Saigon

Ever since I saw Anthony Grey's book "Saigon" on my cousins' book shelf, about 20 years ago, I've always wondered what it meant. And when I know what it means, I've kept it in my heart that one day I will set my foot in that foreign land. Of course, thanks to AirAsia and adulthood, I have achieved what I set for. Even if it takes me 20 effing years! And I have to say, I enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed my companions, I enjoyed the food, the culture, the language (although I was cursed every second I spent in their markets) & most of all, I enjoyed the drinks. We spent 4 days 3 night, which to me was not enough. Should've stayed there for a whole month so we can go to Hanoi or go bicycling at the countryside & maybe take a flight out to Pnom Penh for a while. But then again, I don't have a gold card. So I should just  suck it up & shut up.

  

 Anyway, the first thing you'll notice when you enter Ho Chi Minh City is of course, the motorcycles. There's not an inch of the road which is not occupied by these motorcycles. And get this - they have the cutest helmet ever! It's like a cap, protecting your head from scratch and not from having it crushed to the ground. It's adorable. And the second thing you'll notice is the wires. Oh my goodness I can't even begin how to describe the complexity of the wiring in Ho Chi Minh City. I truly believe it is the most complicated in the world.

  

 * Try to have one of 'em short circuited & have it on fire, see what will happen. 

 We pre-booked our hotel through AirAsiaGo.com, selecting Saigon Hotel Mini 6 as our shelter for the whole 4 days. The price was RM63 per night, and on top of that, there's a 20% off the total price. Thanks to a promotion they were having. The hotel is located in Bui Vien Street, somewhere in District 1. This district is the central urban district of Ho Chi Minh City (information thanks to Wikipedia). This street is rather calm during the day, and turned hectic at night because of the bars, pubs, clubs & seriously cheap booze.

 

All of us don't drink alcoholic beverages, so we found a small stall along a busy small lane that sells a helluva good, refreshing fruit juice. A large cup costs up 20.000 VND which is equivalent to around RM3. We had this drink about 2-3 times a day, and by the end of our trip we became best friends with the auntie that sells the drink.

 

Our hotel is about 10 minutes away (on foot) from the infamous Ben Thanh market. Crossing the road, at first, was a super hard task. There's screaming involved. The thing about crossing the road is, you just have to brace yourself & cross. They will honk at you, but just to warn. Chances are, you won't get hit at all - they go by at a slow speed, and they are very skillful at avoiding pedestrians crossing.

  

Just opposite of Ben Thanh market is Nguyen An Ninh Street, a.k.a Malay Street. They don't speak Vietnamese or English here - they speak Malay. And yes, majority of Malaysians who love to shop at Ho Chi Minh will stay here. There's 2 halal food restaurant, side by side. The most famous one is Hjh Basiroh. We experienced our first Pho here. It was to die for! The meat was tender, the chili was hot, the portion was generous. Price is around 75.000 VND.

  

Kampung Melayu, a restaurant next to Hjh Basiroh, served more choice of food, with a protected & air-conditioned environment in which you have to pay for by their expensiveness in food & drinks.

For Muslims, I would say that you'll have to spend more on food. You'll be spending around RM15 per meal, for food and drink. So I am thankful that we have a Circle K across our hotel & auntie's fruit juice back in Bui Vien Street.

  

Ben Thanh market - my first impression : oh my, a whole lot of shops! Whatever things you wanna look for, you'd probably find it in this market. Well, except for electrical goods, I guess.

   

 We went lost, of course, the first time being in the market. There were pulling & touching involved once you enter. At first I was kinda angry with people constantly touching me, but after some time I got used to it. Bargaining is difficult. Sometimes they don't understand you & most of the time you don't understand them. The language barrier. There is another market, Binh Tay, located around 20 mins away (by car) from Ben Thanh - in Chinatown. Much cheaper, much more aggressive pulling, touching & cursing involved. I don't see any westerners here, probably to them Ben Thanh is already cheap. 

  

So Farah & I, the ones who do most of the bargaining, are being cursed by them at all times. Yes, I'm pretty sure they curse us for bargaining too cheap & walked away when we don't get the price we wanted. Us girls are interested in the materials. They sell mostly cotton. From English to Japan, from viscose to chiffon. Only half day in Vietnam & we've bought ourselves at least 3 - 6 pairs.

  

Above are only some of the materials that I bought. Mind you there's another 12 pairs that is missing from the picture. Those costs me RM23 each. And the picture below, I took from a shop that sells ready-made baju kurung with a heavy duty beads going on.

