Back from Vietnam! Photos taken by others would hopefully be up on facebook soon. =) Awesomely fun trip!!!

Day 1:
We gathered at budget terminal in the wee hours zzz. Went to Hot off the press to get some more reading materials and that was where i encountered the uber ruder saleswoman/cashier. I've never seen anyone as rude as her working in sales. Perhaps it was just that time of the day.
Had macs and Terence came off shagged because he went to chiong last night. We had lots of fun laughing about the incidents tht followed after that. So we boarded the plane and ter was next to me. He SEEMED fine but was coughing a bit. Then as the plane landed in Ho Chi Minh (i think i will call it Saigon city from now on, will explain more later), he wanted to puke. So we quickly got him the paper bag and he was trying to puke ... when suddenly he went all limp and leaned on the seat infront. TianHao and me were like o_O so we asked him to sit down. He rested for awhile and because i had stuff to take from the top cabin, i had to leave my seat and to take my stuff. I told Bryant that Ter needs support and then i walked in front to lead the way out of the plane. Ben was behind Ter supporting him and Bryant was holding his hand ... when Ter just collapsed onto the aisle. I literally watched him fell flat on his face.

Wow what a way to start the trip! Haha ... and i was like this time jialat liao. Apparently due to the change in air pressure and ter having a hangover and all the alcohol inside him, he fainted. Then the wheelchair came. It was like 0_o again. We watched him wheeled out half-seh and everyone looking at us. Mind you there were 11 of us and it was quite a procession.

Luckily Ter recovered soon after with plenty of water. Went out and saw this driver holding a board saying BONITA YU. Pretty awesome to get picked up. Then came the next shocker. Traffic and the driving. AND the horning.

Seriously, after this trip, i am so thankful for Singapore roads and how nice drivers we all are. They practically horn for everything. The number of horns a driver can have in a day over there far exceed the number of horns i would commit in my life. No one keeps to their lane and its a free-for-all. I think the problem lies seriously with the motorbikes there. Too many. Lack of public transport and hence with thousands of motorbikes on a single road, everything becomes haphazard.

Checked into Saigon Minihotel which in my opinion from this trip is an extremely recommended budget hotel. We had an incident with them and their response was first class. More on that later.

Went to Ben Thanh market after that. Got cornered there right after entering. And it was bad because i was walking behind ensuring that nothing bad happens, then i just GLANCED at one of the tshirt and this salesgirl started to grab my hand and prevented me from walking forward. You see, the way the market is structured is very congested. She was uttering all the while "what are you looking for?", "how much you want?" and all the nonsense and i was getting a little peeved. Seriously if she wasn't female, something nasty might have happened. Then her colleague came and pull me INTO the shop. I was like omg. Then i tried to reason out with them, asking them to give me the best price because the very first price they quote me is freaking more than 3 times what i was told it usually costs.

So one of them was asking me how much i want to pay them, then i told them you give me a good price if cheap then i buy. The sales techniques used if properly observed, are numerous and extremely tricky. So i minus the price all the way to a little bit more than what i wanted, and she was like ok ... then when i took out the money, she said if i buy 3, i can have them at the price i want. Honestly, this showed a lot for their need of money. You talk about compassion, i don't know the balance anymore. When you need to resort to such tactics, i don't blame you. It's only for survival.

Anyway after i paid for the shirt, obviously i had lost the rest. So i had to wander around hoping to bump into one of my other 10 friends, which i did luckily after 10 mins. Then it was another funny situation when we realised some of them are Vietnamese Chinese so we had to resort to speak Hokkien to each other to communicate about our bargaining strategies. It was really a sight. =p

Spent several hours bargaining which was extremely tiring. Then went to this restaurant known as Cappuccino for dinner. Very shagged dinner.

Then being the sucker for massages, Claudine, Ben and me went for one opposite our hotel which SUCKED! No techniques or anything.

Bunked in with Bryant, Many and Jialin. Man utd's match was on so i was watching it before Many & Bryant's water fight, which resulted in half of my bed being soaked. Shiok. Bryant migrated over to Jialin's bed and conked out while Many had to use the hair dryer to dry the part of the bed next to where i was sleeping. Damn funny. But apparently in Tianhao's room, they didn't spill water. They spilled red wine. Sheesh.

Day 2:
Woke up bright and early for a guided tour to some temple and the Cuchi tunnels. Pretty awesome trip with our first taste of a Vietnamese tourguide.All of us could mimic him after that day. As we had 11, and me being antisocial that day, i was sitting alone ... until a random guy from another hotel came and sat next to me. Well ... the thing is 2 strangers were sitting behind me too and they started talking much earlier on, and i was quite envious such easy communication and talk could be established. And ... what happened for the next 3 hours were plenty of talking between me and that guy who happened to be a Vietnamese who migrated long ago to Melbourne. There was plenty of discussion about the Vietnam war, about communism and Ho Chi Minh, as well as religion.

