Lok's birthday

Breakfast at OWNWAY

Lunch at SUBWAY

Dinner at SUNWAY (Yuen Steamboat)

After Dinner EnJoy OURWAY at VINTRY-the experience wine

8th day in vietnam- HCMC

Last day in HCMC. need to go back to work again tomorrow!!

We went for last minute shopping and eating.

Check out the hotel at 5pm and head to airport (distance is 30min only).

The flight delay a little. Depart 9:30pm. Reach Malaysia already 12am (is midnight). Sleep at 3am..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..

7th day in vietnam- mekong

(a)My Tho&Ben Tre (VND219,000)
(b)Cai Be&Vinh Long (VND269,000)
Both place are Mekong Delta Trip. we choose (b). It does not worth the price of VND319,000/pax (normally is VND269,000, public holiday need to pay extra VND50,000)
It is better to go by ourselves early in the morning, because we miss the morning part of the mekong delta, where the people selling, buying, exchanging goods from their boats.

8am depart to Cai Be (about 110km). Then take a boat trip to discover the floating market. At that time (around 10am), not many boats already..sigh..

Going on to the local village to visit rice paper making, coconut candy, snake wine, honey tea, and rice cookies.

We went to Xeo May riverside restaurant for lunch. i wonder is tat the only restaurant in Mekong? i think most people have wedding dinner here too. But the food not good, yucks..

After the lunch, we took a boat along the Mekong river to Vinh Long. Oh, the journey is 45 min, tour guide saying nothing, just let us discover the daily activities of local people. Most of us fell asleep and also the tour guide. Bad guidance.

Trips end at 6pm, arrive back to HCMC.

We had our dinner at 3A3 Restaurant. nice food! lunch:dinner=hell:heaven
Then we went to other Trung Nguyen again. Bought a lot of coffee!!

6th day in vietnam-HCMC

Booked our trip to Mekong tomorrow (44 USD for 3 ppl- price increase due to public holiday). Then walk to Diamond Plaza and have our lunch.

Main target is to go Trung Nguyen coffee house. The No.1 coffee in vietnam. Try it and u will love it. Bought some coffee from there too.

Then we look for the VIETNAMESE WATER PUPPET SHOW at Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre (55B, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Dist 1, HCMC). 50 min show without intermission. daily show (5pm & 6:30pm). Ticket VND 120,000/pax.

It starts with music prelude and follow by a few story:
1. Raising the Festival Flag
2. The Narrator: Teu
3. Dragon dance
4. In a buffalo with a flute
5. Agriculture
6. Catching frogs
7. Rearing ducks and catching foxes
8. Fishing
9. Returning with pride
10.Lion dance
11.Phoenix dance
12.King Le Loi in boat tour and legend 'restored sword'
13.Children playing in water
14.Boat racing
15.Unicorns play with ball
16.Fairy dance
17.dance of 4holy animals

They hide at the back, half body soaked in the water to present all the above scene.
It is nice, but it will be better if they show English wording on a screen. they talk and sing in Vietnam language which most of the tourist actually cant understand.

We had our dinner at Napoly

5th day in vietnam- cu chi tunnel

Depart: 8:30am (half day trip). It takes around 1 and a half hour to get to Cu Chi tunnel. Entry ticket= VND 80,000.

Never see, never know. It is a miracle that they build this in 1960's. This is an unique project of architecture, as an underground system of tunnel deeply located in the ground bed with numerous floors, several deviated alley like a cobweb over 200km long with its places boarding, accommodation, cooking, meeting and fighting. They use their hands and tools to dig. no machinery. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, BELIEVE IT.

We watch documentary film, sightseeing, and try shooting with M16 (10 bullets VND 300,000)

The tour guide is superb! he explain well and entertain the whole group! thumb up!
This trip is quite in a hurry, but we still learn a lot and have fun. no regret coming to this place. A place not to be miss when coming to HCMC.

We went back and arrive HCMC at 2pm. continue our journey and shopping at Ben Thanh Market!

4th day in vietnam- mui ne/ HCMC

Enjoy a buffet breakfast and took photos before heading back to HCMC again.

A long journey, traffic jam, and we arrive HCMC at 7pm.
Rush to toilet!! haha..then we booked our trip to cu chi tunnel tomorrow! (USD 21.42 for 3 ppl)

Dinner at 1 of the hotel restaurant, then bought some stuff to eat in the hotel as supper.

3rd day in vietnam- phan thiet/ mui ne

Wake up early in the morning. not enough time to had the hotel breakfast and rush to sinh tourist to get on the bus at 7:30am to phan thiet-mui ne!!

5 hours of drive and finally we reach the place.

