Back from Vietnam (Day One)

As I have previously blogged, I was in Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon, Vietnam for the past 4 days. It was rather enjoyable in general as we were a small group so there wasn't too much opportunities for too many hiccups.

Day 1:
To meet at Singapore Changi airport, my friend overslept!!!!! What a bad omen. She bought 6 pump 100ml bottles mean for toiletries to transfer water from her water bottle into, so that she will have "home-water". It was a rather stressful experience already for me and my loved one as we were the really bare-necessity people who only have passport, money, pen as our hand-held "luggage". We boarded the plane just 2 minutes before the gate close *phew* and start the suspected-to-be-not-too-time-efficient journey.

The usual SQ flight, beautiful smiles of the stewards and stewardesses, comfortable seats with individual screens to watch movies and play games...and which costed SGD130 more! Haha. But definitely relaxing upon arrival.

It was a short flight, we reached Saigon's Tan Son Nhat Airport before I could check out the toilet which I always liked doing just to have the fun of feeling pleased that Singapore is so nice to provide so many choices of toiletries within the small little compartment of privacy. After clearing customs, exchanged USD to vietnamese Dong which thankfully Dear and I only traded half of what we have, and I didn't spend much of it ultimately.

Saw Dear's and my name on a plate that a guide held " Mr XXX" and "Ms YYY". The guide is a pleasant man in his thirties called Khoa and we had a very friendly driver called Nyat. I am happy again as the trip seems to be having a good start.

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After checking into our rooms and resting briefly, we had lunch at a simple coffeeshop-like restaurant eating the well known vietnamese beef noodles or pho bo as they call it. After lunch, we took a walk to the famous Ben Thanh market to check out the prices of things. Clothes and handicrafts were pretty but after about only an hour, my friend's BF was tired and overwhelmed by the heat and we left, I was actually a little disappointed.

Back to the hotel for shower(while I was just done with showering, there was a blackout, later asking the guide we got to know that blackouts are common in vietnam) and nap (what??!!! we come here to sleep?*sigh*). The new found disparity between me and my friend made we feel rather pleased that Dear's and my mindset and habits are quite matched. ;)

Dinner is at a restaurant where we were given a private room. The ambience was peaceful, the food was interesting. But sadly, my friend and her BF was planning to go to a church for service so the mood was a little rushed. (Not that I like to complain, perhaps they also didn't like that I was so princessy?) They left early taking a cab to their church, while me and Dear continued.

After dinner, we were driven back to the hotel. Dear and I took a walk in the streets around the hotel. The scene was interesting, so was the attempt to cross roads. When you cross roads there, you had to walk slowly at a constant speed in a fixed intended direction and the motorbikes that saturate the roads will weave around you like fishes in a pond. There was a very special thing about our hotel staff, they will hold light sticks with blinking lights, like those our traffic police use and help us to cross the roads.

Back to the hotel for rest and getting ready for the full blast of excitement of the itinenary