Ho Chi Minh City, also know as Saigon.

Currently, it's 8.17pm & I'm in the train from Saigon to Hoi An for our next 3D2N trip in Vietnam. It's a gruesome 16 hours ride so getting bored and with no wifi, I shall take my time to update my 3D2N in HCM.

HCM Day 1.

We took off at 2pm (+8), touched down at 2.55pm (+7) at HCM International airport. Yes, we gained an extra hour! It was only a 1.5 hour flight. The airport was kinda empty, and we cleared the custom pretty fast before finding our way to the taxi stand. We were trying to hop onto the cab which was recommended on the Internet but it was all random taxi so we finally boarded whichever of it that charges by meter but ended up, most cabbies do not bother finding change for you except for one who couldn't find an exact change of 1000, he discounted us the 1000 instead. You know, such cabby deserves the tips from us so... We ended up asking him to keep the change.

Boarded the taxi, off we goooo! We booked economic hotels from agoda website for all 3 hotels in HCM, Hoi An, & Hanoi respectively. The first 3D2N stay in HCM, Saigon Mini Hotel, was alright. The staff were courteous and helpful. The room had all essential items, such as mini fridge, a cupboard, dressing table, TV with satellite channels, and a bathroom but without bathtub. The only nay point was, the aircon was not cold enough like how other hotels provide. I guess, they were trying to save the environment but when we were asleep in the night, then it started to cool up the room so it wasn't that bad though. The bed was tough, but we were okie with it so it didn't pose a problem for us. Breakfast was mediocre, nothing special!

Checked in at about 430pm and started unpacking our bags, freshened up ourselves, & collecting our train tickets before we hunt for our dinner place, pho 2000, which was recommended by ladyironchef.

As we paraded through the roads, your heart would be pounding real fast. The traffic was horrendously messy, worst than the ones you see in Thailand. The drivers cross the roads like it's their grandfather's road and I don't even know what's the use for road dividers and traffic lights. Anyhow, after crossing the roads for a night, we somehow mastered the art of road crossing. Vehicles and motorbikes are not speedy enough for e-brake so they would slow down whenever you are crossing the road.

Dinner was alright, we had the local beef noodles, the soup was nice, clear and in heavy flavour! The shop was filled with tourists than their local residents, whom majority eats at roadside stalls instead. Right outside the shop, it was their night market. Nothing much, similar to the night markets we have back in Malaysia but they sell more of bags, clothes, things along that line and not consumable products. We didn't get anything from the night market, and strolled back to our hotel through the park where a cute, chubby toddler walked towards us! She's so cute and I took a photo with her. She kept on waving to us with the blur look but not smiling to the camera and it was hard to get her attention despite having her mom to lure her into looking at the camera so photo ended up a little blurry but still, worth the shot!

The hotel we stayed was at district 1, the most happening district I must say. Everywhere you go, angmohs can be seen. It's like more angmoh than locals and there were a lot of bars, beers are so cheap that 1 can can only cost USD$1, depending on the brands though. You would see throngs of angmohs sitting at the roadside, drinking bottles of beers, listening to music along district 1. Instead of drinking, we scouted for the cheapest convenience shops before heading back to the hotel for shower and a good night sleep!

It was a long day for us and we signed up tour on the next day, had to wake up at 630am to prepare and have breakfast before the tour. This basically summed up our day 1 in HCM!

HCM Day 2.

Depriving of sleep severely... Showered, packed bags, breakfast, tour. The bus was filled, the number of angmohs here, surprisingly outnumbered the ones in Thailand. Whole bus, probably 20 people? There were only 6 Asians, including us and the rest was Caucasians. From France to Russia to UK to Australia, but no... None actually spoke with each other but anyway, tour guide could speak English, just that probably the tourists were all young, 20s - 30s? So, not many people responded to him even though all was listening... Sucks to be the guide man, it was like literally talking to himself.

This full day tour consisted of visiting Cai Dao Temple, a temple with different religions, from Christianity to Buddhism to Taoism, if my memory didn't fail me. The architecture of the temple was exquisite, people who were doing their praying in the temple were all in white silk looking dress or the traditional costumes the girls wear here. It was only a 45 minutes sightseeing before we got onto the bus for our next destination to lunch. FYI, the journey was unexpectedly long, from one place to the other, at least 1.5hrs. Whenever we were in the bus, everyone would fall asleep after 30 minutes because that was nothing else you can do. Sleep is the best thing and we much needed it anyway.

Lunch, pretty normal and we had to pay for ourselves. It stated that lunch was included in the tour but little we know, they only provided us with the eatery but gotta go dutch! After lunch, it was another 1.5 to 2 hours ride to Cu Chi Tunnels, the famous world war place in Vietnam, with the small hole for people to crawl and such. Yes, needless to say, everyone slept again! IT WAS THAT BORING, the journey. Anyhow, we get to crawl the tunnel and it was really small, 50cm by 80cm if I remember correctly and the ventilation was... You know. Bad. After a few meters of crawling, you would perspire like you just finished a 2.4km run and your ears would be blocked after seeing the daylight again. Besides the tunnels, we were shown to the traps they used in war times, all the sharp spikes made with metals and bamboos, the bunkers they had for weapons making, for kitchen, & first aids. Then, towards the end, we had this documentary to watch about the war, reenacted though.

