S595 - Vietnam

Salam,

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh!

My family and I went to Ho Chi Minh last weekend. Five of us went there for just three days, we stayed at Hoang Hai Long Hotel and we only planned to shop lots of cotton from Ben Thanh Market. Simple je kan our holiday itinerary dekat Ho Chin Minh ini :)

We took the first flight from Kuala Lumpur and arrived Vietnam around 10.30 am. We took airport taxi to our hotel which cost us USD12 for a 7-seater car. It took us around 30 minutes to reach the hotel from airport. Luckily, we passed by Ben Thanh Market on our way to the hotel. Terus cepat-cepat halal jalan sebab dah set mind nk pegi shopping cotton right after check-in hotel.

And after check-in at our hotel, we walked to the market. The market is not that far from our hotel; just around 10-minutes walking distance. Okay lah kan. Dapat berjalan sambil mengenali Ho Chi Minh city.

 *Street-stall*

The environment is kinda same with Thailand. The traffic here is so so so busy with so so so many scooter. But don't be afraid to use the zebra-crossing, they won't hit us or even horn us. For this part, I really respect their attitude. 

Taaa daaa. This is how Ben Thant Market looks like. Ala-ala macam Padang Besar aje.

Once we enter the market, our eyes busy searching for section selling cotton. We met a kind man while searching for the cotton and he share with us where to buy cotton and the normal price for 3.5 meter cotton should be only plus minus MYR24, not more than that. Cause the seller tend to put higher price when they know we are tourist. 

This is how the cotton rack looks like. Banyak sangat cotton untuk dipilih kan? Rambang mata nak pilih. My mom end up buying more than 15 designs for our family. Btw, our family are really cotton-fan. All of our kurung are only from cotton. Thats the reason why our main reason coming to Vietnam is to buy cotton, and don't bother to visit any Vietnam historical places.

Besides clothes, there are also local food stall, fruit stall and lot of souvenirs. I recommend tourist to buy souvenirs here as the price is much much cheaper than the night market.

After spending about 2 hours in the market, choosing cotton, we decided to have some rest in the hotel. And went to the night market around 8pm. The night market is just beside the Ben Thant market. Basically, barang-barang yang dijual di night market is the same as what been sold in the Ben Thant market. Just the variety is not that much sebab night market tidal lah sebesar Ben Thant market.

The sticky-rice; so colourful. Different colour with different flavour.

 *I feel like having a picture of me wearing this Vietnamese hat is a-must in Vietnam.hihi*

*Enjoying fresh coconut with just MYR3.00*

Since we had accomplish our main goal to shop cotton at Ben Thant market, we decided to join a half-day tour to Cu Chi tunnel on the next day. The tour cost us USD20 per person including lunch. We stopped at Handicapped Craft centre. I personally watch how these handicapped craft the souvenir from scratch. They actually made it from left-over egg shell and sea-shell. Sangat creative!

I have video on how they make this in instagram; step by step.  Being me, always busy taking pictures and videos how they make the people figure, how they cut the seashell into flowery shape, and how they coloured the picture. Such a new experiences! And one of the worked secretly gave a heart-shape seashell. This heart-shape seashell would be the most memorable souvenir from Vietnam :)

We continue another 45 minutes journey to Cu Chi Tunnel. A real place where Vietnamese having war and how they survived from American. Cu Chi Tunnel is a under-ground tunnel, a very small three-storey tunnel. This tunnel is around 200 km long and equipped with kitchen, dining area, meeting area, labor room. I experience how does the real tunnel really looks like.

This is the entrance of the real tunnel, just as small as my size and i can't even stand inside the tunnel. I need to crawl all the way until the next exit door. Plus I need to bright along torch light as there is no light in this real tunnel.

This is the Cu Chi tunnel area. My dad told us the day before, "Keadaan di Cu Chi tunnel tue madam dusun dekat kampung", and we are like, "Biar betul ayah ni". Haha. The fact is, Cu Chi tunnel area is really like a dusun.

 *My mom and me at the Cu Chi tunnel area*

Besides having adventerous experiences crawling in the real tunnel, I also experiences shooting there.  It cost me around USD17 for 10 bullet.   

There also demonstrate how Vietnamese make food during war. This is rice paper. 

They are made slippers out of used tyres.

If you realise, i keep on repeating "real tunnel" kan when talking about the tunnel? Because there are part of this tunnel been modified for tourism purpose. They widen the pathways a bit to accommodate tourist with bigger-body size. 

This is the entrance of the "tunnel for tourist"

And this time I went again into the tunnel with little brother and sister. This is the inside look of the tunnel.

Visiting this tunnel is the last stop for this Cu Chi tunnel tour. We heads back to the city right after that and stop by the War Museum. Dari pagi hingga ke petang, melawat dan menghayati benda-benda berkaitan sejarah Vietnam je. Hihi

On our way to the museum, my little brother had a try on this thing. Tak tahu lah ape benda ini dipanggil, tetapi semua peniaga jalanan di sini memang akan bawak benda ini untuk berniaga. Berat woooo.

During our last day in Vietnam, we spend our early day in the market again, buying cotton again and souvenir for relatives in Malaysia. My dad bought Vietnam coffee for friends and families. The 

coffee really taste good! 

And I had Vietname Pho for breakfast. Okay - okay je. Rasa sama macam bihun sup je.

Then we took a car to airport as our flight back to Malaysia is in the afternoon. That all for our three-days moments in Vietnam :)

Advise for Muslim: 

I recommended you to stay at Saigon Pink hotel which is just 3-minutes walking distance to the Ben Thant Market and you can easily-find many halal restaurant along the road nearby Saigon Pink hotel and there are travel tour to Cu Chi tunnel or Mekong river at Basirah restaurant which lunch provided together with the tour package. 

Thank you.