Tuesday, September 28, 2010
5:59 PM
2010 Vietnam Cambodia trip - Day 9, HCMC
flew back to HCMC from hanoi, arrived ard noon & went str to Pho 2000 for lunch. today is shopping day in HCMC, b4 taking the night bus to cambodia (phnom penh). changed more viet dong at the goldsmiths shops outside ben thanh mkt, along the same row as Pho 2000. if u wanna change VND, pls do not change in spore as u'll get a really lousy rate. go to HCMC, change ard S$20 at the airport jus to give u enuff for the bus fare, then change the rest at the goldsmiths shops.
ok, back to our lunch. Pho 2000 was visited by former US president Bill Clinton, dat's wat enticed us to try it! There's even a slogan there saying "Pho for the president"!
proceeded to ben thanh mkt for our shopping after lunch, the stuffs on our to-buy list include the famous viet coffee (trung nguyen) & north face backpacks. e layout of e mkt is actually quite like bangkok's chatuchak, wif similar pdts being grp tght in the same sector.
proceeded to ben thanh mkt for our shopping after lunch, the stuffs on our to-buy list include the famous viet coffee (trung nguyen) & north face backpacks. e layout of e mkt is actually quite like bangkok's chatuchak, wif similar pdts being grp tght in the same sector.
a bargaining advise: u shd always cut watever they quote by 50% as a starting gauge, then from there u assess again. normally, they'll say cannot cannot too low, but if u walk away, they'll start to call after u & agree to watever price u quote. but sometimes, if e stalls r selling at fix price, then of course no bargaining is needed. e fixed price stalls will hav a signboard like this:
kian shopping for his north face backpack~~
tried che, a sweet vietnamese dessert quite like our chendol~~
we oso went to binh tay mkt, e counterpart of ben thanh mkt, located in chinatown (district 5). it is actually quite far from ben thanh & a cab will cost abt VND 80k (~S$5.7). i wont recommend gg to binh tay mkt cos they mostly sell stuffs wholesale, like e chinatown in bangkok, hence wont entertain u if u oni wan to buy 1 piece. e variety of backpacks in binh tay is oso very limited. din hav time to go to An dong plaza, oso in chinatown & according to my research is like e platinum mall in bangkok.
chill out @ gloria jean's while waiting for our night bus to phnom penh.
e interior of our bus~~
most of the bus to phnom penh operate in e day, a 6 hrs drive from hcmc to phnom penh. we tot dat by taking e nite bus we'll save a night's accom & of course no need to waste e day travelling. we ended up regretting our decision as it was a total nightmare! we boarded e bus at abt 12am, n reached phnom penh oni at 12pm e nx day! apparently e cambodia border immigration is closed at nite & we had to spend e nite sleeping in e bus which parked itself jus outside e border, without any aircon cos it switched off its engine! seriously crap! n we had to give our passports to e driver, who will pass to e custom for chopping. so we din even hav to go down from e bus to pass through e custom at all. kian couldnt sleep e whole nite cos it's hot & stuffy plus e border is at some secluded foresty area, so he spent e nite worrying abt our safety, etc.so in conclusion, if u r taking a bus from viet to cambodia, choose a reputable bus co like mekong express & take e day bus.