Damn I regret not jotting down all the interesting stuff that happened during the entire trip. So here I am sitting in front of my lappy with my crummy piece of itinery. Bear with me. =>

After a bumpy landing from Tiger.

This is my very first time in Vietnam. Took my very first breath of Ho Chi Minh air. The weather's pretty hot, but yeah manageable. There were so many Vietnamese people standing outside the arrival hall, some holding placards, some of them waving to their friends (imaginary friends, half the time I turned back and couldn't figure out who they were waving to).

Day 2 & 3- Cruising down Mekong Delta

We had free breakfast at Lac Vien, yummy with a capital 'Y'. Everything's so homely there!

Fall in at Sinh Cafe. Haha like literally you gotta fall in, cus' the previous day we went there to pay $ they were using loud hailers to 'herd' all the tourists up the bus. Lol. And you see the suku ang moh tourists looking really blur, that's like freaking funny laa.

Got free Sinh Cafe tees! There's their logo printed on the front, a general map of Vietnam and their contact details at the back. So yeah, if you're wearing these, you're a walking advertorial! Lol. Smart.

Saw many children working along the streets, like selling all kindsa stuff, from gum to lottery tickets you have it all man. Feels kinda sad, but these children are working hard with their own two hands in a rough environment, and I can only take comfort in the knowledge that they'd grow up stronger and more street smart.

We must look reaaally touristy, cus' we kept getting approached by street hawkers. We even saw some carrying one taaaaall stack of books selling them as they go along. Like a mobile library man!

Got herded up the bus and began our journey to Mekong Delta. Haha it's the main river running through Vietnam, it has like impressive geography and history you guys can google it if you wanna, the main thing's the water looks like teh tarik! And people bathe, wash their dishes, cook and do their whatever with it and they're fitter than ever. Haha but the guide told us the ice here are 'not very good for your holiday' so tourists shouldn't try.

Walked to this makeshift jetty (wherever a boat docks, it's pretty much a jetty), saw many street hawkers (mostly women) selling ^ vietnamese straw hats. Reaaally tempted to buy! But didn't T_T. Lol.

Many ang mohs were on this Mekong Delta tour with us too. But there's like only one or two shuai and young ang mohs. Haha. Oh well eye candy's always a bonus right? XD The boat's really simple with seats and a striped canvas for shelter. Ang mohs look really constipated in them. Hahaha. Our in-house photographers YC and Bobo did major phototaking while Roo and I sang and goofed around. Thank God they had their cameras, cus' I took like a bulkload of photos with my handphone and I lost it on my last day at Vietnam. T_T.

Cruised into a narrower river channel and we gotta like take down the canopy to get through this tiny bridge. Haha very DIY! Stopped at this kampong area and walked deeper into the jungle for lunch time. Lunch was good man, like veggies, eggs sunnyside up and PORK CHOP!!! There's complimentary fruits too! Then YC spotted this ang moh eating his pineapple with garlic chili drizzled on top of it. LMAO! I swear my 6-pac popped out after all that laughing man. He ate his pineapple like he was eating steak laaa! Hahaha damn funny.

Then the locals there sang for us, pretty good in a traditional way if you know what I mean =D. This ang moh got sabo-ed by the guide to sing and play the guitar, and it was good in a sense that we could relate to this kinda music. Haha then got back on our boats. It was drizzling, it was cool and so comfortable, so we snoozed a lil'. Saw lotsa boat people, can you imagine so many people living on a flimsy looking boat? Half the time, these boats look like they're gonna sink in no time. But yeah, they're real hardy in every sense of the word.

Stopped at another kampong once again to see how they made coconut candy and pop-rice (literally, we saw the rice POP). Hehe we took free samples, then bought some. Bobo bought like 10 slabs of these? Haha we regret buying these later cus' they were freaking heavy, like bricks. Lol. The pop-rice was damn interesting! We crowded around the locals, and they were like frying black sandy stuff in a huge wok (coal??) then when it gets hot enough, they throw the rice grains in it, and they POP instantly like popcorn! Only diff is ummm the end product looks like fried maggots in a bowl. =D But yeah these are pretty tasty in a quirky way.

Sat down for tea in the kampong. Vietnamese NEVER waste anything, they dry and lacquer coconut husks and they put their teapots in them to keep warm. And they look so darned cute! Pity they don't sell these lil' fellas.

Went on the 'sampan' again and proceeded to this rice mill. The rice mill's ancient! It looks like the setting in the POTC where Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom first crossed blades. And there's this sweet rice fragrance. Haha I think the guide bought some back.

