Happenings

Boy, it has been a long day for me. Is it me, or has it been terribly humid? I just start perspiring the minute I leave my house. I loathe it. And most times I need to pin my hair up like a mad woman. It's this sort of weather which makes one fall ill. I had a runny nose yesterday and the day before. After taking Panadol C my nose was still runny so I decided to use Iliadin-Merck nasal decongestant drips last night. It was ABSOLUTELY effective...not just my nasal passage was dry but it dried out my throat as well. And of course, ambitious moi decided to run Pantai Hills route today (7km) and nearly died from the dry throat. I felt like puking and was dizzy after the run, but felt much better after rehydrating myself whilst sitting down.

I've been busy shuttling between Bangsar and Sri Hartamas for work. By virtue of that, I hope that I can reduce from looking like a salami to a Chinese sausage.

Tried shopping for shoes for my KK trip but no luck at all. Firstly, I dont know what the outer soles of trail shoes should look like. Secondly, I dont want to spend a bomb (eg Timberland) on shoes. I was advised by a seasoned trekker to get a pair of Power shoes since I dont trek often. I looked at the Power range and it was quite ugly. I guess in a way I am somewhat brand-conscious. I associate Power as a sub standard shoe and in my mind it's a "local shoe". (but it's actually Canadian).

I think I must be very tired - I seem to be rambling about a lot of things. Anyway yesterday I went to the gym and did some leg exercises as preparation for the KK trip.

Yesterday's exercise:
30 min walk on treadmill
12 min on stepper
Leg press
Leg extension
Leg curl

Happenings

Boy, it has been a long day for me. Is it me, or has it been terribly humid? I just start perspiring the minute I leave my house. I loathe it. And most times I need to pin my hair up like a mad woman. It's this sort of weather which makes one fall ill. I had a runny nose yesterday and the day before. After taking Panadol C my nose was still runny so I decided to use Iliadin-Merck nasal decongestant drips last night. It was ABSOLUTELY effective...not just my nasal passage was dry but it dried out my throat as well. And of course, ambitious moi decided to run Pantai Hills route today (7km) and nearly died from the dry throat. I felt like puking and was dizzy after the run, but felt much better after rehydrating myself whilst sitting down.

I've been busy shuttling between Bangsar and Sri Hartamas for work. By virtue of that, I hope that I can reduce from looking like a salami to a Chinese sausage.

Tried shopping for shoes for my KK trip but no luck at all. Firstly, I dont know what the outer soles of trail shoes should look like. Secondly, I dont want to spend a bomb (eg Timberland) on shoes. I was advised by a seasoned trekker to get a pair of Power shoes since I dont trek often. I looked at the Power range and it was quite ugly. I guess in a way I am somewhat brand-conscious. I associate Power as a sub standard shoe and in my mind it's a "local shoe". (but it's actually Canadian).

I think I must be very tired - I seem to be rambling about a lot of things. Anyway yesterday I went to the gym and did some leg exercises as preparation for the KK trip.

Yesterday's exercise:
30 min walk on treadmill
12 min on stepper
Leg press
Leg extension
Leg curl

Memoirs of a Vietcong

Unbeknownst to this little Vietnamese girl, she would one day grow up to be a Vietcong to battle in warfare (battle of the flab)
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Nah, it's only a pic of Claire during CNY and me during the recent "Valentine Buffet Surprise" event at my church..

Here's the latest shot of Mel. His fur is all blotchy now. I thought he might have had a fungal infection, so I took him to the vet. The vet said it was perfectly normal, and that Mel was going through puberty. I guess it's like us humans getting pimples and spots.

Chocolate finally took a toll on me. Coming down with a sore throat and sniffles. The weather has been horrible too. Bah! Tomorrow is the start of Easter choir practice. Lemsip Max to the rescue again.

BZ again

Ok...It took me more than 2 weeks to complete blogging about my Hanoi trip. I've been very busy since I came back from my trip. We've just opened our new Shop in Plaza Damas, and I've been busy setting it up.

