the love for anything that moves esp bikes! oh yes, and blushers. what a contradiction! :)

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

oh man im so tired. i just finished learning driving. learnt u turn and was already on the main road for the first lesson! my instructor drives a mitsubishi lancer. got up at 8.20am for my 8.30am lesson. ya la, i overslept. and i woke up, changed, brushed teeth and ran to the gombak station. yes, tt is how near i stay. :) got there at 8.33am.

now tt i just filled up my supersized tummy, i got some energy left to blog. ltr got night shift, but before tt, im gg to run here and do to do some small errands before i sleep like a pig tmr after my night shift. and when i wake up, it is time for reunion dinner. perhaps sharon will go temple with me to pray to ahgong. let's see.

i just trsf my vietnam pics to my PC. oh man, a freaking of 572 photos!

most of it are nature pictures. i took alot of it because i hardly see them in singapore. and very few pictures of myself cos it is hard to take my own pics with my videocam (rem my camera spoiled?) and the resolution of 0.8MP is a far cry from my 6.0MP camera. :(

wat to do, make the best out of it lo. i heard crispy said she tried to trsf all the videos to her comp and each 1hr long video is abt 4gb! i max out 3 tapes! woah. i think i will get a 250GB external hard disk after chinese new year. hopefully the it fair has good deals la and i can get everything at one shot.

there are too many pics and i would really wanna share with my frens abt the lovely trip i had, so i collage-d everything. hope the 4-in-1 (9-in-1, 16-in-1) pictures tells 4x/9x/16x thousand words!

i just uploaded 34 collages. dunno if i have the energy to post all. i'll just sort them out a/c to the days i had in hcmc.

day 2

booked a guided tour to mekong delta and all the various "factories"

the pretty delta view! very cooling and sunny!! u seriously cant do w/o the sunglasses.

first we headed to the fruit orchard!

we saw how they used coconut husk/trees to make the various things like ladles, bags, bowls. amazing. the handicrafts were carefully smoothened and craved to ensure each item is different and unique. they are as pretty as crispy ang....

heh. =)

then we had simple vietnamese lunch with their traditional coffee!!

check out the first pic, spot the spelling mistake! :)

then a rest after lunch!

then we plucked our own fruits. (first 2 pics) and we were treated to the sweetest fruits ever.

next, was the bee farm!

we had freshly harvested honey with tea and lime. super cooling. and look at those bees! luckily my videocam had 30x optical zoom.

bees and more bees!

then.... this picture almost took my life away....

next a sampan ride!

we watched vietnamese music and dance, but i only took videos of it. we saw how ricepaper were made but i was too enticed by the manufacturing process that i too, took only video of it.

after that, to enjoy the tranquility of the village life, we had a horsecart ride.

lastly, we headed to another part to watch how coconut candies were made.

the pics show the correct order of the coconut candy process.

it melts in ur mouth and does not stick! very pleasant taste. :)

our tour ended and we headed to back to hostel for another round of night shopping. heh.

oh oh before tt, check this out.

yuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. wine made of snakes and snakes and more snakes.

day 3

went on another one day guided tour ard HCMC because we had a good experience the previous day.

first, it was a short ride to the temple. this temple was built in 1744 i cant rem the name as of now, but it is all written in the guide book.

crispy paid USD 1 to free 5 birds. poor birds. :(

cutey little dog who is as fashionable as me! look at those piercings. heh.

next to the chinese association clan or sth like tt.

then we went to the handicapped association where every single art piece is hand made.

i was amazed by how they create their art pieces.

look at these. made out of duck/chicken egg shells! how amazing!!

i like the black and white pic the best. it protrays serenity.

the next place i went disturbed me alot even when im back in singapore.

we went to the war museum.

this pic showed some maps and some chemical agents they used during the chemical war. those chemicals names are toooooooooooooooo chim for me. shame on this chemistry student. :(

the left-overs military vehicles.

and THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS VERY DISTURBING. PLEASE DO NOT LOOK AT IT AT NIGHT.

these are the victims affected by the chemical war. the first pic shows a deformed baby preserved in the jar. the one on the upper right shows a person standing in a horse position. and the lower left pic show a 40+ female who is only 0.8m tall and weighs 12kg. and e last pic shows the terrible and unimaginable condition of the jailroom shared by 40+ pax who take turns to breathe. can u imagine breathing is a luxury?

:(

i dislike wars because they make pp suffer.

no more violence please.

next to the reunification palace! the ex president's home.

check this out.

the elephants legs. wat happened to those flesh? :(

their cars.

i kpo-ly asked the tour guide how much a mercs cost there. he said for a vietnam-made mercs, abt USD 45,000 = SGD 68,000 (that is the cost of one toyota here!!!!) and for a germany-made one, abt USD 100,000 = SGD 150,000 (that is the cost of one lexus here!!!!)

the cathedral.

was built long time back but it looks magnificent. and we went on a sunday so they had this very crowded church service.

next to the general post office!

see the traditional glue!

the telephone booths are air-conditioned!

inside the post office!

that marks the end of day 3 with another round of shopping. hehe.

day 4

we went cu chi tunnel (pronounced it as KU-CHI tunnel)

find out abt the vietnam-america war history urself! the tunnel is really an amazing network.

crispy and i cldnt be bothered abt being glam anymore! we crawled in the tunnel and got ourselves hot and stuffy inside the tunnel with barely any hint of light. but it was an experience. i cldnt imagine myself sleeping, eating in there. and i only climbed 100m and i was half dead.

see the hole in the lower right pic? it is tt small.

they made use of the discarded spare tyres by the americans to make lasting sandals for their soldiers.

smart and very nice looking. really!

the brave soldiers!

we ended the day with shopping in the zen plaza (the very few shopping malls in saigon) and buying the last mintue stuff for friends.

day 5

back in singapore.

a sneak peek of the food we have for the past few days!

i miss there already. im checking for air ticket prices. i wonder where shld be my next destination before the tawiwan graduation trip with my sister and her frens in may 2009.