hanoi - day 28

Woke up today feeling so excited.. cos tonight i am training off to sapa.. called yen so tat we can meet up and just chill :P went to hoan kiem lake in search of the cheong sam-ish top i was looking for in silk village.. but we had lunch before tat and we had bread with beef stew.. sounds normal huh? you think ,.. its damn awesome la!! super super nice.. actually had it before.. but as yen puts it,i can have it every single day no problem.. after lunch, went hunting.. and guess wat??? i found wat i want.. after visiting SO many shops WITHOUT wat i want ( all asking me to sew it to fit) and visiting those WITH but overpricing the item like crazy, i found a shop with wat i want , fits me and well, is reasonable.. kudos to awesome yen for bargaining it down to the price tat i tot was reasonable.. so happy sia :) i like i like.. always wanted a cheongsam-ish top.. and i got it.. la la la..

Den yen brought me to eat glass noodles!! nice nice nice.. its dry without soup (this is the first time ever in history of my life tat i had noodles WITHOUT soup in Vietnam.. ) it was also really cheap.. tat makes it even better!

Den went back, and Trang my soulmate came and whisked me to her home.. now blogging at her place on her shiny white vaio ( argh i like!!). its raining outside.. and as time goes on, my heart beats faster.. we need it to stop long enough for us to board the bus to the train station!!
Rain rain go away.. come again another day.. preferably when i am in sapa.. u can rain all u want in hanoi.. deal??
argh.. just bloody stop la!

hanoi - day 26 and 27

We did go to the silk village.. and as esther would put it.. it was lovely.. so many things to see.. so many things to try.. so many things to bargain.. due to the bloody budget i have, i only bought a scarf.. i was so so so so so so so tempted to get cheong sam halter-ish body fitting sleeveless top.. it was really really nice.. silk too.. but a slit so high u could see the klcc tip from there.. mm dats da ony thing stopping me from getting it.. and the bloody budget of course.. esther had fun (i hope:P u did din u darling:)) and trang was awesome ( she got some stuff too:P) .. saw some silk worms, coccons, silk and the whole process.. interesting..den we went to the night market .. took some group pics of me, yen , shandy and esther.. all was fun and well till disaster striked.. dun even wanna talk bout it.. ugh.. i am really sorry for esther though but dear there is a chinese saying, if the old dun go, the new won't come ( i think i did quite a good translation there)

The next day, which is technically today, i conducted a brand training with lc hanoi.. hopefully it was useful. and hopefully they got my message.. had dinner with awesome aiesecers from hanoi, and darling esther, shandy and yen.. and ritt.. den chilled at some cafe playing some hilarious games.. and having real fruit juice.. den darling yen drove me around hanoi basically on her bike and even across the bridge (note : the bridge at night is awesomely windy :P) visited west lake (my ultimate favourite) and hoan kiem and everything since it is technically my last night in hanoi.. lovely driving in the night..
tomorrow sapa sapa sapa! i cannot wait to go to sapa.. pls pls dun disappoint.. and pls pls be honest.. crossing fingers till its knotted !!

PS : i got my scarf!!!!

Random : i saw dog meat on the way to brand training. looked brown on the outside and bloody on the inside.. ugh.. how do ppl do it??

Hanoi - day 25

Today it was raining.. and after 4 days of going around hanoi (in circles again and again) i took the opportunity to stay home at sleep.. through the day i would say.. so so tired..

but i am ready for an adventure again.. or at least i am ready to start moving.. tomorrow's plan is to go to silk village!! argh i cannot wait.. i wanna get some scarfs.. cheap!
Faster!

Hanoi - day 20 to 24

This has to be the most tiring 4 days i have had since i am in Hanoi.. y u ask? entertaining.. it was really fun too i would say..

First cheng yong and his friends, and joanna were in hanoi.. so we went around hanoi together.. had a great time..den we sent joanna off to hue.. esther, the uk(london) intern met up with us for dinner too.i decided to stay over with cheng yong and his frens cos well, i was lazy to travel back and forth from lo duc to hoan kiem.. save money.. spend da whole night chatting with cheng yong's friends.. den sent 2 of his frens off back to kl.. ( felt like hopping into the plane with them too)
Later dat day, we met up with some swedish girls ( emma and maria) that we met at halong bay.. we went to the ethnic museum together.. den had to send to off to hue too.. so sad.. again decided to stay with cheng yong and his frens cos i was lazy to go back to lo duc and come out the next day again..
The next day, i joined cheng yong and his fren to walk all the way to temple of literature from hoan kiem lake .. very very long way.. but we made it :P met up with alvin and esther and yen to send them off to hue.. Den met up with a german guy from nus who spoke mandarin and vietnamese..
The next day, i met up with some frens from netherlands that we met in horrible halong city.. brought them around hanoi, and yogurt shop:) and we watched a movie.. den dinner at hoan kiem.. oo we went to the hoan kiem temple as well.. said goodbye to them at the end of the day as they were flying off to bangkok the next morning.. oo met up with the new intern , Shandy from Phillipines as well.

