vietnam 2012: day five.

shall keep this space as my travel blog (which are unfortunately, no fun to read as they are REALLY factual), for the only reason that most of my travel posts are much longer than usual :/

shall start with today's entry, and post the ones for the past four days tmr instead :D

-+-

woke up early in the morning after a pretty long night of insanity playing bridge and ah daidee with the girls :D had to pack all our stuff, write my postcards and check out our room. after which we headed out to tous les jours for breakfast! 

tous les jours is this awesome french-inspired vietnamese home grown bakery, which is very beautifully designed in all aspects - the environment, the bread, and the entire feel to it. not to forget we've been very tempted by the yummy looking bread since the v first day! so we headed in, grabbed almost 15 different kinds of bread shared among the 6 of us, and ordered some coffee and juices. was actually pretty cheap considered the amount we all ate! but sadly, we concluded that the bread looked better than it tasted :( and breadtalk breads are seriously yummier!

it definitely looks better than it tastes.

but breakfast was still pretty awesome heehee. it's the company that matters, right? (:

headed to ben thanh market after and walked inside there for almost 3 hours, covering slightly less than half the entire area :/ bought many many many souvenirs there for our colleagues and friends, and some random things for ourselves. headed back to pham ngu lao after to collect our suits while yangying went to change more currency and look for a post office and zyang went to fill his stomach. within an hour, we all headed back to highlands and online checked-in before heading back to our hotel to drop our barang barang.

went to saigon square after to grab some of the things we spotted yesterday, and walked a little bit more before going to the adidas and puma factory outlet store, which lonely planet claimed to be one-fifth of the original prices. turned out to be really disappointing cos there were so little things there, plus many of the designs were terribly outdated! roars. and it wasn't even close to the one-fifth, if we could get the things at half the original price it would be considered a huge bargain already. lonely planet fail -___-

went back to the hotel again and packed our stuff, before crossing the road to get our nails trimmed and painted! i went to change the screen protector of my ipod as well cos i decided a matt protector would be much better for me to play games with haha. (previously the screen could get pretty oily. eew.)

so we spent another 2 hours in the salon, getting our well-deserved rest and treatment before getting back to our hotel to grab stuff, and cabbing to the airport.

after checking in our baggages (thankfully we did the online check-in, the priority queue was so much quicker!) ying and i went on a mission to look for a post office. after asking many many people, we found ourselves at this roadside stall selling sim cards, and decided to ask the lady at the counter for help. she didn't seem to understand what we were saying though, but when we asked for stamps she managed to sell us some! so ying2 and i decided to just get the stamps first before looking for the postbox.  meanwhile we continued to ask the lady questions regarding the post office.

and while we were sticking our stamps to the postcards, i turned my head and saw this sign - right at the table we were at, less than 20 cm away - a signboard that wrote POST OFFICE. ying2 and i looked at each other in disbelief and felt so stupid asking the lady all those funny questions. she must be thinking that we're such weirdos -___-

went back to the airport to meet the rest and we tried finding some pho for our very last meal in hcmc. turned out that the only thing available that was cheap enough was bk... SIGH. so in the end, all i had was three meals of pho ): sadded.

three hours later we found ourselves back on singapore land, on chieh's family car talking to his younger bro, after distributing our barang barang among ourselves. (to my horror i had an entire backpack full of things!! and most of it were like presents to others. EEKS)

so now i'm back at home, and its 3.30am. but i'm glad i unpacked most of my things and am more or less ready to watch some drama before sleeping in tomorrow. am intending to grab some chicken rice as well - definitely miss my favourite ga! (chicken in vietnamese heehee!) 

+ guaishou's! :D

vietnam 2012: day four.

Such a tiring day! Woke up early in the morning to catch the bus to cuchi tunnels, and grab breakfast along the way. Then we set off for a two hour ride to the tunnels, with a toilet stop at some handicraft shop. 

At the tunnels, we were briefed on the Vietnam war and watched this super propaganda video on the war created in the 1960s! Basically it was just talking about the "evil" things the "americans" did, and the content was basically pretty questionable haha. But then again, its a communist country after all. Haha.

After the video, we went around looking at some of the viet congs created, like secret entrances, air vents, booby traps etc. which I have to admit was pretty impressive! V simple solutions to the American's very complex weaponry and warfare. Hmmm.

