Saigon..here we come

Was in Saigon during the school holidays..(school holidays are the only time I can get away from being the ‘unpaid’ bas sekolah driver)

Day 01 - 17th Aug / Sunday
The gang of 6 (all ladies) met at KLIA departure hall for our flight to Saigon. Our MH flight left punctually and arrived less than 2 hours later at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat Airport. After going through customs, went searching for our driver. Found him and after walking out from the comfortable cool arrival hall, the Saigon heat hit us …it was very hot and humid

Got into 2 taxis and began our journey into Saigon…absorbing the ‘amazing’ sight of Saigon…

Arrived at our small hotel -


Blue River Hotel, 283/2C Pham Ngu Lao Street,
Dist 1 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

It's a small family run hotel. We had 2 triple rooms and the rates was only US$32/nett, with american breakfast.


As our rooms were not ready, Thuy (the nice owner) recommended us to have lunch

at Pho 24, which was 2 minutes walk. It's like our McDonalds, except they sells noodles. The noodles was delicious, (don't know because we were hungry or what)..it comes with a separate plate of green herbs/condiments.


The most hilarious part was we confused the waiter when we asked him to convert the bills from Vietnam Dong into US$...guess we were all not maths geniuses.

Converstion ; 1 US$ = VD 16,000

Back to hotel, checked into our room..mine was on the 1st floor, so going up 2 flights of stairs was ok. The other room was on the 4th floor..my the other 3 friends had some free good leg exercises climbing.

The rain came and we had to stay put...it was a good excuse for a short nap. Was still drizzling at five thirtyish, so we decided to brave the slight rain and made our way to Cho Ben Thanh Market by feet.

This market is just big maze of little stores, selling from edible to non edibles. Walked around to familarise.

Then the fun started, with the haggling for more and more discounts. Due to language barrier, we used lots of hand signals, calculator and taking out Dongs to show the agreed bargained prices.

I bought 2 pairs of clogs (with beads and ribbon flowers) for US$4/pair.. A girlfriend bought 4 pairs for US$5/pair from a different stall, same design..too bad for her.

Had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Thuy. At this restaurant, 2 'ahemmm' Vietnamse guys offered us some very very sweet desserts, made from flour with durian flavour.

Back to hotel at about 9 thirtyish and discovered to my horror, my camera jammed.

After some technical assistance from hubby (via sms) managed to fix the problems, but all photos for the 1st day also kaputed..


Slept early for next day's Cu Chi Tunnels & Cai Doa temple day trip.