Wednesday, July 25, 2007
i know this post is supposed to be up like, decades agobut i only had time to upload the pics like now
sorry! i have like almost 600 pics!
vietnam was great except for the polluted, dusty environment and unhygienic food and water
we took tiger airways there
i thought the seats were horrible, and the turbulence was worst
i'm was clinging on to me dear life when we were ascending
boo
but i thought the pilot was super humorous
here's us before boarding the plane!
upon arrival at tan son nhat international airport!
we checked ourselves into this motel in some ulu alley
but it was decent enough a place to have a nice bath
cos i was uber hungry, we proceeded to have pho at some restaurant near our motel
pho is actually noodle in chicken/beef broth which the vietnamese have for breakfast, lunch and dinner
it's quite nice actually
some scenic pictures of the city of ho chi minh
most of the locals still call it saigon, and not ho chi minh
and and, i think the locals are all very healthy people
take a look
we scouted around for some package bus rides
and got to know of this vietnamese guy called 皇南
nice guy, and he's got a double degree in english and economics
after much deliberation, we bought his package and hopped on the night bus to mui ne
everybody was very tired, and i don't understand why
cos it was only 8 or 9 plus when we boarded the bus
and i just couldn't sleep, while the rest wanted nothing else but to nod off
so i disturbed the bear
poor bear wanted to sleep but i forced him to entertain me
haha
then when i really got to sleep, the person sitting beside me was sticking his stinking, dirty feet at my face!
i was like cursing and he did try to move his feet away
but a little while later, he placed his disgusting big toe near my nose this time! urgh! utter utter disgust! don't these fat balding vietnamese uncles know basic courtesy and manners?
imagine to my horror, shock, and disgust when i opened my eyes, and all i saw was his big stinking toe right smack in front of my face?
i wish somebody with long, dirty, chipped toenails will stick their toe into his nostrils someday.
big fat ha.
we arrived in mui ne at about 1 in the morning
and being half dazed and slightly annoyed, we checked into this resort that was by the beach
it was very romantic then, to listen to the waves crashing against the cliffs at such unearthly hours of the morning
and the sea breeze was beyond fantastic : )))
the sea breeze did take away all of my annoyance
we slept for a couple more hours and woke up at 530 am in the morning (vietnam time)
poor bear had an unfortunate emergency back home and had to rush on a bus back to saigon
and catch a flight back to singapore, so he went to book his bus and plane tickets
we had breakfast at this nice cafe after washing up
and i had a taste of their vietnamese tea
it's super bitter and tasted kinda of weird
but after you get used to its taste, it'll be okay
after breakfast, we walked around the town for a while
after returning to the resort, having lunch and sending bear off
we embarked on our most "chiong" afternoon for the whole trip, visiting a total of 5 places for an afternoon!
we got on this jeep, that took us to our first destination at fairy spring
it was cooling, dipping our feet in the stream on a hot day
next stop was fisherman village!
the beaches there are superbly fabulous, in fact it's a far far cry from our singapore beaches, sad to say
the beaches shown on my pics were not even a-quarter as nice as when we saw them there
so my recommendation is, if you wanna catch the beaches, you gotta go there and see them for yourselves
it's something you won't ever regret
we then proceeded to our next destination - white sand dune
it looks like the Sahara desert, only a miniature version
we played with the sand slide too
walked for what seemed ages to reach that place where they played slides
we all looked like we were lost on that desert for weeks haha
the slide was super steep man, it seemed darn scary at that point birdy tried to push me down
somehow i thought i was gonna roll down
but i didn't, thank god
despite my amateur photography skills, i think my photos managed to turn out like those found on lonely planet
damn proud of them! : )))
after we had fun with the slides, we had to walk back that long, winding desert sand-path back to our jeep, where all us 3 girls were frightened by some mad dog
poor ah pek had got to protect 3 frightened girls from the mad dog haha
and to be honest, after checkpoint 3, we were all quite shagged already
but we proceeded to checkpoint 4 - the red canyon, where we had to trek up
although it was just a very short trek up to see the canyon,
we were already quite shagged to continue trekking
and we all unanimously agreed on one point, that this was an odac trip!
