Day 1 - 24 Jan 14
After a long wait, it was finally 24 Jan and I was so excited for my trip to Ho Chi Minh, knowing that there's many pretty girls there. Well honestly speaking, I named this trip 'The Great Escape' because the idea of going overseas came about when we knew that there would be a subaltern's parade. It so happened that the flight to Ho Chi Minh was the cheapest at that point in time thus we decided on a trip to Ho Chi Minh. It was only on that day itself when I started packing my stuff because I've got COS on the 23rd :( Sad life. But anyway, my flight was tigerair at 1pm (SGT) and expected to reach Ho Chi Minh at 2pm (VNT).
At the airport
I met Melvin at the airport at 11, and as usual Abel was late. Ivin joined us later as he was having breakfast with his mum. It was her birthday according to him. Just when we are about to check in, I realised I brought my old passport and had to rush my dad to bring my new one :( really sad life. We had McDonalds for breakfast and went to check in.
Checking in & on the plane
Went straight to the gate and Abel told me he's got phobia of the security check! I needed to pee so bad and the plane just had to come late! When the plane arrived I rushed straight into the lavatory and let out my load. I was sitting at seat 15D while Abel Melvin and Ivin was at 15A, 15B, 15C respectively. The flight was TR 2324. We took off at about 2pm and I could see so many planes queuing for takeoff. The flight was about 2 hours long and was sitting alone. :(
At Ho Chi Minh City, Tan Son Nhat Airport
When we reached the Tan Son Nhat Airport, it was about 3pm (VNT). Ivin and Abel went on to change their money and I bought a quick snack from Popeyes for about 48000 dong. I wanna say that Vietnamese girls are really gorgeous, but they all look similar in a way. It took us quite a while to find the bus stop because we are supposed to look at the road for the yellow bus stop marking.
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| Abel |
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| Melvin |
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| My Popeyes Meal |
Taking a bus to Pham Ngu Lao
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| Bus 152 |
We took bus 152 for 5000 dong and headed toward Pham Ngu Lao. The air in Ho Chi Minh is rather polluted and you can see many Vietnamese wearing a face mask to avoid breathing in the polluted air. I was looking at my map trying to determine where we were, but honestly it was rather useless as the roads doesn't have signs which states the name of the road. I finally determined that we've reached when I saw Ben Thanh Market, at the second roundabout. We alighted at the Ben Thanh Bus Interchange, but Abel claimed that we can alight 2 stops later to stop closer to Pham Ngu Lao Street, which seemed rather true.
Nguyen Khang Hotel
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| Our Hotel |
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| Reception |
It took us a while to navigate to Nguyen Khang Hotel, which was located at 283/25 Pham Ngu Lao Street, District 1, District 1 - Pham Ngu Lao / Tay Balo, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 70000. We were warmly welcome by the hotel receptionist Huong, who served us delicious pineapple juice. She told us that she could give us service for 4 instead of 3, because we merely booked the hotel for 3, for just an additional USD10 per night. She sent people to prepare our room. Meanwhile, she gave us a map and introduced us certain places to go. She took care of our passports and showed us to our rooms, which was at the 4th floor. We took a short nap before heading off again. I bought some 500ml mineral water for merely 5000 dong. We also booked the Cu Chi Tunnel tour here for 130000 dong.
Street Shopping & dinner at Five Oysters
Just along a the streets outside, we went to a convenient mart and bought some things, like a shaver for me and a 3G SIM card for Melvin.
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| Five Oysters |
Following which, we headed to Five Oysters restaurant as recommended by Huong. The food there was simply delicious, where I ordered a bowl of chicken fried rice since I don't eat seafood. I'm quite surprised that it was filled with lots of spices and vegetables. There was free WiFi here and the environment was nice. I spent 60000 dong on my fried rice and 30000 on my orange juice. All day long I was trying to speak Vietnamese to the locals by learning from an app that I downloaded prior to coming here. What was funny was that I asked one of the waitress where's the toilet' in Vietnamese when in fact she isn't one of the locals! After eating we walked around the area trying to shop for clothes and stuff but there was nothing much to buy.
