Saigon/Ho Chi Minh for 3 days, 2 nights

It's best to get out of Ho Chi Minh, really. You can't do or see much. Hue or Hanoi is better. 

Oh and Saigon is also known as Ho Chi Minh or HCM.

ACCOMMODATION
We stayed in Luan Vu Guesthouse. We paid around $20 for the room per night. Bathroom ensuite, airport transfer, airconditioning, TV,  hot shower, wifi, breakfast. It's 10 minutes on a leisurely walk from Ben Thanh Market.

Stay in District 1, the backpacker district near Ben Thanh Market where decent rooms can go as low as $7 to $20. As in Khao San Road in Bangkok, staying in the backpacker area means you'll meet a lot of Europeans on their gap year and serious backpackers from all over the world. But prices for meals and rooms are dirt cheap.

Most hotels/hostels have airport transfer. Just book ahead.

Luan Vu Guest House in 2008, now an honest-to-goodness hotel

Luan Vu Hotel
35/2 Bui Vien Street, District 1, HCM City, Vietnam
Tel. (84).8.38377185 - (84).8.39203614
Email luanvugh@gmail.com
phanlan@hcm.vnn.vn

DAY 1 

City Tour

- Reunificication Palace (entrance fee at 20,000 VND)

- Notre Dame Cathedral

- Post Office

Everything within walking distance and can be done for half day.

Reunification Palace

- City Hall (about four, five blocks from the rest, best to take taxi from Post Office to here)

If you're not that depressed yet from war and the misery it brings, after Hanoi's war museums and the Reunification Palace, you might still want to go to the War Remnants Museum (enrance 15,000 VND)

Have a banh mi tith at the park across the Reunification palace. Sells for 15,000 to 20,000 VND.

banh mi 

DAY 2

- Cu Chi Tunnels (half day tour)

$7-15 - covers transpo and guided tour (ask for Mr. Binh - he has all sorts of tricks up his sleeve, engaging, funny, interesting) 

No lunch.
Drive from HCM is about  1.5 - 2 hours.

- Xin Chao cultural show (in the evening)

Said to rival Bangkok's Siam Niramit 

$13

Hotel can book this for you.

DAY 3

Shop, shop, shop

- Ben Thanh Market (for Blue Mountain Coffee, Vietnamese souvenirs, food, tea, dried squid, etc.)

   I liked the spring rolls in the food stalls and I tried ALMOST ALL the ice mix concoctions - with lotus  

   seed, pandan, lychees, mangoes, or coconut)

   Bargain hard here! Bargain hard!

- Saigon Square (for over runs - Longchamp, Northface, Adidas, Nike, A&F, American Eagle, GAP, etc.)

- Huyn Thuc Khang Street blocks - the stalls here sell cameras, phones, electronics - so cheap! 

The night market outside Ben Thanh is a tourist trap. 

There is total scooter anarchy and traffic rules are dodgily...obeyed. So be careful. I survived by just going forward when crossing the street and praying the Act of Contrition and Angel of God until I reached the other side. 

You can get good street food at Ben Thanh Market for 20,000 VND upwards.

For other tips, see http://www.ayabaw.blogspot.com/2012/05/hanoi-for-3-days-2-nights.html

Hanoi for 3 Days, 2 Nights

Here's Hanoi, because like Singapore, I always get asked about it.

ACCOMMODATION: Hanoi Phoenix Hotel
- Nice cozy hotel in the Old Quarter, about 10 minutes' walk to Hoan Kiem Lake and 
   environs
- Excellent breakfast every morning (all the pho ba you can eat, toast, jam, fruit, fried rice,    
   Vietnamese coffee, )

- Can arrange tours especially for Ha Long Bay
- It's small but the manager (Kevin) really takes care of you. Kevin and staff speak good 

   English too.
- I think you'll find their email in any of the sites below for reservations.
- airport transfer, wifi, TV, aircon, heater - shower, breakfast, check, check, check! When
   we were there, there was a PC with internet connection IN EVERY ROOM!
- no elevator BUT it's all worth it, believe me
- Pay $8 - $15 per person per room a night. Tres cheap! Value for money!






Check these out:
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hotels/vietnam/hanoi/8662/

and

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293924-d1060300-Reviews-Hanoi_Phoenix_Hotel-Hanoi.html


Hanoi Phoenix Hotel 
43 Bat Su Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi 10000, Vietnam




DAY 1
City Tour
- Opera House
- Hoan Kiem Lake (giant turtle, sword, pagoda)
- Old Quarter (old shophouses)
- Post Office
- City Hall
   

Exploring best done on foot.

- Water Puppet Show (in the evening)
FYI, tell the hotel you want to book a show on a specific day so they can get tickets for you. Tickets sell out really fast.

Show's production values are not top of the line but it will do for local color.
Tickets for the show at 60,000 to 100,000 VND.

