James's Crappy Photos: Feb 7, 2011

We took a longish holiday by our standards to visit Vietnam. We did not have any real breaks for about 18 months and decided we needed to relax. While Europe was considered, the exchange rates would have created a large hole in our finances.

Finally after much back and forth, Vietnam was chosen since we haven’t been there. Since we booked our flights rather late, the flights to Hanoi are much more expensive. AirAsia to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) was much cheaper so the plan was to land in Ho Chi Minh and take a connecting flight via Jetstar Pacific to Hanoi. From Hanoi, we will visit Northern Vietnam and fly back to Ho Chi Minh for a few more days in the south. The places we wanted to visit in the north included Halong Bay, Sapa, Ninh Binh and Tam Coc. We spent considerable time researching the Hanoi and the surrounding area & thought that we can plan for the south once we are there.

That plan did not work out so we had to alter our plans. Before we left for Vietnam, the weather forecast showed low temperatures. Sapa in the mountains had temperature ranging between 5 to 15 deg C. So we were debating whether should we head to the mountains there. Since we are backpacking, we wanted our plans to be flexible.

“We are millionaires the moment we converted some RM to Vietnam Dong. A million dong is about RM 160”

While we read about crazy drivers in Vietnam, for us, it began with a crazy taxi right in Malaysia. Flight to Ho Chi Minh was uneventful until we landed in Tan Son Nhat International Airport. After getting our luggage, we found out that the flight to Hanoi was delayed for 12 hours. After spending some time to look for alternatives, we were told the flight was cancelled all together. Having read the reviews about Jetstar in Vietnam, our conclusion is that if your travel plans are not as flexible, it is better to pay more and fly Vietnam airlines.

The cancelled flight was also a blessing in disguise since we later found out that the temperature up north in Sapa went to as low as 1 deg C. Apparently, a cold front hit the north and we met travelers leaving the north due to the cold.

Having decided to skip the north, we took a cab to Ho Chi Minh city to get a room and to plan our next move. We went to Pham Ngu Lao St which is the centre of District 1, where there are plenty of hotels and is the practically the centre of Ho Chi Minh city.

After we checked in, we got online to see our options and went for a walk around Ho Chi Minh. Banh Thanh market is about 10 minutes walk from the hotel. It sells all sorts of things including t-shirts, souvenirs, food, bags etc. One thing that was cheap is bags. A large backpack can cost only about RM 50 odd. That’s before we bargain. Apparently, if you can speak a bit of Vietnamese, it will be even cheaper since Banh Thanh seems to cater to tourist. Malaysian chinese can pass off as locals since many people speak to us in Vietnamese until we open our mouth.

There are nice parks in the middle of the city and we came back to this park later on since the Reunification Palace and War Museum is nearby.

We didn’t have time to visit the Reunification Palace since they close at 4pm. In Vietnam, when they close, the people there literally shoo you out of the building.

In the midst of tranquility, you are surrounded by traffic like these below. Crossing the road is quite an experience.

We wanted to buy some bread from this stall but changed our minds when we saw this.

Why roadside food can be hazardous to health

At first, we thought of giving the Mekong delta a miss but with quite a bit of time on our hands, we decided to book a 2 day tour to the upper and lower Mekong Delta for day 2 and 3. The tour including 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, hotel and transportation to & fro costs USD 19 per pax.