Day Eight (final day) !!!

Woke up at 7am again.. The weather seems slightly better. We wandered around, took some photos then went back to check out and arrange taxi etc.

We proceeded to Highland Coffee (cos there's AC and near our hotel) to laze the next 2hours away before we took a cab to the airport. Well, can see how sian I got and how tired I am...

3.30pm and we are off to the airport. We took the 5.25pm flight back to Singapore.

This concludes my South Vietnam trip. I'll try to visit Vietnam again if I have the chance! :D

Day Seven: HCMC

We set off at 7am to explore the city. After having pho and coffee for breakfast (I still prefer the food at Chau Doc), we set off to take a bus to Cho Cholon. Bus no 1 took about 20mins to reach Cholon Bus Station. The bus station at district 1 is just opposite Ben Thanh Market. Its's easy to spot. No worries. There's signs above that lists the bus number and their destination. I'm impressed with the bus system :p You can go anywhere! There's buses to Mien Tay Bus Station too. So, you can actually just go Mekong Delta like that!

There's a bus conductor onboard. He'll come to you to collect the fare of $3000 dong. The market is just across the street. Cholon is where chinatown is, thus you will see many stalls selling liang cha, incense, etc.

So, we explore the market, explore the neighbouring streets and took the same bus back to District 1.

We went to Pho 2000 for lunch and laze there for around 2h. It's not because the food is nice, but rather this place has AC. HCMC is SO hot and humid! I've never sweat so much for the past 6 days! Its rather uncomfortable. Oh, pho 2000 boast of the place where the president dine. You'll see several photos of Bill Clinton having his meal here on the walls here.

For dinner, we decided to try out Lemongrass (also recommended by Lonely Planet). However, I have conveniently left my LP in the hotel.. and based on memory, I thought I can find Lemongrass.. After an hour of walking, I have to admit defeat. Luckily there's a tourist information office nearby and we went in to ask! It's just two streets away!

Lemongrass Vietnamese Cuisine

* 4 Nguyen Thiep St. District 1. HCMC Tel 848.38220496

* Palace Hotel Saigon (14th floor)

56-66 Nguyen Hue Blvd. District 1. HCMC Tel 848.38291520

The one at Nguyen Thiep St is the original one. However, they are full for the night. Thus the staff kindly directed us to their branch at Palace Hotel Saigon. Well, its a blessing in disguise :) The view is good from the 14th floor and it certainly looks very posh. We ordered 4 dishes and a bottle of wine. Total bill is about usd $40. hahaha. even cheaper than my french dinner last night!

We did explored Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office. The weather sucks.. sky gloomy and lots of tourists around. Below is just pics inside the Post Office. Tomorrow I'm determined to go try taking Notre Dame again...hopefully the sky will be better.

Day Six: Vinh Long to HCMC

We walked from our hotel to the bus station and reached there at about 7.30am. We waited a while then an uncle motioned us to a minibus. Wow. This is the newest one we've saw so far. Spacious and clean. Smells new too! The bus took us to another street and the driver motioned us to get down and take a seat. This place seems to be the central office of this bus company. They seems to be running a courier service or some sort. Throughout the 20 mins, we watched many, MANY motorbikes coming in and out to drop or pick up parcels.

Finally, our minibus came back with more passengers (fr other parts of Vinh Long town maybe) and we are off to HCMC. We passed by the cabled My Thuan Bridge. Think its the nicest looking around bridge already.. but I couldn't get a photo of it.

If i ever visit Vinh Long again, I'll not get a tour. Its possible to just go to An Binh Island and find a homestay and rent a bike and explore the island by yourself! M felt that we had cycled too fast round the neighbourhood that we missed out things.. ya. i agreed. The locals are very simple (on An Binh island).. when we stopped to take pictures, some of them came out of their houses, looking at us curiously. hahaha.

The bus ride is uneventful.. maybe cos we are both tired.. I didn't take much note of the journey too. Anyway, you know when you reached hcmc, the traffic is more heavy :( more buildings, around less trees.. everyone seems crowded. We reached our stop ie. the bus company office in district 5 of hcmc. Once you get down, a swarm of motorbikes drivers surrounded you again. M and i quickly get our bags and head off first. We walked a little then decided to find lunch, to settle down, to plan our route (how to walk to district 1).

