Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Trip

Day 1
Went to HCM, Vietnam from 30th Dec 2010 to 2nd Jan 2011 with 3 of my friends to celebrate New Year. We met at Budget Terminal @ 5.30 am, had our breakfast at Mac there and got ready for our flight to Vietnam with Tiger Airways. We got on the plane @ 7.05 am, the plane was soooo cramped (Don't like budget planes, cramped and no entertainment, Lol). Then the plane took off, and it was quite a shaking ride, and at 1 point, the plane did went down suddenly (My heart almost jumped out).
Anyway we landed @ around 9 plus (Vietnam Time) and we went to take a cab down to our hotel. The traffic there is sooooooo horrible and the air pollution is soooooo bad. The road is basically filled with motorcycles and motorcycles and motorcycles. Lol. And the cab driver was honking all the way to the hotel. The air is also having too much pollution due to the numbers of motor-vehicles on the road everyday. The traffic is like super heavy everyday, and it looks like it is impossible to cross the road. And the whole ride from the airport to the hotel, the cab driver was honking all the way. Other cars are also honking away. But weird thing is, the motorists will try to avoid you by swaying their way to another path when you are crossing the road. Hohoho.....

Traffic: Super heavy, everyday traffic jam
Air: Super polluated, there is so much smoke in the air (blurry)
Road Crossing: Almost impossible to cross. Get a male friend who will take the 1st step out and just walk across and try to follow him (hahaha....), the motorists will just try to avoid you.

When we reached the hotel, we were unable to check-in as it was too early for us to check in. So we left our luggage at the hotel and went out to look for our land agency around the area. One of the local people gave us some directions when we got struck at one of the roads. The people there are still friendly but some can get quite aggressive. Anyway we managed to find the tour agency and we also booked for Mekong Delta - 1 day tour for the 3rd day. After that, we walked the nearby areas to try to find some food for our lunch. We went to a roadside shop and had our lunch there. We ordered Chicken and Pork 'Pho' (Vietnamese noodles soup), Summer rolls (rice paper rolls that often include shrimp, herbs, pork, rice vermicelli and other ingredients wrapped up and dipped in nước chấm or peanut sauce.) After our lunch, we walked around the area and bought some fruits from the roadside vendors. We bought Mandarin oranges and longans. My friend opened up 1 longan and wanted to eat it. Instead he found maggots inside, so he threw the whole packet away (Ekkkk.....). Then we went back to our hotel to check-in (Weird thing with this hotel is they took our passports as deposit instead of photocopying them).
After check-in, we took a taxi to the big wholesale market in Cholon. It was big but it was super packed with goods and people. There is just a small gap in between the stalls and the stall owners are carrying big boxes and they will just push their way in. And it gets hot and stuffy in the market. But the market is quite organized in the sense that those stalls selling the same products are arranged together (like clothes section in 1 area, slippers/shoes section in another corner) and there are 2 levels. After shopping in that hot and stuffy market, we went for dinner (which made me soooo glad, getting hungry at that time. Hohoho....) We took a cab down to a restaurant in Distinct 1, we got 'chopped' by the cab driver. He took a longer way and the meter is jumping like mad. And the aircon was also not on, so we had to breathe in the pollution all way and a strench smell from a super dirty big drain (the water is black in color,don't know what is being thrown inside and don't wish to know too) near the expressway until our destination. And the stupid cab driver didn't even drive us to our destination, he just went into a road which can't do right turn and asked us to walk to the restaurant instead. So one of my friends tried to argue with him on the price and the aircon, anyway we didn't paid him the exact amount. Horrible cab driver....... Luckily we had a yummy dinner, we had chicken wings, pork ribs, sotong and a big hot pot. The food are quite nice and the total bill is not that expensive too for our meal (around SGD$30 plus). After the nice dinner, we went back to find some shopping areas near our hotel, but we cannot remember where are the places...lol. (Streets & traffic too messy already). So we took a taxi back to our hotel, took a nice bath (super sweat for the whole day) and went to sleep on the nice nice bed.

