Saturday, January 28, 2012
Last blogged @ 11:30 PM

And after Cheng, Jong, Zhen Lu and Babat arrived, we still had to wait for Azmin and Daanish who were seriously late and had us starving.




And finally everyone arrives! Ordered and had to wait longer before the food arrives. The service is rather slow and all their waiters seem so busy trying to serve everyone. By the time we could eat, it was almost 9pm. 


At least good food was worth the wait. Wasn't pricey either. Definitely a place to visit again. Would be better if their service is faster.

So after dinner, Tzu Ying and Jong went to get Cheng's cake while I occupy her by making her take photos #bestmethodever

And even while they crept behind her, and still in time to take a shot, she doesn't realise anything. Genius.


She still doesn't realise after I shouted "Surprise" HAHAHAHA.

And a very happy birthday girl with her yogurt cake. Yes, yogurt cake.



It actually tastes kinda good. The cream on the outer layer of the cake is almost non-existent, really thin as what they described it to be. And it's sour, just like yogurt. Wouldn't eat much, but interesting taste.

Cheng really liked it though. The only person I know that doesn't eat normal cakes.



And group photooooo! With a very messy table.


Super like this picture I managed to capture. Full of emotions hahahahaha.


So after dinner, we dropped by Cheng's place, and in 4 years, this is the first time I've actually been to her house. Woahhhhhh.

Grabbed the tubs of udders ice cream she bought earlier on (mao shan wang ^^) and walked to tzu ying's house to indulge in our 5(?) tubs of ice cream. K didn't care about the rest, I just wanted my mao shan wang.

Of course I left some for Gwee who came later, while we were watching I not Stupid.

Was already 1am when the movie ended and they all didn't want to go home, and we ended up playing daidee and poker and blackjack and talking nonsense.



And from saying that we would leave at 2.30am, it become 3am... and we were still not leaving. We probably woke tzu ying's mum, and she still very nice give us angbao when we didn't even bai nian!


It went on and on, talking about secondary school days till we finally had to leave at 3.30am.


At least it was an awesome night, it's so hard for everyone to find time to meet up, and it's such occasions that we can do so.

Good times good times :')

Labels: Birthday, Food, Friends

Thursday, January 26, 2012
Last blogged @ 11:41 PM

Relieving some past memories, they all seem so funny now.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Last blogged @ 11:28 PM

Reaching Hanoi after a very torturous 3 hour plane ride, falling in and out of sleep.


And for the first time, I saw the unloading of baggages from the plane and see our luggages getting tossed. We saw a LV luggage too and thought they would be extra careful with it. Lo and behold... they threw it as hard as the others, and when it dropped from the pile, they threw it extra harder LOL.


Saw this cool dude riding a huge tree at the back on his bike. Other people had plants behind them too, but this was the biggest of the biggest.


Stayed in a boutique hotel in the middle of Old Quarter, the old town. Room was small, but it was pleasant and nice! Super comfortable.



And they even had a walk-in closet!



Decided to have lunch so we asked the receptionist where had good local food and she recommended "Little Hanoi"


We were the only persons there in the restaurant.


And it seems like they are really hostile towards us, Asians, even though they are Asians themselves. Well, very expectedly, on the opposite, they are super polite and friendly towards the Caucasians. 


But the food was really cheap, the entire lunch was only about S$20?

Decided to walk around Old Quarter. It's the most famous old town in Hanoi, and if I'm not wrong, it's 40 streets big.

It's supposed to be quite cool and I thought it would be a good place to shop, but I was so wrong.

First thing first, traffic itself is such a bitch. Walking on the streets itself is such a tiring thing to do. Watching out for our bags, watching for bikes, crossing the road, there's no law at all. This is way worse than Ho Chi Minh city. There's no pavements to walk on and the shop owners get angry and push you when you stand at their doorstep trying to avoid honking bikes. Woah.


There isn't much to buy either cus it's not exactly cheap, and they just sell usual local commodities. They do sell a lot of imitations though. D&G, CK, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino... you name it, they have it.

They do have lots of nice heels though, but the people there rarely bother to entertain you, so we just walk away instead.

So after 2 hours of torturous walk, we decided to go back to the hotel and stay away from the crowd.

