Day 1 : Arrival Ho Chi Minh City

Our Tiger Airway flight to Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City departed from Singapore, Budget Terminal. You would need to hop onto the Budget Terminal Bus at the basement bus station and the journey to the terminal took less than 10min. A very comfortable bus ride.

As we were walking from the mrt train to the bus station, i spotted a lady carrying a huge backpack (which was almost as tall as the lady herself) and commented to ex-irish that 'wow, she is going away for a super long trip! our backpacks pale in comparison to hers...'.

Checked in at Budget Terminal

Gotta bring our backpacks on board cos we were cheapo and 'refused' to pay for the check-in luggage ($10 for 15 kg of luggage when you indicate during your ticket purchase that you are checking in your stuff). At the queue, we were busy transferring items from ex-irish's bag to princess's and loveflower's bags cos his bag was beyond the hand-carry luggage allowance (7kg). Hahaha. And we were more than willing to take his items becos.. oh well... he's the official medic of the trip and he brought a huge bag of medicines/ mosquito patches/ etc for all of us. =) You all should see princess's luggage lor - just a medium sized laptop bag plus an almost empty shoulder bag. i was astonished that she brought so few clothes for a 10-day trip!

Budget Terminal though small, has all the usual facilities that you have in T1/2/3. Free internet terminals, nice and comfy seats, bookstore, travel store, quick bites. Flight from Singapore to Ho Chin Minh took less than 2 hours, and in a blink of the eyes (literally!), we arrived! Custom clearance was fast and hassle free, and the moment we stepped out, we were hounded by cabbies who quoted us US12 for a ride into town.

Pls! USD12?? Too expensive. We changed some Dongs and asked the counter staff for the airport bus into town and she directed us to walk towards their domestic terminal (below). For ppl who are going to HCM in future, you have to turn right upon exiting the airport and walk towards the domestic airport (5min walk). The bus is in front of the airport and across the road.

Domestic Airport. No152 Airport Bus.

From there, we spotted a run-down with no air-con and not-very-the-clean mini bus 152. Hmm, where is the 'recently introduced No152 air-con bus' which online guide promises?? Oh well, what do you expect when you are paying 3,000 Dong (0.20USD... yesh, 30 Singapore CENTS!) for the ride? It's either this or the expensive cab ride!

Ex-irish and princess proceeded to take out their respective travel guides and started to discuss the area we should head to to look for our accommondation. Pham Ngu Lao seems like the best choice; there are tons of backpacker accommodation to fit your varying budget.

So, while we were waiting for the bus to depart, a familiar face boarded the bus. The lady with the huge backpack whom i saw at changi terminal! She sat down in front of us and seeing that she was alone, i chatted with her. Her guesthouse would be near us and she joined us for dinner for the next 2 days...

The bus ride into the city was quite pleasant as cool air blew into your face (due to the rain). And it's very noisy! Lotsa motocycles/ cars/ buses honing at each other on the two lanes road... and every now and again, traffic have to merge into one lane as there are constructions going on... Organised chaos!

Ho Chin Minh streets

We arrived at our destination and checked out three guesthouses before making our choice. Our guesthouse - Ngoc Phan is hidden right at the back of a mini-alley, away from the main traffic. For 20USD per night (i.e. less than 7buck per person), we got ourselves a spacious, clean, quiet, air-conditioned room with hot shower, cable tv (i love disney channel!) and free breakfast. What more can you ask for?? It's really a good deal!!

Our nice and spacious room

After a brief rest and a check of time, it's dinner time. To reach our dinner venue (Ben Thanh Market), we need to cross a busy intersection which has no traffic light AND no traffic police to direct the traffic AND millions of motorcycles getting struck at the junction. The rule of the game is to walk steadily across (do not run!) as the motorcyclists are able to predict your path and would weaver their way around you!

How are we supposed to get across the road??

We found our way to Ben Thenh Market and decided to settle our dinner at Pho 2000. This is a large chain found all over the city and offers tasty vietnamese pho and dishes at reasonable prices and in a clean cum air-conditioned setting. Note: Ex-irish and princess cannot take street food becos of their weak stomaches and hence Pho 2000 became our fave dining venue for the next few days.

Beef and chicken pho in clear soup. Add in some bean sprouts and lime juice... Yummy!

We then cabbed down to Sofitel Plaza Saigon to meet up with my fren who happened to be in town for business. This is a five star hotel and one night stay will cost you a min 130USD. Oh gosh! Since we are at the hotel, the first thing to do is to check out the washroom right?? hahaha. The washroom is super clean and the decor is very nicely done up; very fitting for a 5-star hotel. We nodded our approval.

We settled ourselves at the hotel bar and ordered coffee (princess), chocolate (loveflower) and long island ice tea (ex-irish). Sofa is very comfy! Ex-irish was extremely happy with his choice of drink; the gals were extremely pleased with the decor and comfy sofa... Hmm, aren't we supposed to be on a budget trip??

Chill out at the hotel bar

My fren finally arrived and brought us to a nearby restaurant for dinner (for her and her boss) and supper (for the three of us). As the usual dinner time for viets is from 6pm to 8pm, by the time we arrived (almost close to 9pm), there isn't much food left.

Fried pancake with vegs. Saigon Special beer which ex-irish claimed it's good.

Fried rice and fried noodles. A bit the oily though.

Group photo.

We chatted for a while and by 10.30pm, the restaurant is almost empty. Gotta leave and return to guesthouse for the night! It had been a busy day, yawn =)