Vietnam was a really good trip. the place really reminded me of Thailand with great food, cheap things and friendly people. the english of the Vietnamese was surprisingly really good (coz they were a french colony) so there werent too much of a prob communicating. and the coffee..... ohhhh its so strong and fresh. the sights were interesting thou the weather cld be a little better. we were hit with the showers of the typhoon on the 2nd or 3rd day of our 5 day tour. thankfully saigon and the mekong delta is on the south west side of Vietnam while the typhoon hit central. only problem was the places we stayed in.... haha my first time EVER to stay in a hostel! and it'll most prob be the last time too... goodness the room they assigned me the 1st nite was so freaky.... it reminded me of the scary room from the beach, the one where leonardo dicaprio stayed in with the fan? the only difference was that it was air-conditioned, but it was making the freakiest noises..... so obviously i cldnt fall aslp the 1st nite, thankfully there was another room i changed to on the 2nd nite
DAY 1
we arriv
ed in time to eat the most amazing pho and spring rolls ever! it was so yummy im going to really miss it...... the spring rolls were so crunchy and full of flavour sooo good. after we took a walking tour of the city centre of saigon.
ed in time to eat the most amazing pho and spring rolls ever! it was so yummy im going to really miss it...... the spring rolls were so crunchy and full of flavour sooo good. after we took a walking tour of the city centre of saigon.the one thing that i'll remember the most of this day was the war memorial of the Vietnam war. it's really such a sad place even thou all they had were replicas of the jail cells, pictures and articles of the war. u walk arnd and see all the victims u cant help wonder y pple still go to war with all the suffering that's already going on. the one part that made me so queasy was the photos of the victims and the ones after who still suffer frm the effects of the bomb.
DAY 2we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels! it's basically a jungle trek featuring the tunnels that were used by the Vietnamese soldiers! and boy were they TINY!!! the holes/tunnels were only big enuf to let me crawl thru.... i cant imagine staying there for long periods... they were dark and short of air... essentially the tunnels were modelled like ants tunnels... far underground to avoid getting bombed.
oh and we got to shoot guns here too... it wasnt anything new to me but all my friends, esp the guys, had so much fun shooting the ak 47s, m16s and other stuff. i din think anyone wanted to leave the firing range
the bus ride after consisted of everyone all smelly, sweaty and muddy after all the crawling
next stop was a Cao Dai Temple... its a religion here in Vietnam where they basically believe that theres only one god in the world.... meaning that the muslim god and christian god are basically the same god just in different forms. i felt so bad for the worshippers here becoz here are all these visitors taking pictures of them while they are at service. imagine if i was to go to church and had people upstairs taking photos of the place i worship and me worshipping... i think i'll be quite irritated
DAY 3
we left for the mekong delta this day.... sat on a boat to check out the floating market there was not much merchant ships by this time of the day and it was raining too so nothing much to see. but after lunch a huge ass python was being passed arnd the pepp people. basically the snake was passed arnd people to take pic with. by the time it got to me i was pretty worried that it wld be so agitated frm being passed arnd so many times i was quite scared. haha.. the only pic i haf wtih the snake has me looking so scared... haha....after we were dropped off to walk thru this path that involved walking pass monkey bridges... and here's the thing the path was so muddy and i was wearing sandals! monkey bridges are bridges made of only 2 bamboo poles tied together to serve as bridges over water paths... haha it was an experience
DAY 4
sat on another boat tour but this time to the other tributary of the mekong. and headed back to Saigon. nothing much happened this day except for the massages we had back in saigon. lesson learnt: never go for a massage in vietnam unless u want to be groped at..... nicole, delia and i choose to go for a leg massage near our hotel but it ended up with the male massuse sliding their hands up my pants. and basically touched me for a sec it was soooooo freaky! thankfully the one day i choose not to wear a thong was this day! yikes. for those who had full body massages haha.... the guys were groped and offered special services!
DAY 5din do much this day... we were brought to china town of saigon and then left to shop.... i din get much this trip so im pretty proud of myself :) had the yummy pho for lunch and we headed to the airport 5 hrs in advance of our flight... dont ask me y but we ended up having to hang out at the sad airport of saigon.
i was soooooooo happy to be back in hk.... took such a long shower, scrubbing myself down
its so funny how when i first arrived here in hk... i was so unhappy to be living in the dorms but now its a place i look forward to. human's ability to adapt is so good. i still remember when i first got to LA i was soooo depressed but now i find myself actually missing that place, my life there, my friends etc. im actually looking forward to going back there in spring! but i wont be surprised that when i do i'll still be moping around for the 1st 2-3 weeks abt leaving spore haha
so this trip to Vietnam.......... i was so amazed to see how females were still able to ride their bikes in their ao dais (the traditional clothing) and look so elegant!
insect repellents have also become my good friend... i was slabbing on 3 layers of it every few hours and it kept the insects away! haha
PS. ignore the bottom tabs.... they're jus pic that din download properly and i dont knw how to delete them :P
