Went out for dinner to celebrate ba's birthday. Supposed to go to another restaurant for seafood, but, it's just too packed with people and we decided to go to 'Fei-low' instead. Our family, we called it 'fast serving place', cos, the food normally is served quite fast. :)
It's not the exact date, but, we normally celebrate earlier by eating a meal out. No cake? Ya.... maybe just a slice since he is not a cake lover, and normally, the cake will end-up in somebody's stomach. hahaha....
Happy 68th birthday, ba!!!
Aren't these awesome?!
I like where I am sitting now in office.... not wanting to move... Why?
Because:
1. The air-cond is nice. Now, I said, cold... :)
2. The view is awesome, everytime I lifted my head and look out the window. Awesome skylines and I couldn't resist and take up my camera.... :) Almost everytime, I will tell whoever sitting around me, look outside, look at the sun, look at the sky, etc....
3. Just being where i am....
A typical Friday's traffic is jam all the way from Nilai to Seremban for no reason. Normally will be part of the jam if I leave office after 4pm. Don't know what happened...
Today's horrible, it's 10.47pm on my clock and the jam is horrible... Why so? Bcos it's FRIDAY + school holiday starting on Sat + 1st day of Puasa on Sat. So, it's triple jam....
Mom said, I had too much kaya, time to have some jam on every Friday... aiks... pengsan.. I don't need this kind of jam ler... (did you get the joke?)
Managed to get pretty good deal with MAS in Feb for a trip to HCMC (that's even before my trip to Perth and the mission trip). Actually have been wanted to go to Vietnam, more of Hanoi than HCMC. Well, since I missed the offer to Hanoi, thought HCMC shouldn't be that bad.
Started to read and research about the city ever since. It's quite exciting and scary just that thought of it as English is not a main speaking language country. (My experienced of mission trip helped a lot as I learnt to use sign/ body language to communicate.)
Then, the day came. Departed with quite anxious heart as not knowing what to expect apart from the knowledge from books, internet.
Well, it wasn't so bad upon arrival. My 1st impression: Vietnamese don't really talk (make me wonder if there's something wrong with my pronunciation or did I say something wrong... later found out from local friends that locals tend not to response, the culture.... which was wow... )
Next: really a lot of motorbikes on the roads, drivers here tend to use honk quite a lot (sometimes with no reasons), traffic can be coming from all directions (maybe not as bad as China though I have not been), crossing the road was a great challenge and need a lot of courage.
Checked-in to a budget hotel in District 1 at De Tham Street. The location is really good, thanks to all the review and helpful tips from TripAdvisor. It is just by the corner of the streets, lotsa food here, local trips agencies are plentiful and the bus depart and stopped right infront of my hotel which is really superb. The hotel provide free in-room wifi and there have 3 computers with internet downstairs which was really cool... :) Sweet-as...
Signed up a half-day trip to Cu Chi Tunnel. Was told not to have too high expectations. Well, I reckon the trip was alright aside it was super humid and hot. I tried going through the tunnel for about 15m, the entire sample tunnel was 200m long. In fact, it was the real tunnel but, only open 200m for public/ visitors). It was pitch dark in there and one really needa bend and walk... We were advised to have our backpack in front of us when we were in the tunnel. The experience makes me appreciate the peaceful life I have now.
Had demonstration on how one get in and out of the small hole. Well, if one is oversize, I am sorry... I reckon there's no cute and chubby fella then as getting food was already a problem.. We were also shown different types of traps which all are to kill the enemies, no mercy...
Back to the city at about 2++pm that instead of going back to hotel, we decided to go to War Rements Museum which we didn't spend much time. And walked to look for food. On the way, we walked pass Opera House, Intercontinental Hotel, Sheraton, etc.
And thereafter decided to walk back to hotel. We stopped by at Fanny Ice Cream place on the way back where we had sorbet instead which was really yummy. Read about this place from a book. :) And walked pass Ben Thanh Market and the big roundabout at night. It was really nice, but, the traffic wasn't that nice. It was challenging to cross the road.
Next day, Mekong Delta 1 day trip. We had to travel to another place, My Tho, where we will board on the boat. Mekong River was yellowish. A lot of sand digging activity were on-going where the sand was transported to HCMC for development.
Visited coconut sweets making process, had some honey drinks and tropicanal fruits. Handling the snake was horrible. It's heavy and..... Though no longer poison, well, still, I don't wanna be kissed by the snake. And this fella was just kept looking at me. Aiks....
As I have had make friend with local ppl, we decided to meet up for dinner at Halal @ Saigon. The prwan spring roll with rice noodle was really yummy. We were so excited that we met, finally, after so many communications via email.
Following days were more of shopping days. Sellers in Ben Thanh market are generally very aggressive, they will literally pull and blocked you until you really look at their items and they kinda 'force' you to buy. It's scary. Ben Thanh market close at 6pm where the night open air market right outside will start. I don't quite like the place though, well, it's an experience. Whereas, those in Saigon Center (with air-cond) are quite opposite, they will just sit there, hard to bargain, some of them really are 'take it or leave it' type of attitude. :( Both also scary (esp for someone who doesn't shop and know the price range (at all), like me....)
I used to ask those ppl who have been to HCMC and BKK on the shopping experience. They can't really tell me and now I know why. Bcos it's different, can't really compare. One gotta experience the two.
Gosh... I have never shopped so much, from morning till evening and walked so much.... The rat race effect was still not over and here walking non-stop under the super humid and hot weather....
At the custom before leaving home, I was asked by the officer not once, but, 3 times if I were Vietnamese. After telling him 2 times, he asked if I can speak. I said, no, well, I can say sinh-loi = excuse me/ sorry and com-on = thank you. He said, oh... very well. And he asked again, are you sure you not Vietnamese? aiyoo... I am holding Malaysia passport ler... pengsan.... Btw, the Japanese working in the tour agency thought I were Japanese instead. haha.... I have an international features, ppl also thought I am a Thai, Korean, American before. :)
Will I visit HCMC again? Maybe... :)
Went out for dinner to celebrate ba's birthday. Supposed to go to another restaurant for seafood, but, it's just too packed with people and we decided to go to 'Fei-low' instead. Our family, we called it 'fast serving place', cos, the food normally is served quite fast. :)
It's not the exact date, but, we normally celebrate earlier by eating a meal out. No cake? Ya.... maybe just a slice since he is not a cake lover, and normally, the cake will end-up in somebody's stomach. hahaha....
