How can get a cheap travel in SINGAPORE!!!

(source: Internet)

Singapore is not a cheap destination for backpacker who wants to have a cheap traveling in here. In fact, the price for one day traveling in Singapore is really high, even compared with its neighbor which is MALAYSIA. However, if you know how to save up the money by discovering the available benefit for the Singaporean, you will have a super cheap traveling in Singapore.
Singapore is the most expensive country as well as city among the South-East Asia countries. It's a tiny island with few natural resources, almost the products were imported here are from their nearby countries.
For traveling in Singapore with these tips below, you can travel there with just SGD2-3 per day:

Transportation:  

Singapore is famous of the Metro system, which is super fast and was covered all the city, therefore it is very easy for traveling here. Also the Bus system of Singapore is very convenient, and this is the second choice for traveling here.

Accommodation:
Hostel or guesthouse in here is not cheap, normally the cost for one day in the guesthouse for backpacker is around SGD25 for one day. Therefore, in order to get rip of the high-price hostel in Singapore, sleeping in the airport is a good choice for those who want to have a cheap travel.

Food:
Beside having food in the Chinatown or Food Court, you can find some places which offering the free vegetation food for the local as well as the foreign worker working in Singapore. You do not need to pay for it cos everything is free, take you dish then self-service, after having your meal please clean your dirty dishes at the sink and put it back to. You can have free food at "The Buddhist Lodge temple" located in River Valley area.

This is all the having a very cheap journey in Singapore that I have, at the time when I traveled there, I only spent SGD5 for my 4 days trip. I hope these info are useful for you to start traveling.   

Tuổi trẻ

Tuổi trẻ là gì?

Chắc chắn tuổi trẻ khác hẳn với tuổi già, và hơn nữa chẳng ai nói rằng suy nghĩ của người trẻ tuổi sẽ phù hợp với người lớn tuổi, chắc chắn sẽ có những bất đồng quan điểm khi hai thế hệ cùng chung sống với nhau.

Hãy sống hết mình khi bạn còn trẻ, khi còn trẻ chúng ta thường hay “điên”, có những hành động điên rồ, những câu nói điên rồ và đi theo sau đó là những kỉ niệm điên rồ đến nỗi khi nghĩ lại vẫn bật cười. 

Hơn nữa điều tuyệt nhất của tuổi trẻ là sự “tự do”, tất nhiên là điều này sẽ đúng với một vài người, nếu bạn là người trẻ tuổi, cuộc sống đang mở rộng với bạn, đừng dại dột mà ngồi yên một chỗ mà chờ người khác mang đến cho mình. Hãy tự mình ra ngoài khám phá, tìm tòi những thứ bên ngoài, làm quen kết bạn với những người lạ mặt và tạo dựng những cơ hội cho tương lai của mình. Mình là một người không tin vào “vận may”, nhiều người nói rằng mình may mắn khi đi hitchhike hoặc tình cờ được giúp đỡ bởi những người tốt bụng. Nếu, nếu mình không mạnh dạn ra ngoài đường xin đi nhờ xe hoặc hỏi từng người tài xế mình gặp thì làm sao mình đến được nơi mà mình muốn đến, vậy đấy chẳng phải là công sức mà mình đã bỏ ra? Vậy hãy tự nhấc mông mà mạnh dạn làm bởi vì không có gì là không thể.

Tuổi trẻ là sự tự do, điều này nghe có mùi "ích kỉ" nhưng tại sao bạn không làm điều mình thích ngay bây giờ khi bạn không có nhiều vướng bận và trách nhiệm với người khác, khi bạn chẳng cần phải suy nghĩ nhiều về gia đình tương lai và sự cám giỗ của đồng tiền, người mà mà bạn có trách nhiệm duy nhất ngay tại bây giờ chính là bản thân mình. Hãy trau dồi bản thân, học hỏi hết mức có thể từ những việc đơn giản, những điều mà những người xung quanh bạn làm và suy nghĩ. Đừng lãng phí tuổi thanh xuân, vì nó chẳng đến với ai hai lần trong một cuộc đời.

Cambodia, Here I come!

Travel with some Vietnamese students in Cu Chi tunel (Vietnam) on the high-way to border (Moc Bai- Poipet) 

After a few days staying with my cousin in Saigon, I had to keep moving my butt to accept a new challenge which was the first time I traveled another country not my mother land anymore. I was an early bird that day, prepared all my stuff at the night before, so there was one thing I had to do which was saying goodbye to my cousin and all my friends. She tried to give me money and said:

“Take this money and keep it, this is our present for you”

At the first glance, that was a huge money, I think it was around 500.000Vnd (25$)

 However I refused “Hey, I do not need the money, also, I cannot spend VND in Cambodia, you should keep it, and I truly do not need it”

This thing make me remember when I was traveling, there were some drivers giving me money, the first driver was the Buddhism drivers who drove me to Saigon then invite me to travel with them to Da Lat, at that night, I worked with them in the beer manufactory and I was willing to give them a hand. After finishing, the elder driver gave me money and said that was my work and I deserved that money.

