Ho Chi Minh 2016 Day 1 & 2: HCMC - Mui Ne
DAY 1: 9 JUN 2016
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| Mui Ne Beach |
It's time for yet another trip with my girls.
This time round we decided to visit Ho Chi Minh city!
We flew Jetstar this time round and our return ticket costs S$123.
Our flight departed at 7.50pm and we arrived in HCMC at 9pm.
Immigration was quite a breeze, and thankfully I managed to open the return flight itinerary
from my email as the officer had asked for the return ticket.
Before we exited from the airport, we purchased a data sim card for our trip.
There were many shops selling sim card even at this hour.
We settled for Vinaphone which has a more reliable connectivity in Vietnam.
The sim card we purchased had 5GB worth of data, valid for 30 days.
This only costed us 100,000 VND which is equivalent to S$6.25.
Scored it!
As we intended to take a bus to Mui Ne the next day, we stayed at Pham Ngu Lao street,
which is also the backpacker's street.
In order to get to your accomodation, you can either take a taxi or the airport bus 109 in yellow.
The airport bus 109 was only introduced in March this year and it operates from 5.30am to 1.30am.
We decided to take the bus as there were many stories about taxi scams from the airport.
But if you choose to take a taxi in Ho Chi Minh, always take either Mai Linh or Vinasun taxi,
and ensure that the meter is turned on.
There are many different companies with similar names, so please look out for these two!
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| Bus 109 route |
The bus ticket counter was just located in front of lane 13 outside the airport terminal.
A journey which is more than 5km long costs 20,000 VND (S$1.25).
The bus departs every 15 to 20 minutes and it took us about 40 minutes to reach 175 Pham Ngu Lao street.
Our stay tonight is at Galaxy Capsule Hotel located in the alley right across the
Phuong Trang ticket office.
We booked a superior triple room for S$40 a night.
It was a nice tiny room for the three of us but since we backpacked, we didn't require much space.
After we checked in, we headed to the Phuong Trang bus ticket office to book our tickets to Mui Ne.
The office was still open at 10pm, probably because they have overnight buses.
There are 15 trips to Mui Ne every day and the timings are available online.
A ticket to Mui Ne costs 120,000 VND.
We initially wanted the 9am bus, but it was sold out.
Hence, we settled for the 11am bus which took 4.5 hours to arrive in Mui Ne.
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| Street food along De Tham Street |
After purchasing the ticket, we headed back to our hotel to rest and we chanced upon this street stall
which was set up right in front of our alley.
The usual sight of street stalls in Bangkok will be accompanied by litter and tons of flies.
However. this stall was really clean and organised.
We decided to buy two dishes to try out since it was bustling with customers.
We bought the honey pork com tam and maggie mee with chicken,
which altogether costs 70,000 VND.
Both dishes were so good, and it wasn't because we were starving.
The meats were tender and well seasoned.
No wonder there were so many customers!
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DAY 2: 10 JUN 2016
We woke up really early today as we had to be at the phuong trang bus terminal,
located across the street from their ticket office at 10am for a transfer.
The transfer was actually a mini van and you should approach the staff to clarify which
van you will be taking by showing them your ticket.
Our bus departs at 11am from TP Ho Chi Minh and the mini van ride took 30 minutes.
The buses to different cities in Vietnam are usually sleeper type.
If you are not comfortable with it, then try to ask for seated buses instead.
However, the seated buses are usually rare.
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| Sleeper bus to Mui Ne |
After getting your tickets checked by the bus attendant, you will be required to
remove your footwear upon entering the bus and place them in the plastic bags issued.
We booked our tickets rather late, so they only had the upper deck seats left.
We got B9, B10 and B11 which was in the middle of the bus.
I must say the seats were comfortable and the ride was relatively smooth.
A bottle of water and a blanket were given as well.
During the bus journey, the attendant will ask us for our hotel name and the bus will
actually drop us off at our hotel or in its vicinity.
This was really good as it saved us some hassle to get a taxi from their office.
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| A section of our suite |
We stayed at Mui Ne Hills, which was highly recommended by our friends.
We had to take a 5 minutes walk up to get to our hotel.
We booked the rooms in March and we paid US$35 for a night in a family room at their
budget hotel.
It was expensive for a budget room as our friends managed to book it at a cheaper price.
However, when we checked in, they gave us a free upgrade to a suite in the Bliss hotel!
Really awesome!
We also booked the sunrise tour and the bus back to HCMC with the hotel.
The sunrise jeep tour costs 100,000 VND per person while the bus ticket costs
130,000 VND per person.
After checking out our room, we headed to the beach for the sunset.
As there were many beach resorts down the road, the only way to get to the beach was to
turn left upon reaching the main road and walk for 100m.
We were feeling a little hungry and we chanced upon a banh mi street cart just across the street.
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| Banh Mi street cart |
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| Banh Mi filled with meatballs |
We bought one to share and it only costs 15,000 VND.
It was really good and rather different as it was filled with meatballs instead of meat slices.
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| Juice stall |
We also chanced upon a juice stall which had a really extensive menu.
We bought a cup of mango juice for 20,000 VND which was made from fresh sweet mangos!
It was so good that we headed back after dinner to get a cup each.
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| Mui Ne beach |
The beach was not as crowded as Kuta beach in Bali.
We were there for almost an hour, watching the beach turn dark as the sun started to set.
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| Local seller lugging her goods along the beach |
Dinner was at Joe's cafe and it took us 20 minutes to get there.
We sat a table by the sea and it was a nice relaxing dinner.
That's all for day 2!
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