Saturday, January 02, 2010
{ 6:08 AM }
Yes, I'm back from my 7 days Vietnam trip with ps and jay! It was overall an enjoyable trip, but seriously, the communication problems+bad services really made me exasperated. Our trip of 7 days 6 nights consisted of 16 self-sourced meals, and only 3 were without wrong orders/ignored requests. 2 out of the 3 aren't Vietnamese food. And that final 1 gave all of us diarrhoea.
And there traffic too! Traffic light is a rarity there, and zebra crossings are totally useless! The art of jay-walking has attained the ultimate level - You do not even need to look left and right to wait for gaps. Because it will never come. Just walk straight with a steady pace. The vehicles will shun you. Well, most do.
Alright, let me stop ranting and start on my detailed day-by-day account of my Vietnam Trip - Ho Chi Minh City + Nha Trang + Mekong Delta + Cu Chi Tunnel.
Day 1
Jay and PS came over to my house for the night as we're taking a 0745hr flight on Tiger Airways to HCMC and we need to check in at 0545hr. Then we realised that our chared luggage is 13kg, just merely 2kg away from the limit of 15kg. Jay then suggested of upsizing to a 25kg and we got a HCMC number(the call centre) from the airport staff. Since it's a HCMC number, it makes more sense for us to call upon reaching in HCMC and this marked our number 1 nightmare, to be revealed in Day 3 account.
Upon touching down at the airport at HCMC, Vietnam time 0800hr plus 0900hr (Vietnam is one hour before us), we immediately tried to get a taxi. Friends have suggested taking only Vinasun and Mai Linh as the rest may tweak their meters. But what we didn't know was that we had to go approach that particular taxi company's staff with a walkie-talkie to call for their taxi. But we did, after some observation, and we successfully got onto a Mai Linh taxi and was driven to Pham Ngu Lao District 1, where our hotel, Red Sun Guest House, was located. After confirming our booking with Red Sun and knowing that we can only check in at 2pm, we left our luggage with the hotel and left, in search of Sinh Cafe, now known as Sinh Tourist, to book our domestic tours. Sinh Tourist turned out to be of walking distance and we successfully booked a 2 days 1 night trip to Nha Trang for their Island boat tour on their sleeping bus leaving at 830pm at night and reaching Nha Trang ten hours later at 630am the next morning, another 1 day tour to Mekong Delta - My Tho and Ben Tre, and a 1/2 day trip to Cu Chi Tunnel.
After leaving Sinh Tourist, we started walking around HCMC, armed with only the city map, hoping to find this particular Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Jay's friend, supposedly situated at District 3. Our first challenge was posed - to cross the road. We stopped by the zebra crossing and attempted to wait for the motorbikes, cars and buses to show signs of slowing down or any form of gaps in between them such that we can attempt to CHARGE across the road. We waited, and we waited, and waited somemore. Neither happened. Finally decided that it's pointless to wait, we finally picked up our courage and took the first step out, right into the stream of busy vehicles. Our first attempt was rather comical with mousey-scurrying plus hysterical shrieking that totally screamed: WE'RE TOURISTS! WE'RE NOT LOCAL! But oh well, we're still in one piece! Soon after we started to realise that we're getting lost and hence Jay started grabbing random passers-by to ask for direction. This was when the second uneasy fact dawned on us. Most of them do not speak nor understand basic English. And so, we started relying on the point-point wave-wave gesture-gesture body language. Got a couple of directions in returned, along with 'near' and '20 minutes'. Yeah right, 20 minutes my foot. After our first 20 minutes, we asked another passer-by and got another 20 minutes; after the 2nd 20 minutes, we asked another passer-by and got yet another 20 minutes. After like an hour (perhaps?) of aimless walking, my constipation induced intestinal pain started acting up and we decided to just stop at some random eatery for lunch. And lunch was also an exasperating experience.
First up, drinks. PS ordered coconut, I wanted Twister and Jay wanted Mirinda. PS got her coconut, Jay got a Sarsi (she was too thirsty to change it), and I got Heineken Beer. Told them their mistake and repeated that I wanted Twister. Then I got Jay's Mirinda in return.
Second, food. We ordered some chicken and the vietnamese spring roll thingy (didn't remember what it's called). We pointed to the one with shrimps and pork on the menu and the waiter nodded his head. Soon, the rolls were served and Jay and PS ate theirs first. I wanted to wait for the intestinal pains to subside a little before eating, and thank goodness I did. The rolls weren't stuffed with shrimps and pork. It was beef, and I CANNOT EAT BEEF. Jay pointed out their mistake and asked for them to change the remaining one beef roll into shrimp and pork for me only. They took that remaining 1 beef roll and served us another 3 shrimp and pork rolls. We ate those 3, thinking that the wrong orders will not be charged because, HEY! it's their mistake! But we were wrong, they did charge us for all 5 rolls. wtf. The rolls aren't even nice. The skin is too tough and all I could taste was the raw spring onions. Eew....
After lunch, we walked back to Red Sun to check in and rest for a while. Their staff are all nice and friendly, and their room clean and well equipped with comfy beds, cable tv, fridge (albeit not very cold), wardrobe, and a bathroom. Bathroom has no bathtub though, but their heater works fine. After resting, we decided to head down to Ben Thanh Market. With my navigator skills plus Jay's 'socialite' skills, we finally made it to Ben Thanh Market and both PS and Jay found a tailor there. Jay wanted to made a suit and a dress, while PS very spontaneously wanted to tailor make a vest and also Jay's dress. After much haggling, they finally settled on a relatively cheap price and off we went to Pho24 for dinner. I ordered a Pho Ga and Jay and PS decided to share a Pho Bo. On top of that, we also ordered their spring roll upon recommendation by the waiter and Lipton Honey Lemon Green Tea. The spring roll turned out to be really nice, so is the Lipton tea! Too bad it's not available here in SG. But then again, came the wrong orders. Instead of just 1 Pho Ga and 1 Pho Bo, they served us 2 Pho Ga and 1 Pho Bo. *sigh* Nevermind, their pho is good too! Blame it on the communication barrier.
After dinner, we went back to Red Sun to pack our bags and prepared to leave for Sinh Tourist to catch the sleeping bus tp Nha Trang. One the way, we bought some mineral water and bread for the night/next morning from this nice looking bakery also at Pham Ngu Lao called ABC Bakery. Arrived at Sinh Tourist and waited for our bus to arrive. The bad thing is that none of the staff bothered to make any proper announcements on the arrival of our bus and if it weren't that we asked, we might have missed the bus. Finally made it onto the correct bus and off we went to Nha Trang!
