Ho Chi Minh, Cambodia and Bangkok Chronicles: Summary and Expenses

Finally, I am at the end of the road. I haven't blogged in a while, too busy on work.

Anyhow, here's the last entry to cap off our Indochina trip.


Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Although we were not able to visit all HCMC has to offer, we really enjoyed our trip there - from understanding their history on war to food trip and shopping. Ho Chi Minh has still a lot to offer and we would definitely be back there (and hopefully, visiting Hanoi too).

Cambodia

Phnom Penh has these sad clouds hovering over it - literally and figuratively. This history on Khmer Rouge is a lot more than what Philippines experienced during the Martial Law. Its saddening, however, Khmers were able to rise above it and they became one of the most hospitable people in the places I have visited.

Siem Reap, aside from Angkor Wat that captured our hearts, has still a more to offer - from its floating villages and food. We made sure that we will visit Cambodia soon again, now on the cultural sides.

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is probably the best shopping destination - without even leaving Khao San Road. Food, dresses and tshirts are everywhere. Khao San Road is definitely the best place to be in Bangkok. Just like the first two destinations, we will be taking another trip in Bangkok, visiting its historical sites.

EXPENSES

I will let the following pictures tell you on how much we spent for each country.

Ho Chi Minh City Expense Summary

Phnom Penh Expenses Summary

Siem Reap Expense Summary

Bangkok Expense Summary

YES! WE DID IN ON OUR PHP 25,000.00 budget. Our total pocket damage: Php 21,542.00. 

This includes the roundtrip tickets (MNL - HCMC, BKK - MNL) at P5,700.00, Philippine Travel tax of Php 1620.00 and Terminal fee of Php 550.00.



International trips will be next year, however, I have few more local trips for the last quarter of the year. :)

Ho Chi Minh City Food Trip

So after a whole day in Vietnam, I guess the food deserves a separate entry (and this will be a constant part of my travel entries).

Without further ado, here's a rundown of Vietnam's best dishes and drinks.


1. Lunch at Pho Hoa Restaurant in Pasteur Street. This quaint little resto, similar to many of our carinderias, is not the typical location for the best tasting Vietnamese food. As its name suggest, its main offers, or how we ask the servers, "your best tasting dish" or "what most people order here" are the different types of Pho Hoa or Vietnamese Noodle soup. Aside from the noodles, they have on your table, the wedding cake made out of sticky rice and tapioca (cassava), a variety of greens that you can drop on your piping hot noodles and lemons (dayap). We never tried adding more greens (my travelmates have a different understanding of the food groups, which do not include veggies in any form) and lemons on our orders since we would like to taste the authenticity of the noodle soup.

Wedding cake

Chicken Pho Hoa

All meat Pho Hoa

Beef Pho Hoa

Vietnamese tea

The Restaurant, Pho Hoa in Pastuer Street.

Location: 176 Pasteur Street. Just ask the driver to drop you off to Pho Hoa restaurant at Pasteur Street. I believe they all know this by heart.


2. Banh Trang Nuong. A crepe like street food we found near the Notre Dame Cathedral. Nothing is near to this food on our soil, but the best way to describe it is - a lumpia wrapper type heated in an coal stove with bits and pieces of carrots and greens, quail egg and hot sauce.


Location: Near the Notre Dame Cathedral

Banh Dang Truong

3. Banh Mi. A bread with different greens, liver pate, pork roll and ham inside. The bread is somewhat similar to a baguette, but it's mostly hollow in the middle. Smack on the middle of it are greens, liver pate, mayonnaise, prok roll, ham and hot sauce.

Classic Banh Mi

Location: Everywhere. Try it along Pham Ngu Lao Road.

4. Coffee. Vietnamese coffee is the best I have ever tasted. Two of my friends were able to get Weasel coffee (not so sure about the price) and we tried one of Vietnam's famous coffee shops, Trung Nguyen.

Weasel Coffee

Milk with a hint of Coffee

Success coffee

5. Ice cream. We got one each as tradition on our trips but we decided to take another one in Trung Nguyen as my buddy doesn't take coffee. Hands down to this dessert that capped off our Vietnam night.


location: Along Pham Ngu Lao road

Ice cream

PS. I will never ever give justice to the Vietnamese food in this entry. Just see the reference pictures.

Day 1 (Afternoon): Walking Tour of Ho Chi Minh City

Day 1, Afternoon.
August 19, 2012


Coming from the Cu Chi Tunnel (and we haven't had lunch yet) so we decided to go back to the main city and find somewhere to have lunch. Good thing, a Pinoy family whom we shared the Cu Chi Tunnel tour with, mentioned that there is a good Pho Hoa restaurant near the Reunification palace where we are set to start our walking tour.

I believe, because of the goodness of food available in Vietnam, they deserve another blog, so the Pho Hoa experience will be made there.