Had a short walk in the tunnels which was pretty claustrophobic, but nothing too scary. Of cos its definitely made much nicer for tourists like us, but I guess I was expecting worse haha.

Had a few more stops here and there andden went back to the bus after buying some pins. The bus dropped us off at the war remnants museum in saigon two hours later. 

Decided to have our lunch at the Korean restaurant opposite, and omg the customer service was a little too impressive haha. We had a waiter serving every two people, but prob because there wasn't anyone else except two other tourists o.O haha. They even helped bbq our meat! OMG. 

But the meal was really good and cheap! Less than 7 bucks for the set. Really can live like a king LOL. Plus there was awesome WiFi in the restaurant too heehee. 

Went to the museum after, and the whole place screamed of anti American sentiments haha. Really had to take everything with a pinch of sodium chloride. Grace even pointed out that for the same photo, she saw a totally different caption in some other museum. hahaha. OMG totally.

But it was quite a sight and quite interesting to understand their perspectives on the Vietnam war. I think Pam brought up a great point - while everyone agrees on the atrocities that had been committed by the Americans then, by emphasizing too much on it really just makes people less sympathetic. When its so overdone we end up not being convinced ourselves. Cos we all know that there's the flip side of the same coin. 

But I would definitely want to find out the American version of the war :) 

We got chased out of the place eventually so we headed to pham ngu lao again to exchange more money andden went straight to saigon sq to check out the cheap stuff haha. walked for an hour or so and found a couple of things I wanted to get! But decided to save it for tmr instead once I have more insights to what is available in the nearby ben thanh market HEEHEE. 

Headed to ben thanh after and found a place for some Vietnamese cuisine. I ate my pho again, this time with fresh coconut juice! Literally mission accomplished! Haha wanted to drink it ever since I saw people drinking it the first day haha.

After the meal we walked over to Ben thanh, only to realise that it has been closed since 7! So decided to head to pham ngu lao to get our tailored stuff, and turned out that my pants were pretty badly done so I'd have to come back tmr noon roars. the dresses were much better alr, though could have been better but I can't be bothered alr. So tiring!!

So we visited the bag shops andden went back to the hotel to rest. 

+ guaishou's! :D

vietnam 2012: day three.

Didn't go for our tour in the end cos it was raining the entire night :( was looking forward to the sunrise, the fishing village, the sand dunes and the sand sledding. Ultimate disappointment :( the winds were super strong and the rain super heavy. Sadddd.

Went back to slp after and woke up at 10. After slacking in our rm quite a bit we checked out then went for lunch at this pretty awesome place called lam tong! Had to brave through the storms to get there though. But cos it was recommended by lonely planet so we decided to go ahead :D 

After lunch we went back and took the bus back to hcmc, and it was still raining super heavily!! Had to get ponchos... Went to try our tailored clothes too but mine turned out pretty disappointing :( super sad. Oh well. It took us a good two hours before we were all done cos there was these two nus exchange students from Sweden making a big fuss out of their tailored suits :/ and worst thing was that guy wore the nus jersey!!! Ultimate throw face roars.

Went for a super late dinner at a hostel nearby andden cabbed back to our hotel. Resting now! Somehow I'm v tired even though we didn't do much today. Oh well.

+ guaishou's! :D

vietnam 2012: day two.

Quite an amazing day. Woke up at 930 this morning andden went for an awesome brunch at a restaurant near our hostel. Ordered Vietnamese fried rice! And chicken kebabs haha. Super greedy but i just wanted to eat like a king. Super shiok! When we were done I realised that this was one of the featured restaurants in lonely planet! Super happy haha. No wonder the food was so good :D

Booked our tour to the sand dunes after and rented some bikes. Cycled ard the area, visited a few shops, attempted to head all the way to the town area, but got too tired and gave up. Oh yes we spent some time at the pretty pretty beach too!! Too bad it was raining. 

Came back after to clean up before heading to the spa next door for some massage :D so awkward cos it was my first time doing a back massage! HAHA. But it was pretty shiok and we came out happy :D 

Went to the seafood restaurant opp our hostel for dinner and had the bbq seafood set. SO WORTH IT. can really eat like a king here!! Haha. Had banana fritters w choc ice cream for dessert HEEHEE. 

Returned our bikes after and bought some food for our tour tmr morning. By the time we were back in our rooms its alr 8+! 

And so that was wad we did today. Need to wake up at 430 tmr so better go slp now!

