Astro-Palmistry / 6:24 PM

Last week was the Welcome Week in uni and there were many CCA booths and retail booths all around campus. But I think one of the most popular booths was the astro-palmistry one! Sounds quite cool to have someone tell you a bit about your future based on what he can read from your palm isn't it?

Palmistry actually originated from India. The belief is that your palm is like a computer printout of your mind - both conscious and subconscious. Millions of sensory receptors flow through your body and one-third go to your palms. Consequently, what you think is said to be reflected in your hands.

I won't lie and say "Pooh! Who would believe in such a thing?!" and admit that I have gone for it once, 1.5 years ago. Back then the booth was at the NIE campus and probably wasn't as popular as it is now.. Back then it was cheaper too. :P It was kinda fun to hear about my "destiny". Of course I actually totally forgot about it and only thought about it again when my friends told me about their experience this year.

So anyway, just for fun, here's some of the things I was told!
1. Intelligent, efficient etc. (Is he saying this just to make me happy ar??)
2. Low resistance to temptation (Hard to believe when I'm always caving in to buy clothes/bags/etc)
3. Will deal with glamour in the future (He said the exact same thing to Wenz and Evelyn..)
4. Control freak (WHERE GOT? *sad*)
5. Will marry at ages XX, XX or XX and should marry someone who is similar to me (ambitious, intelligent, etc)

Ok la actually got more but I don't want to disclose all. :P At the end of the palm reading session, I was recommended to have my palms read or checked every six months due to systematic change of the lines on my palms.. At that time I doubted that I'll ever go back and till this day, I have not. I guess ultimately, I'm still a skeptic and will still believe in myself more than what is "written" in my palms.. I'd rather use the money for good food! :P

Playing Tourists / 12:39 PM

Another backdated entry! This one's of Ashley & Lixian's 4D/3N trip to Singapore over the National Day weekend.. I haven't seen them both in a year till that Saturday that I picked them up from the Harbour Front Centre. It was Ash's maiden trip to Singapore and I was sorta playing tour guide. Actually, when they told me to "set out an itinerary" for them, I was at lost about what to do. It's Singapore after all, and it's just another city..

Tourist things we did:

1. Clarke Quay
We went there on their first night here. We had dinner at Sun With Moon - I finally got to try their beef sukiyaki! And then we walked around the area, watched people do the extreme reverse bungee, and then finally settled down at Nectarie. Their desserts look really pretty and taste as good as they look. Just a little on the expensive side, maybe. We just chilled there for the night and caught up. They loved it there! I guess the major plus point is that you feel very safe there, unlike in KL.

2. Orchard Road
We went there on National Day! Well, first the both of them followed Xian's friend to church. Haha imagine that. Xian has not been to church in 4 years and her first time back was in Singapore. :P Anyway, I met them at Suntec City after the service and we had lunch there before shopping. Our best buy of the day was definitely our Havaianas! We got them at 50% off due to National Day promotions. :D Other than that we just explored the shops a little before their next activity.

3. Reverse Bungee & NDP fireworks
Our original plan of the night was to go to the Night Safari but we changed our minds at the very last minute. The both of them decided to spend their money on the reverse bungee at Clarke Quay instead! It reminded me of my own reverse bungee 2 years back. Fun fun! But I would only pay for it once. While we were there we saw the helicopters carrying the Singapore flag as part of the National Day Parade show. And we also had our budget McDonald's dinner on the bridge whilst waiting to catch the fireworks. Lo and behold, the fireworks were blocked by the buildings nearby! We still managed to catch a bit of the fireworks after we moved to a better spot. The fireworks display was way too short. :(

4. Mount Faber
Ashley's LSE friends drove us to Mount Faber and we just chilled at Jewel Box. The ambience there is not bad, but it's not very accessible unless you have a car. The entire place was set amidst lush tropical foliage and we had an overview of Keppel Harbour and Sentosa Island below. We fell in love with the toilet! Haha it was gorgeous and we took many pictures there. :X

5. Sentosa Island
Our most touristy day was spent at Sentosa! Our spirits were dampened by the rain that did not stop till mid-afternoon. So in the end, after having brunch at Delifrance, we bought tickets for the Underwater World and the Dolphin Lagoon. Went to see the pink dolphin show first and lucky Ash got to go into the waters and touch the dolphin! After that we went to see the Underwater World - kinda disappointed by the size though. It was so much smaller than I remembered! And then after that we went to see a 4D Magix show. That was quite cool because of all the environmental effects (such as water spraying at you), but again, only a one-time thing for me.

