A FunTy Half-Decade. An still climbing.

F siah. A thousand times F.

I picked up the fragments @ 6/29/2008 10:35:00 PM

Sometimes I wonder why i have a picture of a balancing chrysanthemum tea can on my blog.

I picked up the fragments @ 6/26/2008 10:50:00 PM

Whats to know, and beyond. Pt 3

Probably the only reason to revisit vietnam: Halong Bay.

Listed as one of the many UNESCO world heritage sites, and currently #1 ranking in the running for the New 7 Natural Wonders by New Open World Foundation, resulting on 08082008. (http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/liveranking/)

A 2-day cruise would be sufficient though, as traveling on water would be somewhat a bore on a small junk. The scenery though, was breathtaking. Here are some of the pics.




One of the many caves and grottos in the bay.
Thats me looking as if touching limestone walls are like touching million dollar notes.
Kayaking in the bay is a must.

Sunset at the bay.

Halong Bay at dusk.

Of Nomstuff.
Must-trys in vietnam.

1) Pho
You cant miss eating pho in vietnam, theyre everywhere cheap and good.

2) Grilled Fish
or known locally as 'Cha Ca'. The cook pushes her stove next to your table and fish is fried on the spot for you. The street selling the dish is featured in the book '1000 places to see before you die' by traveller writer Patricia Schultz. But then again, 1000 places is really a hell lot of places actually.

3) Vietnamese coffee
You have to pour the water yourself through this dripping device. Its a local thing.

4) Spring rolls.
Comes simply wrapped or deep fried. The lemon grass and other vegetables within could get a bit strong.


5) Saigon BeerTheir local beer. vietnam has 3 famous local beers, this one, 333 beer and something else i forgot.

6) Escargot!!
Available due to french colonisation. Some snails are soft and slimy, some are hard and chewy. The hard and chewy ones (as above) tastes better. Definitely a must try when in vietnam.


7) BaguetteThey're everywhere on the streets in roadside stalls or traveling sellers, they still taste the same, just softer.

8) Highlands Coffee
Vietnam's version of starbucks.

Of Scamsters.

This is not to scare anyone who wants to go to vietnam, i'm just sharing advice. The most common of all scams would be the taxi scams, its prolly the easiest way for them locals to scam tourists, cos of the need for transport. One important advice is to arrange hotel transfers instead of just taking a cab from the airport after touchdown, for first-timers.

1) Taxis bring you to different hotels for commission and act blur with you.

This is very common. I had a map on me the whole ride from hanoi airport to the city, and when the cabbie suddenly stopped at a road that was totally wrong, i knew immediately. Then this guy pops out from nowhere and says "sorry the hotel is full, my boss says to bring you to our sister hotel". Bullshit! If it was officially true, they should know our names! So we were brought to a different hotel, apparently this hotel was better. Since we have not paid for the initial hotel we reserved thru email, we figured we just stay here, no harm done.

Amusing thing is i printed out the email agreeing on the rates for a night being 15usd for the previous hotel, and gave it to the staff at this 'scamster hotel'. And he was like yah yah this is my boss! Yah right you freakin liar! But i played along. So they gave us this huge room with one kingsized bed and one single bed. With wireless internet. All for 15usd a night! Afterwards i checked online at some websites and found that this room was actually going for around 40usd per night. Lesson: always print your black and white. You can scam those who scam you.

2) Cabbies try to confuse exchange rate with you.

This crazy cabbie at hcm asked for 500thousand dong to the city, thats like ard 50sing bucks! We walked away from that crazy ass and he said okok 400thousand and we said why so expensive, and he said 10usd. That kinda left us confused for the moment till we agreed.

3) Cabbies have rigged meters.

Most cabs start with 1.5 thousand dong (ard 1 sing bucks), and the metres are always turned on before you enter the cab. Some meters are rigged and they start at 150, and jumps to 275 then 335, till you have to pay around 70 sing bucks for a 20 minute ride. The locals really don't know how to rip tourists off subtlely. We were in this situation, so i scammed the driver by throwing him 10usd then walked off quickly, luckily he himself didnt know the exchange rate.

