Sai Gon city on two wheels
Our entrance to the communist country of
Vietnam was not as
smooth nor as grand as our other entrances. First-off, the bus
ride from Siem Reap took the entire day. Secondly, the
Vietnamese Immigration is corruption in action! Crossing the
border was easy enough - bus conductor got all our passports,
Cambodian immigration officer stamps it and off we go. A few
minutes away and we all get down, this time for Vietnam
Immigration and all hell broke loose. Apparently, the system is
not to have a system. Everyone just brings his/her passport
(preferably with cash stuck in between) to the Immigration
officer’s booth, wait for his/her name to be called, disregard
the queue and just stand within hearing distance, jump the queue
when you are called, exit, fill-up or submit something at the
Customs’ booth (the forms just appear out of nowhere, the
trick is to find a bus conductor and he will probably have
whatever form you need and if you are his passenger, he would
have filled-up your card already as well as SIGNED it for you!),
declare your goods, have your goods x-rayed (bit late isn’t
it?), then exit. And then another 3 hours’ ride to the
city.
You may be interested in:
►►► Sai Gon day trips
►►► Mekong delta excursions
When we finally arrived at the SAPACO bus station, we got duped
by a cab driver who just took us round and round and was
charging us US$30 for the cab ride! I said I only had $10 and
that was all I paid him which still turned out to be too much
because... our hotel is just 100 steps away from the bus station
(you will have to pass through a shortcut through a small, dark
alley but still!).
But anyway, we were tired and hungry and annoyed so we checked
in our
hotel and settled down immediately.
ACCOMMODATIONS
I found out about Bich Duyen from either tripadvisor or
virtualtourist. It is in Saigon’s District 1 - the famous
backpackers’ district. At US$18/night, who can complain? As it
turns out, Bich Duyen is worth so much more than $18. The
manager, Mr. Chanh, is just awesome! Very friendly, very
helpful, and he made things very easy for us.
The room itself is very small, no windows but there is Wi-Fi,
cable TV, a sizeable bathroom and good air-conditioning. There
is no lift on the 4-storey hotel so if you are lazy and are not
interested in walking up and down a few flights of stairs,
then take a room at the 2nd floor like we did. The only downside
to this is that the noise from the kitchen / dining room can be
heard in the rooms. It was annoying especially because the
kitchen tends to get busy early on in the mornings (6AM onwards)
with people having breakfast before going on the tours.
But anyway, Bich Duyen is located in District 1 so there are
lots of shops, street-side vendors, bars, restaurants, etc.
around. You will not get bored here. Best of all, Bich Duyen is
just a couple of minutes away from Pho Quynh, a pho house that
serves a really mean beef stew pho! And very cheap too!
DAY 1: CU CHI TUNNELS AND CITY TOUR
We arranged our
Cu Chi Tunnels tour through Mr. Chanh. I was supposed to go
find Sinh Cafe and book our tours through them but we got in so
late the previous night that we took Mr. Chanh’s
recommendation and just booked our tour through Delta Adventure
Tours. He just made a phone call and took our payment and the
next day, we were picked up from our hotel.
First, we visited Handicapped Handicrafts where handicapped
people make really beautiful items, most of them lacquered.
Vietnam is famous for its lacquerware and this shop probably has
some of the best on display. Unfortunately again, we cannot
bring in wood and plant items to Australia so we had to settle
on just viewing the beautifully-crafted goods.
After the brief visit, we went to the
Cu Chi Tunnels. It was highly-educational and impressive. I
did not go down to the tunnels themselves because I’m too
chicken but Kim did and he came out all sweaty and dirty ??
There is also a firing range where you can choose your weapon
and ammo and shoot your anger out ?? Kim was ecstatic to have
fired several rounds of AK47. I got a headache just trying to
video him!
After about 3 hours in the Tunnels, we headed back to the city.
Deciding to do the
city tour on our own, we were dropped off near the War
Remnants Museum. After paying VND15K
each for the entrance, we took our time exploring the museum. It
was very, very depressing but again, very informative.