Ended our Mekong Delta boat trip, transferred to a bus and went to Vinh Long. It's our first time taking a river taxi! So sua ku!!! Haha the river taxi is a huge ferry like thing that transports vehicles and commuters across the delta since Vinh Long is like on the other side of the river. Can't imagine I'm in one of these! I only saw these on TV and now I'm like in it!!! Haha we behaved like children in a candyshop man.

Arrived at Vinh Long and the locals there stared at us like we are a walking circus laaa! Haha finally understand how a goldfish feels. But there's the smell of barbecued meat in the air! Ooh lala! Haha checked into our 1 star hotel. The hotel's pretty good just that there's NO LIFT, so we had to drag our luggage up. Major nightmare. Haha but the room's pretty good for one star. Just that the blanket looks like a carpet from the 80s XD. From here it's F&E time. YC went to check out the malls and sights to visit and we're on the road again. Went to this nearby mall and there's like ZERO shoppers around. Went straight up to the top level and there were like more people in the arcade there than the whole mall put together. Haha then we tried their pizzas. Pretty good and dirt cheap leh! Like $1+ for a personal pan-sized pizza. We were their first customers of the day n_n.

Went to check out their supermarket and we were like sua ku there, the people laughed at us T_T. Lol. Went for dinner at this seafood restaurant by the river/sea(??), and the service is totally awesome man! We ordered like seafood hotpot, beef, shrimps (they call them shrimps not prawns and I don't know why but we find it freaking hilarious! LMAO!), legs (that's what they call frog legs!) and 333 beer! Haha they treat us like royalty la. YC even took a picture with the waiter guy, think he's gonna get promoted thanks to us. =D We gave him tips for excellent service! n_n

Took this cyclo thingy back to the supermarket to get mineral water before heading back to the hotel. The cyclo thingy is like damn fun!!! It's like a modded trishaw only thing it's pulled by a motorcycle, Ru and I sat on the safer side, YC and Bobo sat on the risky side and they had to like hold on for dear life. Haha we laughed and screamed our guts out, but yeah it was better than a rollercoaster. =D The uncle is DOPE!

Checked out the next day and a friendly ang moh helped me carry my luggage down cus' I was on the verge of rolling it down the stairs. Haha very gentlemanly. Weee~* We didn't wanna have the free hotel breakfast so we went off on our own. Street food rocks my socks! Dirty food=Tasty food. Haha we had like this baguette with egg and sweet kebabs thingy, and it's dirt cheap! Yummylicious! DOPE! Haha and their iced coffee! Tip: Don't stir all the sugar at the base of your glass, cus' it's highly diabetic, haha but nonetheless the sugar rush kicks in every time.

Took the river taxi back to Saigon! Went to Cho Ben Thanh, where Ru had a bowl of oil and I a bowl of smelly soup with noodles for dinner. Haha all the menus in Vietnam are in Vietnamese with an often inaccurate english translation. Haha so like I ordered this Crab chowder thingy with noodles, but when all our dishes came, we were like "Eh? How come all the soup from the same pot one?" Haha when mine came right in front of me, I thought I ordered a bowl of longkang water with noodles in it. The bamboo shoots were stinking the entire table man. So when Ru's 'bowl of oil' came, we wen totally berserk! Hahaha laughed our 6 pac out for the 136483th so far in our trip.

Bobo got her Weasel Coffee (they pronounced it as 'Whistle' XD) and YC got his Vietnamese jersey -_-". Lotsa imitation Adidas jerseys here!!! And their average price's like S$5.50! We had a field day picking out the genuine-looking ones from the lot. Haha but we ended up buying none. =D

Was it today that we walked to Saigon Square!?! Haha anyways, we took a cab to Diamond Plaza, and it looks so damned upscale, the prices there are like diamond standard. Haha they got m)phosis, POLICE and those branded whatnots in there. So we walked on to Saigon Square and we witnessed the Viets celebrating their football victory, they made it through to the quart-finals thanks to UAE's win against Qatar. Haha Ru and I were like sitting by the fountain cus' the whole of Vietnam seemed like they gathered here. People were honking their motorcycles, beating drums, shouting and cheering. It was crazy man, YC and Bobo dragged us into the crowd and we were like taking pictures with the Vietnamese. People were dancing. Haha it was reaally crazy, totally fun! Got stuck here for quite a long time before we walked somewhere else to cab back to the hotel. It's gonna be a loooong day next day since we're on a road trip to Da Lat

Day 4 - Saigon to Da Lat

We booked a Mercedes Benz minivan and we got a toyota something something. Haha but it was still spacious and comfy. The guide's really nice! And the driver's better than InitialD laa, pro at cutting lanes! Haha so we rarely get stuck in traffic, which is good. XD

On the way we went to 2 waterfalls, I forgot the name of the first one, and Prenn. My first time seeing a waterfall! It was freaking nice, and we paddled near the waterfall, went behind the waterfall albeit screaming and laughing and AA-ing the entire time there unknowingly. Ru was like screaming laaa, haha poor YC. Pity his eardrums. XP

Went to see Crazy House, it's like something outta a fairy tale. It's this tree like architecture, and it's a guesthouse, created by the daughter of the 2nd Vietnamese president. Haha we totally went crazy after that man, exploring the nooks and cranny of this crazy building.

