sugar. spice. & everything nice :D

WHO'S RANTING.

Elaine: Blue, Green text
Xiaomi: Purple,Pink text
Sharon: Red, Orange text

Wednesday, July 18, 2007!

RANTED on; 2:22 PM

heyy pp im backkk! n ive got pictures to showw :)

my one year anniversary tour. i went on holiday at exactly e same time last year! anyways, i din forget my candy sister ring! so sharon went to ho chi minh in spirit too. haha :)

i love taking photos frm e plane. but my father reminded me tt i can get e same photos frm google earth.

......

vietnam is superrr big. n u can see all e meanders n ox-bows (according to my father. his geography is better than mine) of e mekong river frm high up there. and i couldnt help but think of our aspiring geographer smuiishi :)

we're very thrifty. we fought away countless persistent cab drivers n insisted on taking e hcm bus into town ourselves. only cost sgd0.30!

my first meal in vietnam: e lengendary porkchop rice! my fren warned me abt how goood e porkchop rice there is. we wandered into e small streets not knowing wat to eat n how to order (most of them speak only vietnamese) totally din understand them. we just sat down n anyhow ordered 3 plates. hahahaa. but e porkchops are reeeaaal gooood! bbq_ed over charcoal n served w white rice n cucumbers n tomatoes. all for only sgd1. good right!

e only problem my mum had w e stall was e tables n seats. everything was in miniature form (u know like in kindergarten) we had to sit on stools n eat frm this tiny table. i thought it was cute! n e vietnamese were really nice :) (even w e language barrier n all haha)

its madness on e roads in hcm. u have to be skilled enough to cross them! almost everyone travels by motorbikes n their favourite hobby is to honk their horns. it is superr noisy. there are very few traffic lights n most of them dun bother abt e traffic lights anyway. we got really good at crossing after abt 1 day. some vietnamese trishaw rider saw us crossing this huge mad road frm e other end n raised e thumbs up sign at us. HAHA.

e ben thanh beer rocks! but only one cafe had it. i suspect they brewed it themselves. anyway e beer was cheap there so we had lots of it. e fruit shakes are good tooo! there was this particular conversation btwn my mum n e waitress tt i found VERY amusing.

mum: u have mango shake?

waitress: no mango today. we have pineapple shake, coffee shake...

mum: coffee oso can shake..?!

wat can i say. my mum's hilarious.

went on a mekong delta trip n saw floating markets n coconut candy n rice husking factories. e scenery along e river was really beeauutiful! i couldnt help but take manymany photos. but im not gg to flood ur w them so heres a snippet.

we dun need pp to take family photos for us anymore. big head photos are in! n my father managed to master it :)

i love this photo's effects! all courtesy of my shades. i sepia_ed many of my photos thanks to my shades. this particular one (taken by my dear father who din know how to place e shades properly) had reflection of e camera flash.

we stopped over at some city across e mekong delta for e night. food is available on e streets everywhere in vietnam. n most of it is gooood :) we very adventurous. refused to take e taxis so we ventured e city w aid only frm a photocopied map frm e hotel n my father's instincts.

vietnamese eat mostly pork. my mum was so happy when she finally found bbq_ed chicken wings. see how happily shes smiling? haha. my mum's source of happiness.

we went back on e river on e 2nd day. for e morning floating market. they sold mostly pumpkins, watermelons, sweetpotatoes, tapiocas, pineapples n yam. n they had this long bamboo rod sticking out frm e top of their boats w their good (e.g. a carrot) tied high up there so e other boatmen knew wat they were selling. my father n i had a hard time trying to figure out wat e things hanging frm high up there were. hahahaaa.

i just HAD to take a photo of my father in tt hat! it's my mum's actually. my dad looked so hilarious in it. i made him do e tweeze thing but he threatened to poke my eyes out. HAHA.

on e sampan/boat thing on mekong river. i made my dad sit nxt to my mum most of e time so i could have one seat all to myself. heee.

we were walking ard on e night we got back to hcm n we witnessed this total madness on e roads. (much worse than e normal state of e roads) apparently there was a soccer match gg on in vietnam n vietnam managed to get into e quarter-finals. i thought they were being super patriotic or something haha. e crowd was mostly made up of youngsters (on motorbikes of coz) n they were waving vietnam flags n shouting 'ho, ho, VIETNAM!' or so it sounded to me. haha. it was total madness. e cars couldnt move n e shops along e streets couldnt really do business anymore coz of all e commotion. all of them were on a uber high state. n it lasted e WHOLE night.

view frm my hotel room. my hotel rocks. it has these super comfortable comforter n beds. n a bath n tv n fridge. only usd15 per night. for 3 pp! i super love tt hotel. it has a good view n all too :)

i missing e porkchop rice alr! but its good to b back :) i missed e girls! time for more action in singapore.

OH I FORGOT TO SAY! we bought this super cool set of mahjong tiles made frm real BUFFALO BONE! n it has these 4 stands for each person n all. i eyed it since e first day i saw it! mahjong anyone? hahahaaa :)