6. Holland Village
For their last dinner in Singapore, we headed to Roof Terrace Cafe in Holland Village. I didn't know that there was a restaurant there and again, it was another place with great ambience. Meet Xian's Michigan Uni friend for a short chat at Wala Wala later on and we headed back early for the night. Too tired from a long day of activities.



On their last day here I couldn't join them as I had some important things to do for uni. But they did more tourist things like visiting the Merlion and the Fountain of Wealth! Hahaha. (: Thanks for visiting me girls!

P.S.: You can view the complete set of my Vietnam holiday photos here and here.

Up, Up And Away! / 9:33 AM

Up has been out in the U.S. since 29th of May 2009 and ever since then I've been dying to watch it. But poor us had to wait till August for the movie to be released here!! Out of desperation, we actually caught a bit of it online from some random website but the quality was so bad, and we could only watch about 15 minutes of the movie before we were told that we had to pay to continue watching the movie! Roar. But I'm so glad we caught it in the cinemas instead last evening. Watching the cranky Carl and the innocent, chubby Russell on screens was sooo much better.

As buoyant and richly tinted as the balloons that figure so prominently in its story, Up is also thoroughly grounded in real emotion and ideas of substance. The movie started off with a wordless 4-minute montage that traces the entire relationship between Carl and Ellie, overfilling with emotions. It was so heartwarming to watch the amazing love between the two of them, so strong and able to withstand anything at all. And the rest of the movie is a tremendous tale of unfulfilled dreams and fulfilling promises..

It was really cute to see Carl's house being lifted into the air by thousands of balloons, and then finding out that his solitude in the air was taken away by the presence of Russell hanging on to dear life outside his front door. And miraculously, they survived a storm and made it to Paradise Falls, Venezuela. Ellie's life long dream. Pretty soon they were joined by Kevin, a squawking bird and Dug, a quivering mass of loyalty. And it is here that all their adventure begins! I loved the plot and the quirky touches in the movie. It made me burst out in laughter at some parts, and in others, it was very heartwarming. Definitely a movie not to be missed.

"Adventure is out there!"

Saigon & Mui Ne / 2:20 PM

Onwards to Ho Chi Minh City! The city is actually still better known as Saigon. We had a 7am flight to catch so we left the hotel at 5am. We never had a chance to sleep in throughout our whole holiday I tell you! Anyway, once we reached Saigon, we were picked up by someone from the hotel. They spelt MH's name wrongly hahaha - it was kinda hilarious. We weren't laughing anymore after that because we were very disappointed by the hotel's customer service. They charged us a higher price than what was stated on their website! I don't care if it's only by USD1, it's very unethical of them to do so! Hmph. If you ever go to Saigon, don't stay at Phoenix 74 Hotel!!

We were pressed for time and quickly booked our bus tickets and accommodation for Mui Ne the next day. And we really really wanted to see the Cu Chi Tunnels but only morning tours are available! So in the end we booked a private car to get there. It was a few times more expensive but at least we were in the comfort of our own vehicle and didn't have to follow any tour groups. Had a quick lunch at the tour company, thanks to Thy who helped us order some local dishes to be delivered to us. Yum yum!

It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels. And it was well worth the journey! It was really interesting to see how the tunnels are like (very small!!) and how the Vietnamese survived in the tunnels without getting caught. It's something you gotta see for yourself! After getting back to the city, we visited the other usual attractions but nothing much caught our eye. Saigon was very much just like a typical city. Oh but we discovered really delicious food! We usually judge the food by the amount of local people eating it and we went for it when we saw lots of people were eating by the streets. Needless to say we were definitely not disappointed but too bad I don't know what the food we ate was called! I'm so craving it right now. Sigh. And it was super cheap too! 10,000dong only, which is equivalent to almost SGD1.