Exercise has been on going but I've also been eating excessively since I came back. A lot of new year goodies lying around, lots of people had given me choccies over the new year. Usually I'm not a sweet tooth but this time I succumbed to the chocolates. I look like a salami now. I'm totally untrained for KK..

Day 4 Hanoi (3 February 2006)

Time	Event
5.30am	Woke up extremely early as it was our last day in Hanoi and we wanted to maximize it.
6.15am	Had breakfast. Last day to eat their fresh thick toast.
7.00am	Walked to Hoan Kiem Lake. Stopped by to see the only mosque in Hanoi.

Al Nour Mosque

Mom and I

Highlands Coffee

7.30am

Arrived at Hoan Kiem. It doesn’t take that long to get there,but we were having a leisurely stroll. Visited the Jade Temple. The pictures did not turn out very nice as it was pretty hazy that morning. In the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake is the Tortoise Tower.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Jade Temple

Inside Jade Temple

Tortoise Tower

8.30am	Off to Hang Gai Street (does sound like hang kai doesn’t it??) for shopping. No photo snapping anymore because we were too busy shopping. It’s a good thing I did not have any additional time to shop or I’d be stony broke. Shopping haven for girls!! Especially shoes, bags and ao dais! Got myself another ao dai…
10.30am	We had early lunch. Went to a shop which served Banh Cuon cha Ca (Grilled fish with vermicelli). Originally we wanted to go to Cha Ca La Vong, which is the oldest restaurant in Hanoi but unfortunately it was closed over Tet and only reopened on 5th Feb. This is where we tried the cincalok tasting sauce.

Masks on sale

11.45am

Popped over to Dong Xuan market where I bought the deadly dried ginger which gave me a severe diarrhoea. Here you can get a lot of cheap souvenirs but it’s not a comfortable environment to shop in. This is where we did all the last minute shopping.

12.30pm	We left Galaxy Hotel for Noibai Airport.
1.15pm	Arrived at the airport and checked in. I just found out from my brother in law that the airport recently underwent construction.

Noibai Airport

3.20pm

Left the grounds of Hanoi. Back to the humid weather in KL. I MISS HANOI!!!

Day 3 Hanoi (2 February 2006)

View from my cabin

Time	Event
6.15am	Woke up early to savour the misty and tranquil atmosphere of Halong Bay. Lovely, peaceful and quiet.

Halong Bay early in the morning

7.30am

Had a fantastic breakfast. Stuffed my face with baguette, ham and cheese. I love Vietnam’s baguettes.

8.00am

Took a boat ride to Hang Luon or Luon cave. The cave was accessible via a boat. It’s only accessible during low tide. After accessing the cave, we realized that it was a lake on the other side, surrounded by islands with no outlet. Had we spent a few hours there until high tide, there would have been no way out until low tide the next day. Scary! “Luon” means “narrow”. Spotted some kayakers making their way through the cave. Also spotted 2 monkeys frolicking on the island. I wonder what they feed on. They probably feed on fish or are vegetarian.

Inside Hang Luon

Hang Luon

Kayakers at Halong Bay

8.50am	Returned to Huong Hai junk.
9.10am	Visited Man’s Head Island. Look at the “nose”!

Man's Head Island

11.00am	Early lunch: Vege soup Sweet potato chips Prawn spring roll (I love the stuff) Fried prawns Fried noodles (very very good, I still remember the taste) Stir fried cabbage Fried fish Honeydew melon
11.45am	Arrived at Bai Chay wharf. Bought a Vietnamese hat for myself and a tiny one for Claire (my niece). Headed back to Hanoi
2.00pm	Dropped by a shopping area. Didn’t see anything I liked. Mien got herself an ao dai though.