  

Haggling is fun, but when you have to deal with 3 different currencies, it becomes a headache. We haggle in Ringgit Malaysia, but we only have Vietnamese Dong & USD. So you have to have a calculator for the conversion of currencies. And there'll always a plus minus price over what you've settled for. Apart from buying materials, you can also make suits. It is said to be nicely sewn & comfortably worn. See sample below:

   

We didn't only shop, we did some sightseeing & touring as well. Mekong river was done on my birthday, after a surprise birthday party the night before. I was seriously caught off guard, and so below are the only pictures that's appropriate for public viewing, if you know what I mean.

   

So back to Mekong river trip, it costs us USD35 which includes pickup at hotel, breakfast, boat ride & tour with English-speaking guide, lunch, market stops & return to hotel. To me the price was OK, considering the food are all halal & there's only 6 of us in the group, so we're comfortably seated. Our Mekong tourist guide, I believe is a friend of Jack Dorsey's. She should be the blue bird representing Twitter.

 

 

The next day we walked through the city. The sun, I believe, was just an inch over our heads. We were sweaty, thirsty. We got burned, and yet we still walk. I enjoy walking, so I would say that I enjoy our walk through District 1 very much. Along the way we stopped at an air-conditioned mall to shop (again), bought stamps at the post office, buy drinks, take pictures, get cheated by the coconut-drink seller & get our sweat on.

I enjoy getting lost in the city of the unknown.

 

And by the time we reach the back of the Notre Dame Cathedral,  everybody was super tired. I'm actually afraid to ask them to walk with me around the corner (because I want to look at the cathedral from the front), they would chop me up & eat me for lunch. So we took a cab home. When we got back to the hotel, one of the girls from reception knocked on my door & handed me a birthday cake. They are the sweetest! So I took pictures with them :)

   

The next morning, Farah & Rahmat went to Ben Thanh early to do some last minute shopping. I stayed at the hotel, waiting for our tailor to come. The thing about Vietnamese is, if you make an appointment with them, always put at least an hour early of the time that you want. Because they will be at least an hour late. This happened 50% of the time.

So while waiting for Lan, the tailor (a woman), Omar &I had some alone time. Finally. Nah, just kidding. We went out to get breakfast at Highlands Coffee. It was difficult to find a halal place to eat in Bui Vien area, so we just entered & ordered tuna sandwich.

  

So after our morning runs, we settled down in 1 room to wait for 6pm to go to the airport. 4 of us, 3 of which is big-sized. 7 bags, excluding handbags. Cramped in 1 small room. So us girls stayed on the bed while the guys in whichever positions they were comfortable in.

  

And thank goodness we did not run out of money & luggage size is not over the limit. Mine & Omar totaled up to 41.5 kg while Farah & Rahmat was around 37kg.

Safely arrived in Malaysia with smiles on our tiring faces. Thank you to my 3 friends who threw me the party & helped me throughout the journey. I love you guys!

We'll be back, Ho Chi Minh. That is a promise.

Lexis Hotel Port Dickson

I was in Port Dickson recently for a weekend break. Decided to walk in to Lexis Hotel Port Dickson and try my luck if there's any room available - and it did!

RM580 inclusive of breakfast for an Executive Water Chalet. For 1 night. The spacious room comes with a very comfortable king bed, a day bed, a spacious jacuzzi that fits 2 & a balcony.

Other plus points about this hotel is that it each room comes with an iron & board, a safe & an umbrella - which are rare. Normally we will have to request for these things.

Room service is good - from the point of the variety of menus, time of food being delivered & presentation. The taste of the food, however, is only an "OK" to me. Our lunch as captured above, cost us RM82.

The beach is clean, and that's all I can say about it.

We did't jump into the swimming pool, bcoz of the many families with young children hanging out there & the pool size is not as big as it may seem in the pictures.

There's kareoke center, gym & other sports activities that you can try out - with a price, that is. Since we're single travelers who just want to chill out, we decided to just sit back & enjoy the sun.

One of the must-do thing if you're staying here is catching the sunset. Walk along the chalet area until the very far end where you can get an awesome view.

At night we went to Port Dickson town to check out the Waterfront area. It's still new, I guess, but there's a lot of restaurants to choose from. Fast food, western, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, and the list goes on. There's a Starbucks nearby Maybank. And then there's another Starbucks with drive-thru just nearby.

Apart from eating, I don't think there's much to do there. And the town is pretty much quiet after 9pm anyway.

For breakfast, choice of food wasn't bad at all. Of course they have nasi lemak - every hotel in Malaysia does - with different kinds of sambal. Then they have confectioneries, porridge, western, salad, fruits & cereals. There's about 5 types of juices if you're not a coffee/tea drinker.

All in, it was a very good stay. From the helpfulness & friendliness of the hotel staff to the cleanliness of the hotel grounds.

 

So if you're in PD & looking for a not-too-expensive hotel to wind down, be sure to check out Lexis Hotel. It is formerly known as The Legend Water Chalet - in case your GPS can't find it (like mine did).