The next morning, we were really happy to check out of the hotel and head on to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is famous for its white sand dunes, red sand dunes, kiteboarding and windsurfing. We got onto a 'sleeping' bus which was really cool! The chairs are actually more for sleeping and it looks like double decker bunk beds. We were in the bus for nearly 6 hours though. And then our screwed up bus driver refused to drop us off at the hotel even though they were supposed to and just dropped us off at their main office in Mui Ne instead and asked us to take a taxi. Grr. It was only 2km away so we chose to walk instead. During that short walk, we learnt that everyone at Mui Ne is really good at touting!! We stopped midway at a restaurant/bar called DJ Station for lunch and were extremely pleased with the service. The boss was really nice to us and even gave us free cocktails! Which cost more than what we ordered to eat.

After lunch and putting our bags in the hotel, we rented bicycles and made our way to the sand dunes. No one wanted to give us maps & kept offering us tours instead (see how they are out to get our money??) so we relied on our luck to get there. I have no idea how far we cycled but boy was I happy to see the red sand dunes! My legs were practically screaming for help when we were cycling uphill man. There were many cute kids there trying to rent us their sleds for sand surfing & they also brought us to teach us how to do it. Fun fun! It made the long journey worth it. Especially since people were telling us "Sand dunes very far! 35km! I rent you jeep! Cheap cheap! 20USD only!" Bluff us wan la. In the end the trip there only cost us 5 dollars at most for the rental of the bicycles!

Cycled the long way back and after taking a dip in the resort's swimming pool and washing up, we decided to go back to DJ Station for dinner. The boss came back to the restaurant when we were almost done eating and he gave us more free drinks! He gave us at least 2 free cocktails and a few rounds of shots? He was a really nice guy and kept coming back to talk to us. But after all those drinks that he gave us, I immediately conked out on the bed after waking back to the resort.

The next day we had a relaxing morning lazing around on the beach chairs and watching the waves crash onto the shore.. The whole afternoon was spent on the bus back to Saigon again. We didn't book a hotel for our last night in Vietnam so we randomly picked a hotel to stay in. Bad move because the next morning MH had some weird bites all over him & the itch was killing him. Lucky me was bite-free heheh. :X Anyway, the rest of our time in Vietnam was more relaxing.. On our last night we just treated ourselves to a scrumptious dinner and then headed back to rest. On our last day we went to the War Remnants Museum before packing up and heading to the airport. Seeing photographs from the war and the birth defects of people affected by Agent Orange during the war sent chills down our spine. We also saw a guillotine (the thing used to chop heads off) and how the Vietnamese were tortured. :/

It was sad that we were leaving Vietnam so quickly. 8 days is definitely too short a stay! There are still so many things to see, and I would love to taste more of their local food. Can't wait for our next trip, whenever and wherever that is, haha. Time to save up again!

Hanoi, Vietnam / 4:02 PM

The last 2 weeks was a whirlwind! Minghui and I were in Vietnam for 8 days, and after that Ashley & Lixian were here in Singapore for 4 days, and then now it's back to my final semester in uni. I've got no classes today so I shall finally write about my holiday.. And I've so much to say so I'll try to keep this concise!

We took Jetstar to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore, then took another flight to Hanoi. Our second flight was delayed so we were held up at the airport for another 1.5 hours! And so, our first day was basically spent traveling. Took a cab to our hotel once we reached the airport and nearly got ourselves a heart attack. Our taxi driver was acting fishy and even stopped at a roadside stall in the middle of nowhere to get a drink! While the meter was still running! Grr. We were just so thankful when we reached our hotel safely. Upon reaching, we were told that there was a mix-up and the room we booked wasn't available. So we got upgraded to a deluxe triple room that even had a computer, for free. Yay! We love Hanoi Phoenix Hotel :D

The next day, we set out to explore the city. We had our first taste of authentic pho from the streets, stumbled upon the Singapore embassy, visited the Temple of Literature, went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, got sunburned, explored a Catholic church, went into a hero's shrine, took pictures outside the St. Joseph's basilica, took a break at a cafe overlooking the Turtle Tower at Hoan Kiem Lake, continued walking to Ngoc Son Temple, discovered AMAZING "chicken cau" which tasted so so so good, strolled around the Old Quarter, pondered over some art pieces for a really long time, and then finally called it a day!

