xin chao, vietnam!!!

MY new motto in life… ENGLISH IS THE BEST POLICY!!!

that’s what I thought the moment I stepped on the land of Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City, formerly & famously known as Saigon City, the capital of South Vietnam). Our first few hours in the city was a total disaster huhuhu..... we’re there for a day tour ONLY.

hmmm a little overview about Saigon… had been colonized by France in almost a century, most of the buildings have western-style and french villas were very visible all over the place.

this is a long story to tell…

...booked the ticket out of curiosity --- myself, tayang and her spanish husband Oscar were excited to go on a tour. I googled about the city and the possible visa requirement to enter Vietnam, no visa needed for filipino citizens! Yes, no hassle. Only on the day of our flight that we found out that Vietnam ONLY exempts Southeast Asians and Scandinavians from visa requirement (so stupid of us huh why i haven't googled about other nationalities aaarrrrgh). Thus, Oscar, being a Spanish citizen needs to secure a visa for him to enter Vietnam.

We tried every possible way to tag him along with us but Vietnam immigration was very strict, well communist countries are. We decided to just cancel the trip and have our tickets refunded, but CebuPac refused to refund since our tickets were purchased in promo price. me and tayang flew without oscar :-(

Arrived there midnight (Vietnam is an hour late from Phils), we agreed to just stay inside the airport and leave  as the sun rises, must be safer that way. While waiting, we asked around about the hotel where we had reservation thru online (via www.agoda.com). we booked that hotel coz it says "it's 200 meters away from the airport." 

We had to do sign language all the time since NOBODY understands/speaks English. we showed our written hotel name and its address to the driver and when he let us get-in his cab, we presumed he knows the place. After about an hour of strolling around the city (interior part - in the wet market area), he said something in Vietnamese that obviously we didn’t understand AND when we were talking to him, he just had an empty facial expression. Oh my holy Jesus!!! I was so disappointed, desperate, nervous and worried. The meter was already 350,000VnDong. We didn’t bring much cash with us since we expected that taxi fare was just around 60,000VnDong… I didn’t bring my phone and my cousin’s didn’t work. so helpless:-(( We raised our case and decided to go back to the airport, give up our hotel accommodation and the tour…. maybe just wait for our flight back to Philippines dawn of next day…

amazing: we're a lot richer in Vietnam hehe
1USD = 21,000 VnDong

We asked the cab driver to just send us back to the airport. My goodness!!!! Telling the cab driver what we want was not just nosebleed BUT bloody internal and external hemorrhage hoooohaaaay.

Trying our last chance... we thought of looking for an internet connection. No free wi-fi in the airport, so we had to go to a cafeteria, ordered a cup of coffee just to avail their wi-fi tsk tsk tsk…. With tayang’s skype account, we’re able to contact the English speaking tour guide’s phone, Po Tran and asked him to fetch us up in the airport instead.

Finally meeting Po was a big relief!!! Everything went sooooo smooth and perfect. He speaks to people in our behalf and made our day so easy. AND our private tour started… pictures below will speak for itself (also I wrote some captions)... we visited some tourist spots in the city.


the REUNIFICATION PALACE --- formerly known as Independence Palace, built on the site of the former Norodom Palace. It was the home and workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was the site of the end of the Vietnam War during the fall of Saigon on 1975, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.
The entire complex is 12hectares and can accommodate up to 800 people.

= the front view =

taken from the window of the 3rd floor

  

outside the palace... tanks that were used during the war

the NOTRE-DAME Cathedral --- officially Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, established & constructed by French between 1863 to 1880. The original design was more or less the same of that Notre Dame de Paris in France but it was added with two bell towers. It was reported that the statue was miraculous and had shed tears, attracting thousands of people from different parts of the world.

in-front of Cathedral with many beautiful flowers in the garden

fronting the cathedral -- business skyrise bldgs

the WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM --- contains exhibits relating to American phase of Vietnam war. On informal mentions, they called it 'The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government' referring to South Vietnam but later it was called "Museum of American War Crimes." the 4-storey museum entirely contains of photos, story posts, memorabilia, etc... very informative about Vietnam history during Vietnam war between 1961 to 1971.

ang mga turista at the gate, pandak eh?? haha

photos on the effect of AGENT ORANGE

my pretty cousin enjoying

tourists from diff parts of the world inc. Phils haha
the tour was very informative!

there you go: the beautiful and sexy turista representing the Philippines!!!

