We took the budget airline, Tiger Airways from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh (also known as Saigon) in Vietnam. The flight was a smooth one and there was also no delays. Since we do not have enough time to visit both north and south Vietnam, we decided on Ho Chi Minh after comparing it with Hanoi. Although Hanoi is the capital but Ho Chi Minh is the financial and business center in Vietnam and HCM appeared more interesting than Hanoi.
Upon arrival, our first picture was with the taxi...haha....isn't it cute looking?
We stayed at An An Hotel after reading the good reviews about it. It is at Bui Vien area with plenty of restaurants, tour shops, hotels and where most backpackers will be.
After checked in, we went across the street, one block away from our hotel to Sinh Cafe. We have read some reviews on this Sinh Cafe and decided to give it a try. We booked our half day tour to Cu Chi tunnel for the next day. After that, we went next door, a restaurant owned by Sinh Cafe called French Deli to have our lunch. Customers who have booked tours with Sinh Cafe will enjoy a 20% discount for their meals here. They have quite a nice and modern ambience too.
We ordered beef noodle and wanton noodle. It was quite a big portion for us but very delicious. Their coffee is also very tasty. Price is reasonable.
After lunch, we went for a walk around the city. People here lead a very simple life. They eat almost anywhere on the street as long as there is a street stall. They either squat or have a sit at a small table on the pavement of the street to enjoy their meals.
True enough, exactly like what all reviews said, the streets in Ho Chi Minh do look dangerous. Traffic was bad and the streets were very congested with bicycles and motorbikes. There don't seem to have any traffic rules. The vehicles came from all directions and they would just honked and honked at you. You need to look everywhere when crossing the streets in Vietnam, although the trick is to walk slowly across the street.
The next morning, we waited for our tour bus to Cu Chi tunnel outside Sinh Cafe. There were many other tourists and tour buses there. On the way to Cu Chi tunnel, we snapped some pictures.
First, we had to attend a compulsory "class' ... haha, it's actually a compulsory history lesson on the Cu Chi Tunnel and Vietnam war. Our attention span was for only about 15 minutes.
While the guide was giving the history lesson, we at the back were busy posing with the holes we saw on the wall next to us....now you know why we chose to sit right at the back row.
After the classroom lesson, we had to go for the field lesson. See the holes on the ground? These holes were the hiding places of the Vietnamese soldiers last time. The holes were covered by leaves so the enemies won't know. The holes were also quite narrow so we presumed that the Vietnames soldiers were all very small sized or thin. We were asked to go down to experience the hole. I was quite worried that my body would be stucked there ...hehe...so can you guess if I did go down?
This is an old tanker.
We were also briefed on the self made weapons by the Vietnamese to fight against the American soldiers. We were more interested to take pictures than to hear the stories. Now I have no story to tell .... oops...the left picture though is the hiding place of the soldiers to shoot the enemies. The rest are fatal traps. That's all I know.
These are real Cu Chi Tunnels. They used to be hiding places for the Vietnamese during those times and the tunnels were big enough for the people to stay and live inside. Our guide invited us to go in to experience the tunnel but showed us the shortest one which is only a few meters. He told us not to go deep into the tunnel but stay above and turn left a few meters in front to exit from the other end of the tunnel. A few Caucasions went in first then we followed. I was the last one to go in since I was in charge of the camera. Gosh! It was really scary as it was pitched dark inside. There was no light and we could not see any path. The holes were very small and we had to crawl inside. The space was just big enough for us to crawl and we kept close to each other. The tunnel was also sandy and slippery and because we could not see anything, we had to move a step at a time just in case we fell off into some deeper holes or we slipped down some steps and injured ourselves. At one point, we had to on the handphone lights to check the direction. Come to think of it again, it was really a scary experience inside there.
Whew! We made it! We were out of the tunnel and now celebrating our freedom!!! We also visited their kitchen...
After we came back from the Cu Chi Tunnel, we had our lunch at Cafe 333 at De Tham street. This cafe was recommended in the forums for its authentic vietnamese white coffee. Yes, indeed their ice white coffee is delicious and notice the way they drip the coffee into the individual glasses? You can't find this anywhere else in the world except Vietnam and this brings out the aroma and taste of the coffee.
After lunch, we took a cab to Notre Dame. That area looked very western and beautiful.
Next we walked to Ben Than market. There were two sections here, one is the food section while the other is the shopping section. Outside the market there were also many stalls selling clothings, bags, shoes, toys and accessories.
That evening, we decided to tray the famous Vietnamese ice-cream at Kem Bach Dang in Le Loi street. Unfortunately, it is nothing special.
The morning of our 3rd day, we had our western breakfast at Cafe 333 again. We went back there as we love their coffee and also because the day before, the owner had specially recommended their breakfast set to us.
Afer breakfast we went shopping at an area called Le Van Sy. This area has many small individual shops selling clothings but there were not many customers in this area. We bought some cheap clothings here and proceeded to Kentucky Fried Chicken to have a drink.
After that we went sight-seeing at People's Committee Building. That place is heavily guarded. We wanted to take pictures but the guards forbid us to, so we walked across the street and took pictures from across the street instead.
After that we ended up at Parkson shopping complex and had our lunch at the Parkson food court. There were a varieties of local food at the foodcourt and the price is reasonable.
That night, we decided to try the beef noodle at the roadside stall outside our hotel.
Me and sis decided to share one bowl just in case we do not like it. See what happened when the noodles arrived? It was so delicious and my sis was also very aggresive to fight for her share. I lost, and learnt a lesson. Never share food with my sis....
After our noodles, we walked around the street for the last time and saw some dessert sold by the street vendors. Didn't know what it was but decided to have a try and it was quite delicious.
The next morning, we decided to go for our last walk in the city after breakfast. We saw a few shops selling very cheap books like Lonely Planets. There were also street vendors carrying books on their shoulders to sell to tourists.
That was the end of our trip at Vietnam, and we indeed have a wonderful time and enjoyable trip. We are going to miss the coffee and the food for sure....
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