Oh My Janey

The Great Mekong River

mekong river

Geography isn’t my strongest suit, but I have heard of the Mekong River. Who hasn’t heard of the great Mekong?

No visit to Ho Chi Minh is complete without taking a side trip to the river that crosses Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Burma, Laos, and Thailand. Knowing that it traverses six countries makes it hard to believe that it’s only the 12th longest river in the world!

On our last day in Vietnam, we joined a tour group that will visit the river for a whole day. We traveled around two hours to reach our destination, and I’m sorry that I can’t remember which province we stopped over. I was asleep half the travel period.

There’s no standout memory from our trip down the Mekong, except for the little bursts of laughter my friends and I shared. It’s a bit underwhelming, but I guess you have to appreciate it for the novelty. [Read more…]

Down the Cu Chi Tunnels, Ho Chi Minh City

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I’m back with the second half of our second day in Vietnam, with some photos and stories from our excursion down the Cu Chi Tunnels in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

Just two hours from Saigon, the Cu Chi district is a great destination if you want to have an idea how the Vietnam War was like aside from the photos you see in museums. Here, our tour guide John expertly navigated the “park” with little anecdotes from war and explanations on how the underground system worked.

For a couple of years, many Vietnamese lived underground to avoid capture from U.S. troops. The narrow tunnels worked for the advantage of the small Asians, as the Americans cannot follow them inside. As much as the U.S. soldiers tried to follow them to their hideout, they can only go so far till they got stuck. [Read more…]

Kaleidoscope of Colors at Cao Dai Temple, Vietnam

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On our second day in Vietnam, we went out of Ho Chi Minh City for a day trip to Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels.

Instead of booking the tour from our hostel, we inquired at other travel agencies in Pham Ngu Lao and got a deal two-dollar cheaper. It’s only two dollars, but hey, that’s already worth a meal in HCM!

Our guide picked us up from the hostel at around 8AM and joined a small tour group of Filipinos, Japanese and Europeans. One of the Filipinos is also an Elbi graduate and our batchmate! But we didn’t really bond, heh.

We traveled two hours to reach the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh, a province in southwestern Vietnam. On our way, our tour guide John introduced us to the religion Caodaism, which was started in the province. According to Wikipedia (not John because I forgot many of what he said haha), Caodaism is a monotheistic religion and its full name means “The Great Faith Third Universal Redemption.” The symbol of the faith is the Left Eye. This reminds of KALK, a sect in the Philippines. There’s a temple near our house and they also have the eye as their symbol. Anyway.

The faith has influences from the Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, and even from historical figures like Van Gogh and Marco Polo. True enough, we saw symbols and images from the said religious groups in the temple. [Read more…]

One Fine Day in Ho Chi Minh City

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Ho Chi Minh, where you can see a coffee shop in almost every corner. Ho Chi Minh, where there are more motorcycles and bicycles than cars. Ho Chi Minh, the city where half of the people you meet are foreigners. Then again, that’s probably because we stayed in the backpacker’s district.

For our first day in the city, we decided to roam the city by ourselves. We wanted to book a tour with Saigon Hotpot, a student organization who offers city tours for free, but they didn’t have a free time for the dates we booked. It’s really too bad since my friends who’ve tried touring with them recommend it a lot!

Good thing our hostel host gave us a map of the city with all the routes to the landmarks marked. We weren’t sure if they’re all within walking distance, but we decided to try anyway. [Read more…]

Ho Chi Minh Accomodation: Luan Vu Hotel

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As much as I want to jump straight into blogging about our days in Vietnam, this post is long overdue.

Hostels in Vietnam are amazing, because of the two I’ve tried, both delivered top-notch service. I think you won’t go wrong with the budget hostels in Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi, because no matter how cheap it gets you can be assured of amazing service. And pretty rooms!

Luan Vu Hotel is located at the backpacker district Pham Ngu Lao in Ho Chi Minh City. So yes, it’s the perfect location for travelers because it’s in the middle of cheap restaurants and within walking distance of pretty much everything you need to see in Saigon.

We arrived in our hostel quite late, at around 2AM, I think? We coordinated through email before coming, so they knew we’d arrive late. We got a room in the second floor, and there’s no elevator! But I think it’s common for hostels to not have elevators so it’s not something to complain about.

I really can’t think of anything to hate about our hostel, because it’s always a welcoming sight whenever we went back after a long, tiring day touring around the city. We only spent three nights in Luan Vu but we already experienced their best service. [Read more…]

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