This trip is extra special for me because I traveled again with my
cousin, Shobe. This was a follow-up trip after I visited her in SG last April
2013 (story of my recent SG trip in my next post). Since she is working in SG, we
initially planned on meeting in Ho Chi Minh City (also popularly known as
Saigon). I’ll be coming from Manila and she from SG. After a couple of attempts
in booking a flight, she finally decided that she’ll be coming from Manila
instead. That made my task easier as I just have to book two roundtrip tickets
from Manila to HCMC (haha!)
Flight
I booked our flight thru Cebu Pacific. Our flight left Manila at
10:50PM and it took around 2.5 hours to reach HCMC (HCMC behind by an hour).
We arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport at around 12:30AM
(1:30AM Manila time). Upon clearing through immigration and exiting the
airport, we just took a cab to our hotel. Just be careful when choosing a taxi
in Vietnam. I have heard quite a number of warnings that it is safer to take
more reputable taxi companies as taxi scams are very prevalent in Vietnam.
Vinasun taxi was recommended to me by a friend.
Hotel
Throughout our 3 days in HCMC, we stayed at Kim Huong HoteI¸ as
recommended by my officemate. It’s just in front of the famous Ben Thanh market
and walking distance to Saigon Square. This is just a simple and decent hotel.
In fact you can find a lot of affordable accommodations around HCMC. I got our
room at USD28 per night for two persons, inclusive of free breakfast.
I directly coordinated with the hotel via email for my inquiries and reservations. I also bought our first 2 days tours around the city with them. But take note, nothing is paid until
we checked out on our 3rd day. Not bad right?
Foreign Exchange
I usually buy local currency even before my scheduled trip. That has been my practice since I started travelling in 2009. But
VND is not available in our bank, so I brought USD with me and just exchanged
at the airport. We all know that airport rates are relatively low compared to the rates outside so we just exchanged only a small amount just to let us reach our
hotel and have some left for any contingency.
FYI. USD is widely accepted especially on big stores, restaurants, hotels, and tours. I am not sure if USD can also be used in tiangge and night market.
Tour
For both days, we were picked up by the agency from our hotel. What
they did was, they pick up guests using smaller buses then they meet at one
point to join everyone in a bigger bus. The country attracts tourist across continents
(haha!). In fact, I lost track of the different languages I heard while inside
the bus (I tried so hard to pick up the language and identify the nationality, but
I failed).
We did the Cu Chi Tunnel and Mekong Delta tours on Days 1 & 2
respectively. Each costs USD14 and USD17 respectively. And already inclusive of
the transpo, lunch, entrance fees, guide.
Here are some photos of the places we visited.
 |
| View of HCMC from our hotel. Those red roofs is Ben Thanh Market |
Day 1 - Cu Chi Tunnel tour
 |
| see how we fit into this small hole |
 |
| this is Shobe! :) |
 |
| know what is this? |
 |
| its a trap!!! |
 |
| tunnel entrance |
 |
| we managed to crawl inside the tunnel for about 20 mins |
 |
| film showing |
 |
| they are blonde foreigners |
Day 2 - Mekong Delta tour
 |
| the boat and the river |
 |
| we bought our "salakots" at the night market |
 |
| river cruise |
 |
| At Mekong Restaurant |
Day 3 - Third day is our free day. I did not book any tour for this day. We did
our huling hirit sa shopping today and also visited these places.
 |
| Notre Dame Basilica |
 |
| Saigon Post Office |
 |
| Inside the post office |
 |
In front of the Parliament House
I think hahaha! I really don't remember |
Shopping
Ben Thanh Market
I think this is the largest and oldest marketplace in HCMC. It is
mostly popular among tourist looking for souvenirs, over-runs or imitation items, coffee, tamarind, tshirts and many more. There is a daytime and night time markets here. I feel that the
night market prices are cheaper than the daytime one.
TIP: Sellers would initially tend to offer higher prices than what
really should be. Don’t be afraid to haggle. Haggling is very common in
Vietnam, and honestly, I was immediately identified by the local as Filipina everytime
I haggle (I really don’t know if this is a good thing :D).
Like in our case, I just asked how much does one tshirt cost. They said
its 600VND. That is very expensive. When we were about to leave, they initially
offered to bring down the cost to 300VND. That’s already 50% discount. So Shobe
and I began to choose tshirts as pasalubong to our family back home. In the
end, we bought around 9 or 10 tshirts and asked for discount. Finally they
priced us at 200VND per tshirt. That’s almost 67% discount (hahaha!)
Saigon Square
Saigon square is an indoor air-conditioned shopping center not far from
Ben Thanh market. The shops there are mostly selling clothes and bags at affordable
prices. I am not sure if these are authentic or not. But those brands do have
manufacturing in Vietnam and Cambodia. But I guess most of
them are imitations. Nevertheless, I bought bags and clothes and they are still
in good condition now.
You can also haggle here but they might not give as much discount
compared to Ben Thanh Market. For me, I prefer shopping here in Saigon Square.
Vincom Center, Parkson,
Diamond Plaza, Nowzone
These shopping centers houses high-end brands. The look and feel is comparable to Greenbelt. I guess this is popular
for those who are really on a budget. But for us, we went inside these malls
to window shop (hehehe!) and also because these malls have good airconditioning
system, it’s good to stay indoors given that it was really humid outside.
Eat
I love Vietnamese food!!! I must say, this is the first trip wherein I
really enjoyed the local food. I am not really a foodie. I just like
comfort food which I believe I deserve after the loooog day of touring. But it was
different in HCMC. I enjoyed all the food I tasted there.
1st day dinner. From the drop-off point, we happen to pass by a restaurant near New World
Hotel. We chose what's within the area because we we so hungry after the tour. We ended up at Pho Hung Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup. And ofcourse, we ordered beef noodle soup :-D
 |
| they served us with those leafy thing :D |
2nd day dinner. We looked for Pho 2000, as recommended by another friend. The restaurant is also known as Pho for the President. They have pictures all over the restaurant of Mr. Bill Clinton dining there. The restaurant is just outside Ben Thanh Market.
3rd day lunch. We decided to have lunch near our hotel. After we checked out and left our luggage (our flight is on the night), we just walked and found the Grill Bar
3rd night dinner. It was raining so hard then in HCMC. Shobe and I decided try another authentic vietnamese restaurant as this was our last night in HCMC. Our feet led us to Pho 24.
 |
| yum yum yum those noodles |
Vietnamese coffee is very famous and strong. We both tried Highlands and Trung Nguyen. We even bought both 3in1 coffee as pasalubong.
 |
| trying out Trung Nguyen Coffee |
 |
| beatin' the heat at Highlands Coffee |
Transpo
We did not spent even a single dime on transpo, except for the taxi from and to the airport. We
stayed at District 1 which is known as the central district. All the places of
our interest are just walking distance away (both short and long walks).
Budget Breakdown
In PHP
Airfare: 5,325.50 (two way per person)
Travel tax: 1,620
Terminal fee: 550
Total in Php: 7,494.50
In USD
Accommodation: USD 28 x 3 nights / 2 pax = USD 42 (3 nights per person)
Tours: USD 14 (Cu Chi) & USD 17 (Mekong) = USD 31 (2 days tour per
person)
Other expenses (i.e., shopping, food) = USD 120
Total in USD: 193 (@ USD1 = Php45) = Php 8,685
Total for 3D2N in HCMC= Php 16,179.50
And with that, I am already scheduled to go back to HCMC July this
year! This time, it will be Cambodia-Vietnam.
