Well, the first time came up into our mind about Vietnam was... air asia flew directly to HCMC from Jakarta. Yay! So we were planning the trip, interviewed some friends who were interested to go... and here the travellers on board: Ria, Mersy, Wenny, Cen Cen, Helena, Noviyan, Jufe and of course me!
November 27, 2009 we departed from Soekarno Hatta, off to HCMC at 4:35pm, arriving at 7:40pm. Ria almost couldn't go because she's got typhoid fever, oh my, she was my roommate. But at the end, she showed up at the airport with her family. Fiuh! This trip was not a backpacker trip, we all agreed that we didn't want to travel on very low cost budget - which was fine by me hehe... Once we arrived at the HCMC airport, we went to money changer at the airport and each one of us exchanged US$100. Wow, we were suddenly rich!! The car from the hotel picked us up and we checked in to Queen Ann Hotel, 88 Bui Thi Xuan street, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1. The hotel room was not very big, but overall it's clean, it's US$40/ night included breakfast. We booked this hotel online thru http://www.hotels-in-vietnam/. Exhausted? Nooo! We wanted to try pho hoa. Hiyaaa... we were in Vietnam, of course we wanted to have pho hoa. It's the best pho hoa in the world, wasn't it?
We took a walk, only 5 minutes walk from the hotel, found a restaurant on the side walk (reminded me of Pacenongan area in Jakarta) and we all ordered pho hoa! Having had high hopes on delicious pho hoa, uh, dissapointed indeed. The pho hoa all tasteless!!!! But we didn't give up, say to ourselves, we would try again the next day.
28 November 2009, we had breakfast, it's all simple. We tried pho hoa again, it was a bit better than last nite's. at 7:45am we were picked up by the travel agent's van. Now we saw the real Saigon... the city needs thousands of kaizen to fix the cables up there, seriously... But Saigon is much cleaner than Jakarta!!!! We gathered at the travel agent office with tourists all over Saigon, paid US$20 per person for a 2 day tour with TNK travel. Oh apparently we hopped in to a big bus, 54 seater I guess. Our tour guide was a funny man. First tourist destination: Cao Dai temple (read: Kao Dai). We witnessed the moment of prayer and chanting priests. They dressed in colorful robes, a symbol of confucianism, taoism, and buddhism. A lot of eyes paiting on the wall, they said that's the symbol of their god. We were not allowed to take pictures on the prayer floor and shoes off.
Imagining Vietnam war, I hate wars. It has never creates good will on people and children on earth. War eliminates hope. Saving Private Ryan was the last war movie I ever saw. Never again watched war movies. Too sad to imagine. Anyway, we were heading to Cu Chi Tunnel (read: Ku Chi). It's underground network of tunnels constructed by Vietnamese fighters during the war. The tunnels contained hospitals, rooms for sleeping, kitchen (yes, kitchen), meeting room. Before entering the darkness of the tunnels, we were brought to the "war art display". Basically the tour guide explained how the Vietcong killed and hid from the Americans. Mersy and Jufe tried to hide in a small tunnel, standing in a hole. They were so brave! I didn't have guts the to try.
Then.... it's time to go inside the tunnel. I decided to stand right behind the guide. Jufe was on the second row, I didn't know who was next... Standing? No way. We had to stoop, crawl and keep breathing at the same time with thin air. Oh no, not enough oxygen for all of us!!! I just couldn't imagine how the Vietcong could ever live in the tunnels. I think the tendency of survival was the key. I took the longest tunnel together with Jufe. He took photos of my butts!!! It was so dark, humid and I felt less air on every step. Btw, all people in the tunnel, no fart please....
Coming out of the tunnel, we joked around who we thought wouldn't survive the tunnel... Ratu Tien, Wawan, Arun among the names we mentioned (sorry guys, no hard feelings please). Apparently Ria did a detour and took the shorter route, she had difficulties in catching her breath... At night we went to have seafood dinner at Ben Thanh market. The taxi was cheap, they used meter too. Supposed to be good. But again, we dissapointed. The waiters were rude, the seafod was so-so, the price was a bit expensive for that kind of seafood. Again, two thumbs up for Indonesian food!!! Shopping at Ben Thanh market was amazing. Lot of cheap stuffs and bargain was a must.