Alright, full day your was done, back in the bus for 2hrs ride back to the city and... Lol, everyone slept again and the daylight here is so short! Okie, I've no idea what time is their sunrise but sun sets at 530pm here, which looks like 7pm back in Singapore. The moment I opened my eyes, I thought we were stuck in rush hour jam for a few hours already because the sky was really dark...

Oh, yes... The bus driver drove like F1 racer, it was so fast and the messy traffic almost let the bikers get into accident with our bus. The bikes were too near the bus, in the morning, the lady in bike, together with other bikers, probably had her bike to near to the bus, so when the bus was driving thru, it brushed thru her bike. Guess what? She was stationary at her spot but then, the bike fell side way cos the head of the bike had a brief contact with the bus. I witnessed the whole damn thing cos it was on my side. The other bikers helped her up, and they asked the bus to continue driving so I guess, it's a norm in Vietnam. Then, at night, another similar incident happened but the bike didn't fall and he was unhappy with the bus so he used his hand to "patted" the bus to show his unhappiness.

Tour done, back to surviving on ourselves! We walked to hotel from Ben Thenh Market, kinda made a detour but got back eventually and headed for dinner at some eatery recommended by tripadvisor. Finally, we get to try our Vietnamese rolls! Nothing special about it, really. It's tasteless, but there was this peanut flavored sauce for you to dip so it made the roll a little more flavorful. Alright, dinner was done and back to hotel after a long day, & Shini went out to buy jackfruit, bottles of water while I chilled in the room. Too lazy to move anymoreeeee and we slept as early as 1230am, trying to recuperate our sleep deprivation.

HCM Day 3.

The sleep wasn't that good for me cos I had nightmares of failing my courses. I worried too much, because today was results releasing day, hence, the nightmares. I woke up, slept back, I dreamt of similar events, failing the paper, getting only 35 marks. They said, results would be out on 8am, Singapore time so I woke up exactly that timing and checked results but it wasn't out yet.

Drifting in and out from my sleep, to check results but to no avail. Finally, waking up at 815am, cos we gotta bathe and go for breakfast, and check results before checking out from the hotel, and losing wifi connection.

Breakfast done, headed to lobby to use the desktops and coincidentally, another RMIT student also used it to check the results! LOL, the result of not clearing the cache and history after using public computers. RMIT, this semester, didn't release results on time. In the end, results were only out at 2pm... Duh. I worried for the whole night and whole morning man.

We had to check out at 12pm, so we gave up on checking results and headed to Saigon square for The North Face goretex, with thermal wear inside. We got 3 for USD$95, 1 at S$38.60 and while checking the goretex, asking for prices, trying to tap wifi in the mall, Cynthia told us results were out. OMG, nervousness was here again but scumbag wifi couldn't load the web page, it was so weak that I could only whatsapp.

After purchasing the goretex, we went out from the mall, which then, I realized the wifi was getting stronger so I took the chance to load my results page. OH YEAAAH, it was finally loaded and I passed all! Worries no more, & finally, no more burden and stress from school and only fun times in Vietnam! Shini, too, cleared this semester. Now, we can enjoy our remaining 7 days here!

It was all gooooood. We lunched at Cafe Fresco, which the angmohs introduced when we asked them for directions but again, the food was normal, and Shini got the waiter to teach me how to eat my beef stew. LOL so embarrassing. Lunch done, city tour thereafter. We strolled through the street and went to the various prominent tourists' attractions, which I couldn't remember which are the buildings but they all look very antique and just like the buildings you see in US, UK. There were this cathedral, the post office, people's committees something and some other buildings. It was all photo taking only which was what we did before cabbing back to the hotel.

Tapping wifi again, I was performing trial and error for the password and HAHAHA, I got it. What a smarty! We took a rest at the lobby for half an hour before the receptionist called cab for us to Saigon train station and again, it was peak hour and the cabby literally honked his way through and he got pissed with the bikes, he went,"tsk" and sighed. LOL then, a bike drove past, hitting his rear mirror outwards and he gotta wind down his window to push it back.

Finally, 38mins after, we got to the train station. Not very grand, like what you see in angmoh's shows. We had dinner at some cafe and the fried rice with shredded chicken was nice, maybe because I was hungry? Dinner was settle ASAP before we got out to board the train.

& here I am, typing this while lying on the bed with crawlies around me. Now I'm getting paranoid with the tiny crawlies... Damn it. How am I supposed to sleep!!! It wasn't as good as what we expected, now we had to stuck in here for another 13 hours... Oh man...

Till then, shall continue soon!

P/S: This post is typed on my iPhone while in the train from HCMC to Hoi An!