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Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) trip 11-14 Sep 2015 with SGD500 for 2 people all-in

This is another amazingly long overdue post. LOL. I have not been posting much recently huh. Anyway, this was supposed to be a trip to celebrate PL's birthday :)

So, we arrived at Ho Chi Minh City Airport with the determination to take their public transport. We researched on wikitravel and they mentioned that we can take a bus.

The bus is located at the road near Burger King! We took a long detour before we could spot the bus as it was a little hidden and there were 2 floors at the airport.

View from the bus:
As you can see, you need to cross the road to reach the bus.

The inside looks something like this. There is aircon in the bus but they will not switch it on until the bus started moving.

So, we paid 5000 dong per pax for the bus trip to the city centre! Budget indeed! Do take note that some drivers may ask you to pay for your luggage if you have a lot of them. PL was pissed because he didn't know that and he gave the driver a dirty look.

This is the sori frui that was in season during then. It's surprisingly sweet with a slight acidic taste. I recommend to try it!

If you can spot through the grilles, there are lanterns hanging there. They celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival too!



PL's stalkerish tendencies that got spotted. What a way to chill in the hot weather on the bike~

PL's friends came to fetch us to Oc Dao, a place where great seafood can be had for great prices.
I honestly recommend this place. It's on tripadvisor too! Just be prepared for lots of hands action if you can't speak Vietnamese, 

Pardon for the lousy photo (it was taken on the bike)

We had this porridge like soup or soup porridge? It tasted super good - like those Cantonese porridge but more soupy so it doesn't leave a sticky taste in your mouth

And wash that down with some home beer~

PL being anal about wearing a hello kitty helmet.


So, we have to get our daily dose of Vitamin C right? What better place than to get it here~ It's in a small street near Ben Thanh Market. They are much cheaper than in Singapore. 1SGD = 16,000 dong. 

Look at the detailed arrangement of the fruits~

There was an event at the park near Ben Thanh Market.

It looks like some games that we organised at our community centres. There were tons of people playing all these traditional games!


We had our dinner in a roadside stall as it was raining.


All these for 5SGD

The Banh Mi with the egg is delicious~

Look out for this stall. It's near the backpacker's area near a paid carpark.



For our Muslim friends, fret not! There are halal food in HCMC!

A street across from Ben Thanh Market, there is this Thai Coconut ice cream. I swear, this is the best one that I have ever eaten. It comes with the coconut drink too! They only sell this so you just need to use your fingers to tell them how many you want. We only ordered one as we wanted to try but their service was just too awesome and they served us 2 drinks!

A great way to chill after a long walk

At our airbnb, breakfast is provided. The food is simple but enough to last us till we get out for more food aka lunch. I ate the instant noodles everyday btw. Yummy~
Choose the coffee! It's the drip coffee kind!



This used to be the royal bunkers during the communist war and they hid here during the air raids. 





We were bored and tried to do a jump shot

After many unsuccessful attempts, we did it!

Our home for that few days

Look at my messy hair!

We actually rented a bike to roam around for 1 day for 5USD. 1 litre of fuel is 1USD.


And we took a tour to the Cu Chi Tunnel using the same company that we rented the bike from. It's along the main street.

They will bring you to this place to see the handmade items by the Vietnamese.

And expensive fruit juices.

The entrance of the tunnel is surprisingly modern.

Look at that small hole! I didn't try though because it looks pretty dirty to me.


Basically, I feel that the tour to Cu Chi Tunnel is too commercialised and you can finish it in a morning. It's nothing fantastic but you should go once just for the experience. We also went through this long squeezy dark tunnel but I shall spare you the experience of looking at my butt.

And we had Jollybee for lunch :)

I didn't know that they have spaghetti too.

One of our more expensive meals.

And we visited the palace on a hot hot day.


At night, we went to Oc Dao again. This was called the cuttlefish tooth. It's a must try! :)
Also, when you go there, ask for Banh Mi! The one that they give you is freshly baked and only cost 2500dong. I swear it's nice when you dip in all the sauces. Prices in Oc Dao are not expensive. We didn't take the rest of the dishes but they are priced at 50,000 dong each, which is around 2-3SGD per dish.


And that's the end of our trip~ 
I look forward to going back there again!




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