We started walking to Pham Ngu Lao Street. Frankly, I'm becoming more sian. Its very city and I don't feel enthusiatic anymore. We reached District 1.. It's very evident with lots of tourists walking around. Lots of locals trying to get you a room also. We went to view one which looks quite dodgy..although its cheap, we decided to try our luck at other places.

Oh, Hong Hoa Guesthouse seems very nice, from the lobby and the convenience of having free internet and a minimart just at ground level! A pity they are full for the next 2 nights. Finally we settled down in Quyen Thanh Hotel. Downstairs, its a shop selling lacquerware. We got a fairly big room for usd $20 a night. The decor is kind of 'obiang'. Bathroom has those olden green & red tiles. Anyway, I didn't took any photos of this room.

Quyen Thah Hotel

212 De Tham St. District 1. Ho Chi Minh City.

We went to Ben Thanh Market to do some touristy shopping.. you know, had to buy some souvenirs back... I don't like the market.. I don't like bargaining too. After buying the 'necessary' stuff, we head off.

Things are generally 2 to 3 times more expensive here, compared to the delta. We tried the coffee, the food, the flavour is just not there. Disillusioned, I decided to better spend our money on not-so local food. We set off to find a nice french restuarant near Thai Van Ling Road, according to lonely planet. We passed by the City Hall, went to the ferry terminal, experienced great traffic jam and crossed the heaviest traffic of my entire trip! Night falls and worn-out, we finally decided to trot into Bibi for authentic french food. The boss is a french guy who married a Vietnamese wife and proceeded to settle down here. We are very hungry. We had onion soup, steak, salmon, Foie gras, creme bulee, 4 glass of wine! The total bill came up to be usd $87. I wasn't too happy with my Foie gras, but i love the soup and creme bulee and of course, the wine is GOOD!

Ho Kd Bibi

17A6 Le Thanh Ton. District 1. HCMC.

Interesting thing to note: the whole Thai Van Ling road seems to be littered with Korean restuarants. There are several service apartments in this area too. Once you right turned to Le Thanh Ton road, the scene changes to Japanese restuarants! Anyway, these are simply food streets.. with restuarants, pubs etc. Dong Khoi Street is one that is full of boutiques and art studios. You'll find your LV, Gucci, etc here.

We made our way back to the Pham Ngu Lao to retire for the night...

Day Five: Vinh Long

We woke up very early when its still super cold and dark. I didn't sleep much the night before because it was freezing! After our coffee, we took our boat to Cai Be floating market. The boat ride took 1h and its freezing cold on the waters too..


Gradually, the sun rose...

The floating market is not as busy as I thought it is. Even truyen thought its odd. Anyway, we spend sometime roaming around there, then went on to visit some handicrafts village, coconut candy factory, pop rice factory. We spend some time drinking tea, sampling the products and buying stuff. It was quite amazing how they could gauge the temperature of the fire from burning twigs, rice husks, longan husks etc. They can manufacture their products very fast! Really very 'pro'.

some kind of biscuits

netted rice paper (for their popiah)

pop rice

The two ladies 'threading' through the leaves to make the roof of houses.

We went on to visit rice paper factory, fish sauce factory, brick and pottery factory. At the brick and pottery factory, I'm kind of fascinated that the raw material is from the river bed! no wonder there are several cranes on the river. We had a very informative session when truyen explains to us the procedures etc.

So concludes our tour with Mekong Travel when we reached Vinh Long town. Truyen recommended us a cheap hotel to stay for the night and gave us directions to the night market so we can explore tonight. The hotel, Van Tram, is just beside Mekong Travel office! The room is very big with two queen size bed, and with AC, hot water, fridge. The lady charged us $200,000 dong for a night :)

I think i've mentioned before that the local market is near to Mekong Travel office. Even at night, there are many stalls selling fruits, food and many other stuff. We explored the surroundings and went to the bus station to buy our bus tickets to HCMC. There's a staff who can speak some english, so we bought our ticket at $65,000 dong per pax. Buses to HCMC are regularly departing every hour. We bought the 8am bus for the next day. However, the bus only goes to district 5 at HCMC. The uncle pointed to a big map in his office to show us. Well, it doesn't seems that far to walk to district 1 (where the backpackers district is). Luckily, M promptly took a photo of that big map. Back at our hotel, I drew out a map based on her photo and worked out where we should walk to go to district 1 =p kind of exciting ya?

