Simple Pleasure: December 2025

Final trip in 2025. The trip was a replacement for my cancelled Pakistan tour in May 2025. It was cancelled due to the short war between India and Pakistan.

Despite the war, we still plan to proceed but the Pakistan International Airlines cancelled the flight (after a few postponements). My luggages were all packed and ready to go early the next morning when I received a message from the tour company that the flight and tour were cancelled.

One family already left home and were already at the airport when we received the news, so they bought flight tickets and went to Istanbul instead. Because of the bad blood between both nations, now the flight time between Kuala Lumpur to Islamabad is 9 hours instead of the previous 6 before the war.

This tour is organised by Kembara Sufi Travel and Tours. My second time going with them. The price was RM27xx for twin sharing. Six days five nights. Full board.

Went with my mom. This is going to be my final trip with her via aeroplane. After this we will explore cruise, more elderly friendly I think.

Our tinerary was as follows:

1 December 2025. Kuala Lumpur - Ho Chi Minh - Mui Ne
2 December 2025. Mui Ne - Nu Thrung - Na Thrang
3 December 2025. Na Thrang - Da Lat
4 December 2025. Da Lat
5 December 2025 Da Lat - Ho Chi Minh
6 December 2025 Ho Chi Minh - Kuala Lumpur

My World Countdown:
Since both me and my mom have been to Vietnam before, this is our third visit, there will be no increase in our world countdown. Mine remains at #67 and my mom #55.

POST MORTEM (Updated on 31 December 2025)

Tour Company:

Our second trip with Kembara Sufi Travel & Tours. Trusted company. Easy to deal with. Though I have to mention that since this trip is a replacement for the cancelled Pakistan trip in May 2025, they forgot to give our names to the person in charge of this trip. One week before the trip I asked how come there was no WhatsApp group? Then only they realised their error and immediately bought tickets for us 😆

Itinerary:

Fantastic itinerary. Managed to pack a lot of interesting and diverse activities without feeling too rushed. Enough time to rest at night and explore night markets in the cities. Whoever is in charge of tourism in Vietnam is a genius. Their tourist attractions are world class! Their immigration passport control needs to be improved though. Snails are faster I think 😋 Their airport should have a working water dispenser.

Airlines:

We flew Air Asia. Direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Ho Chi Minh. No delay going there, a slight delay coming back. Hate it when they changed gate when there is a flight delay 🥴

01 December 2025 AK520 KUL-SGN 07:50 08:05

06 December 2025 AK525 SGN-KUL 20:50. 23:10

We arrived around midnight Malaysia time.

Tour Leader:

Our tour leader is a lady by the name of Zarina. Friendly and capable. I will rate her A-. Helpful when needed. Managed the group well. No missing persons despite the large group of 38 people. Took enough photos and videos of the group to make us happy 😆

Local Tour Guide:

Our local guide can speak fluent Indonesian. Her name is Yuni. Young and capable. I will rate her A. I never realised until this trip that the ability of the tour guide to communicate clearly in a language you can understand made the whole trip a lot better.

Before this trip, all the local tour guides spoke in English with local accents. English is my second language, I have no problem understanding written English but trying to understand spoken English in different slang and accents are a challenge I kid you not 😅 Worse when English is not their first language either!

Though Indonesian is not my first language, it is similar enough for me to fully understand and Yuni spoke very clearly like a local. No Vietnamese accent whatsoever 😍

Bus:

A big bus that can fit all 40 of us comfortably. 38 tour members, 1 tour leader and 1 local guide. We managed to do a karaoke session during the long journey from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh. Good entertainment system on board.

Bus Driver:

A young man. Sorry I forgot his name. I don't think he can speak English or Indonesian. So we do sign language if we need to communicate, which was quite rare. He drove very well. We went to Da Lat a week or two after typhoon and landslides.There were signs of landslides everywhere but the roads were mostly accessible. There was a stretch that was a bit dodgy but the driver aced it. Well done young man!

Hotels:

We stayed in four different hotels:

QLi Hotel, Mui Ne

Happy Light Central, Na Thrang

Xuan Hong Hotel, Da Lat

A&A Toronto Hotel, Ho Chi Minh

All hotels were tourists class. Reasonably ok. Hotel in Mui Ne was the best. The worst was in Da Lat. Happy Light was better than Toronto.

Hotel Breakfasts:

This trip is slightly different than my other tours, we did not have breakfast at the hotel. The reason being the hotel did not serve any halal food. So we went to halal restaurants for breakfasts. The breakfasts were good but the portion was extra small. If you are a heavy breakfast person it barely assuage your hunger. So if you join this trip, make sure you have biscuits or breads to supplement the food given. I think I know why Vietnamese are small and slim, they eat healthy and small portion.

Lunches:

Typical Asian style meals. Rice and multiple side dishes. Good portion and tasty. Desserts were local fruits. One piece each 😋

Dinners:

The style of meals are similar to lunch but some nights we had noodles and steamboat. Good portion. Tasty. No complaints 😍 I've taken photos of all the food that were served during the trip. You can check them out at mkhasha.n.food IG account #mks2025Vietnam.

Rapport With Fellow Travellers:

There were 38 of us. When I first found out the size of the group, I was a bit alarmed. Normally the tour size was 20++ or less. Luckily they were all superstars. All are friendly and most importantly they were all very very punctual. Bravo team!

Timing:

I think our timing was perfect. The sun was shining but it was not very hot. Short burst of rain during the day helps reduce the temperature. We were lucky that the typhoon hit Vietnam a week or two earlier. We were told that if we came a week later, no more grapes left at the farm 😅

Overall:

Did not expect that I would enjoy this trip so much. A pleasant surprise. No wonder a lot of people do repeat visits to this country. A lot of interesting activities and diverse tour attractions. Value for money. Highly recommended 😍