Day Zero/One
This was when it really started to dawn on me - VIETNAM, BABY!! Spent the night at the airport with my pals. We went to have Popeyes at T3, which was supper for them but dinner for me, then went to some random open space to settle for the night... sorta.
Brice and Ivan tried to sleep but Amelia and I were chatting and making use of my camera's remote function and making fun of them as they slept. Or tried to sleep. I have no idea why we did not feel sleepy.
Then we took some photos right before we moved off to brush our teeth, wash up, and proceed to T1 for check-in.
Last photo of us before checking in at 5, 6 plus in the morning :
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| Captured by my phone's front camera. We're excited!! |
We then arrived at Ho Chi Minh City at about 8am in the morning (Viet time). $$$$$$$$$. I heeded my dad's advice and got my SGD changed at the airport because according to him, exchange rates are much better at the airport and at goldsmith shops around Ben Thanh Market compared to those in Singapore. True enough, I got a rate of 16,819d at the airport, which was also the best rates we managed to find throughout our entire trip! In S'pore's Chinatown, rates are 16,800 and Ivan got his currency changed at an even lower rate of 15,700 elsewhere.
Lesson 1: Do not change the bulk of your currency in Singapore.
After changing $ and taking maps, we took the public bus #152 to District 1! Thanks to Amelia's meticulous research about which bus we should take. We weren't the only tourists with huge bags in that bus. I must say that it was really cramped and we had no choice but to squeeze with our stuff because the bus was quite full.
Bus fares are cheap! We were a little lost initially, with regards to how we should pay and how much. All commuters boarded the bus first, and after everyone was seated, the bus driver would go around collecting bus fares. We paid a few cents per person, 5000d, and unlike Singapore, they actually give change for bus fares :) It's important to have some small change with us upon arrival. Most of our currency was in denominations of 500,000 and 100,000 at that time, which I reckon will cause us to get death glares from the driver hahaha. Saw how their youths gave up their seats for senior citizens too :)
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| The interior. |
Spot the map that Brice is holding - we tried to familiarise ourselves with those street names and get our bearings. Discovered that street names were not prominently displayed and we had to look at random shops' signboards to know which street we were at. Thankfully, those signboards do display the street names in addition to their unit numbers.
After alighting, we went around with our bags trying to look for tour agencies to get quotes and bargained for tours and bus trips to Nha Trang, since we were going to spend the next four days there. We then settled with Vinaday, a familiar name that Ame and I had come across online. Booked a sleeper bus with them after they showed us photos of how the bus would be like, and told us there would be 3 rest stops. The staff at Vinaday also very kindly allowed us to deposit our baggage with them at their counter until it was time to return at night to take the bus! How awesome! :) Literally a load off our shoulders while we roamed around.
Lunch was at this random place which looked like it had just opened for business not long ago. We were treated like VIPs, and had one waiter assigned to wait our table on the second floor of the shop. There were some communication barriers, though, and the manager had to come to his aid haha.
It was here that we tried our first Vietnamese spring roll! We were quite hungry by then because the last thing we ate was... Popeyes, the night before. Food here was a little pricey, but still cheaper than Singapore's prices.
With our tummies filled, and having discussed (kinda) the tour packages, we went back to the agency which we had selected - Nam Trip - to pay for and confirm our 2D1N Mekong Delta tour with homestay, and Cu Chi Tunnels tour which would take place after we come back from Nha Trang. I'll state the price when I post about those! :)
Walked to Ben Thanh Market after lunch to walk around a bit, then sat down at this stall for a drink.
The stall owners are pretty aggressive in pulling customers since there are so many stalls selling the same stuff. We ordered two cups of sugar cane juice and I could tell that they weren't that happy since we were taking up four seats but bought only two cups haha. They are also quite particular about boundaries - if we bought from this stall, we should not spill over to the neighbouring stall's seats.
Followed a pair of well-dressed local girls into this nice and expensive looking shop and discovered it has a cafe upstairs.