Day 2
Woke up early to have our breakfast provided by the hotel, my friends went back to get ready for our half day tour - Cu Chi Tunnels. We took taxi to the tour agency and we passed the agent for our ticket. But the agent was unable to help us print the e-tickets due we don't have our IC/Passport for verification and the e-ticket was not printed out. Stupid thing is the agent does not even have internet access and she asked us to send the softcopy to her. Haiyo....pek chey. In the end we paid for another set of tickets and the agent will refund us back the amount for the previous transaction. And we got on the bus just in time for the tour. The whole ride took around 1 and half hour from Saigon to Cu Chi Tunnels, and the tour guide was explaining to us of the tunnels' history. The tour guide's name is Lee, quite young and his english is not bad. Basically there is nothing much to do on the bus except to sleep, hohoho......
After a long ride, we finally reached the place. We were 1st brought to a hut where there was a video showing on the history of Cu Chi Tunnels. Then we went in, the guide showed us a manhole that was being dug on the ground. And a guide from the camp demonstrated to us how the soldiers hide inside the small manhole. Then the guide asked who wanted to have a try, 1 guy and 1 ang mo kid went to have a try. The guy almost got struck in the manhole, lol. Then after this, we were shown a trap with bamboo spikes. It was a rectangle area, created with a door that will turn 360 degrees and the bamboo spikes are planted at the bottom (Scary....). Then the guide showed us a super big termites nest, which was being used to cover the smokes during war times. Then later the guide showed us the weapons and traps that were being made during the Vietnam War. After that we went for guns firing, 2 of my friends went and tried to fire with real AK47 guns. The price is based on how many bullets you want to fire. The gunshots are super deafening, super loud. Another friend and i went to try the corn that was selling near the shooting range. The corn was so plain, no taste one, not very nice to eat. After that, we walked past a guy who was making slippers using the rubber of tyre. Then we got to try to walk inside of the tunnels. You are free to try 25m, 30m, 60m or 100m or more. First the guide let us try 25m, we went down, it was super dark inside and we had to squat down to walk in the tunnels. But it was a good experience to get a feel how it was like inside the tunnels, hohoho.......After that, we went to the kitchen where we had a snack, Cooked Tapioca with peanut and salt (but the guide was saying with sugar, we can't really find the sugar. Lol) After that, we left the tunnels and we went to a handicrafts factory. It is created by the Vietnam Government for those handicapped (as a result of war) to let them have a job. They used egg shells to create nice arts and then sell them for a price. After that, we went back to Saigon which was around 2 or 3 plus (Vietnam time). Actually we wanted to walk to the War Remnants Museum, but we ended up eating our lunch at Angel Garden, which we just happened to come across. It was a internet cafe style place, the place was nicely decorated with christmas deco. We ordered our food and drinks. The food was nice, but the portion is abit small for a normal meal and it is a bit more expensive. After that, we went down to Ben Thanh Market @ Distinct 1. It is also a big market that sell everything, coffee, sweets, clothes, etc. My friend bought 2 different types of coffee, 500g each, total amounting to around $27 SDG. But the coffee prices were much lower when we went further in. (The moral, don't buy from the stalls outside, walk further in and you will get a cheaper prices.) After shopping in the market, we went back to our hotel to put our things and rest for a while. Then we walked to find shopping malls there. We went to Saigon Centre and it was sooooo empty inside, not many people are shopping in the shops. Eventually we walked for a while and then went off. Then we walked further down to another mall, which had a very big supermarket. We went in and shopped for coffee and snacks. (And i managed to find Mung Bean Cake which selling much much cheaper than the ones i saw in Ben Thanh Market. Luckily didn't buy from the market.)
We bought a lot of stuffs back, then we went out. The road is closed for New Year's countdown and the road was decorated with green lights and there are alot of beautiful deco at the roundabout of the main road. Everyone was getting ready for the big countdown party there. Then we walked to MOF for our dinner. When we wanted to order, we called a waiter. He kept laughing and when he saw us, his 1st question was asked us whether we are calling him and he spoke in a girly way. And he keeps laughing, don't know what is so funny. But he gave us comments on the food, whether it is nice or not nice. So we took his advice and tried the dishes which he said not bad. (Hmm... his recommendations are quite ok.)
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We wanted to try the hotel spa, but it was packed. So we reserved for 11pm but we all ended up sleeping instead. Hahahaa......