2.30pm	Dropped by another shopping place. This is where a lot of the citizens who were handicapped during the war produce handicrafts. I finally found my ao dai here! It wasn’t cheap, it cost me USD45 but it was very well made.
4.30pm	More shopping! Dropped by another shopping place. I am not a beer drinker, in fact I don’t like beer but I’d decided that I wanted to try some Vietnamese beer so I bought a can of Halida beer. I didn’t like the taste because it tasted like Anchor beer. Yucks!

Evidence of my beer drinking rampage

Cows grazing in the field

5.30pm

Arrived in Hanoi. Went to visit the Hanoi Opera House and St Joseph’s Cathedral.

Hanoi Opera House

St Joseph's Cathedral

Statue of Mary and baby Jesus outside St Joseph's

6.30pm

We went to Thang Loong for dinner. “Thang Loong” means ascending dragon.It’s a posh place and inside it looks like one of those old colonial houses with spiral staircase. Outside, it looks like a typical house in Hanoi. Decided to try some Bia Hanoi (beer).Bia Hanoi was really really good. For someone who’s not a beer drinker to say that it’s good, then it really IS good. It has a malt taste to it.

Me and Bia Hanoi

8.00pm	Sent our folks back to the hotel. Mien, Thomas and I decided to roam the streets of Hanoi since it was early. We walked down to Hoan Kiem Lake. Went on eating rampage. Decided to have some ice cream (Kem Sua – Kem means ice and sua means milk) at a place called Thuy Tai.
9.00pm	Dropped by a café called “Café Mocha”. Apparently this place is really famous and is mentioned in a travel book. The deco inside looks pretty much like one of those old Hainanese restaurants. Coffee here was pretty good, but it was more expensive than Highlands Coffee – about 18,000VND per cup.

Mien and I at Cafe Moca

10.30pm

Headed back to the hotel to zzzz..

Day 2 Hanoi (1 February 2006)

On board Huong Hai

Time	Event
7.08am	Surfed channels on TV. Vietnamese dubbed shows are really strange. They don’t mute the original voices and practically just speak over the original voices! So you can still faintly hear the original voices in the background. Also, the voiceover is always a female, regardless of whether the character is male or female. Strange!
7.15am	Sumptuous breakfast! Their toast was thick and terrific. Vietnamese Sua (Yogurt) was very sweet.
8.00am	We left for Halong Bay. It was a 4 hour journey and the view was scenic along the way. We saw peddlers selling freshly baked baguettes by the roadside. We passed many rice fields. Along the way we also saw cemeteries where families paid their respect to the dead. Sometimes we saw tombstones right in the middle of the rice field. The ground must be very fertile. Now it makes me think twice about eating Vietnamese rice. Strange how the tombstone doesn’t sink into the ground.
10.00am	Stopped at a shopping area where they sold products like lacquerware, carving, clothes and many others made by people who were made handicap during the war. Bought myself a bag with mother of pearl designs on the side.
10.40am	Started our journey again.
11.15am	We could see the coast of Halong Bay. Beautiful! Also saw some prawn farms. Halong Bay itseld has about 2000 islands. Found out that Halong means “descending dragon”. It was believed that a dragon descended here in ancient times.
12.30pm	Arrived at Bai Chay wharf. We had to wait a while as it was still low tide and the junk could not come in.
1.00pm	Transferred on to a boat to board Huong Hai junk.
1.15pm	Lunch is served on board! We had lovely and fresh seafood. Yummy! Menu Steamed prawns Steamed flower crab Fried sweet potato chips Buttered fish Fried pork Stir fried carrots with onion and squid Stir fried Chinese cabbage The view was breathtaking! It is a vision of serenity and peace. The cabin was pretty spacious too. It came with an attached bathroom with heated showers.

Dining area

Getting crabby

My cabin

Mien and I

Along the journey

3.50pm

Arrived at Hang Sung Sot or Sung Sot cave. Mom stayed back as she did not want to walk the long flight of stairs leading to the cave due to her gout. Here we saw stalagmite and stalagtite formations.

