The second day began with breakfast at the hotel which gave us a choice of Noodles soup (which is actually instant noodles with tomato and egg) or Bread and egg, paired with Coffee, Tea, or juice. This was the first breakfast during our stay, so it's still 'new' for us. There was others who have been staying there, they opted for the standard break and egg. The bread is freeflow as you toast it at the mini bar using the Elba and Electrolux toaster that is provided. IMHO the bread that is toasted by the Electrolux taste much better and had a cruncher texture.
The first full day trip we booked is to Ch Chi Tunnel and Cao Dai Temple. The tour guide rounded people from hotel to hotel, just like shaperd rounding their sheeps along the street. Of course, it's for people who have pre-booked with them. There was people of all nationalities coming from different parts of the world. Initially we thought it was like all westerners as we was the only Asian among the group until we saw 4 Asian lady in the bus and we guess there are from Malaysia. There was 3 ladies that was dress like punk and my girlfriend called them 'Hot and spicy'. The bus trip from the city to Cao Dai took like forever. We stopped half way at a restaurant for their rest room, something similar to Yong Peng rest stop when you take express buses down south from Kuala Lumpur to Johor or Singapore. There we saw 3 big buses that came in from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The bus says it has Wifi on board, have it gotten so advance that they could do wireless on the go. As the journey continoued on, we was required by the tour guide to provide our name and nationality, more like in the banks where you do "KYC- Know Your Customer". We decided to state Singaporean as you can't tell Chinese Malaysian and Singaporean (except the kiasu-ness, kiasi-ness, and the list goes on). Like earlier stated, the bus trip took like forever, since we departed at 8am, we finally reached the temple around 11am. Almost 3 hour in the bus, really can reach Ipoh or Johor if in Malaysia.
The sun is just damn happening, that it decide to shine brightly and warm up the land, it was so hot that i felt i could just faint anytime soon. Bright sun always contributes to good photos (except when it's behind you).
Instead of getting people to take photo for us, we decided to bring out the "3rd party" as it gave us more control over the angle of the photo. We took quite alot of photo around the temple as it took a long way to get there. The best thing that one could hope for is to finally fill the tummy. We was so hungry that we ordered 1 pork and 1 fried chicken wit rice and a coconut due to the hot sun and refreshing effect that it would bring.
After the lunch, it took like another forever to get to the Tunnel. It's a good thing that it has became cooler compared to earlier of the day. After the tickets has been claimed, the tour guide brought us around the 'park'. The first stop was screening of a short documentary about how Vietnam won the war. After the documentary, there was some explaination given base on a 3D model of how the actual tunnel is like, which it consist of 3 layers. We was next shown and was given a chance to try a real tunne. It was so small and could only fit a slim person. I didn't jump in as it was tiny and people was watching. We did manage to take photo standing in the tunnel.
There was also a 150 meters tunnel that we could walk through, but the oxygen level was kinda low and hard to breath, on top of the dust in the tunnel that we climb back up to surface at the second exit. According to the tour guide, there is 6 exits to the surface build along the path. There was also rifle firing range, but the cost was kinda high and am not a keen fan of firearms. After the tour, it was a long way back to Saigon city once again.
It was almost 7pm when we reach back to the city. The bus dropped us at the backpacker area and we walk back to our hotel. There was still a lot of motorcycles zooming around, but we are getting used to it and manage to cross the street without much trouble. We freshen up before heading out for dinner, which we decided to venture further down the street for food. We had dinner at Dung cafe which also had a wide range of selection for food.
We order 1 grill pork and 1 seafood (prawn and squid) dish with rice and 1 bottle of Saigon Beer. The prawn looked fresh and nice but the portion was small. The local beer is quite cheap if compare with Malaysia (due to the sin tax). Back along the street, as the time is much later than the first night, we could start to see more sexily clad girls and transgender at the bars. There is many articles covering the subject of working girls at tourist district, it's a norm for cities where tourism is one of their main economic activity.
The first full day trip we booked is to Ch Chi Tunnel and Cao Dai Temple. The tour guide rounded people from hotel to hotel, just like shaperd rounding their sheeps along the street. Of course, it's for people who have pre-booked with them. There was people of all nationalities coming from different parts of the world. Initially we thought it was like all westerners as we was the only Asian among the group until we saw 4 Asian lady in the bus and we guess there are from Malaysia. There was 3 ladies that was dress like punk and my girlfriend called them 'Hot and spicy'. The bus trip from the city to Cao Dai took like forever. We stopped half way at a restaurant for their rest room, something similar to Yong Peng rest stop when you take express buses down south from Kuala Lumpur to Johor or Singapore. There we saw 3 big buses that came in from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The bus says it has Wifi on board, have it gotten so advance that they could do wireless on the go. As the journey continoued on, we was required by the tour guide to provide our name and nationality, more like in the banks where you do "KYC- Know Your Customer". We decided to state Singaporean as you can't tell Chinese Malaysian and Singaporean (except the kiasu-ness, kiasi-ness, and the list goes on). Like earlier stated, the bus trip took like forever, since we departed at 8am, we finally reached the temple around 11am. Almost 3 hour in the bus, really can reach Ipoh or Johor if in Malaysia.
The sun is just damn happening, that it decide to shine brightly and warm up the land, it was so hot that i felt i could just faint anytime soon. Bright sun always contributes to good photos (except when it's behind you).
Instead of getting people to take photo for us, we decided to bring out the "3rd party" as it gave us more control over the angle of the photo. We took quite alot of photo around the temple as it took a long way to get there. The best thing that one could hope for is to finally fill the tummy. We was so hungry that we ordered 1 pork and 1 fried chicken wit rice and a coconut due to the hot sun and refreshing effect that it would bring.
After the lunch, it took like another forever to get to the Tunnel. It's a good thing that it has became cooler compared to earlier of the day. After the tickets has been claimed, the tour guide brought us around the 'park'. The first stop was screening of a short documentary about how Vietnam won the war. After the documentary, there was some explaination given base on a 3D model of how the actual tunnel is like, which it consist of 3 layers. We was next shown and was given a chance to try a real tunne. It was so small and could only fit a slim person. I didn't jump in as it was tiny and people was watching. We did manage to take photo standing in the tunnel.
There was also a 150 meters tunnel that we could walk through, but the oxygen level was kinda low and hard to breath, on top of the dust in the tunnel that we climb back up to surface at the second exit. According to the tour guide, there is 6 exits to the surface build along the path. There was also rifle firing range, but the cost was kinda high and am not a keen fan of firearms. After the tour, it was a long way back to Saigon city once again.
It was almost 7pm when we reach back to the city. The bus dropped us at the backpacker area and we walk back to our hotel. There was still a lot of motorcycles zooming around, but we are getting used to it and manage to cross the street without much trouble. We freshen up before heading out for dinner, which we decided to venture further down the street for food. We had dinner at Dung cafe which also had a wide range of selection for food.
We order 1 grill pork and 1 seafood (prawn and squid) dish with rice and 1 bottle of Saigon Beer. The prawn looked fresh and nice but the portion was small. The local beer is quite cheap if compare with Malaysia (due to the sin tax). Back along the street, as the time is much later than the first night, we could start to see more sexily clad girls and transgender at the bars. There is many articles covering the subject of working girls at tourist district, it's a norm for cities where tourism is one of their main economic activity.
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