Cuchi tunnels were pretty cool as we had the chance to see how it was like when the guerillas had to fight in the war and their underground network which was massive.
After the day tour, we went back to Ben Thanh area for Pho which if the famous Vietnam Beef Noodles. Pretty good. Then it was more shopping at the night market. Bargaining is damn tiring. I soon found out watching people bargain is also tiring. I began to notice the evolution of sales and buying/bargainig techniques ... all the sales psychology zzz.

Then as we were damn shagged after all the walking, we hailed a cab which somehow could fit 10 of us ... and somehow i don't know how, i managed to get the cab driver to agree to a sum of 20000 dong for the trip for all of us. That amounts to less than 20 cents from each of us. I was feeling damn bad so i threw all my smaller notes to him as tips.

Day 3:
Morning. Damn shagged. Perfect way to wake me up was i had to wait 30 mins for breakfast to come and watch the angmohs who seemingly had came after us to get their food first. So i was pissed about the unfair treatment. So they treat us lousier because we are like them Asians? So i went down to the reception and complained to them. Bryant came along and also said his part ... and one of the reasons why i was so pissed was cos we had a guided tour which was picking us up at 730am.

Anyway went on a guided tour to Mekong River. Saw and experienced their way of life, selling snacks and rice cereals, as well as the river market. I was falling asleep on the boat most of the way because i really love the wind and little splatters of water against your face. We had an angmoh in the same tour who i named the Avatar Man cos he really looked like one! =p

After lunch, we had a chance to take photos with a python. The thing is this, the owner took it out and then some angmohs were posing with it, then the owner disappeared. So luckily for us, we were all having a lot of free time with the python. Sounds crazily sick. And that was when i used the word 'squirmy' and somehow they are started using it after that which i still don't know why.

After the day tour, we went in search of hardboiled unhatched eggs. Meaning the baby chick was slowly growing inside the egg but it wasn't given the chance to hatch or fully developed and then it was cooked. Sounds pretty gross but they taste just like normal eggs ... the watery stuff inside the egg just tastes like chicken essence.

Went back to the hotel room to find an apology letter for all our rooms and a plate of complimentary fruits. =)

Then we had the spastic phonecalls ... with Bryant being the protagonist. His Vietnamese accent and ghostly moans were freeaking hilarious. We were all rolling around our beds laughing our asses off.

And then, it was off to another massage! Hehe ... i really love these things but no special service one la. I feel its a very personalized and special treat for myself after a long day ... and tonight's one was good!

Day 4:
Rented minibus to Mui Ne. Freaking 5 hours bus ride zzzz. Reached there around noon. Fantastic beach resrot but lousy pricing cos its tourism and lack of activities. The main thing you can do at the beach is kite surfing, which i REALLY REALLY wanted to try but because it was really expensive and none of the rest wanted to, we stuck to our suntanning plans. Didn't get much tan today though.

Went across the road to the rows of seafood restaurants to get dinner. Plenty of power trips and blackouts made things interesting. Tianhao's "So there's no more rice?" summed it up. Then Bryant and I went to look for a cake in the middle of nowhere cos we were celebrating Ben's birthday. Managed to find a "Banana Cake" and that was it.

And i had my 3rd massage. This one awesomely rocks. I fell asleep for a bit and i thought that was rude so i quickly woke myself up. Then suddenly i heard Ben snoring next to me. Wow. Massage FTW!!!

Celebrated Ben's birthday and drank a bit too fast too much. Ah well.

Day 5:
Finally had a good long sleep. Woke up to a fabulous buffet breakfast. Then had 2 hours of solid suntanning before the 5 hours journey back to Saigon City. So anyway about the name Saigon City vs Ho Chi Minh City, well ... i am not a supporter of Communism so i am sticking to Saigon City.

Managed to get back our exact same room which rocks ... then we made our way across town to the Heineken Countdown party. The crowds were massive ... largest i've ever stood in. But the party was extremely badly organized. Chuc Mung Nam Moi nevertheless!

Day 6:
Bryant and I skipped the museum trip to sleep in a little more before making our way to An Dong area for last min shopping. Definitely more expensive then Ben Thanh but since last day already, we were more inclined to spend finished everything.

Lunch was non-spicy tom yam beef noodles which rocks! Then accompanied the girls to see them do some really last min manicure before going to the airport for the flight home!

Awesome trip. Plenty of fun. Plenty of bonding. =) I just wish they stop horning.