Saigon @ Thành phố Ho Chi Minh - PART 1

29th JANUARY to 2nd FEBRUARY 2015

Finally I've made it to Saigon..Alhamdulillah. It was a trip scheduled in May 2013; before Najib announced elections exactly during that week; much to our dismay. Lost in terms of flight fares & hotel bookings...sigh.. Ok, put that a side.

This time it was only Awang & I. No one else available & I did not extend invitations to friends with children commitments..will be difficult for them.

I took off from Penang on night of 28th Jan, to spend overnight at Awang's place...before we head back to KLIA2 the next morning. Flight AK departed punctually & landed in HCM @ 9.15am (local time). (Vietnam time = malaysian time - 1 hour). It took us only 1 hour 45 minutes.

The airport is called Tan Son Nhat I'national Airport. Took a taxi to reach our hotel, Tulips Saigon Hotel @ Lu Ty Trong Road (dont ask me how to pronounce that...huhu)

I would say Saigon is synonymous to Ben Thanh Market to many Malaysians. Being avid shoppers, Malaysians cannot resist this place. But I find Saigon is more than just this. Lots of places to explore if you are an adventurous person.

PLACES OF INTEREST : 

1. Saigon Zoo & Botanical Garden

3. Cu Chi Tunnel

3. Mekong Delta

4. Indian Jamia Mosque

5. War Remnant Museum

6. Water Puppet Show

I did not put the whole list here. These are mostly places that we went & commonly frequented by travelers. Shopping avenues will be mentioned later. Cu Chi Tunnel & Mekong Delta warrants a little bit more explanation.

Cu Chi Tunnel is approximately an hour drive from Saigon. It was built by Viet-Kong during the US aggression to protect & safeguard their place from the "superhero" US armies. I find it rather astounding and amazing to how they could have built such a delicate and well planned underground tunnel with not much sophisticated tools. We had our try through the tunnel (they open for tourists only a length of about 60 metres I guess), which caused me quadriceps strain for the next 4 days! People actually lived in this underground hut & used this tunnel daily. Imagine how determined they were to fight off outsiders. We booked our trip through the hotel; which cost us VD 240K (including entrance fee of 90K). You can actually go to this place on your on by taking a public bus.

Mekong Delta is a must for those coming to Saigon for the first time. OK, do read something about this delta before you decide on which trip you want to take. Basically there are few towns (some can even be called cities) along this delta (Don't think deltas are just paddy field along the river...)

Nearest is called My Tho (Mee-Tow), followed by Vinh Long, Can Tho & Chau Doc. Mind you, to get to My Tho (from Saigon), it takes 1.5 - 2 hours bus ride & to get to Chau Doc (the farthest city) IS 4-5 HOURS! What are the attractions? Cai Be floating market, Cai Rang floating market, Honey farm, some local snack-making factories, visit to muslim Champa village, Sam Mountain, Snake farm. That is a long list. The one we went was straight to Cai Be (from Saigon). Cai Be is a small jetty area, from where they took us (by boat) along the so-called floating market (trading starts at 5am, finishes by 10am; and they only brought us there at 11am+) to see some floating boats instead! We stopped by at Honey farm, pop-rice, pop-noodle & a type of rice kerepek making factories. They also demonstrated how they prepare rice wine. They capped the tour with some local music show. After a while, it was lunch time, which I did not take as "kehalalan diragui" (I did not pay for the food either). The lunch was served at a small island called An Binh. Met a pakcik while I was walking around the place (the soil was so fertile that you could see aplenty of nangka, pisang, belimbing trees which were bearing fruits - nice view) who gave me a belimbing and spoke something in his language in a jolly mood & asked me to take a photo of him beside a pokok pisang & he kissed me on cheek too..err..dont know why he was too friendly...That shall remain mysterious...huhu. We were back to Jetty by 2.30 and the bus to take us back to Saigon was awaiting. Reached Saigon at 5.45pm.

OK..that was my experience in Mekong Delta, which I did not find as interesting as it sounds... Please read later segments on my suggestions.

Saigon Zoo is more of picnic park for the locals...you can see ppl picnicking in the middle of the zoo. Well nothing to shout about this place. Entrance fee was only 50K

War Remnant Museum was the first place we visited (err...after Ben Thanh). It is a museum glorifying Southern Vietnamese's achievements & also portraying their sufferings during US aggression. US were extremely cruel when they used the dioxide bombs, which they nicknamed "agent orange" to kind of eradicate Vietnamese population. Children of those exposed to the chemicals are seen nowadays with no limbs / mentally retarded/ blind...effects still manifested up to the 3rd generation.

