District 1 - Ho Chi Minh City

My third day in HCM before I was gone!
I was in a rush because time went quick that day. Luckily the hotel enabled me to check out at 1400 and had my breakfast there. They were thoughtful. The eggs were finished and the chief cooked a new one for me and I really appreciated that.

Saw a lot of stray puppies on the street

After my breakfast in the hotel, I went for a quick tour around District 1 to see what else it offered since my trip to the zoo was cancelled! Lol.
I had a thorough walk in Cho Ben Thanh Market/ Ben Thanh Market in the early morning and it was pretty fruitful. I saw a lot of stall vendors selling fishes and crabs early in the morning and they were real busy!

Ben Thanh Market

Fresh fishes being sold in the early morning, together with crabs

Knitted handbags made from silk

They sell many handbags and accessories, clothings as well as antiques. You have got to bargain. Otherwise, the price they are selling to you is going to be a "money" sucker deal lol.

I bargained a lot this time round and finally got what I wanted. I didn't find any pet stalls unfortunately :( so nothing for Juvi. :( I bought some textiles, bags and clothes. I thought of getting a T shirt for Vahan but I am not sure he would want it or not so in the end, I never. The last time when I was in Bangkok, I bought a T shirt for him but he said we shouldn't go out again and later we did... So much misunderstandings between us...

Bitexco Financial Tower on the right

A traditional vietnamese woman cycling wearing a mask

Paint brushes and acrylic/ oil paints for sale

Travel books and post cards

Vietnam used to be a communist country, that is why you would definitely see a lot of posters or propagandas which are still present now. The colours usage are very similar to the ones used in North Korea in order to promote "something". Instead of words itself, they like to use drawings to depict an action and writing in words as well. I love it, I will never see something like this in Singapore. Just road signs, using vector arts.

Ho Chi Minh Square

Notre Dame Cathedral

I thought I was in Paris... 

Central Post Office

In front of the Saigon Opera House. Very nice architecture.  

Saigon Opera House

I was really happy and I really have had a wonderful experience during my three-day stay in Ho Chi Minh City. My peace was achieved! 

Liberty. Yay! 

Places that I visited during my stay:

Binh Tay Market

Cho Ben Thanh Market

Mekong River

Notre Dame Cathedral

Ho Chi Minh Square

Central Post Office

Saigon Opera House

Bye bye Vietnam!

Flying back to Singapore and enjoyed my moslem food with Vietnam Airlines. 

After I alight, guessed what did I see at the carousel? Rethink travel campaign...  

Mekong Delta - Vietnam

Day 2!
Good morning!!!! 0740(VN) 0840(SIN)
Actually, I wasn't planning to go for the Mekong Tour but I have already paid for the ticket. The receptionist booked for me the night before, she was really considerate. I was touched...
Asian way of thinking I believe: She booked the earlier return time for me as she worried I would be back late to the hotel. So kind and pure, saying I was lovely...
It was too tiring after the night before... Plenty of reasons as well; I wasn't use to going to a group tour, I hardly speak to people, I like to be alone, I wanted to go to the zoo and see animals etc.
Thong proposed to go with group tour, if I were to go alone, which was pretty far, it will take hours and the taxi was one of the main reasons as well haha.

So the receptionist called me and told me the guide was downstairs waiting for. Took the shuttle bus and we headed off to pick up some others and off we went!  

The first Stop: Mekong Rest Stop; or the happy house. Trying to replenish yourself with plenty of fruits, fruit juices, ice creams and buns. I didn't even eat, just had a Quail Bun. The place was not very attractive, just more towards a souvenir shop. 

Souvenirs! 

After that, we headed off to the boat terminal. The guide was telling us where he would bring us to. 

Voila! Here we went and took the boat! We were heading to the Ben Tre Province.

We were taught to make Honey lime drink. 

Me taking photo with the honey bees!!! They wouldn't hurt you and Nguyen put one of the bees onto my nose! Lol. 

After that, I took photo with the python! It doesn't bite or eat you up, but it's saliva had been dripping! :) It was very heavy! I was happy! Because I got to see animals! I also missed Juvi!!!

Taking the boat! People have been friendly and greeted us friendly with an irony :)

"Hello, give me 5USD!"

5USD must have been very big to them...  

Handmade quilts! One for 5USD! 

Listening to the music sang by the villagers' girls.

People also tipped them for their songs. 

Then we headed to the Coconut Candy Workshop station.

Snakes in the bottles :( known as snake wine... 

Dragon fruit tree, jackfruit tree 

Animal slavery.. I shouldn't have seat onto the carrier... Five to six persons sitting in the carrier... There were obese people as well... And the little horse had to "drive" us quickly to our next destination... They wore an eye bag as so they could only look straight and nowhere else...  

Yes that was what the horse riders do for a living. Without these animals, what could they do?

We went to the local restaurant which was other last stop for lunch. There were plenty of animals there as well; cat, roosters, ducks, fishes and turtles. Unfortunately, some were used for food...  

A few of the people from the tour group ordered this deep fried fish. It didn't look attractive to me and I didn't share with them nor eat, the food served was beyond average as well...  

Can you spot a Soft shell turtle there? In fact, there were six of them I believed. I really hoped they are still alive...

Bye bye Mekong!! 

I reached the hotel about 17h30 and met Thong again at 1900. I didn't really eat that whole day because I wanted to save some money for the next day and so I was pretty hungry and went down for some street food before he came.

We went to Wrap & Roll, they have a few outlets in Singapore as well! We ordered a lot of food also! Lol. The bill was around 20ish USD.

Steamed Shrimp & Pork Dumplings

Bánh bột lọc 

Grilled Chicken Rice, "Cupcake" version of the shrimp pancakes! Lol. 

Escargots!

Then we went to the Binh Tay Market to walk around. Actually I wanted to buy some stuff but ah well, he sent me back to the hotel. I wanted to get up and go down again but my legs were to tired after one whole day. So I rested and slept peacefully that I dreamt of Fayssal.

He was back, didn't go to Dubai. I held his forearm, he put my hand towards his hand and we smiled. I waited for him in the mosque but he didn't came out but another person claiming he was Fayssal. I said he was not Fayssal and he showed me his text message where Fayssal passed him to me... He left me again... Fayssal, do you know how much I miss you and I just wanted to know what happens with you and whether your safe or not... I just want you to be safe...
Suddenly, I thought of Heinz's last message to me, asking me to be safe and healthy... Heinz, when could we ever get back?