So.. First day quite eventful ya? We managed to see a lot of things. But the next day we were setting off for a 2day/1night cruise at Halong Bay! =) There were 16 of us in total on the same cruise and it took us nearly 4 hours to get to the jetty from our hotel. The weather was getting hot but once we got onto our boat, it was so windy and cooling! And we met a few really interesting and inspiring people on the cruise too. The only bad thing about our cruise was that we couldn't use the AC in our room till at night. We had lunch on board and shared a table with a French family. They seemed really nice but due to the language barrier we didn't chat much. We were just basically cruising around Halong Bay, and then later on visited The Cave of Surprises, got about 45 minutes of kayaking, and also jumped off our boat into the sea for some swimming! But soon enough we found out that there was jellyfish in the waters and everyone scrambled back onto the boat. :P Went to the upper deck to watch the sunset before dinner was served. This time, we sat with Rob & Sarah from England, Stephen from Switzerland and Kevin from Singapore. We were amazed with travel stories from Rob, Sarah and Stephen. They've traveled so much and done so much and seen so much - I hope we'll be able to do that in the future!! We moved on from the dinner table to the head of the boat for cuttle fishing but failed to catch any fish. All we saw was the horrendous amount of jellyfishes in the sea and how extremely long their tentacles were. At least a meter long!!

The next morning, we actually got up at 5a.m. to catch the sunrise.. Only to find out that it had been raining the previous night. The skies were cloudy so there wasn't much of a sunrise to catch. Back to sleep it was! The morning was spent idling on the boat and sailing back to the jetty. Had lunch at Halong City and only arrived back in Hanoi in the evening.. We went to St. Joseph's basilica again as there was an evening service and boy is the church gorgeous on the inside! And there's so many people attending it that they actually project the service outside the church on a screen as well! We continued strolling around to explore the Old Quarter's 36 Streets. I loved how each street is unique and sells particular items only. We were looking at coffee beans and even got to try 'Weasel coffee' for free! FYI it is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet and other related civet populations, and is known to be the most expensive coffee in the world. But truthfully speaking.. I don't think we knew how to really appreciate its taste.

That wraps up our time spent in Hanoi! It all flew by so quickly. Sigh. Will write about Ho Chi Minh City & Mui Ne next! (:

Astro-Palmistry / 6:24 PM

Last week was the Welcome Week in uni and there were many CCA booths and retail booths all around campus. But I think one of the most popular booths was the astro-palmistry one! Sounds quite cool to have someone tell you a bit about your future based on what he can read from your palm isn't it?

Palmistry actually originated from India. The belief is that your palm is like a computer printout of your mind - both conscious and subconscious. Millions of sensory receptors flow through your body and one-third go to your palms. Consequently, what you think is said to be reflected in your hands.

I won't lie and say "Pooh! Who would believe in such a thing?!" and admit that I have gone for it once, 1.5 years ago. Back then the booth was at the NIE campus and probably wasn't as popular as it is now.. Back then it was cheaper too. :P It was kinda fun to hear about my "destiny". Of course I actually totally forgot about it and only thought about it again when my friends told me about their experience this year.

So anyway, just for fun, here's some of the things I was told!
1. Intelligent, efficient etc. (Is he saying this just to make me happy ar??)
2. Low resistance to temptation (Hard to believe when I'm always caving in to buy clothes/bags/etc)
3. Will deal with glamour in the future (He said the exact same thing to Wenz and Evelyn..)
4. Control freak (WHERE GOT? *sad*)
5. Will marry at ages XX, XX or XX and should marry someone who is similar to me (ambitious, intelligent, etc)

Ok la actually got more but I don't want to disclose all. :P At the end of the palm reading session, I was recommended to have my palms read or checked every six months due to systematic change of the lines on my palms.. At that time I doubted that I'll ever go back and till this day, I have not. I guess ultimately, I'm still a skeptic and will still believe in myself more than what is "written" in my palms.. I'd rather use the money for good food! :P

Playing Tourists / 12:39 PM

Another backdated entry! This one's of Ashley & Lixian's 4D/3N trip to Singapore over the National Day weekend.. I haven't seen them both in a year till that Saturday that I picked them up from the Harbour Front Centre. It was Ash's maiden trip to Singapore and I was sorta playing tour guide. Actually, when they told me to "set out an itinerary" for them, I was at lost about what to do. It's Singapore after all, and it's just another city..