You may be interested in:
►►► Tam Coc boat tours
►►► Train tickets Hanoi to Lao Cai
After the museum, we decided to have a really late lunch
and set out on foot for Pho Hoa along Pasteur Street. On the
way, we saw Jollibee Vietnam, side-by-side with KFC ?? It was
soooo hard to find the restaurant but the effort was well worth
it. We were treated to giant steaming bowls of beef pho and all
other local Vietnamese goodies were laid out in the table for us
to just eat what we felt like. We tried all that looked
interesting hehe.
Food in
Vietnam is very cheap but since there were no prices on the
menu, we expected to pay a bit more for the quantity and quality
of the food but ended up with a bill of about $7! Unbelievable!
Our moods picked up because of the good food we just had so we
decided to walk again and look for
Sai Gon
Square. Unfortunately, it was so far away we were in a bad mood
again already by the time we got there. If not for the
air-conditioning, we would not have stayed long as there were so
many people! But anyway, we were on the lookout for North Face
goodies and were disappointed to find out that most of
those being sold there are fakes. We did not buy anything that
night, deciding instead to check out the other malls / shopping
areas.
For dinner, we ate at Allez Boo. Food was so-so but ambiance and
music was cool. We stayed for a bit then checked out the shops
then went back to the hotel to rest.
DAY 2: NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL, REUNIFICATION PALACE, MORE EATING
AND MORE SHOPPING!
We were supposed to go on a
Mekong River cruise but remembering our Tonle Sap cruise, we
decided to forego it and go shopping instead! ? But before we
went anywhere, I decided to have a haircut (and later on at
night, a massage and a foot spa) in one of the salons in
District 1 first. Vietnam is popular for its beauty treatments
and as everything is so expensive here in Australia, I figured I
should at least try to get some pampering while it is cheap!
After my haircut, we went to Diamond Plaza. We were not able to
buy anything there as it is all the same price here. After
malling, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral and the
Post Office for a few pics. Unfortunately, it started to pour
just as we left the Post Office and we had to go
back to Diamond Plaza and wait out the rain.
When the rains stopped, we walked toward the Reunification
Palace only to find out it was closed for lunch (it was
only about 11 or so) and would not open until 1:30PM. So we
walked in search of Quan An Ngon. It was just a few doors’
away from the Palace and we were lucky to have gotten in early
because after we were given a table, people just started pouring
in! Our lunch was fantastic and still cheap despite it being an
“expensive” restaurant in Vietnam already. We were just so
happy eating in Vietnam! It is almost as good as eating out in
the Philippines!
After our big lunch, we had to wait again for the Reunification
Palace to open so we just sat in the park across it watching
kids play ball. At 1:30PM, we finally got in. We decided not to
join the walking tour as there were just so many people in the
tour and it was slow going. We explored the place on our
own and got so bored, we left in about 30 minutes. Outside the
Palace, we hailed a taxi and went back to Saigon Square this
time for some serious shopping. I got winter coats and Kim got
jackets. We also searched for the Tax Center because we heard
there was some authentic North Face stuff being sold there but
it was all the same. We ended up buying pasalubong though in the
grocery there - we bought Trung Nguyen coffee packs and coffee
drips for our bosses and for us. We also went to the Market and
went round looking for a duffle bag because we needed one (we
had so much stuff already!). I scored a Kipling bag and finally
went back to the hotel. We ate again at Pho Quynh and Kim and I
had a massage.
We were picked up from the hotel by a churchmate so we can
attend the service. Turned out the church was so far away from
our hotel that we would have gotten lost if we tried to go on
our own. Anyway, after church, we turned in for the night and
packed for the last leg of our trip - Bangkok.
DAY 3: BANGKOK
Our last day in Vietnam started with a mad scramble because our
alarm did not go off and our flight to Bangkok was at 9:45AM!
Good thing our stuff was packed and we settled our bills with
Mr. Chanh the night before already. We just dressed up and
waited for the cab that Mr. Chanh arranged to bring us to the
airport. We got there in time though and tried to gather energy
for the last leg of our trip.
You may be interested in:
►►► Vietnam Ethnic travel
►►► Vietnam short holidays
