normi and i went to saigon and we had such a great time there. saigon is actually ho chi minh city and it's situated in the southern part of vietnam. it's not in china, it's in vietnam. hehe :)
i knew it's gonna be a great trip the minute i saw the pilot and the stewards. haha.. normi and i were seated at the back of the plane. 
we literally got the last seat on the airplane. as soon as we got to our seats, i saw them.. flirted with the steward the entire journey. so i had to forgo my intention to sleep during the flight. he even thot i was 29. haha :) as soon as we arrived we got into a taxi and went to the hotel we booked about a month before. saigon pink 2 hotel. i called them a month before we arrived to book and they only said ok. haha.. they never really jot down my name or whatever.. but it's a nice hotel, and just across the street from binh tanh market. the binh tanh market is famous for the silk, clothes, coffee, etc. we purposely booked the hotel because it was cheap and it's so near to the binh tanh market. it's also very near to a halal restaurant. which is important coz we like to eat .. a lot. and the best thing is it has free wifi! coolness :)
we literally got the last seat on the airplane. as soon as we got to our seats, i saw them.. flirted with the steward the entire journey. so i had to forgo my intention to sleep during the flight. he even thot i was 29. haha :) as soon as we arrived we got into a taxi and went to the hotel we booked about a month before. saigon pink 2 hotel. i called them a month before we arrived to book and they only said ok. haha.. they never really jot down my name or whatever.. but it's a nice hotel, and just across the street from binh tanh market. the binh tanh market is famous for the silk, clothes, coffee, etc. we purposely booked the hotel because it was cheap and it's so near to the binh tanh market. it's also very near to a halal restaurant. which is important coz we like to eat .. a lot. and the best thing is it has free wifi! coolness :)the food
as soon as we checked in, we slept. until abt 4 pm. haha.. we were soo tired from not sleeping the night before... and as soon as we woke up, we immediately got the maps from the receptionist and asked where the Vn Halal restaurant is. it's just around the corner, we found out. 
alas, the traffic was horrendous. i'd die if i were to drive here in HCMC. 
i'd probably be stuck at an alley somewhere until the road is clear. but judging from the way things were while we were there, the traffic never stops. the traffic is also full of buses, cabs and thousands and thousands of motorcycles.. darn.. after lunch we decided to take a cab to the mosque. we found another halal restaurant there called halal@saigon. turns out it's owned by a malaysian indian. she's in the pharmaceutical business and works in Saigon. it serves malaysian food as well as halal vietnam delicacies. we decided to try the food at halal@saigon on our second day there. the price is about the same as that of Vn Halal. But the serving size is somewhat smaller. I like the exclusivity ambient it has and the best part is, one of the staff speaks malay fluently. he said he was in Malaysia for quite some time before he came back to Vietnam. 
it's located right in front of the mosque. the mosque reminds me of masjid jamek at jalan masjid india.. hehe... always people coming in and out. turns out there's a restaurant at the back. and also a makcik selling cotton telekung with embroideries, sold at really low prices - about 10 buck each. and 12 for the more intricate ones.. the restaurant inside the mosque serves rice with
different types of curry. the food is really cheap, compared to Vn Halal and Halal@Saigon. the best thing is, it tastes like my mum's cooking. hehe loved it. normi and i would've had seconds.. but people were already looking at our table with food that can feed 10. hehe :p ok i'm exaggerating but the food was delicious.. i'd recommend you to try it.
