Work is getting extremely hectic for the both of us. We really needed to recharge to preserve our sanity. Since March holidays were here, we decided to take a short break to Ho Chi Minh City together with my parents.
It was really an eye-opener to be there. Even though it was supposed to be the bustling city of Vietnam, it sure wasn’t as developed as what KL or Singapore had achieved. The markings on the roads were apparently ‘invisible’ to the motorists as they cut through the roads recklessly from all directions. There were more motorbikes than cars on the road. Being a pretty polluted place, most of the motorists wore face masks together with their fanciful helmets. Weather was hotter than Singapore, hitting above 30 deg C. Ladies wore long gloves to protect their skin from the heat as they drove their motorbikes.
We stayed at the First Hotel and being a 4-star hotel, it was indeed a clean and pretty hotel. Very near to the airport but a 15 min-drive from District 1 (their central).
Our tour group consisted of only the 4 of us and it made us feel like VIPs! Haha! Of course, being VIPs, we needed to be conscious and thus gave more tips to our driver and tour guide. We observed that most of the other tour groups also had small number of tourists with them e.g. 2 – 4 in a group.
Food was quite a sumptous spread. We liked the Chinese dinner on our 3rd night so much that we decided to pop in for lunch on our last day there. Specially to try their Roasted Peking Duck.
We went for a water-puppet show and we were very excited to be able to catch it live finally after watching it during TV commercial breaks on Starhub channel 49 (discontinued since Mar 2008). It was very entertaining and we wondered how they could manipulate the puppets under water.
Cuchi tunnel was quite an adventurous trip. We experienced what it was like to be in the tunnel. Though we tried only 40 m, it felt very claustrophobic. Low ceiling, sandy interior, stuffy and dark. At my height, I even had to bend to move through. Sometimes, I simply gave up and did ‘duck-walking’ in it. It was hard to imagine how those bigger Vietnamese soldiers could survive during those war-times.
As for the war museum, I didn’t really like visiting it. It was a disturbing sight to me. I hate to see suffering.
Our most enjoyable trip was to Mytho on our 3rd day. We took boat rides and rode on a horse-cart. It was a pretty serene and kampong-like place.
Despite the hot and unbearable weather, I still enjoy the trip a lot. It’s afterall the company that counts!