Is life so fragile

?

Ho Chi Minh June 07-2010

Took the last flight out from K.K. to LCCT arriving a little after 0000 hours. I'm sleeping at LCCT for 7 hours.

The seats are designed to prevent any achievable position of comfort for sleep. After hours of cramped legs and strained necks, i decided to just lie on the cold floor like some refugee.

I awake to tens of eyes looking at me like i'm some sad low life without a home. Not one face familiar. Ahhh, 2 more hours.

We checked in at 0730 hrs and our 2 hrs flight to Ho Chi Minh will depart at 0920 hrs. Slept most of the way.

Upon arrival, hundred of ppl greeted us. Straight out from some movie. We got a USD 16 taxi to take us to our grand hotel where we will sneak 3 girls in.

The transit will take about 20 minutes and 1st thing i noticed was they drive on the wrong side of the road. Stupid french.

Next thing we found out was that traffic lights has very minimal usage and there are lots and lots and lots of motocycles zigzagging around.

4 million bikes to be exact.

Our eyes went wide when we were told we arrived at our hotel. It was....

BEHIND the green building.

We knew there and then we cant sneak the 3 girls in. Hence, we book a triple room for them where as us 4 guys will have 2 rooms.

The hotel room borders from cheap to reasonable. But i will put a very high value to price ratio. Paying about RM80-90 per person for the 3 nights. It was very very worth our money. The hotel service is very good. The innkeeper was very friendly and helpful. If you're planning to go to Ho Chi Minh, i fully recommend this hotel.

Since we were all fresh and full of energy, we went right out the door after dropping our bags. Ben Tahn market is just a 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It offers everything from underwears to chopsticks to snakes in a bottle. You will make ppl lucky there too. ;)

Whilst walking, saw smth that caught my eye. Smth orangey smth local.

Called Bo Bia natively and it sounds similar to our popiah. It tasted alright, but the orange rice paper feels like plastic. After the first bite i was sure it was plastic. Worse than the fish from filipino market.

We then went on to eat smth of a mixture of bad tom yam and chili. I quick like it though.



It was spicy but it wasnt sweet. It hit some of the right spots for me but not fully. Others didnt seem to like it one bit.

After going around Ben Tahn market once. Around, not inside. The rest we still pretty famished and sat down for some beef + seafood Pho. I think it was 30 000 dong.

and some Banana rice cake.

Took one bite of the Pho and didnt like it at all. It tasted bad to me. Soup was sweet and the blend wasnt too harmonious. Didnt say much coz others was eating but it really sucked to me.

Banana rice cake wasnt too shabby though. Something you wont be seeing in KL. Banana was fresh but the rice was a little over fried.

We then entered the famous Ben Tahn marker where right away the girls went wild.

It's a huge square complex where the area is divided according to the good they sell. Clothings will take one, F&B another, Bags and girl stuff and so forth. I think you can find anything vietnam has to offer under the roof here.

One thing tho, haggle and haggle like your momma needs it. If you're a guy, don't be fooled into paying more just because the sales girl dont look too bad and say you make her lucky.
I touched her meh?

After a couple of hours of walking alone, the girls were out looking at their stuff and the guys were buying chopsticks. Bumped into sue and we strolled around, when we stumbled upon smth. We both heard about it before and we're just talking about it minutes before whence we came upon..

An egg.

Looks like a normal egg no? It's duck. To be precise, it's an egg turning into a duckling. Note turning, for:

The hairs are already visible and the internal organs are just sitting there waiting to be scooped. A plunge of your spoon will bring you red, slimy and yoke. Yes, the yoke is still there.

I will admit, it actually tasted like a normal duck egg. But your sight and smell will deceive you. Forcing you to think that it's a duckling you're eating.

That my friend, is the fella's eyes.

Did i finish it? Yes i did but not without assistance. Sue was sitting beside me video-ing my 'adventure' I had a trusted Heineken to help me down it all.

The last bite was a real bitch. It was all organs and i saw some flaky plasticky materials. I do not know what that is. Last bite, i cant pull out now. I threew it into my mouth and down some Heineken quick.

I was very relieved when it was over.

Okay, that's all thats interesting from my vietnam escapade. Thank you and bye.

We went to Pho 24 located at a corner shop facing the market. It's quite famous. But it's for tourists mostly hence the food isnt good. Just go there if you wanan see Bill Clinton hanging, don't go for the food.


Beef nodles and seafood noodles. Both tasted sweet. Lousy. Price per bowl is about 35 000 dong? RM 7 - 8 per bowl. Same thing you'll get from some vietnamese noodles house back home, just that back home might be a lil more tasty.

Awfully yucky.