Have our lunch serve by mui ne resort.

3pm start journey to visit
1. fishing village
- the round boat cost around USD 100, can use up to 2 years
- use to catch fish and produce a lot of fish sauce

2. white sand dunes
- seems like we are in the sahara dessert
- we have a chance to slide down from the top (VND 20,000 per sliding board)
**2nd lesson to learn:- also do not talk to stranger
We took the sliding board and on our way to experience the slide
There is a 'friendly' little boy following us and try to help us
That time, the wind blow and i hardly can open my eyes wide
The little boy help and teach us to slide
After the fun~~~we want to give him some tips~~there comes the ugly side of that little boy before we action..asking for VND500,000. !@#$%#$%%%@! then bargain to USD 20 %#$&*@*& if is not because of the shoe, we will not give him..at last we gave 150,000 @#$%A%@#$ do not trust the 'friendly' people. no matter is an adult or child

3. lotus lake

4. yellow sand dunes
- same like white sand dunes, only the color of the sand is different.

Back to hotel, take a bath and have dinner serve by the mui ne resort.
We had some drink and pancake for supper beside the beach. quite romantic!

2nd day in vietnam-HCMC

morning breakfast at ngoc minh hotel
-french bread
-egg/ butter/ strawberry jam
-banana/ watermelon/ pineapple
-vietnam coffee


we will be having this for the following few days!

After breakfast, we went to the sinh tourist to booked our trip to mui ne (VND 3,269,000 for 3 ppl).


Then, we start our journey walking in HCMC.

1. People's Committee Headquarters
- a french style building but public cant go in to visit
- there's HO CHI MINH with a girl in the middle of the garden in front the building

2. Notre Dame Cathedral
- build on 1877-1883, 40m height
- all materials (even a skru) to belief is from france.

3. General Post Office
- since 1892
- 1st french post office in vietnam

Went to lunch at the other PHO 24 outlet. the food taste better than the 1st we tasted at pham ngu lao.

4. Reunification Palace
- build in 1966
- 30.4.1975 saigon give up, and the structure still look as in 1975.
1st lesson to learn:- do not talk to strangers
Be careful of those ppl selling coconuts and drinks along the roadside. they are very friendly to u at 1st, and force u to buy drinks from them. kena potong: 2 coconut for VND 50,000.

5. War Remnants museum (ticket price: VND 15,000/ person)
- show a lot of photos during war time. cruel..sad..really pity them..

We went to KFC for 2nd lunch..and Highland coffee to taste the vietnam coffee with milk, ice apple tea, ice cafe, and a piece of passionfruit cake.

6. Ben Thanh Market
- since 1914, 11,000 sf, biggest indoor market in vietnam
- 4 exit and selling all kinds of things

We went to a vietnam restaurant to have our dinner and enjoy the night life at 'crazy buffalo'

1st day in vietnam-HCMC

3:30pm start our journey from KL CENTRAL to LCCT
Taking flight AK884 depart KL(1940) arrive HCMC(2040)

After check out from Tan Son Nhat International Airport, we took a taxi (vinasun taxi-USD 8)to the Ngoc Minh Hotel. (283/11-13, Pham Ngu Lao Street, District 1, HCMC, Vietnam) ngocminh.hem@gmail.com.

1st impression in HCMC, keeps me thinking of 1 song~~
oh the vietnam road is long..
e..i..e..i..o
with a honk honk here..
and a honk honk there..
everywhere a honk honk..
oh the vietnam road is long..
e..i..e..i..o

Motorbikes are extremely a lot more than u can think. honks everywhere..huuh..tension driving in HCMC

When the taxi driver told us that we already arrive, we was shock as he told us to go into a small 'lorong' and the hotel is just right behind the 'lorong'. we was abit nervous because the 1st impression is not so good.

We stil check in, room 303. They kept our passport, and will return to us when we check out. the room is quite nice and clean~relief~ we put our bags in hotel and start our 1st step in HCMC. we went for dinner 1st, as it is already 9:30pm.

Our 1st dinner-PHO 24
A chain restaurant serving PHO (like kuey teow in malaysia). taste ok only.

After that, we walked around and discover new area. we found 'sinh tourist'. a quite famous local trip agency, where we want to booked our local trip there also. we also tasted a vietnam frech bread (like subway style burger)(VND15000), this type of stall can be seen in anywhere along the road, is like ramli burger stall in malaysia. quite nice!

pre-trip to HCMC

packing..
very happy..
very gan cheong..
8 days to vietnam..
throw away all the work..
dont know wat will happen then..
hope everything goes well n enjoy it..

here i come..vietnam..ho chi minh city..