Betnam Break (6-8 Nov 2009)

Tim Nguyet has been in Saigon for quite a while. She has invited us several times to stay over, and yet after the enthusiastic nods of yes, haram pun sorang tak menjelma. Finally, I said, ok I'm coming over and I have booked my flights. Bibah pun game and booked her flights also. Tim Nguyet, you better be at home.

As it turn out to be Tim Nguyet was in KL and will be flying back with us to Saigon (aka Ho Chin Minh city aka HCM ). Upon hearing that the two of us will be accompanying her to Saigon, her mum would like to join in as well. So the four of us boarded the flight on a Friday afternoon and Betnam, here I come!

We reached Saigon at night. I was surprised to see that the city was brightly lit. Bibah kata, tah-tah tu lampu halau tikus tengah sawah. Hahahah.. perhaps. It was dark so can't really tell if it's streetlight or lampu minyak tanah.

While taxing down the runway, heading towards our arrival gate, I was impressed to see how huge their new airport was. It looked very modern macam KLIA. Betapa la sombongnya diri ni, ingat negara sendiri aje yang hebat. Tak sedar tadi take off dari KL dari bus stand yang namanya LCCT. Seems that everyone is catching Malaysia in the rat race. I suppose I should travel more and see the world, biar terbukak sikit pandangan dunia ni. I need to have a talk with my money tree.

Anyhoo... back to Betnam. Bibah and I were the last one to clear off the immigrations. Memang our luck, berdiri la line mana pun.. semuanya lembab. Tim Nguyet had arrange for a driver to pick us up at the airport. Her Boss had assigned this dude to bring us around since Mummy Nguyet is around. Yipeee... Ms Nguyet, thank you for your first class hospitality. Dah la belanja makan, bawak jalan-jalan, tumpang rumah lagi.. :)

Right, there's a few things that I wanted to do in Betnam. Suffice to say, I got it all done except to go to Mekong Delta. But no regrets, I think I wouldn't be able to enjoy the tour as we're just staying for a short period in HCM. Perhaps next time. The 3 days there was fun, fun, fun.

The first one was to see Nguyet's house. Dia dok cerita pasal rumah dia tapi aku tak boleh nak imagine. Her house is 3 story high tapi staircase dia... macam staircase to hell! Sekarang baru kau tahu kenapa aku nak pindah dari rumah ni bak kata si Nguyet. Houses in HCM is narrow and build along even narrower snake like streets. Hers was previously an office. So instead of a front door, it had this automatic shutter instead that goes up and down, securing the house. Aku dok gelak aje tengok benda tu. The first floor was the living room and kitchen. 2 floor was entirely Nguyet's room. And on the 3 floor, there's balcony, 2 rooms and a toilet. Bibah and me slept in the room with slanted roof. Tetiba terasa macam cerita VC Andrews's Flower in the Attic plak. And Bibah had this imagination that there's a Vietnamese toyol equivalent hiding in the washing machine (that would jump out any minute now) outside on the balcony. Penat punya pasal, dalam takut kitaorang terlelap jugak.

The next one was to ride motorbike in Betnam. I have set my heart on this eversince I read 10 things to do in Ho Chin Minh. The guide suggested that I should ride the bike during rush hour. Baru thrill. Well, Ho Chin Minh has 4 million bikes on the road. Isn't it exciting? Nguyet asked, are you out of your mind? Kalau jatuh kena langgar dengan motor lain ... mati tau, after I told her for the 5th time.. nanti kau cakap Vietnam eh dengan brother motor tu... suruh pusing-pusing. Tak pun kau suruh dia hantar aku pi Ben Thanh market, nanti aku jumpa korang kat sana. Well, having witness how crazy these motorbikes are (they ruled the streets indeed), I settled for a 5 minute ride along a calm looking street from the War Remnants Musuem to the Parlimen building? Well it was a sort of an administrative building. Jalan tu memang takde motor sangat.. tapi celaka sebab semua motor-motor lain tau yang aku ni tourist.. saje je nak langgar-langgar. The mamat motor was very pleasant and cool. He can speak English. Very polite, everytime he wants to address me.. he would say.."Err sorry miss.." Yang aku tak tahan tu, aku siap cakap kat dia... ok.. slow slow.. want to take picture... eh sempat pulak buat peace sign. Check out below the shots taken by Nguyet

