The first time ever to be in Vietnam and I was travelling alone. Kinda scary when you think you can’t cope with all the departure gates and the flight. Well, I was flying with MAS airline and the food in the plane was horrible. Cold and yucky…其实马航也没有什么特别, 食物还很差…Haiz..There was a Malay guy sitting beside me who thought I was a Vietnamese. But when I asked him for a pen to write the entry form, he was surprised and we started talking. Well, at least the talk let me forgot about the 3 hours flight I had to bear. When the plane reached Ho Chi Minh City, I was so happy to get out of the plane. Took a taxi to the hotel. 越南的士普遍上都是新车,而且是豪华车, 像TOYOTO VIOS, INOVA 等, 当初看了有点不敢去问价钱怕贵.. 但其实价钱还算公道...but vina taxi was the best. 这德士收费算便宜.The journey from the airport to the hotel was really terrifying. The street of HCM was full of cars, motorcycles and people. Can you imagine what is like to be in the busy streets and so near (you can almost knock them down) to motorcycles or cars, and yet the taxi driver was able to sway his way to the hotel without getting banged. (or without me getting into any accident—For that, I really thanked God!). There is only one phrase to describe the city streets: “人山人海”。电单车在越南可能比它的人口还多, 一大群的电单车队看了让人心惊。
Back at the Thanh Binh hotel, after resting for a while, it was dinner time and I had the greatest pho ga (越南河粉) at the roadside hawker stall. It was better than our kuey tiau soup in Malaysia. But later on, you had to drink a lot of water because they put a lot of ajinomoto . At night, the busy streets were still very busy with lots of honking of the lorry, buses, cars and motorbikes. Well, I couldn’t sleep well that night with the noises going on.
The next morning, woke up with panda eyes but at least still able to walk around. 先是走到市集中央的美食区寻找越南美食。这里真的好多档口，但每一档卖的食物都离不开出名的越南河粉和越南咖啡. 随意选了一档，就在档子前面凸出来位置当餐桌，坐下来, 点了越南河粉 (pho ga again coz’ I can’t eat pho bo)和越南咖啡(café se da).
*pho ga is chicken noodle soup; pho bo is beef noodle soup. 吃饱后，就开始逛胡志明市的城市.
My first stop是那多年历史的法式邮政局。
这里的建筑和邮政服务还保留着很古老的味道，里面还有旧式电话厅，好不特别。我还在这里买了几张Postcard to give to friends和邮票for my own keeping. ( Hehe, forgot to say that I was riding motorbike with a Vietnamese tour guide and he was the one who planned where to go for sight-seeing). Opposite of the post office was the Notre Dame Church(圣母大教堂). It was beautiful and I couldn’t get in because it was closed for the day. Sighhhhhhh…..After taking a few pictures of the church, 我們去参观观音庙. Then, after that, we went for lunch in a market (Cho)点一杯杂果冰-- avocadro drink and Bun were what I had for my lunch. 吃饱后, 我們就繼續去高台教圣地.高台教圣地是越南特有的宗教。 它是结合了佛教、基督教、回教、道教等宗教於一体的宗教。
高臺教圣地就是全越南最大間的高臺教教堂了！圣地頂上有各種各樣的神像。神奇的宗教, 融合了世上的主流宗教。看看大殿盡頭的這些神像， （以下八個應該是高臺教最崇高的神祗）正中央最高層是釋迦摩尼，第二層中間分別是老子、玉皇大帝和孔子，而第三層的是观世音菩萨、耶穌和關公，第四層則是太上老君。除此之外，旁邊還有許多大大小小東西方的神話人物, 在這一切之上的是一只`大眼睛’, 被視為是人間的主宰… 逛完后, 我们就去越南战争博物馆. 
基本上，这里的展示品都是以前越南战争时代的一些资料. After the tour of the museum, I felt so sorry for those people who suffered all because of the war that happened. 在那边发现很多工作的残疾人士都是以前橙色剂（orange agent）的受害者。 橙色剂是能够抑制植物生长的化学物品。当年越战时期，橙色剂大量被用在越南的树林以对付以树林为遮蔽的游击队。橙色剂就这样大量污染了好好的一片土地，导致了许多畸形婴孩的产生。But one thing overwhelmed me was that the friendship that President Deng and President Ho built, helped the Vietnamese to overcome the hardship and the suffering of the people.After an hour of the tour in War Museum, the tour guide proceed to take us to Benh Thanh Market. 著名的Benh Tanh Market. 吃的穿的用的，手工艺品，纪念品样样齐全. 我们就开始找些越南的纪念品。我们看了好多档，最后看中了一档买小饰品的精品档，我们全部都在这档选了好多越南陶瓷公仔和锁匙圈，就开始跟那女人杀价。在那边可以以便宜的价钱买到很多品质良好的名牌东西, 有nike、adidas、puma等等的牌子…我买了几个便宜的名牌衣服后, 这里的衣服都很美，素质都一级棒又超便宜的, 太开心了. 在这里逛了蛮久的, 买个够本后，我们就去統一宮. 統一宮是胡志明市其中一個最有名的參觀景點。
統一宮的佈局設計與周圍風景相映成輝。其中房間有總統辦公室、內閣會議室、外交大廳、總統夫人室和電影室等等。出来統一宮时, 外面下着雨. 我这真的要回去hotel冲凉了。冲完凉了, 我繼續去走走. 原来越南也有百盛的, 去逛逛走走百盛, 觉得百盛的东西不便宜, 还是大马便宜得多. 逛完后, 吃晚餐就回hotel睡觉了.The next day, after breakfast at the same restaurant, we went shopping at the morning market near to the hotel. I bought a hat and a mask because with all the motorbikes, the pollution in the city was quite bad. After walking around the market, I had to get ready for my flight to Buon Ma Thout. The internal flight was a total sucker. Vietnam Airline should have upgraded its internal planes. The seats were uncomfortable and dirty. When reached Buon Ma Thout, I was already exhausted. Yet, I still got my Che Thai (杂果冰), it was something like our ais kacang with cempedak.
During my stay in Buon Ma Thout, not only I got to eat my pho ga (鸡丝河粉), the rest of the local delicacies like Banh Mi (法国面包), Banh Xiao, 米春卷 and com ga (Chicken rice) were so delicious, that I had put on weight when I went back to Malaysia. The only place I get to visit was called Buon Dung. It’s where I got to ride elephant. I was so shocked when the guide had to hit the poor Jumbo because it wanted to eat the sugar cane beside the road. The way the guide poked its head until it was bleeding made me realized that I should not be sitting on the elephant. They have the right to roam around the jungle and not being used by tourist like me. I felt awful that day. My lunch for that day: Bamboo rice (just like our lemang except it was without the rendang. ). In Buon Ma Thout, I had attended some Vietnamese Language class for 6 times and my Vietnamese teacher is Chi Linh. (Chi means older sister, Linh is her name). She brought me around for sight-seeing and I saw the most beautiful white house somewhere around the town when she was trying to take me to buy some noodles and bread. Vietnamese houses are long and narrow. But the bungalows in the town were so European and that they make you think you were in Europe. And everywhere you turn, you will always see those statues about soldiers. I had bought myself 5 aodais (Vietnamese costume) for my graduation. I wanted to look different for my convocation. After spending two weeks there, I just couldn’t wait to go home. For me, the stay in Vietnam is totally eye-opening and boring. The lifestyle is so simple that the people have nothing to do but drink coffee every day. (Did I mention that Buon Ma Thout is famous for its coffee product?)
And yes, I drank café day time and night time too during my stay there because like them, I had nothing to do too! It was a relaxing vacation that I really hope for.
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