Bali, Here I Come!

I am sooooo happy that i got a very cheap deal from airasia. Anyway, I have booked a trip to bali from 2 July to 5 July. Although it is still a long way to go, i think it is so worth it for just only $50SGD per pax for the air tickets including of all the surcharge and taxes. The promotion will be valid from 24 Feb to 1 Mar 2009 and travelling period will be from 24 Mar 2009 to 31 Jan 2010.

For those of you who are interested to go bali, I think you should check out the air asia deal before the price change again. :)

Dorsett Regency Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Airasia was having a cheap promo to fly over to KL. I paid around $72 per pax for the air ticket. Since the deal was cheap, I decided to spend my Valentine's Day at Kuala Lumpur. Overall, I spent around $114(inclusive of hotel) for a 2 days 1 night stay at KL. My choice was this hotel, Dorsett Regency. This website http://www.sg.pyotravel.com/ was actually offering a night stay at Dorsett Regency for a promotion price at 84SGD which was quite reasonable.

I reached the hotel at around 11am. We were asked to check into our rooms about half hour later because the rooms were not ready. Anyway, the staffs were polite and friendly. They suggested us to walk around the shopping centres first which were just walking distance from the hotel. The new shopping centre, Pavillion and the well-known Sungei Wang were just around the corner, about 5 minutes walk from the hotel. We decided to go sungei wang for our lunch and shopping. We came back to the hotel at around 2pm and we were given rooms at 16th floor. This is my room at unit 1606.

The room was big and clean. Although they do not have ultimately new furnitures but everything was in well-conditioned. Like most hotels, they have what was needed in the room. Safebox, hair dryer, mini bar, etc.

This is a nice and comfy King Sized Bed.

A Flat Screened TV

The bathroom have shower gel, shampoo and hair conditioner. Toothbrushes will be available upon request. They also have a long bath tub.

Their facilities also include a gym and swimming pool. You do not have to worry about finding a decent restaurant because inside the hotel itself, they already have 3 restaurants. You can also find nearby restaurants at Marriot or Ritz Carlton. Overall, I enjoyed my stay at this hotel and I would definitely list this hotel in my choice for my next visit to KL. :)

For more information about this hotel, you can check out their website: http://www.dorsettregency.com.my/

Highland Coffee at Ho Chin Minh

Many people say Vietnamese Coffee is a MUST TRY when you are there. As vietnam is the second largest coffee producer, they sell variety of coffee. You can find coffee powder almost everywhere. Although I am not really a coffee lover, but I do enjoy their Ice Blended coffee.

Since everybody was raving about Highland Coffee, I tried one nearby the hotel. It was along the stretch towards Dong Khoi area. I am not good in explaining the exact location, but it seems like you can find highland coffee almost everywhere because they have outlets mushrooming around the saigon. Another one that can be found was inside Saigon Tax Centre.

For a non coffee lover like me, I must say the coffee was really good, but their cakes was really Yucks!!! Have one recommend by the staff and they will tell you which coffee are popular.

The price of the coffee at Highland is not really cheap. It was around the price of starbucks in Singapore. Anyway, if the coffee is good, I would not mind.. :)

You can check out their website if you want to know more about Highland Coffee. http://www.highlandscoffee.com.vn/

More Post Of Saigon Can Be Found On >>>>>My Saigon Trip

Nike Expo Sales - Up to 60% Discount

Hey, Nike Sales is back! You can enjoy savings for up to 60%. Wow!!!!

For those who are nike lovers may like to hop down to Singapore Expo, Hall 6B From 5th Feb 2009 to 8th Feb 2009 (Sunday). The sales will start from 10am to 7pm daily and sunday will be 10am to 6pm.

Click The Picture To See More Details

Tutti Frutti Yogurt Saigon

If you would like to take a break after your shopping at Ben Thanh Market, you can cross over the road and head towards Tutti Frutti Yogurt Store. I am not quite sure it is opposite which gates of Ben Thanh Market, but their store is quite colorful and prominent.

This frozen yogurt store have so many flavors to choose, you decide the toppings, flavors and how much you want to eat and pay at the cashier. It wasn't really cheap or expensive, but if you are comparing with singapore, it is definitely cheaper. They do not charge by the cup size, they will charge by gram. If i don't remember wrongly, 100g was less than 2sgd.

