Wordless Wednesday~31 :: Excuses..Excuses..

this is one of MANY reasons why I've been neglecting this blog..

doing this for kaklong.. saya yang menurut perintah! padahal... 

Ho Chi Minh :: Cho Ben Thanh & Night Market

I believe most people dah kenal sangat-sangat dah Cho Ben Thanh ni.. or commonly known as Ben Thanh market. macam-macam ada jual dalam ni - dari makanan, pakaian..hinggalah ke barang keperluan harian.. basically you can find everything u need here.

this is one of the entrance to the market. it's on the right side (east), which you can see straight from the famous Nguyen An Ninh st.

nampak je macam kecik, tapi sila lah bersedia dengan wang anda *insert evil laugh here*
we're a bit sesat mula-mula.. masuk ikut tempat orang makan, lepas tu tak tau nak pegi arah mana :)) cara senang, sebut je no. kedai kat penjual-penjual dalam tu, nanti dia tunjukkan hala.. so, selagi tak jumpa, teruskan bertanya. they're all very helpful. most of the sellers there can speak English & some can even speak bahasa!

so, what we look for here?

of course fabric ;;) (mana-mana kami pegi pun fabric jugak menjadi tarikan!)

kat sini cotton paling famous. segala jenis cotton ada.. English cotton, Japanese cotton, cotton silk, cotton sateen.. from plain to printed. name it, they'll have it :) other types of materials you can find here: viscose, sateen, chiffon, Vietnamese silk & etc. Harga memang jauh lebih murah..tapi kalau nak tau kena pegi sendiri la ye?! don't forget to bargain.. diorang marah-marah pun nanti dia kasi kurang jugak! especially if you're the 1st customer of the day..mesti dapat! mintak lah kurang at least half of the price ;)

kain bertimbun-timbun, pening jugak nak pilih. kedai pun agak kecik & rapat-rapat.. so a bit hard to move around. tsk.. diorang ni kurus-kurus boleh la nak selisih/laga-laga bontot bagai! 

pilih kain sambil duduk. ko ada? papa pon sempat rembat some materials for his jubah :)

 saya dengan terpaksa-rela nya telah menempah sepasang baju traditional Vietnam, exactly macam gambar yang saya pegang tu. kaklong pun tempah sepasang. pandai betul diorang ni pujuk kita tau! katanya boleh siap 1 hari, malam nanti dia hantarkan ke hotel. papa was a bit skeptical.. sebelum tu kaklong tempah blazer selai, pon janji 1 hari boleh siap. tapi memang betul, 3 pasang (+ jubah mama) dapat malam tu jugak pukul 10.. & the blazer siap the next day. hebat betul orang Vietnam jahit laju sangat!

dek kerana shopping tak ingat dunia, terpaksa tambah 1 lagi luggage. yang ada dah tak muat :-o tapi tak murah mana pun, kat Langkawi boleh dapat lagi murah.. ok, sila beli beg banyak-banyak kat Langkawi, then angkut bawak pegi HCMC :P

kalau minat, boleh cuba scorpion and snake liquor :P there's also different types & flavour of coffee beans available here..tinggal pilih & timbang. tapi tak pe lah kot, beli Trung Nguyen coffee je senang. oh, kami ada beli kerepek nangka & biji teratai.. dua-dua pun sedap! cubalah!

fresh flowers pun ada jual kat belakang Ben Thanh market. ok, gambar sebenar hanya yang belah atas kanan.. yang dua lagi tu tipu jumpa depan hotel. yang penting kat sini nak bagitau, bunga dia santikkk :x

Cho Ben Thanh ni bukak siang je. Tapi setiap malam kat sini ada Night Market. betul-betul di bahagian kiri & kanan Ben Thanh market. Jadi jangan risau kalau tak puas shopping siang tu, boleh sambung pulak belah malam nya ;;) bukan nak kata apa, dua-dua malam pon kami pakat terjah sini :D

Ni lah Nguyen An Ninh st. yang saya kabor tadi. Kenapa saya kata famous? Sebab kat sini ada banyak hotel & ada 2 restoran halal. Paling popular kedai Hjh. Basiroh. a lot of tourists from Malaysia dok jalan ni..dah dekat sangat-sangat nak ke Cho Ben Thanh! and since banyak orang kita kat sini, banyak jugaklah kedai menjual pakaian muslimah :) 

kalau agak-agak tak cukup duit Dong, boleh tukar di kedai Ha Tam (refer to the pic above, top right) terletak betul-betul di hujung jalan Nguyen An Ninh, opposite of Cho Ben Thanh. exchange rate nya jauh lagi murah dari di Malaysia! infact kami bawak sikit je Dong dari Malaysia, selebihnya bawak USD & RM. dan rata-rata peniaga di sini terima all the 3 currencies.

suasana di pasar malam.. ramai betul orang kat sini, meriah bangat!
dalam sibuk-sibuk shopping tu jangan lalai pulak ye.. motor kereta segala banyak je lalu lalang kat sini.. jaga-jaga jugak dengan pencopet/peragut :-s

here are some of the things you can find in the night market..

jangan tak tau, ready-made kurungs bling-bling banyak kat sini. murah lagi cantik, sampai rambang mata. last-last tak beli langsung :| tapi saya tak menyesal pon!

i found that it's cheaper here that the Ben Thanh market.. especially souvenirs (t-shirts, key chains, etc.) buah  pun murah jugak. pastu tengok-tengok malam esoknya lagi murah. beli lagi :P puas hati dapat makan buah banyak-banyak.. dah la besar-besar, manis pulak tu! tangoklah ciku ni, besar tak besar. apakan daya, muda pulaks tak sempat makan kat sana. bawak balik Malaysia, elok pulak masaknya. nasib baik boleh lepas kastam! merasalah jugak ciku manis dari Saigon ;) 

bought some souvenirs for myselffriends & colleagues..

the face masks were too cute to resist ;;)

ok, TBC lagi..