...the FOOD... and... MORE & MORE

lunch @ the REDHOUSE

dinner @ CONFETTI Cafeteria but i forgot the name of the food we had

the coffee Vietnam is famous... the weasel coffee
pasalubong galor!!!! but konti lang kay super expensive :-)

  

the Post Office Bldg

inside post office

the Bitexco Financial Tower - the tallest in Saigon
-the 2nd tallest in Vietnam

the exotic liquor with cobra, scorpions & other animals inside the bottle

Diamond Plaza is a luxurious shopping center in District 1

the Rotunda

Tue Thanh Temple
Before French's conquest, the city was greatly influenced by Chinese...
the local language, the food, beliefs, etc. AND are still there til now

hang items that look like lanterns are
actually incense with prayers which are believed
for the Buddhas to grant wishes   

We also visited the "Handicapped Laquerware House." --short history: during the Vietnam war from 1961 to 1971, US troops used herbicidal warfare program or the AGENT ORANGE. Chemical (dioxin) were sprayed all over Vietnam by US soldiers. 400,000 people were killed/maimed and 500,000 children born with defects... the effect of this attack is still visible and felt up to now. Affected people were made productive, the government provides them job... they (handicapped) were trained and mastered the laquerware craft.

handicapped men & women at work

the laquerware products made by handicapped people

with Vietnamese women in their national costume :-)

AND ohhhhh! we found "HOANG KIM LONG HOTEL" and it's true it's just 5min ride from airport ...well BIG thanks to Po Tran, our buddha-look-alike tour guide :-)... in fairness, the room was huge, clean, beautiful and with FREE wi-fi... at USD 15.50, cheap di ba??? kita pa gane ko ngadto ug VnDong40,000/dia  or 100pesos/day whoooaaaah

finally, these are 2 of my favorite photos in this trip hehehe

rawwwwrrrrr!!!!

ayeeeeeeeeeeeee!

salamat, Vietnam!!!! what a roller-coaster trip in a day... hope to see you again :-) cam on!!!

CORON (Palawan) invasion

... speaking of nature's wonders, PALAWAN has it all. badtrip lang kaayo kay I was not feeling well the whole time we were there aaarrrrghh! i'll just let the photos do the talking

flight was an hour delayed... 

after we settled ourselves in Coron Gateway Suites, 

we went straight to Maquinit Hot Spring. t'was almost sunset, got few captures only :((

 

DAY 2         

 7:30am call time... then we started crossing the seas --->> from islet to islet  on a motorboat :)

ATUAYAN Beach
serves our camp for the whole morning while 
we were doing our 'SURVIVOR Theme' activities

we were grouped into three: red, blue and yellow. i belonged to yellow group AND yes! YELLOW team was the over-all winner. 

the RED Team

the YELLOW team

the BLUE Team

after the fun-filled games in the morning, we all enjoyed the seafood buffet lunch prepared by the 'lumads'. ... bound to our next stop ---> the Skeleton Island for some snorkeling...

...we then moved to Ismit Island where we had a closer look of the amazing rock formation

GL, renz & me

behind these rocks: a LAGOON and we have to swim at the bottom to enter the lagoon 

that small opening: the only way to get into the lagoon

my first reaction was "Oh my GOD!!!! the view was genius... I was speechless! the water was deep, calm, sound, cold and unbelievably breathtaking haaaaaay no words can explain. We all regret for not bringing an underwater camera. We miss our souvenir tsk tsk tsk

... then our next stop -----> the Kayangan Lake: the cleanest freshwater lake in the country

...going to the lake, we had to climb 150 steps

see how clear is the water :-)

... once again, we took another round of sight seeing before heading back to Hotel and prepare ourselves for our Hawaiian theme party later that day after dinner (separate blog)

pang-POSTCARD lang ang peg :-)

DAY 3

... our last day in Coron was just a chika time/bonding with the group. some went to the market for some pasalubong while some went to the park just across our hotel. but me being sick, stayed in my room after breakfast.

indeed, it was a great experience to see some wonders of nature... fortunate of me, i've been to places and wanting to go MORE and MORE places soon! aja... thank you, CORON! thank you, PALAWAN!!!