i did just that the night before our march 14 7am flight to hoh chih minh city. i set the alarm at 4:30 am. but that did not save me from not waking up to my alarm. i woke up to my phone ringing. weird, i thought. why is jan is calling me? but what's even weirder is that it's 6am! and we're supposed to meet at the airport at 5:45am! my alarm went off fine. it's the volume that's so low it didn't register in my ear canals hehehe.
reality hit me that i just might not make it to my flight. unless... i don't take a bath, i don't brush my teeth, i just strip off and change. and. i. did. just. that. yuck. but what is yuck if it saves my flight? yuck it is. by some positive force of nature that overpowered the negative ones, i made it just in time - in my grossest physical state ever. i don't mind. but it's a big deal, ok?
after less than 3 hours, i found myself in a foreign country. feeling hungry and dirty, jan and i waited for jake. his flight was coming in a few hours after ours.
i was unsuccessful in finding a bathroom (for a shower) in the airport. no choice but to take a bath in our hotel after a few more hours.
we roamed around the airport while waiting for jake and found some local instant noodles and coffee at the star cafe. we loved them!
then we went to find a cool spot where we could wait for jake. you see i was in danger of expiring anytime soon. hehehe. view from the departure hall:
we finally found jake and we headed off to our hotel. and i had my much needed bath. all perfect!
we headed out to face the scorching sun and looked for some place where we could eat authentic vietnamese food. we found a place that looks like a karenderya in manila. we had these: sticky rice with chicken flakes (that turned out to be an appetizer hehehe), some rolls, and a tiny coke to seal the deal. it did not disappoint me. food was very tasty, except for some hard carton-ish stuff in the rolls wrapper that was far from edible.
and then the trio was ready to face the streets of hoh chih minh city!
we just had to...
we found the ben thanh market. so many stuff to see! fruits - fresh and dried, food, liquor, clothes, bags, decors, souvenirs. name it, we've got it all for you! the only thing that turned me off are the tinderos who almost force you to buy and get offended if you don't purchase their goods.
next stop was the saigon notre-dame basilica. it was a bit far from our hotel but it was worth visiting.
one thing we all loved are parks, parks, and more parks. could be compared to parks here in sg. i wish we have more of these in the philippines!
tindero/tinderas for a minute!
and the most fascinating thing is this... the motorcycle traffic. it's insane! what's more amazing is that when you cross the street, they won't hit you. It's like the red sea that parts when you set your foot on the road. but i guess you have to master the art of crossing the road first before you dare to do it!
we capped the day having dinner at jollibee! the chicken joy did not give me much joy though hehehe. Iba pa rin ang orig!
cr? you are in a filipino store indeed!
