Vietnam-2nd

Oh oh, look so many bikes on the road

Vietnam Trip

DAY/NIGHT 1

We touched down Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh(or Saigon), also affectionately known as Father of Vetnam, in the late afternoon. This was what happened throughout the whole trip, apparently, the tour guide kept sending us for meals every few hours or so, which left me quite sick of rice and cabbages. Thank god there was beef noodles for breakfast! Another big surprise, Vietnam does celebrate CNY and they are given 4 national holidays. Thus, on the day we came, they were celebrating the first day of CNY, one day earlier than us.

There was a flower market held in the central during the holiday period and the locals FLOCKED there in their scooters/motorbikes. I was horrified by the scene and the noise, in the end we did not step out of our tour bus and everyone requested to be brought back to the hotel. That was day 1.

DAY 2/First Day of CNY

The making of traditional rice paper.

Bought a pack of chili rice paper back home. I do not know what to do with it but you can also eat it straight from the package, you know?

Custard apple, unripe. You don't see this anywhere by the road side in Singapore, do you?

Rubber trees. A lot of foreigners were taking photos inside there.

It should be "5 easy steps" instead. Jokes aside, war is scary. A person like me is quite unlikely to be able to squeeze inside that hole.

I like the shadows.

Soldiers in then war uniform. Their sandals are made out of tire!

Inside the Cuchi tunnel, you have to squat down and move your way through the dark tunnel. Great experience, again, War is terrible.

DAY 3(out of Saigon, I think)

Statue of Jesus, apparently you have to climb a thousand steps to reach Him but I counted less than that, unless you count those inside the statue... See those tiny dots on his shoulders? A maximum of 4 people are allowed to stand on the highest point of view.

Locals and tourists taking turns to climb up/down through squeezing. Bad experience with the lcoals there.

Great view. I have no idea where was I except that there's a beach. Yes, I've finally climbed up the shoulder of Lord JC, it was windy up there.

The chin of JC overlooking the beach. There are lots of temples in that area as well.

Pretty flower, random shot.

It's random but I've to say: War is bad. We visited the museum which depicted the effects of Vietnam war on people, I'm staying neutral but both parties suffered great damages during the Vietnam war. Peace, people, peace.

A local street. Many shops were still not opening for business on the last day of holiday. It was crazy to cross the roads in Vietnam, honking is like a norm and it was so noisy! I can only sum up one sentence: Pedestrain are like insects.

Balloon sellers everywhere, and sitting wherever they like.

Boarding a boat restaurant, the waiters and waitresses were donned in sailor uniforms. How cool is that?

Lala, or not lala? *confused* Oh, patterning!

That's Happy New Year in Vietnamese. Random fact, both vietnamese and chinese have similar intonations.

DAY 4/Mekong river(if I'm not wrong)- The best day I ever experienced in Vietnam!

Random shot: Chickens!

I believed I was shaking the boat. Good experience.

If you notice in the photo, there would be one rower at the front and back of the boat. Majority of the combi would be mother and son or siblings. Men are working in the field.

We sat on the horse carriage, scary. Coz our horse was a little agitated and galloped in the other direction.

Traditional ice-cream seller.

Elephant ear fried fish. Those triangular plates are scales and they taste good. The fish was so-so but they wrapped it with rice paper so it was delicious! I love rice paper.

Taking a short afternoon nap. The sleeping boy was awarded by slaps from his brother in order to wake him up and it was comical and anime-like. Haha!

DAY 5/Last day!

A market of all sorts, just like Chinatown's wet market. They were organized into rows of apparel/food/souvenirs/dry food. Very easy to shop and walk around. We bought and bargained lots of stuff! Ventilation was not so bad and the sellers were crazy snatchers. They would grabbed hold of your hand and repeat phrases of "cheap/good/buy what?" in chinese and English. They are good!

Random shot

My coffee, with too much sugar! Vietnamese love their coffee, noodles and cigarette. Dining in the restaurant called Pho 2000 coz then President Bill Clinton came and ate in this restaurant that year. So there were pictures of President Clinton everywhere inside the restaurant.

My beef noodle. Not as good as the one I ate in the hotel. We ate the vegetables RAW, it tasted weird.

Lastly, photo of what will happen to you if you go near the electrical room. Quite similar to 'Danger!'