Ho Chi Minh City - Phan Thiet, Vietnam - Day 36 - 07/04/2010

We depart in the morning for 2D1N trip to Phan Thiet.  A short stop for breakfast ( Baguette and sunny side up eggs) and soon we resume our journey. Journey was shorter as compared to Dalat.
 

We visited Ta Cu Mountain Tourist Site, We had to take cable car to reached the peak of the mountain. Cable rides was scary(I'm no fan of great heights). Sole purpose was to visit Linh Son Truong Tho pagoda,  it is famous for the 49m long statue of reclining Sakiyamuni Buddha. Foreigners don't really flock this site. Somewhat only Vietnamese tourist visits.We had to climb various flights of stairs, which proves to be tiring, just to reach the Buddha statue. But the view was worth it. We had lunch after descending down the site. 

Reached Phan Thiet in the late afternoon and checked into Sunny Beach Resort. In the evening, we visited the scenic Mui Ne Sand dunes. This is one of the best places to view beautiful sunset. LIvely with tourist of all sorts.The beaches here are wonderful.We tried out the mineral mud bath in the late evening. Dinner was at a local restaurant serving Northern Indian Cuisine. Like Nha Trang, there's a lot of dining places here
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No visit to Phan Thiet would be complete without venturing into one of it's nightclub. Partied till 3 in the morning before retiring to bed.  

Mode of transportation up the mountain

View from the mountain

Scenic beaches

Us at the sand dunes

Sunset

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 35 - 06/04/2010

Few of us went back to HCMC in the afternoon with the intention of shopping at Ben Thanh night market. Went to Saigon Centre and Diamond Plaza. Not much of a difference compared to Singapore. Had a superb dinner at Halal@Saigon where this time tried out the Vietnamese Rice pancakes. Generous servings. Nothing much to blog about trip to Ben Thanh night market although negotiations with the vendors is quite funny in some sense.

On a side note, traffic in HCMC is never-ending. Cars and bikes just zoomed past pedestrian even though the latter are halfway crossing the road. Drivers don’t seem to care much about safety of the pedestrians neither priority is given to them.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 33 - 04/04/2010

Another round of exchange program with the Lac Hong University students. The tertiary institute is the alma mater of Rosy Tra(a.k.a Ms. Ngan). We were brought around one of the campuses although it wasn't much appealing.

We went to Du Lich Buu Long for the exchange. Under the hot,blazing sun, majority took part in a game organized by the park cultural officers. I didn't took part to escape and seek refuge under the shade from the sun. Somehow, I wished I did.

Information on Duu Lich Buu Long and Lac Hong University.

One of Lac Hong University campuses

Games in progress

Introduction

Ice-breaking activities

Combined group photo

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 31 - 02/04/2010

We went out to HCMC to celebrate Sebastian's birthday. After much discussion about dietary issue as there were Muslim students, we celebrated at Halal@Saigon. Halal food isn't easily available in HCMC. There's fast-food chains like KFC but aren't halal-certified. For those strict Muslims, here's a list of Halal eateries/restaurants in HCMC.

Zabihah: Ho Chi Minh City

Dinner time.

Birthday Cake

Fried rice Malaysian style.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 30 - 01/04/2010

Industrial visit was on this day.

We went to an IT park nearby the VNU. The IT Park has attracted several foreign companies to invest there. The cost of renting the space is relatively low- which is a good idea of attracting foreign company-infrastructure is already available.The trip was made short due to the fact that some areas were restricted to visitors. We spent the remaining morning visiting other campuses. Interesting to see but no doubt nothing much happening.

We went to Amata Industrial zone in the afternoon.  Amata is quite a huge industrial zone. It consists of factories set up by foreign companies that have set foot here to invest. There are also some Singapore companies that invest here. However, it was quite disappointing that we did not get to visit and take a look inside any of the factories based there. There was some miscommunication. They said we should inform about the visit at 2 weeks beforehand. Thus, it wasn’t a good visit as we didn’t get to learn much about the business etiquettes.

IT Park.

 Ongoing Physical Education class.

University of Science

Outside International University

Amata Industrial Park

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 29 - 31/03/2010

It was free and easy today. I made a promise with Mi Tom and Linh that after the Dalat-Nha Trang tour, we would go fly kites, one of the local favorites pastimes. We only did it around evening as  most of them(our Vietnamese counterparts) were having classes in the afternoon. We marched down to the nearest villages  where local sellers parked at various positions and hang their beautiful goods. Of course, we wouldn't bought one straightaway, negotiations took place from one seller to another. It wasn't easy though. Our friends helped us. They wouldn't want the sellers to cheat us of our money. It took a while but once we sealed the deal it was back to the Guesthouse to begin the kite-flying session although it was already dusk.

Group photos.

Mi Tom and her friends

Page White

Mi Tom

Of course, I met new people along the way.

The kite.

Nha Trang - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - Day 28 - 30/03/2010

Our 5D4N tour ends today. It's time we endure another long bus ride back to the guesthouse.I guess the tour was quite worth it although I feel we could've do more things and explore. Of course no  tour would have been completed without buying local specialties. We stopped over at Phan Rang. Assortments of wines(produced locally) and dried salted fish were on sale.

Long bus rides might not be favorable but good things are that you get to see the different side of Vietnam. Non-urbanized and under developed areas. It's quite an opportunity to get to such scenery outside HCMC.

We reached the guesthouse at late evening.

Local wine

More local products.

We stopped a holiday resort for lunch.

Frying some dried fish for free samples.

This is what she's frying.