HO CHI MINH CITY
Day 1
Budget terminal at 8:30am. 2hrs before check-in. Flight was 11:25am. No idea how come so damm early, probably in-case someone late. A total of 15 on friday & another 10 on sat.
Before boarding the plane...
at the boarding gates: Nonik. Isabella. Monica.
looking elsewhere lisa. me. ber.
happily lisa. ber. me. dat we are setting off for vietnam
kick you me. monica. ber.
hmm.. me. ber.
lisa. weighing her luggage
pretty lisa. lina.

On the plane...
tiger airways.
squeezy.
hard to sleep.
ber. nonik.
me. tinkerbell.

Plane reached Vietnam. Always been wondering how it is like, when I touched the fluffy clouds. What the actual feel? From the top view, the beautiful MEKONG RIVER.

The time difference is 1hour. Reached HO CHI MINH CITY in the afternoon. Our tour guide bring us to our hotel - ELOIS HOTEL, 3star. Its situated at District 1. Central of Vietnam. The road is jammed up with motor-bikes.

Once dropped our luggage in the rooms, we rushed to a restaurant nearby to have our lunch.

lobby area
outside suana
mini-bar corner
lina. and her pineapple rice
tertarng. tinkerbell. seeying. nonik.
seeying and her seafood fried rice
me. and mine too
lisa. savouring her crispy noodle

Looking at the heavy traffic. Omg! Vehicles & humans are both fighting for the road. No traffic lights. No signal. Cross at your own risk! You really gotta run for your life just to get to the other side of the road. Just before I could get my legs and run to the opposite, someone stepped on my slippers. It broke. Damm shit. I just landed in vietnam, had my lunch, on my way to start my shopping trip, my slipper broke. How pissed off? But it cooled off in like less den a min. I wun allow this to spoil my days in vietnam. While waiting for me to get slippers from hotel...

common sight to see locals squating along roadside to eat

ladies wearing heels as high as 4inch could simply squat & stood
nonik. buying some local food

zhiyun. and the fruitseller
the fruitseller

Walked to BEN THANH MARKET. On the way...

the golden horse which I dont know the significance

seventeen saloon, a restaurant & pub. atmosphere looks good

(someone try & let me know)

olden antique traffic light

view of building-Ben Thanh Market
inside view of Ben Thanh Market
typical kinda bags sellin in Ben Thanh Market
groups of pple will be sitting on stools doing eyebrow threading/manicure, inside market
bargaining of LV wallet for Oya-san
monica. ber. me. waiting for the bargaining session to be over
so does nonik. seeying.
lisa. seeying. tinkbell. lina.
few of us outside the stall selling many straw bags. we bought about 15 similar bags
tinkerbell. lina. alan. lisa. me. ber. seeying.

Prices not any cheaper. Slightly. I would say, and depends on what you are buying. They would keep asking you to buy, hold on tightly to you. Once you looked at the products, they will ask you to buy. Bought 2 bags, earrings, coconut tidbits, coffee powder, pouches etc. The day soon ended, night arrived.

Strolled to ZEN PLAZA-district 1. Somehow similar to Isetan. Had dinner at the food garden, 7th floor. More of vietnamese cuisine at affordable price. Ber ordered spaghetti. Like dry mee pok. Rice was like rice balls, in pieces. We were the last to visit food garden before it went through renovation the following day. The 2nd batch missed it.
indoor smoking food court
man-made lil garden
spaghetti & fried rice with deep fried wu xiang

nonik. tartarng. edwin. dinner
edwin. nonik. tertarng. enjoying their dinner feast

eric. lisa. oya-san. tinkerbell.

nonik. lisa. tertarng. monica. loves their ice cream

Did manicure at one of the bridal shop, located at same level. VNDS15,000. Its cheap like anything. S$1, similar to express manicure and nail art.

Headed back to room. All went for the massage. My colleagues asked around for the best price before settling down at the massage parlour. Felt cheated after everything's done. Approached the locals and asked if tips is neccesary. The locals mentioned NO. In the end, they insisted on tips of VND$50,000. Its a must to tip them in everywhere you go in vietnam. thinkerbell & I bought supper at one of the roadside stalls beside our hotel. Roadside food are always simple, nice & tasty though unhygienic.

