Day 5 blog Challenge – Pictures of somewhere I’ve been to

Day 5 Blog Challenge – Pictures of somewhere I’ve been to

i decided to interpret it as the countries i've visited based on the photos i have in my lappy... photos before 2007 seems to have either disappear or hidden somewhere else .... =(

Vietnam - Dec 2010

Shanghai - June 2010

Pengarang - May 2010

Batam - Feb 2010

Langkawi - Dec 2009

Cambodia - Dec 2009

Phuket - Dec 2008 & Mar 2009

Tioman (Malaysia) - May 2008

Desaru - Mar 2008

Hakone - dec 2007

Day 4 Challenge: Habits That I Wish I Didn't Have

Day 4 Challenge: Habits That I Wish I Didn't Have

It took me a while in between the 3rd and the 4th challenge cos it took me a long long time to identify what habit(s) i wish i didnt have... not that i dun have any bad habits... it's just that most of my bad habits are habits that i dun mind having or even glad that i have leh.... hahaha....

1) I love to nua in my bed...

(i can be in bed more than 1/2 of my day actually... hahaha...)

when i ask dear dear what bad habits do i have, he pointed out that i m super nua... but i m fine with being nua ah... i just love nua-ing... it's more like a hobby (something that i like to do) rather than a bad habit although i know some of my friends cannot tahan that i am so nua ...

i love nuaing to the extend that i will grumble and niam if i accidentally arrange too many programs over the weekend and not have enough time to nua on my bed... not that i dun like to meet my friends... i love them... but i like to spread them out so that i have quality time with them... hee... quality time refer to me having enough rest time and hence have more energy to entertain them lo... hahaha....

2) i procastinate alot............

(i love to have this watch... hahaha...)

i'm a super procastinator.... love putting off things to the last minute cos i think i m the most efficient then ...my work review, sem report, exam papers, worksheets, art syllabus are always completed the night before or the morning that they are due...

i'm also always late in paying bills (except credit card bills) till i need to pay a deposit of $500 when i sign up for a singtel new line for angela... cos my record is really bad... my lines (3 of them) were cut twice cos i din pay up on time... hahaha... oopx.... but this singtel also very niao lo... 2-3 months worth only mah... at most $300+ then cut my line liao.. then still need to pay $20 per line to reinstate... haix.... now change to giro liao... finally, after so many years... the power of procastination... hahaha...

3) i'm stubborn

actually, i prefer to think it as i have my own thinking...hahaha....i will flare up then totally ignore that person (can be for months or years) when i think that the person's action and behaviour is ridiculous or nonsensical or repetitively annoying... and that's the reason why i have alot of conflict with my mum and some other ppl in my life...

but if i say i dun want this bad habit, does it mean i want myself to just take shit and crap of these ppl??? hmmm.... then i rather have this habit... hahaha...

4) i'm self centered...

i like do things the way i want (in my current situation-the way my wedding is to be)....especially hate it when i feel that i'm 把别人的快乐建立在我的痛苦上... i never agree to 委屈 myself cos i love myself too much... i always believe that i have to love myself first before i can love others because i m the one that will be with me for the rest of my life... and if i don't even know how to love myself, how on earth will i know how to love others???

Vietnam Day 1 - familiarizing

Vietnam Day 1

happy us just before boarding the plane...

our room @ Oscar Saigon Hotel, 68A Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1,

delux room @ 65usd (S$86.70)/ night

i would say that it's pretty good as a 4 star hotel with international breakfast provided every morning... walking distance to saigon square & ben thanh market too... the staff speaks very good english and could direct us to all the destination that we wanted to visit...

the place where we had our first dinner in vietnam... located just next to our hotel

Joyce presenting our dinner one of the most expensive meal we had in vietnam... we shared a one person set meal and it still cost us 23 usd (S$30.10) ... food was not especially delicious.... the tom yam soup tasted sweet instead of sour and the meat was damn tough... but the cocktail was cheap @ less than S$5 a glass... and the potion was enough for both of us... =)

overall verdict: not recommended ... =P

walked walk around our hotel area and found parkson shopping mall...headed for the supermarket as we needed to stock up on drinking water... joyce went crazy at the toiletries section.... sunblock which cost at least S$12++ in singapore cost only 47,000 dong (S$3.10) to 67,000 dong (S$4.50) here... hadalabo was at 70% of the price in singapore and the mask was at 14,300 dong (S$0.95) each... under her influence, i bought 1 sunblock for charlene and 8 mask for myself... =)...

Vietnam day 2 - free & easy

Vietnam day 2 - shopping & more shopping

joyce did lots of homework for the trip ... and from the forum she read, An Dong market/ plaza was recommended over Ben Thanh market... so we headed for An Dong market straight after our breakfast...

But the place was so cramp and crowded and the sellers were all so unfriendly that both joyce & i dun know how to shop there lo... from what we observed, the shops there are more like wholesalers as everyone seems to be extremely busy packing and unpacking clothes/shoes/accessories into huge trashbags and securing them with masking tapes then heaved off elsewhere...

the aisles were just about a meter or so between the shops lo....

in less than an hour, we gave up... joyce managed to buy only 2 kiddo clothings while I, a box of 10 pairs of fake eyelashes...

but i would like to commend that the lady who sold me the eyelashes was very honest. the price to pay was 25,000 dong (S$1.70) but as i was confused over the large denomination, i paid her 205,000 dong instead... she could actually choose to pocket it yet she choose to correct me and gave me back the excess... =)

we were rather disappointed with the quality and quantity of shopping that both joyce & i ended up in the supermarket again... stocking up on vietnamese instant coffee mix, 土产s, snacks & gums for dear dear & the 3As (Alfred, Angela & Alvin)... feel so weird that we had to spend our money at oversea supermarket instead... okok...it's not unusual for joyce =P, but it's definitely a first for me...


