were! Kiber lang ako kasi nagconcentrate ako sa paghahanap ng baby boys! =))

Every travel blogger who's been to Vietnam had their photo taken with this guy right here so I had to have mine taken as well. The dude's not real but he looked creepily alive. 

Below the rails are the prisoners. But tell you what...only the first two rail thingy are realthe rest..it's just a wall painting! Didn't know it would look so real in picture!

Aaahh...funny story about this photo. My sister first looked inside and I got curious as well so I decided to take a peek. Had a mini heart attack and screamed a little too loud with what I saw which was this...

It looked mad creepy in person and it was really dark inside! A little Asian kid saw me scream and walked away giggling. =))


Torture techniques. I read it and I can't imagine what the prisoners went through! It's so MORBID! It would make a good gore movie!

So apart from looking and finding out what war was like in Viet Nam. You can also go stalk beautiful boys as they explore the museum. It was fun! Haha! I shall make a separate entry about that aye? =))

After that we wanted to go to the opera house and a few more places but we had to get back to our hotel at 5:30 since we had a bus to catch for next day’s trip. So we walked back to our area.

We were hungry so we had merienda at this donut shop which looked like Dunkin Donuts but isnamed Donuts Donuts!

They had a pretty transparent chair like this! Can't really see it since I am sitting on it! Also Haggardo Versoza na very much ang lola nyo. =))

Had Oreo glazed donut! I had an Oreo glazed donut for the first time in Malaysia (J Cos!) and I fell in love with it ever since!

We went back to our hotel after, rested then cleaned our selves up then went to the Pho noodle restaurant right round the corner.

  

40,000 dong for a HUGE bowl of Vietnamese goodness! I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS!

This photo does not depict how many motorbikes are there in Viet Nam during rush hour.

Over all, I think this was a successful day since I got to see all the places I wanted to see! Was REALLY tired at the end of the day but I was really HAPPY! =D Yay!

So there! That’s Part 1! Before I end this post I shall give yous pointers just in case you wanna go in Viet Nam as well. Shall post more soon but this is the only ones I can think of right now.

TIP #1: Bring US dollars. It is widely accepted. Thirsty? Want to buy a bottle of water from that old lady in the side walk but got no more Dong? No problem. Pay in dollar. =) You can use dollar to pay anywhere. =D COOOOOOOOL!

TIP # 2: If those guys selling buko juice talk to you… DO NOT talk to them or even make eye contact. Act as if they’re invisible and you can’t see them UNLESS you really intend to buy. They will follow you and worse if you stop and talk they will open one up for you shove it down your throat and you have no other choice but to pay them. My Mom being the Miss Congeniality that she is decided to talk to one and we had to pay 100,000 dong for two unsolicited coconut juice. It was good but we never wanted to buy so…

TIP # 3: Crossing the street? Saigon’s street isn’t actually as crowded as you think it may be. UNLESS it’s rush hour. That’s a different story, city of Saigon during rush hour is CRAZY! I’ve never seen so many motorbikes all the same time in my entire life! Anyway, if you’re in a major road just wait for the pedestrian light to go green and just cross like you normally would... DUH. If you’re in a little street (there won’t be pedestrian lights there) and there’s motorbikes everywhere (and there will be TONS) don’t wait for it to be all gone. They won’t especially during rush hour. Just cross. You will make it. You know how travel bloggers say you can make it alive even if you cross the street with your eyes closed. True.  Motorbikes will maneuver out of your way. You will be fine. Don’t stop walking once you start crossing or you will be surrounded by motorbikes and people will hate you.

TIP #4: Most people can only speak VERY minimal English. This was probably the biggest obstacle all throughout we were there. When we went to Singapore and Malaysia every spoke English so it was easy getting around asking for directions and stuff but in Viet Nam most can’t speak English. Like what I mentioned earlier when we ate lunch. Some Vietnamese who can speak English have a strong accent I could barely understand them but that’s just me.

Tip #5: If you’re doing the City tour by yourself buy water in the streets as they are cheaper. Also it would be wiser to buy a 1.5 litre one for yourself rather than buying a small one because you’re gonna do a lot of walking and most tourist carry one so don’t feel weird walking around with a  a huge as bottle of water. Also bring food to munch on while walking.

So that’s it! First day and I love Viet Nam already!!! Wait for Pars 2 and 3 aye?

If you actually read the whole thing...THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!

God Bless!