+ guaishou's! :D

vietnam 2012: day one.

Left grace's home at 5 and headed for the airport! Once we got our boarding pass we headed in for breakfast andden went over to the gate. Boarded the a320 and less than two hours later we're here in hcmc!!! HEEHEE.

Just proves tt it really can be this easy to get out of sgp LOL. Took some time finding for a reliable cab to get to town, esp with so many ppl trying to overcharge us!! Thankfully we headed to the domestic terminal and it was so much better after. Met Pam at the hotel and left our stuff there before heading out again!

Walked all the way to pham ngu lao, supposedly the strip with the most hostels :) found a nice cafe selling pho so we headed in for lunch! Haha it was funny how well the owner kept treating zhiy! HAHA super awkward. Anw the pho was really yummy! True authentic Vietnamese food heehee. Not too ex too. Was especially thankful for the aircon esp with the 35deg forecasted weather. Haha.

After lunch we visited some travel agencies to find a bus that could get us to mui ne. Also to exchange our sing to dong. After some hard work we settled everything :D haha just happens that it was festival period (king's birthday) so the buses were all packed :/ 

Grace and I decided to go tailor our suits so we went to the pretty famous dung tailor (though the famous one had a diff address and i suspect it may be a fake haha) and i tailored a full suit plus a pair of pants! So happy! Less than 130 bucks HEEHEE. I hope it turns out well :) may want to tailor some shirts too. 

Ying grace and i were on our way back to the hotel to meet w the rest who went back earlier to check out, and along the way we found them in the cab along the roadside!! Omg so heng! So they got off and we went to a nearby cafe to rest and wait for our bus to muine. THE VIETNAMESE COFFEE WAS THE AWESOMEST! :D omg. 

After drinking the v delicious coffee ying Pam and i decided to head to another tailor to tailor some dresses which we printed out in sgp haha. Found one nearby the suit place and she was a v friendly lady who knows how to speak Cantonese!! Haha so awesome. Esp since Pam knew the dialect haha. 

So we ended up tailoring a total of 7 dresses HEEHEE. About 30 usd each! If it turns out well its gg to be so worth it :D looking forward to receiving it alr!

Went back to the travel agency and waited patiently for the bus to mui ne. Apparently the bus broke down so we had to wait another hour for another bus to come -__- after 6 long hours with two stops in between, we finally reached our hostel in mui ne!

And OMG. It was freaking awesome. Just at the beach, and you could hear the sound of the waves perpetually!! Super nice and loud! And definitely v peaceful :) super happy haha. 

After unpacking our stuff in the room we decided to grab some food. But turned out that all the restaurants in the area were closed so we settled for sandwiches from the 24h mart nearby. So sad. But it was 12 plus alr so I guess its inevitable. Not all places are like sgp haha. 

Went back to our room, showered, andden talked to Pam and ying until we started to fall asleep. Such a happy escapade :D

+ guaishou's! :D

goodbye.

Resilient? No. Determined? Nah. Strong? Definitely not.

All the qualities that may be key to last long in the organisation, I don't have it. How long more? I ask myself. It's no longer a matter of whether to leave or not, its just a matter of when.

I think it's really the suicide effect. When someone close leaves, the same thoughts would naturally come. Now that one would be gone, probably meant that my workload would probably increase by a large proportion again, which would only serve the strengthen all the push factors.

Definitely not getting strength from the work I do, the sole reason I may be here is the people I'm with. I don't see anything wrong with it, just happens that its not going to bring me through all the shit once they are gone, or once the shit outweighs all the fun I'm having.

Looks like I really have to take these 5 days to properly think abt what I'm going to do for the next bits of my life. I don't want to live with regrets, and no matter how people talk about living their dream or pursuing their passions, sometimes what we really need is having that cash to do it. Where I am is definitely giving me the express route when it comes to this. (I'm being very practical here.) I just have to decide how long I'll need to sacrifice to simply have the ability to pursue my passions.

Meanwhile, bon voyage to myself. I find this incredibly apt to be typing this before I disappear from the face of the world for 5 days. That's the awesomeness of holidays. Hopefully I'll have an answer that satisfies me by the time I'm back :)

+ guaishou's! :D

3rd month.