we did so much trekking in one afternoon! well, at least for me
after the short photo-taking session, we went to the last attraction which was the red sand dune to catch the sunset
it was amazing, loved every single bit of it
dinner was at this wonderful cafe
nice time chilling out
caught another night bus to nha trang at about 11 or 12 am [i can't remember]
and i think they have nice beaches there
had breakfast which consisted of a classic croissant and omelette
and we signed up for this boat ride which poor bird got so sea sick on
she insisted that's cos she's not a water bird -_-
was quite fascinated with how we all ate on the boat
they folded all the benches and set them into a massive dining table and all of us sat on the benches along the table
but i'm not so impressed with the hygiene levels of their food, especially the fruits
cos i think poor drey was suspected of having food poisoning after that
she kept vomiting and running to the toilet
we were all damn worried but then also didn't really wanna trust the doctors there
so we assembled all our medication (po zai yun etc) to help her
anyway the best thing out of the boat ride was the sea breeze, in my opinion
i love the sea breeze and having it blow against my face
it's just so cool and refreshing especially up on the upper deck
stopped by one of the 3 or 4 islands and a boring aquarium
the next morning, we took a morning bus to dalat
and i tell you, i think that was the bestest destination amongst all our stops
okay, no doubt the bus ride up made me a little queasy and stuff, with all the turnings and windings up the mountain
but i think the scenery and weather up there was worth it!
dalat is situated in the mountains so the temperature there is super cooling
even cooler than cameron highlands, just like a humongous air-conditioning room
and i think our hotel room there was huge and spacious too and at an affordable price!
i think it was like only 10 or 12 USD
and they have many many vegetable farms there and naturally so, since the climate there is suitable for vegetations and plantations
i love the vegetable farms although i dunno why
they just made me feel very at home and at peace with myself
so we spent a night there and left on the morning bus back to the hot and stuffy saigon
if there was one thing i had to complain, it's the lousy bus services there
well basically, i think the bus rides all our destinations were pretty okay so far, but the bus ride back to saigon was horrible
the the air-con on the bus was down
and once we reached the foot of the mountains it was starting to get really hot
just like sauna
and i was perspiring like hotdogs
and the freaking bus broke down and it resulted in our journey being delayed for another 2 hours i think
our expected time of arrival in saigon was about 4 plus i think
but we ended up there at like 6 plus
super duper sian
and the rest of gang reckons it's cos of me that caused the bus to break down cos the tyre that needed repairing was at my side.. boo.
so yes, we were hot and we were delayed
and the hongkies who were travelling with us got delayed cos their flight back to hong kong was at 6 plus
but in the end, i dunno whether they managed to catch their flight back home
when we arrived at saigon, we headed to a korean fast food restaurant there
total bliss and at home at some clean fast food restaurant instead of the usual dirty zi char
(we had grown quite apprehensive about the zi char there so it was a norm to survey the food when it was first served before trying it out)
the looks of blissfulness
on the first night we stayed at liberty 2, a super nice and classy hotel : )))
they had all the television channels we love
and i think one thing good about them is that all the vietnamese got access to all the hbo/cable channels etc all courtesy of their government while we singaporeans gotta pay first before having access to any of these wonderful channels
and ah pek da pao pho-24 for us for supper
breakfast and scenic views in the morning
and off we go to cu chi tunnels! but before that, we stopped at some pottery workshop
the legendary cu chi tunnels : )))
i think that was the most fun thing in saigon besides shopping
shooting the bullets from the rifle was exciting but scary
one bullet was worth 1.30 USD
the old man got the full blast of me, haha
and we tried going into the tunnel
boy, that was an experience
it was freaking dark inside, i couldn't see a thing
and i was the first among us to enter
i kept banging into the walls
and we had to bend our bodies and walk in the tunnel since it was a tunnel
damn jialat
i wonder how the vietnamese survived inside
and the ventilation inside was horrible
i couldn't breath properly and it was damn stuffy
in the end, smart me used the flash of my camera to help me guide my way around!
so in the end, i could see the path in front of me
otherwise, i dunno how many times i was gonna bang into the walls
lunch at some chicken rice restaurant which we all relished initially
but naturally the chicken there was kinda disgusting compared to our delicious home hainanese chicken rice
and after lunch we headed to the war remnants museum
the exhibition was boring but the tiger cage thingy was interesting
i took loads of pics of the US Air force fighter planes but gonna display only a few here!
after that we wanted to visit the reunification palace and notre dame cathedral
but when we reached there the palace was already closed and it was raining damn heavily
we were caught the in the heavy rain so we seeked refuge somewhere at the souvenir shop near the reunification palace
after stoning for a while, we tried to hail a cab which took us to ben thanh market where we bought vietnamese coffee and had pho for dinner
and we shopped at le loi street! damn nice can?
it was high-end shopping but we enjoyed it although we din buy stuff!
and it was just behind the reunification palace -_-
we stayed in liberty 3 hotel this time cos we felt liberty 2 was too posh for a backpacker's trip, haha
i think saigon developed a little too quickly for their own good; they couldn't cope with their own pollution and hygiene levels developing so quickly
but otherwise it was a fun holiday
the last morning in saigon, we hailed a cab to the airport, but not without buying breakfast
it was back to singapore!
this time we travelled on jet-star asia! i love the leather seats
they're so much more comfy than any other budget airlines!
look at those happy and home-sick faces!
PAWED AT 1:05 PM