Next after reading about how people felt very depressed after vising the War Remnants Musuem, I was intrigued to see what's it all about. Ambik kau! Memang depressing pun. 10 minutes in there, jadi insaf kejap. Some pictures were showing the bodies that was shot dead, or burnt. They were childrens, women, old people. One picture was taken by a journalist of two brothers being shot. They looked like 10 year old boys. Then they have pictures of kids being born with deformities due to the toxic chemicals that we sprayed upon their villages in attempt to kill them. Apa ke gila? All this because they had an idea to become communist? Well some of them. But does that justify the shiploads of young men came from you know where and killed these innocent people? All in the name of freedom? A little comfort came when it seems the effect of the toxic chemicals affected the soldiers as well as they too had kids with deformities, as they were exposed to it during the war. Seriously, siapa yang bodoh? Of all the items on displayed, I like this one the best:

Well, bak kata Boss si Nguyet, next time don't go to the Museum because you will see loads to dead Vietnamese... go to Chuchi Tunnel, you'll see loads of American dead. Hahahahha... well, Chu Chi Tunnel is indeed part of my to do list. It's pronounced KhuChee.. bukan Cuci. Malu je aku dok sebut cuci.. cuci. I first discovered about the tunnel in Gary Trudeau cartoon called Doonesbury. If you want to read about ridiculed American politics, do give it a try. Memang kelakar bangat. (Check out here)

Back to the tunnel... I never knew what it was called, but understood that despite the modern American warfare in Vietnam.. they failed to smoke to Vietkongs out from their hidding place. The story goes that, the clever Vietkongs dug a network of tunnel spanning the whole area of ChuChi river and keep on popping eveywhere ambushing the troops. I find it funny that the guide told us that they actually crafted the sharpnel from the bombs that landed in their village, into boobytraps that killed the American. How ironic is that? We asked loads of questions, like kat mana depa berak, macam mana bau taik tu tak kill them, how did they dig out the tunnel, pakai apa, kenapa tunnel tu tak collapse, etc etc.. aku masih lagi ada soalan tak terjawab... but perhaps it's for next time. The guide brought us into one of the tunnel. According to him it has been widen for the tourits. It was far smaller originally. Yang celakanya... mamat tu tak warning pun nak masuk tunnel tu... dia just cakap.. come come.. this way... aku ingat nak tunjuk apa.. lama-lama makin ke dalam ke dalam... and gelap. Boleh la nak bongkok-bongkok sambil jalan macam orang rukuk tu... tapi sebab panas, sempit.. sakit badan. Aku jadi claustrophobic pulak. Si minah dua ekor tu sikit pun punya suka berposing-posing and holding people up. Ye la depa kecik molek.. ok je la nak jalan dalam tu. Aku one point rasa macam nak merangkak on my knees aje dah. Bila the guide ask... you want to go out here or go the long way. Aku sepantas kilat cakap... HERE! The long way is about 100 meters... the short one about 50 kot. Tapi rasa azabnya... macam 1km. Aku tak tau la macam mana orang tu semua boleh survive bertahun-tahun duduk dalam tu. Simply fascinating. Keluar aje dari tunnel tu... basah lencun baju berpeluh.. memang terbakar semua lemak. (Well utk aku... bukan la semua.. maybe if lalu lagi tunnel tu 10 kali hehehe) . At the end of the tour, they served ubi rebus makan dengan kelapa campur gula. Orang putih semua macam jamah hujung jari aje. Kitaorang makan..... macam makan KFC. Sedap menjilat jari. Check us out in the tunnel. Oh and the other picture with the 4 of us - motif: Nguyet bukak tutup lubang, aku terkejut tengok ada orang dalam lubang, Bibah gembira ada orang terjumpa dia yang terperangkap dalam lubang, Mummy Nguyet - pening kepala. That is actually the lubang to enter the tunnel in the olden days. Bontot aku sah-sah tak muat.

Another fun thing that we did.. which was unplanned was the cylo ride. At first, Mummy Nguyet aje naik sebab jauh nak jalan-jalan. Lepas tu apa lagi, 3 budak terjal ni sibuk la nak posing. Kau kayuh, aku tolak. Snap! Aku tolak, kau kayuh. Snap! Ok kau buat-buat pose penat. Snap! Ok ok.. toleh belakang Snap! Sudahnya satu HCM terpegun tengok kitaorang yang tengah buat-buat photoshoot tepi jalan. Pastu tu brother cyclo tu pergi panggil pulak member-member dia yang lain... so skang sorang satu naik cyclo. Berlawan-lawan dengan motor-motor. Hehehe... chill. Memang la kitaorang nak kena conned hari tu. Mula-mula kita tak nak naik yang lain-lain tu, tapi kata mamat tu don't worry bayar kat dia aje. Orang lain ni free. Pastu kitaorang cakap nak pergi Notre Dame Catherdral.... tapi macam jauh aje dia bawak. Kitaorang dah terasa dah memang nak kena la ni. Betul pun, bila dah sampai tempat tu.. dia mintak macam-macam la pulak. Kena la sembur satu round dengan Nguyet. The best part was, lepas dah balik Malaysia baru tahu yang tempat bukan Notre Dame Catherdral. Tah church apa la yang kitaorang pergi. Tapi tak kisah la.. janji it was fun and enjoyable.



