Sally goes to Ho Chi Minh: Part 4 Mekong River + Happy June babies!

Hello can you see me?

We are heading to Mekong River today!

We booked a private tour to Mekong River and I swear it is the best thing to do. 

No need to wait for other tourists in the sweltering weather and we could do whatever we want. 

First stop at some monkey bridge.
I imagined it to be something for significant, but turned out to be this man made bridge. 

It's called a monkey bridge cos you supposedly look like a monkey while crossing the bridge. FML.

See how dumb we look? Haha.

Apparently it's not compulsory. Only the Tan sisters are kuku enough to do such stuff.

And the bridge leads to no exit, we have to crawl under the curtain into a narrow space with our legs still on the stilt.

So I landed on my butt cos I didn't balance well. Zzzzz. 

Family shot before heading to our boat ride.

Can you feel the heat already?

The guide says, " Who want a shot at the front?"

"Me!" and only me. =_='

Emo Sally missing home..

We were transferred to another sampan selling fruits, loads of fruits.

Other tourists that were nearby only got to buy from their own boat. 

The sisters :)

All happily eating the fruits.

We were all damn excited to feast like a fruit buffet la. 

Especially Jia, who got to eat her durian.

As you can see, two skeptical men were missing from the picture. 

But their skepticism has proven a point, there's no free lunch in the world. 

Hahaha we paid 200,000 dongs for the fruits we ate.  

Of course with the very happy shopkeeper. Can close shop already!

Then we went to their local wet market. Literally wet. 

But we did learn something new la..

How many of you knew chilli grows like this? Or is it just me that doesn't know.

And saw sea coconut and live frogs being tied up. Urgh.

I think this is the market we went to.

Then we took a long boat ride into the village and explore some of their housing. 

I think we should bring Singaporeans here to see the living condition, so we feel more justified to pay hundreds of thousands for our lego home. Haha.

The shag man and the duck.

Didn't take many pictures cos the weather was too hot. 

Went to some temple before we took a SAMPAN into another village. 

Haha can you see our hands all subconsciously gripping onto the side of the sampan while taking photos? 

All looking excited and posing with the Vietnamese hat.

Even Sally!

Looking damn good here.. I mean the boatman, 

Until 10 minutes later, we were still in the canal.

.

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15 minutes

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.

I think we reached like about 20 to 30 minutes later, all shag and 2 shades darker. 

The only exciting thing was we saw someone swimming in the midst of the still water and raise his head up above the water beside our sampan. Haha. 

They were such hospitable guests they brought out everything they could for our lunch.

There the guide showing my aunty how to do a rice roll with fish.

Hahaha but the fish was so fishy she hide it under her bowl and throw away the moment the guide left. 

The guide made us do this.

But we were really sincere in giving them the two thumbs up cos we really appreciate their service!

 

Isn't she adorable?

Dinner time is most headache for us.

Our parents have no idea what they want to eat but yet they have the most restrictions. #firstclasstravelling problem

So we settled for a zichar near our hotel.

THE THOUGHT OF IT MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL!!! 

Can't remember the exact name, think it is Tan Lap Restaurant next to Paradise Saigon Boutique Hotel.

The food looks good (but it is not exactly that fantastic), but this meal costs us SGD240!!!!

Like what shit! If this is in Singapore, I would think it's expensive too, let alone Vietnam!

Did I mention the white rice that we had costs us $12??? 

So our parents went to shop themselves after dinner and the young ones went cafe hopping with an agenda in mind. Heehee.

Went back to my favourite cafe and it never fails :)
The same cafe but a totally different feeling by night.

And we got a cake for my mummy's and aunt's birthday!

No women would say no to flowers. 

The smile on their face was priceless :)

Sally goes to Ho Chi Minh: Part 3 The family trip!

Spend the morning exploring new cafe before the family arrives!

Sleeping marathon #likeaboss

WC brought me to ID cafe near our hotel.

He said it was one of the more popular cafe but nothing special.

The food was alright and it could only house a few tables. 

Turned out there's a level two that we missed out! Haha 

If you are looking out for shopping, Vietnam is really not the place for you.

The extent they marked up the price really pissed me off.

Imagine a normal Saigon singlet that we can get for a few bucks, they try to sell my sis for 750000dong (that's about 45 SGD).

Is either they think we are stupid or they are mad. 

I know it was rude but it was so hilarious I really LOL whenever they quoted me such ridiculous price. 

The best thing to do in the hot weather: Cafe hopping again!

This time we headed to The Morning Cafe.

OMG I really loveeeeeee this place!

It's located at this dark alley and you have to take a long flight of stairs up. 

Just when we were so skeptical about everything around us, we heard a really loud thud. I swear I got a really bad scare, instinctively cover my ears and bend down.

After that we realise somebody threw a huge bag of sand or dunno what down, probably to save the trip down the narrow stairwell. FML. 

It's not that bright in real life, in fact it is dark and we are the only customers.

With a cup of real good smoothie and jazz music, this place is PERFECT.

And our family arrived just in time after we came back from the cafe!

It was the first time we are doing a family trip (usually it's just 4 of us) so everyone was pretty high and excited. 

They were hungry when they arrived so we went to try out the fast food chain.

No burger or fries, just pho and Vietnamese coffee!

Dunno how Jia edited all these photos, look damn nice. I only know how to resize, contrast and add effect aka instagram. Heehee.

Sally's first sneak attack.

My aunty and her family

My obviously over enthusiastic family. 

Haha the family soon got tired of walking around so we settled at Paris Baguette for some coffee. 

And it was not long after we segregated to 老人族 and 青年族. 

Seriously there's nothing that will interest our parents, so they got bored of walking. And cafe hopping isn't exactly their kind of thing. 

So the only activity is FOOD! 

Looks good but not that good. 

Especially those prawns. It's basically prawns in a coconut. Pui.

We all left unsatisfied, those food below plus a fish cost us close to 100 bucks. 

Singapore also not that expensive lo.

Ended off Day 1. 

Mekong river next!