oi vietnam!

after much "research" and last minute bookings, we finally got our asses to ho chi minh city, vietnam. never mind that a few hours before the flight a friend receive new from a traveler who just got back from the said city and complained about how bad the place was and how rude the people are, clashing with all of what i had in mind initially  (which is the opposite, nice place and people). well, all i can say is, it's always good to keep an open heart and mind when you're at a new place and culture and a country where english is not the spoken language. 

our first meal, shrimp pho. yeah we sat by the roadside and ate with the locals. no stomach ache was reported during the whole duration of the trip, with us eating street food and restaurant food. the food we ate was mostly the local cuisine, think grilled pork with broken rice, vietnamese pancake, ban mi (their version of the sandwich)... i guess we were lucky because we ask the lady from long hostel (really friendly people and they speak fluent english)

look closely... scorpion and baby cobra anyone?

would you just look at the electric post? the on going question was how were they going to repair, or know which one to repair when one of the wires are damaged? so the funny answer we got was they just add a new one onto it! that's why it's all tangled! haha...

booked ourselves to a tour with one of the agency...there's so many there! just pick one and you're good to go! so the first tour is the half day at the mekong delta, this tour comes with a simple meal of lunch.. they brought us to the coconut candy village to see how the candies are made, and we had a tour at the delta (river), as the name suggest, it's just river and erm trees. but it's one of the tourist spot that you should go, if you're there, but it's very much touristy..

went to visit one of the temple, it's included in the tour, but i couldn't remember the name..

one of the alleys in the city. their alley is so busy and full of stalls and shops! it's just very lively. maybe it's because the people stay there as well, their homes are there, so the alley are kept clean, unlike the typical alley we have here in malaysia where it's at the back of the house where nobody wants to go.

vietnamese traffic? legendary. it's just crazy trying to explain how the whole system works. the way they use the roundabouts? unbelievable. even so, there wasn't any traffic accidents where we were there! 

traditional vietnamese dripping coffee. also read as ga phe so da. phonetically hahahah it's just so difficult to get a grasp on their pronunciation but it's so fun trying to get it right, you know? anyway their coffee is exceptionally thick...basically it's just coffee with condensed milk, and all of it taste intense, although different places serves you a different type, like this stall's sweeter, another is much more bitter, and if you're lucky, you might get one that taste just right. 

the buildings...it looks like a game of stack on, where none of the height are uniformed! you can get one building that is just 3 storeys high, and the one next to it is either double it's height or higher! it's really interesting. and their building is narrow and tall, like the people of vietnam. maybe it's because of their food (when we order food there's a complimentary salad/greens that comes with it, and they don't have a lot of fried stuff..). and they love to exercise! when we walk past the park it was filled with the locals exercising!  but later we found out that the bricks that they use are long and rectangular. maybe that's why. :)

the alley at night and in the morning... see the difference?

oh, and we took a tour to the cu chi (hard c , read as ku ki) tunnels too. and we did all the stuff, watch the documentary, climb the tunnel (which was really small, and they told us it's just a replica because the original one was even smaller), and there's this tiny tiny hiding place where the guerrillas hide when the american troops invaded them. 

the crazy traffic. till this day i have no idea how did we cross the road unscathed. but i do have a rough guide here. once you've decided to cross the road, don't even think about making a u turn to go back. just cross and maintain your speed. seriously, the motorist will avoid you. so just cross the road, #like a boss!! hahaha 

ok so here's the verdict. ho chi minh was fun!!!  the people are really friendly, except for the ones who work at ben thanh market. do not, my friend, do not ask for the price if you have no intention of buying something, or if you just want to know the price. i did buy an ao dai (the traditional clothes for vietnamese girl) and scored it for usd15! the initial price was usd 50. it was crazy expensive, so i wanted to leave, and this is the time where they will shove the calculator and ask you to give your price. initially i wanted to leave and not buy so i just type in 15 as i thought they would not sell it to me but the sales person gave in. i didn't even bargain for it. and i thought the price that i gave was so low that they wouldn't sell it to me. so i bought the ao dai that i have no intention to buy in the first place, but because the sales person gave in and the price was reasonable. and it fit my mum really well!! *double score* :) and when i ask a local at the local coffee shop about the price of an ao dai it's around 20-25 usd. *triple score hahaha i know it's a girl thing with this kind of stuff*

if you're thinking of going to vietnam, what are you waiting for? most of the travelers we met took ho chi minh city as sort of a transit...to go to cambodia! think angkor wat! there's the bus to go straight to cambodia so it's pretty convenient. food wise i would say it's pretty clean, and although most of the people speak a muttering of english, and some, not a word at all, there's always trying to speak with your hands. or draw! 

:)