We woke up early this morning around 7.00am, took the bath and get ourselves ready. Well, today is the day that we take off for our yearly family trip! Our taxi was here at 8.00am to send us to the KLIA2 Airport.
We booked our flight tickets back in June during Air Asia Sales, around RM1,265.60 for 4 of us. It is considered worth the values because we can fly back Kuching with the same price, and now we are going Vietnam.
It is like a family tradition that we would travel during Issac’s birthday, and this year we would be in Saigon from 11 Nov to 17 Nov.
As usual, Alvin did quite a bit of research on the internet on where to sleep, eat, do and see. This trip mainly is the Street Food Trip, thus Alvin have plan out our itinerary for our 7 days.
We did book a tour package from The Sinh Tourist online website on day tour to Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta in 1 day for total 1,396,000 VND excluding the entrance tickets to the Cu Chi Tunnels.
We found that this is worth for the money spend. Furthermore, The Sinh Tourist is a very reputable travel agency in Vietnam.
We had our breakfast at Texas Chicken KLIA2 while waiting for our boarding time. We did not know that Texas Chicken do serve breakfast. Well, it is just normal.
We kept our luggage simple. Alvin, Issac and me just carried our own backpacks and a small travelling bag, while Annabelle was taking an empty cabin sized luggage trolley bag just to keep all the souvenirs or things we intend to buy later in Saigon.
Our airplane departed on time, and here we were arriving at the Ho Chi Minh Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Once we stepped into the Arrival Hall, it a little lesser than KLIA2 but still is bright, clean and neat. We were so happy and took group selfie.
There were already many airplanes just landed at the same time and all the tourists just flooded in to the immigration. We thought that it might take for a while for us to check in and passed through the Custom, but eventually the efficiency of the officers were high. It was already 1.30pm local time when we got on a cab.
We can observe the city are filled with the amounts or countless motorbikes, scooters, bicycles and cars coming from all directions. It is really an eye opening to me when we can see all sorts of things that can be carried with the motorbikes in Saigon!
They can carry the construction materials in their bikes! And, all of them are wearing face masks and with the half round helmet which is not recommended in Malaysia here for safety reason.
The roads, even sidewalks, are invaded by these two-wheel rides making it a bit hard to cross the street. One technique we learned is to just keep walking and don't panic when going to the other side of the street. And this is what we tried to do. Works pretty good, I must say.
Another thing we also noticed is the abundance of small plastic tables and chairs lined in the city streets, sitting locals and foreigners as they enjoy a bowl of pho or a bottle of beer – their version of a laid-back afternoon.
The cab drove us to our hotel which booked through Agoda – Galaxy Hotel & Capsule which is located at in the most popular street of Ho Chi Minh City named Pham Ngu Lao. We booked a Family Room for 6 nights for RM785.85, after applying the Digi Rewards voucher code. It is a good bargain!
The check-in was so smooth, and we were given to a Deluxe Family on the first night of our stay, as there was no Family Room available at the time we were checked in. It was so excited for us, as the room was spacious and there was a writing desk and 1 more single bed.
Room is air-conditioned, and feature a flat-screen TV with cable channels, a personal safe and a private bathroom with shower facilities, but we did not manage to take some photographs on it.
Never did I imagine that we will meet the most accommodating hostel staff in Vietnam – right in Galaxy Hotel & Capsule. They were very helpful and flexible with our requests. They even gave us a tourist map and indicated to us where we can have a good street food and the nearest tourists attractions.
Free Wi-fi is available in all the rooms and public area at ground floor. Our breakfast are included! There are a desktop computer at the Reception area for the guests to access internet. There is a small decent Café area just next to it. A small kitchen at the back for preparation of the breakfast.
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