Aaand Amazing Race in Asia continues. Lol kidding! Now let's talk about my Indo-China adventure, this time with my college friends.



Last July 19-23, 2016, we decided to take a short but sweet escape to Vietnam and Cambodia. Our Kas 2 subject probably hit us so hard that we wanted to see temples built from way before life on earth was discovered. Kidding aside, it was a memorable one because of the unusual things that happened while we were there.

Our flight was scheduled late in the evening so we got to Ho Chi Minh at around 1 in the morning. Blogs kind of depicted Ho Chi Minh and some taxi drivers to be a little scary especially at night so we decided to be particular with the cab we will be booking to transfer us from the airport to our hotel. Fortunately, nothing happened to us and we got to our hotel safely :) We stayed at Galaxy Hotel, located at the backpackers area of Ho Chi Minh. I was actually a bit surprised to see the area so alive at that time of the day. Since we all came from work and had a reeeeally long day, we decided to get some zzzs right away.

First on our itinerary is the Cu Chi Tunnel Tour. We decided to avail of the tour being offered by our hotel since it already includes free transportation, entrance fees, and lunch as well.

Indo-China Crew

Before arriving at Cu Chi Tunnel, we passed by a store carrying products being made by the locals.



We arrived at Cu Chi Tunnels just before lunchtime. Cu Chi Tunnels is a network of connecting underground tunnels that underlie all over the country. They were built primarily for the Vietnam War as hiding posts during combat and a route for passing on supplies. I personally do not know how the Vietnamese were able to survive hiding and living inside these tunnels. We were given enough time during the tour to try passing through a short link and just after a few minutes, I was already drowning in my own sweat, almost not able to breathe. The experience was atually a bit terrifying.

Our tour group

This is actually what I came here for lol

 We went back to the city center after the Cu Chi Tunnel tour and grabbed something to eat. To be completely honest, Vietnamese food isn't my thing. I felt like eating grass leaves during our entire time there and I must say, I wasn't able to prepare myself for this so well. I'm just so grateful there's a branch of Mc Donalds and KFC very near our hotel.

Pho

Too many greens

We then proceeded with a city tour of our own. We first went to Ben Thanh Market were we bought Vietnamese coffee for pasalubong.

Ben Thanh Market

 

 We also passed by Notre Dame Cathedral.

 

I believe this is their post office? Forgot how the place is called :P

 After our short city tour, we went to buy our Kipling and North Face items at Saigon Square.

On our second day, we availed the Mekong Delta Tour from The Sinh Tourist. Mekong Delta is a vast maze of rivers, swamps, and islands (according to Wikipedia). It houses several floating markets, pagodas, and villages. Boats are the main means of transportation and for our chosen tour, we went to the Coconut Village.

Orange vests ready! :D

Trying on their local hat

Springrolls for lunch!

Fresh and fried springroll

Favorite photo of us 5

Snacks are served!

We left the next day for the second leg of our tour - Cambodia. We rode a bus and a van for 14 hours to get from Ho Chi Minh to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Since we got to Cambodia in the evening, and we have a little over 24 hrs to spend, we went straight to pub street and night market after leaving our things at the hotel. Their pub street is home to a lot of bars catering to tourists and they have the craziest (in a good way) backpackers. Backpackers there were so friendly, you'll be surprised to see them joining your selfies. Hahaha!



We also tried some of the exotic food they are selling.

Sea snake that tasted like dried fish

We woke up around 3am the next day to prepare for the sunrise tour of Angkor Wat. It has always been in my bucketlist to see Angkor Wat up close and personal so imagine how excited I was that day!

Intricate details

Angkor Wat is insane, to say the least. I never thought it was that big! And I also didn't know that there were more temples around the area. Temple-fatigued is how we would describe what we felt after the whole tour or probably it was because we all lack decent sleep.

Hello, A!

I guess that's about it for our IndoChina trip. We wanted to transfer to BKK after Cambodia but sadly, our time won't permit.

My expenses for this trip are as follows:
- Airfare (MNL-HCN and REP-MNL): Php 4922.13
- Travel Tax: Php 1620.00
- Hotel (Ho Chi Minh): Php 1585.42
- Hotel (Siem Reap): Php 644.08
- Food: Php 609.24
- Transportation: Php 1272.94
- Cu Chi Tunnel Tour: Php 457.34
- Mekong Delta Tour: Php 435.57
- Angkor Wat Tour: Php 1387.25
- Shopping: Php 2198.06
TOTAL: Php 15132.03


Our travel vid is below for more highlights:


Vietnam-Cambodia 2016 from Lean Jess Dela Cruz on Vimeo.