That night we wanted to go to some restaurant recommended from a tour book. The prices looked reasonable and the pictures were salivating. We walked and walked but found nthg and finally ended up at some road side big fry.

The peddlers weere surprising chinese and could speak a few cantonese. Nevertheless, staying in vietnam for so long has thinned their vocab.

The beef and chips in the 2nd pic was pretty good but the portion was too small. The fried squid was very nice. I shall not pretend i remember their vietnamese names.

On out way back, we spotted this.

FUN FAIR! In a shoplot. XD

2nd Day
We paid USD 8 for a full day trip to Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnel. We woke up at 0700 and got picked up at 0800. Breakfast was bread with egg or bread with jam with a glass or juice, tea or coffee. What is abundant is the omnipresent bananas on the table.

It's a 3 hours bus ride to the temple first. Half way in, we stopped at a tourist attraction. If art is your cup of tea, shop away. In USD.

Apparently the government set factory up to provide jobs for those affected by Agent Orange. They looked okay, but i still pity them somewhat. Paying for the mistakes and arrogance of others. They are quite skilled too.

Carvings are made by shells. Egg shells mostly but some times sea shells too. Very skillful hands.

Inside, it's a big gallery consisting of porcelain shoes, vases, drawings and sculptures. Some were very beautiful but since it;s in USD, i didnt buy anything. Besides, they wont appreciate my taste.

We didnt stay for long and were soon on our way. Another 1.5 hrs and we set foot at the gates of the temple.

CAO DAI TEMPLE.

The temple area covers about 1 sq km hence is quite huge. The temple itself though, not so. There was an obelisk though. It told me it's about noon.

Once inside though. i knew there's smth different to this temple. I dont know what it is but the feeling is that this aint just some ordinary temple.

All the devotees are old!



No, not that.

What caught my eye was that, the Paraphernalia decorating the walls consists of chinese gods, Hindu gods, Jesus and so forth. It's as though it's the temple of all Gods none that is greater, all made equal. All are Gods.

An ubiquitous symbol around the temple is the eye of the freemasons. Take an USD 1 note and you'll see the eye at the apex. And the eye is here, every where.

We stopped for lunch at Lan Phoung on the way to Cu Chi tunnel where i met Blackie.

She was super manja and wanted everyone's attention.

I wonder for that moment if she'll become some poor soul's meal. Lunch was gonna be from our own pockets. Had spring rolls, tofu + vege and beef + vege. vege vege vege, see also sien d.

Only thing nice was the spring roll. The other 2, waste of stomach space.

It took us roughly an hour to reach Cu Chi tunnel where we were given a propaganda video. Some one should tell them the Vietnam war is over, screw off with how great the communists are.

The first real thing we saw was a foxhole. The 'heroes' will hide inside and pop out when jimmys are around.

I'm thinking they wont be much frightened when she comes up. They'll see her from a mile away.

We were then shown a broken M1 tank which a 'hero' destroyed by himself.

Next, we were given a tour of all the traps used by the communist. They were all pretty dandy and definitely looks deadly.

If they had so much time to dig some hole, they surely had time to do smth useful no?

Like cleaning the AK47's...

We all got our chance to shoot an AK47 and a M16. The AK has a much bigger recoil and the M16 much more stable. None of us hit the target though. =(

It costs us about RM50 for 10 bullets. The 7 of us shared 20 bullets. 10 for AK 10 for M16. Had wanted to take 10 for myself and get a feel and maybe try to hit the target but i was already committed. Oh wells, felt good just having to ever shot a gun!

There are 3 levels in Cu Chi. Level 1 is where all the bunkers at. Mess hall, armoury and all,

The 2nd level is the tunnel where you have to crawl. We went about 40m's only. It was dark except for the newly installed light and it was narrow. Those vietcongs must be real small fries. No wonder it's so hard to hit them. How to kill a fly with a tree ?

We were back at our hotel around 1800hrs and were exhausted. We all rested for a bit and went out for dinner at Green Mountain? I forgot. And for some unknown reasons i dont have any pictures of it in my camera too.

I shall get confirmation of that cafe's name because it's a MUST GO when you're there. The food is very delicious. 5 star tastes for about 3-4 stars pricing. When you're there, order their spring roll, beef with lemon grass and their pork.

if unsure of what to order, ask the waiter to recommend. He wont select expensive dishes only but will make sound recommendation.

3rd Day
USD 10 for a trip to the mekong river, boat ride and all. There's a USD 15 trip where it'll bring you deeper up river and you'll see more things. A 2 day mekong trip will enable you to visit the morning market which ends at around 0500. Imagine what time you gotta wake.