Mmm i am so sick of sending new found frens off from hanoi.. lucky there is still esther, shandy, alvin, yen, and trang here in hanoi!! it was awesome meeting ppl from all around the world! tiring but i will do it all over again., owh i have been to hoan kiem temple FOUR times to date and temple of literature TWICE.. and frozen yogurt shop a million times tat i am starting to get a lil tired ( read i have really been there too many times!) call me the amateur vietnamese cos i think i can be certified as a tourist guide for hanoi :)

hanoi - day 19

After staying at horrible halong city for a day, we were to go back to hanoi.. but.. alvin's company said that there were no bus to go back that day.. cos there were no tours.. awesome as hell..
so we boarded a local bus back to hanoi..
no aircon, open air, 4 HOURS! but u know wat? it was fun.. really.. it had more leg space than the minibus we took to halong city, and constant blowing wind :P and lots of sight seeing.. interesting! really

So we came back to hanoi and took a taxi to alvin's office.. checked joanna into a backpacker's hotel.. which fyi is so awesome! i wanted to book myself a bed there too.. ahaks.
We had some dinner and visited around hoan kiem area..
Den we headed off for frozen yogurt :P me and joanna.. and i swear she loves it there too. had some interesting flavours like yam and coffee ( yogurt)..
And we ventured down the street and had some seafood (yes in hanoi! not in halong city.. and hanoi is not surrounded by the sea ) it was cheap (not cheated) and nice..
and guess wat?? i had quail eggs with baby quail that is not hatched yet in it.. eww.. i know.. but joanna said dun look and just eat.. and i did.. it was not bad at all.. and now, i have bragging rights !!

halong city - day 1

Let me just shout this out.. i HATE halong city!!



Me. Alvin and Joanna basically stayed another day in halong city to visit a 5 star hotel and its casino for some business matter.. we accompanied alvin at least while having a look at halong city ourselves.. so after alighting from the junk, we headed to the restaurant for lunch.. had interesting conversation with a hong kong couple and the rest of the guest from our junk too.. it was SO hot and the electricity broke half way that basically noone had any appetite to eat..



Headed off to the hotel in a cab not knowing where it was.. The driver told us it will cost 20000 dong.. since we had no idea where it was we tot it was reasonable.. guess wat?? it is not!! it is just walking distance away la celaka.. and bad enough the meter only say 15000 dong but the guy insisted we pay 20000 dong. cheater sia!



The hotel is really cool! its very 'genting'ish where they try to equip the hotel with more facilities and entertainment hence the casino.. the rooms are beautiful!! and as life goes , BLOODY ex! will make enough money one day to let my parents stay there! but really the hotel is expanding damn fast and its really interesting to see.. we visited the casino (first time in casino is in vietnam and not genting.. unique la my 'casino' experience) and the other facilities.. and den we went to find ourselves a guest room..


The cab thing is just a prelude to the shitty stuff we encountered... it got worse after our visit to the hotel.. we checked into this guest house which is well .. not tat spectacular.. our room appear clean ( i think) and the aircon is working (though leaking water) .. but its really expensive! ( 25 USD for dat shitty room!!) after taking some rest, we headed to the beach.. which is not really swim inducing if you get my drift.. but the sea breeze is pretty relaxing if u dun mind da smell.. so after a few hours of just chatting away , 3 of us decided to have dinner.. but guess wat, we dunno enough vietnamese to order ! so we went back to the hotel to get our bible on vietnam trying to figure some stuff out.. we tot tat if we asked the ppl at the front desk they would be able to help us out. asked this woman. she said they have a restaurant at the guest house. we said its ok we wanna try stuff outside.. her face totally changed black and told us.. i dunno i dunno.. bitch~! and as we were heading out, she yelled at us, passport passport..

wat da hell? we asked her for wat. and with her limited english she could not explain.. somethign bout police shit.. we said no. but she would not allow us to leave.. there were 2 guys from netherlands walking in so we asked them if their passports were taken. They said yes, so we decided ok we will pass them our passports provided they return it to us at 9. I was super pissed off.. i mean is this how u speak to customers? what happen to hospitality? no wonder dey will be stuck there forever ! ugh disgusting

again attempting to have some seafood dinner, we ventured outside again. i personally feel like we were entering a sea of vultures waiting to pick on us. so we decided on a place.. they had a menu with chinese translations. so we ordered while asking the price as we go to be save. argh still with such caution still kena tipu. we had a plate of small shrimps not too big not too fresh too i think for 90000 dong.. dats close to 24 ringgit la wat da hell.. and we had this barbequed dried sotong thing dat was so tough joanna couldn't even swallow it down.. really small too..