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| My Orange Juice |
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| Abel and his watermelon Juice |
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| My Fried Rice |
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| Crab |
Ben Thanh Market & Supper
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| Ben Thanh Night Market |
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| Ben Thanh Night Market
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| Ben Thanh Night Market
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| Ben Thanh Night Market
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We then walked to Ben Thanh night market. What was sold were t-shirts, bags and belts that had the same designs everywhere. Ivin and I haggled for a belt which costed 300000 dong for one and bought it at 225000 dong for 3. Ain't we just good auntie killers. ;) Following which we followed Ivin to buy a pair of sunglasses, while Melvin bought some dried squid to bite on as he was so dam bored. We then slowly walked across the streets looking for Ivin's bag, but to no avail. Thus we then went back to the hotel to wash up before going for supper at a restaurant just below our hotel. We shared a pizza and I had a coconut drink. I spent roughly 55000 dong. After that, we went back to the hotel to take our nap.
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| Abel and his tea |
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| Our Pizza |
Day 2 - 25 Jan 14
On the second day, we woke up at about 930am and rushed to get down to the basement level to be on time for our breakfast as breakfast was only served from 7-10am. There was this rather hot lady who served us breakfast, in which I chose bread, egg and sausage with milk tea. It tastes rather palatable although the sausage tasted somewhat different from what we get back in Singapore.
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| Breakfast! |
Saigon Square
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| Bus 88 |
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| Saigon Square |
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| Saigon Square
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We then quickly headed off to take bus 88 to Saigon square, costing us 6000 dong each. Saigon square was much of a disappointment because it sells almost exactly the same thing as it did in Ben Thanh market. We merely walked around enjoying the looks of the ladies there, but bought nothing much. Thankfully, I saw an electronics shop and bought an iPhone 5 screen protector for 50000 dong. The lady pasted it on my phone screen so flawlessly.
Heading to Nha Hang Ngon Restaurant for Lunch
We left Saigon square in less than an hour and headed to one of the restaurants Huong recommended us to. On the way, we went into a bakery to get some buns where I saw this really cute Vietnamese lady whom I kept looking at. She did take notice of me, but I didn't do anything much. We walked past several places like the Opera House and Granvelle Hotel. Soon, we reached Nha Hang Ngon restaurant and was warmly welcome by one of the security guards. We went deep into the restaurant to the second storey. The glass table was burning hot I bet I could cook an egg on it. I noticed that the others were feeling a little down and at the same time I had quite a bit of spare cash, so I bought quite a few side dishes to share with the others. Obviously I picked all the ones with pork because I don't eat seafood. So one by one weird looking dishes were being served. I'm not a really good eater so it feels kind of weird for me to devour all of them, so I merely ate like one of each. Then came a really really weird dish which looks like white flour and what looked like carrot inside. We took quite a while to figure out what it was until Melvin had the courage to eat it and realise that it was actually prawn. I'm quite surprised that there was prawn in the pork side I ordered. Ivin had some really weird noodle cooked in hue style, which totally tasted like prawn paste. The worst was Melvin's beef. He couldn't finish it so I tried a piece of it, and when the bill came, I realised I had just eaten beef in fish sauce! I also found out that they got me the wrong order for the prawn side :(
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| Granvelle Hotel |
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| City Opera House |
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| City Opera House |
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| Nha Hang Ngon Restaurant |
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| The Menu |
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| Orange Juice |
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| Avocado |
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| Melvin's Beef in Fish Sause |
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| Shrimp Roll |
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| Pork Roll |
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| This thing tastes like Chee Chiong Fan + Cha Siew + Luncheon Meat |
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| My Noodle |
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| Ivin's Hue Style Noodle |
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| Melvin's Noodle |
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| Abel's Meatball Noodles |
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| Something like Chendol |
Central Post Office and Opera house
After the meal we walked past the Notre Dome Cathedral and towards the Central Post Office. The streets here look much more developed than the ones at Pham Ngu Lao. The buildings were beautiful, making me feel as though I was walking in America.