Thats mostly taxi scams, other scams include:

4) Walking coconut sellers in HCM.

They have the power to read your freakin mind! Halfway while walking i was thinking shucks, wheres the war museum, then this coconut seller came up to me and asked, "war museum? that way!", im not kiddin! Ok prolly cos that was the only museum in the vicinity. And he starts to give you a coconut. Anyone who experience this should run away quickly before he starts opening the coconuts!

5) Arsehole Junk Crew Scamsters.

Always check your cabin when you receive your keys, if youre on one of the junks at halong. The damn crew wanted us to pay for a glasspiece on the washroom door that was already broken! Arseholes, pay for your own maintenance.

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Aside from all these, vietnam is most definitely worth going, it is an enchanting third-world heritage. Just use some common sense, haggle when necessary, scam the scamsters, you wont regret visiting this amazing part of indochina.

I picked up the fragments @ 6/23/2008 01:56:00 AM

Whats to know, and beyond. Pt 2

Vietnam has only 2 airports (that i know of) with budget airlines flying to Singapore, one in Saigon and the other in Hanoi. I took a domestic flight on pacific airlines from Saigon to Hanoi as apparently its the fastest way (duh statement) and taking a train or bus is ten thousand times slower. But guess what. The flight from Saigon to Hanoi is actually slower than from Singapore to Saigon, aint that a scary thing. Cos Hanoi is a little further from Saigon than Singapore is. Funny thing is some viet locals didnt know that Singapore is actually very close to vietnam, when we told them its like only 2 hours away, theyre like issit?? They thought Singapore is in like antarctica or something.

Hanoi, the Capital.

The Old Quarter.

Old run-down shop houses, roadside eateries, walking fruitsellers, a thousand rusty motorbikes (ok some werent too bad) and piles of pungent litter on the streets, its like taking a walk through Singapore back in the 60s. While some condemn this form of third-world underdevelopment, i'd say this is cultural heritage. Maybe i should wear shoes next time instead of slippers cos my feet turned black everytime i walked down one single street.












Streets of the Old quarter.

The Hoa Lo Prison.

John McCain was imprisoned here back in the vietnam war when he was a pilot, after his aircraft was shot down. And after all this years the viets are rooting for him to be the next president according to the news. Aint that queer. But then again, can the news be trusted anyway.


This is one very huge dungeon door. Thats my sis at the left, and she aint that small actually.


Even in their cell, inmates had to been chained at the leg.


These are real life inmates that were chained at the leg over decades till they turned in stone.

Yeah right.


Thats me trying to turn the whole creepy dark dungeons facade into a playground.


Peeking into a dungeon.


A picture of a picture of John McCain pointing at a picture of himself


John McCain's Pilot suit. I was just snapping pics unknowingly around the museum i seriously didnt know this was his pilot suit till i reached home and read an article in the Sunday times.

The Temple of Literature.

The locals realised that the people werent fully confused enough and needed a place where they can nurture students in the ways of confucianism and confucius-say jokes. Hence the Temple of Literature was built. Since then many smart people came to the temple looking to be confused cos they were too smart and wanted to be adequately confused.

I was hit by Confucianism too when i was walking through the courtyards. I approached the statues of confucius and stood there for a while..




And then all of a sudden, POOOF! I became a complete different person! (Click to enlarge the below pics, im not kidding!) So thats how people get confused here!


Ok dumb jokes aside, this place is probably the most beautiful around Hanoi.


My sis, and the temple entrance.


Gardens of the temple.


More green


The names of successful students in the imperial exams were engraved on what they call 'Steles'.


They look like tombstones. Thats me acting like im walking through what i thought were tombstones.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

When the communist leader died, his wishes were for him to be cremated and his ashes buried at hilltops at the north and south, cos this saves on farming space. But the people decided to put him in a mausoleum instead. Whatever happened to wishes.


The Mausoleum where they kept his fully preserved body.


Me and sis!

Ok end of Part 2.

Part 3 - Halong Bay the splendid, and more.

I picked up the fragments @ 6/20/2008 01:10:00 PM