Ho Chi Minh :: First Day

Hi hi..I'm backkk :)
Finally! after a longgggggggg silence that is *sigh* janji sebelum ni tinggal janji je nampak gayanya :">
hmm..not sure why, but i'm so lazy these days :(

I'm here, means I have a storymany stories to tell, but let's start with this one first!

It’s that time of the year again =D> kebiasaannya, our family pergi bercuti awal tahun (some time in Feb/March), and the other time will be before or after raya.. well, dua-dua ni kind of suits our timing the best! after taking into consideration of work load & study break. this time around we opted for Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) a 3 days & 2 nights trip. let's just call this a shopping trip, ok.. since we spent MOST of the time in the market/shops :D hence the short trip. lagi lama, lagi banyak belanja.. ye tak?! trust me, i a shopaholic ;)

eh, muka masing-masing.. macam tak excited pulak kan? keke.. mengantuk sebenarnya ni. flight pukul 9.15am, so kami keluar rumah dlm pukul 7. me & adik pegi park kereta, while the rest settlekan luggage. budget ada la masa untuk lepak-lepak breakfast, tapi belum apa-apa dah dipanggil untuk boarding. seriously tak sempat duduk pun dalam airport tu! nasib baik dah pre-booked meal siap-siap! mengantuk macam mana pun, nampak makanan segar terus :P

semua sedap katanya, except for the spaghetti. konfem tak beli dah lepas ni!

The flight was alright, nothing significant happened..Alhamdulillah! but there were a lot of empty seats.. almost half of the flight. maybe because it was 2 weeks after CNY. I heard most shops were closed for about 10 days semperna CNY. luckly by the time we went there, semua kedai dah bukak! fuh, selamat :D

Trip kali ni main pakai redah je. itinerary plan sendiri, berbekalkan ilmu cedok dari forum.. which turned out sangat-sangat berguna. thanks to those who have shared info & tips :x

So, we've arrived in HCMC. debaran pun bermula.. our 1st concern is Taxi. dah banyak baca cases taxi menipu, so we tried to be as careful as possible. mostly the drivers can't speak English, so communication is very limited. Among all taxi operators in HCMC, ONLY Vinasun and Mai Linh are trustworthy enough. we walked until almost to the end of the airport baru jumpa Vinasun taxi ni. mind you, there was a long queue of taxis from different operators, and each have a warden who tried to lure us to their taxis!

that's me asking for the fare, at the time we can't seem to find any Vinasun or Mai Linh taxi 8-| the guy asked for USD15 which is almost twice the supposed fare!! dipendekkan cerita, we managed to get a (metered) Vinasun taxi for VND170K (approx. RM27) wayy cheaper dari taxi tadi!

this is how a Vinasun taxi look like (sorry for the pic quality) Don't worry, ada je MPV (mostly Toyota Innova) kalau lebih dari 4 orang macam kami. rasanya macam lebih banyak taxi Innova lagi dari sedan car :) dan yang lebih penting, kat mana-mana pun ada. It is even better if you can spot the warden (in green colour shirt with maroon tie for Vinasun), just show him the address & he'll hail one for you! sepanjang kami kat sana, memang naik Vinasun je, tak pandang dah taxi lain :P Alhamdulillah, kami terselamat dari di tipu. setakat baki kurang VND10K kira dah cukup bernasib baik!

Also, please beware of fake/counterfeit taxis, they look almost the same. dan jangan naik taxi buruk, tau! sebab tu kena perati betul-betul.. make sure jangan salah. So, to be safe just pilih Vinasun/Mai Linh sahaja. Dan doa lah banyak-banyak supaya tak kena tipu [-O<

We stayed in Asian Ruby 4 Hotel, at the Le Thanh Ton St.

I get to sleep on the double bed :P alone! yay!! and there's a bath tub :D double yay!!

selesai solat & makan, kami tuju ke acara utama: shopping ;;) where else to go than the famous Ben Thanh Market? it's not far from the hotel.. dalam 400m je jaraknya. jalan kaki 10x pun tak apa :P but I'll write about it in a separate entry since we did went there several times throughout the trip :)

next, we went to Taka Plaza. On the way, sempat singgah di Rohani Collection. hajatnya nak cari telekung & tudung chiffon 3 layer 

signage tulis bahasa Melayu terus! Gayanya memang nak cater to Malaysians :D nampak sangat orang kita kaki shopping, kan! the guy in red t-shirt is the owner.. and he can speak Ganu fluently ;)

sesat kami nak cari Taka Plaza ni, sebab agak tersorok & bukannya di bangunan sendiri (rupanya dalam deretan kedai) kebetulan pulak terlindung dek construction di sebelahnya.

macam-macam ada jual dalam ni - mostly baju, kasut & beg. there are 2 floors, tapi tak lah besar mana.. at a glance, stuff they sell here not much different from Ben Thanh Market, cuma sini lebih selesa sebab ada aircond ;)

Rokiah Collection

actually, ada satu lagi tempat nak pegi jenguk - Saigon Square. tapi memandangkan barang yang banyak & nak angkut tak larat, dengan rela hatinya dipotong terus dari itenerary. akhirnya, kami balik je ke hotel :)) sikit pun tak kisah sebab hati berkobar-kobar nak pegi night market malamnya tu :P tapi tu cerita nanti-nanti lah, ada masa saya sambung ye!