Btw, Saigon has at least 7 museums. Anyone for more museums??

Indian Jamia Masjid. Sounds peculiar...what Indians were doing in Saigon? Probably there were Indian traders before in Saigon. It is a beautiful Masjid just beside the Sheraton Hotel at Dong Du Street. About 1 kilometer from our hotel.

Water Puppet Show : kind of famous among tourists, but we did not go.

WHERE TO STAY : 

Saigon offers aplenty of hotels to choose from. To be near to Halal food, easy access to public transportation & shopping arcade, get a hotel along these roads...Lu Ty Trong Road, Le Thanh Ton Road, Nguyen An Ninh. Avoid Pham Ngu Lau..as this road is full of pubs. Just look into google map. Anywhere within 500-600metre radius from Ben Thanh Market is just nice. Nguyen An Ninh is nicknamed "Malaysian road" (it is a self-proclaimed nickname...Vietnamese does not know about that) because you will see familiar faces along this road and most of the Halal restaurants are here. It is a short road of only about 150 meters distance. Hotels here are of higher demand among Malaysians.

We stayed in Tulips Saigon Hotel in Lu Ty Trong Road...about 500 meters from Ben Thanh Market. Was a pleasant place to stay. Cost us about RM85/night (for a twin-bedded room).

FOOD : 

Halal foods are not difficult to find in Saigon. But for those who crave to taste truely Vietnamese delicacies, forget it! All these halal restaurants has Malaysian-style food occupying 95% of their menu list. The only prominent Vietnamese dish on their menu would be "Vietnamese Beef noodle". That is the disappointing part, as for me, we should try local delicacies as much as possible when travelling. Btw, some of these restaurants are actually owned by Malaysians. Kindly be reminded, prices of these food are a bit dear....a piece of roti canai is 25K - 30K Dong :)

Here are some of the restaurants we came across :

Restaurant Hjh Basiroh (has 2 shops opposite to each other)

Restoran Aisah

Restoran Kampung Melayu (or Malaysia ... cant recall)

Amin Halal

Saigon Green

Nabil Briyani House

Seri Penang Restaurant

The Leaf Restaurant (opposite the hotel we stayed)

Restoran Baba & Nyonya

Saigon Halal

(the places in bold are very near to Indian Jamia Masjid on Dong Du Road; while the rest are basically surrounding Ben Thanh. There are a few more near by Ben Thanh..I can't recall. Do explore and you will find them. But all these places have more less similar menu & does not differ much in terms of price; except for Nabil Briyani & Saigon Halal which are a bit more pricey than the rest.

SHOPPING : 

This is the main agenda for many Malaysians and I understand why they cant resist. We did some shopping too..well but did not require us to buy a luggage to fit in our shopping items. Ok, Ben Thanh Market @ Cho Ben Thanh is most popular place when it comes to shopping. Bear in mind, Ben Thanh has many entrances..so remember your door number! Items of interest include :

- kain baju (3.5 or 4 metres) - Vietnam silk, English cotton

- kain jubah 2.5metres

- travelling/hiking bags (e.g. Deuter / North Face)

- branded footwear

- souveniers (the usual items)

- nuts (e.g. cashew nuts, pistachio - I find these to be cheaper than in Penang - well of course cant beat the price we can get in Tawau)

The items in bold are the most popular among all. U can see Malaysians occupying 1/2 of the market area & some literally buying in boxes!

Another place which people tend not to explore is the Bin Tayh Market @ Chinatown Market. As the name implies, most of the traders are Chinese. This place is about 6-7km away from Ben Thanh Market. We took a public bus to get there (only 5K Dong/trip). It is mainly a wholesale market & the items sold there are more vast..u can practically get anything.. Though I did not buy anything here,(as I was in deep economic recession on Day 3 onwards), I find the prices are a bit cheaper & not much Malaysians here, so you can bargain better I guess. Mind you, Ben Thanh can be a difficult place to bargain if you go during peak "Malaysian season". (We went during the thaipusam-federal day long weekend, so you can imagine Ben Thanh was like Jalan Masjid India, KL at that time and these traders know Malaysians' buying power...so they don't mind if you don't buy, as they know the next Malaysian who walks in will clear at least 1/8 of their stock :)

TRANSPORTS WITHIN & TO OUT OF SAIGON : 

