"Ho Chi Minh" Saigon by Bettetan

Coming here is a last min decision... Booked a package, flight+hotel from airasia.com for 6 days and 5 night. Today is our second day here and this morning followed the half day city tour from the taxi driver that pick us up from airport yesterday. Our journey start from 9am and end at 1pm. We went to War Crime Museum, Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral Post office and Catina Secret Police Station. Drive through China Town in Sai Gon. Visit to Thien Hau Temple and lunch at Indo Chine Restaurant that served nice Vietnamese foods. The traffic here is really bad, packed with motorbikes.. As our hotel is nearby Ben Thanh Market, we went there for some shopping and had the famous food here called Pho. It's a flat noodles soup either with beef, chicken or seafood. I searched online and saw the review that the best Pho and should try is at Ben Thanh Market, the name of the restaurant is PHO 2000. Even Bill Clinton went there and eat.. We ordered chicken pho as we don't eat beef and shrimp spring rolls,
that costs us only about USD8 included drinks. Tomorrow we'll be going to Mekong Delta tour, booked
through our hotel and cost us USD90 for 2 persons. The next day, will be going to Chu Chi Tunnel and
cost USD14 per person.

Coconut candies...

Our trip to Mekong Delta start at 8am till 4pm.. It took about 2 hours drive from city to the province of Mekong Delta. Cruising along the upper river by boat. Look over floating houses and fish farms along the river. Visiting and seeing the activities of Vietnamese daily life. Seeing how the local people make candies from coconut or banana and of course we can buy some back. Taste some tea with honey mixture, ate local fruits and enjoying the traditional music. On our way back, stop at one of the local delicacies shop which we bought some candies, biscuits, jasmine tea and the famous civet-like animal coffee. In Indonesia, this coffee was called Luwak but in Vietnam it's Weasel. A friend of mine told me that in Singapore, this coffee cost SGD60 per cup. That's really pricey!

Went to Chu Chi tunnels today, join a group of 7 people from different hotels. Join the tour from hotel and cost USD14. Along the way there, can see a lot of rubber plantation. Chu Chi tunnels is place where the Vietnamese lived and fought there during the war and it were dug by using simple farming tools and many hours hard working. We are so lucky to have a very experience and knowledgable tour guide as he used to be a soldier at that time. Around the secret bunker entrances we can see many bomb crater. The villagers here were defoliated using agent orange. The picture below is the smallest hole, it was so small and dark inside. I managed to get in there and cover it up but having a difficulty to get up. Along there, we can see the bigger bunker where they sleep, cook and a hospital. Then we can go down to see and crawl along the tunnel to experience it. Down there, it was hot and quite suffocated. For those that having asthma, it's better not to go in as nothing much to see inside just to experience it. Overall, it
was a nice trip...