Vietnam

Sungguh aku masih dan terlalu rindukan Vietnam. Indah!

Ijazah Menggembara

Assalammualaikum dan salam sejahtera.

Sepertinya yang terakhir kali aku update blog 5 bulan yang lalu. Dek kerana terlalu sibuk dengan hal duniawi yang terdiri dari pelbagai bentuk dan aspek, blog ini kian ditinggalkan--Maaf.

Aku selalu teringin untuk tidak memikirkan hal penggembaraan. Tapi apakan daya, aku hanya manusia biasa yang terlalu mencintai alam semulajadi. Kadang-kadang rasa kejam bila sering megaibaikan benda lain dan fokus kepada satu task sahaja. Cooopp! jangan risau tau, which aku still cuba untuk menjadi sesuatu yang berbeza dan masih dalam proses ke arahnya. 

Tiap kali aku nak lupakan--Tiap kali itu juga aku akan terbaca buku atau kata-kata yang bakal membangkitkan rasa aku untuk terus menggembara di bumi Allah yang luas ni. Haishh. Kata orang aku tidak berpijak dibumi yang nyata bila mana lebih mengikut nafsu dan tanpa bawa akal sekali. [sebenarnya, penat la nak dengar kata orang ni!]

Sungguh aku cuba. Cuma biasalah akan tersasar juga kan. Di Malaysia, persepsi setiap orang tentang menggembara ni masih lagi kurang mendapat kebebasan yang penuh. Kadangkala perlu ada sesetengah kriteria yang rigid perlu di simpan erat di dalam dada sebelum boleh atau layak untuk menggembara. 

Aku masih lagi la tertanya, "kena ada ijazah ke dalam perjalanan menggembara?"

Tolong jawab jap.

Ho Chi Minh

Hey mate! Today I will tell you my journey of Vietnam and Thailand for 16 days from 19th Dec 15' until 3rd Jan 16'. At the particular moment the currencies were:

1,000,00 VND~193 MYR
1USD ~ 4.30 MYR
10 THB~ 1.20 MYR

I may not call this really tight budget because most of the tourist attractions we covered.

FIRST DAY (Ho Chi Minh/ Saigon)

Took Air Asia flight from KLIA2 in the morning at 8.15 am, and the journey took 2 hours. Because Saigon about an hour late than Malaysia, we arrived at 9.30 am. Upon we're  arrived, we bought a SIM card for 150,000 VND. We just bought it one and share it with four of use using so-called-handy-wifi-modem. I brought it from Malaysia. Somehow, you can rent it if I'm not mistaken--for this part you may google it.

Took a taxi and asked him we wanted to go to Futa Bus Office and he brought us to the Futa Bus HQ. It's ok then. The taxi costs about 150,000 VND. Purpose to go there first because we wanted to change our booked tickets to an actual ticket. Upon arriving the lady who worked there so nice! She showed us where we should actually go in order to get the actual tickets since we're already booked tickets to Da Lat on the night. How nice that lady, she offered us to place our bag packs at her office for free. Thanks beautiful lady!

Then, our journey has begun! 
For the first time I saw the traffic in Saigon really hectic. Everyone was like moving without waiting for the others, but what I can say is--there is no accident after all! Everyone knows where they should go and for whom they must give the way first. Yet, there's  a lot of motorcycles. Like, a lot! For the pedestrians, there is no pedestrian walk--So you just cross the road with no hesitation. The drivers and motorcyclist will slow down the speed. Usually the speed at Vietnam between 40km/h-60km/h. For me, it's like a priority for pedestrians to cross first. Beware also!

 
We went to Ben Thanh Market just to find halal foods. At the particular area, there's lots of halal restaurants you can choose but you need to walk a few miles before you can see a shop lot with many of halal restaurant. At that moment we've  tried the Vietnam's Beef Soup Noodle for 70,000 VND. It's big portion and can make our stomach at least full until night. Not to forget, at this area there is lot of Vietnam Coffee too! You may pay using MYR and its about 3 MYR per cup. 