Satu lagi berangan nak buat pedi and meni sebab Nguyet cerita murah. Betul-betul kat depan rumah dia pun ada. Tapi memang la dodgy sket. Tapi setakat nak ketip kuku aku and sental kaki aku yang aku pun tak sanggup nak sental.. apa la salahnya. So me and Bibah brave the odds and went to the place. Si Bibah.. tah apa ke gilanya, tiba-tiba tanya nak buat hair treatment ada ke. Aku cakap kat dia.. hey kang gugur pulak rambut kau. Tapi dia terus tak jadi sebab bila tengok minah tu guna limau yang sama nak kilatkan kuku aku, kilatkan kuku dia pulak. And sebelum tu limau tu macam dah digunakan untuk kilatkan 15 kaki yang lain aje. Kitaorang memang gelak aje sepanjang masa. Dah siap.. bayar.. ha RM4 sorang. Patut la limau pun share.Ni gambar artistik Bibah, try nak capture kitaorang dua orang.. tapi tak nampak plak minah yang tengal sental kaki tu:




And of course tidak lengkap la kehidupan jika tidak bershopping. Ben Thanh Market tu memang ada all sorts of trinkets and bags and what nots. Bag-bag kat sana memang cantik and murah. Tapi aku paling fascinated dengan baju kurung berbeaded yang super murah. Kedai yang kitaorang pergi tu, siap Raja Permaisuri Agung and Datin Seri Hasmah pun pernah shopping. Hebat ke tak hebat. Tapi yang tensen shopping kat sana, depa memang hati batu. Pastu selamba buat muka kalau tak puas hati. Aku banyak kali gagal nak bargain. Tapi last-last beli jugak... sebab murah.


Tapi.. (banyak pulak tapi), dalam banyak-banyak shopping episode, yang ni la yang paling lawak sekali. Lepas buat pedi and meni tu.. aku tengok aku still lagi ada a few hundred Dong. Memang nak habiskan sebab tukar balik kat Malaysia nanti rugi. So jalan-jalan la keliling rumah Nguyet, sekali terjumpa satu kedai ni... jual good imitation t-shirts. Ada polo la, lacoste la.. apa la. Aku sudah berkenan dengan satu t-shirt Paul Smith ni. Cukup la duit yang ada ni. Sekali tu si Bibah yang pandai yang bawak US20 aje tu.. tetiba nak membeli jugak. Tengok-tengok duit tak cukup, kedai tak accept plak credit card... since dia bersemangat jugak nak beli.. si Bibah pun balik rumah pinjam duit dengan Nguyet, nasib tak kena fire. Bila dia datang balik, tengok-tengok duit still tak cukup. Hahahahaha.. aku pun kata la.. it's ok, I'll pay in Malaysia ringgit sambil tunjuk duit RM50 depan boss kedai tu. Mamat tu kata.. ha ok.. so 2 t-shirt RM69. Aku kata.. I'll give you RM70... depa pun suka la.. sekali tu korek-korek semua kocek, bra, seluar dalam, dalam setokin... ya salam.... ada RM68 aje. Lain semua duit RM50. Mana pulak nak tukar. Ya rabbiii maluuuuuuunya. Dah la tadi kan main cakap nak bayar RM70. Aku pun bayar la the balance in Dong. Tapi memang kitaorang kena gelak dengan mamat-mamat kedai. Hai la Bibah, lain kali bawak duit banyak sket. Kita ni selalu disampuk hantu shopping.. US20 tak cukup cik kak oii.


Nguyet did suggest a trip from HCM to Hanoi pulak. Ha tah bila zaman la pulak tu nak pergi. Insya-allah, jika ada rezeki.

p/s: thank you jugak pada Mr Driver - Durian sebab penat melayan kitaorang drive ke sana sini. Also thank you for enduring all our attempts for intellectual conversation with you though you were tired and feel like swerving the car into a ditch. heheheh