Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - Street Hawker

A street hawker selling french bread or vietnamese baguettes.

I had to take this photo from the back of the hawker cause she was not pleased when we stand in front of her stall...lol

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - Antique Street

Our final night in Vietnam, we made a trip to Antique Street. Antique Street used to be a street selling only antiques. But now only less than 30% of the shops sell antiques. Most sold goods for tourism.

As hubby and me walked along Antique Street, we took time to admire the buildings around us.

Antique Street lighted up at night. Normally, the streets are not so beautifully decorated even the local guide does not know the reason why they are lighted up...lol. I guess some kind of celebration is on the way.

A short video showing Antique Street with brightly and beautiful lights.

You must watch this video. The traffic chaos in HCM City is scary, no traffic lights and they can just move on from left to right and straight ahead...lol and the wonderful thing is they are very patient and give way to each other.

I think if I was caught in this type of traffic chaos, I would just walked out of the car....lol.

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - Narrow Buildings and Low Lying Cables

Vietnam is famous for their narrow buildings and low lying cables. Was told by the local guide that they could built as high as they want but their building had to be very narrow.

Took this from the bus. The cables lying dangerously low.

A short video showing the numerous motorbikes in the city.

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - Hotel (3 star)

Throught out our stay at Ho Chi Minh, we stay at the same hotel at Hoang Phu Gia Hotel. It is a three star hotel that was only open last year. The hotel looked very new.

Love the interior look of the hotel.

This is our room for the first few days. Hahaha, hubby and me got a triple bedroom. The room was quite big.

The bathroom was very clean and spacious.

After we left for Vung Tau (about 3 hours away from Ho Chi Minh City), we had to check out of the hotel.

But we came back to the same hotel after spending a night in Vung Tau. Same hotel but different room, this time, we did not get the triple bedroom, only a king size bedroom...lol.

Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City - Lacquer Ware Factory

Finally we reached Ho Chi Minh City from Vung Tau. Before checking into the hotel, we visited a Lacquer Ware Factory.

Lacquer wares are decorated with egg shells. Fantastic works, I did not know they are eggshells.

Baskets filled with broken eggshells.

Workers decorated objects with eggshells. Some of these workers are handicapped. The factory employed them so that they can earn some money. Very nice of the factory.

They need to design the patterns first before they can decorate the lacquer wares with eggshells.

It need very steady hands to do these jobs. Very beautiful and these workers are talented.

After decorating the lacquer wares, they are sent for washing.

And finally to the shop for sale.

Vietnam - Cables got caught in Bus Vent

After staying for one night and one day in Vung Tau, it is time to say bye bye to Vung Tau. After lunch we made our way back to Ho Chi Minh City. The journey from Vung Tau to Ho Chi Minh took us about three hours. We are supposed to take a rest at a rest stop in the middle of our journey.

But something happen to our bus, as the bus was about to reverse into a side lane to let us alight at the rest stop. The bus vent got caught by some low lying cables. I thought we were going to be electrocuted. It was quite scary.

Some of the cables had exposed wires. (photo taken from bus)

Our tour guide lead us out of the bus to the rest stop and let the driver and his assistant handled the whole situation.

A short video showing how the assistant using a pole to lift the cable up. Did not manage to capture how they remove the cable, cause we only have thirty minutes in the rest stop so I had to hurry to join the rest in the rest stop and stop my video...lol.

Vietnam - Vung Tau - Goddess of Mercy

This is so beautiful. It is the Goddess of Mercy. I used my faithful camera to zoom on it and it turned out so beautiful with the dark clouds behind it. The days that we were in Vietnam, the weather was a killer at 37 degrees celsius and not a sight of a single raindrops despite being the rainy season in Vietnam.

Maybe the Goddess of Mercy heard about our complain, after visiting the temple, we had a heavy rainfall for about 20 minutes after we left the temple. Maybe she bless us. :)



The statue is so tall at 18 metres.

The same thing happen in this temple, the vendors followed us and continued selling their wares to us.

Vietnam - Vung Tau - Whale Temple

Our next stop, we visited a whale temple. According to Legend, the whales protect the ships and their crews.

Take note of the vendor in yellow shirt and wearing a helmet.