After having the best Pho Hoa we ever had, we passed by the Coffeebean and Tea Leaf store in HCMC. We planned to have our tradition by visiting every CBTL we can during our trips, but we decided, this won't be possible since not all the places we will be going have CBTL.

So from Pho Hoa restaurant, we walked towards the Reunification Palace (just straight back up from Pho Hoa restaurant). Though we earlier decided that we will be going inside, many of the foreigners just took their pictures outside and proceeded to their walking tour. A two-dollar entrance may be worth it, but we decided to copy the other visitors.

The Reunification Palace

As we crossed the street, on the right of the Reunification Palace is the Notre Dame Cathedral, a Catholic church in HCMC. It was a depiction of the European influences in Vietnam, as it reminds us of the true Notre Dame Cathedral.

After the Notre Dame Cathedral, we decided to take a taxi to Ben Thanh Market to buy pasalubongs since we will be leaving for Phnom Penh the next day. There we bought our tshirts at 60,000 VND (about 3 USD) each. Do not forget to haggle! (Tshirts were costed out to be 80,000 VND, a one dollar makes a difference). Keychains are at 3USD for 10 pieces and ref magnets are at 2USD a piece.

After Ben Thanh, as many of my officemates wanted a TNF (The North Face bag) and  after searching Pinoyexchange on tips for TNF bags buying, we decided to go to Saigon Square as recommended by many of the Pinoys.

To find the store, from the entrance of Saigon Square, walk straight ahead until you reach the dead end, turn left and the first store on your left is where Pinoys buy their TNF bags. You will know that when you start talking in Tagalog and they will immediately say, "Oh, Filipinos!".

When we were there, a Pinoy Pilot of Vietnam Air was also there buying bags (its his business). He even told us that that there is another store (na suki nya) that sells the same bags at a lower price. to find the store, from the main entrance, walk straight ahead. The second to the last corridor on your right, the corner store is the store where we bought all our bags.

Her prices are as follows, since I bought 5 bags, I got a discount:
TNF Hotshot (Original) : 15 USD
TNF Alborz (Original): 14 USD
TNF Almira (Original): 14 USD
TNF Melinda (Original): 14 USD

After buying this, we decided to go back to our hotel and rest for the next day.

Few reminders when on the road:

1. Do not take the rickshaw as much as possible. Naloko kami dito! One rickshaw driver told us that it will cost us 150,000 VND for the three of us, from Ben Thanh Market to Saigon Square which is about 10 minutes walk. Since we are too happy to ride the rickshaw, we agreed without confirming. When we arrived in Saigon Square, it eventually became 150,000 VND for each of us! :(

2. There are many Pinoys in Vietnam. You will find them in groups as noisy as you, or alone (just like Sir Audrey, the Pilot). Make sure to be friends with them. A Pinoy family was one of our tourmates in Cu Chi Tunnel and we would take their group pictures as they would take ours. Kumbaga, gamitan lang!

3. Be friendly to the vendors and store owners. During our stay in Vietnam, as we talked in Tagalog, we were always asked where we came from. A typical conversation will be:

Us (talking in Tagalog, as in super ingay with comments since they do not understand us): Ganito kasi yun....blah, blah, blah.
Vietnamese: Ow, are you from Malaysia?
Us: No (smiling face).
Vietnamese: Thailand?
Us: No.
Vietnamese: from the Philippines! Manny Pak-yaw! (that's how they pronounce Pacquiao's surname, no kidding)
Us: (smiles) Yes.

4.Do not be afraid to haggle. Do not forget to smile. And say, "But I don't have money anymore." (with the paawa face, it works!)


In a day, we were able to experience Vietnam. Though we were not able to tour the whole of Vietnam, at least we would be looking forward to another trip in Vietnam. :)

Up next: Food trip in Ho Chi Minh City

Day 0: Flight to Vietnam via Cebu Pacific

August 18, 2012
Day 0. Day at the Airport

We met at NAIA Terminal 3 around 6:00 in the evening, though our flight is scheduled at 10:00pm. This is to make more time in checking in, paying necessary fees and avoid horrible traffic (and more knick-knacks if you're running late). While on the taxi, news about the plane crash involving DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo circulated, however, I find myself thinking if I left important documents at home. By 6, I was at the airport and I asked my buddy to have us web checked-in since she was the first one at the meeting place (I wasn't able to do this at home since Cebu Pacific told me that they have a system failure on web check in facility). She was able to check us in and all we need to do is pay fees and get our tickets. 

AT NAIA TERMINAL 3.

1. Pay International Departure Tax at the Airport Lobby before checking in. Php 1620.00 should be paid and you must present your passports and itinerary receipts at Counter 1. Proceed to counter 2 for payment and processing. 

