South Vietnam (8th-10th)

This part of my blog is more like a personal recount but it can also serve as a example for any would be backpackers to Ho Chi Minh. I must confess that our trip was short as we were restricted by certain circumstances. It carters more for Singaporeans as being one myself, I’ll think in terms of one and ‘in Singapore dollars’.

Certain things to look out for when you go to Ho Chi Minh city.

- Budget hotels are in abundance.

We arrived at a peak season and still we could find a hotel for us to bunk in. The payment is normally in US dollars (information in available on the internet). You DO NOT really need to book those online hotels for fear that you may not be able to find a room. Most of them provide towels, hot water and breakfast (usually just a mini French loaf with either cheese or jam and butter).
- The traffic is horrendous!

I was told its like Taiwan and you have to walk slowly across. In some of the more busy parts of the city. There’s ‘some’ order of traffic lights and the numerous scooters and few cars will stop (although some of them will try to beat the traffic). It is noticeable that the ‘fliter’ rule does not apply to stopping of traffic. For example, if the ‘scootist’ wishes to turn left at a cross junction, he or she can proceed on. Note that all crossing points are marked out like zebra crossings here. If there is no traffic light, you look at the direction the cars are coming from and walk really slowly and try to cross OK? A tour guide told us an average of 4 people die a day in Ho Chi Minh City due to traffic accidents. Don’t be the first Singaporean tourist! The cars and scooters will avoid you rather smoothly. The closest I came to an accident was being hit on my right hand by the side mirror of a lady ‘scootist’.

- Food by the streets

is generally not done in a healthy manner. My friend who dared to try didn’t have anything happening to him. But you never know what can happen. Do go to the restaurants, the food is really much much cheaper even if you eat at their restaurants. I’ll be mentioning some names that have been recommended by either Lonely Planet or we’ve tried it on our own.

- Money

can be less than 500 Singapore dollars if you do not intend to spend a lot but eat a lot. My companions did not spend more than that even though they shopped a lot. It seems that their government is encouraging the use of their own currency, call ‘dong.’ Their denomination is almost as confusing as Indonesian currency. To save yourself trouble, its about S$1 = VND10,000 (Vietnamese Dong). Meals that are related to pork are relatively cheap in Vietnam!
- Useful words (some words I picked up and thought may be helpful)
o Me – noodle
o Xinzao – hello
o Gai Com – chicken rice
o Omlette – French loaf + eggs (yes that’s what happened)
o Bai miu tien – how much
o Cheaper – just say the same word ‘cheaper’, most of the Vietnamese people dealing with
tourists should know by now.
o NE Sinh – Toilet
o Nguoi Sanh – An Food
o Hop Ngum –Drink
o Ga Num – Thank you
o Nam - Water
o Canh – Soup
o Heo – Pork
o Rau Cai – Vegetables
o Ca – Fish
o Tom – Shrimps
o Muc – Squid
o Com – Rice
o Com Jin Ting Rau – Fried Rice with Egg and Veggie

P.S. There is a fake Hard Rock Cafe in the city, also there're fake cabs and another group of my friends told me that they got onto such one. It cost them $18 singapore dollars for a 5 minute trip, even though the 'taxi' had a meter! Check with the locals because like Singapore, there is a fixed licensing plate for taxis.

Day One

Ho Chi Minh Here we come! /Going to District One/Hotel and booking of Dalat Trip/Checking out the city streets

Horrendous is the term I'll use about the traffic in Ho Chi Minh City itself. We've been forewarned but still, the real thing is the killer. Here are some pictures of what we encountered amidst the 'honkin' and 'hooting'. Btw, do not be fed up with most of their 'honking', they're trying to tell you they're approaching or overtaking you. Its their way of life there, not that they're trying to pick up a fight.

The area most backpackers go to is known as District One. Ho Chi Minh is divided into a number of districts. These budget backpacker hotels are relatively cheap if you're sharing with 2 or more other friends to a room. Prices are usually around $USD6. Along these streets, other than the hotels, there're shops and pubs and places for eating too. One word of advice though, do avoid the street food if you do not want to spoil your holiday. I think I have a strong stomach but I'm not about to spoil my holiday like that. There's a shop that's like the 7-11 of Singapore. The large mineral water bottles are priced at VND5000 and the small bottle is around VND3000. That's like S$0.50 and S$0.30. So just drink your fill!

