A glimpse of Vietnam (Part 1)

Assalamualaikum,

As i promised, i'm gonna update this blog by telling my new vacation experience during my long holiday (about 1 month +-). This time, our (my family, of course) destination is Vietnam.

Our journey began on 15th March 2011, by boarding an Air Asia flight, departed at 9.30 in the morning. As i'm living in Johor Bahru, we (i'll be using this to express our family) had to travel from JB to KL or more accurately, LCCT. So, we travel there by car. Our journey began at 9 pm on the 14th March 2011 but we stopped by Batu Pahat to visit my grand ma there. We had our dinner and a little rest there, for just a few hours....then at 1 am on the next day, we continued our journey to LCCT.

*p/s : Since we are going on international flight, we have to be there 2 hours before departure. To make things worse, since we didn't done the web check-in, we have to do it by the Kiosk in LCCT at least 4 hours before departure time. Let's do the math.......so, we must arrive in LCCT at 5.30 in the morning, at least!!!

There's a technical problem occured...

I drove and drove, i couldn't stop driving....finally, we arrived in LCCT at 5.00 in the morning. Alhamdulillah. To make the story short, here we are...inside the plane, soaring to the sky of Vietnam!

For sure this isn't my flight....
i can't capture this picture while i'm on board

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Since our main purpose went to Vietnam is to shop....so, we didn't go to tourist attraction site except for 1 which was "Cu Chi Tunnel". So, i've decided to seclude this story into 2 parts.

This is it : A glimpse of Vietnam, Part 1 (mostly about our shopping trip)

We arrived in Vietnam International Airport which is Sân bay Quốc tế Tân Sơn Nhất (i googled it) at 10.10 in the morning by local time; Vietnam time. (which means 11.10 by Malaysian time)

*p/s : Vietnam time is late 1 hour than Malaysian time

Arrived at the airport

View of the immigration counter

Once we set our foot out of the airport, we were surprised by the number of local people there raising their banner/flags that says a person's name on it. They were searching for relatives or some kind of tourist agent. We hired a taxi, straight to our hotel....

Vinasun taxi....1 of the taxi company in Vietnam

During our journey to the hotel, we're surprised once again by the traffic there. 1stly because the number of motorcycle there. If i want to express it in term of ratio, it could be 100:1 , ratio of motor to car. Which means after 100 motorcycle, then u'll see a single car.

At least u can have a view of what i explained

2nd reasons that surprised us, because of the traffic itself. Eventhough the traffic light shows red sindicate stop, they still continue their driving. I even thought that maybe they don't have a police traffic there....haha

After a few minutes; maybe around 40 mint, we arrived at out hotel. After the check-in process, we have a little bit rest, and we began our exploration at the foreign country. Our hotel's location is quite strategic, we just have a walking distance to many places (or more precise, shopping places).

There.....our journey of exploration began. Let the picture do the talking.
Do have fun viewing. =)

Ben Thanh Market....
where i accidentally bumped Hazarul

Xin chào thân yêu của tôi, tôi nhớ anh (Vietnamese language)

My lifetime dream....set my footstep inside these boutique.
Yet, isn't fulfill until now


Food court in Parkson, they serve Halal food,
which is hard to find there. 1 of our favourite spot to eat


This is our favourite spot, VN HALA....
but we used to call it 'Ven Halal'
(the man beside me is the worker there, local Muslim Vietnamese)

VN HALA entrance door.
Beyond this door, is like "Kg Malaysia".
We met a lot of others Malaysian tourists in here...

Local food in Vietnam....called Pho Bo.
And a special beverage in VN HALA, saoda caffe (don't know how to spell)

Later at that time, we spotted something......quite terrible :

Their electric cable system......just let it like that.
God damn dangerous!!!

If our TNB got a project to make their electric cable neater.....for sure TNB gonna be HUGE!!!!

Night market around Benh Thanh....
equivalent to uptown/downtown in Malaysia

With my umi tersayang...

Time flew fast....finally, it's time for us to go back home, Malaysia.

My lil sister....kuat melaram

Well...like malay idioms say; "setiap pertemuan pasti ada perpisahan."
It's time for us to leave Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.....

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Hope u guys enjoyed reading and viewing my blog. Do wait till next time, i'll update
'A glimpse of Vietnam (Part 2)'

There, i'll story about my experience at the Cu Chi Tunnel, which were used by Vietnamese to face American soldiers during Vietcong (Vietnam-America War). Until next post....thanks for reading. =)