Tourist things we did:

1. Clarke Quay
We went there on their first night here. We had dinner at Sun With Moon - I finally got to try their beef sukiyaki! And then we walked around the area, watched people do the extreme reverse bungee, and then finally settled down at Nectarie. Their desserts look really pretty and taste as good as they look. Just a little on the expensive side, maybe. We just chilled there for the night and caught up. They loved it there! I guess the major plus point is that you feel very safe there, unlike in KL.

2. Orchard Road
We went there on National Day! Well, first the both of them followed Xian's friend to church. Haha imagine that. Xian has not been to church in 4 years and her first time back was in Singapore. :P Anyway, I met them at Suntec City after the service and we had lunch there before shopping. Our best buy of the day was definitely our Havaianas! We got them at 50% off due to National Day promotions. :D Other than that we just explored the shops a little before their next activity.

3. Reverse Bungee & NDP fireworks
Our original plan of the night was to go to the Night Safari but we changed our minds at the very last minute. The both of them decided to spend their money on the reverse bungee at Clarke Quay instead! It reminded me of my own reverse bungee 2 years back. Fun fun! But I would only pay for it once. While we were there we saw the helicopters carrying the Singapore flag as part of the National Day Parade show. And we also had our budget McDonald's dinner on the bridge whilst waiting to catch the fireworks. Lo and behold, the fireworks were blocked by the buildings nearby! We still managed to catch a bit of the fireworks after we moved to a better spot. The fireworks display was way too short. :(

4. Mount Faber
Ashley's LSE friends drove us to Mount Faber and we just chilled at Jewel Box. The ambience there is not bad, but it's not very accessible unless you have a car. The entire place was set amidst lush tropical foliage and we had an overview of Keppel Harbour and Sentosa Island below. We fell in love with the toilet! Haha it was gorgeous and we took many pictures there. :X

5. Sentosa Island
Our most touristy day was spent at Sentosa! Our spirits were dampened by the rain that did not stop till mid-afternoon. So in the end, after having brunch at Delifrance, we bought tickets for the Underwater World and the Dolphin Lagoon. Went to see the pink dolphin show first and lucky Ash got to go into the waters and touch the dolphin! After that we went to see the Underwater World - kinda disappointed by the size though. It was so much smaller than I remembered! And then after that we went to see a 4D Magix show. That was quite cool because of all the environmental effects (such as water spraying at you), but again, only a one-time thing for me.

6. Holland Village
For their last dinner in Singapore, we headed to Roof Terrace Cafe in Holland Village. I didn't know that there was a restaurant there and again, it was another place with great ambience. Meet Xian's Michigan Uni friend for a short chat at Wala Wala later on and we headed back early for the night. Too tired from a long day of activities.



On their last day here I couldn't join them as I had some important things to do for uni. But they did more tourist things like visiting the Merlion and the Fountain of Wealth! Hahaha. (: Thanks for visiting me girls!

P.S.: You can view the complete set of my Vietnam holiday photos here and here.

Up, Up And Away! / 9:33 AM

Up has been out in the U.S. since 29th of May 2009 and ever since then I've been dying to watch it. But poor us had to wait till August for the movie to be released here!! Out of desperation, we actually caught a bit of it online from some random website but the quality was so bad, and we could only watch about 15 minutes of the movie before we were told that we had to pay to continue watching the movie! Roar. But I'm so glad we caught it in the cinemas instead last evening. Watching the cranky Carl and the innocent, chubby Russell on screens was sooo much better.

As buoyant and richly tinted as the balloons that figure so prominently in its story, Up is also thoroughly grounded in real emotion and ideas of substance. The movie started off with a wordless 4-minute montage that traces the entire relationship between Carl and Ellie, overfilling with emotions. It was so heartwarming to watch the amazing love between the two of them, so strong and able to withstand anything at all. And the rest of the movie is a tremendous tale of unfulfilled dreams and fulfilling promises..

It was really cute to see Carl's house being lifted into the air by thousands of balloons, and then finding out that his solitude in the air was taken away by the presence of Russell hanging on to dear life outside his front door. And miraculously, they survived a storm and made it to Paradise Falls, Venezuela. Ellie's life long dream. Pretty soon they were joined by Kevin, a squawking bird and Dug, a quivering mass of loyalty. And it is here that all their adventure begins! I loved the plot and the quirky touches in the movie. It made me burst out in laughter at some parts, and in others, it was very heartwarming. Definitely a movie not to be missed.

