The Island Explorer

Our Viet-Cam Adventure has come to an end. As we arrive in Saigon at night, we decided we should make the most out of our remaining time. So, we decided to dine in one of Saigon's most popular Vietnamese restaurants, Quan An Ngon.  Located near the Cathedral, this beautiful and bustling French style villa restaurant serves excellent local dishes prepared on the spot. Quan An Ngon has already been an icon in the city, as hordes of tourists and locals swear by the food that is displayed like an open market. Let your senses guide you to what you want to eat, as you survey the food stalls that are scattered around its gardens. Quan An Ngon is definitely one of the best in the city and a trip to Saigon won't be complete without pigging out here. After a heavy yet very satisfying meal, we decided to find dessert, particularly ice cream. I remembered a local ice cream parlor that served unique flavors. The name of the ice cream parlor was Bach Dang. I also thought of walking to the pl...

When I go abroad for R&R for at least 5 days, I try to mix in as much travel experiences as possible. I have three travel categories that I normally rotate: culture, urban and nature. For this trip, we already had our cultural fix with Angkor Wat, the urban with Saigon and for nature, Mui Ne. I initially planned to go to Sihanoukville, a burgeoning beach destination in Cambodia's only coastline. But I've heard that it's not really that nice beach wise. I also realized that traveling with Filipinos, you get high standards for beaches. So, I didn't try to impress based the quality of beach, but on what can be done in the area. Hence, I took the risk of taking everyone to Mui Ne, which is popularly known for one astonishing geological formation, the Sand Dunes. There are actually two sand dune destinations in Mui Ne, the White and Red San Dunes. The Red Sand Dunes were nearer the resort town. Since it was about to hit lunch time, the sun was high, so we decided to go a...

After visiting the nearby fishing village, we asked our guide to take us to a lunch venue by the beach. He brought us to this seaside "dampa". The seafood here was fresh and very appetizing. The crabs were huge and had a lighter color (don't know what that meant though). Each weighed 3 kilos minimum. Some vendors also tried to sell us crayfish, prawns, lobsters and all sorts of other crustaceans. In the end, our lunch menu included the following: Grilled Scallops and Prawns and Steamed Crabs. All naked, meaning no cooking sauces. We only asked for soy sauce, lemon and salt. We had difficulty buying, since our guide again seemed to have conned us into paying for more. Disheartened and already angry at the tour guide, we threatened the vendors to cancel our orders. But the crabs were already in the pot, so the vendors argued with our tour guide. In the end, we fought our tour guide, paid the price we agreed upon with the vendor, and apologized to the vendors. We knew it was...

The next day was tour day. Since we rented the van for the whole duration of our stay, we had something of a customized tour, at our own pace. That's what I like about renting your own transportation. And if you do your math, more often than not, especially when you're with a group of more than 3, you get to save a lot of money. So, in Mui Ne, we hopped on our van, and visited our first destination: The Fishing Village. The coastal towns of Vietnam are mostly fishing villages, and in Phan Thiet (province where Mui Ne is), you could see a lot of a unique type of boat: the basket boat. The basket boats are unique to Vietnam, so the traditional boat has become a tourist magnet. Most local fishermen still use these basket boats, to carry their catch. Some use bigger boats to pull these basket boats filled with bounty. You can actually see plenty of huge fishing vessels, an indication of a thriving fishing industry.  We rode a basket boat and paid 50,000 VND, which is pretty expensi...

From the Saigon airport, we rented a private van to take us to Mui Ne, around 180 kms north of Saigon. The van also served as our transport around Mui Ne and would take us back to Saigon after 2 days. The van cost us $100, so it was worth it, given that we were 10 in the group. Our resort in Mui Ne was Mui Ne Resort, owned by Sinh Cafe. We arrived in the evening, around 10PM, so these pictures were taken the next day. The resort was decent and perhaps, the most luxurious accommodation that we stayed in for the entire trip. What's even better is that it only cost us $35 per room per night. The rooms were spotless and had a comfortable bed. The bathroom was also spacious and had a separate shower (our past hotels had no division).  The pool was also huge. There was a bar beside it, and one can lounge by the pool benches surrounding it. The beach of Mui Ne is not exceptional. In fact, it reminded us of Puerto Galera's. The sand quality is rather poor compared to Philippine standar...

When I realized I was going to Siem Reap for the 2nd time, I knew I had to do something different. We only had limited time, so I was running out of options. Good thing I discovered a cooking class at Le Tigre de Papier. We inquired about the class when we we dined in their Italian resto during the 1st night. We were told that the cost of the class would be $12 per person, which is inclusive of the ingredients and a market tour. It was a good deal I thought, so we confirmed our attendance. However, when the day came, only 3 of us were able to wake up, since we partied the night before. We were worried that we won't be accommodated anymore, since with all of us, it was supposed to be a private class. We still took our chances, and after some begging, we were allowed to go on the class, but without the market tour anymore. It was alright for us, since the market tour would just introduce us to the ingredients, which we wouldn't buy anyway. All the ingredients were already prepare...

It's been a whirlwind trip to Angkor and Siem Reap. We only had one full day since we arrived night time of the 1st and left at noon time on the 3rd day. That full day was maximized, so we had that quick tour of the Angkor Temples and explored Siem Reap in the evening. We stayed in a reasonably-priced hotel ($25 up per room) called Tanei Guesthouse.   It had a large pool, which was a requirement for me in Siem Reap. You'll know why after visiting the temples. Tanei wasn't our top choice, Le Tigre De Papier was. However, the owner revoked our booking, so we had to find another one. I settled for this one, again, because of the pool. The websites of our choices are: http://www.letigredepapier.com http://www.bousavyguesthouse.com/ http://www.thevillasiemreap.com http://ei8htrooms.com/ That night, after our tour of the temples, we decided to go on a cultural dinner buffet. It was a touristy thing to do, but we were told that the price of the buffet was $5. Well, unfortunatel...