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| Captured by Brice |
Ah, the salted egg duck (i think?) bao that Amelia wanted to try, from a nearby random convenience stall where we also purchased our first 1.5L water. Turned out to be very dry and hard, and we didn't finish it in the end lol.
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| Credits: Brice (left), Amelia (right) |
Walked back to this electronics/handphone shop after that, and had to cross a road which we became familiarised with especially after Nha Trang.
I'm sure everyone knows how Vietnam's traffic is like. Tooooooo many motorbikes zooming away, too few traffic lights and proper pedestrian crossings, by non-Vietnamese' standards haha. On top of that, there's air that's polluted by all the vehicles, and noise pollution from the endless sounding of horns. It sure took awhile for me to get used to crossing the roads with a pedestrian-is-king mindset! Thankful for my pals because I would shriek every time we had to cross a congested road and they were so much more daring than I was. The roads immediately surrounding Ben Thanh are the worst I swear.
SELFIEEEEEEEEE because we could. I wouldn't have the guts to do this on other roads.
Check out the way they dress. And sling their bags. And wear their shoes.
BROS FOR LIFE, SERIOUSLY.
This is where mortobike rental is made available. These bikes are stationed here in the day, and disappear by night. I always wonder how on earth they manage to transport those bikes at night and where they park them.
Went to this shop to get SIM cards for Ame and Ivan. Brice and I got ours earlier at another random shop where we did not have to show our passports.
The prepaid SIM cards purchased here allowed Ame and Ivan to have unlimited data usage throughout the trip, despite having to wait for it till they fell asleep. Brice and I were supposed to get 600MB of data, BUT we only had it for the first day. In fact we only had data for a few hours. That same night, the 3G symbol kept appearing for half a second and disappearing after.
Lesson 2: Don't purchase SIM cards from dubious shops.
For reference. The cards Ame and Ivan got.
For dinner that day, we tried our first Phos in Vietnam at Pho24, a chain of air-conditioned pho shops.
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| Taken with my phone, in the dimly lit restaurant |
Pho really isn't my thing. I doubt my pals fancied pho too because this was just about the first and last time we had pho during the trip. LOL. It feels like sick people's food to me, with light tasting soup and healthy-looking rice noodles, beef, lots of spring onions in the soup, and mint leaves and beansprouts at the side.
This was the mall I had a massive stomachache at and the pals had to wait for me for a long long time oops. I wanted to have a typical touristy stand-in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree shot so there you go! :) Note how the two guys are dressed and are standing - bag slung in front, smile without teeth, hands on bag, left hand over right at the same angle. Last warning @ their similarities.
After killing enough time, we went back to Vinaday's office to wash up at their toilet - brush teeth, wash face, wipe ourselves with wet tissues - before boarding the sleeper bus! Yes, we were still wearing the same outfits from the night before.
This is the sleeper bus. COOL RIGHT!!!!!!! Or at least I thought it was pretty cool because it was the first time I've seen such a bus. The coaches to and fro Malaysia don't have such bed-like inclined seats. Or maybe I just haven't taken enough coaches in my 22 years of existence. Still, we were pretty darn excited about it and took lots of photos.
We chose the upper deck because we wanted slightly more privacy than the lower deck would have offered.
I left the sleeper bus photos unedited to show how the lighting was like. Amelia was saying that this totally looked like a red light district haha!
The overnight journey to Nha Trang lasted about 8 hours (or was it 10?) and, as mentioned above, had three rest stops, which I did not use to pee at all lol. I could only really sleep properly from the second rest stop onwards. According to Vinaday, they did not want to open the bus' toilet because past passengers have complained about the smell, which I agree is a legitimate reason. I mean I'd rather not have a toilet in the bus if it means I can rest and sleep properly without having to bear with a pungent smell for 8-10 hours.
So that sums up our first day in Vietnam! Accommodation settled... in a moving overnight bus.
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