"Adventure is out there!"

Saigon & Mui Ne / 2:20 PM

Onwards to Ho Chi Minh City! The city is actually still better known as Saigon. We had a 7am flight to catch so we left the hotel at 5am. We never had a chance to sleep in throughout our whole holiday I tell you! Anyway, once we reached Saigon, we were picked up by someone from the hotel. They spelt MH's name wrongly hahaha - it was kinda hilarious. We weren't laughing anymore after that because we were very disappointed by the hotel's customer service. They charged us a higher price than what was stated on their website! I don't care if it's only by USD1, it's very unethical of them to do so! Hmph. If you ever go to Saigon, don't stay at Phoenix 74 Hotel!!

We were pressed for time and quickly booked our bus tickets and accommodation for Mui Ne the next day. And we really really wanted to see the Cu Chi Tunnels but only morning tours are available! So in the end we booked a private car to get there. It was a few times more expensive but at least we were in the comfort of our own vehicle and didn't have to follow any tour groups. Had a quick lunch at the tour company, thanks to Thy who helped us order some local dishes to be delivered to us. Yum yum!

It took us about 1.5 hours to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels. And it was well worth the journey! It was really interesting to see how the tunnels are like (very small!!) and how the Vietnamese survived in the tunnels without getting caught. It's something you gotta see for yourself! After getting back to the city, we visited the other usual attractions but nothing much caught our eye. Saigon was very much just like a typical city. Oh but we discovered really delicious food! We usually judge the food by the amount of local people eating it and we went for it when we saw lots of people were eating by the streets. Needless to say we were definitely not disappointed but too bad I don't know what the food we ate was called! I'm so craving it right now. Sigh. And it was super cheap too! 10,000dong only, which is equivalent to almost SGD1.

The next morning, we were really happy to check out of the hotel and head on to Mui Ne. Mui Ne is famous for its white sand dunes, red sand dunes, kiteboarding and windsurfing. We got onto a 'sleeping' bus which was really cool! The chairs are actually more for sleeping and it looks like double decker bunk beds. We were in the bus for nearly 6 hours though. And then our screwed up bus driver refused to drop us off at the hotel even though they were supposed to and just dropped us off at their main office in Mui Ne instead and asked us to take a taxi. Grr. It was only 2km away so we chose to walk instead. During that short walk, we learnt that everyone at Mui Ne is really good at touting!! We stopped midway at a restaurant/bar called DJ Station for lunch and were extremely pleased with the service. The boss was really nice to us and even gave us free cocktails! Which cost more than what we ordered to eat.

After lunch and putting our bags in the hotel, we rented bicycles and made our way to the sand dunes. No one wanted to give us maps & kept offering us tours instead (see how they are out to get our money??) so we relied on our luck to get there. I have no idea how far we cycled but boy was I happy to see the red sand dunes! My legs were practically screaming for help when we were cycling uphill man. There were many cute kids there trying to rent us their sleds for sand surfing & they also brought us to teach us how to do it. Fun fun! It made the long journey worth it. Especially since people were telling us "Sand dunes very far! 35km! I rent you jeep! Cheap cheap! 20USD only!" Bluff us wan la. In the end the trip there only cost us 5 dollars at most for the rental of the bicycles!

Cycled the long way back and after taking a dip in the resort's swimming pool and washing up, we decided to go back to DJ Station for dinner. The boss came back to the restaurant when we were almost done eating and he gave us more free drinks! He gave us at least 2 free cocktails and a few rounds of shots? He was a really nice guy and kept coming back to talk to us. But after all those drinks that he gave us, I immediately conked out on the bed after waking back to the resort.

