Vietnam Travel Adventures: Ho Chi Minh DIY City Tour

   

     I was pretty honest when I said before that there was not much planning for our trip to Vietnam. Although we booked tickets way ahead, like more than 2 months before our trip, I just booked our tours quite late; 2 days before we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City.  It was so late that the Sinh Tourist Office had to send me a payment link for the Cu Chi Tunnel tour because it cannot be booked anymore via their website.  Oh well.  The beauty of taking tours - you can just sit back and relax after booking one.

     On the other hand, DIY tours are more flexible when it comes to time management.  You can take all the pictures you want; there's no need to rush, unless your travel companions are impatient.  Heehee.  However, DIY tours are quite taxing; you need to research, research and research.  And despite making all the preparations beforehand, you'll probably still end up asking locals for directions.  For  lazy people like me, DIY tours are a welcome challenge.  But, there are still times that I just get so busy with no time to spare for planning a tour.  And, that is what precisely happened in Vietnam!

Asian Travel Adventures - Back from Ho Chi Minh City: Midnight Flights and Bright Lights

    

     One of the crazy schemes of Cebu Pacific to offset their low-cost mantra is flight scheduling in the dead of the night...Really, it'd make Howard Wolowitz's mother to holler, "At this unholy hour?!"  Well, whatever you save in booking your flight you spend for an extra night at the hotel, unless you choose to stay over at the airport waiting for the sun to rise.  Anyway, that was what happened in our Ho Chi Minh flight last Thursday with Cebu Pacific.  I mean, late flight and extra day at the hotel.  We departed from NAIA Terminal 3 at 23:00, and we arrived in Ho Chi Minh at 00:30 (GMT +7), with a one hour difference between Manila and Ho Chi Minh. By the time we exited the Arrival Hall of the Ta Son Nhat International Airport, I was already tired.  However, few of the good things about late night flights include the chance to use less of your treasured vacation leaves at work and to see the pretty dazzling lights of the city from the plane.  Every time the cabin lights are dimmed to give the passengers a better view of the city we're about to reach, I will almost always start to sing to myself Bright Lights by Matchbox Twenty -