2. Check in at your airline. For those who used the web check in facility, you have your separate (and shorter) lane at your airline counters. Present your International Departure Tax receipts, including your booking reference number and passports to the counter and they will give you your tickets. Check in your baggage and proceed to step 3. 

3. Pay terminal fees. A Php 550.00 terminal fee is collected before you proceed to the Immigration Counter. Present your tickets and go to Immigration Counter. 

4. Immigration counter. Fill out the Immigration Departure Card that can be found on one of the tables before falling in line. Present your tickets and passports to the Immigration officer and make sure you answer his/her questions without stammering. He/She will have your passports stamped and you're good to go.

5. Final security check. Make sure you remove your shoes, belts and electronic materials on your body and have them on the xray machine. 

(Story: Since its our first time to leave the country, the Immigration officer asked us about our trip. It seemed that HCMC is not a common destination to your first immigration stamp, so we were escorted to another Immigration Officer for further questioning. They asked for our IDs and our work. I don't know kung panti-trip nya lang ito, tinakot kami since it was our first time to go out of the country and we already answered his first questions while on the counter. With a nod from the last officer when I presented my ID (he didn’t check my companions’ IDs) and he told me that the first Immigration officer worked with San Miguel Corp before (I am working in one of SMC’s subsidiaries), we got back on his counter and he stamped our passports. WHEW! Talk  about first time.) 

ARRIVING AT VIETNAM AIRPORT

August 19, 00:20H. With the many stories of how Cebu Pacific handles its flights, astonishingly, it was a good flight, from take off to touchdown. Upon arriving at the Vietnam Airport, we lined up for the Immigration and with no questions asked, he stamped our passports. Mas mababait pa sila sa Pinoy Immigration officers! L To find the immigration counters, just follow the swarm of people. ASEAN member countries do not need to fill out an arrival card and visa and can directly proceed to Immigration counter. For those who need entry visa, they need to go to the counter at their left before proceeding to the Immigration line.

Landing Visa, located at the left corner in the arrival lobby.

Immigration (girl is not an immigration officer, I think)

All Passports lane. Vietnamese have their separate lane at the airport arrival. 

Immigration check.

Check if the Immigration officer stamped your passports. For ASEAN member countries, we are given 20 days-Visa free stay in Vietnam if you arrive via air. 

We got our first stamp! We then proceeded to baggage claim and have some dollars changed at the airport. I believe this is the safest money changer as we got 1 USD = 20,000 VND conversion. We became instant millionaires!

My friend's SHARK PACK as we exit the baggage claim to money changers. 

Since Vietnam uses both VND and USD, we only exchanged a small amount, solely for convenience store purchases, entrance fees and street food. (Money changer is on your right before exiting the airport). 



ON ROUTE TO SEVENTY HOTEL

We asked our hotel to pick us up at the airport and when we got outside, we saw my name from our taxi driver. It took us about 30 minutes before arriving at the hotel, located at the backpacking district of Ho Chi Minh City.

Since it was late, we checked in, filled out information cards, “deposited” our passports and proceeded to our room. Since it was a red eye flight and nabitin kami sa tulog, we decided to get some sleep before planning our day.

To be continued...

Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand Final Itinerary (1)

After two weeks of last minute planning and the actual travel itself, I am back on writing stuff. I am working on the pictures I will be posting for the rest of my entries but I decided to write about our final itinerary of the Indochina Trip.


August 18: Day 0 - meet up at the airport, flight via Cebu Pacific at 20:00H to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Checked in at Seventy Hotel at Bui Vien St., HCMC.

August 19, Day 1 - Cu Chi Tunnel tour and Walking Tour of Saigon (Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, Benh Thanh Market and Saigon Square).

August 20, Day 2 - Travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Checked in at Velkommen Guesthouse in Riverside, Phnom Penh.

August 21, Day 3 - Tour of Phnom Penh (The Killing Fields and Museum, S21 Genocide Museum, Russian Market, The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda and Wat Phnom)

August 22, Day 4 - Travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Checked in at Bou Savy Guesthouse. Walking tour of Siem Reap (Pub Street, Siem Reap Night Market)

August 23, Day 5 - Angkor Wat Tour (Small Circuit Tour and Banteay Srey)

August 24, Day 6 - Travel to Bangkok, Thailand. Checked in at Sawasdee Bangkok Inn at KhaoSan Road, Bangkok

August 25, Day 7 - Bangkok Walking Tour (Wat Phra Keo and Royal Palace, MBK and KhaoSan Road)

August 26, Day 8 - Flight back to Manila at 19:00H via Tiger Airways.

August 27, Day 9 - Travel from Clark, Pampanga to Manila.


I expect there will be more and more posts as I begin thinking of the titles of each and every post I willl be doing. Weekends are reserved for my blogging, as soon as I finish my photos.

Well, Project C is done and we're off to plan Project H. :D