we, especially me, decided to head back to the hotel to put down our barang barang .. i took a nap while joyce went to the lobby to check out all the direction details for the day before we head out for lunch ... =) ... i m just so well taken care of... hee...

our first adventure began when we tried to locate this particular restaurant for lunch... from the forum, it was stated that it is highly recommended...cheap food, great variety and nice deco... =)...

the address that we gotten was 236 pasteur road.... we started off somewhere around 124 pasteur road...as we walked, i realised that the number gotten smaller, so we u - turned.... walk walk and walk somemore till 186 pasteur and realised that it seems to be the end of the road liao ... hmm.... so asked the shop (royal sporting house) assistants at 186 and they directed us to 136 pasteur road... wtf... but nevermind, we persevered on... walk walk walk back to 136 only to find that it's a shop selling clothes..... wtf x 1000.... joyce checked with the shop assistants and gotten "new" direction... but i damn pissed off liao and insisted that we are to eat at that damn posh looking restaurant that we had passed by TWICE in our search for that so call recommended restaurant...

this is the restaurant that we ended up in ...

a super sianx and hungry me after 1 hour of walking in the hot hot sun...

fried rice and pho (vietnamese noodles)

papaya salad

a very satisfied joyce with her ice - cream

the open concept kitchen of the restaurant...
the meal only cost us 230,000 dong (S$15)... i commended that scarly this is the restaurant which we were looking for lo... hahaha... and true enough... when joyce asked the waitress about it, they said that the restaurant had just changed its name after a recent renovation and relocation along the same stretch of road...

check out joyce's expression when the "truth" was revealed!!!

after a good good lunch, we took a cab to TNK travel agency @ 216 De Tham St, just next to An An 2 hotel... from the forum once more, this travel agency provides the best rate for day tours... =) ... we booked a one day mekong delta tour (day 3) at 10 usd and a half day cu chi tunnel (day 4) at 5 usd only.... =)

along the way, bought 2 fakco northface bag at 200,000 dong ($13.40) each ... red one for dear dear and the blue one for wai yee.. had bought a greyish tinted blue one for dear dear last year during the cambodia trip and he loves it... =)... i find them quite durable and super worth it for the price paid...

then from here, we walked to Ben Thanh market... dun remember buying anything... then proceeded to Saigon Square... love love saigon square... just like siam square in bangkok... lots of clothes at affordable prices... ranging from 100, 000 dong (S$6.70) to 220, 000 dong (S$14.70) for each of the pieces i bought... slightly more expensive as compared to bangkok though...

i think we went back to the hotel once more to put our barang barang before we head out for dinner at the Parkson's foodcourt ... decided to have 煮炒...



tom yam soup + vegetable + sweet & sour fish = 130,000 dong (S$8.70)

then to the supermarket time once more....it was just beside the foodcourt mah... and i bought 2 bottles of hadalabo for charlene and her niece... joyce said that it cost S$22+ in singapore and S$16+ in malaysia... so the S$14+ in vietnam is a steal oh...

as it was still early.... we headed back to Ben Thanh market area for the night market... and bought one more t shirt for myself, a polo tee for baby marcus,

t shirts for alfred & alvin to share share wear...

wallets for the 2As also...

Vietnam day 3 - mekong delta

Vietnam Day 3 - Mekong Delta Tour & more shopping

reported at TNK travel agency at 745am... informed that we will be travelling at a max speed of 40km/h to Mekong Delta that is 75km away... that's like a 2 hours journey lo... i think in singapore, we would have reached our destination within 45 minutes???

anyway, first stop, handicraft shop... where the craftmen used egg shells and sea shells to decorate vases...






next, we proceeded to the "bee farm"... i poked my finger into the thingy which the guide poked his sunglass into oh... i very brave hor??? hahaha... honey covered the tip of my finger and the honey was yummy... =) ... not like those processed honey that were too sweet...

the lady who prepared honey lime tea for us....

together with the tea, a plate of fruits were served... =)

vietnamese folk song singer

dun play play wor.... got 出 CD one oh...




"trekking" thru the fruit "plantation"

row row row your boat...row it down the stream...

the "greenery (water coconut tree)" we saw along the row boat ride...

at the coconut candy outlet:

heating and mixing a mixture of 65% coconut juice + 25% malt + 10% sugar together

pouring out the hot hot coconut candy mixture...

moulding the coconut candy into long strips

the automated cutting machine...

the automated packing machines...

the boat ride to lunch...

us in the boat, heading for lunch... =)

Andy's and Yanni's lunch - tour package to vietnam at S$900++ each

our lunch - day package at 10 usd each...

really different food welfare for the different prices we paid lo...
but we get to eat their share cos we are all fellow singaporeans... =) ...
...friendly friendly mah...

at the temple with the apple fan that laurice gave me for xmas 3 years ago... =)

still early after the day tour, so together with our new travel mates, we headed for Saigon square once more... =) ... and bought

2 more t - shirts for myself at 50,000 dong each (s$3.40)

an eastpak bag for angela at 250,000 dong (S$16.70)

chanced upon this qipao at @ Saigon centre...hahaha.... cheap & pretty... will be wearing it during the wedding...so not revealing the price le.... =P

introducing our new friends.... Yanni & Andy... who came over to make friends with us upon hearing our singlish.... hahaha....

view from our room:

thousands of biker loitered for hours into the midnight on the street after a win against singapore at the suzuki cup... they just circled the roundabout continuously, waving their flags and creating lots of noise...