We went to explore the night market too. Its' something like our pasar malam back in Singapore, but minus the food part. They are selling a lot of bags, clothes, shoes, caps, toys, etc etc etc. The area is quite packed with locals too. Think they enjoy shopping here :)

Its a fun experience trying to shop here, especially when they don't speak english and we are trying to bargain. The stall-owners are pretty clever, they took out their stack of cash and pulled out a note to indicate the price for the item i'm inquiring. Then i pointed to another smaller note in order to bargain! :D hahaha. Frankly, I should have brought a notebook + pen to write OR a big calculator! that'll be easier.

In any case, we packed our bags for our journey back to HCMC tomorrow.

Day Four: Chau Doc to Vinh Long

We woke up at 5am i think. We got to be at the bus station to catch our bus to Vinh Long. The journey took about 3h. The local buses always try to call out and see whoever wants to hop on so they can earn more. By about 1h away fr Chau Doc, my bus is packed. This bus has no AC and some passengers smoke in the bus. Luckily it was very early morning so the air is very fresh and cooling.

From ReidOn Travel.com, I know I need to look for Mekong Travel to get my accommodation, boat tours etc settled.

Mekong Travel

Tel 070-836-252, 0919-002-505; vinhlongmekongtravel@yahoo.com,

No 8, 1 Thang 5 St; open 7am to 8.30pm daily

We asked the bus driver and asked people on the way to find directions to Mekong Travel. After a huge round, we realised its actually very close to the bus station. We just need to cut across the local market. If you can find the river side and see the local ferry terminal, you can see a large alfresco kind of cafe. Mekong Travel is just round the corner and beside it is a small hotel: Van Tram. Opposite Mekong Travel is the older Cuu Long hotel. There's a newer one, also Cuu Long hotel, at the river side.

M and I proceeded to book a 2 day 1 night tour with Mekong Travel for usd $60 (2 pax). Details as follows:

Vinh Long - An Binh Island - Cai Be Floating Market

- potteries & brick kilns, bonsai garden, fruit nursery, biking around villages

- sampans on the small canals

- home stay, make and have dinner with local family. overnight

- breakfast and boat trip to Cai Be floating market

- handicraft village: coconut candy, rice paper, pop rice, sewing coconut-leaves for roof etc.

This is truyen *not sure if i've spelt her name correctly. She is very cheerful and 'playful'. She is a very nice guide and though she's only 6 months into this job, she is very passionate about it.

Vinh Long has several islands and there are many small arch bridges that link them up. Another mode of transport will be by boat on their various waterways and canals. Since we booked a private tour, we have boat to ourselves. Along the way, you can see various big boats transporting fruits, rice, rice husks, bricks, etc etc etc. I liked the tour because i get to see how these people make their earnings and live their lives. The only turn-off is the expensive lunch at a local house. The owners are very clever. They only offer two choices: either the elephant fish or the prawns.. costs us $270,000 dong! frankly it doesn't taste that nice. I prefer my usual rice from Chau Doc.



I did enjoyed the sampan ride on the small canals. Its really very tight. When there's another boat in the same canal, we had to help to push the boat away in order to pass through.

Our homestay place is at Mr Ba Linh's house on An Binh Island. He is an ex-VC soldier.. I think he's 80 year old if i remembered correctly. The whole family are very enthusiastic in having us. Mr Ba Linh does not speak english.. But he'll signalled you to follow him as he show off the nice flowers he grew in his garden and the turtles he kept.

We proceeded to try to cook our dinner with the family =p

We slept very early tonight because there's basically nothing to do after night falls. Also, we are walking up 5am next morning to go to Cai Be floating market, which is an hour boat ride away.

night :)