Day 2
"Wake up! Time for breakfast." Dragged my feet to the bathroom to bathe before heading for breakfast at 12th floor. Its 7:15am("spore time"). The restaurant was empty. I thought Ber & I were pretty gan jiong for breakfast. I looked at my watch. Its 7:15am. The staff said that they starts at 7:00am. Think back. Shit! Its 6:15am only. We are an hour slow. Back to our rooms to watch tv instead.

Outdoor view from the restaurant. So polluted.

me. ber.

eric. alan. edwin. tertarng. (photo edited by eric)

8:15am at lobby for our CUCHI TUNNEL. Did not request the tour agency to get for us this package. Went to an agency round the corner to get our tickets there. Its much cheaper, compared to asking your tour-guide to get it for you. Our tour-guide charged us at USD$22 when we only paid USD$4 when we get ourselves. See the difference? USD$4 is only for the bus to bring us to and fro.

Outside agency. Purchasing our tickets. waiting for the bus to arrive.

roadside stall

nonik was busy filming a video of a man eating but the man was busily engrossed in his food dat he din noticed

ber. me. lisa. monica. lina. tinkerbell. nonik.

Paying another VND$70,000 for the trip. Slightly expensive but got to learn the history of vietnam war-time.

CUCHI TUNNEL is one of the most famous battlegrounds of the Vietnam War and today it is one of the country's prime tourist attractions, part of a new industry of war tourism. Its never a regret going there. Strongly recommend to go. The journey took us 1hr40min. The whole trail was about 2hrs. History lesson of how they hide in the tunnel and all. Boring at the start. Carried on the journey. The hole is where the fighters hid themselves and the hole in the rock, is for ventilation purposes for those fighters. Tried getting myself in. The space was enough only when you raised your hands straight upwards, body goes in.

ang-moh man be the first to try it out

tinkerbell goes in

monica screamed, wobbly legs

cheers, its me inside

There are too many killing weapons, traps, tunnels to track down their enemies.
dog traps-when a dog stands on the trap, it will falls into the hole and the stilts will kill it

tunnels-to hide and escape

door trap-eveyrone hide behind the door so when enemies approaching, fighters released the door trap, swing from a height and hence, killed the enemies

Military workshops

fighters creates dynamites

Slippers of different sizes. The tour-guide teached us the individual pronounciation of different size. Cant remember the names anyway.

The big army tank which got everyone so energized & thrilled.

me. ber. with the fighters

army tank

ber. me. tinkerbell. nonik. on top of tank

caught unprepared

lina. monica. lisa. ber. me.

The most exciting, thrilling, main part finally arrived, the crawling of the tunnel. Hardly any space to turn around. Knees bent. Its real darkness. Cant even see your own fingers, not mentioning the walls upfront. Holding on to the person in front to lead you ahead. Its quite scary at times. Cant imagine how they actually made their way out to escape their enemies in the past. Perspired. Good sweat. Finished half of the tunnel, as the other half requires us to crawl on our stomach. If given another chance, I would definitely go again and complete it.

tunnel which we went through

real good sweat

macho ladies-ber. me. seeying. nonik. tinkerbell. monica.

After the entire walk, we ended up at a firing range. 15min rest before leaving.

ber. me.

lina. monica.

tired lina. lisa.

The other half of the people went to MEKONG RIVER to enjoy the beauty of the river. Accidents do happen. An old man nearly fell into the river. The boat bumped onto something. Half of his body left the boat. Luckily, one of the person on-board the boat managed to pull him back, but his camera dropped into the water. He grumbled and complain. And expect compensation from the tour agency. He just bought his camera. He dived into the water and luck was on his side, he retreived back his camera. Be careful when you are on-board the boat.