Hello blog, its been quite some time. :) just wanna say that life's been pretty good so far, with the exception of work issues (which everyone has). :D

Having an extra reason to head to office every morning or staying late at some nights certainly helped to get me real excited about working heehee! Plus awesome friends like pam huiqing and mavis certainly made life so much more fun!!! Totally love hanging out with them! (:

Been a little too happy the past few days, starting to be a little worried that sometime those shitty feelings may be back to haunt me :\ but on a side note, at least I'm going on holiday next week, and will have much much time to catch up with sleep and do something different from the usual routine. Then again, before that happens I better clear up the loose ends...

And my next hol has been decided!!! Vietnam with 78 girls end March next year :D can't believe we cfmed it within 48 hours, and even got all the air tickets ready!! Super impromptu. Super efficient. HAHA. And super good deal too - 43.50 per person!! OMG. Now I'm officially excited for our first overseas trip together :D gonna be so awesome!! (And josephyeo is gg to be so jealous!)

Lying on my bed now and just about to fall asleep... Gotta bathe first though, or else at least remove the makeup on my face so i wouldn't get more pimples than i currently have. Eeks. And so, life's good. Thank God for awesome friends, really :)

+ guaishou's! :D

grad with a BANG!

and it's finally done, after 3 full days of editing on avid's free program - pinnacle! :D super fun picking it up, watching all those 160 raw files each about 30s long in average, and editing them to form this final product. :D i'm proud of my very first masterpiece and i certainly do hope that i'll be able to make more videos in the future! :))

+ guaishou's! :D

final month.

on the plane towards auckland. signifies the future ahead :)

dear huiwen, in case you didn't know, you're one month and a day away from starting work. and so to make full use of these 32 days, let's come up with a list of things to do before it officially begins.

1. learn to cook rice in a pot (learnt but not yet mastered, 22/8)
2. learn to steam awesome fish
3. learn more nice teochew dishes from my parents and cook some awesome soup
4. compile a 10 minute video of the new zealand trip and upload it on youtube!
5. visit the 7 museums. (free admission for the whole of august!) - Asian Civilisation Museum (completed 20/8), National Museum of Singapore (completed 20/8), Singapore Art Museum, Singapore Philatelic Museum, Peranakan Museum (completed 19/8), Memories at Old Ford Factory (completed 12/8), Reflections at Bukit Chandu
6. imagine that i'm a tourist in singapore and attempt to visit all the cheap or free touristy places (still ongoing)
7. attempt to meet justin & loi for lunch/dinner (completed separately on 16/8 and 18/8) 
8. meet the 4g girls (completed 6/8 & 27/8) & 78-ers (completed 21/8, 27/8) twice
9. crash nus to visit andylim (not possible haha) and have lunch/dinner with herny along the way (completed 16/8)
10. go clubbing once (completed)
11. finish updating all my overdue travel logs
12. alter my formal wear for a better fit
13. finish watching city hunter and perhaps just one more drama
14. read 2 books
15. and MAYBE finally go try working in an f&b setting! (don't think so anymore!)
16. print all my favourite photos

p.s. i'm starting no. 5 tomorrow at memories at old ford factory! :D i just realised it's about 3km away from home!  the perfect place to start. and i'll go walk along the railway too if they still allow us to!

and i shall cancel them one by one :D i hope i finish cancelling them all!

+ guaishou's! :D

go.

+ guaishou's! :D

HOME SWEET HOME.

i know i'm home when:

1. i forget where i placed my very important hand carry containing my passport and camera and start panicking only to remember that it's probably in the car that my ma drove to a wedding to.
2. i look up into the sky and see nothing but hdb flats and a few pathetic stars. (no more southern cross!)
3. i feel damn energetic after 33 days of travelling.
4. the first thing in my mind is getting cai peng for dinner! (sweet and sour pork + steam egg + sesame chicken + bittergourd!)
5. i start sweating after walking outside for 5 minutes.
6. i spend more than half the day wearing fbts and dri fit shirts.
7. the first thing i do is to switch on my computer,
8. and my wifi on the phone.
9. i scroll the facebook news in detail.
10. i sign into msn! :D

time for cai peng. and still waiting for ma to call back to confirm the location of my hand carry. i shouldn't have remembered wrongly...