Day 3
Woke up for early breakfast again but this time we were getting ready for our 1 day trip - Mekong Delta.
We reached the agency at 8am, and got on the bus. It was a 2 hours bus ride to the jetty and the tour guide.....'best'. We don't understand anything he was speaking, in english don't understand, in vietnam language, also don't understand.....Anyway he didn't say much throughout the ride, so we just sat back and enjoyed the bus ride. Then we reached near the jetty, which we still had to walk for a short distance to take our boat ride. We waited for everyone to go for toliet break and headed for our boat ride. We went to a snake wine farm, coconut candy farm and then we had our lunch with vietnamese food. One of the waitresses also sung us 2 vietnam songs, it was like singing opera while having your lunch (Basically, cannot eat when she started to sing). There are 5 dishes, only the dish with pork is slightly better than the rest of the dishes. The fried fish was having a very bad smell too. And the soup is very sour. After the lunch, we went back to the boat and travelled for 1 hour to our next destination, which was the mekong market. We didnt walk much around the market, the vendors were selling fresh fruits and vegetables. After that, we headed back to Saigon. Along the way, we stopped for a break @ Mekong Rest Stop. Then we continued our way back. After we reached the agency, we went to KFC for our dinner. We got a 6 pieces family meal and we went to the beef noodles soup eatery next door for our 2nd dinner (Hohoho...KFC not filling....don't like the original chicken & the whipped potato). Then we went back to our hotel to rest. My friend was trying to pack all her stuffs in her small luggage bag but she can't squeeze in. So she got my the other friend to help out and agreed to pay her 10 bucks if she can squeeze all the stuffs in the luggage.Lol, and she managed to do it. After that, we all went to bed.

Day 4

We started our day by going to the Independence Palace. It was abit toooo modern, not like what we expected. Anyway we went in to have a look. It was destroyed during war times and it was restored after that. After that, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office, which was just beside the church.
Joke of the day: "There is a very big 'Chris' statue standing outside of the Cathedral, why don't go and take a photo of it?" (-_-")
We went to post office and bought some postcards which we posted to each other. After that, we went to the Coffee Bean opposite the streets and went back to hotel for check-out. Then we went back to the 1st restaurant where we had our lunch there. After that, we went to the airport and waited for our flight back to Singapore. The flight back was shaky and my ears were blocked most of the time on the flight. Glad it was so a short ride back to Singapore. We reached Singapore Budget Terminal @ 8.30pm which marked the end of our Vietnam trip.


Hotel Stayed: Hoang Hai Long Dragon Hotel
Places Visited:
1. Cholon Market
2. Ben Thanh Market
3. Cu Chi Tunnels
4. Mekong Delta and Market
5. Independence Palace
6. Notre Dame Cathedral
7. Post Office 
8. Saigon Centre
9. TAX Supermarket
10. Zen Plaza
 

Ride on the Singapore Flyer

Went to have a ride in the Singapore Flyer with my friend on 20 Nov 2010. The ticket price is $29.50 per adult and the whole ride took about half an hour to complete its turn. It was ok, they even provide audio guide in the flyer to explain on the flyer information. You get the full view of the Marina Bay Sands opposite and Nicoll Highway + Kallang River on the other side.


Complete Photo Album: Click here

A Day in Universal Studio

Had a great day in the Universal Studio (SG) again, but this time it was a full day from 10am to 10pm.
Hohohoo... Saw a few characters walking around and performing there too. And best of all, there is fireworks showing @ the Lagoon in the nite.

 Rides Taken:
1. Enchanted Airways
2. Revenge of the Mummy
3. Shrek 4D Adventure

Shows Watched:
1. Waterfront Performance
2. Monster Rock

Complete Photo Album: Click here

Malacca Trip 2010

Went to Malacca from 17th Jul to 18th Jul with my friends. We met at 8 am at Golden Mile Tower, had our breakfast and boarded the coach bus to head for Malaysia, Malacca. It was a 4 plus hours ride there, we reached Malacca around 1 plus. We alighted at Hotel Equatorial entrance, and took a cab to the Baba House at Jonker Street.

Luckily one of our rooms is ready, so we put all our bags in that room. Next, we headed to Jonker 88 shop, which is famous for its laska. There are so many people inside, all the tables are fully packed. We waited for awhile and we manged to get a table after 5 mins (which was super lucky). We ordered a plate of fish cakes, 4 bowls of laska (4 of us) and 2 chendol and 1 ice kacang. The laska so quite nice and tasty, super spicy.