after the overpriced and underdelivered dinner, we headed to the night market.. the whole night of kena cheated totally dampened my spirit to even look around.. we went into a super market where the price was fixed , and had some forzen yogurt and icecream to calm ourselves down. and den we headed back to get our passports.. and guess wat.. they were late.. and they at first din wanna return our passports until we checked out.. we insisted and paid them so dat we could get our passports back. damn kan jeong and irritating..

den we chilled at some cafe.. feeling just tired.. esp of being cheated.. sien

halong bay - day 1 and 2

I spent the night before halong bay, chiong-ing to compile the student survey for AIESEC until 3 am.. and kan cheong sia itu babi hotmail cannot attach my final results that took me nearly 3 hours into the wee night to get done.. it was 'attaching ' the whole night la.. still cannot attach.. luckily i was saved by gmail! and ntu did take part in the global student survey..

after the close save, i had another heart attack.. due to some miscommunication, i was 10 minutes late to alvin's company to board to bus to halong city.. he told me they were not gonna wait anymore.. can die on the spot la i tell u.. shity luck was still on my side.. n we made it in time..
the bus is has really crampy seats that i had to have my legs folded up for 4 hours.. not tat fun.. view was interesting.. many blooming lotus :) i love!
reached halong city at 12-ish and headed for our junk.. yes yes yes i slept , bathed and ate on a junk.. really exciting.. food was edible but definitely not up to even singapore's standard.. ooo random : me and alvin was there with a taiwanese fren, joanna :)
we den visited the surprise cave which in my private opinion is a very perverted cave.. have lots of 'penis' like structures and 'holes' on the top of the cave.. very dirty minded.. or at least the ppl who interpret it is so. but it was really cool in there and had some amazing structures..
next we went kayaking..the sun was super hot shining on our backs.. and we went kayaking.. crazy rite? faster clap hands!! ahaha me and joanna keep on staying in one spot cos it was cool and shaded:) i wish that they would not simply throw stuff into the sea in halong bay.. cos kayaking with 'i have no idea wat da hell it is' floating around is not exactly a pleasant experience..

Den we went swimming :) Jumped into the green sea and swam like a fish.. thankfully there were no ufo (unidentified floating objects) around.. but one problem .. too MANY junks around.. so it can be pretty dangerous,and u never know wat 'rubbish' can come out from these junks.. still it was relaxing and nice.. the water is clean:) or i am psycho-ing myself into thinkign its clean :P just not very fond of ufos..

Star gazed at night and saw a shooting star!! first time ever le.. made a wish.. hope it comes true! cos my parents will be happier ppl if it happens.. the sky was beautiful.. as good as when i was in stong.. but i prefer stong cos u cannot smell the exhaust from the junks.. its really strong making ur throat get dry and scratchy.. too many junks at one place la hallo! halong is so big, spread up la..

Random : it was also my first time ever eating and seeing fresh passion fruit. SOUR!! but interesting..

we meet lots of awesome ppl on the boat .. we met ppl from sweden and denmark and israel :P tersangat nice.. feel like a real traveller finally.
Cruising around the beautiful bay with interesting conversations is heavenly.. albeit the hellish heat..

Conclusion : you MUST visit halong bay.. but ONCE is enough.. they have to have a more sustainable plan to preserve halong i think..

hanoi - day 17 & day 18

Yesterday started on a little down note.. i forgot my helmet.. ahahah.. according to yen in vietnam there is 3 things u cannot forget. purse, handphone and HELMET.. lucky she was smart and fast on the bike and we manage to get to the event on time.

The hotel of which the event was to take place was a 5 star hotel.. so it was really interesting.. the event was.. well in vietnamese.. din really understand much but i did catch a thing or two.. n i realised that when there are 'gaps' in between events.. they sing.. in vietnamese.. LOUDLY.. ahahha .. lunch was good.. another thing i realised.. for chinese meals, we serve the food one dish at a time.. but in vietnamese meals all are brought out at the same time.. interesting interesting

After that, being totally random and adventurous, guess where me and yen went? jeng jeng jeng we went to the zoo.. (which was conveniently located opposite the hotel) just imagine two crazy gals in formal wear and heels on my side going around the zoo.. stinky! comment : the zoo wasn't too big but the animals were well fed and .. well fat.. i even saw chunks of meat around.. i guess the tigers there do not feed on grass like in the malaysian zoo.. again tempted by the lake and the swan boats, we decided to go swan boating.. lalala.. it was really nice.. and u could see fishes swimming.. and dead fishes too.. but i swear i wanna go to swan boat at west lake! its 5 times bigger than the one that we went for.. yen den on a total whim brought me for some banana chey :P awesome

Den came my outing with Anh.. she brought me to the temple of literature.. its a BEAUTIFUL place.. like a smaller version of the forbidden city .. some parts at least.. awesome landscaping! and the history very interesting.. i like it there a lot:P too bad no lotus.. oo interesting note : anh told me that they still carve names of the top students from the top universities into those slabs of rocks :) that is really cool. the tradition lives!
We went to some shops but i was really sticky.. and hot.. so wasn't in the mood to try on the clothes.. ahhaha


What did i do today?
I went for a company meeting which was pretty good i think.. :D den trang (not my host) brought me to some shops in hoan kiem lake.. still have not bought anything .. ahahaha .. and tonight alvin is going to bring his taiwan fren for yogurt..oosh and tomorrow!! halong bay!! lalaala

Hanoi - day 17

Today is an awesome day :) Y you ask? cos its just awesome.. mr sun and miss rain love us!