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| Notre Dome Cathedral |
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| Central Post Office |
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| Notre Dome Cathedral
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| Notre Dome Cathedral
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| Central Post Office
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Street Shopping @ Pham Ngu Lao & Dinner
We took bus 3 (5000 dong) back to Ben Thanh interchange and took a walk back to the streets around Pham Ngu Lao. The shops were quite repetitive and we quickly got bored of shopping, thus we set down in a Cafe called Crazy Buffalo to have a snack, which eventually turned into dinner. After much persuasion, I was made to drink a cup of beer, with spaghetti, which cost me 130000 dong, and we sat there for quite a while watching the busy streets and how it transitions as night falls. The weather was rather chilly and honestly, it felt really good just sitting there and stoning.
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| Beef Bolognese |
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| Carbonara |
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| Duck Liver |
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| Busy streets |
Massage
Soon after, we went back to the hotel for a shower and some rest. Then came one of the best part of my trip, massage at aRoma Viet Spa. Ivin Abel and I changed into our sleeping clothes and went for a full body hot stone massage. The 3 of us were warmly welcome by a beautiful Vietnamese lady who brought us to level 3 where three ladies started giving us massage. I wasn't wearing my spectacles at that time thus I wasn't really sure how the 3 masseuses looked like. However, I could feel that mine was rather skillful but her voice sounded rather old. Abel's masseuse sounded darn gentle and even asked him things like where is he from etc. However, Ivin's masseuse was the most lazy because his massage started the latest and ended the earliest! After we finished, they followed us downstairs and we were able to see the looks of our masseuses. Mine looked like a 30 year old woman, but she was rather friendly looking. I don't remember Ivin's, but Abel's was just like an angel - a skinny girl with a long and high ponytail. They served us tea and some coconut candy and made us sign a tip form. My masseuse was called 'Linh' but Abel couldn't remember his masseuce's name. All he knows is that it starts with a Q. We thought it was quite a good service so we gave 200000 dong each, plus tips. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to reunite with Melvin. We went to a shop called Burger crazy and had our supper. I had a simple chicken cutlet and orange juice for 68000 dong. It was rather salty, but other than that I thought it tasted quite good. We were so tired and slept rather early.
Day 3 - 26 Jan 14
We woke up at 8am and rushed down for breakfast because our Cu Chi Tunnel trip starts at 830am. I had the Vietnamese noodle which tasted like instant noodles - a pretty tasty version of it - and milk tea. When we were halfway done with the food, the tour guide came to rush us to his bus. I gorged myself with the food and drank my tea as though I was water parading.
Handicapped Handicrafts & Cu Chi Tunnel
It turned out that we were the first on the bus. It was a rather long wait as the tour guide had to gather all the other tourists from all over Pham Ngu Lao, thus I took out my earpiece and had a short nap. When everyone gather, the tour guide, named Billy, nicknamed himself Mr. Bean and kept talking about the history of Vietnam in a weird Vietnamese-Filipino-American accent where I had great difficulty trying to decipher what the hell he is saying. Soon after, I fell asleep again and only to awake at a handicap workshop. This workshop is opened for the people who were exposed to the chemical warfare in the past which made their body unable to develop normally, especially their limbs. The handicapped handicrafts were beautiful, but not something that I would buy.
By the time we reached the Cu Chi Tunnel, it was around 11am. We paid 90000 dong for the entrance fee and took a short tour around the area. We saw things like the man-hole, the dog trap, various sniper holes, human-traps and took a walk at the tunnel itself. It was a 100m walk but I had to duck walk all the way and it was tiring as hell. I was drenched with sweat the moment I was out. There was also a live range there, but the rounds costs like about S$2 each if I remember correctly. I had some grilled corn and meatballs and we headed back to Pham Ngu Lao.
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| Psss, I'm actually checking out the girl with the hair band |
Late Lunch - 3pm
Billy introduced and dropped us off at a cafe where we were welcome by a beautiful Vietnamese teenage who was a waitress there. I kept smiling at her and she politely smiled back. I intended to have lunch here but Abel wasn't feeling very well because of the milk he drank in the morning, so he merely had a light one. I ordered a banana shake, which was darn thick, and a chicken fried noodle, which was actually Vietnamese noodle(maggi) with lots and lots of vegetables. However, it tasted really fantastic. Additionally, I ordered a sour chicken soup. It tasted very unique, with a sweet-sour-bitter taste, which turns out to be rather appealing. However, it was also filled with vegetables which I was unable to finish.
