Advertisement
Published: November 18th 2009
Photo 2
our free pick-up from hotel to bus station Our entrance to the communist country of Vietnam was not as smooth nor as grand as our other entrances. First-off, the bus ride from Siem Reap took the entire day. Secondly, the Vietnamese Immigration is corruption in action! Crossing the border was easy enough - bus conductor got all our passports, Cambodian immigration officer stamps it and off we go. A few minutes away and we all get down, this time for Vietnam Immigration and all hell broke loose. Apparently, the system is not to have a system. Everyone just brings his/her passport (preferably with cash stuck in between) to the Immigration officer’s booth, wait for his/her name to be called, disregard the queue and just stand within hearing distance, jump the queue when you are called, exit, fill-up or submit something at the Customs’ booth (the forms just appear out of nowhere, the trick is to find a bus conductor and he will probably have whatever form you need and if you are his passenger, he would have filled-up your card already as well as SIGNED it for you!), declare your goods, have your goods x-rayed (bit late isn’t it?), then exit. And then another 3 hours’ ride to the
Photo 3
cambodia in the early morning city.
When we finally arrived at the SAPACO bus station, we got duped by a cab driver who just took us round and round and was charging us US$30 for the cab ride! I said I only had $10 and that was all I paid him which still turned out to be too much because... our hotel is just 100 steps away from the bus station (you will have to pass through a shortcut through a small, dark alley but still!).
But anyway, we were tired and hungry and annoyed so we checked in our hotel and settled down immediately.
ACCOMMODATIONS I found out about Bich Duyen from either tripadvisor.com or virtualtourist.com. It is in Saigon’s District 1 - the famous backpackers’ district. At US$18/night, who can complain? As it turns out, Bich Duyen is worth so much more than $18. The manager, Mr. Chanh, is just awesome! Very friendly, very helpful, and he made things very easy for us.
The room itself is very small, no windows but there is Wi-Fi, cable TV, a sizeable bathroom and good air-conditioning. There is no lift on the 4-storey hotel so if you are lazy and are not interested
Photo 4
cambodia in the early morning in walking up and down a few flights of stairs, then take a room at the 2nd floor like we did. The only downside to this is that the noise from the kitchen / dining room can be heard in the rooms. It was annoying especially because the kitchen tends to get busy early on in the mornings (6AM onwards) with people having breakfast before going on the tours.
But anyway, Bich Duyen is located in District 1 so there are lots of shops, street-side vendors, bars, restaurants, etc. around. You will not get bored here. Best of all, Bich Duyen is just a couple of minutes away from Pho Quynh, a pho house that serves a really mean beef stew pho! And very cheap too!
DAY 1: CU CHI TUNNELS AND CITY TOUR We arranged our Cu Chi Tunnels tour through Mr. Chanh. I was supposed to go find Sinh Cafe and book our tours through them but we got in so late the previous night that we took Mr. Chanh’s recommendation and just booked our tour through Delta Adventure Tours. He just made a phone call and took our payment and the next day, we were
Photo 5
cambodia in the early morning picked up from our hotel.
First, we visited Handicapped Handicrafts where handicapped people make really beautiful items, most of them lacquered. Vietnam is famous for its lacquerware and this shop probably has some of the best on display. Unfortunately again, we cannot bring in wood and plant items to Australia so we had to settle on just viewing the beautifully-crafted goods.
After the brief visit, we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was highly-educational and impressive. I did not go down to the tunnels themselves because I’m too chicken but Kim did and he came out all sweaty and dirty 😱 There is also a firing range where you can choose your weapon and ammo and shoot your anger out 😊 Kim was ecstatic to have fired several rounds of AK47. I got a headache just trying to video him!
After about 3 hours in the Tunnels, we headed back to the city. Deciding to do the city tour on our own, we were dropped off near the War Remnants Museum. After paying VND15K each for the entrance, we took our time exploring the museum. It was very, very depressing but again, very informative.
