Route: Hue-Da Nang-Ho Chi Minh City
--1st Stop: Da Nang International Airport--
We spent half a day travelling from Hue to HCMC. Luckily the transportation throughout the journey was quite comfortable.
8.30am, we met the funny driver of Orchid and departed for Da Nang airport. The journey from Hue to Da Nang is about 3 hrs.
This time round, we drove through Hai Van Tunnel, which is the longest tunnel in South East Asia.
We were quite early for check-in, so have to grab a bite before we board the plane. There was only 1 small eatery at the airport. I had instant noodles and coffee for lunch. This meal costed a "bomb" ok? I can have far better meals with the amount I paid for these! But no choice...I had to feed myself :(We did not realised that we cld check-in our luggage and actually waited at the departure hall for quite sometime. The good thing was our luggage wld be the first few to come out when we reached HCMC. Haha!
1.40pm, we departed for HCMC on VN329, which was an Airbus 330 plane. They have perosnal screens on the seat, but no IFE. Well, it's alright for an hr journey...I got my mp4 :)
View from the plane. HCMC, the city of rivers....
We reached HCMC at 2.55pm. Decided to change some VND, but the money changer at the domestic airport got svc charge. So, we walked over to the international airport to change money, and we decided to book a taxi from Mai Linh counter. It costed 8USD for a taxi, but safety was guaranteed.--2nd Stop: Beautiful Saigon Hotel--
Beautiful Saigon 2 was a small hotel, but the location was quite good. There are lots of restaurants nearby, and it's not too far from Ben Thanh Market.
Toilet.
Our beds. Not as spacious as compared to the previous hotels we stayed in Central Vietnam.
There are LCD TV, PC etc. Quite well equipped, but not enough space for our luggage.
View from our room. HCMC is a city of cables.--3rd Stop: Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre--
Water puppet is a traditional performance in Vietnam, and we decided to go to the theatre to watch the performance. The maps provided by the hotel & Lonely Planet guidebook were not adequate for us as there were roads which were not shown. So, we thought it was near Ben Thanh mkt, but we were so wrong. Shld have took a taxi.
I've not met with such heavy traffic in Central Vietnam, but this scene is nothing surprising for a big city of 7 million people. The motorbike population is huge as well, and it was difficult to cross their roads. So basically, once u start crossing, don't look back. Ha!
I bet there wld be more high-rise buildings in the future.We walked to the end of Ben Thanh mkt, and realised that we have not reach Golden Dragon. After walking 2 streets further down, we reached the Unification Palace, and realised the theatre is behind it! (U know how big the palace ground is...)
The suay thing happened next. We heard thunder & lightning and within minutes, rain just fell like cats & dogs. We were drenched even with umbrellas, and HCMC streets started to flood. My shoes, jeans and bag were all wet again!!!
So we have to abort our plan and return to hotel. But, how to flag for a taxi? We were at the wrong side of the road, and many taxis were occupied.
We finally flagged a taxi, but there's no meter, which means we wld have to negotiate with the driver. Heaven was not on our side as it's raining heavily! Going back to hotel was more impt, so we decided to get in and pay the money unwillingly. The 5 mins ride costed 100,000VND, which was nearly the cost from HCMC airport to downtown! I really felt like cursing, but it's inevitable. Haiz~~~
We returned to hotel, and began our drying routine. Haha! It was quite late in the evening, we were tired, wet, and hungry! Changed into my old clothings and we went out to have our dinner. Luckily the rain has stopped....
--4th Stop: Lotteria Fast Food Restaurant--
We did not dine at our hotel area, but walked to the main road and saw this Korean fast food restaurant. I remembered how slow their svc was when I was at Jeju Island airport in 2009. Anyway, Lotteria's menu offered burgers, fried and grilled chicken.
All of us decided to have 2 piece grilled chicken meal with some garlic flavour. Well, I thought the grilled chicken was alright, and it was a little bloody at the bones area. I shld have chose their prawn burger instead.There goes our Day 6 :(
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