Then mum and I decided to go over to the salon right opposite the hotel to get our nails done at S$10. Not exactly cheap, but since we didn't have anything better to do... Time to get new nails for CNY!!!


Wasn't a good job done, wanted to ask the lady to help me touch up my nails but she just brushed me off. Oh well, you get what you pay for.

Had to go out for dinner and after a very tough conversation with the receptionist on where we could go (there seriously isn't many places to hang out in Hanoi), we flagged a cab and got down to the West Lake where there are supposed to be cafes and nice hang out places.


It was getting quite cold since and settled on dinner at Al Fresco's cus the rest were just eating steamboat by the lake, and we didn't quite trust the food...


And that very much marked the end of Day 1 in Hanoi.

2nd day, we went out on a city tour.


And early morning, we visited the late Ho Chi Minh's final resting place...





And the temple of literature.

The only interesting thing was this thing where you could write your invisible wishes on it, using your fingers. Such a secretive wish ^^


Drove out of town and went to the supposedly famous pottery village.


Don't see how it's famous though... Such a boring place...


Better off camwhoring hahahahaha.


Visited a few other places which I shall not bother talking about cos I can't exactly remember what they were.

Asked the tour guide on good places to try out local food and he gave me the name of a restaurant, so that evening, we were out on the streets again.

It was bloody difficult to get a cab in the Old Quarter, we waited for a good half an hour just to get a cab which bothered to stop and pick us. The weather was so cold, everyone was angsty and the cab just wouldn't come. Was contemplating to just ride a trishaw to the place, but the man was out to scam us so we shoo-ed him away.

So finally a nice guy drove us. Major communication breakdown. All he could understand was "Food" and "Eat" and I was desperately pointing at my map.

He ended up sending us to this place.


And it's apparently different from the one written on my paper. It's in viet so I couldn't possibly read and tell him where I wanted to go.


But the place was really crowded, so we figured it wouldn't be too bad to try out the food. Seemed really popular with both tourists and locals.

It was like a food court in the open, with all the stalls forming the perimeter. The different thing is that, people take your orders and serve you here.

There were so busy that when we wanted to change to a different table, the manager said "shoo shoo shoo" HAHAHA. Definitely didn't understand if that meant "go" in vietnamese, or he was just so annoyed at us and asked us to shoo.


When this came, we were surprised at small the portion was, so we ordered another couple more haahha.


And shrimp with pork dumplings nomnom


Vegeterian something... but without vegetables hahahaha so it was just like plain bread.


And the must try - Pho Ga!


On the way to the restaurant, I saw Fanny's Ice Cream and it's highly raved about on the net, so I was telling everyone we should try it out and cabbed down after dinner.



The ice creams were nothing special, but just exceptionally shiok to eat it on a cold day. Love the mango sherbet though!!!


Had an even harder time trying to get a cab back to the hotel after that. Taxis seriously #lastwarning

Irritate the hell outta me. Quite glad that was our last night in Hanoi, because the next morning, we were off to Halong Bay!!!

Saw this on the bus. The poor chicken tied up and lying on the pavement, about to be slaughtered :'( Poor thing.


4 hour ride to Halong Bay~~ #buttnumb


Too bored, so I decided to camwhore. Look at my once-but-not-so-pretty-now nails ^^







And after falling asleep and waking up again, we finally reached Halong Bay!


Looked like everyone was going on a camping trip.




The bookworm brother who bought 2 books in Vietnam.


And our tickets to our 2D1N stay on the junk!!!



Our home for the night!!!




And the tiny little room that we were given to stay in. It was really really small. And I didn't dare take a picture of the toilet cos it was so eeeeeee.


Don't judge me, but I didn't bathe the whole time I was on the junk. I celebrated CNY eve without bathing teehee. They only had hot water from 4.30pm to about 6pm. And it was not funny to be bathing with cold water cos it was probably about 13 degrees out there. And main thing is I felt so uncomfortable using the toilet. I found a dead cockroach the next morning :/


Couldn't stay long on the ship deck cos it was freezing out there. Dad didn't bring thicker clothes he probably was freezing so badly. He wanted to buy a jacket before we boarded the junk for USD15, but when I bargained for USD8, the lady totally ignored me and refused to talk to me anymore. She probably thought I was an idiot (probably am), and they are generally quite fierce so we just walked away too.



