Our tour guide, Long at the Saigon Post Office

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Mata terkebil-kebil

Pejam celik, pejam celik

Mata dah pening lepas tengok skrin komputer berjam-jam

Aku nak keluar, berjalan-jalan. Tenangkang fikiran.....

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I suppose the thing about Vietnam is the spirit of its people. They openly kiss and hug in public parks! They push tourists into their clothes shops to persuade that tourist to buy stuff. They perform deft-defying stunts with metal hoola hoops of fire on riverboat cruises....Erm, these are examples of stuff I saw. They built extensive underground tunnels during the Vietnam war, complete with smokeless kitchens, hospitals and bedrooms! These people have been through a lot (War, for one thing) and they give no shit to you. As one travel writer wrote, Saigon will smirk back at you upon your arrival to the city, and warn you: "Only for the brave."

As a Malaysian, I could safely say there isn't anything outstanding in Saigon. There's cheap shopping for fabrics, silks. The Vietnamese coffee is nice. As for nightlife, Saigon (that's Ho Chi Minh's old name) pales in comparison with Bangkok. Saigon does, however have decent discos such as Apocalypse Now.

But, if you put Saigon in context of the Vietnam war, then it is a great place to visit. There is the War Museum and the Chu Chi underground tunnels, which is about an hour away from Saigon.

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The group I was with was great. Semua otak sama. Semua ala ala kecoh and happy-go-lucky. Food was taken care of as the organisers ensured halal food all throughout except for breakfast...But I know food is what you make it to be lah kan. I mean, imagine travelling to Italy, Argentina, France or Korea? Hang kena pandai pandai lah cari makanan yang hang boleh makan, right?

Shopping is never my thing, so i really didn't know what to buy. But the lone girl and the faulous guys in my group had a swell time searching for bargains. Ben Than market is the place to be for bargain hunters. Some of the sellers speak Malay and one female seller pushed me into her clothes stall asking me to buy stuff. Perlu ke? Anyway I bought two t-shirts and shorts.

Do not go to the bazaar for locals- we could not bargain at all at the local market--and the people there don't speak a word of English.

I bought simple stuff like t-shirts, fabrics, caps and a DVDs of "I'm Not There" movie and "Private Practive" TV drama.