These vendors would follow us from one attraction to the next and when we return to our hotel, they would wait outside the hotel. When we left the hotel for lunch, the vendors would ride on their motorbikes and followed us to the restuarants and continued selling their wares to us....so funny. These happen almost everyday in Vietnam when we were there. So you can see the familar faces of the vendors whereever you go.

Inside the temple are skeletons of whales that were washed ashore.

Vietnam - Vung Tau - Summer Palace of Emperor Bao Dai

Our next stop is to visit the Summer Palace of Emperor Bao Dai, the last Emperor of Vietnam.

Emperor Bao Dai was the 13th and last ruler of the Nguyễn Dynasty. You can read the history of him in wikipedia.

The Palace has a great view of the sea.

These hibiscus in the garden attracted me. They are so beautiful.

Vietnam - Vung Tau - View of Sea from Rest Stop at Jesus Monument Mountain

Just some part of the steps that we took on the way up to the rest stop at Jesus Monument Mountain. We did not make it to the top of the mountain but the rest of the path up are also make up of several of these steps.



View of the entrance/exit of the attraction.

From the rest stop of the mountain, we could view the beautiful sea.

A dragon topiary. Note the road is not heavy with traffic or motorbikes. Vung Tau is much quieter and not so polluted than Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam - Vung Tau - Jesus Monument Mountain

After breakfast, we started touring round Vung Tau. First stop is Jesus Monument Mountain.

On top of the mountain is the Statue of Jesus. It is 32 metres (105 ft) high, standing on a 4 metres (13 ft) high platform, for a 36 metres (118 ft) total monument height with two outstretched arms spanning 18.3 metres (60 ft). There is a 133-step staircase inside the statue. (source: wikipedia )

Did you spot people standing on the top of the shoulders of the statue? I did not make it to the top, too high and strenous for me.

I could only climbed only about 100 steps to this rest place where there are many status of Jesus and Angels.

Vietnam - Vung tau - Cyclo Ride at night

After our dinner, we were usher to a cyclo ride round the city of Vung Tau. You can see that the streets are not as polluted as Ho Chi Minh and lesser traffic.

Some short videos of the ride around town but the video is a bit shaky cause the ride was quite bumpy.

But I do enjoyed the ride cause it was near the sea and the air was refreshing.

Vietnam - Hotel in Vung Tau

Finally, we arrived at Vung Tau, we allowed one hour to rest in the hotel cause in the night we are going for the cyclo ride(trishaw) and tour round the city of Vung Tau. Oh boy, am I so tired and feverish, sigh. Rush to my hotel room and threw everything I ate during lunch (or did I eat anything during lunch...lol). I felt so much better after threwing up and downing two panadols to ease my migraine.

Vung tau is so much different from Ho Chi Minh City, there aren't much traffic and the air is definitely fresher over here and the sea view is defintely very refreshing.

The lobby of the 3 star hotel looked so beautiful and impressive.

But inside the hotel room looked so dull. But the bed is surely very comfortable. Good thing, it was only for a night.

I will post photos of the hotel I stay in Ho Chi Minh City in future posts. That hotel looked nicer.

Vietnam - On the way to Vung Tau - Garden

After touring Chu Chi Tunnel, we left to head to Vung Tau. Vung Tau is also known as "Hawaii" of Vietnam.

Vung Tau was about 3 hours away from Ho Chi Minh City but as we were departing from Chu Chi, throw in one more hour to our journey.

At this point, I was already falling sick. The hot weather was making me so feverish and I had a bad headache.

Halfway through our journey, we stop at this beautiful restaurant with a very beautiful garden where many wedding couples came here for their wedding shoot.

Even though I was not feeling well, I waste no time in taking photo of some of these beautiful flowers.

This is so cute, never see water lily grown in a small boat. Very smart and creative.

Lotus plant - the lotus was grown in a big pot.

Did you spot a big jackfruit at the bottom of the tree?

Canon Ball Tree

It was a waste I did not take a photo of the restaurant, my head was heavy and feverish and I have no appetite for lunch too. They decorated the trishaw with lots of fruits.

Just one of the many wedding brides that we spotted at the garden.