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| Banana Shake |
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| Sour Soup |
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| Chicken Noodle |
Zen Plaza
We quickly went back to the hotel to take a rest. Soon after, we took a walk to Zen Plaza, which was utterly disappointing as there was merely about 5 shops. It looked so much like the shopping centres we have here in Singapore. After walking one big round, we came back to the hotel to have a rest.
Pho for dinner!
Abel really looked rather unwell. When he was feeling better, we headed to a small alley off the main street and went into a shop Abel introduced. We had Pho for merely 30000 dong, and the bottled drinks only cost 10000 dong. The uncle was very nice and made Abel a drink for his bloated stomach. We were touched by his kindness and gave him a 50000 dong tip.
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| Great Tasting Meatball Pho |
Ben Thanh Market to Night Market
We made it just in time to see the transition of Ben Thanh Market to Ben Thanh Night Market. The people inside the market actually sells almost exactly the same things as they would at the night market. I reckoned the only difference was the atmosphere. The sellers are really very desperate to sell things and they would actually grab my hands to pull me along to view their shops. Well, some of them are actually very good looking. So its really a great place for desperate guys waiting for girls to hold their hands and hear them moan and groan. I followed Ivin to buy his bag and later realised that we have lost Abel and Melvin.
Back to hotel & Supper
We were done with shopping and thus headed back to the hotel first, leaving Melvin a text stating our early departure. When they were finally back, Abel told us that Huong actually made him tea for his stomach, in hope that he will feel better. Ivin and I were hungry and headed down for supper. I merely had a simple chicken spaghetti. It was kind of different from what we have here, because it was rather dry, but the sauce was still well spread out.
Massage Round Two
We headed back, and I tagged with Abel with massage round two. But sadly, the shops recommended by Huong were all full or closed. She told us that if we want, we could walk down the streets to visit one as there were many down the streets. We followed her instructions and was stopped by a beautiful Vietnamese lady, whom we followed to the spa. Down a dark alley we saw a rather sleazy shop. Out of nowhere, two ladies who looked like they were in their mid 30s appeared. One of them looked rather fat and I told Abel, "If she's my masseuse I'll be dam turned off.". It turned out that she was Abel's masseuse. We were brought to different rooms and in my room, I saw an Ang Moh who was only wearing his underwear. Next time I know was that I was told to take off everything except my underwear. As I lie prone on the bed, the masseuse then started rubbing her hands all over me. If felt to me that she has the intention of turning me on. She was more of like touching me than giving me a massage because she was barely even using strength. In regular intervals, she kept going out and in, for god knows why. After a while, I was told to face up. In a while, she disappeared and I realised the curtains were starting to close up. Suddenly, the beautiful young woman who brought me here leaped on me, on all fours, facing down on me. She was just on top of me, and asked me, "You want baby?" with a seductive voice and smile. My eyesight was blurry and I just shook my hands, in fear that the guy beside me could hear me. She kept trying to seduce me by touching me and showing me faces. Of course, by that time I was already having a big hard-on, and she could see it. She tried to turn me on even more by touching it, but I insisted against it. She kept asking me why and I didn't say anything other than shake my hands. I didn't really want anyone to play with my dick. Her last resort was to say that my friend is enjoying special services right now, but I still rejected her nevertheless.(To clarify things, she merely lied to me to make me accept her offer) She gave a sad frown and went away. I could hear that she was flirting to the Ang Moh beside, while my old masseuse instantly reappeared. She just made do with the rest of the time with some mediocre massage and said I was done. I couldn't wait to see Abel, who was waiting for me at the door. I paid 120000 dong plus a 20000 dong tip, and headed back to the hotel. I realised I actually wet myself quite a bit. I quickly showered and head for bed.
Day 4 - 27 Jan 14
On the 4th and last day, our plan was to wake up at 730am, but we ended up waking at 8am, where we had our final breakfast. I went to take a photo with Huong, followed by a group photo. I'm quite an emotionally-attached person, so I found it slightly heart-breaking to leave. I think up till now, I still kind of miss her!