Had an outing with Trang ( not my host ) today.. so she picked me up at 4 and wooosh off we went to hoan kiem lake area.. she was going to introduce me to some shops that she likes :P me ever ready to 'shop' of course had a blast of a time. i bought my dad sumthing for father's day but that is all i got.. i swear! ahhaha.. anyway me and trang bargained for it.. and i think we were pretty good at it.. saw so many lil trinkets ! my hands were itching .. but i guess my love for travelling triumphs my love for shopping(omg !! i know!) ooo we had this interesting desert .. its basically coconut jelly.. really interesting.. its real coconut juice just in the form of jelly and guess what?? its still in the coconut shell..ah damn refreshing.. had some chey too.. nice nice nice :)

Note of very very high level of interest. : guess who i bumped into while walking around hoan kiem lake?? cheng yong!! omg i wasn't expecting him till the 23rd la.. imagine hanoi is SO big and i bumped into him with his frens.. they had to go watch the water puppet show so we had to part for the time being..

we den met up with hai yen and alvin to go to this really interesting cafe:) and i tell u it was awesome.. its really rustic.. with multi levels where u can chill.. its at the old quarters near hoan kiem lake so u can tell that its really in an old building.. we went up to the highest floor where the roof were filled with umbrellas :P interestign.. and also all kinds of plants.. really interesting place.. and they had a piano so i get to get rid of some of the lust i had to bang on the piano :)( shity that sounds wrong )

We den met up with a new intern of AIESEC Hanoi from UK, Esther as well as cheng yong and his frens and headed for dinner.. dinner was awesoem as usual when ur in hanoi.. had some interesting conversation.. and we headed to .. where else? the yogurt shop of course.. my favouritest place in hanoi :) ahahah we had a blast trying every flavour on the chart.. really cool :)

ARGH today was an awesome day.. i cannot wait to live more awesome days like this.. of course my stay in hanoi has been pretty awesoem i would say..
Tomorrow there is a networking session with a TN taker and i am going.. lets hope we can get more potential TN contacts :P and i am meeting up with anh tomorrow:) cannot wait! n we will discuss the sapa trip.. lalala .. tomorrow is gonna be an awesome day too!

Hanoi- day 16

So what did i do?? Mainly AIESEC stuff.. My quest of the day was to search for a wifi cafe with plug points. y? Cos i had a meeting with my awesome 'I miss them so much' EB team and also the MCs on skype.. So i went out in the rain with Ritt and Alvin to search for a wifi enabled cafe.. and we found one :) really cool place i would say.. they were playing chinese, mandarin and english songs.. ambience was good really like the cafes we have in kl.. made me feel at home:) so, after an intensive virtual meeting with lots of breakthroughs ( i think) me, Alvin and Ritt headed out for some dinner. We saw this shop dealing with BBQ.. Looked interesting so we decided to try it..

We ordered this set that was 45 thousand dong (IT WAS WRITTEN LA!!) . we ordered portion for one person cos we wanted to try it not knowing wat it contained.. well it had beef, frog and some really tough to chew thingy which we have still not identified.. it may be some tough mushroom or frog's skin or .. ah endless possibilities.. i just hope its not some part of a dog.. dat is da only thing i cannot accept.. guess how much was the bill??? 60 thousand dong la.. damn celaka rite?? da portion was definitely for one.. but she said because there was 3 of us.. wa liao even with price list oso can overcharge foreigners la.. i am really getting tired of this!!

grrr.... two things i think Hanoi can do without

1. the crazy traffic
2. overcharging the tourists and foreigners

i will never go to that shop ever again

Hanoi - day 15

Today is the day... where i do my first brand training.. lalala. its been ages since i have last done a training.. or a session..so today is interesting.. The training was cool i think.. ahhaha that you will have to ask the AIESEC FTU Hanoi members.. i really hope they learned a thing or two.. Their only complain?? i spoke too fast.. ahahha shit.. sorry people.. will have to keep that in mind when i do it for AIESEC Hanoi.. talk slower la carmen

anyhoo.. i had BBQ chicken today for dinner.. i have always wanted to try it since i saw it.. since i have not seen any BBQ chicken in the two countries that i reside in.. ahhaha.. and guess wat.. curiousity kills the cat.. the meal wasn't worth the money.. the chicken was ok.. but KFC and Mac Donalds will totally kick BBQ's ass la.. there is one more shop called lotteria which again i have not seen in both countries that i reside in.. just mebbe i will try it.. but mebbe not..bodoh carmen pergi makan fastfood kat vietnam.. lalala

