Summer in the city of Saigon

It's my 2nd time visiting Saigon and as usual I always visit the famous attractions in the city and trying out their food!

Day 4: I booked at Nok air - route is from DMK to ho chi minh.

Hello! Saigon we meet again! :)

Free complimentary snacks :)

Airport arrival tips at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Ho Chi Minh City) - take the yellow bus 109, 1-way trip cost VND20,000 all the way to city center.

This room can accommodate 3 pax. 

1 single bed and 1 double bed with private bathroom 

At Luan Vu Hostel. Booked from Agoda.
2nd time booking in this hostel and still recommended.

Exchange our peso in jewelry shop at the back of benh thanh market.

Landmark: The jewelry shop is parallel to Cua Tay building 

Millionaire! lol

  

Walking tour around the city. Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon

Late brunch at 3PM after walking tour in the city.

FriedDay!

Oi Jollibee!

Hmmm what to order?

After late brunch and 15 minute walk, merienda  agad at Jollibee Saigon! :)
Bigla lang namen nakita si jollibee.

Bida and saya! Pero iba ang lasa ng spaghetti :(
The taste is not the usual filipino sweet spaghetti, this is vietnamese style.

 Day 5: Cau dai temple and cu chi tunnel at TheSinhTourist.

Spacious mini bus for this tour :)

First stop at eggshell mosaic handcraft before the super long ride going to cau dai temple.
Ang galing noh?

At Cau Dai temple

I've been curious about this religion when I heard this to my friend.
The Cau dai temple is a mixture of christianity, buddhism, taoism, confucianism and Islam. 

The temple has a daily ceremony, when religions collide in one church.
We-fie muna kami.

Choir at 2nd flr

Symbolism of Cau dai

the 2nd half of the tour is the Cu chi tunnel

Our bus tour guide demonstrated how vietnamese preparing at war. 

Selfie muna bago bumaba sa tunnel

Me and rockie unexpectedly tried the longest tunnel path.
Sumunod kasi kami sa iba.

Tapioca for snack after the tiring tunnel.

After the tour, we are back to the city and the bus drop-off us in the plaza where there's an Asian street food stalls. 

Souvenir! :)

 Day 6: Last day in saigon, Rockie has an early flight going to Dubai while me and gibbo flight is 9PM, we walk around again in the city to kill time and tried again some vietnamese food hehe.

Lunch at this stall. It's in benh thanh market.



Looks yummy!

where's my next adventure?

Young Artist at the street

At the plaza

Very tasty vietnamese pizza hope there's like this in PH. 

The tastiest banh mih that I ever tasted! seriously for only 15,000 Dong! there's a crunchy meat in the sandwich :) It's beside the jewelry shop where we exchange our peso.

Our last dinner in saigon, its my first time to try this kind of noodle.
There's pork internal organ lol and the soup has coconut cream, the taste it's not bad at all.

Our favorite dinner of all time in saigon. fried chicken meal. 

NB. Beware of taxi scam. 

In our last day/hours in saigon, we are going to airport terminal bus that time and decided to get a taxi from our hostel going to Benh Thanh market as we are carrying a lot of bags. While driving, I noticed that the taxi driver turned in a different route and suddenly stopped and said that he was caught. He took some documents to the car and then handed them to the police. 

Surprisingly, I saw the police seemed to be amazed and that the documents were provided. The lessthan 10 minutes drive became 25 minutes. Then he drop us to another part of the benh thanh market far away from the bus terminal and ask for VND 20,000 because he was caught!!! 

adventure in bangkok click here.

Summer in Bangkok

Day 0: Expect the unexpected. Our accommodation in bangkok become 'free'. I have a filipino friend, my former teammate who is onshore in bangkok, thailand. "The Park9" A living serviced residence is along Udom Suk, in the lower sukhumvit area. I'm so happy that he adopt us for 4 days, I thought I'll just meet him somewhere in bangkok then 1 night in his apartment but no! there's more, he allow us to use his apartment for free.

Donya levels at The Park 9: A living service residence

I instantly canceled our hotel in phrom phong, no worries for the bill because I didn't pay any penny. Thanks jeff! that's a big savings in our end. So instead of paying the "hotel accommodation" I decided to buy foods for breakfast/snacks/dinner good for 4 pax/day.(takot kami magutom?)