After that, we headed down the streets of Jonker Street. There are alot of shops along the streets, selling cute items, rattan stuffs, and many others. Then we slowly walked down to the Chris Church, which is the oldest church built in Malacca. After that, we walked back to Jonker Street again and we went to the Baba Nonya Heritage Museum (where the tv series, 'Little Nonya' was filmed). The entrance fee is $8 RM and it was a guided tour inside the house. It was a big house with 2 storey high, all the bedrooms are located upstairs and the dining room, kitchen, relatives' room, guests' room are located downstairs. It was a half an hour tour, but think there are alot of mosquito inside, cos we all came out with at least one bite. Hohohoho...........
After that, we went back to the hotel cos one of my friends wanted to have a shower (Weather too hooooot).

After that, we headed down to the Nonya Nancy's Kitchen Restaurant for our dinner. We ordered popian, fried rice, vegetables, fried egg with prawns, chicken and a soup. The only food which is nice is the fried egg with prawns and popian , the rest, not really that nice. The total bill was $60.50 ringgits. Anyway we all ate until very full. Later we headed down to the streets again, this time there are small stalls being set up along the whole Jonker street. There are alot of stalls selling watches, shoes, clothings and more food.

There are alot of people coming out to walk the streets too, it was packed. We walked until 8 plus, then we went back to the hotel again, to put our bags down (too heavy to carry around, lol). There, we rested until 9 plus, then we went out again to buy our supper. We bought taiwan hotdogs,fried noodles,bbq clams and lala, dim sum, otak, egg tarts (i like it,heheee) and ate in our hotel room. After all the good food, we went to bed and rested for the day.

The next day, we woke up at 7.30 am and got ready by 9 am. We headed down the Baba Cafe and had a light breakfast. Then we headed down to Famosa Chicken Rice Ball Restaurant to try the chicken rice ball. The rice was too sticky and not nice to eat. The chicken is still ok, not too bad. We bought 6 pieces of durain puffs on our way back to the hotel. The durain inside the puff was quite watery, but still it got the smell and the puff was quite crispy. After that, we headed back to the hotel to check out. We waited for the cab after checking out and headed down to the Mega Mall, next to the Hotel Equatorial.

It was a super big mall, but on the 1st level up, it was like our shopping mall. But on the basement, there are more small shops, packed together and there are more people shopping downstairs. We had our lunch at the A&W fast food. The order taker was so blur, gave us more than what we ordered. Later we headed back to Hotel Equatorial Entrance, to board our bus back to Singapore.

Reached Singapore at 7pm and we had our dinner at the Golden Mile Hawker Centre. I had chicken rice ($3), and my friends had carrot cake, hokkien mee and claypot chicken rice. After that, we all headed home.

Hotel Stayed: The Baba House

Places Visited:
Jonker Street
Chris Church
The Baba Nonya Heritage Museum
Mahkota Parade Shopping Mall

Europe Trip - Back to Singapore

Day 15: Haiz...going to take plane back to singapore..so sian.Woke up and left for Paris airport.Still have to take the airport shuttle train from T3 to T1.So ma fan and the airport is so messy (still got 2A to 2F terminals,don't know how many terminals they have.) Then we checked in our luggage and when we went checking in,there was a lady beside our counter.She was like arguing with the SQ personnel about paying for excess hand luggage.Hohoho....

Anyway the airport looks old and boring,so we went in to the gate early.We did a little shopping too before boarding the plane. Later we boarded the plane,it was a 11 hours plane ride.So anyway basically we just sat and slept in the plane.As there is nothing much to do,except to watch movies or listen to music and waited for our food to come.Lol

With this,my 2 weeks Europe trip ended by reaching Singapore on 24th May 2010 early morning.

Europe Trip - London (Cont'd)

Day 14: Last day in London and it meat our last 2nd day of the trip.So sad.....lol.Anyway we woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel.After which,we checked our the hotel and went down to St Paul's Cathedral.

St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral,all having been built on the same site since 604 A.D. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.

Sadly,photography is not allowed inside but we did climbed up to the upper top most gallery,where you can have a nice view of London City.There was a whispering gallery,where it was at the dome of the cathedral.There are tiny holes on the walls,where you can actually speak through the holes and the people on the other side of the dome can hear wat you said.Followed up is the stone gallery and golden gallery,total up is 500 plus steps.

After that,we headed down to Victoria Station,where we originally wanted to go Buckingham Palace.But in the end,we went into a restaurant for lunch instead,hahahaa....

