Here comes a long weekend again and so I took an extra 2 days off to go for a short getaway with bolt bolt! Actually we booked our tickets way back in March when there was a promo on TigerAirways thinking that S$250nett for 2 pax return tix from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh was a good deal. Didn't know the total came up to S$290 as there was a facilitation fee of S$5 per flight sector, which means X4 for both of our to and fro plus we opted for a lousy S$20 insurance. Anyway we still thought $145nett each is pretty reasonable. Took Mac breakfast before we set off...



It's darling's 1st time on a budget airline and he claimed that it's quite good, he don't mind taking it again! Guess what? That's because it's beginner's luck that we got an emergency exit row and there was a lot of leg room! I bet he will beg to differ if we were to be allocated a normal seat.



We planned to visit Nha Trang directly without exploring HCM 1st as our arrival time at HCM was already 10am and their open tours start really early at 8am. We decided to do it this way: Nha Tran -> Da Lat -> HCM. Hence we took a domestic flight on Vietnam Airlines for VND 830000 (appro SGD75) per pax to NhaTrang from HCM. We had a couple of hours to kill hence decided to walk around and try their famous Pho noodle. Bolt didn't like it and they charged us a whopping USD2 seeing that we are tourists. Damn!



The flight to NhaTrang was pretty short and we particularly enjoyed the taxi ride (arranged by our guesthouse) from airport to our guesthouse. The scenery is like that of a desert but not that hot and their sand is so snow-white and fine! We stayed at a very affordable but comfortable Son & Daughter Guesthouse for only USD18 per night! There is a Single bed and S.Single or Queen bed (can't really remember the bigger bed size) plus bathtub with glass panel as wall which feels like the Furama Hotel (see photos below).



Our 1st activity is of course beach-related as Nha Trang is known for its beaches. We paid about S$70 for one round of Parasailing. It was a thrilling ride which both of us screamed (or maybe me only) to our hearts and enjoyed the chilly winds high up. I had wanted to do that in KeyWest, Florida but unfortunately, there was lighting and we couldn't sail out.



There were a few places we wanted to visit but were quite a distance away hence bolt decided we should rent a S$7.50 bike from our guesthouse for a day to tour around. Bolt basically spent a lot of time getting use to the crazy traffic in Vietnam (you should know how crazy it can be) and navigating to reach our destination hence we only managed to visit the Big Buddha and accidentally look into their small village lives. We marked the end of our day with with dinner at Lemon Grass restaurant. It wasn't as great as recommended.



Our 2nd day in NhaTrang is dedicated to our favorite sport - Diving! We booked 2 fun dives with Sailing Club for USD$40 (includes on board lunch) and it was all worth it! Not only are we served like Kings & Queens (they gear up and wear our gears for us), we also got 1 dive master to lead us (ratio 1:2)!



Initially when we reached the seabed, it was all sand and I felt so disappointed and cheated. As we moved along, we being to see more and more live creatures and eventually a mega piece of beautiful coral! We saw much more than what we could have seen for our previous dives in Malaysia! Check out some of the sea creatures we saw: (and more which I cannot remember)



We decided that we should seek professional help when needed and paid 2 scooters VND15,000 each to visit the famous Mudbath and Cham Towers! Mudbath was cool and the skin feels really good for a brief moment after but the mud is yucky! It caused my eyes to have a lot of discharge for a while after that and it's really not recommended that you wear your new bathing suit to soak inside. Else, you'll have a free natural yellow dye for your bikini, you know what I mean. We bought the big crispy dough-like thing to munch as we see it on sale everywhere. Not too bad, quite crunchy but bland.



We visited Cham Towers before heading back to our room for a shower and randomly picked a resturant for dinner. We also walked around and chanced upon a museum which has some funny weird artifacts but didn't have too much time to look around as the place closed shortly after we arrived.



Day 3 was to visit DaLat and we booked 2 bus tickets at 8am in the morning from Sinh Cafe for usd9 per tix only. The ride is pretty long (approx 8 hours) and we had a long stopover for lunch. We had breakfast nearby our guesthouse after checking out , it's something like Lao Shi Fen but has a Vietnam taste =) The monkey you see caged in the photo is just reared by owners of a random place we stopped for lunch. But the monkey is really cute.



Our 1st activity in DaLat was an Elephant Ride! It took us quite a while to get to do our itineraries as we had difficulty finding our tour guide. The address printed on our reservation slip brought us to an internet cafe and we were so confused! Luckily, the youngsters there helped us to call the no. printed on the slip and our guide finally came to meet us. He said he actually waited at the bus end location where we were dropped off but how could we have regconised each other right? We never met before! Haiz wasted our money to purchase a map to navigate to the internet cafe, not really a cafe mind you, the toilet is hmmm undescribable.

