HCM: Day 1

The flight was slightly delayed so by the time we reached HCM, it was nearly 12-ish. Our local guide was Chinese Vietnamese who can speak fluent Mandarin, Canto and of cos' Vietnamese. He was a little on the feminine side, so we 2 bitches suspected that he was gay, but turned out that someone has model gf and getting married next year! Yay...

We were famished, so the guide (Ah Sam) brought us to this run-down restaurant for a bowl of authentic Pho. Once you had this, you wouldn't even want to eat those in S'pore. They use real bones and natural ingredients for the soup so it was super tasty and yummy...but it's kinda wierd, they eat the Pho with you tiao?!

They serve us one big plate of mint leaves, rosmary leaves, to add into our Pho. So healthy! No wonder they are so slim...hardly can spot any obese around!

Next destination: Cu Chi tunnel. Took abt an hr plus to reach there, had a little backache cos of the long journey. The guide forced us to watch the intro video, aiyo...the video was in ancient black and white, the shooting was so bad that I ended up feeling goggy after watching it for 15mins.

Then we proceed to take a walking tour to the site..

Now you see it..

Now you don't! It's a trap la...once u stepped on it, you will fall into this hole with sharpened wooden sticks slapped with poison to kill the US army back then.

Making shoes from tyres...the soldiers wore these shoes to prevent from stepping on debris during the war.

Cute huh! they are for sale too!

See how small the tunnel is? Ang moh still wanna go in...I tried, but u-turned cos the tunnel looked scary!

The bigger sized ones had to crawl inside the tunnel...ewwwww.....

After crawling, you are treated with a plate of freshly steamed tapioca, the stable food for the soldiers during war time. No wonder they ended up so small size and no strength to dig the tunnel bigger!

Mr and Miss Soldier...they differentiate themselves with different design scarves around their neck. These 2 from the same platoon...so kinky!

The empty shells of the bombs found after the war ended.

After Cu Chin tunnel, we went back to the city for more sight-seeings. First stop was Notre Dam Cathedral Church.

It was Sunday, they were conducting a mass when we visited it. So crowded can? Some simply stood outside and mumbled prayers to Virgin Mary.

Nice huh!

Next stop: Saigon's General Post Office. Nothing to shout about, just that it's colonial architectural is impressive. More for stamp collectors and those who wish to make trunk calls back to love ones.

The painting of their great founder..

Last stop: Dinner! There were so much variety so we settled for French-Viet, recommended by Ah Sam. It was packed to the brim at 6.30pm, but Ah Sam knows the owner so we managed to get a seat somehow.

Fresh prawns in coconut husk. It tasted just like normal prawns, not sure what's the logic of frying the prawns in fire..

My favourite scallops! Done ala french style...I had three!

We wrapped up the day with a massage next to the hotel. Cost 210,000 Don (app S$20) for a 90mins session, with fresh cucumber facial, foot spa and massage, back massage and face massage. So damn cheap! The boss went into deep sleep during the foot massage..haha...and SNORED! gosh...

So how? Wanna go?

Will update Day 2 tmr...too many pics liao!