:: Puss In Boots ::: Jalan-jalan : Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

my april started off with a trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

this is a 4 days 3 nights trip.

there was 40 of us, a bus full.

all of which were my lovely aunties with me as the youngest, as usual.

u guys might recognise these ladies from my previous trips.

i usually follow them on their trips.

fun ok? :)

anyways. we departed from KLIA on friday morning,

at about 9am and the flight was slightly more then 2 hours.

the flight was smooth and the food was ok. i had nasi lemak i think.

when we arrived, we were greeted by our vietnamist tourist guide.

our tour agent from malaysia was with us as well in this trip.

while waiting to get on the bus.

our little jadual.

first stop was lunch of course.

we were all starving.

not really actually.

we just wanted to taste vietnamese food.

lunch was good.

we went to this restaurant called Halal @ Saigon.

this place is owned by an Indian Singaporean lady.

this is superb.

i dont remember whats it called.

it the appetizer.

*thumbs up*

my mum was surrounded by the local street vendors outside the restaurant,while waiting for the bus to arrive.

here in Vietnam, their main transportation is motorbikes.

tons n tons of them.

an average of 2 per person.

a tip we got from our tour guide was, when crossing the road, dont stop in the middle of it to let the bikes thru. just walk straight and ignore them cuz they will make their way around you.

crazy right?

we tried of course, but we were to scared.

being malaysians, and our rempits.

the whole time i was wondering, takde accidents or rempits ke here?

if i stayed longer, i would've found out :P

anyways, we checked in to our hotel to freshen up before our evening agenda.

Tan Hai Long Hotel.

the hotel was super near to the Ben Thanh market, which is the famous indoor shopping market. you can literally go crazy in there. seriously.

so that evening before dinner,we headed out for a little show.

water puppet show.

it is something like our wayang kulit, with puppets and singing traditional songs and all but in water.

after the show, we went for dinner at another local muslim restaurant.

the food was lovely.

after dinner, we went back to the hotel.

since it was still early, we decided to take a walk around the night market.

Ben Thanh market opens daily but at night, after 7pm, they open small stalls around the Ben Thanh building.

its like a pasar malam.

they had everything, from food, fruits, clothes, cloths, souvenirs.

its like a tourist's shopping haven.

hehe.

Day 2

we headed out to the Cu Chi Tunnel which is 2 hours bus-journey from the town.

of course, travelling with these ladies, a 2 hour long journey is never a bore.

they came prepared.

Karaoke!

this is our tourist guide, thao.

he knows malay too.

with an indonesian slang to it.

ok. Cu Chi Tunnel is the tunnel used by the vietnamese dulu during war with the americans.

they built an underground tunnel, multistory tunnels, for protection from the americans.

they had traps and fake tunnels that led to a dead end, everything, to protect themselves.

the tunnels were so small and tiny it could only fit a vietnamese.

i dont remember how long the tunnel is, but it covered a huge area.

have u seen a tree covered with this much fruits??

thao telling us a bit of history

an replica of the multistory underground tunnel.

the trap with spikes, the enterance to the tunnel with thao demonstrating it. literally as small as a vietnamese and they are SMALL.

i think this might be the only group photo that we have.

at the end of the tour around the tunnel area, we were served with ubi rebus and kacang tumbuk.

this was their food dulu-dulu.

i think our parents and grandparents dulu-dulu pon ate these as well.

next stop, back to town for lunch.

after lunch, we went to the war remnant museum.

such a sad place, honestly.

it had pictures and all of what happened during the war.

how the americans tortured the vietnamese.

seriously sad and sickening.

there were american tourists and i wondered what they thought of that.

we were scheduled to go visit the Notre Dame building and the post office.

these are the few buildings left that was built during the american days.

but after that long walk around Cu Chi tunnel, everyone was too tired, so we just passed it.

Notre Dame

Post office

later that night we had dinner at a nearby place, which we walked to.

after dinner we went to the Ben Thanh night market to do more shopping :)

Day 3

after breakfast, we headed out to Mai Tho,

where we went for a boat ride along the Mekong River.

here we were taken to a few of the islands for some fresh fruits and coconut candies.

at the last island, we had to ride the small boats along the small river to get to our boat out on the big river.

that was some experience.

imagine a tiny road, with boats on both sides, clashing with each other is not a big deal.

my mum was screaming at first. haha. hillarious.

oh. sorry. not much pics cuz the camera died.

on the boat ride, we were each given a coconut drink.

so fresh. yummeh!

there are 4 small islands.

we went to 2 only.

coconut candy making island.

tiny boats on tiny river.

the journey back and forth took about 2 hours as well.

so we went back in time for lunch in the city.

and the evening was free for us to go shopping.

after lunch, they dropped us off at the local shopping mall.

it was quite boring.

a tiny building with 4 floors but with expensive shops.

opposite this mall is the parkson.

honestly, the Ben Thanh market is waaaayyy better.

so after heading back to the hotel for prayers and all, we went to the market for more shopping!

well it is a shopping trip.

it would'nt be called that if we didnt spend all the time we had doing so :P

that night, being our last night there, we had dinner on a cruise ship.

apparently they started that cruise ship business due to popular demands from tourists.

the food was so-so.

it was about an hour's ride.

with entertainment and all.

which we barely understood.

the other cruise ships.

of course the night was still young.

after dinner we went shopping again :)

Day 4

the last day we were fully on our own.

since our flight was later that evening, so we had the whole morning to ourselves to do more last minute shopping. this was the opportunity to take my mum to Ben Thanh market.

mind you, the whole time we were there, she didnt follow me when we went shopping.

my mum wasnt all that well. she was having knee problems so she couldnt walk much.

i was doing most of the shopping for her.

so finally, we dragged her to the market. and yes, she now understood why the rest of us was so crazily shopping.