Ho Chi Minh City 4D/3N Itinerary - Day 3&4 (Final)

Date of Travel: 25-28 Oct 2012

Day 3

Major trade takes place at the Cai Be floating market daily - but at 7am, not 9am

Today's itinerary is all about the Mekong River. The most famous tour company in HCM is the Sinh Tourist located on 246-248 De Tham Street (http://www.thesinhtourist.vn). They were the best in 2006, and they still are the best today. You can choose between 2 tours, one to My Tho & Ben Tre, and another to Cai Be & Vinh Long. Since I had already been to the former, we tried the latter this time around. Cai Be is known for the floating market and Vinh Long for its seafood restaurants. This tour costs approximately RM45 per person.

In short, it was not a good day for me. I swear I will never ever go on either Mekong tour again. We prebooked the tour from their website, showed them the receipt and got our tickets quite smoothly. Because Cai Be is located over 100km away from HCM, it took 2 hours to get there, i.e. 7am - 9am. By the time we got onto the motorboat, it was 9:30am and the floating "market" turned out to be just 15-20 boats selling pumpkin and garlic and pineapples. From what I read and saw on the Amazing Race before, there are supposed to be hundreds of boats! Disappointed!!

How do you know what each boat is selling? They tie the produce to a long bamboo pole

People actually live on the boat

Dogs too!

Ho Chi Minh City 4D/3N Itinerary - Day 2

Date of Travel: 25-28 October 2012
 
Day 2
- Half day Cyclo Tour around the city by Urban Adventures (US$19/pax)
http://www.urbanadventures.com/ho_chi_minh_city_cyclo_walk
- Stop by Christina Noble Children's Foundation to drop off presents
- Motorbike Tour at night by XO Tours (US$35/pax)
http://xotours.vn/Our_Tours/Saigon_by_Night.html

Our guide arrived bright and early at 7:45am whilst we were having breakfast at the lobby. When we were ready, she made a phone call and suddenly 9 cyclo riders appeared in front of the hotel. We all got on and off we went to the War Remnants Museum, and spent 1 hour here. This was my first time visiting the museum, and it was great. It had replicas (or possibly real) air crafts and tankers and choppers, they were huge. My favourite part was the replica of the Coconut Island prison famous for its Tiger Cages. Plus it had a whole list of methods of torture, which truly opened my eyes and heart to what the soldiers had to go through.

Ho Chi Minh City 4D/3N Itinerary - Day 1

Date of Travel: 25-28 Oct 2012

Over the last Hari Raya Haji break, I organised a trip for a group of 9 persons to Ho Chi Minh City. If you read my previous blog post about Ho Chi Minh City, I know I said it's a place I would not return to, mainly because this photo is what I remember it as. Ha-Ha-Ha.

I was fairly surprised that a lot of things have changed in Ho Chi Minh (HCM for short).


1) It has become globalised, much more apparent than before. What used to be the lobby for Rex Hotel is now Versace and Chanel. Humongous shopping complexes line the city area in District 1, and a truly impressive expat area known as Phu My Hung at District 7, can rival Mont Kiara in KL or Bukit Timah in Singapore.

2) There are FAR less motorcycles on the road now, compared to 2006.

3) Almost nobody wore the traditional Ao Dai costumes anymore, only when necessary for work or school. Previously, I could easily spot anyone wearing one even when they are on motorcycles.

I found myself truly enjoying the new HCM, where I could break away from the hustle and bustle of markets to enjoy a nice cuppa at a cafe if I wanted to.

Review: XO Tours - Saigon By Night

Date of Travel: 26 Oct 2012

When in Vietnam, do like the Vietnamese do. So what is common in the whole of Vietnam? The sea of motorbikes! This was my second time riding a motorbike; the first was when I was around 15 years old, for a 5 minute ride in a small village in Penang with no cars. During that ride, I dropped a slipper and had to make a u-turn to fish it up.

The XO Tours company came very highly recommended in TripAdvisor. There were many similar motorbike tour companies for cheaper, but I believe in trying out the original and giving business to the people who first came out with this idea. Booking was very easy, with just an email via their website at http://xotours.vn/Our_Tours/Saigon_by_Night.html. You can choose to pre-pay via credit card, or pay in cash on the day of the tour. Insurance is offered, so full names of all passengers are required. They have several tours, but I picked the Saigon By Night for US$35/pax mostly because I felt that The Foodie Tour at US$65/pax for 4.5 hours inclusive of all food and alcohol was more than what I'd pay, and I don't drink alcohol nor eat that much.

There were 9 of us on this trip, and 9 beautiful girls appeared at our hotel lobby at 5:45pm with their Vespa motorbikes and stunning traditional Ao Dai attire. They gave each of us a helmet that was thankfully not smelly/sticky/gross in any way. They then gave a very brief explanation of where we were going, and each girl then picked a passenger. I tried to pick the motorbike I wanted to sit on, but they wouldn't have it. The girls pick you, not the other way around Hahaha. I think it's based on weight, the one who rides most confidently will pick the largest person in the group. Thus I ended up with the group leader *blush*.

"Are you sure you can drive me?"

Ho Chi Minh City's Sea of Motorbikes

Date of Travel: 27 - 30 October 2006
Conversion: US$1.00 = 16,000 Vietnamese Dong VND

A typical scene anywhere in Ho Chi Minh city

Over 5 years ago, before AirAsiaX came along and we got bored with AirAsia's destinations, I brought mum on an adventure in Vietnam via Tiger Airways. It was a first for many of us. Back then, we had never stayed at a so-called "Boutique" hotel before. Our pre-booked Indochine Hotel (http://www.indochinehotel.com) turned out to be a wedge between shophouses. For US$25/night, I couldn't complain much. The first impression we had of Vietnam was: Motorbikes and Motorbikes and even more Motorbikes.