Anyway, the elephant ride was really cool and bolt bolt enjoyed it a lot as he had always wanted and constantly nagged to ride on one. We bought bananas to feed it after the stroll - CUTE! It has really thick skin haha



We walked a short bridge trail under the natural water falls and also visited Crazy House. The water falls wasn't too impressive for me after I saw Niagara Falls but walking under the cliffs was a new experience! Crazy House is a place which I would recommend especially for those who have vast interest in architectural. The whole place is build like a jungle but marketed as a hotel accommodation with each room having a different jungle or animal theme e.g. ants, bears, kangaroos. The interior is made to look exactly like what you expect the theme to provide and it is equipped with basic amenities such as beds and wardrobes.



It was pretty late into the night after we completed our Crazy House tour so we simply visited some nice churches and the famous lake before heading to food yet again! Dinner sounds gross if I were to tell you what we ate but they taste really normal only - Rabbit and Boar meat. Gross right? But we are just cheeky and want to try something new. Not recommended at all because it doesn't taste fantastic and shadows you with a huge sense of guilt. Wonder why I never felt this way with pigs, chickens, ducks, sheeps or cows? We left Da Lat on a high note with a very brillant massage as recommended by our tour guide. Our over night bus ticket was booked in Nha Trang with the tour guide's sister. They have a network operation where they have different contacts in various states for their hospitality business. The bus is not operated by them though but it's interesting to know that they serve us mineral water and gave us blankets during the ride.



We arrived in HCM on Day 4 in the wee morning, even the guesthouse owner was still sleeping. I didn't like our accomodation at all, we were "cheated" by the lady (tourguide's sister) who booked it for us in NhaTrang saying that it's a lot better than where we are staying then. Bullshit! Anyway we washed up, went for breakfast and embarked on our Cui Chi tunnel tour! Tell me how do you pronounce "Cui Chi"? Let me teach you, it's "Gu Qi"! Zai anot? How I came to realise was because I told a lot of Vietnamese that I want to go to "Cui Chi" tunnel and all of them gave me a weird look and shook their head. The most headache part was that the lady couldn't understand which tour we wanted to book and finally I saw a flyer and pointed to her! It was then she realised and said "OOHHhhhh, GU QI tunnel!!!!" Oh my GOD! We booked the tour for only USD10 per pax. The 1st stop was to a handicraft manufacturing place whereby the people use eggshells to make decors of a painting or containers.



We then rode on for approximately 1 hour to reach the oh-so-famous Cui Chi Tunnel. They are really very smart in initiating, planning and executing their war tricks! They had a very advanced tunnel system underground and the opening is tiny enough for asians only hence they eventually won the war against big-sized Americans!

Check out one of the brilliant hiding methods they adopted: Now you see Simon, then you don't! Actually, I tried it also but my photos wasn't as good (you know who to blame) and so I used Simon's haha. But I am good with their warfare techniques ok? Our guide called me a Beautiful Guerilla =p Our tour ended with a little treat to tapioca as our guide told us that it was a staple food during times of war.



We visited the remaining tourist spots ourselves. War Remnants Museum was particularly disturbing as I saw the words on the exhibits and I just felt very strongly for those innocent people who had to suffer from the mistakes of their ancestors. It doesn't help that the event happened just few years back and there was even a letter penned to President Barrack Obama to ask for assistance. A heartfelt experience...



Our last day was a short one as we had to catch our plane in the afternoon. We had initially wanted to visit the nearby Ben Thanh market and take some photos before returning back to our hostel to pack up and go. However, a trishaw-rider approached us and asked if we wanted a ride and we rejected them. He went on to offer a price of VND15,000 only, showed us a book of reviews other tourists had written for him and promised to send us to a further Chinatown market that no tourists will go to. We decided to take it to kill some time as our legs were kind of tired too!

That proved to be a wrong choice. When we reached the market, we got down and wanted to pay but they say need not and will wait for us. Puzzled, we just went ahead with shopping and I got myself a nice office yellow top =) They (old men) came to look for us as we were preparing to leave and insisted that they want to bring us to the temples and other sight-seeing areas. Since we had some time on hand, we decided to hop on and go ahead. At the end of it all, the trishaw men brought us to a restaurant and asked if we could treat them to a drink. Seeing that they made such great efforts to cycle us all around under the hot scorching sun, we obliged. He whipped out his review book for Simon to leave a comment after we sat down to enjoy our drinks. Following which, he announced that it's time to pay them and asked for VND750,000 for each of them. WTH! That's like USD75 each! Me and Simon immediately knew we were conned. The rest is history and we subsequently settled the bill at VND200,000 each. Heart pain but a lesson learnt! =( I hate them! My top only cost VND85,000 lah!



All in all, we had enjoyed ourselves during the getaway mostly during sea activities and massage but not too much of the money-cheating parts =D