Speaking of crossing the streets in Saigon, it was really a challenge. My friend was saying that, don't bother to waive your hand asking for permission to cross, you won't have a chance to cross at all. He said, just be brave, and cross the street. Ih, you think I have 9 souls like a cat?!? Eventually he was right, we just had to cross the street, run if necessary, don't bother to look left and right, just pretend you have 9 souls and you will be okay and safe.
29 November 2010, got picked up at the same time. Off to My Tho fruit plantations. But the fruits in Indonesia are much sweeter compared to Vietnam fruits hehehe. They served us sweets, nuts and tea. We had lunch at Tortoise island. Our tour guide was annoying, she talked loud and very direct. She recommended this elephant ear fish, she said it's the signature of Mekong river. We believed her. It's tasteless and in Indonesia we called it gurame!! Our gurame could dance, you know... Wenny made a good joke about the fish and its dangerous sticks... The next trip was to Ben Tre to ride on a canoe. Traffic jam on the river!!!! I enjoyed seeing the Vietnamese people joking around, pushed other canoes because of jamming, speaking in language which of course I didn't understand.
We were back to the hotel. Noviyan wasn't impressed with Mekong river trip. Yeah, it wasn't much to see but finally the rain coat was in use (even though the rain stopped after we put it on). After having dissapointments on the food, we determined to eat good food for dinner. So off we went to Quan An Ngon restaurant. It was full, the atmosphere was warm and cozy. We went upstairs and I could say it was so far the best food we tried. After dinner we tried Vietnam coffee. Very unique in a way they brew their coffee. Very strong coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker so I ordered hot chocolate. The girls went shopping too. Saigon is also developed into metropolitan city. A lot of stores gave the girls a natural GPS system hahaha.
30 November 2010, it was Monday and our last day in Saigon. We decided to go around the city on our own, without a tour guide. With the map on our hands, we hang out around Saigon. First stop was the Notredame Cathedral. It was a beautiful church, some of us prayed while the others (again) took pictures. Next stop was the post office, very close to the church. Post office was clean and neat and tasted very old French.
Saigon is ex French colonial, perhaps other cities in Vietnam too. The good thing about Saigon, the government took care of the old buildings. I could sense the French smell on the buildings, monuments, streets and heck, they were in good maintenance. Unlike Jakarta... we destroyed the old buildings and the heritage, too bad.
We also went to the War Remnant Museum. I forced myself to see the pictures. They were horrible. I told you I hated wars. After the war museum, we were heading for lunch. Noviyan found Lemon Grass (4 Nguyen Thiep Street, District 1). Make sure you try "chicken sautee with chilli and lemongrass, sooo yummy!!! After lunch we still had time to go to Ben Thanh market to spend the rest of our money hehehe. Back to the hotel, we took shower, weighed our suitcases (Wenny was panic of overweight) and check out. Btw Ria didn't join the last day of city tour because she was sick so she stayed in the whole day in the hotel room. Before going to the airport, we had time to grab the best sandwich (and the cheapest) in the world!!! Just a corner from our hotel.
Air asia without a delay, it's not air asia then. Our flight got delayed for almost 2 hours. The immigration officer hit on Cen Cen, poor her, she almost couldn't get out from Vietnam because that guy liked her so much. We had dinner at the airport and had our last "kampai"...
Total spending on the trip is about US$300 per person (including air ticket, tour, meals and souvenir).
Some notes on Saigon:
- Ask your friends around when you plan your trip, find the nice hotel, travel agent etc. Because we had problem with our travel agent. So we had to switch.
- Try to stay in District 1, the busiest district in Saigon. It makes you easy going around the city.
- Should grab local people for food culinary. Because we had no idea where to find good food.
- Try the night life in Saigon. Lush or Q Bar - I heard they are good clubbing spots.
- Be brave in crossing the streets!!!
- No need to bring a lot of money, the exchange rate makes you an instant millionaire hehehe... they sell cheap stuffs at Ben Thanh market.
- The hotel took our passports but I guess that's normal. They returned them upon check out.
- Wish I had more time so I could visit Hanoi. Maybe next time :)
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar