Vietnam Vacation Part 4 (D7 & Afterword) - HCM City

This is the last post about my Vietnam vacation. I hope you guys had fun reading about it so far! :D

It has been a lot of fun writing this, but as time passes by I find myself wanting to get the series done so I can go on writing something else. :)

Don't get me wrong, writing about this and doing the collages were a lot of fun. (although doing the collages are a bit tedious, since I use separate programs to do the watermarks and stuff) Visiting Vietnam was even more fun. It's a country you should visit, especially if you're Malaysian. We'll talk about that later. 

Day 7 was the last day there and I woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, great breakfast and a walk in the park.

Yes I finished all that on the plate. We took a walk in the park just across a major street, which is apparently super hard to cross.

Here are some photos in the park. It's in the middle of a busy city on a Friday morning but the people who had time to go there seem so calm and taking things slow, while busy people with hectic lives whirl around them.

There was this pond of lilies and they were so beautiful I just had to take their photos. Ethan would have been really proud of my phone. I am. Haha. The photos were brilliant.

See those bees?

After some arrangements, I get to return to the War Remnants Museum from yesterday! Wheeeee :DDD

Costed RM2 to get in again. :)

Thanks to the driver for complying and who had been super awesome, having driven us everywhere for four days straight. :D

From top left, clockwise: a photo with the driver :) ; an army tank; military weapon of dunno what name; tables and chairs made from aluminium (from a plane's runway!); another piece of weaponry.

Okay I'm so embarrassed, I don't know the names of those weapons. I probably took a photo of the signs beside, but I'm tooooo lazy to search for them in my phone.

I'm here again! :D

My mom <3

In my own little heaven ;)

After making a round on the military transport and weaponry, we visited a reconstruction of the Phu Quoc Prison. It was a prison for political prisoners of war, and the state in which prisoners live in is appalling. Food was watery soup, handfuls of rice and bits of spoilt fish, while water supply was extremely limited.

The real guillotine, which was used to execute prisoners. Note the knife on top, and the cage which the prisoner was put in prior to execution. On the right is the guy who was the last one being executed with this guillotine.

Left photo: The first door was a real door, but was locked. There was a peephole which could be opened. A woman mannequin with long hair inside scared the crap out of me when I peeped in. Damn she was looking right at me. =.=
Centre photo: This is so disturbing as well. It's a mannequin as a prisoner, sitting inside a cell with his legs shackled. Eerie right? I always have the feeling that he's gonna look up and stare at me.
Right photo: These are the infamous tiger cages, wrapped with barbed wire on all sides. It's hard to even fit one person, but during those times, 2 to 5 prisoners were put into a cage at the same time. OMG.

Some of the articles and photos.

Visited the second floor which we never saw on Day 6.

Fragments. Of names, bombs, and enamelware.

See the bottom right photo? That was where three Vietnamese children hid from the US soldiers. They were caught, two were shot and one disembowelled. =.=

Top: Before and After photos
Bottom: Generations of people affected by the chemical dioxin (Agent Orange) that was sprayed all over Vietnam by the US army as a chemical weapon.

All the types of guns and weapons.

Bullets, bombs, mortar shells and fragment of an airplane

I continued to take photos of these articles and bring home to read. :P

Love this poster <3

After 2 hours there, driver came to pick us up (only my parents and I) and drove back to Ben Thanh market to pick up the rest of the people who went there shopping for 2 hours. 

See the wires on the right. OMG. Can you imagine how to untangle them, or worse if they fall onto someone?

Another buffet lunch! Funny, we always have buffet lunches right before leaving somewhere. LOL.

Last stop: City Hall, with a Ho Chi Minh statue in front. It was damn swelteringly hot. =.= Barely could open my eyes.

Took a photo with our tour guide ;)
City Hall with HCM's statue

And then we went to the airport. ;)

LEAVING! At the airport. On the bottom right, my flight was the 16.40 KL by MAS, MH 759 one by the way. :D

Spent three and a half hours there =.= , just waiting for the flight. I was so bored I spent the time reading the articles on the photos I took at the museum. 

Finally going through the customs!

On the plane! Bye bye Vietnam! *see the runway on the right! <3*

Whee~ I am off! Look at HCM's aerial view! OMG. 

Am here at KLIA. I need another flight home. ;)

AND I AM BACK! PENANG I'M HOME!
*see the Penang International Aiport words on the left photo. It's love. :D*

Whew. Finally, finally home. I've been loving every moment of the vacation, but nothing beats the feeling of coming home, to something familiar and beautiful altogether. I know, I'm patriotic. xD

Even though we hit out at the government all the time, Malaysia is still my pride, my home. <3

Okay I promised an afterword on this vacation. Let's start with the top ten differences in Malaysia and Vietnam I've noticed during the time I was there.

Top Ten Differences Between Malaysia and Vietnam

10. Traffic is on the right side - This one is very obvious once you set foot in Vietnam. As US was in Vietnam for a long time, Vietnam adopted its traffic system, which is on the right hand side with drivers on the left side of the car. Major difference because Malaysia's traffic is on the left side, due to British being here in the past.

9. Gardens in the city - No matter which city you go, there are many gardens in the middle of the towns and cities. It's very green, especially so in Hanoi where there are less skyscrapers. My mom said it felt like the 1970s of Malaysia, which is awesome (because then I can finally see the past in colour, LOL). Malaysia's different, you can hardly find parks in the middle of a bustling city nowadays. Flash floods, often.

8. The idea of safety - Vietnamese people don't seem to share the same idea of safety. Or maybe because the country isn't so developed yet. We witnessed four or five people sharing a motorcycle, and wires being hung everywhere and even on the ground where people could get electrocuted. Traffic is also very haphazard, and people can do anything they want like there are no fixed rules. Malaysian people are more afraid of accidents and deaths, apparently.

7. THE HONKING - Oh the honking. Remember, when people honk at you over in Vietnam, it's just to tell you to watch out or be careful. Here in Malaysia, honking is only done when someone is really, really angry or upset or irritated. But in Vietnam, people honk ALL THE TIME, because the traffic is so busy and in a mess, there have to be some sort of warning, right?

6. Currency - In Vietnam, two main kinds of currency are used, the Vietnam Dong and the US Dollar. And they accept other forms of currency too, Malaysia Ringgit, China Renminbi, Taiwan Dollar, etc. Very convenient actually, you just need to have a mental calculator in your head and calculate the exchange quickly to avoid being cheated. In Malaysia, the only currency used is Ringgit, unless you're doing business.

5. The bargaining of goods - It's a bit heartaching sometimes to buy stuff from peddlers. They'll surge forward and try to sell you their things, and if you see something you like, you can bargain with them. The thing is, when you walk away because they wouldn't lower their prices, they'll run after you and keep on lowering their prices, and if you keep on walking, they'll end up giving you the price you asked for. I don't know, sometimes they even plead, and that just makes me so heartache because a person would never be like this, if not for life's hardship and the difficulty in making a little money. :(
(You don't see this in Malaysia)

4. Manpower - Vietnam uses manpower in almost everything, from working in the paddy fields to embroidery. In Malaysia, we use computers and machinery all the time, but in Vietnam because labour is cheap, you can see farmers actually working in the paddy fields. When we went, the paddy fields were golden and ready for reaping. :)

3. Motorcycles more than cars - There are SO many motorcycles that you would never believe. Cars are few and far between in comparison because according to the tour guide, there are not many roads in Vietnam, and most roads are narrow. Due to less cars, traffic is generally smooth, and mostly in a mess because a motorcycle can go anywhere. In Malaysia, there are motorcycles, but there are more cars and traffic generally ends up in a jam.

2. There is order in the traffic mess - Even though I keep on talking about how much of a mess Vietnamese traffic is, the awesome part is I haven't seen an accident at all while there, even though you might think that accidents would happen all the time. Apparently there is order in the mess, and people abide by rules that you can't see. If you cross the road slow and steadily, you won't get hit by anything because they'll know how to avoid you. It's almost magical watching it, especially at a crossroads because you'll see people doing all kind of dangerous crossings but are still okay. You can't do this in Malaysia though, Malaysians aren't made for this. Lol.

1. Patriotic about their country and leader, Ho Chi Minh - And this one is something I admire a lot. You see his pictures, statues and name everywhere, anywhere. From airports to museums to even an old national song, he is everywhere. And the people of Vietnam admire and worship him. It's like he's God. You don't see that in Malaysia, do you? I mean, come on, Tunku Abdul Rahman? Seriously?

As a conclusion, Vietnam is a lovely place to visit. Especially if you're Malaysian, because then you'll be able to enjoy the food there, since it's not very different from us here. The rice was really nice and it's definitely from the Vietnamese paddy fields. :) You may not like Vietnamese traditional food though, it depends.

There are many places to visit and if you want to have total control over your time, do it the free-and-easy way because then you won't be frustrated that someone in the tour group wants to leave earlier or the "tour guide says go". 

Shopping is wonderful here, especially if you love bargaining because you can bargain for virtually anything under the sun. There are so many stuff to buy, souvenirs, knick-knacks, clothes, bags, shoes, knock-offs of any brand you can think of.

I love the snacks there by the way. Green pea candies, coconut candies, rice crisps with caramel and nuts on top, their traditional potato crisps, everything. Love. 

I haven't been contacting anyone or anything back home for seven days, I'm like cutting myself out from the familiar world and immersing myself into a whole new place, and it's been extremely therapeutic. There was WIFI in many hotels and places, although reception was slow sometimes. 

But I've successfully stopped myself from connecting at any one time. There's not really anything to do, even on Facebook, and scrolling through people's stories and statuses while I'm away on vacation just isn't the thing to do. I'm on vacation, for God's sake. I'm supposed to focus on myself and my happiness. Right? :D

I'm feeling way better now than I was for the past few weeks. Thanks to parents for the amazing trip. :)

Here's a last photo of the national flag of Vietnam to wrap up this series. I took this with my phone right outside the Ho Chi Minh museum. It's my most favourite photo of all 2000++ photos I took.

I like Vietnam.

And I love Malaysia. :)

In a nutshell, great vacation. <3