The tiny corridor that leads to all our rooms at the sides. When people walk pass, you can hear every single word they're saying.






These things look like feet dangling down from the rocks.


After getting onto the junk once again, the tour guide asked if we wanted to go kayaking. Nobody in the family wanted to go, so I asked this sec 1 girl from another family if she wanted to join me, and she would!

So, very unprepared, very cold, and very anxiously, we went into the waters of Halong Bay.

Presenting to you... the 3 musketeers. Together with Amelia from UK and Ally, my partner!


LOL see my kayak in comparison to the huge junk.

The waters were very calm so it was easy to kayak. The only scary thing was there were so many junks of this size swimming around in the waters, it was so worrying whether one would just come crushing into you. How would I have the energy to paddle away from the giant in time?!?!

There was one that was trying to move away from us, we got so scared we just stayed there and prayed that the waters wouldn't push us towards it.

We had 45 minutes to kayak around, but after 25, we just gave up and got back to safety.

I wonder how people who didn't know how to kayak went out so far. I was so scared I couldn't come back  or capsize in the waters. My god, I don't know how to save the little girl.



For the rest of the time on the waters, I was so bored and totally regretted forgetting to bring my notes to read, at least I could be productive and not stoning.

But night came rather fast and dinner was served.


Then after dinner was back to being bored omg. Time passes so slowly in Vietnam it's quite a pain thinking of what we can do.

So bro wanted to go fishing and I went out with him in the cold night. It was the coldest night everrrrrr in vietnam, my face was numb but very shiok just sitting out staring at the waters. Probably spent an hour just shivering and had our teeth chattering and catching no fish.


So back in the junk, the adults were all talking and suddenly, one guy told the cabin crew to turn up the music and dim the lights.

Next thing you know... everyone was partying. Awaiting the arrival of CNY.

CLUBBING ON A BOAT.

What an experience hahahahahah.

Multi-racial somemore + underage clubbing allowed. I swear it's the first time I've ever seen my dad dance lololololol.

So presenting to you...

my mum

The cool 17 year old Vietnamese dude who works on the junk,


and gave us free Hanoi beer to drink (when we were supposed to pay for it)


Another vietnamese dude who was the best clubber, he danced non stop for 2 hours, wonder how he doesn't feel tired at all.

In the background is this Indian man, who came with his wife. They stayed in Dubai for 18 years and recently moved to Singapore to work. Amazing.


And a UK guy, Nic and his partner (in the kayak picture above), Amelia, and they speak Chinese woah woah.



Don't have a picture of my bro and Ally, and that's why it's underage and healthy clubbing. HAHAHA.

And at 11pm, they decided to stop cos everyone was tired, and they switched to singing K instead.

Just that... the songs were so old...

Only can remember them singing "my heart will go on" and everyone was laughing how it wasn't a very apt song cos we were on the waters.

The night was so cold it was a little tough falling asleep, I think I had to wrap myself before I finally found a comfortable position.

Next morning was equally cold...

Took a picture with our new found UK friends before they left the junk for another island.


And here's Ally's brother, a super cute boy who's always smiling!!! Very adorable!!!



Before we ended the stay on the junk, we went on a tour on a small sampan.



COOOOOOOOLD.


And after getting down from the junk, the small little boy (I just can't remember his name), offered to help me pull my luggage. So cute!



And that was the last day I saw him. He still asked which hotel I stayed so that he could come over and find me, and later asked for my number, but till now he never called :( Adorable boy.

Anyway, since it was the first day of Chinese New Year, when we got back to Hanoi, all the shops were closed. So we asked for the address to get to Pho 24, all time favourite restaurant in Vietnam, and so glad it was opened!

Cab was easier to get this time round, but the driver raised the price to a 100k dong (S$6). Freaking cheap in Singapore, but expensive in Vietnam. But we went ahead anyway.


Awesome bowl of noodles.


And caramel creme ^^


Had a walk down to Fanny's Ice Cream again ha! Feels so good to be eating ice cream together as a family :D

They offer quite an extensive range of creative ice creams such spring rolls and like this, sushi.

When it was served, this ang moh couple was staring at it. Interesting...



And I'm back to sunny Singapore!!! Home Sweet Home! ^^

Labels: Chinese New Year, Family, Holiday, Overseas