It's fun for family & comfy for couples. For more info, log on to lexispd.com . Alternately, you can look for offers to this hotel in Agoda website.

Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan

Every year I'd plan a trip during my birthday. Unfortunately this year, it was cancelled - because the situation in Bangkok was uneasy. Plus my friend & I just got back from another trip earlier, and we were both busy with work.. bla bla bla.. So I opt to go somewhere in Malaysia, within reasonable driving distance. Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan came to mind as I haven't been to the East Coast for quite some time. I need keropok lekor & nasi dagang.

Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan

I booked my room earlier on Agoda so checking in was smooth, altho there were a slight of a crowd at the lobby. Oh btw, I love the lobby - it's so spacious and airy. A lot of seats where you can just chill out. We stayed for 2 nights, which cost us RM680.92 for a Deluxe Room including breakfast. The room was spacious & clean but the condition is a bit old. And if you plan to use the water heater, please check it out first because ours was rusty.

Our room 

We had ourselves a single bed each, and bed condition is only an "OK" for me. The bathroom was a bit small, tho. Bathtub can barely fit me in, not in width but in length - and I am short. 

The small bathtub

Sink

The toilet

It was about a 3-hour drive from KL in the middle of the day with the hot sun and all.. so by the time we checked in, we were starving! Since I was the only driver & was too tired to drive out for food, we had dinner at their restaurant - The Garden Terrace.

My western food - beef

Local nasi goreng

Food was awesome. No, it's not because we were super hungry but it was actually good. We had nasi goreng & some-western-food-I-can't-recall-the-name. Service was not so good - slow; but then again it was 3pm (after lunch hour) and I believe the staff are all tired. Let's just give'em a break, shall we? This cost us about RM70++.

Moving on to the beach. Oh before that - the walkway. Full of greens, it's so soothing to the eyes. And again, it's airy.

Green open field towards the beach

As for the beach itself, may not be as "awesome" as some of the other beaches in the area, but it was great for me. Mainly because it was not a public beach, so it wasn't crowded. The water is not so blue but a beach's a beach - and I take it as it is.

The beach

Beach activities

An almost-empty beach

Sunset behind the hotel

That night we had dinner at their Chinese restaurant - The Blossom. We had lemon chicken, dried chili chicken, broccoli & can't recall others, it was one of the dinner sets that they offer. And it came with a pot of chrysanthemum tea (with the flowers) & it's refillable. This cost us around RM80++.

Hotel lobby

After dinner we hanged out at the lobby. There's a flow of water, it was soothing & cooling - I loved it. It looked out to the beach, of course. Since it was night time, all we can see was lights from the lamppost.

Sunrise @ the beach

So anywho, the next day we checked out the sunrise. And after breakfast we headed towards Kuala Terengganu. Just because I missed Pasar Payang.

Terengganu is mostly occupied with Muslims, so on a Friday afternoon it was seriously deserted. We had trouble finding food for lunch, so we stuffed ourselves with keropok lekor & headed back to Kuantan.

Pantai Batu Buruk

Pantai Batu Buruk

We took the beach road, to get some scenery. Earlier my GPS directed us through a new highway towards Kuala Terengganu, which was such a turn off! So we had our stops - 1st was at Pantai Batu Buruk.

The beach was nicer here than in Balok Beach, Beserah (where the hotel is). I was the only one who went near the water. You know Malaysians, we have a lot of sun on a lot of days, so none of us wants to expose ourselves to the afternoon sun.

Shop along the road

Took a few snaps of pics & continued the journey. 2nd stop was at a shop by the roadside. We were getting hungry so we bought some sata. There was a small pondok behind the shop for us to sit, eat & enjoy the view and sound of the waves from the South China Sea.

My fav picture throughout the trip

Above is a picture of the pondok, earlier occupied by an old man who walked away as the kid in white & his family approched. It is one of my favorite picture from my entire collection.

Afterwards we drove again, but about an hour away from hotel, I started to feel dizzy from hunger. So we made another pit stop by the roadside where a stall was selling nasi dagang. A plate cost us RM3, a price you can never get in KL - but the portion was a bit small tho. Enough to just get me going again.

Later that night, it was time for room service since we were still hungry. (Yes, I could eat a horse & it can actually fit in my huge tummy). We ordered 3 dishes - Fish & Chips, Beef burger & Mee goreng. Plus 2 cans of Coke & it cost us around RM80++ if I'm not mistaken. Again, the food was excellent.

Random guy in the water

We spent the next morning in the waters before heading back to KL. It was a good thing that we checked out on a Saturday because the crowd was getting bigger. There were a whole lot more families with young children & there was a seminar for Petronas staff.

So all in, it was an OK stay. I may come again if there's no other places that I can go to. Much more suitable if you're bringing a family instead of on a couples/single trip.

Check out the Swiss-Garden Resort & Spa Kuantan website to get more details.