Entrance for Hoan Kiem Lake pagoda/museum at 20,000 VND.

Ako ni sa Hoan Kiem

DAY 2

Ha Long Bay Tour

$35 for day tour with transpo, boat ride, guided tour (islands and cave - Cat Ba), lunch, entrance fees (option to rent kayaks)


Caveat: Cat Ba cave tour has bastos (and I mean bastos) references.

It's a 2-3 hour drive to Ha Long from Hanoi. Tourist bus/van fetches you at your hotel around 7, 7.30 AM.

Numerous tourist stops along the way selling lacquered cases, Vietnamese crafts, coffee, etc.




But really, nothing beats the splendor of Coron, El Nido and Pan de Azucar. Period.

DAY 3
Museums
- Ho Chi Minh (in the flesh, preserved!)
- War, Military Museums
- Soviet-era art and propaganda
-Torture contraptions (this is horrible but you have to see it)
- Traps (horrible too)
Temple of Literature

Entrance fees from 10,000 dong to 75,000 dong.

MONEY

For easier conversion, don't mind the 000s at the end. Hence, 10,000 = 10 and 75,000 = 75, 250,000 = 250

10,000 is almost like 10 pesos.

Mineral water sells for 15,000 VND in most tourist shops and 2,000 to 5,000 VND in local stores.

EAT and DRINK
- fish cha ca
- ca phe (coffee) in the nice little Vietnamese-style French press and do it in a street-side
   cafe! Hot or cold, you'll have to try it!
- tea (lotus, rose, lavender)
- Fresh spring rolls (absolute favorite - next to pho ba hi hi)
- Hanoi Beer - Bia Hanoi
- I like the papaya salad with beef sold by a hawker near the Than Long Puppet theater.



Nom - beef and papaya salad


- And of course, you HAVE to try authentic pho ba with all the condiments, including the bicho-bicho type fried bread/tofu that goes with it!



Pho Ga - chicken noodles

Dave recommends Old Hanoi Restaurant for the best in North Vietnamese cuisine. 

GET AROUND
- taxis ARE NOT RELIABLE!
- You have to get your hotel to arrange a ride for you.
- When taking a taxi from somewhere not your hotel, best to agree on a price before getting 

   on. Even if drivers promise to use a meter, don't trust them. Some of them rig their 

   meters.

DEALING WITH TRAFFIC
- There is total scooter anarchy in Vietnam, Saigon or Hanoi. When crossing the street,
   remember that you have nowhere to go but forward. So just go. Everything will try to stop
   for you. Will try.

Oh. And on the plane, don't be surprised if Vietnamese use their phones immediately at touchdown and stand up to get their bags while the plane is taxiing on the runway.

Aaand that's it. You will spend less than $100 a day. Vietnam is so cheap. So, so cheap. So sulit.

Next up, HCM/Saigon.


Some pics by Hannah

The best lassi* in all of India

One taste and it was love.

Our gang's love affair with lassi started with me ordering a glass in our hotel on our first meal in India.Everybody had a taste of that pandora lassi and since then, we tried it watered down, lukewarm, cold, with rosewater, with honey, with mango, with half a cherry, crusty, curdled, iced, by the roadside, at the airport, in hotels, in sweet shops, for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner.

There was the one that tasted like cough syrup.
Another that tasted like vomit.
And yet another that tasted like expired margarine.

But nothing, absolutely nothing beats the lassi from Kishan Lassiwalla in Jaipur.

Oh! But it is:
Creamy, umami, un-clumpy, smooth, rich but not too sweet, filling, refreshing, made cool by the earthenware tumbler, pure and simple unadulterated lassi! So lip-smacking good at 40 - 75 rupees!

It's a food memory I wouldn't ever want to forget!

Be sure to go early, early in the morning, when the streets have just barely recovered from the humdrum of the other day.

You'll see the lassiwallas scooping the curds off the wide earthenware vessels.

The locals come in for a clay tumbler of it.

And this is a mug shot of the locals with their lassi.

Everything is sustainable, the lassi is served in terra cotta mugs.

Just toss the tumbler in the trash when you're done and good. Sustainable all the way.

For the best lassi in India, visit Kishan Lassiwala.

Kishan Lal Govind Narain Agarwal Lassiwalla
Mirza Ismail Road
Ashok Nagar
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

*Don't ask me what lassi is. Ask wikipedia. Here.

Mission

I just want this over and done with. Ugh.

The Five Laws of Life

May every thought you think be etched in fire in the sky for the whole world to see, for in fact it is.


May every word that you say be said as if everyone in the world could hear it , for in fact they can.


May every deed that you do recoil on top of your head, for in fact it will.


May every wish that you wish on another be a wish that you wish for yourself, because in fact it is.


May everything you do be done as if God Himself is doing it, for in fact He is.


Suze Orman

From http://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/2035-suze-orman-tough-love-girlfriend