alas, the traffic was horrendous. i'd die if i were to drive here in HCMC. i'd probably be stuck at an alley somewhere until the road is clear. but judging from the way things were while we were there, the traffic never stops. the traffic is also full of buses, cabs and thousands and thousands of motorcycles.. darn.. after lunch we decided to take a cab to the mosque. we found another halal restaurant there called halal@saigon. turns out it's owned by a malaysian indian. she's in the pharmaceutical business and works in Saigon. it serves malaysian food as well as halal vietnam delicacies. we decided to try the food at halal@saigon on our second day there. the price is about the same as that of Vn Halal. But the serving size is somewhat smaller. I like the exclusivity ambient it has and the best part is, one of the staff speaks malay fluently. he said he was in Malaysia for quite some time before he came back to Vietnam. it's located right in front of the mosque. the mosque reminds me of masjid jamek at jalan masjid india.. hehe... always people coming in and out. turns out there's a restaurant at the back. and also a makcik selling cotton telekung with embroideries, sold at really low prices - about 10 buck each. and 12 for the more intricate ones.. the restaurant inside the mosque serves rice with
different types of curry. the food is really cheap, compared to Vn Halal and Halal@Saigon. the best thing is, it tastes like my mum's cooking. hehe loved it. normi and i would've had seconds.. but people were already looking at our table with food that can feed 10. hehe :p ok i'm exaggerating but the food was delicious.. i'd recommend you to try it. places of interest
the mosque as i said before reminded me of the mosque at jalan masjid 
india. the design seems to be influenced by the indians/pakistanis. simple. we took several photos of the place and walked ourselves to the opera house at the end of le loi street.. the french originally built it to host opera shows. then in 1955 they transformed it into the Assembly house. in front
of the opera house is a square where people hang out. we arrived the day after the 60th year celebration for the ruling party i think. they had put up chronological events for the party.
india. the design seems to be influenced by the indians/pakistanis. simple. we took several photos of the place and walked ourselves to the opera house at the end of le loi street.. the french originally built it to host opera shows. then in 1955 they transformed it into the Assembly house. in front of the opera house is a square where people hang out. we arrived the day after the 60th year celebration for the ruling party i think. they had put up chronological events for the party. not far from the opera house is the post office. another french colonial structure in saigon. it's beautiful inside out. turns out it was designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower.. how cool was that! anyway, i managed to send a postcard to kak ina from here.. ;)
right in front of the post office is the notre dame of saigon. we didn't enter the cathedral. so now i've visited both notre dames, the paris one and also the saigon one. there was also virgin mary statue in front of the cathedral. when we were there, there were people lighting up candles at the square in front of the cathedral.
there are just so many parks in Ho Chi Minh City that you might miss some. however, one that you should not miss visiting is the one with Bac Ho's statue. we were there at night, after having dinner at Halal@Saigon. there are so many people.. young and old, it's one of the must go places in Ho Chi Minh City. although we felt safe there, but there was a case of snatch theft which happened on one of our friends while he was there. so careful of approaching motorcycles. anyway, Uncle Ho is most famous for leading the Viet Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. He led the North Vietnamese in the Vietnam War until his death; six years later, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory, and Vietnamese unification followed. Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honor. the statue is located at the le thanh ton street. at first we thought it was the reunification palace. but it wasn't hahaha.. :p we're really bad at reading maps. i often wonder how we managed to survive in all the places we visited. :p
day tours
while ho chi minh city alone offers a lot of places to visit during our short trip, we managed to squeeze in 2 day-tours to mekong delta and also cu chi tunnel. both were located outside HCMC and costs about USD19 and USD9 respectively. cu chi tunnel is only half a day tour hence the cheaper rate.
i wanted so much to go to mekong delta but all for the wrong reasons. i thought it'd be cool just to be there since i've learned about it in school. only when i got back to KL that i learned about the giant catfish that lived in the river.. yikes.. the biggest one they could find weighed 300 kg.