Tomorrow is another day.. next week i predict is gonna be awesome! and halong bay!! i cannot wait!! cepat cepat!

hanoi - day 14

And so they day started awesomely.. Trang (not my host but from AIESEC hanoi too) fetched me and we rode in the delightful (read sarcasm) sun to a LOTUS farm.. Its really really beautiful there! its surrounded by west lake, and you can see the amusement park from the farm :P and of course in the farm you are surrounded by lotus :) After admiring the beauty of the place and breathing in the fragrant smell of the lotus, me and Trang sat down in this hut in the middle of the farm and had some lotus tea.. very relaxing, with the wind blowing , awesome conversation with Trang ( i realised we are soul mates.. ahaks i am exaggerating as usual but she is really awesome :P- we decided to go to sapa together.. ole ole ole) and the breathtaking view, i really enjoyed myself!!

Next, Trang dropped me off at hoan kiem temple so tat i can meet up with Alvin. We visited the temple while waiting for An. The temple is only so big that you can actually finish viewing it in 10 minutes.. but we spend around an hour at the temple trying to get our money's worth.. ahahha kiasu sia.. had interesting conversation with Alvin talking bout nearly everything under the sun and enjoying the green hoan kiem lake.. (random : i dun understand how come hoan kiem lake is eerily green.. its really really green.. not dirty green but green.. mmm)

We then met up with An, and Alvin ( yes Alvin) suggested that we visit my favourite frozen yogurt shop.. i guess i am not the only one addicted huh.. i finally managed to try the bac ha flavour which is mint as well as the green rice flavour( according to an, green rice is a speciality of hanoi.. dun even have it in ho chi minh la).. nice nice nice .. seriously yummy .. and after quenching our lust for frozen yogurt we had to try ice cream from the shop next door.. and so we did .. the green rice ice cream is awesome!!

After that we had a meeting with the LCP and VP ER of AIESEC FTU Hanoi.. They brought us to this rustic charming little restaurant.. our dinner was really interesting.. of course i forgot the name as usual..its made of corn and rice.. and its gooey with awesome soup.. sumthing like a much stickier version of ur tau fo faa.. i dunno la wat is it called but i like it:P something i wanted to try for sumtime d.. den to continue our discussion.. guess where we went?? The frozen yogurt shop again!! and this time i had peach and bac ha again.. I swear i have tried all the flavours!!ok mebbe i have still one of two left to try..my mission is almost done.. ahahha

So that marks the end of an awesome day.. went back to prepare for my brand training with ftu the next day.. work work work!

hanoi - day 13

I am actually writing this in advance cos i predict nothing much will happen today except work.. so work work work.. halong bay trip cancelled due to some unforseen circumstances. but will go there next weekend.. so i shall wait.. oo i just made some plans with Anh to go to Sapa before national conference.. oo la la la.. i hope its not gonna kill my budget..but wth i am already here in vietnam.. when is da next time i am gonna be back??

Random notes :

1. I stuck my spoon into NO sugar yogurt yesterday (excitedly I would say cos it was my 'daily fix' of frozen yogurt) cos i cannot read vietnamese.. and i swear to monkey lala that it was nasty.. ugh thinking bout it now makes me flinch.. really nasty.. damn funny how some sugar makes such a BIG difference.. even after some watermelon and coconut juice it stays icky.. yucks.. no more.. phobia sia like baby vomit

2. I am having awesome humongous juicy and sweet , straight from the farm laicis for breakfast.. make me feel like an ancient old queen in china la.

ok back to work.. and some research for sapa.. lalala

updates :

i had bun cha today for lunch.. and its beyond describing how awesome it is.. its some kinda fish sauce with barbequed meat in it.. and u dip ur noodles into the sauce to eat.. super delicious.. meat is tender and fragrant.. very very nice.. i like.. of course i ended my awesome lunch with awesome frozen grape yogurt.. nice

random... i caught TWO guys taking pics of me with their cell phone.. its damn freaky..i hope they dun post it in some porn webbie or sumthing shitty like dat.. i hope they were taking pics of how not to go out for lunch.. i was in a tee shirt and long shorts with uncombed hair and oily face.. mebbe tats y.. cross fingers

hanoi- day 11 and 12

the day before was pretty much an uneventful day.. did some company research and called some companies.. argh vietnam's phone number system thingy is super confusing..

today what did i do? i went out for lunch and had chey ( i damn like this desert la.. its the gooey gooey desert that i really liked dat i mentioned before) i am gonna miss my chey when i go back to kl/singapore.. mana nak cari? frozen yogurt masih boleh dibuat sendiri but chey is beyond buat sendiri.. its heavenly.. anyways.. went to mai's place to discuss some er stuff and finally hannah montana the movie!! it was ok.. nothing TOO special.. but she can sing .. pretty well (duh).. traffic was scary as usual.. apa lagi aku nak cakap.. i had tons of stuff when i was on the bike..

oo i remembered one thing.. i am a pro in duduk-ing motor bike now la.. ahahha.. dat i think i may miss when i go back :P

HALONG BAY TOMORROW!!! ARGH!!!! damn exciting.. but before i can do dat.. i need to kau tim my brand training for sunday first.. work work work.. den awesome PLAY!!!

