Woohooo!! I'm back. Just touched down at 8 20 pm this evening....

Summary of my Ho chi min trip:
Total spending: $ 600 (that's inclusive of $200 of airticket and insurance + $100 tailor made clothes + $ 120 hotel).
Overall experience: it's definitely a city worth for first time visit!

HCMC is actually very similar to Bangkok, (comparison as per below):

Safety: It's a very safe city that u can just hop on to cab and point to them your destination. You feel quite safe in the cab, no need to fear that you'd be ripped off or robbed. When i was in bkk, i was wary all the time, dont dare to take cab. So HCMC quite impressed me.

Shopping: erm.. nothing much to buy except 'adidas' and 'polo' t-shirt. I must say the quality for those 'branded' goods are really good. some of the LV products even have symmetrically print. So it's really hard to differentiate. At least for me. Wanted to get few adi shirt. But the shopping service there kind of put me off. They keep dragging you into their stall. and once u asked for a price for one of the products, they refused to let you go. If you dont buy, they will really scold you. so didnt really buy anything. coz lazy to ask and the fashion for normal clothes are really not there. i guess it s the trip that i buy the least clothes. very controlled. ha.

only bought lots of coffee and some dried fruits. the coffee there is really fantastic. Love the ice coffee with milk. it's our 'must have' for our 4 days stay there. Their coffee is very strong and you need to wait for it to drip/filter slowly. very interesting.... I bought coffee powder and the filter back. ha.

tailored one shirt, 1 pair of pants and a dress. total of 100 sgd. the dress turns out to be quite a disaster. i really cannot choose the cloth. think coz of the wrong cloth that i chose, the dress turns out to be quite ugly. dont think i ll dare to wear it. ha. see how. angry with myself for choosing that. wat a waste.

Food: that s the main thing we spent on. (my sister mentioned that i put on weight after 4 days but i dismissed her. how could it be? only 4 days. dont scare me. although i ate a lot lah. ha). i didnt really enjoy local food for my past few trips overseas. but this time round, i enjoyed most of the meal. which quite surprising. coz i never really like vietnamese food and my sister warned me that if i dont see beef, i can hardly find anything nice there. so i was actually mentally prepared that i wont be able to eat anything there. but it proves that i was wrong.

We went to few good restaurant there to pamper ourselves. The highlight is the 'Rooftop Garden @ The Rex Hotel. It s one of the places listed down in the '1,000 places to visit before you die'. so it was a must do in HCMC. It s quite posh and not very expensive. spent ard SGD 25 there for a meal. although i dont really find it fantastic lah,, but it s quite a good relaxing place. with that kind of price, think still worth visiting... tourist thing. ha.
erm.. that s the max we spent in a meal. the rests all less than that. so still pretty reasoanable. we tried road side food also. conditions are acceptable and food is not bad...

Tourist Destinations:
Chu Chi tunnel: that s the highlight for the whole trip. it s the most fruitful place that i think it s really made HCMC worth visiting. we took a half day tour to go there so there is a guide that actually explained to us the history behind. it s quite cheap. only usd 6. fyi, if you dont know what chu chi tunnel is. it s the underground city that vietnamese built during their war time agains american. There, you can see how their lives underground and amazed by their intelligence in the trap they built to fight against americans. the camouflage s so good and the life has been really tough. we have a chance to go in to the tunnel to have a better experience. the tunnel s so small that you cant even squat. you have to crawl inside and it s so dark. i tried ard 300m (i think) and it s really quite an unforgetable experience. imagine those tunnels open for tourist are considered quite easy and big. there are even smaller ones that you cant even turn your body. so it s a one way ticket. once you go in, you have continue to climb. hot and stuffy. btw, the war only ended like 30 yrs ago.

k. i m getting tired. continue my story another time. ....