“No, I really don’t need, you helped me too much, and you let me join you, drove me to here and even feed me like brothers. It’s enoughJ” I said.

The last Vietnamese driver

And that is the first time; someone gave me money on the way I was traveling. However, money is so tempting; I was beat by money at the second time when a friendly and helpful driver drove me to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. He gave me 500.000VND, it was not lousy money, he told me he understood what I was doing and wanted to support me; moreover, he gave me his number to contact him and he was willing to invite me to his house. He was such a nice guy that I’ve ever met!

The procedure for immigrating Cambodia was so easy, however, I don’t know why the custom office take me 1$ to enter Cambodia, anyway, it was not a big deal to me because I was so in high spirit.

When you cross another country, it means you’re experiencing a new world.

Cambodia is so new to me; the first driver in Cambodia was a taxi driver. He pulled over then asked me for going to Phnom Penh. I explained to him that I didn’t have any money and all the money that I had I all spend on the food, he was thinking for 5mins then agree to drive me to Phnom Penh for free. The Cambodian is so lovely and friendly, on the way to go to Phnom Penh, there were 7-8 people in a small car, it was not comfortable but at least I could reach Phnom Penh and I don’t need to camp my tent to sleep on the road that night. Also, I love the Cambodian smile, so true and friendly, when I was in the car, there were a lot of picked-up truck which pick up the worker working in far workplaces. They have to travel approximately 100km every day, some people more, but Look at them, they’re always smiling back when I look at them and smile at them. “Oh my god, I love Cambodian so much”

Picked-up Truck next to the border (Poipet)

“There is only one truth, but there’re a thousand ways for lying”

This is one of the things that I learn from one of my host and from the reality when I was traveling. It’s still such a pity because on the way I made friends with 2 Cambodian guys, 2 tutors teaching in a famous university, they’re so friendly, even thought when  I reach Phnom Penh with them, they didn’t let me find the way to go to my host. Instead of this, they called my host; Nod, a Philippine guy living with his friend in a very comfort flat located next to the night bazaar, and then drove me to my host place. But I still regret contacting to them because I lied to them about my nationality, just to protect my-self. Once again, I had to repeat the quote.

A terrifing day in Saigon

The beer factory

After a whole day hitchhiking with 2 Buddhism drivers from NhaTrang to Saigon, I had a chance to visit the biggest beer factory in the South of Vietnam and enjoy free coconut on the way to there.  

As I was remembered, I arrived in Saigon right after the sun rise, a huge city seemed to wake up after a deep dream, everything so close to me but seem so far. I walked along the high-way to go to the bus station in order to catch a bus then find the way to go to my host’s house, so tired but so excited because I knew I was going to go out of my country and the first time I went oversea. However, the more the city wake up, the more strange things I met.

Firstly, at the first day in Saigon, I hadn’t slept for almost 2 days, tried not falling asleep as possible as I could, but actually I had a quick nap in the park, around 30mins, but I didn’t feel safe when I take a rest here because Saigon’s a chaos, many people warned me about the thief and they’re very aggressive, even the local police don’t want to face to them. The first day in Saigon, I didn’t like as I expected.

Secondly, there are a lot of scams, when I was walking along the street, there is a man who tried to be nice and asked me if I want to find a job and he told he could help me find one but I refused immediately. After making friend with a guy when I had a lunch at the 23/9 Park, I told him about that man. He laughed at me then told:

“He’s a scam trying to find some naïve guys to find a homosexuality”

What was a surprise!

Also, he is one of the good guys that I’ve met in Saigon, even after a few hours, I realized he was gay, yet he took me around Saigon kindly and bought me some cakes to support me. I was very appreciated about his kindness and the way he expresses friendly to me, it was so open and elegant. He presented me a poet as a gift and he’s really good at poet, but unfortunately I lost contact.  How stupid I am!

Thirdly, I experienced a freaking disgusting moment, it turned out that Women are you the main target of sexual disturb. On the way to my host’s house, I bought a bottle of drinking water and tried to ask for a toilet but that f**king old man declined. After 30sec he changed his mind and told me that I can use his toilet, in fact it was not a toilet, when I was using the toilet that disgusting man try to touch my dick, it surprised me and I have nothing to say, running out of that f**king house. I was shocked, couldn’t believe that I was disturbed by an old man having the same age as my dad. At that time, I hated Saigon so much, I hate this city because the people there are not friendly, there are a lot of kind of people, I felt so alone, I need someone and I need my mom, my sister as well as my dear friends. I came up with a question that “Why did I leave everything behind to travel, to meet that kinds of people?”  And I could cry then. Last but not least, after calming down 20mins, I tried calling my host, she told me she could host me anymore and I had to find another host or find some cheap hostel.