+ guaishou's! :D

rahhh

rather unknowingly I let shit enter my life again. I really hate those guessing, emoing, and periods of uncertainty that seem to remove joy from my life. I really need to get a grip of myself, to revert back to the me two years ago who can confidently say I don't give a damn. but the as age catches up on me I'm forced to think, maybe cos of social pressures, maybe cos I know its not possible to keep going on with my way of life. everyone grows up, unwilling we may be, but in the end its inevitable.

since the year started, many things happened, and all of those came and went. all kinds of people, all kinds of situation. I think since I prayed about it the beginning of this year, He's been teaching me many lessons as if to catch up with the lost time, allowing me to understand myself better through others, and of cos, preparing me for the right one in the end. some hurt more than others, and while there is some joy derived, I can only say, ouch.

the period of uncertainty will continue on nonetheless, but now what's more important is how I deal with it. as cliche as it may be, happiness is a choice. when life throws you lemons, make lemonade. that simple.

on a lighter note, just came back from a service at a traditional anglican church near my backpackers hostel in christchurch. I can finally see some connection between the anglican and catholic beliefs. its a great service nonetheless, although I'm the only person aged below 60 it still feels fuzzy and welcoming. took the holy communion as well, and chatted with the pastor for a while, then walked around the streets till the backpackers office opened (so that they could open the door for me).

and home in another three day's time. too fast. wanna stay here longer, partially cos I don't really want to face the things back home. roars.

smile.

smile more, huiwen. for it is proven that when you smile you instantly feel better too. :)

can't wait to be back at home alr. ma bought big yummy crabs for sis last night and I'm duperly jealous. and I'm still sad that I only get to see j on 3rd Aug onwards... boo.

breakfast time!

sucks.

the trick is to seem perfectly normal even if you're feeling damn fucked up inside. and no, I'm not referring to my travel buddies, they're more than what I could ask for. I'm talking about things back home in sunny Singapore.

no thanks to the three months of emotional rollercoaster. I had enough and finally reached my limits. even if I continued holding on nothing's gonna change.

and to quote Andy, I don't deserve this shit and you don't deserve my time. and so I'm going to leave what's left in this kiwi land.

goodbye you.

NZ 2011: #20. the a-maze-ing wanaka!

Woke up early to drive to Wanaka, and even skipped breakfast! Went directly to puzzling world since it was on the way there, andden camped at the carpark and prepared our brunch (: spaghetti with two different sauces plus prawns, mushrooms and sausages! Yayyy. After cleaning up and eating to our fill, we headed into puzzling world.

super scenic drive!

 



Admission tickets were 15 in total each for both the illusion rooms and the 3D maze. Covered the illusion rooms in about an hour plus and it was definitely quite interesting, although a little too short. Took some cool photos and ended up having a severe headache from all the perception changes. O.o

can you figure out what's happening?

we took a moment to discuss if this is real...

jojo's too tall for this place

and now he's too small!

Went back into the shop, visited the toilet (which mimics that of a roman toilet!) andden entered the 3D maze! And that’s where all the craziness started hahahaha. there were 4 towers in the maze, red, blue, green and yellow, and we decided to do the difficult challenge of finding all 4 towers in a certain order (the easy one being just being able to find all 4). And HAHA it’s damn fun! The 3 of us sorta raced to see who can get to the tower first and it was insane!! :D I ended up getting 3, 2, 2, 1, 2 for all 5 spots (last being the starting point) and ended up as overall 2nd LOL. I can’t describe how awesome it is! Was really dizzy after running around the place for like 2+ hours but it was all worth it heehee.

doing his business

we took the difficult one... ah-ber-den?

the 3D maze!

after two hours of running about

Went back to the entrance and bought some stuff! :D andden we sat at the tables and starting solving puzzles which I managed to solve 3 in total! Heh! Was in a damn good condition woots. Loves solving puzzles! They are simply so much fun lol.

i solved this!

actually i solved ALL of these

After the 3D maze, we hung around taking photos with the outside sculptures then went back into our camper and headed to town (: parked near a New World supermarket, did our laundry, refilled our gas and diesel, stocked up our groceries, then headed to a dumpsite to clear our grey water and toilet, and bathe all at the same time, refilled our water, and YAY we are all in for a fresh start! Seriously everything done (: woooooots.

Then we searched quite some time for a parking space, finally settled down, and cooked dinner! Rice with eggs (sunny side up + fried with sausages), beef, and lettuce with carrots! :D awesome stuff. It was a super big portion but somehow we’ve never faced the problem of being unable to finish our food lolllll.

writing my postcards!

After dinner, it was like super late already so we sorta concussed after packing up. Phew.

+ guaishou's! :D