We started early at 7am today. We are lucky to witness the peak hour of Ho Chi Minh city.. crossing the road has brought us another level of new experience.
Banh Mi for Breakfast (Vietnam Baguette)
We already had 10 different Vietnam baguettes taste experience under our belt.
We no longer feel awkward to walk to any stalls and order anything we like.
Well, they usually server only 1-2 types of food each stall so just point at the food you want and tell them how many.. (1=một 2=hai 3=ba 4=bốn 5=năm)
Peak Hour Traffic at Ho Chi Minh
LOOK AT THIS!! RIDICULOUS!
Mind you, they are not queuing up… they are crossing each other in zig-zag motions. And yet none of them bump into each other. Of course, they use their honking every 2-3 seconds, it’s a busy and noisy morning.
Another thing that amazes me – if someone wants to get on the bus (xe buýt), the bus will cross from left to furthest right, ignoring all the motorists beside them. You can see each of them being sandwiched hahha.
Day Tour Away From The City
We joined day tour to Cu Chi Tunnel and Gao Dai temple for only $8 whole day.
The trip starts at 8am until 6:30pm. Including 5 hours plus of road travels. It’s only 90km away but there’s no highway available. Maximum speed 50km/h and unlimited honking.
Gao Dai Temple
The story is long but I try to make it simple, so here goes:
- Buddhism + Confucius + Islam + Christianity = new religion
- They pray 4 times a day, we went there to witness one
- Formed into military to fight foreign power (French and American), later no more power
- Lead by their boss Ho Chi Minh
- Temple land is surrounded by gates, like a mini-kingdom. They all live inside.
- Took 3 hours from Ho Chi Minh to reach here.
Cu Chi Tunnel
The tunnels were made by Vietnamese during war, a very complex underground system that protects them from Americans. Its like the ant caves we find in museum. Very interesting tunnels they’ve developed, they only use very simple tool to korek these 250km tunnels.
It’s so small sized that I can’t even fit in my head.
We also witness the live trap they used to trap American balls. Lots of sharp object involved. Now I know where the word “balls of steels” from.. it’s from the Americans!
Tour guide told us this tunnel is enlarged to allow tourists to experience it themselves. The tunnel size is usually smaller because Vietnamese are naturally smaller in size.
Original size of tunnel entrance
I can’t even fit in 1/3 of my body through the hole. If I was born during Vietnam war, I am definitely the first one to die.
To make it worse, civilians inside cannot get out, civilians outside cannot get in. We all die. Hahahha.
The civilians stayed here during war, I wonder where do they find rooms for reproduction process..
(Shannon and me are like monster size here in Vietnam, seriously.)
Say NO to tourist restaurant
When the trip is over, the tour guide brought us to a restaurant for lunch. We knew it’s a tourist trap so we walked out from the restaurant (lunch not included) and see if we find any interesting things around the area.
Mind you, we were farrrrrrr away from city so every thing here is local price (except that restaurant).
Suddenly I saw a motorbike that sell buns – we stopped him and bought more baguettes for lunch! We paid 10,000dong (RM1.50) for lunch instead of 60,000dong (RM9) at the restaurant, achievement!
It was fun because all of us don’t know what the hell are we talking hahhaha.
Here are general guideline if you want to know if you’re paying local or tourist price. For a bowl of noodles: Local price: 20-30k dong ; tourist is 50-60k dong.
I got to drink bird nest for RM2.20. Hell yeah!
Y U RAIN
Rained heavily so our gears are practically all wet.
Ramen For Dinner: WTF
We were cold and hungry from the trip (we’re wet for many hours). Craved for something hot and fast and the first shop we walked past is Raman shop. Given our condition we say no fuck we need warm food so we paid 88,000dong (RM13) for this ramen. Luckily, it was good.
Meh, we go Vietnam eat Japanese food.. we even planned to come back again hahaha what da fuck right?
Side story: a cute waitress served us. wanted to say “you’re pretty” but I don’t know how to say it! (you only live once right). Now I know.. Em thật xinh đẹp (you are pretty)
Drink with Family Host
We were invited to join family for a drink, as another guest in our house, Paul (Canadian, investor, tennis coach), who is leaving for good.
Here are some common terms to use while drinking:
- Yo! (Cheers)
- Kui4 Long2 (Open your can)
- Bob4 long2 (squeeze can, means finished)
- Jump3 feng3 jiam1 (bottoms up)
- Nam2 mngei1 feng3 jiam1 (drink half way)
Better Motorbike You Have, More Girlfriends You Can Get
Typical motorbike here costs USD$800. Better ones costs USD$5,000. If you own better bike, you get new girlfriend easily, our tour guide told us. Also, if you really get expensive motorbike, you’ll risk being killed, and they take your bike from you.
Whoa, I’ll be very very afraid to own a car here.
The Open Minded Country
Tonight, our hosts discuss about the mentality and sex scenes here in Vietnam. Well, not “sex scene” per se like prostitution, but more like what Vietnamese girls think about casual sex and what’s their feeling towards foreign visitors, especially Westerners.
Million dollar question, “still be friends after casual sex?”
Vietnam people = “YES, it’s absolutely ok!”
Malaysia people =”IMPOSSIBLE”
Well at least, not among our friends that we know of anyway..
Ah, maybe we just haven’t experienced it ourselves.
You want to know more? Invite me to yum cha la, I tell you more. Hahah!
Invitation to Gay Bar
Our hosts planned to bring us to Lady’s Night today, but we both were too tired from cold and day drop so we decided to stay home to rest.
“You guys like to go gay bar? they are very handsome there”
She immediately thought we were gay because we skipped Ladies Night and do not want to go clubbing with her. HAHHAHAHA. #bromance.
This is bad.
Where Am I Today?
Click here to read your daily dose of blog posts - don't get addicted k?
Interesting, never know Vietnam is such open society.
Side story: Did you told the cute waitress on the phrase you learned?
@pekchekkia No oh, I use it on another lady instead. Hahahaha. I’m going to practice to say this in Cambodia also!!
Y U NO TAKE PIC OF THAT CUTE LADY?
@gekhai I can imagine someone walking up to me and say “hey you look handsome can i take photo with you?” ahhahaha. Sendiri tengok then syok few minutes is enough, ehehehe