While waiting for our foods, we did requested for the staffs is there any musolla nearby and he said there is a musolla but it might takes time to go there and he offered us a prayer room for staffs where the usually perform their prayer. Again, beware! The prayer room consist of steep ladder before reach to the prayer room. Thanks Malaysians :)

We walked to the Saigon Museum. It costs about 15,000 VND or 1USD. It's ok for those who would like to know about Vietnam's history. When we wanted to walk to the Post Office, there is a man who selling coconuts stop at us. Please beware, there's  a lot of scams in Saigon. One of it is a man selling coconuts, he stopped  at us and give us a chance to carry the coconut like the way he did and suddenly he handed us coconuts and said-- "it's ok, just take it because I want to go home". As a Malaysian, that kind of phrase is a norm for us as its like a threat after the hawkers wanted to go home and he doesn't want to bring home the excess of food which un-sold. Again, the man asked us for 150,000 VND for 4 coconuts! That's freaking expensive. Yet, its a lesson learned to us.

Please bare in your mind, every single thing happens is for money.

They wouldn't do for free. Anything need to pay. You need to bargain as much as you can too because at the first the might put a high price to a foreigner. Yea I know it happens in the other countries too. Its due to tense of life because not all Vietnamese well-to-do.

Walked again! So, this is a post office. The building was constructed when Vietnam was part of French Indochina in the late 19th century. It counts with Gothic, Renaissance and French influences. It was constructed between 1886-1891 and is now a tourist attraction.

This is the view in the city of Saigon.

This is mosque is situated in central of Saigon at  P. q. 1 Vietnam, 66 Đông Du, Bến Nghé, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam. Near the mosque, there is a lot halal restaurants too. This time we performed our Maghrib's and Isya' prayer. For non-muslim, you can enter the mosque but you need to wear a pink robe provided by the mosque at entrance before you can get into the mosque. 

Literally after whole day we in Saigon, We did not take any public transport to go to the tourists attractions. All done by walking referring to a map. Hence, the places just walking distance. Im not encourage you to take public transport as the traffic is very hectic everywhere in Saigon.

Next we're heading to Da Lat on the night using Futa Bus. Before that we showered at hostel which in front of Futa Bus Station, It costs about 60,000 VND per person. Sadly, when it comes to my turn to shower, the bus arrived already. The reason we took a night bus because we wanted to save cost on our accommodation on that day. Moreover, the bus we took is a sleeper bus. So, we still can have our great slumber on the bus. 

Fyi, you need to book early the bus if you wanted to plan your journey wisely. Before get in into sleeper bus, you need to take off your shoes and put in the plastics provided by the bus--The driver would give it to you. After that you need to bring along your shoes at your seats (just follow what locals did). Again, the driver will give you wet tissue, mineral water and blanket to each of passenger. 

Ouh yeah, seats was designed for the Vietnamese, so the seat slightly small and for those who are big size and tall might not comfortable in this sleeper bus but this is the way of their bus. Mostly they're using sleeper bus instead of normal bus. This is new experience for me too. Driver also will wake you up when bus arrived at your destination. This is what I love! Can you imagine--when you're absolutely tired and sleeper bus is the place you wanted to relaxe the body. You prolly not aware with atmosphere.  Thanks to driver who was shaken my body in order to wake me up! Hahaha

Da Lat is in southern of Vietnam and its takes about 4 hours journey from Saigon. Its a high land and the wheater is around 13 degree celcius. Its freaking cold for a Malaysian like me. I will explain more about Da Lat in the next post! 

To be continue...

Re-Born

Hey mate! I'm back with the new entity  of the blog. I hope with this new look and my past experience will inspire lots of young travelers out there.

One more thing, all of you are welcome to correct my grammar if you've found there is any mistakes--it's ok. We're  learning to be a better and not arguing who is better.

So, I'm giving an information regarding my journey through my experiences and what I've done from readings and at the same time, you can share yours too! May this will helps other travelers too.

Cheers!