Bubbly Blog Gal Sites: vietnam trip 2012

salam, remember i mentioned that i'll be going to vietnam with my friends? we got cheap ticket from airasia promotion. we went there for three days starting on 29 october 2012 until 1 october 2012. so here how's it go...

29 OCTOBER 2012 (SATURDAY)

after asar, i drove to precint 9 to meet liza and A. we went to LCCT by liza's car (her boyfriend is driving). sophie went with her boyfriend. since we already checked in via web, we just dropped our bags. the plane arrived on time. we had a smooth flight, well maybe a just a little bumpy since it's raining and arrived 1 minute early than scheduled. our guide, kevin (friend of ateng's friend) was already waiting.

excited faces

he took us took us to hour hotel, it took about one and half hour from the airport. kevin told us the traffic would be heavy since that day was children day festival in vietnam. we checked in and promised to be ready by 8.30am tomorrow.

our hotel, saigon mini hotel 6

done with the check in, we started exploring the city of ho chi minh city on our own. since we didn't ate on the plane, we were all very hungry. luckily for us we found a halal hotel only 2 minutes walk from our hotel. the restaurant, baba's kitchen serves indian cuisine. it was delicious and the price is totally reasonable. we even got a 10% discount.

first dinner in ho chi minh city

done with dinner, we continue exploring. here, you have to be brave to cross the road, since there is no pedestrian light. kevin gave us tips for crossing, move forward slowly. don't turn back. the motorists will avoid you. sound easy right? well. it wasn't, huhu.. everytime we had to cross the road, we had this queasy feeling in our stomachs with thoughts like can we make it, is it safe, what if the motorists didn't avoid us and so on. alhamdulillah, we survive!

A and i were planning from the beginning to purchase vietnam traditional's costume, ao dai. that night, we found a shop that can make these ao dai in 24 hours time. we grabbed the opportunity and ordered three dresses. one for me, one for A and one for hawa. i even asked hawa's measurements and the results are shown below. we went back to the hotels at about 11.00pm, local time. there is 1 hour difference from malaysia.

A, hawa, me

30 SEPTEMBER 2012 (SUNDAY)

we started the day with breakfast at this nice little cafe called sozo. this cafe provided employment for the disable such as deaf or dumb. it also employed students who want to improve their english since a lot of tourists come there. we had toast and omelet with coffee. kevin told us that vietnam coffee is special and he was right. the coffee was magnificent. the only problem is waiting for it to fill the cup since i ordered drip coffee.

breakfast at sozo

kevin and the driver arrived exactly at 8.30am. we made our way to mekong delta. kevin bought us the boat tickets and we were treated with fresh coconut drink on the boat. there are four big islands in mekong; unicorn island, dragon island, phoenix island and turtle island. our first stop is the unicorn island. here we were entertained by the locals by singing folk songs. we were also served with fresh fruits.

great experience here!

after that, we hopped to another island to see how coconut candies are produce. the process is mainly manual meaning little machines is involved. it's not like the things done in a factory. even the packaging is done manually. we also started buying our souvenirs here.

coconut candy process

we walked around the island until we reached boating area. oo, we walked only halfway and the other half was by horse carriage. i really felt sorry for the horse for it had to carry six persons with our belongings. when we arrived at the boating area, we took a small boat to ride along the mekong river. we the experience is priceless. when we arrived at the end or our boat journey, our previous boat was already waiting.

mekong river

we went to the mainland and kevin took us to a special restaurant that served elephant ear fish. the fish was freshly caught from a pond nearby. after lunch we went back to the hostel to put our things away. then, kevin showed us the way to our anticipated place that is the ben thanh market, saigon square and the night market so that we could shop till we drop!

special lunch

the ben thanh market is closed at 6pm. we only got about 40 minutes by then. so we expressed shops. we bought souvenirs such as keychains, fridge magnets and bookmarks. we also bought vietnam silks here. after that we rushed and i mean rushed to saigon square because it will close at 8.30pm. for me, saigon square is just like our petaling street. it sold counterfeit products so we didn't bought much here. after that, we waited for the night market to be open which is on 9pm. here, in the night market, we lose lots of money to things we bought. we had to carry heavy stuffs back to our hotel, walking! it was about 15 minutes walk! our feet and hands ached for several days, huhu..

bargaining is a must!

some of the souvenirs on sale

1 OCTOBER 2012 (MONDAY)

we checked out early on our last day. we went to cu chi tunnels, the historical parts of ho chi minh city. here we were shown some interesting stuffs such as traps used during the war, tunnels dug for the purpose of moving unseen and weapons used during the war. we experienced walking a short distance through the tunnels.

pose people!

war traps

done with cu chi, we went back to the city to have our city tour. kevin brought us to the independence palace, notre dame, post office, lacquer factory and war museums. we were quite in a rush since we had a flight to catch. A and i spent a long time at the museum war. it was tragic and upsetting to learn about the vietnam war and the orange effect for me was totally devastating. we said goodbye to kevin at the war museums and the driver took us to the airport. overall, i was very satisfied with this trip! hope to have more trips like this in the future.