In my itinerary, I actually planned for us all to meet at the airport at 6.30am cos our flight was 7.25am. And because we only need to be there 40min before departure time, I tot 6.30am was alreaady very reasonable. Trust me, Catechol and I are seasoned jet(star)setters, and we always, always make it to the counter just before it closes. [I realised that I have thus far travelled on jetstar 4 times, to 4 different countries. Another 2 more flights and I would have been on all available jetstar flights.]
But that wq wanted to meet at 6am, I reluctantly agreed. Actually, he wanted to meet at 5.30am to have breakfast tog but I insisted that he was crazy so he compromised. (tat guy lives like 15min away from the airport)
We arrived at Ho Chi Minh City in excitement (and sleepiness) and took the bus from the airport to Ben Thanh Market, where we decided to find our hotel. Somebody insisted that there are hotels all over the place there and he wanted to have a cheap hotel, so we can't book our rooms beforehand.
That's us on the rickety, old bus and where we got our first glimpse of Vietnam. This was my first impression: Bikes (motor), bikes and more bikes. As Wq put it most eloquently "their bikes no need money izzit?" My second impression was: the weather is freaking hot and sunny. My third: And yet, the women and most men are all in long sleeves. Hmmm.
There was a Singaporean girl, who looked to be slightly older than us, and looked very experienced in backpacking so yh struck up a conversation with her, and we followed her off the bus to find ourselves across the road from alot of short buildings along the famous pham ngu lao road, aka Backpackers area.
We chatted for a while then we wished each other luck, and she left, leaving us there to contemplate our first road. Oh, and have I mentioned that the traffic conditions are crazy?? There are motorbikes everywhere, and no traffic lights and the zebra crossings are extremely faded and almost non-existent.
Anyway, Lonely Planet has provided directions on how to cross the road (look straight ahead, and not at the incoming traffic, and walk at a steady pace) but we were all terrified and Wk had my arm in a death grip, and I held on to Wq's bag . Then we sort of bit the bullet and just cross, and to our amazement, the motorbikes just magically weave their way around us. It was such an adrenaline rush and I felt rather invincible. After that, I got used to crossing roads even with a million bikes coming towards me, until we got our first real scare near the bus terminals where we discovered, at a close shave, that buses DO NOT swerve or slow down for you, but just insist on going at full speed and expect you to run across the road like scared chickens.
[Argh! I keep forgetting that this is supposed to be a photoblog]
Anyway, after scouting around some hotels, we decided on one which met all our criteria and is extremely cheap at USD22 per nite. It even has a balcony! And more importantly, cable!!!
View from our balcony
After slacking around in the room, where we discovered Wk's theory of holiday=unhygienic room habits and i forbade her to even touch my bed, we went to Ben Thanh Market for lunch, and was very overwhelmed by the variety of weird food they sell and the many Vietnamese ladies grabbing our hands and asking us to "please sit" at their stalls.
And because we din know what to order, we all ordered beef pho. It wasn't very nice, as it was just full of msg, and not that cheap either, at S$2 per bowl.
At the noodle stall.
At a drinks and dessert stall
After lunch, we proceeded to a local tour agent to arrange for tours for tomorrow, and after just walking a few minutes, we melted under the extremely hot sun, but still went on bravely, fanning ourselves futilely with the map. A funny thing happened at the travel agent: she asked Wk if she was Vietnamese, hahaha... Which just further proves the point that she DOES look like a Vietnamese bride.
We found our way around the city with our trusty maps and yh's superb sense of direction. It's such a relief to be able to just switch off and just trust someone to know exactly where he's going. Although we all got abit sian and tired from the heat, so the moment we spotted an aircon place, we popped in immediately:
Pretending to read a book when actually enjoying the aircon in the bookshop
Some nice french colonial buildings:
In front of the City Opera house. I also dunno why we all took photos of it, but i think it's the thought that after suffering so much just to see some place, one should at least take a photo of it.
At People's Commitee Hall:
The guys look like my bodyguard:
The guys say we look like a couple here:
At the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which basically just shows artefacts and photos of events in Ho Chi Minh through the ages:
Photos for gh to admire:
The only pple at that place are wedding couples taking their wedding photos, there were at least 3.. And because, they took a very long time taking photos on the staircase, we were stuck on the second floor, so this was what we did:
Wk wanted me to go take a photo w Wq in the wedding couple pose, so i compromised by saying mayb we can try to superimpose us, so we did this:
Lousy lar
Then we did this:
We are very bored
Here's Wq rejoicing with the women during the Women Revolution:
I conformed to popular belief that I only like manly barbaric men and took this photo:
Merdeka!
This is very creepy
They say I look like I'm trying to steal that guy away:
Whoa! I just realised that I put almost every photo I took, so I'm now very tired.. will continue this soon... i hope
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