Our tour guide Mickey was a rather nice guy. I think all tour guides are meant to be? We had a pit stop for some happy time.

I dont know what's so happy about being in the room with urine and stool but hey, if the vietnamese thinks it's happy for them, i'm all for embracing one's culture.

In Rome do as the roman does.

No, actually. We stopped by here to watch duck's buttocks.

Quite nice don't you agree?

Just cam-whoring a bit.

We were at the docks to board the big boat. And from there, we hopped on to a smaller oen to explore some of the canals.

Mickey practically forced everyone of us to take pictures are the front. We took turns going 2 by 2.

Once inland, we were brought to a coconut candy factory where the sweet made were fresh and tasty.

I dont really dig stuff like this but i found it quite tasty too. Bought 3 packets back for my family. One is left untouched, 2 is half gone. Ain't very marketable at home. -.-

Lunch was provided at some restaurant in another island. Unicorn island i think, it's the biggest island there. We savoured the local fish called elephant ear fish.

The fish is served upright instead of flat. Presentation was good, the flesh acceptable. Not too expensive too, About 100 000 dong if i remember correctly for 1kg fish. There's 1.5kg if you have a big appetite.

Next we were brought to the Bee farm where Cheng stuck her finger into the middle of it to get some honey. She already looks a lil like Winnie the Pooh. That action just confirms it.

Honey tea was served and it wasn't too bad. Must be the honey. ;) We were then persuaded to buy some back. They rest bought about 1 bottle each.

We were then shown what was to be the creme product. Royal jelly. It tasted sour and..... sour. We were told about all the goodness and advantages of the royal jelly. All 7 of us bought one back. Just to try and see how effective it is.

Mine is left untouched on the table in the living room. Not very marketable either. Damn.

We were then brought to listen to some traditional folk songs. Didnt sound very melodious to me frankly but it wasn't noise pollution.

Mickey on the right, even performed a long song duet for us. He was quite good too.

And this marks the ending of our Mekong River Day trip. Oh, we got the paddle our own sampan from inland back to the river. 4 per boat and you get paddles. Awesome fun. About the only things thats fun for me. -.-

That night we went for a cruise cum dinner about a ship.

Take a taxi to the saigon river and you have a selection of ships to board and enjoy your meal. The ships will depart at 0830 hrs but you must board earlier. Different ship will serve different food. The first docked ship we couldnt board as it was full. It's as though the whole of saigon descended on it. It serves western and the price is about RM 40 - 50 per plate. Ship looks good too.

Hence we board the above ship and we had a normal vietnamese dinner. I had no pictures of the food as i've neglected to charge my camera. But i will state that the food wasn't all that impressive. And the only thing i found to my liking was the curry of the eel.

Curry, not the eel.

On our last day, we went to Pasteur Road to get some very nice Pho that local ppl go to. It was recommended to us by Mickey.

Some of us had chicken Pho, Some beef and some a mixture of beef.

I had a bowl mixed with everything in a cow.

Super Delicious. This Pho comes higly recommended. The others aren't too shabby too i reckon as each person finished their bowl clean. Soup and all.

This is some side dish. It's meat and it's cold. But it's very nice too. Mouthful of taste and the texture let's you know it's meat alright. It goes well with your Pho too. Chuck it in to heat it up a lil. It's goes well both cold or hot, to me at least.

Another side dish you can order is their wedding cake. It's actually agar-agar with some strands of coconut and one biji gingko.

I've forgotten where i saw this hence i put this at the end.


Pictures above are boiled eel by the side of the road. One's eel soup where you drink the soup only. There's no meat to be seen as when the cook scooped it up, all we saw where eel head with bones!

The meat is deep fried on the right. You be the judge if you wanna try i aint recommending nor dissuading. We didnt try it though.

Some things we tried, i dont know why but there's no pictures here too. I think someone deleted it. On our last night, after our cruise. We went to a shop numbered 181 i think along the road Nguyen Cong Tru.

There you can have breasts and Penis depending on your preference for a small fee. We all had a go and were more or less satisfied at their service.

Lamb breasts were fat and oil whilst the Buffalo Penis with Pig Brain was tender and juicy. Ehhh?? Meh, penis are all muscle right, of course it's tender. The lamb breasts are barbecued whilst the buffalo Penis comes in soup which was quite good.

Must try when you're there. And for those who are interested in eating smth docile, smth cute. Ask clement and saimun for the location of dog meat.

Hiphop baby made my trip! He's about 4 - 5 ? But boy was he scorching the floor.
This baby can dance. We stood there for about 10 minutes just watching him do his thing.
His mom and relatives were definitely encouraging him and so were his brothers.
Bringing down the house yo!

Baby!