It has been a wonderful 6 days trip to Ho Chi Minh (for a non-shopaholic like me, 6 days is really too long, since we didn't manage to venture farther beyond Saigon).
The thing about Ho Chi Minh was, I felt at home. To be honest, this wasn't the first time I went international. I went to Australia for a few months after SPM (this, I will talk about sooner or later), and it felt great to be out of Malaysia and expand my views of the world.
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
I went there with my mom and my little sister. It was somewhat a birthday gift for my mom, and I had to be the tour guide. Speaking of tour guide, choose wisely. I had a great tour group. Well, it was supposed to be only us 3, but somehow the plan changed when we were invited to join into another Malaysian group. It was awesome though. I quite enjoy it.
The people of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) really knew how to speak Malay. It was a shock to me, to be honest, at how well they can pronounce each word. Though some managed to get into Malay because of frequency, some manage to understand the language as a whole. It made me feel not far from home.
What I liked the most about Ho Chi Minh was the weather, the atmosphere and the coffee. Since I'm a coffee addict, my mom had to buy a few brands of Vietnamese coffee just for me. And to be honest, whenever she found any awesome coffee, she will automatically buy some for me, because I just love love love them! The weather there was nice. It rained once in a while, but it wasn't humid and yet the weather wasn't too cold. It was cool enough for me to enjoy every walk.
Another thing would be, I just love the architecture. Unlike Australia, I found the historical monuments and buildings in Ho Chi Minh to be very pretty and beautiful. They were created with such details, such craftmanship that I cannot help but to adore and be mesmerized. I even went twice to each building because it made me feel like as if the building is a part of my life. And it is now!
Our tour guides brought us to Cu Chi Tunnel. It was like a military place, or something. (I'm sorry, but I am really bad at remembering historical places. I can remember the name well, but not the story.) I enjoyed going there, but I am not a jungle person because insects creep me out. We also went to Mekong River and headed to -- I think I heard the name right -- Unicorn Island. It was an island adjacent to the port, and it took us only around 5 minutes to get to the boat port. And when I mean boat, I really meant sampan. As a person born in Borneo, sampan is something normal, but there was something different about the ride for me at the time.
I remember being mesmerized by that sampan ride. We were surrounded completely by only beautiful trees that I had never seen before -- or hard to see. I can still remember the joke that my tour guide told us before we went on our sampan ride : Unlike any other places where they have traffic jams on roads, we have traffic jams on this very river! Be very prepared for a massive hold-up!
It cracked us up, but it was true. We came across a standstill. It was hilarious, to be honest. After that, we went into the island and we get to taste the many wonderful tasty fruits on the island. I even bought some honey there, because it tasted so good! The island wasn't that big, but huge enough for us to venture. They even sold some souvenirs, some coconut candy (which is my favourite!) and other stuff. It was really awesome to be there, but mainly because we get to drink pure tea and taste some honeycomb honey!
Another thing that fascinated me was the position of the driver's seat. Haha. I know it's petty, but it was the first time I came across a left driver. It made sitting in the car or bus very awkward. The thing about HCM's traffic, there are more motorcycles rather than cars. Traffic jams aren't caused by cars, but rather, they are caused by motorcycles. It was a rare sight indeed!
6 days was awesome for me. Except, as I do not enjoy shopping, shopping places bore me. I enjoyed walking around Saigon, sitting at the park and watch people pass by. I simply enjoyed the views that I got from HCM.
Indeed, one day, I might go back there!
(And no, no pictures -- yet! Still too lazy to transfer any into my laptop!)
