Im BACK! anyone got miss me? haha .. anyway, had fun there!! After 8 long years i finally get to fly on Spore Airlines!! miss the feeling. brought back so much memories. The flight was really short only 1 1/2 hrs but it will do for now. Pls bring me somewhere far next time.

day 1:

reach vietnam at 4+. The custom check there reminds me of being in msia checkpoint to check ur passport. Then we took the coach to the hotel and it was quite a long and interesting ride. The streets was filled with motorbikes and there was no traffic lights. So guez how chaotic it was and you can even see people standing in the middle of the road trying to cross the busy street. scary .. and on the motorbikes they dont wear helmets and there were 3 to 4 ppl on it!
Upon reaching the hotel i thought that huiying and me surely will get the same room but .. i was partner off with another malay gurl from the other class - Nadia. But it was ok. It was fun being in the same room as her. [my room no: 514] Can say that the room was not bad with a nice balcony and a bathtub. =) but there's no flask for hot water!! den canot eat all the maggi mee i bought and the Milo 3 in 1 to drink .. noOoOo .. luckily can call room svs to bring hot water for FOC .. haha

After settling down, we went off to dinner on a floting restaurant whereby at 8.30 the boat will float across the saigon river for an hr. At first it was cool. Met the other malay peepz that went on this trip as we sat together. But funnily, they serve us all the dishes first and at the end of it, the rice. wahaha .. same goes to the other meals we ate. So .. for the whole 1hr trip across the river, we were busy eating all the dishes slowly before ending with plain rice. but after the whole trip, i became deaf for a while with this incredible headache coz the whole 1hr, there was this non stop, very loud and out of tune karaoke blasting in my ear. Then wen it was time to head back to our hotel, i had the experience of my life. Me with some of my frens and of coz my teacher, we had to cross this long stretch of road with vehicles coming towards us in all direction. My knees was shaking all the way. haha .. but it was interestingly fun. lol

Wen we reach the hotel, we had tutorial and after that we practice our item for the Vietnam University visit (VNU) and guez wat we did .. dikir barat. haha .. it was so cute for them to came out with it. We use rasa sayang and geylang si paku geylang the songs to do it. Hehe. Den while some of them stayed for some drinking, i went back to my room.

day 2:

had breakfast at the hotel .. buffet style. Only ate bread and eggs and it's the same kind of thing for the rest of the breakfast days. Our first stop was VNU. It was an interesting trip. The school was super big and super clean and the students were super friendly. We did our dikir barat after some entertainment from them and overall i think what we did was kinda cool. Made some new Vietnamese frens and we asked them to come meet us tomorrow nite to bring us ard HCM.

Then went to the Historical Museum where we see the water puppet show - unique in Vietnam and learnt abit about their history .. duh ,, historical museum wat. haha

After that went to this consulate office for some talk. It was ABIT ok. coz .. the rest of the time we spent there was totally boring. I nearly dozed off a couple of time. Only after the talk den my eyes became wide open. LoL .. but before that i went for some groceries shopping for one very big bar of hershey's chocolate and snacks and juice and more snacks. haha.. Imagine going into the consulate office with one big plastic bag full of food.

Then had an hr of free and easy time for us to tour the city with frens. Went to shop around but didnt buy anything coz things seems expensive. We even had to cross the scary steet alone but hey .. we survived! Wen i reach back to the hotel nadz bought very the nice t shirt for 20 000 dong = S$2 butwen i walked ard before such shirt cost USD2 = S$5!! mayb bcoz we donno how to bargain yet. haha ..

day 3:

Had to wear our formal clothes to McDuc Ceramic factory tour and forum. It was far much more interesting than at the consulate office and after that went back to our hotel to change to something more comfortable for a visit to the War Crime Museum.
It was something like in Fort Siloso but of coz Fort Siloso is much better. And after about an hr there we head back once again to the hotel to go ride our cyclo!!

It was so interesting. It's like u sit in front den this person will cycle u ... ok i donno how to xplain. lol .. juz see the pix later. haha .. we passed alot of v. nice building but i didnt kno what is what coz the 'driver' i think donno how to talk in english but throughout the way i had to cover my mouth coz it was so pollutive due to the millions of motorbikes ard. My life was sadly shorten by a few years. T.T ...

After that me and huiying thought that it was already 6.30 coz we forgot that our watch was on spore time. to make matters worst it was already so dark. we promise to meet our vietnamese frens at 6.30 so we thought they nvr come. Therefore we head off to BenThan market with our frens and after about 10mins of walking then we realise it was onli 5.30!!!! lol .. so me, huiying and flannery head back to the hotel and sure enuf our vietnamese frens came. pHew .. luckily we came back.

They then went to eat Pho while i, watched and drank papaya milkshake which is sooo the delicious! but dont wori .. later i got to eat wen they ate again ... seafood hotpot. not bad lah. mayb bcoz i was already hungry. haha .. Our main purpose of the outing was that we wanna go shopping ... but instead they bought us to places to take photos .. what the .. haha ..

day 4:

Had a 2 1/2 hr journey to Caodai temple for a 20mins ceromony. Act i dont find the use of going so far coz in the end we didnt understand alot of things only that this religion is a mixture of 4 or 5 religion into 1.

Then we went to Cu Chi tunnel which is the place where the Vietnamese fought with the Americans. The tunnel was damn small and deep and stuffy. Had to walk like a duck the whole time and it was realli dark!! cant even see my fingers. wonder how those ppl survived during the war.

Best part of the visit was that i get to shoot a real gun!!! with real bullets!! so fun .. but i onli bought 3 bullets .. was tempted to buy more but it's ok. =)

Had dinner on our own again but this time the tour guide reccommand me a muslim food restaurant. pHew .. if not maggi here i come. There was then i saw some malay muslim ppl there if not all vietnamese here and there. I think they work there coz i overheard some of them discussing to return to their homeland for Hari Raya. That day really spent alot. we shop like nobody business. Even untill 11pm we feel that it wasnt enuf. haha

Day 5:

Days pass so fast wen ur having fun. And i did hav fun. lots of it. First wen to the Pagoda to understand another religion and after than visited the 15 May orphanage. It was realli touching and sad to see the orphans there. But it was cool to see them breakdanced for us. Even the girls there did it. And they were all so young. Mayb between 5 to 14? ard there i guez. but ya.. they're that young.

Then we head off to Ben Than market for shopping!! Went with hui ying and Soul and we had a blast in bargaining. We like laughing all the way and all of us ended buying lots of stuff till im so bankrupt. Haha .. but it was fun bargaining ..

We reach back to the hotel to meet up with our vietnamese fren. SO about 6pm, me , soul, hui ying and flannery and one of our vietnamese fren went to have dinner at the same muslim restaurant and den we had karoake. lol .. was so fun!! all of us juz sang out of tune and shout the songs into the microphone. lol ...

Day 6:

It's already the last day!!! i dowan it to end ... Nad went of for her last min shopping v. early while i met up with soul at 9.30 to head off to BenThan. but instead we went off about 10+ coz others were late. I was then left with onli about 400 000 dong = S$40 and it wasnt enuf!!! shd have changed more. =(

Overall i had fun!!! Made new frens, gain new experience and im missing Vietnam! The shopping that is. Haha .. i think u guyz have gav up reading even b4 finishing rite. so here are the pixs ......

















oOps .. havent download yet... haha . next entry ... i promise ..
Eventhough i miz vietnam but after this journey im glad to be home ... i can proudly say i LOVE SINGAPORE!! (",)
tOodLes! 10/17/2005 05:57:00 PM