“What’s the f**k was going on? Are that enough for today? I’ve been walking 2 hours and experiencing bad things, then finally my host says to me that she couldn’t host me any more instead of hosting her sister. A floor is enough for me to lie down, I just need a rest then I will immediately leave in the early morning but everyone refused me, refused a pathetic boy trying to have a place to stay because he’s so terrified and scared of staying in here.” I told myself.

In a flat where Hoang live with his friends

However, I still have another chance because of Vy, a cute Saigon girl having a lovely accent. We’ve known each other by chance and I couldn’t explain why, at first I made friend with her cousin accidently last year when I was wandering around the park next to the Ben Thanh Market. Her cousin misunderstood me and thought that I was a foreigner. Till then, we still keep in touch together. That night, I called Vy in despair and told her all the things happened to me. Moreover, that is the first time we met each other face to face after a long time exchanging mail with each other. She agreed to help me find a place to stay by asking her friend, Hoang – an interesting boy and super friendly, for arraigning a place for me to sleep.

After one day struggling in Saigon, bad things more than good things happened to me, anyway I still feel happy because at least I’m not alone, I still have friend in here and they are very good to me.

“Hey Saigon, You will never beat me again J” I told myself.

Pleiku of Ngan

After staying with my friends in Danang City, I keep going on hitchhiking to the South of Vietnam. However the distance is still very far, around 1000km more to reach Ho Chi Minh City (I prefer Saigon to Ho Chi Minh city), so I decided to find some hosts on the way to Saigon. My friend introduced me about a girl living in Pleiku, the south-west of Vietnam, I sent a couch-request to Ngan then she accepted it. The days before living with my dear friends in Danang, I tried to hitchhike to Pleiku, yet it was freaking hard, I only did successfully a half of the way to Pleiku (200km out of 350km). Being too tired of hitchhiking, I decided to take a local bus and it was quite cheap (around 4-5$) to go to Pleiku.

My first thought about Pleiku was that city is a politic city, there are almost police everywhere and someone told me about traveling there, the police can catch you and ask you for no reason. However, when I traveled there, no police or even nobody bothered me. Sometime, the local people stare curiously at me because I don’t look like the local here.  There is one thing that I don’t like which is almost the time they call me that “Are you Chinese?” even I spoke in Vietnamese but they still couldn’t understand because of different accent. How hilarious it was!

 Pleiku is a non-tourist, there are still some foreigners, but they just stay there one night for transit to go to Hanoi or Saigon. Also, Pleiku is a mountainous city so the road in there is very funny, it likes a bald hill, going up and going down.

Ngan is a strong girl that I’ve ever met, talking about her stories makes me feel excited and admire her. According to her Couchsurfing profile:

In her CS blog, she wrote:

"I was born in 1996, in a mountain city in Vietnam. My father said when I was born my family didn’t happy and didn’t welcome me. Because my family was very poor. One year later, my mom had left me. My father was sad and became drunk. He cursing, beating everyone, everything and everywhere. Two year later, he passed away, cause traffic accidents. I lived with my aunt. And the first fun story is a donkey has been born and she knew she was abandoned."

I like Ngan because of her confidence and her strength which I haven’t ever had. In the period of time I stayed with Ngan and her roommate in a little room, just as big as my room, I had many experience in Pleiku. At night, on the way come back to her house, we usually have a little naughty game which is honking the ring-bell then run as fast as possible, in the next morning we realized that the house that we made fun of the day before had to set up a camera outside the house. We laughed a lot as we could die about this.

Moreover, I consider her as my younger sister, inside her eyes I can feel her sorrow, almost every night, after telling me that I should go to bed first, she’s often standing outside on the pavement to drink beer. It touch me and I feel so useless when I left her outside drinking beer alone, just want to stand by her and tell her that she’s not alone.

I still remember the day when she was drunk, she made a joke of me and this thing drove me crazy because she told:

“You are just a boy who is always under your mother’s wings”

in front of a lot of people. I was freaking mad, I jumped down from the 2 meter high cliff and intend to take my backpack to leave. After having a second thought, I change my mind because she was so freaking drunk that I had to sit next to her to look after. In the next morning, she totally forgot what happened.

I stayed with her 2 more nights then go. At this time, I met a women from India named Jaya, she was very kind and help me tell her that she should come back high school to finish her education then do whatever she want, but 1 month later I knew that she quit her school and now she’s traveling and mainly by hitchhiking.

Last but not least, we had a good time that is going to tribal village (Bana village) to give candy to poor children. So far, once in a while I often keep candy with me to give every poor children that I met on the road.

Pleiku is Ngan and Ngan is Pleiku