After
Photo 8
sapaco bus station the museum, we decided to have a really late lunch and set out on foot for Pho Hoa along Pasteur Street. On the way, we saw Jollibee Vietnam, side-by-side with KFC 😊 It was soooo hard to find the restaurant but the effort was well worth it. We were treated to giant steaming bowls of beef pho and all other local Vietnamese goodies were laid out in the table for us to just eat what we felt like. We tried all that looked interesting hehe. Food in Vietnam is very cheap but since there were no prices on the menu, we expected to pay a bit more for the quantity and quality of the food but ended up with a bill of about $7! Unbelievable!
Our moods picked up because of the good food we just had so we decided to walk again and look for Saigon Square. Unfortunately, it was so far away we were in a bad mood again already by the time we got there. If not for the air-conditioning, we would not have stayed long as there were so many people! But anyway, we were on the lookout for North Face goodies and were disappointed
Photo 9
sapaco bus station to find out that most of those being sold there are fakes. We did not buy anything that night, deciding instead to check out the other malls / shopping areas.
For dinner, we ate at Allez Boo. Food was so-so but ambiance and music was cool. We stayed for a bit then checked out the shops then went back to the hotel to rest.
DAY 2: NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL, REUNIFICATION PALACE, MORE EATING AND MORE SHOPPING! We were supposed to go on a Mekong River Cruise but remembering our Tonle Sap Cruise, we decided to forego it and go shopping instead! But before we went anywhere, I decided to have a haircut (and later on at night, a massage and a foot spa) in one of the salons in District 1 first. Vietnam is popular for its beauty treatments and as everything is so expensive here in Australia, I figured I should at least try to get some pampering while it is cheap! After my haircut, we went to Diamond Plaza. We were not able to buy anything there as it is all the same price here. After malling, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral and the
Photo 10
on the stop-over to vietnam Post Office for a few pics. Unfortunately, it started to pour just as we left the Post Office and we had to go back to Diamond Plaza and wait out the rain.
When the rains stopped, we walked toward the Reunification Palace only to find out it was closed for lunch (it was only about 11 or so) and would not open until 1:30PM. So we walked in search of Quan An Ngon. It was just a few doors’ away from the Palace and we were lucky to have gotten in early because after we were given a table, people just started pouring in! Our lunch was fantastic and still cheap despite it being an “expensive” restaurant in Vietnam already. We were just so happy eating in Vietnam! It is almost as good as eating out in the Philippines!
After our big lunch, we had to wait again for the Reunification Palace to open so we just sat in the park across it watching kids play ball. At 1:30PM, we finally got in. We decided not to join the walking tour as there were just so many people in the tour and it was slow going. We explored
Photo 11
on the stop-over to vietnam the place on our own and got so bored, we left in about 30 minutes. Outside the Palace, we hailed a taxi and went back to Saigon Square this time for some serious shopping. I got winter coats and Kim got jackets. We also searched for the Tax Center because we heard there was some authentic North Face stuff being sold there but it was all the same. We ended up buying pasalubong though in the grocery there - we bought Trung Nguyen coffee packs and coffee drips for our bosses and for us. We also went to the Market and went round looking for a duffle bag because we needed one (we had so much stuff already!). I scored a Kipling bag and finally went back to the hotel. We ate again at Pho Quynh and Kim and I had a massage.
We were picked up from the hotel by a churchmate so we can attend the service. Turned out the church was so far away from our hotel that we would have gotten lost if we tried to go on our own. Anyway, after church, we turned in for the night and packed for the last leg
Photo 12
on the stop-over to vietnam of our trip - Bangkok.
DAY 3: BANGKOK Our last day in Vietnam started with a mad scramble because our alarm did not go off and our flight to Bangkok was at 9:45AM! Good thing our stuff was packed and we settled our bills with Mr. Chanh the night before already. We just dressed up and waited for the cab that Mr. Chanh arranged to bring us to the airport. We got there in time though and tried to gather energy for the last leg of our trip.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.058s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Angel Lopez
non-member comment
I was not surprised by your sad experience at the Vietnam border. My worst trip in Asia so far was in Vietnam. The people are the rudest and most dishonest people I have encountered in my many holidays overseas. They more often than not overprice their goods and cheat if they can get away with it. The Viets also have a violent streak probably because of their sad experience in the war against the Americans. I was actually robbed of my cell phone in Saigon. So tourists beware.... Vietnam Dangerous!!!