After lunch,we headed down to St Pancras International station.We were looking for our train back to Paris but we cannot find it on the list.Stupid me!!Bought the train tickets for the wrong date!!In the end,we had to buy another tickets back to Paris for a total of 300 plus GBP!!!So expensive,and it was not a confirmed seat tickets.It was just for a seat near the door.So angry with myself...So we ended up waiting at the station until it is time to board the train.

On the train,we didn't wanted to sit near the door,so we went to the cafe coach to stand.After the train started to move,there was a group of Australian.They had reserved seats in the train but they didn't sit on the train,they also stood in the train from London to Paris.They had bought a lot of beers up and they were making merry there.(Noisy!!They even sang loudly!!OMG)

After 4 hours plus of standing in the train,we finally reached Paris (Gare de Nord station).It was around 8 plus and we still need to take the metro back to the Airport station.So we bought the tickets and took the metro back to the Airport station.By the time we reached there,it was quite late.Then we still have to find the stupid shuttle bus back to the hotel.

In the end,it was a small bus with so many people trying to squeeze up the bus (as the shuttle bus was going for 3 hotels together).Luckily we managed to get up the bus,if not,we will have to wait another 15 mins for the next bus.Finally we reached the hotel and checked in.Then we just went to bed,super tired day.....

Hotel stayed: Campanile Hotel

Places visited in London: St Paul's Cathedral

Europe Trip - London (Cont'd)

Day 13: Woke up to prepare for our day tour to Stonehenge.But it was too early,the hotel cafe is not opened till 7.30am.So we waited until 7.30am to have our breakfast,so by then we left the hotel,it was already 8am.We reached Victoria Station by 8.30am and the meeting place was like 15mins away from the station.Sadly,by the time we reached the victoria bus station it was already 8.50am.The coach bus had already left,in the end we didn't get to go for the trip. So we decided to go for Buckingham Palace,which was just nearby the area.But again,it was a disappointment as the opening times was 11am.So we headed to Wellington Arch first,as to pass time while waiting for the palace to open.And we kept walking until we reached the Hyde Park.We also passed by the Marble Arch,it is an arch made of marble.Nothing much there.In the park,there were a lot of statues and birds flying around.Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and playground were also built inside.Then we kept walking until we reached Kensington Gardens.There,we saw King Albert's Memorial statue,it was super huge and tall.From there,you can see the Royal Albert Hall.It was across the road,it is abit kind of a round building. Then we kept walking to Kensington Palace,and still need to walk through the garden before reaching the palace's entrance.(Why the garden always so big?)

Anyway,photography is not allowed in the palace,so no photos taken inside.In the palace,we were asked to find the 7 princesses lived in the palace before.Princess Victoria and Diana were in the list. After the palace,i was too tired to walk back to the Buckingham Palace,so gave up going there.(The 2 royal parks not small).We took the metro back to Tower Hill station,it was 4 or 5 station stops away (That's mean we had already walked for 4 stations away from the palace station).At Tower of London,we went to All Hallows by the Tower.It was a small church beside the Tower of London.Anyway we just went inside to have a look.After that we went a ride on the city cruise along river thames.

Along the river,the guide gave introduction on the bridges and buildings we passed.He did mentioned that London Bridge did went down 3 times.And there was a bridge,they called it 'Lovers' Bridge',another bridge named 'Women Bridge'(Waterloo bridge),another bridge named 'Blackfriars Bridge' and there was a wavy bridge which was closed by the police after hours of its opening.Because people was falling from the bridge and it was too dangerous.Anyway the bridge did open back,now people are walking across it.There was a building shaped like an atomic bomb.Lol We passed by the famous London Eye and the House of Parliament of London in Westminster. Then we stopped at Westminster Pier and we went up to have a short walk around there.After that we took the cruise back again to Tower Hill Pier,where we took the metro to South Keingston station to have our dinner.Then we headed back to the hotel to end our day

Places visited:
1. Wellington Arch
2. Hyde Park (Royal Park)
3. Marble Arch
4. Serpentine Gallery
5. Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
6. Kensington Gardens (Royal Park)
7. Peter Pan's Statue
8. King Albert's Memorial
9. Garden Walk
10. Kensington Palace
11. All Hallows by the Tower (Church)
12. City Cruise (Bypass a lot of bridges & Buildings)