Hanoi - day 10

Alvin invited me to lunch with a fren of his from Canada/US. Somehow we came to an agreement that he and is friend is to come to Lo Duc Street so that we could meet up.. where else can i bring them except for my favourite shop! the frozen yogurt shop!! and so we tried all kinds of flavours on the board.. due to the fact that there all three of us could not speak Vietnamese, we ordered our yogurt by pointing randomly on the board! ITS SUPER FUN!! should try it out more.. mm to date .. to add on to my list i have had, coconut, chocolate and corn.. n i had strawberry and durian again.. awesomeness!!

return back to Trang's place to work on my AIESEC work.. did some company research and did a draft of my brand training session this weekend with LC FTU.. ooo and confirmed with alvin that we were going to halong bay on this friday and saturday!!! AWESOME and cannot wait..
work work work

quang ngai - day 3

i truly feel and reinforced on my stand on the importance of world peace and respect amongst all human beings today ( what aiesec envisions - peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential, what soka gakkai envisions - world peace through culture and education ) . Y so random you ask? I visited the Son My massacre site.. It is really a sad place to be .. The american soldiers(infantry) landed in son my and just like that decided to 'kill off' the village.. Very cruelly and brutally i might add. argh.. the things that i read and the pictures i tried to avoid seeing is still etched in my head.. its also nice to read that there were still humane beings out there when the American air troops were against the killings and tried to save the villagers and even considered firing at their own man to stop the inhumane and crazy killings..
Son my should be proud that they have survived the massacre and is now a peaceful, serene and economically independent community.. to those inhumane beings, shame on you..

we also visited a temple today. or as they call it the pagoda.. its really interesting to see the similarities with the ones in Malaysia as well as the differences.. I shall say the most interesting difference is the way the Vietnam ppl honour their dead. There was a grave in the temple of the man that build the 'pagoda' and he originated from China. A real pagoda with beautiful art was built on top of the grave.. outside the temple there was a beautifully landscaped grave of a national hero . and the locals pay their respect constantly .. oo and did you know that ho chi minh's body is frozen and kept in the mausoleum?? as in his real body? i always thought that it was just a monument to remember what he has done for the country.. apparently i was wrong.. its really interesting to see this.. ( random : the 'pagoda' was on top of a hill.. so you could actually see the paddy fields, and corn fields, and the river and the whole awesome view of quang ngai from up there => very nice)

We then drove 2 and a half hours back to Danang.. we stopped on the way for traditional Vietnamese coffee.. super kau!! but surprisingly i din feel jittery after that.. kepelikan.. ( mahmoud if you are reading this, they drink traditional vietnamese coffee with ICE LA!!)

anyhoo.. i am now back in hanoi! work is piling up and reality is starting to strike with the fact that i have to register my subjects d.. shit i found out accounting clashes with my core.. aihz wat elective to take next sem?? headache..

random : frozen yogurt tomorrow la!!

Quang Ngai - day 2

We had lobsters again today!! And it was really awesome.. The meat is so sweet and chewy.. argh can die.. I swear upon the square neon pink moon that you have NOT eaten seafood until you have eaten seafood in the beach in the middle of Vietnam. We visited Quang Ngai town today and went to the market. There is like a million things to see la.. very interesting.

oo.. and i finally went in the sea today after the bloody visit that mother nature has imposed on all females in the world has ceased. and it was really cool..Its like a huge swimming pool with waves ( crappy.. that IS the sea. nothing too poetic bout TAT)somehow its not as beautiful as redang or lang tengah or perhentian but it has its charm. I bet my mum will love it here man..

Random : I have received really nice compliments from the locals here in Vietnam bout my height.. apparently they dun think that my height is freakish.. They say that i look like model/actress la.. Waliao eh can fly la!Some random guy even wanted to take a picture with me.. creepy but damn flattering.. In the land where i have always felt like an overgrown clod, its nice to feel 'pretty' tall. Gam En ( Thank you) Vietnamese ppl for making me feel pretty without taking into consideration my alien-ish height.. ( ahaks emo sial)
Anyhoo- Hanoi tomorrow! and i cannot wait.. i miss my frozen yogurt.. i think i want to try mint!

