ho chi minh in general

1) it's okay if you have no feeling to convert RM to Dong if you go via agent/ package because RM are widely accepted.. except if you go backpacking, youneed USD &Dong to pay food & transportation .. my friend paid our Mee Pho at Hajjah Basiroh & i paid our bingka ubi (soft,delicious!) & 'kopi susu' using RM but of course the price were slightly higher!to be honest, during ny trip, i never use Dong & still clueless camne laa rupa Vietnam Dong .. i paid everything in RM & got the balance in RM too! err, that double trip @ pre and post shopping at Hajah Basiroh were the outcome of shop till drop & last day dah nak balik tp kitorang xde beg pun lagi.. so, we skip breakfast, went to Saigon Square tapi tuﹰtup.. Round Ben Thanh tapi harga mahal.. so we stick to our original plan, pegi balik Saigon square.. tak tawar sangat sebab Singaporean yang kitorang jumpa the night before advise us tak yah tawar sangat sebab dah murah.. He said 50 boleh dapat beg Samsonite yang paling besar.. Tapi bila sampai baru sedar, he mean 50 SGD... mestilaaa dia kira based on duit dia.. tapi still cheap compared to Malaysia... our tour leader, Tory said that vietnamese xheran pun dgn Chinatown Malaysia sebab kualiti barang kat Pasar(Cho Ben Thanh & Cho Binh Tay) jauh lagi superior dgn harg yang jauh lagi murah.. 2) Speaking of luggage, i yang xpernah bwk luggage ikut limit berat redah je bawak naik 35++ kg bag kat KLIA on our way back from KL (balik Vietnam cukup cukup 30 kg,tp pegi tambah masa transit KL) ... rupenye 1 bag xleh lebih dari 30kg sebab nanti beg tu xbergerak bila letak dkt tmpt kita check in luggage.. so, terpaksa laa bukak beg & susun balik.. again, skali lagi beg xlepas sebab they need proper packaging ... tp sebab dah lambat, staff lepas je tp warning : klu xsampai, jangan blame kitorang ye... Lucky that 6 kg bags(3 Deuter for me & younger sister& brother, embroided bags & 4 in1 bag from Mekong) arrived , safely! Oh yes, there are Northface bag, Kipling& so on but the design of Deuter bag are attractive ( in my eyes)... bila selamat sampai baru sedar bag alone dah berat.. patutlaa rasa sikit je beli barang tapi luggage lebih limit.. So, another tips, choose a light but big bag if you want to shop till drop.. sebab klu shopping banyak, rugi kg luggage je.. silk agak berat, so if you buy lots of silk for family, luggage pun sah sah berat.. 3) if you think that the price are already cheap, if you dont have time, just grab the items that you want.. sebab price dari 1 kedai ke kedai lain dekat Ben Thanh lebih kurang je.. kecuali embroided shirts & simple bag, the cheapest that i found was at Mekong.. but too late, Meking takes 2-3hours by bus(or more), & the shops were closed in the evening, so agak rugi di situ.. tapi walaupun mahal kat sane, still cheap compared to Malaysia.. Slash the price 50% were not applicable at Mekong/boutiques.. 3) beware of everything -bawak beg menghadap ke depan untuk elakkan dicuri.. biar strange asal selamat.. say no to beca-tempat dekat tapi harga mencecah ratus RM.. not my experience , tapi pengalaman kawan. Begitu jugak klu diorang offer kacang utk dicuba atau nak kilatkan kasut lelaki.. just be cautious.. penipu & penyangak pun ramai kat tempat ramai pelancong...