hihi..

I'm thinking of doing a short trip to malacca. maybe over the weekend or fri to sun. Let's go toge la.. never really travel toge before.

thinking of ard April.

let me know ok? so i can do research.

p.s. susi, wanna catch Detective Galileo (the movie?)

clover

Woohooo!! I'm back. Just touched down at 8 20 pm this evening....

Summary of my Ho chi min trip:
Total spending: $ 600 (that's inclusive of $200 of airticket and insurance + $100 tailor made clothes + $ 120 hotel).
Overall experience: it's definitely a city worth for first time visit!

HCMC is actually very similar to Bangkok, (comparison as per below):

Safety: It's a very safe city that u can just hop on to cab and point to them your destination. You feel quite safe in the cab, no need to fear that you'd be ripped off or robbed. When i was in bkk, i was wary all the time, dont dare to take cab. So HCMC quite impressed me.

Shopping: erm.. nothing much to buy except 'adidas' and 'polo' t-shirt. I must say the quality for those 'branded' goods are really good. some of the LV products even have symmetrically print. So it's really hard to differentiate. At least for me. Wanted to get few adi shirt. But the shopping service there kind of put me off. They keep dragging you into their stall. and once u asked for a price for one of the products, they refused to let you go. If you dont buy, they will really scold you. so didnt really buy anything. coz lazy to ask and the fashion for normal clothes are really not there. i guess it s the trip that i buy the least clothes. very controlled. ha.

only bought lots of coffee and some dried fruits. the coffee there is really fantastic. Love the ice coffee with milk. it's our 'must have' for our 4 days stay there. Their coffee is very strong and you need to wait for it to drip/filter slowly. very interesting.... I bought coffee powder and the filter back. ha.

tailored one shirt, 1 pair of pants and a dress. total of 100 sgd. the dress turns out to be quite a disaster. i really cannot choose the cloth. think coz of the wrong cloth that i chose, the dress turns out to be quite ugly. dont think i ll dare to wear it. ha. see how. angry with myself for choosing that. wat a waste.

Food: that s the main thing we spent on. (my sister mentioned that i put on weight after 4 days but i dismissed her. how could it be? only 4 days. dont scare me. although i ate a lot lah. ha). i didnt really enjoy local food for my past few trips overseas. but this time round, i enjoyed most of the meal. which quite surprising. coz i never really like vietnamese food and my sister warned me that if i dont see beef, i can hardly find anything nice there. so i was actually mentally prepared that i wont be able to eat anything there. but it proves that i was wrong.

We went to few good restaurant there to pamper ourselves. The highlight is the 'Rooftop Garden @ The Rex Hotel. It s one of the places listed down in the '1,000 places to visit before you die'. so it was a must do in HCMC. It s quite posh and not very expensive. spent ard SGD 25 there for a meal. although i dont really find it fantastic lah,, but it s quite a good relaxing place. with that kind of price, think still worth visiting... tourist thing. ha.
erm.. that s the max we spent in a meal. the rests all less than that. so still pretty reasoanable. we tried road side food also. conditions are acceptable and food is not bad...

Tourist Destinations:
Chu Chi tunnel: that s the highlight for the whole trip. it s the most fruitful place that i think it s really made HCMC worth visiting. we took a half day tour to go there so there is a guide that actually explained to us the history behind. it s quite cheap. only usd 6. fyi, if you dont know what chu chi tunnel is. it s the underground city that vietnamese built during their war time agains american. There, you can see how their lives underground and amazed by their intelligence in the trap they built to fight against americans. the camouflage s so good and the life has been really tough. we have a chance to go in to the tunnel to have a better experience. the tunnel s so small that you cant even squat. you have to crawl inside and it s so dark. i tried ard 300m (i think) and it s really quite an unforgetable experience. imagine those tunnels open for tourist are considered quite easy and big. there are even smaller ones that you cant even turn your body. so it s a one way ticket. once you go in, you have continue to climb. hot and stuffy. btw, the war only ended like 30 yrs ago.

k. i m getting tired. continue my story another time. ....

I have received my contract. I'll start work officially on 19th October 2009, which also means that I'll remain unemployed for half year from my end of exam date and three months from my convocation date.. sadz:-(.. But feel a bit better now cos some of my friends started on Nov or Dec.

Today, I went for a job interview with recruit express to look for a temp job. As I expected, they only ask me what I want, what my expected salary and they said that they'll look out for me... Hope they really do so.. And they are only willing to pay $6 to $7.50 per hour. (or appx $1200 per mth, inc. of GST) cos ECONOMY IS BAD... sadz :-(

Quite surprised that I saw a lot people there at Recruit Express and formally dressed up (I wore knee-length shorts). I can relli feel that many are looking for jobs now. I also saw an Indonesian girl who went down cos she was asked to do so by one of the company staffs and filled up the form, then she was asked to leave cos she wasn't Citizen or PR.. relli poor thing..

Lastly, I went to search for baby pink dress for SM's wedding. Then, I realized that Baby pink is the colour that I had the most. It's relli ugly. Why must baby pink dress always sewn with those ugly laces? I cant find single dress that I like at all at Far East and Isetan.

Recently, but I think quite some times already, I did not want to watch any news or read newspapers. Im so sicked of hearing this company retrenched how many people.. that company retrenched how many people... share price drops.. blahz blahz blahz..

I heard my bro said that Bank education loan can be deferred for one year for citizen. Going to check out now whether it applies for SPR as well... Btw why are you feeling so depressed, Inb? Never heard from you saying so.. Don't bottle up unhappy things.. Later you will suffer from psychological illness.. haha..

Tree

Constantly in depressed/bad mood since the beginning of the year. Wonder why.... New Year, bday celebrations all seem unable to cheer me up...

I hate myself being so pessimistic/negative. Hope the vietnam trip would be able to cheer me up and bring me new perspective.

Will call up TCS if they have not responded to us by the time i'm back. Need some disctraction i guess.

Vietnam trip: Thursday Tiger Airways at 7 50 am.. Come back on Sunday @ 8 50 pm...

Here am I updating my schedules again... No school this week... :p

16 Feb -> 8 - 5pm
17 Feb -> 8.30 - 5.30pm
18 Feb -> OFF
19 Feb -> 8 - 5pm
20 Feb -> 8 - 5 pm
21 Feb -> 11 - 330pm
22 Feb -> OFF

Dandelion 蒲公英

Yoz, how come nobody is updating this blog nowadays?

Let me update you with my schedules this week (although it's a bit late):

9 Feb -> Exam
10 Feb -> Off (study)
11 Feb -> Exam
12 Feb -> NUH
13 Feb -> NUH
14 Feb -> Off
15 Feb -> 1 - 9pm (work)

Any activities this coming wkend? Wanna go JB? Sat is Valentine's Day so I think El can't make it, how about Sun?

Reply asap ok?

Dandelion 蒲公英