PS : I know i sound like a travelling ceeder rather than a workin one according to Alvin.. I promise the ancient AIESEC Gods ( ok this is not brand aligned.. disclaimer ah) that i will work my butt off in the next 3 to 4 weeks.. of course i am dying to go to halong bay.. Anyone??

Quang Ngai - day 1

Trang had to leave for Hanoi today :( as there is no flight back to Hanoi on Sunday and she cannot skip another Jap class ( YES she is Jap literate.. cool rite?) I decided to stay on with her family to visit Quang Ngai. According to Trang it has a even awesomer beach than Danang. That alone is enough to make me stay on. On the way to the airport we stopped by at the local market.. I loved being at the local market cos you can get a glimpse of local life.. I like :) After sending Trang off, we drove TWO and A HALF HOURS to Quang Ngai. But really its cool cos we passsed by many villages and the things to see is endless that i couldn't sleep.. Read : Carmen cannot sleep.. that alone is enough to justify how awesome the view was.. Example of awesomeness : We were stuck in a traffic jam behind a herd of cows.. You will never experience that in KL or Singapore la!! I saw farmers using all kinds of traditional tools to farm.

So after we reached Quang Ngai, we went down to serious business! FOOD!! Its seriously crazy la! we had KING CRABS!! Not only does it have the furry thingy to justify its kingliness its HUMONGOUS!! super besar celaka babi! Its like the babi of all crabs la.. Food was awesome as usual but in abundance as usual as well. Random note : had a humongous lunch as well .. Had this kinda abalonish shellfish and loads of other stuff. ( There goes my diet man.. 000 random note 2 : I think Danang and Quang Ngai is making me start to actually like seafood.. horrors)

So we ate till the sun set and the moon shines upon the ocean ( that was trully a beautiful sight) oo as for the beach, i kinda prefer Danang as its cleaner (less rubbish that is) but that is just my first impression. Let me try it out and will comment boutit agian tomorrow.. I shall now continue to pay attention to Minh about the history of Vietnam.. he is teaching me Vietnamese too.. lalala

Danang - day 2 and a half

The plan today was to visit the mountains.. Specifically bana.. So me and Trang tumpang-ed ppl's bus to Bana which was roughly 30 minutes away from Danang. Took a cabel car to the mountains ( which in my opinion was pretty ex.. but according to Trang its a new thing in Vietnam so the money is justified.. mm telan je la.. ) The mountains i swear is super beautifully AWESOME!! It's like a less developed , more natural, more rustic, colder and windier version of Genting.. Argh i am missing it already.. There was ONE and only ONE resort with rather beautiful lansdcaping and a temple.. That is IT! for now.. The view from up there combined with the chiiling wind is honestly breathe taking.. A place you MUST visit if you go to Danang. They are actually developing the area and I'm praying real hard to the purple monkeys that it will turn out more Cameron than Genting.. According to Trang, the French found out about the awesome mountains and the awesome weather up there and built some villas. Would love to catch a glimpse of the ancient villas .. Too bad the bus of ppl we tumpang-ed had to return to Danang for lunch. So we were only up there for a grand total of ONE hour. CELAKA.. but i would say that i am fortunate enough to be able to have been up there before..i super LOVE that place a lot, a lot , times one thousand hundred million times. Had a mild heart attack again when the guard at the cabel station won't allow us to leave with our party due to overload. And the next 'thingy(for the lack of words)' down is 90 minutes away.. Celaka babi how to balik to Danang la?? flying pigs?(random note : i seriously dunno how come there are 'shifts' for the cabel to run.. i tot it should be running continuously? one go up and one go down.. mebbe i am just too used to Gentings) lucky that Trang had amazing negotiation skills like her mum that we managed to sneak our way in.. fooosh..
Later in the evening it was the beach again.. its really a crazy weird real natural scientific -ish phenomena that the sea is crystal clear blue in the the afternoon but a kind of dirty green in the evening.. Ish identity crisis la this Danang beach nie.. ish ish.. but seriously its an awesome beach to give it justice (pics on facebook). not as awesome as the pulaus in the north east of semenanjung malaysia but i guess its rather a good compensation for me not bing able to visit the islands this year.
Lepaked at the beach at night. I love the beach at night!! makes it really intriguing and mysterious. Argh i love the beach!

Conclusion of the day.. love the beach love the mountains.. I am in heaven!! jangan jealous!

