Getting frustrated and damn bored of what I do daily, clean the house, play everquest 2, hit the gym, I decided to go somewhere and explore. Wanted to ask my friends along but no 1 has the time nor $$. And I was deciding somewhere cheap like thailand and vietnam. Bangkok is full of riots nowadays so I thought its better to stay away from Bangkok for a while and thus the destination i chose was Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, Vietnam.
It was pretty exciting and I've anticipated this trip pretty much as I don't travel overseas much often as my family doesn't travel. And its the first time i travel by myself overseas, and to a country like vietnam where Eric told me was full of pickpockers etc and I have to be very careful (which was exactly the opposite man, the place is actually pretty safe I thought).
I had a 730 flight and the check in starts at 530, latest i can reach will be 630 or so which is immpossible even if i get the first train in the morning, and wanting it to be a budget trip, I dont wanna grab an early morning cab that can cost up to $30+.
I actually went there on wednesday night last train (i know i'm crazy). Equipped with a 12412412521 years old novel/storybook i had, I went there on the last train and manage to grab some popeye chicken haha.
When i reached budget terminal at 2am or so, I was like, maybe i could explore for a while.... I didnt expect you could see the whole terminal with just one look, its just........ damn budget to me. (well its the budget terminal). The dfs, the boarding... feels way too budget to me too, I guess its gonna be the last time i'll travel with tiger airways, jetstar/airasia for me next time round.
Upon reaching saigon, the airport was much better than I imagined, its actually pretty decent, at least better than the budget terminal. Head out to grab a cab to my guest house (vy khan guest house, $17 usd per night with ac, water heater, tv and a very clean room). The first taxi driver I met was telling me $15usd, when my paper stated 7 to 8 usd. But I read forum and got notice that if i grab a vinasun cab from departure hall i can get to district 1 for 80000 dong, around 3usd and true enough, i got a vinasun cab and reach pham ngu lao @ 90+k dong, i gave the taxi driver 100k, which is around sgd 7.80, or 5+ usd.
After reaching the guest house, had a talk with the host and she told me where to visit, i went to place my stuffs, change and head out to have my first pho and to ben tahn market.
Ben tahn market reminds me of the old tiong bahru market with lotsa clothes and accessories stores and food, drinks etc all mixed into 1. It wasnt that big, so i manage to scout through it pretty fast.
After which i randomly strolled around to the various places of interests, passing by schools, buildings and such. And outside of the school i came upon some food that smells really really good. I have no idea what its called, so i called it the vietnam rojak, cause the ingredients is pretty much quite messy.
After walking for around 2-3 hrs, got pretty tired with the hot weather and went for some cold pepsi and food. I had this traditional stuff which i have no idea what its called again but its freaking nice too (all the food i had in vietnam was nice to me and i wonder why)
After which I got a local to get me around his bike to visit various points of interest (i gave him 300000 dong (est $22) which i find it too much for the local prices, but jugding from the point that I might be his only customer for the week, I just treat as helping 1 of the less fortunates in vietnam)
Went to visit museum, chinatown, temples, some shopping etc etc and eventually got back to my guest room @ 6+7pm after which I bath, rest a little and head out to explore the night scenary. Found a few bars, some looked sleazy lol. What i find interesting is that all the bars had their chairs facing the traffics and most foreigners liked to sit facing the traffic and have their beer like to enjoy the night scene, pretty relaxing.
As i was alone instead of drinking, i went to scout for dinner and snacks etc and take a long stroll around the district before calling it a night to rest for my early 1 day tour (setting off @ 8am) the day after.
Before the 1 day tour, i met an english man, Michael from london staying at the same guest house as i do. Got to know that he was an ex lawyer, been travelling for the last 7 mths to various places such as africa, singapore (yes my country) etc etc. Pretty cool to hear his stories of how he felt sick of his profession and trying to seek what he really want in life, it inspired me to a certain extent. It was great talking with him and such but we had different schedules, he was on the 1/2 day tour and i was on the 1 day tour so we parted ways shortly.
The one day tour brought us to a handicrafts manufacturing factory whereby all the handicrafts are handmade by handicapped people and their work was amazing, if i was loaded or richer, i'll gladly by a few pieces from them to support their resolution to work for a living despite being handicapped, /salute
The next spot we headed to was the Karl Dia temple (a special religion that is only in vietnam i think) to be in time for their ritual, service. It was quite a sight, more interesting was the amount of tourists that came to watch the ritual, as if its like a movie lol.
Lunch was at a rundown restaurant at the outskirt of saigon before heading to the cu chi tunnels. Had a sour fish soup that taste a tad too sour for me, but its still great!
The cu chi tunnel is a tunnel dugged by the vietnamese soldiers during the 1970s vietnam war. It serve as a complex system to confuse and hunt enemies using strategic points and such etc (more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels)
The tunnels are damn narrow, i had to duckwalk most of the time and its freaking hot, but it was cool exploring it and examining various traps and weapons deployed during the vietnam war, which constantly reminds us that war is a terrible thing to have. And with the tour guide being a vietnam war survivor, he kept saying, 'you are very lucky, we all are very lucky, there is no war, we are all similar, you me, english, asian, all similar, you smile, i smile, we are all similar because we have a human heart'. His words may sound corny but I can feel he definitely said it with his whole heart and soul and it touched my soul and makes me feel....hmm enriched?
During the trip I met 2 backpackers, 1)John, a a management consultant that just finished his MBA exchange with chulalongkong university and is on a 1 month vacation around asia. 2)Frank, an ex journalist from Denmark, he said that work opportunities is pretty low now thus hes travelling while waiting for the market to get better.
After the tunnels, we met for food and beer. We had beer at 4 places (i know its crazy), 1)bar, Saigon green @ 35k dong per bottle, 2)some random joint, fresh beer @ 5000dong per mug 3)cafe, saigon red @13k dong per bottle, and finally 4)fresh beer @ 12000dong per LITRE. Thats quite a lot of beer for me, but Frank and John still looked pretty good at the end of the day lol. In between the beer hunting, we also had yogurt at yogurt space recommended by John (hes a yogurt fan) but i must say the yogurt i had was good and cheap (app. $2.80).
John got his friend who is working as an expatritate in vietnam along too, laura, shes working as a speech therapist in vietnam and it seems like a pretty relaxing job for her. Her working hrs are like 5-6hrs a day only! And she says she has been clubbing etc but she spent like $500 usd only for 6 weeks and most amazing thing was her water bill turns out to be $1 usd, man living in vietnam can be damn cheap, a place to consider for retirement i guess haha.
The last day was just having breakfast at my favourite restaurant, hhl restaurant @ pham ngu lao street. And another round of shopping @ ben tahn market and other shops for souveniors. (first come first serve! whoever meet me first i shall give them lol)
Overall the trip has breath new life into me, it made me a little bit more appreciative towards life after hearing stories from the vietnam war survivor tour guides, the backpackers' stories of seeking new resolutions in life etc. I hope i have transformed into a better man and I definitely look forward to longer trips next round (which should be after i start working).
May there be peace in everyone's heart in any troubled times, Leo
*more pics can be found @ my facebook,
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photos.php?id=738633076