Stopped by a restaurant for lunch, and the portions were generous. Forced Ru to have her greens since all of us knows that she didn't shit for 4 days running! Hahaha so yeah throughout the trip we kept forcing her to shit, and she's the official Pang Sai Queen. Holy shit! I think the shit in the vein thingy (thanks to YC)'s freaking funny!!! Hahaha ZOMG!

Reached Da Lat! Checked into Dreams Hotel, and it was a dream come true! The hotel's so cosy and the temperature in Da Lat's like 18 deg celsius, and there's a jacuzzi and the people are really nice. Free breakfast here rocks! Missing the laughing cow cheese, the omelette! OMG! I wanna go back there! The air here in the highlands like so freaking fresh! The clouds here look like cotton candy, so fluffily white! It totally didn't feel like we're in Vietnam at all, more like some European countryside. Ahhh Da Lat's paradise. Pretty pretty flowers blooming everywhere. Feel healthier just breathing the air here.

So we went off to check out the market nearby and you can see people selling baskets of strawberries like everywhere! Durians here look HUGEEE! Everything's so cheap here it's unbelievable. We got silk paintings!!! Later Bobo wanted to go back to the hotel to rest cus' she wasn't feeling too well.

We went off to look for dinner and ended up getting pastries and soya bean milk at a roadside stall. So niceeee!!! An ah pek chat with us. XD Ta-paoed soya milk for Bobo. Had my first ever taste of bird!!!

Then, 3 of us fools stupidly rented a triple bike. I swear the whole of Da Lat knows us man, we were trying to learn how to balance and we fell like in the middle of the road, laughing and tearing and screaming. Haha YC steered so he took the front seat, I got the middle and was responsible for cycling, Ru's the pillion. Haha poor Ru had to carry my inflatable elephant balloon toy. So like we finally learnt how to balance all 3 of us, then when we cycled along Xuan Huong Lake, YC was like asking us if we were alright, then I asked Ru if she was alright, but there was no reply laaa, it was then that we realised Ru jumped off her seat somewhere near the bicycle rental stall! Hahaha we laughed like crazy there laaa, so we cycled back and spotted Ru carrying my elephant by the bus stop looking aimlessly around. LMAO! Hahaha freaking hilarious.

Lol. So all 3 of us cycled along the perimeters of Xuan Huong Lake, it's a 7km long. It's freaking scary and cold cycling along the road with the traffic zooming right past you. The night breeze is freezing us up. Haha so we stopped by a bridge to rest. I realised my bag was kinda wet and sticky, so I asked YC if it was mud or something then when I opened my bag, I was freaking shocked. The 2 packets of soya milk actually 'exploded' in my bag laaaaa! So all my stuff were like ruined, so we sat by the road near the lake, laughing and tearing, literally rolled on our backs laughing la. The locals were like looking at us. Hahaha we must have looked so darned pathetic la. Ru kept laughing, and YC poured out all the stuff in my bag, and my passport was intact thank God! Hahaha I forgot how long we spent taking photos and laughing there before we finally cycled back. Lol. But it was one helluva experience man.

On our way back, we kept lamenting why in the world did we choose the triple bike over the horse carriage laaa! Haha but looking back I'm soo glad we chose the bike XD. I lost my footing on the paddles at one point, and this Vietnamese cycled past us and imitated me by 'air-cycling' laaa and his friends were like laughing. Grrrrr. Hahaha oh well, at least everyone's happy. Bobo sms-ed us to ask if we got her soya milk, and we were like yeah it's all over my bag. Hahahaha

Finally went back to Dreams Hotel after a very eventful first night at Da Lat. And I got like major cleaning up to do! My passport got a lil' of soya milk, and everything smelt like soya beans! I actually scraped off some beancurd off my bag!!! Can you imagine the milk turned into curd!?! Lol. Totally wasted when I finally got to bed. Zzzz...

Day 5 to 11 - To be continued. Watch this space. =D

OMG. Bear with me fellas XD