There are numerous shops around Ho Chi Minh City. Along the way people will be peddling their wares to you just like in Thailand, India, China and Indonesia. I did not find any of these worth buying except the copied Lonely Planet books. They literally 'pirated' these books and frankly speaking, the quality ain't too bad!



Day Two

Leaving for Dalat (feels like Malaysia)/Reaching the cool and affluent mountain town of Dalat/ Hotel and Recky

The ultimate highlight of our trip was to leave Ho Chi Minh City to Dalat. The trip was more than 7 hours long and if you've taken a trip to Malaysia from Singapore by bus, you'll understand how things are run. We did not dare to drink a lot and had only 2 stops. One stop was for us to visit the restroom and a small mini-mart while the other stop was for lunch. Almost very much like the way we travel to Malaysia. Take note, if they placed slippers in front of the toilet, you're expected to take off your shoes and wear their slippers to go in!

When we reached Dalat, I could tell the people there looked more affluent and later one of our guides confirmed that Dalat was almost untouched by the wars except for it peripheries. The Americans had recruited a number of fighters from the minority tribes and this had caused some enimity to exist. I do not know how much of it has diminished but I guess it has somewhat diminished because its more than 3 decades since Vietnam was united and the war ended.

Yeap, there was a little mininature Effiel Tower in the town of Dalat. Guess they modelled some things from the French after they managed to claim their independence from them. What we like about the place was it is so cooling. I'd forgotten the fact that high mountains are cold... duh. Luckily we have our jackets with us, I even took the excuse to buy a pair of NIKE woolen gloves (since when did NIKE produce gloves not for sports?). For course these ain't real. Other than the nice cool weather up there we also liked the children we saw. Sooooooo cute!!!!

The next day we started off the trip with visiting the miniority village. Our package consists of visiting a minority village, some of their plantations, flower, tea and coffee, a silkworm farm and a place called Funny House. You'll know why its called that later.

The scenery of Dalat is relatively nice, as these few pictures suggests. However I felt that the viewing of the minority village did not amount to much as there was no contact with any of the minorities there. Most of what we know is through the mouth of the guide and he seemed rather reluctant to talk about the Vietnam war for most of the trip. However, maybe because its his job he still fed us a lot of information about what happened after North and South Vietnam were united.

The pictures above belong to the flower plantations we went to and the last picture on the right is that of a green tea leaves plantation. I was a bit disappointed in that the visit to the tea and coffee plantations was more on the surface kind of thing. We only stopped for a while, looked at the plantations and took pictures. Only the visit to the flower plantation was a bit more meaningful.

I've noticed by now I did not do a proper chrnology of how the events of that day were spelt out. But all of them took place on the same day. I only remembered that one of these waterfalls we visited is called the Elephant waterfall. We visited two in total and both were relatively nice scenic places. It alsot took the heat off us as these areas are much more cooling. Getting the pictures at Elephant Waterfall was more challenging though. It involved a bit of climbing and isn't so tough for the more adventurous.

The Silkworm Factory (will find pictures to add later)

I do not remember if we went there after lunch. But the last two events here if my memory does not fail me should be the visit ot the Silkworm Factory and the Funny House. The Silkworm factory had a smell of vegetables, probably because of the content that was fed to the silkworms. Of course most of us know that silkworms are killed in their cocoon stage by boiling so that the layer protecting them can be obtained in one piece, which will become our silk. What I did not know was that the silk is taken from the silkworms in very tiny little strands and these are not visible readily. To put it simply they start off as 'spiderlike' threads and then they get spun into bigger and bigger threads before they're used to make clothes. Many silkworms have to die for a piece of clothing.

The FuNnY HoUsE

The Funny House is the brainchild of a lady (I'll edit and put in the name if I remember) who studied architecture in Moscow. She's the daughter of a war hero who happens to be the 3rd President of Vietnam. Her 'houses' are a concoction of buildings based on different themes - some look like hauted houses. Some look like that of an animal kingdom. Yet another looked like a bamboo plantation. We were told that one can actually live there just like its a hotel room. However the prices are pretty steep. I forgot how much it is though.

Anyway, what's missing here is our visit to the temples and the viewing of the statues. We visited two in total. One of them has a very meaningful history. Out of respect for Buddhists, no pictures were taken at these places, as much as I would like to share this experience. (Ok, as I re-edited this part I found some photos my friend took of the temples from the outside... so here they are!)

And so ends our Tour of some of the areas around Dalat. Its much bigger than that of course, but we were pressed for time. I'll pretty tired doing these few days. Think I'll finish up the other days another time.