The next day we had a relaxing morning lazing around on the beach chairs and watching the waves crash onto the shore.. The whole afternoon was spent on the bus back to Saigon again. We didn't book a hotel for our last night in Vietnam so we randomly picked a hotel to stay in. Bad move because the next morning MH had some weird bites all over him & the itch was killing him. Lucky me was bite-free heheh. :X Anyway, the rest of our time in Vietnam was more relaxing.. On our last night we just treated ourselves to a scrumptious dinner and then headed back to rest. On our last day we went to the War Remnants Museum before packing up and heading to the airport. Seeing photographs from the war and the birth defects of people affected by Agent Orange during the war sent chills down our spine. We also saw a guillotine (the thing used to chop heads off) and how the Vietnamese were tortured. :/

It was sad that we were leaving Vietnam so quickly. 8 days is definitely too short a stay! There are still so many things to see, and I would love to taste more of their local food. Can't wait for our next trip, whenever and wherever that is, haha. Time to save up again!

Hanoi, Vietnam / 4:02 PM

The last 2 weeks was a whirlwind! Minghui and I were in Vietnam for 8 days, and after that Ashley & Lixian were here in Singapore for 4 days, and then now it's back to my final semester in uni. I've got no classes today so I shall finally write about my holiday.. And I've so much to say so I'll try to keep this concise!

We took Jetstar to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore, then took another flight to Hanoi. Our second flight was delayed so we were held up at the airport for another 1.5 hours! And so, our first day was basically spent traveling. Took a cab to our hotel once we reached the airport and nearly got ourselves a heart attack. Our taxi driver was acting fishy and even stopped at a roadside stall in the middle of nowhere to get a drink! While the meter was still running! Grr. We were just so thankful when we reached our hotel safely. Upon reaching, we were told that there was a mix-up and the room we booked wasn't available. So we got upgraded to a deluxe triple room that even had a computer, for free. Yay! We love Hanoi Phoenix Hotel :D

The next day, we set out to explore the city. We had our first taste of authentic pho from the streets, stumbled upon the Singapore embassy, visited the Temple of Literature, went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, got sunburned, explored a Catholic church, went into a hero's shrine, took pictures outside the St. Joseph's basilica, took a break at a cafe overlooking the Turtle Tower at Hoan Kiem Lake, continued walking to Ngoc Son Temple, discovered AMAZING "chicken cau" which tasted so so so good, strolled around the Old Quarter, pondered over some art pieces for a really long time, and then finally called it a day!

So.. First day quite eventful ya? We managed to see a lot of things. But the next day we were setting off for a 2day/1night cruise at Halong Bay! =) There were 16 of us in total on the same cruise and it took us nearly 4 hours to get to the jetty from our hotel. The weather was getting hot but once we got onto our boat, it was so windy and cooling! And we met a few really interesting and inspiring people on the cruise too. The only bad thing about our cruise was that we couldn't use the AC in our room till at night. We had lunch on board and shared a table with a French family. They seemed really nice but due to the language barrier we didn't chat much. We were just basically cruising around Halong Bay, and then later on visited The Cave of Surprises, got about 45 minutes of kayaking, and also jumped off our boat into the sea for some swimming! But soon enough we found out that there was jellyfish in the waters and everyone scrambled back onto the boat. :P Went to the upper deck to watch the sunset before dinner was served. This time, we sat with Rob & Sarah from England, Stephen from Switzerland and Kevin from Singapore. We were amazed with travel stories from Rob, Sarah and Stephen. They've traveled so much and done so much and seen so much - I hope we'll be able to do that in the future!! We moved on from the dinner table to the head of the boat for cuttle fishing but failed to catch any fish. All we saw was the horrendous amount of jellyfishes in the sea and how extremely long their tentacles were. At least a meter long!!

The next morning, we actually got up at 5a.m. to catch the sunrise.. Only to find out that it had been raining the previous night. The skies were cloudy so there wasn't much of a sunrise to catch. Back to sleep it was! The morning was spent idling on the boat and sailing back to the jetty. Had lunch at Halong City and only arrived back in Hanoi in the evening.. We went to St. Joseph's basilica again as there was an evening service and boy is the church gorgeous on the inside! And there's so many people attending it that they actually project the service outside the church on a screen as well! We continued strolling around to explore the Old Quarter's 36 Streets. I loved how each street is unique and sells particular items only. We were looking at coffee beans and even got to try 'Weasel coffee' for free! FYI it is coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet and other related civet populations, and is known to be the most expensive coffee in the world. But truthfully speaking.. I don't think we knew how to really appreciate its taste.

That wraps up our time spent in Hanoi! It all flew by so quickly. Sigh. Will write about Ho Chi Minh City & Mui Ne next! (: