Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam!

Over the weekend, my sis, the hb and I flew to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam for a short holiday.

We didn't go for any city / historical / educational tour - so it was really a shopping and eating trip!  It was really relaxing and I had a good time - partly cos' it was all planned by my sister so all i did was to just follow (its wonderful when you can switch your brain off), got to actually shopped for clothes i needed (thanks to my sis - cos' if not for her, I probably would have been turned off by the squeeziness and the crowd! since I'm with her gotta follow right? ha.), bought some household items for the home for cheap (yes, I feel that I'm becoming an 'aunty'), and also cos' i realized I didn't have to worry about the business since I closed it! (I believe that everything happens for our best interests more and more each day!)

We stayed at a really nice hotel - Hotel Nikko Saigon.  There was a promotion and it was just USD 310 for 2 nights, including an extra bed!  a superb deal considering how great the rooms are!  check out the photos!  plus they had jacuzzi and spa facilities which you could use!

[caption id="attachment_1403" align="aligncenter" width="737"] lovely bed and comforter...though the pillows were a little too soft for my liking![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1405" align="aligncenter" width="717"] toilet was really nice! there is also a shower which i didn't take a pic of.[/caption]

I went Hanoi before and it was a lot smaller and easier to quickly navigate around.  Ho Chi Minh by contrast is huge! and despite usually preferring a quieter location for holidays - somehow I preferred HCM.  It was strangely cleaner than Hanoi.  Also, in Hanoi, the cars and motorbikes were ALWAYS honking and the noise level was quite unbearable.  Traffic in HCM is still busy and messy but way less honking and less noisy (maybe cos' space is also bigger).

Exactly cos HCM was way larger - you need to know before hand where you wanted to go for the specific things you wanted to get.  Clothes / laquer ware / paintings.  I just followed my sis and told her what I wanted to see.

My hauls?

• 8 tee shirts / SGD 6 each


• 4 tank tops / SGD 3 each


• 2 dresses / SGD 12 - 15.  my sis got more proper dresses about SGD30 or so)


• 1 leather pouch / SGD 24 and quality is really good!


• 50 tea towels (yes, 50.  I'm trying to reduce usage of paper towels to be more environmentally friendly...and tea towels in singapore are ridiculously priced!  I got the 50 pcs for only SGD 6!!  Here, I'll probably have to pay about four times more!)


• 2 bath mats (for the fun of it.  i could have got it at about the same price here at home).


• Laquer ware and plate / SGD 50 for 4 pcs.

Shopping was a lot of fun cos' it is crazy cheaper than back home and I think I got my casual clothes shopping done for the next 2 years!  Of course you need to know where to go and to check the prices at each stall if not the stall owners will naturally try to make a neat profit from you.

also got other stuff for the family (coffee, shawls)  here's a photo of only the clothes for four people (my sis, her friend, my mum and myself).  Naturally the shopaholic sis owns most of the clothes. She was one happy happy shopper!

[caption id="attachment_1410" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] shopping hauls! clothes for sis, her friend, my mum and myself![/caption]