The temples they visited. Simply beautiful which some of us missed.

ailing. SJ. alan choy. ivy. kelvin. zhiyun. visited those temples

The buildings which some of the guys passed by during their shopping trip.
one of the posters spelt "coming soon" as "comming soon"
gucci store
alan. with LV building
tertarng. with LV building
edwin. with LV building

alan. bought a gucci wallet and saves S$180

(can try gg there and buy)

A lil shopping again at BEN THANH MARKET. Drizzled all the way. All were famished. Ate our lunch in the market.

shrimp noodle

meat ball noodle

avocado drinks

tinkerbell. monica. nonik.

me. ber.

Met up with the rest to have a company dinner at one of the restaurants. Its serves all vietnamese cuisines. It came in small portions of food, like dim sum. Was telling Ber, hope it wont be like this throughout the dinner, else I will starved for the night. True enough. All of us were offered bordeaux wine. The meal cost VND$8,000,000. WTF! Its SGD$800. Reason being that the bosses opened minimum 5bottles of wine. But still, we kinda got cheated. The cuisine are mostly made up of vegetables.

imagine you are eating cabbage, cauliflower, bamboo shoot, broccoli, spinach, lettuce...

yasushi-san trying to act cute with the lil lettuce sticking outta his mouth

he is sucessful, he amused us
lisa. ruka. lina.
ruka. lina.
let's cheers! ivy. ailing. lina. lisa.
unglam lisa.
lisa. tinkerbell. seeying.
tinkerbell. seeying. monica. nonik.
peace yasushi-san. wife. lina.
the food is yummy! lisa. yasushi-san. wife. lina.
yasushi-san. wife. lina.
ber. me. act cute
xueqi. angeline. ber. me.
oya-san. ber.

GOSSIP CLUB to chill our night away. VND$90,000. Entry includes a beer. Yasushi, wife, Kelvin, TerTarng, Eric, Edwin, Lisa, Ber, Monica, Nonik, Tinkerbell, Lina, See Ying and I agreed that the drinks aint enough. Yasushi-san signed credit card. Kinda weird, cos its everyone's first time chionging together. Carrying our bags too. Can you danced like this? Strictly no cameras. Everywhere is security. So tight that we gotta do it in the toilets.

before clubbing,

lina. lisa. on the sofa

lina. lisa. seeying. on the sofa

sweet lisa.

lisa. me. ber.

lisa. me. ber.

ber. me. lisa. imprompto pose

ber. me. lisa. yasushi wife. lina. monica. joined in our craziness

ber. me. lisa. wife. lina. yasushi-san.

wife. ber. me. lisa.

tinkerbell. ber. me. lisa. oya-san. tertarng.

tinkerbell. ber. me. lisa. oya-san.

(what is oya-san trying to pose?)

yasushi-san. yoshikawa-san. kina obscene pose

monica. nonik. lisa. lina. seeying. tinkerbell.

funny monica. nonik. lisa. lina. seeying. tinkerbell.

ber. me. lisa. diminishing into the air

lina. lisa. tinkerbell. ber. me. monica. seeying. who went clubbing together

Back to hotel rooms about 2, 3am. Immediately, everyone dropped dead. Pyjamas night was cancelled. Sobx.

cam-whored spirit never ceases even if we are dead-tired

Woke up kinda late which left us only 1/2hour for breakfast. Rushed our meal and all gathered at the lobby to go airport. A last group picture before we left the hotel.
oya-san. me. ber. lina. eric.
nonik. lisa. seeying. ber. eric. oya-san. me. lina. choichin. monica. tinkerbell. alan. edwin. fongling. tertarng.

On the way, dropped by a lacquer company.

cheeky oya-san.

me. ber. with our satisfied shoppings

cheeky me. ber.

produces exquisite art pieces, using egg shells & pearls

fine workmanship

Airport after 15min at the lacquer company. Everyone was totally shagged.

new international vietnam airport

oya-san. alan.

tertarng. alan.

alan. fongling. choichin.

lina. lisa. me. ber. seeying. tinkerbell. monica.

those are aeroplanes

lisa's sunglass. ber's heels. my handbag.
me. tinkerbell.
choichin. tinkerbell. nonik.

choichin. tinkerbell. nonik. alan. me.