Hang Sung Sot

Inside Hang Sung Sot

4.45pm	Return to Huong Hai junk. We continued our journey.
5.00pm	Arrived at Titov island where there was a beach. We opted not to swim as there were too many junks anchored there and who knows what oil slick there was in the water. We climbed up to the peak of Titov. I finally had some training for my KK trip and also burnt calories for the pancakes I had the day before.
5.20pm	Reached the peak. Breathtaking! This is where we viewed the sunset and saw 2 eagles flying gracefully around the flag.

View from peak of Titov

Still on peak of Titov

Sunset in Halong Bay

5.50pm	Hopped back on Huong Hai junk. Took a shower.We sailed to a spot where we anchored for the night.
6.15pm	Halong Bay was shrouded with mist.Looked like a mystical spooky adventure.
7.00pm	Dinner was served: Fish soup Buttered prawns Fried crab with sauce Cucumber with lemon juice and garlic Clams Deep fried squid Stir fried mixed vege Steam fish
8.30pm	Did some fishing. Thomas caught a large squid and a long snouted fish (don’t know what species but it looked somewhat like a barracuda). He threw the fish back to the sea but kept the squid in a pan. The squid was pink in colour at first but after placing it in the pan, it turned white. That’s the self defence mechanism of a squid – it changes its clour to match the surrounding. (The pan was silver) After Thomas’ catch the rest of us didn’t have any luck in fishing. One of the boat crew caught another tiny squid which squirted ink all over his white pants. I guess those 2 squids ended up on our lunch plate the next day. Chatted with Thomas about his KK trip.
11.30pm	Zzzzz……

Halong Bay at night

Day 1 Hanoi (31 January 2006)

Time	Event
5.45am	Hurrah! Going to the City in a Bend of the River! I am delighted to escape this horrible weather in KL! Packed up the last of m things like toothbrush and facial wash.
6.30am	Airport limo arrives. It was a plesant ride to KLIA
7.30am	Arrive at the airport.
8.00am	Checked in and had an Egg McMuffin at McD’s
8.30am	Bah! Heard from Mien that our flight is delayed until 11.35am (originally at 10.00am) Apparently all MAS flights to ASEAN countries are delayed. How unreliable!
9.00am	Bumped into a customer and a family from church. What a small world! The customer is travelling on the same flight as us! The family’s sending their daughter off to Australia for studies.
9.35am	Entered Departure Hall via the autogate. Mom had problems going through because the scanner could not read her thumbprint which had faded from doing housework! Of course Miss Dainty Fingers had no problems going through. Waited at the departure gate. I felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Finally read the Lonely Planet book on Vietnam which Ragu lent me a few days ago. Found a funny part about social graces: “Pity the Unmarried: - telling the Vietnamese that you are single or divorced and enjoy a life without children may disturb them greatly. Not having a family is regarded as bad luck and such people are pitied, not envied. Many Vietnamese will ask if you are married and have children. If you are young and single, simply say you are not yet married. If you are not so young (0ver 30) and unmarried, it may be just be better to lie” Looks like I have to do a whole lot of lying??
10.50am	Finally met Mien and her family before boarding the plane.
11.48am	Take off!
11.51am	In the clouds!
11.53am	Above the clouds!
12.50pm	Lunch is served! Fish with noodles and white wine
1.50pm Hanoi (2.50pm in KL)	Touched down in Noibai Airport! It was about 27 degrees Celsius. I had expected it to be about 18 degrees, nevertheless it was still better than the arid weather we had in KL. Noibai airport looks somewhat like the old airport in Subang.
2.30pm	Our tour guide Mr Hiep came to receive us. Before we checked into the hotel we did a tour of a few places. Hanoi city is about 45 minutes away from the airport. The landscape in Northern Vietnam is mostly ricefields, corn fields and old buildings. Spotted a Petronas station! The houses are quite oddly shaped as they are narrow but high. This is because land is expensive, it can cause something like RM30,000 per square meter. They get taxed on their land, so that’s why they make use of vertical space rather than horizontal space. Another observation: I spotted many “thit cho” signs along the way. Thit Cho is a popular dish in Vietnam but you wouldn’t want to go near it….because it is dog meat. You don’t see many dogs roaming the streets of Hanoi…they probably end up in a dish. Anyway this is the Year of the Dog, so it is considered bad luck to eat dogs. So lets hope many doggies are saved in Vietnam this year. Quite a number keep dogs as pets. Another observation of the dogs there is that most of the pet dogs are fat and quite furry..must be the weather. You hardly see those emaciated strays like you see in KL. Traffic is crazy. People ride everywhere and without helmets. Amazing. Also it is the culture here to honk – pretty much like in Bangkok. I guess coming from KL it isn’t too much of a culture shock (the honking part) but KL is considered very tame.
3.00pm	First stop – Westlake and Tran Quoc Pagoda This is one of the oldest pagodas in Vietnam. There is a number of monks’ funerary monuments in the garden. Within the temple grounds there is also a Bodhi tree, which is the type of tree which the Buddha meditated under.