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| Pretty Huong |
Heading to Dam Sen Water Park
We headed to Ben Thanh Bus Terminal as instructed by Huong to take bus 11 to Dam Sen Water Park, but the people there said that there isn't bus 11 there. We navigated for quite a while and finally stopped wasting time and took a cab there, which wasn't really expensive - 50000 dong per person. The entry ticket for the water park was merely 120000 dong, and the locker ticket was 15000 dong. It was rather cheap and there were so many slides there! However, most of them were merely just for fun for once. There were a few slides that were like 3-4 storeys high, but it was badly designed because I couldn't even see where I was going, which took away the thrill. Some of the slides were quite a failure because the water current wasn't strong enough to push us down - they need to standby 1 crew to push us down, or we needed to shake our float to push it down. Nevertheless, there were many similar facilities like things you could find in Wild Wild Wet or Adventure Cove. One particular slide I liked was the one where you will fall 45 degrees down a 30 meter slide at increasing speed and right at the bottom was a circular container where you will just spin a few rounds without realising it, and finally drop down the hole at the center like a piece of shit.
Back to the Airport
At about 1pm, we left the water park and tried hailing for a cab outside. There were so many occupied cabs and we took quite a while to get onto one. Thankfully the ride to the airport was rather short, and each person paid about 36000 dong. We had lunch at popeyes(yes i know AGAIN), and I bought the 5 piece chicken tender with 1 piece free chicken at only 101000 dong. I was so darn full from eating that meal, and we went into the airport to catch a nap until the check-in counter was open, at 4pm. We ended up sleeping until 5pm, where we checked in together. At the counter to the left, there was a really beautiful Vietnamese lady who looked like she's about 25, wearing red and looking pretty hot. The best thing was she was travelling alone. Abel and I kept looking at her, and I'm pretty sure she noticed us, and was enjoying being noticed because many times she just glanced back at us. She was really gorgeous all the time from when I checked in till i board the plane, I kept looking at her. Too bad she was sitting right at the front while we were sitting right at the back.
The flight itself
The flight was at 6pm, TR 2329 from Tan Son Nhat Airport Vietnam to Changi Airport Singapore. I was sitting at 26C and Abel was sitting at 27C. Next thing I knew was that Abel told me that there's a girl who kept looking at him from the right at seat 27F. I immediately checked her out and she does look kind of cute. The lady in front of me was carrying a rather bulky luggage, so I politely helped her stow her luggage as the air stewardess weren't really efficient. Well honestly speaking, I believe that the girl at 27F was the one who started checking us out. But nevertheless, we kept looking at her, and she'd just look back. There were several occasions where we smiled at each other. The seat beside her was empty and to be honest, I'd love to go talk to her, but I reserved the rights to Abel because she checked him out first. When we alighted, I followed Ivin to the gents, while the other two followed her. I caught up to them and went out via the express counter while she had to queue as she isn't a resident. I kept my eye on her and went into the duty-free shop to help Melvin buy his liquor. I tried to catch her attention outside the shop, but I guess she didn't see me. She walked out alone and was waving to someone outside. Apparently she didn't have any luggage. Honestly I regret not talking to her. Totally wished I did. Up till now, I still remember how she looked like. She tied a bun on her head, had light make-up, a red lipstick and some pimples near her ear. She was wearing a spotted white shirt and a pair of long pants. I really wanted to chase after her, but my mum was unexpectedly here to fetch me home. Tough luck :(
After thinking for a few days, I told myself that she was just being friendly and had no intention of knowing us, otherwise she would have at least looked at Abel when she walked past him. I spent quite a few days thinking of her, but slowly stopped.
All in all, I think I'd like to say that Ho Chi Minh city is really a city you'd want to visit, but if I were to visit it again, I would definitely go and visit Huong again, and get some great massage at the first shop I went. I would head to the Mekong Delta for a tour.
If you're thinking how much I've spent, I brought 8,000,000 dong (S$250), and according to my records, I spent roughly about 4,000,000 dong (S$125). The air ticket was about $130, and the hotel was about $50. So in total I spent slightly more than S$300.
I know it's a really long post, and if you've finished reading it, I want to thank you for your effort. It took me about 4 days to post this.
The End
# posted by
Everard | 1:20 AM
Digimon Tamer
Name: Everard Choo Kwee Meng
Age: 14+
Birthday: 10 Sept 1993
Class: 3e3'08 HSCS
Email: everardchookweemeng@hotmail.com
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