Vietnam Trip 2009

Welcome to Saigon!

Some Highlights of our 6 Days Vietnam Trip ( 6 July - 11 July 2009 )

- Beef Pho

- Sewei paying a ripoff price for his diamond water :)

- Sewei's interactions with the locals :)

- Constantly being asked to buy stuff (some of which were by v young kids!)

- Reunification Palace

- Ho Chi Minh Museum

- Notre Dame Cathedral

- Ben Thanh Market (COFFEE!!!)
- Vietnam's really really sweet coffee (condense milk AND lots of sugar added)

- Crossing the Road!! (May's Trauma) :)

- Taking cabs wherever we went (It was really cheap)

- Cu Chi Tunnels (They shot at pots & pans...)

- War Remnants Museum (Historic Truths...)

- Seafood Dinner

- Nha Trang Beach

- Massage at the spa in Nha Trang

- The Alcohol Drinks & Cards Night at Nha Trang (Why are u wearing a red shirt?) :)

- Eating burgers, & omelettes more than local food at Nha Trang (THAT really crap local dinner place!!)

- Blackout on our last night at the Saigon hotel just before going for dinner

- USD AND VDONG!!!

This summer's Vietnam trip was really fun! So many experiences! One thing's for sure, Vietnam is def not as nice a country to go to as compared to NZ. NZ's scenary, food etc beats Vietnam hands down for me. BUT Vietnam was just as fun...why? Thats cos of the great bunch of pple i went with to Vietnam, my jc classmates. 7 of us in total. Like a class outing.

For this trip, we went to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and the sea-side town of Nha Trang. Both these places offer a contrast to each other, with the former a bustling, old & dusty city, and the latter a nice beach town. The whole trip involved a total of 4 flights...our Tiger Airways flight to and fro between Spore & Saigon, and the Vietnam Airlines domestic flight between Saigon & Nha Trang....(we were too lazy to spend 7 hours or so taking a train!)

To be frank, the excitement of going abroad again for a hol only hit me belatedly on Sunday. Somehow even taking a plane just wasnt so exciting...maybe cos it was a budget airline? Oh but anyway, I realized that our Budget Terminal and the budget airline isnt as bad as what u might think them to be. There were quite a no. of shops at the terminal...including DFS and Macs! As for the budget airline, just dont expect sq service standards, and tolerate the very little leg room and lack of food/water. For a short flight, its quite ok and besides the experience is almost like taking a domestic flight.

Nha Trang Beach

But by mon morning (v v early morn!!), i was getting excited and i think the rest were too. So excited that i brought a big luggage bag. When we all touched down in Vietnam, the excitement increased...after all it was a full 6 days ahead of us of exploring and having fun in a foreign land. What was my very first impression of Vietnam the moment i touched down? Dusty, old, and lots of horning. The streets of Saigon in particular reminded me of Chinatown. And lots of pple over there wear masks...no, not because of H1N1...but because of the dust! Its almost a fashion item over there.

Indoctrination LT at Cu Chi

Souvenir Trap

There will be more elaboration on the special moments that stood out in this trip in the next post. For now, here are some more pics to summarize our very fun Vietnam trip!

This was my favourite museum out of the lot that we saw

The Vietnamese sure know how to be sarcastic....but then of course, the US has only itself to blame for this....

This trip was really fun, and i think my friends really made it special and memorable. (I think i've been hit by their hex...) I cant wait for e next summer hols to come! In fact I cant wait to travel again! Hopefully we'll go somewhere again next year....Maybe hk, bangkok or phuket or something... Haha.