NB. Less than a week before our trip, I received a Skype invitation from Jeff, then he ask and confirm when is my trip I replied that it's on march 20, 9pm and will arrive in bangkok by 11:25 or 12 mn. He insisted that I can go straight to his apartment then he gave me his address and advice to ride a metered taxi from the airport, note that there's an additional 50 baht for taxi fare.

If you want to know regarding The Park 9: A living residence click here.

Quick dinner after arriving in bangkok

We are so excited to taste test the food from thailand but later that we know that our quick dinner was not a thai food. Its Korean lol. Fried rice and korean chicken ek ek ek.

Day 1:  Rockie (hazel's bf)  who solo traveled in Cambodia for a day, went in the hotel around 1-2pm it's kinda late so I decided to just stayed in the apartment and went to the the near shopping mall (Paradise Park) to buy food. Before we went to paradise park mall, I ask Jeff via skype where we going after his work.

Cooked chicken adobo for our dinner.

How we bond our 1st day? Tadaaaan! inuman at Seventh heaven bar. It's beside HAHA mall.

Day 2: Wat Arun, Grand Palace, Wat Poh, Khao san Road and MBK shopping mall
From the apartment we took taxi to BTS Udom suk. We experienced to ride the BTS and MRT train . From BTS Udom suk to BTS Sukhumvit then transfered to MRT Asok to MRT Sala Daeng transferred BTS Si lom to BTS until we reach the Saphan taksin station. In Saphan taksin pier there's a ferry going to Wat Arun for only 15 Baht. If you want a 1 day pass tourist ferry, you can buy it at Chao Phraya Express for only 150 Baht.

Instead of card this token is being used to enter and exit MRT

Inside the ferry going to wat arun.

Ready for the adventure!
Gibbo, me and rockie!

 Wat Arun - admission fee 50 baht
Ferry transfer from wat arun to grand palace/wat poh - 4 baht

Grand Palace - admission fee 500 baht
All I can say is... ang daming chekwa ang init ang ingay ....

Expectation vs Reality!

 

Wat Poh - admission fee 100 baht

The iconic reclining buddha

We started the tour by 9am and completed the 3 attractions by 12nn then we have our lunch near wat Poh.

For our festive lunch, we tried the best seller rice meal in that resto and added a noodle soup and fresh spring roll.
   


Then because we are still have a lot of time, we decided to go to Khao San road. From the bus loading station near Wat Poh we ride #53 bus. The lady from the resto says that  #53 bus will pass through the Khao San road. We didn't know the fare then I ask 'mother' (a local thai woman beside me) on how to pay the fare and confirm if the bus will go to khao san road. Mother confirms the location and said it's baht free. (Wow baht free! how come??!) then she taught us how we can get to khao san road.

Khao San Road

Sawadee ka!

 

  

  

Food trip in khao san road and bought some souvenirs. 

Spring rolls, pad thai, coconut ice cream, watermelon with chili flakes and thai iced tea with perl

From the main road I saw a handwritten bus guide around bangkok

MBK Shopping area
In the afternoon, we roamed around the MBK and bought again some pasalubong. There's a food bazar at night in MBK that looks like "banchetto". We take away some food so we could eat it in the apartment.

  

 

Day 3: Ayutthaya and The train Srinakarin night market
For a hassle free tour in Ayutthaya we rented out a taxi for a day for 2000 Baht + toll gates fee.
The highlight of this tour is the iconic Buddha head in an old tree and the small floating market in ayutthaya.

Summer Palace

1st stop in Ayutthaya is a prayer temple with very big buddha 

The iconic buddha head in an old tree. 

Meeting

Squad

Floating market

emote! 

Lunch at Ayutthaya floating market

For our lunch in ayutthaya floating market, we order the famous papaya salad, fried balls, pork fried rice and this beef noodle I think this is the boat noodle.

 

 

At night we roamed around the train Srinakarin night market and tried some street foods.

Roti.

Yummy mango sticky rice!!!!

Thanks jeff for accommodating us! #meetthelocal and peg lol
bawi ako sa pinas hahaha

Then after roaming around the train market, jeff invited us to swim and drink up 4 big Chang bottle beer.

Day 4: Bye bangkok - hello vietnam :)

We have a very early flight in DMK going ho chi minh. No time for sleep. After swimming went to DMK at 3am. And in just 30 minutes we are in the airport. Our airline is NokAir and they have a simple complimentary snack.

next adventure in ho chi minh click here..,