Anyway, the yogurt tasted quite refreshing and nice. So, if you need a short break near ben thanh market, this would be a best place. At least, they have air conditioner inside. :)

Name: Tutti Frutti Yogurt

Website: http://www.tfyogurt.com/

Location: Opposite Ben Thanh Market

Rating: A good place for resting legs, great yummy yogurts and lots of toppings to choose.

Blueberry Flavor, it tasted so healthy More Posts On Saigon Can Be Found On >>>> My Saigon Trip

Ho Chi Minh City - Cho Ben Thanh Market

This statue is located directly opposite Ben Thanh Market (at the roundabout)

Ben Thanh Market is one of the famous tourist attractions in Saigon. It is loaded with varieties of goods like t shirts, shorts, beaded hand bags, shoes, lacquerware, flowers, coffee powder, fruits & vegetables etc.

What I liked the most about Ben Thanh Market are those exquisite lacquerwares. Be sure to compare the prices before you decide to buy because there are just SO MANY over there and it is very competitive for them. Make sure you BARGAIN REALLY HARD.... If the price is not right, just walk away because the stall vendors may just lower the price again and you could probably find the same one at the next store.

T shirts are mostly around 25,000 -45,000 VND. I bought a few for my friends at 31,000(Approx $2 plus SGD) at those road side fixed price stores. Since it was already so cheap, I was too lazy to bargain with those vendors. :) Most of the t shirts are those related to vietnam such as "Good Morning Vietnam" or with vietnam flag. A good buy for souvenirs.

If you are those that would not mind to buy counterfeit goods such as addidas, nike.. Ben Thanh Market have a lot!!!

Somehow, I feel Beh Thanh Market is a little bit similar to the Chatuchak in Bangkok, but Chatuchak definitely have 100 times nicer clothes and things over there.

The things that I bought in Cho Ben Thanh Market are their egg shells painting, 2 sets of children ao dai (approx $6.50 - $7 Sgd, depending on the sizes) and coasters.

Do watch out for your bags and wallets as this place can get crowded at times. Beware of pick pockets.

Name of this place: Ben Thanh Market

Address: Le Loi Boulevard, District 1, (At the junction of Ham Nghi, Le Loi and Tran Hung Dao)

Opening Hours: 6:00am to 7:00pm daily... (Night markets will be set up along the road after 7pm)

Special Cocoction for your whiskey

The Things In Ben Thanh Market




Lacquerwares, painting everywhere
More Posts On Saigon Can Be Found >>>>My Saigon Trip

Ho Chin Minh City - Pho 24

We rested for a while at the hotel after checked in. The first thing that we do is to find our way to Pham Ngo Lao Street (Backpacker St) because the nearest Sinhcafe was just located there. Both of us were kind of blurred with the road signs there cause almost all were spelt in vietnamese. We took quite a hard time to reach there, asking around more than 5 people about the right direction. The worst problem that we had was the right pronunciation of the road and the lucky thing is we have the map so we just point and they direct us. Communication was also abit of problem for us because quite a number of them don't really speak or understand good english.

Finally, we reached Sinhcafe. There were many people from all over the countries. Business seem to be extremely good for them. In my next post, i will explain more on the package we got. After some discussion, we decided to opt for the half day ho chi minh city tour plus the half day cuchi tunnel tour for the next day. We paid extra 25,000dong for the bus pick up and drop off service at our hotel too.

In Vietnam, the MUST TRY FOOD is PHO. Hence, we decided to proceed the well raved pho, Pho 24. Since there was a discount coupon at the map given from the airport staff, we used it. This was the first proper meal that I had in Ho Chin Minh. I was extremely hungry!!! We ordered a large mixed bowl (beef & chicken), a large beef bowl(same as mixed bowl, except the ingredients were beef), Beef Balls & Spring rolls. Well, that was what they have in the afternoon, i wanted to order their broken rice but they say they don't have. :)

I can't really remember how much was the damage but i remembered most of the food prices are like 15,000, 25,000, 35,000 and the most expensive that we had was the large mixed bowl that cost around 45,000-55,000.

Anyway, Pho 24 can be found almost everywhere in Ho Chin Minh. They have many outlets. :)

Name: Pho 24

Website: http://www.pho24.com.vn

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Cheap & Good Food Fare)

Crispy and Yummy Spring Rolls

Few miserable beef balls cut into half (very very small portion)

Large Mixed Bowl (YUMMY!)

More Posts On Saigon Can Be Found>>>>My Saigon Trip