3.40pm	Passed the Temple of Literature. This is the first ever university in Asia and it was dedicated to Confucius
3.50pm	Went to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Presidential Palace. It was a pity the Mausolem was already closed because therein lies the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh. The mausoleum is closed on Mondays and Fridays , otherwise it is opened from 8am – 11am daily. But I think I’d rather spend the time visiting other places than see a preserved body. The entire place is shut every October to upkeep and maintenance of the embalmed body.
	Behind the mausoleum is the presidential palace, Ho Chi Minh’s stilt house(1958-1969) and his house from 1954-1958. There’s also a picture of his room in the stilt house. Oh yes and this is where the toilet with pengsan factor for kwailos was.
4.30pm	Visited the One Pillar Pagoda which is a stone’s throw from where we were. The pagoda is designed to resemble a lotus flower. The original pagoda was destroyed by the French and the one we saw is a rebuilt replica.

5.00pm

Finally checked into Galaxy Hotel!Showered and rested for a bit.

6.00pm

Dinner at Thien Thai restaurant. Our menu was: Fish soup Prawn spring roll with fish sauce Fried squid with fish sauce Vege soup with pork Fried spring roll Stir fried clams Roast fish, vermicelli, pineapple with rice paper wraps Fried siew pak choy Watermelon I saved the written menu but I am unable to reproduce it on my blog because I can’t really understand what the guy wrote! my attempt at a spring roll We were entertained by some song and music played by a group of musicians. Here you can see some of the local instruments being played.

7.45pm	Went back to the hotel to let our folks rest while we Young Hearts wandered the streets of Hanoi.
8.00pm	Evening walk. The streets are still bustling. Decided to walk to Lenin Park. Walked pass the Northgate of the Citadel. It’s really beautiful at night.
9.00pm	Stopped by Highlands Coffee opposite Lenin Park. This is Vietnam’s version of Coffee Bean or Starbucks. Everyone was decked to the nines, wearing their winter gear (although it wasn’t cold) – furry hats, wooly jackets, mufflers and the rest of it. It was obvious we were foreigners from the way we dressed (ie only T shirt and slacks) and the items we ordered. We were the only ones who ordered coffee in cups whereas most of the locals were drinking alcoholic or iced beverages. At the same time, there were some “Vietnamese Idols” across the street in Lenin Park entertaining us with their wailing. We had no idea whether it was a competition or it was open for wannabes who just want to sing, nevertheless they sounded terrible and even Chinese New Year songs sounded heaps better. Packed a tart and a muffin for our folks because the Young Hearts felt guilty for enjoying themselves and leaving their folks in the room. In any case they were too tired to walk all the way.
	Went across to Lenin Park to capture some shots of his statue and the flagpole.
10.40pm	Headed back to the hotel and called it a day.