Ho Chi Minh Factory Visits

During the 4-day educational school trip to Ho Chi Minh city, our itinerary included factory visits. The first one we went to was the Saigon Cosmetics Corporation.

Factory workers packing the perfume bottles into boxes.
The beautiful bottles are shaped in the iconic Vietnamese dress costume.

On day two, we visited Li Chuan Food Products, which is a Singapore company operating one of its manufacturing plant in Vietnam. The staff there were very happy to receive us and were more than glad to show us around their production line. Before going into the food processing zone, all of us had to don on rubber boots and hair coverings. Then, we walked through a disinfectant pool of water and washed our hands with soap. As this was my first time seeing operations in a food factory, it was an eye-opener.

At the front gate of Li Chuan office building.

This room is where the workers chop up the raw fishes and thus it has a really awful stench.

Baskets of raw fishes kept under crushed ice

The machine processing fishes into surimi.

A factory worker keeping trays of surimi into low temperature storage.

The visit to Minh Long was planned in the day three itinerary. Over here, we were each given a plain clay bowl, a paint brush and some colourings. However, after decorating our bowls, the bowls have to be glazed at high temperature in a kiln and they wouldn't be ready before our departure. So, we'll need to pay to get our art pieces shipped back to Singapore.

The porcelain shop is filled with many cute tiny cartoon figurines.

Our last factory visit was to Boniva Chocolate on day four.

At the entrance of the chocolate factory

Our guide telling us about chocolates

Ho Chi Minh City

Last week, I went with a school trip to Ho Chi Minh. We landing in the city's International Airport in the late afternoon and was greet by a warm and sunny weather. Since we flew on Jetstar, we were all super hungry by the time we collect our luggage. First stop: lunch! Along the way, the city quickly revealed its culture and its people's way of life.

Welcome cum advertisement board

More motorbikes than cars on the road

Traveling in style even on a motorbike

A lonely mini drink stall along the roadside

On our first night, we went to watch the water puppet show. The puppeteers stand in a pool of water and controlled the wooden hand-carved puppets from behind a bamboo screen. The entire play was narrated in Vietnamese.

The water puppet theater

Water puppets dancing around in the brown water

Being a French colony from 1874 to 1954, Vietnam has historical architectures designed with French influence.

Ho Chi Minh City Hall (not open to public)

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

Grand Post Office

Inside the Grand Post Office

ATM booth inside the Grand Post Office. (I wonder if they were phone booth previously.)

On our last day of the trip, we visited the War Remnants Museum, which displayed many exhibits about the Vietnam War (1955 to 1975).

A collection of retired tanks are displayed outside the museum building.

New Pacific Hotel

I just came back from a school trip to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Being a school trip, we don't really get to choose where we stay. It all depends on the tour agent that we engaged. IPC clinched the deal to plan the itinerary and had decided that we would be putting up at New Pacific Hotel for our three nights in the city.

The hotel building

My bed in the simple hotel room

The hotel bathroom that comes with a bathtub

old chöö chöö track

Following the announcement of the closure of the Singapore-Malaysia Railway that cuts across our Singapore island, many started re-visiting this track of old memories.


The Bukit Timah Railway Station is located near King Albert Park.





The fixtures at the station are being dismantled.


Southward, the tracks run to the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.


North of the station, there's a railway bridge above Bukit Timah Road and Dunearn Road.





Beyond the north-end of the railway bridge, the track runs along the road into the residential area.


One way of getting to the Sungei Ulu Pandan Railway Bridge is to navigate your way to Block 305 or 307 Clementi Avenue 4, walk to the park connector that runs along the river and climb up a short steep slope that is right under the railway bridge.


This is the view of the old railway bridge from the Ulu Pandan park connector.


Back-facing the railway bridge, the abandon track has disappeared into the vegetation.


At the south-end of the railway bridge.


The gaps between the wooden planks are quite big and the handrails do not look reliable too. It looks really scary to walk on the bridge to the other end, but this uncle in the picture had just walked across the bridge from the side of the river.


At the north-end, there are warning signs to tell people to keep out. This end is near Block 101 Clementi Street 14. Walk northwest along the open-air carpark to the road and you'll find the railway track on top of the grassy slope.