OK now I've come to the most exciting part of my story. Moving within & out of Saigon. There is central bus stop just opposite Ben Thanh Market (exit door #1 and you will not miss it). This is the place where you can take buses to Bin Tayh, Cu Chi Tunnel (if you want to go there on your own). One can even go to Mekong Delta on their own...NEED NOT FOLLOW "ARRANGED TOURS". You may take bus #2 or #39 and get down at Maw Tay Station, which is a station for you to get buses to any of the cities in Mekong. For instance, bus to My Tho city will cost you 100K Dong/person. Time spent from Saigon to My Tho will be about 2- 2.5 hours. You must have pre-booked a hotel in My Tho (or at any other cities in Mekong you wish to visit). If you plan to go Chau Doc, you may even take a flight, as you will have to spend 4-5 hours on the road, if you were to travel by bus. In my opinion, we should try something different for every trip we go. It will be dull if we just follow the usual routine trips already prepared via packages. Of course if there is no other means or if you are travelling in extra-large groups or with parents/small children, you have no option but to hop onto the readily available tour packages which booking can be made through most of the hotels.

MY SUGGESTIONS : 

Terima kasih atas kesudian & kesabaran membaca segala leteranku setakat ini. It is rather incomplete if I don't end my story with my two-cents worth of suggestions/advices :)

1) Book your hotel at some where around Ben Thanh Market. It is not only for convenience of shopping, but for so many other reasons as well - esp food.

2) Do visit Masjid Jamia there & Explore a bit further from Ben Thanh Market. It is nice to walk around in a foreign country. But avoid walking after 12 MN or before sun is up. I had an unpleasant encounter when I was walking to Masjid one morning for solah subuh (just wanted to see how are things in Masjid on a muslim-minority place) Nothing bad happened, but I would discourage going out during that period.

* Masjid Jamia is fairly near to Saigon River

3) Bring along some instant noodles / gardenia breads/buns in case of emergencies & if you wish to save money..hehe. (I have few pictures of the menu & their prices)

4) Bring xtra bag to carry your things later (Im sure you will need xtra) and make sure you buy xtra check-in luggage from A.Asia!) Or if you think you need a travelling/hiking bag, just get one in Ben Thanh and stuff in the other things you buy.

5) Avoid coming here during long weekend off in Malaysia...if you wish to buy things at a better bargain :)

6) Best duration of trip depends on you. I recommend :

---> 3 good days in Saigon (visit War Museum, Cu Chi Tunnel, stroll around the town & shop till u break); 2 days & 1 night to Mekong Delta. Here go direct to Can Tho (take noon or evening bus). Next morning to Cai Rang floating market & arrange for other trips with local (in Can Tho) tour agent. If you are not keen to see Floating market, just go My Tho & Ben Tre (activities are confined to sitting on sampan to the canals & visit to local small scale industries)

---> BETTER OPTION. Go for a one week trip! You land in Phnom Penh (Cambodia), after 1 or 2 days, come to Chau Doc (by boat), overnight there. Visit Cham Muslim village & do some local activities there. Then head to Saigon. 1 or 2 nights in P.Penh; 2 nights in Mekong (Chau Doc), 2 nights in Saigon. OR you may also do the reverse. 

FYI, Chau Doc is the town at Cambodia-Vietnam border & is easy to find halal foods as a lot of Cham Muslims here.

7) Tukar duit siap2 kat money changer di Malaysia. Kalau x sempat (macam aku), at least tukar di KLIA2 (tempat CIMB - better rate). I spotted only one money changer in Saigon, adjacent to "Malaysian Road" @ Nguyen An Ninh & of course the conversion is not favorable to us.

Conversion rate (may change depending on current FOREX rate)

• 10000 Dong = RM 1.80
• 100000 Dong = RM 18
• 1000000 Dong = RM 180

8) Tulis siap2 atas kertas kecik...jadual conversion. Senang nak rujuk bila pekedai bagi harga dalam Dong (this was idea from Awang :) Trust me....very helpful. Macam kat atas tu : 10000 Dong = ?RM etc

9) All in all...Vietnam has huge potential to be an economic force to be reckoned in future. And it will interesting to see how Vietnam will look like in 10yrs to come.

9) For further readings :

www.saigonmuslimtours.com/Saigon-Tourist-Attractions/vietnam-mekong-river-delta/

www.dulichvietphongcaibe.com (this one is in Vietnamese)

www.frommers.com/destinations/can-tho#sthash.E6ebP8OV.dpbs (this one is pretty detail)

Disclaimer : I am not promoting tours by these companies, but read their articles to know what are the available tour options. The latter website is by a company operating near Cai Be Jetty. Just to reiterate, you may go Mekong Delta on your own & arrange trips around the delta directly with the operating tour companies there. Tours arranged by guides in Saigon are NOT the only available option.

That is all folks! I'll post pics & expenditures on my next entry...bila entah la...