dah jadi lauk kenduri dah. it died when they tried to get it to reproduce. hmm... i bet there are more huge gigantic cat fish lying there somewhere so you'd better look out for them :D
dah jadi lauk kenduri dah. it died when they tried to get it to reproduce. hmm... i bet there are more huge gigantic cat fish lying there somewhere so you'd better look out for them :Dthey provide lunch during the day trip to Mekong Delta. they serve it as soon as you're done watching the rice paper making techniques at one of the many mills there. but they served pork loin for lunch. normi and i decided not to take the lunch provided and went for a walk instead eventhough they were gracious enough to offer an alternative vegetarian menu. anyways, for the muslims, you'd better bring some snacks so you won't starve like us. :-( after lunch we were taken to ride the horse cart. it's a short distance so the horse did not suffer. hehe.. then we were taken on a sampan ride.. back to our boat and headed back home to civilization. but.. only after a local fruit session while listening to some folk songs.. the fruits were great..very tasty and sweet.. but the singing not so much.
the next day we decided to try cu chi tunnel 1/2 day tour. the price is much cheaper, and it seemed to be worth the visit. and it was a cool tour. it's located about 1 hr from HCMC. our first stop was the rice paper mill. there 
we had our toilet break. we then were taken insided the cu chi tunnel area. there are still quite a large area that is inaccessible to the public because of the land mines that have not been cleared yet. the cu chi tunnel is actually an underground tunnel system that was built by the vietnamese during the vietnam war. they were used for hiding, communication and supply routes, and even living quarters. but they must be really tiny. i don't think i can fit my butts in there. ermm :( the underground tunnel was really well planned that when they cook, the smokes will come out so far away from the actual kitchen. and the tunnel is also equipped with booby traps, in case the americans 
followed them in. it was amazing how creative the vietnamese are in creating the underground system. there are 3 levels of the tunnels, i went into level 1, which had the easiest(read: biggest) space/route and i felt claustrophobic.. i can't imagine how it must be for the other levels. :-/ at the end of the tour, we were given some time to linger at the souvenir shop. there you may take the option to try out the machine guns used by the vietcongs at a fee. it was cool to relive history like that. i wish Malaysia has one of those war remnants so we can experience what our grandparents and their parents felt during the world war..
we had our toilet break. we then were taken insided the cu chi tunnel area. there are still quite a large area that is inaccessible to the public because of the land mines that have not been cleared yet. the cu chi tunnel is actually an underground tunnel system that was built by the vietnamese during the vietnam war. they were used for hiding, communication and supply routes, and even living quarters. but they must be really tiny. i don't think i can fit my butts in there. ermm :( the underground tunnel was really well planned that when they cook, the smokes will come out so far away from the actual kitchen. and the tunnel is also equipped with booby traps, in case the americans followed them in. it was amazing how creative the vietnamese are in creating the underground system. there are 3 levels of the tunnels, i went into level 1, which had the easiest(read: biggest) space/route and i felt claustrophobic.. i can't imagine how it must be for the other levels. :-/ at the end of the tour, we were given some time to linger at the souvenir shop. there you may take the option to try out the machine guns used by the vietcongs at a fee. it was cool to relive history like that. i wish Malaysia has one of those war remnants so we can experience what our grandparents and their parents felt during the world war.. best gillaakk!!
despite not being able to shop as much as i hoped for, i had fun in HCMC. i enjoyed the food, the people, the cheap telekungs i got for myself and mama, the cheap tudungs i bought i still have not sold, the cheap souvenirs, the buildings, the architecture, the history, the weather.. though the streets were a bit scary with thousands of motorcycle on it, i became used to it and learned how to cross the street without feeling scared. was still nervous but not as scared lah. :p i love the free wifi i enjoyed at a USD25 per nite room, and it has hot shower and air conditioned, and it has all my favorite channels hehehe so i didn't miss my American Idol and Glee. ;p i love the food, sour, sweet, and light. the different textures in every bite. i love them all.. and i love it that i can speak malay with the waiters. i love the coffee... freshly ground coffee i drank at Vn Halal. i love the busy night market around benh tanh. love the way the bus did a u-turn on the highway.. ermm.. ok that i don't love. but i do know it's now in the list of my favorite places in the world.. and i wish to go again soon.
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