Danang - day 1 and a 1/2

Woke up at the crack of dawn ( and i seriously mean crack, not a hole , a tear ,etc.. its the CRACK of dawn) --> translation --> uber babi early and prepared to go to My Son (ancient sites of Hindu inspired temples) Took an hour drive from Danang beach to get there.
I could see many a interesting sight as we passed by the smaller villages and you can catch a glimpse of life at the countryside. Saw some lakes with blooming lotus, passed by a funeral, saw cows ploughing the paddy fields, saw a village celebration and much more that is beyond word-ly description.
As for My Son, It was really interesting as you get to see all kinds of interesting structures, The most interesting thing for me is that 70% of its Buddha statues are headless.. Makes you wonder where in the world did the heads go? Did a very strong dog bit it off, or that they put in a steel rod into the heads when sculpting so that when lightning strikes,it strikes the head? Or its just the entrepeneurial spirit where they knock it off to sell and gain profit ( economics 101) I am betting a thousand million percent on human nature ! wanna take a bet??
We then headed back to the beach for lunch. ( Note : There is no mentioning about shopping here.. y? cos i didn't la!! FASTER CLAP HANDS!!)
Lunch was as interesting as a AVRIL concert i tell you.. We had LOBSTER.. Celaka its damn big la..
And what they do? They first 'MILK' it (Note : they drink the 'milk' Trang's father offered me some but no way in the land of flying blue neon blinking pigs will i drink it la) They then had sashimi lobster( which was by the way decorated VERY nicely-- pictures on facebook:P) The hotpot lobster ( steamboat in Singapore and Malaysian terms) super uber duper babi interesting la..
ooo later there is nothing else to do but to chill at the beach.. so windy so relaxing!! ARGH!

Danang - day 1/2

We arrived at awesome awesome Danang yesterday around 4. The view of Danang from the plane?? Heaven!!
But before we approached heaven, I nearly had a heart attack and went to the 'real' heaven.. Minh, my host brother wasn't allowed on board initially due to the lack of identification until the very very last minute( so last minute that i tot the plane is going to leave us!) I nearly died of anxiety la thinking we had to head back to Hanoi and miss the flight. Thank my lucky stars, moons, pigs, monkeys and whatever lucky beings that my host mother has awesome negotiation skills. We were allowed on board.. fooooish.. sigh of relief sial..

And off we flew to beautiful danang. We headed to the beach the moment we could relieve ourselves of our luggage.. the beach is nice. loooooong, blue with white sand. rather crowded though. There were vendors EVERYWHERE and you could just about get anything .
Had a humongous seafood dinner which was delicioud with a capital D. And that awesome meal was the end of day 1/2..

Hanoi - day 9

Random facts
1. I ate SILK WORMS today! ok so its fried .. but so wat its still silk worms
2. Watermelons here are longish and not roundish
3. Oranges here are GREEN
4. The fishes sold in the market are so fresh that they are still swimming around.
5. Motor-ing on a rainy day is scary esp if you have even a speck of white on you.

Had my first company meeting today! And the first thing that occured to me was ---> awesome my first company meeting EVER is going to be in VIETNAMESE.. WTH! baguslah.. good game.

Luckily for me , Vinh ( the other AIESECer that I went with ) directed and translated some questions to me and I had a chance to speak. The outcome of the meeting was pretty good. They were interested in taking 4 interns, willing to sponsor aiesec hanoi room for trainings and were interested in being our partner! AWESOMENESS!! Go figure !

YAY my first company meeting - i declare a success.. i shall take it as a good omen for my future company meetings to come =p
Danang bay in less than an hour... ooooosh!!

Hanoi - day 7& 8

ARGH!!! i am addicted to frozen yogurt!!

I had two yesterday and one today!!

ooo brace urself for this.. u will never ever be able to guess wat flavour i had yesterday!

jeng jeng jeng.

I had durian!!! Yah man durian frozen yogurt!!!!!! can u imagine??? damn nice la seriously :D

my side goal while i am in hanoi is to -----> try all the flavours for the frozen yogurt!

What i have had : strawberry, grape, mango, durian , some vietnamese fruit which i forgot the name :P NICE!!

So what have i done this two days?? nothing much actually.. doing some aiesec work at the house, eating..(ooo btw, trang made some vietnamese spring rolls for yesterday's dinner and it was fantastic!! according to trang , its normally made for special occasion.. in this case - ME!! so honoured sia!)
went to the aiesec office today.. really nice seriously.. its in an office.. ahhahah.. too bad no internet connection.. and bloody hell it was raining today.. have u tried siting on a motorbike after the rain where the traffic is a million times crazier than normal and some streets were flooded?? Well i have.. that totally contributes to hanoi-ising me la!! status : 30 % hanoi-an :P

OOoo.. i realised that i can apply for a grant for my envision conference in taiwan :D cool cool cool awesome! i hope we get the grant.. mebbe i should apply for grant from sao too.. mmmmm macam mana macam mana??
I super need to get my application done by today!!
y??
I have one company meeting tomorrow at 9 and also a flight to catch at 12 to DANANG!!! LALALALA.. tak sabar.. tomorrow is super damn exciting la!! cannot wait!!

so if i dun update tomorrow.. it means that i am off and flying away to heavenly DANANG BAY! and i won't be back till Sunday! Jangan jealous yer.. :D :D :D :p