life in vietnam

New office

We moved office in end May/early Jun. Now the whole of the VCRE (about 50) are together on 2 floors connected by a circular staircase.

So now, office and home is separated, meaning that like most people, I would need to commute between the house and office and therefore get stuck in the late morning traffic. Late morning, cos there are at least 3-5 of us going together, which means that we have to wait for the last one to be ready and that usually means that we are getting in late... usually about 9am though we are supposed to start at 8:30am. Then again, we are usually the last to leave as again, we wait for one another to finish up that last email.. which means that we usually leave about 7pm (official time being 6pm).

The interesting part is lunch. To keep our cook busy, we have all decided to come back to the villa for home cooked food. Surprisingly, we are usually not too late in leaving the office for lunch, though there's 4-6 of us. Lunch time is about 12noon, and it seems that after one month, we have mostly adjusted and would leave promptly once the hunger pangs hits!

While the office is nice and good, the space is well organised, i sort of miss the old arrangement. What I really miss is that last time, we are just one team, but now there are 3 teams sharing each floor and when there are more people, things tend to get more complicated. Also, I realised that my wardrobe is quite limited and not formal enough.

Hoi An Trip

So once again, I go to Hoi An. This is a company trip and there were about 200 people descending upon the golden sand beach of China Sea (International name) or Nam Hai (Vietnam preferred name and made famous by the new hotel) or Cua Dai Beach (local level name).

Hoi An Ancient Town was under major renovations and they were repaving roads, adding drainage, services cables etc. It was a mess and really made walking in the ancient town a terrible experience. The good thing was that because of it, we forced ourselves to walk the streets outside of the Ancient Town, and managed to find surprising new shops, cheaper stuff and more interesting nooks.

After the horrible flooding late last year, after Hoi An acquired city status early this year, the local government managed to get more funds to upgrade the town and therefore went ahead with the renovations now while it is dry and sunny season. Also, they managed to get more investments and needed to upgrade some roads to make sure that the infrastructure would support the development of some areas around the ancient town.

Vietnam Economy

For the whole of June, one of the main topics is the state of Vietnam Economy. It is all over the news, whether in Vietnam, in Singapore or in other Asia countries and even in International journals.

In this period alone, I learned about all the relationship between trade deficit, foreign currency reserves, bank's limitations, interest rates, inflation, stock market, foreign investment etc. All these are inter-related and there are a few theories why the vietnam economy is where it is now. Fuel price increase, rice price inflation, funds shortage due partly to the sub-prime, etc are all playing a role. Add to these global factors, there is also how the Vietnam government is handling the situation, which seems to have worsen the situation (at least the first initial measures).

Anyway, the long and short of it is that it has affected my company shares, and directly, my bonus payout and salary etc (cos my salary is in USD). Sigh..

My 2 cents worth is that in the short term of 1-2 years, the market is not going to look so rosy, the government will take time to learn what to do, but demand is still strong as most long terms investors still think that this country still has alot going for it (as long as the government do not goof up too badly). Business that depends alot on current cash flow will face difficulties, but big companies with good fundamentals and deep pockets will survive.

Ok..I better say less, since i am not sure what I am saying....

I realised that I had photos in flickr that I have not blogged yet (which is really great cos I hate having no images on my blog.

This is the trip that I had with my brother family of 5 and my mother. I was so happy that my family came to visit me and that we could travel together to this coastal town 4 hours bus ride way from HCMC.

We stayed at a nice resort called the Seahorse Resort, where I booked 1 family suite and 1 standard villa. The resort is really nice and the kids had a great time just running around the rooms.

Mostly we are there to enjoy the resort, the beach and the pool. We did do a half day trip to the dunes, the canyon and the fishing dock.

I really regret not taking the slides down the dunes but my interest for it was totally lost as we were hoarded by these kids touting their cardboards for sliding and postcards.

I also enjoyed taking my family around HCMC for shopping on Sunday before they flew back, buying DVDs, bags, T-shirts etc at Saigon Square. I wished I had more time to spend with them. I wonder if my mother would like to make another trip up to Saigon again as she did not manage to see much of it. Maybe this time I can arrange a really easy trip and get my dad to come too ....

This last picture was my brother family of 5 squeezed onto 3 sleeper seats though we paid for 5, cos the stupid bus company - AN PHU - overbooked the seats (they converted half of the bus to sleeper seats hence less seats overall). Halfway, we managed to get ourselves into another bus and it was alot better.

I wonder if I could add photos to this. Entries without images is a bit boring.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3026132&id=730015460

Just as soon as I complain that I could not easily update my blog, I found this application under the post box of my blog. So really, they try to make a lazy girl like me run out of excuses.

I did a weekend trip to Nha Trang last week. it was a last minute decision on Thurs, as our office secretary was going back for a home visit, and we realised that we should go before we move office.

Originally, we wanted to take the night train but tickets ran out and we took the night bus instead. A long 12 hour trip, with not much sleep gained along the way.

Nha Trang was fun, I love seaside towns. Weather was good, and I did a dive there ;) with rainbow divers. Since I did not dive for about 1 and half years, I did a refresher. It was good dive, it was easy as the water was calm, not too deep. Did not see that much, but enough to keep me happy - lionfish, lots of parrot fish, some nubibranches, stone fish, pipe fish, clown fish, moray eel, large purple fish, grouper, etc...actually quite alot for 2 dives.

I am so tempted to go there sometime soon. I should check out their weekend friendly arrangement for advanced course.

Trying to make sure my photos are uploaded and shared easily isn't such a easy task. Flickr uploading is slow, even with the downloaded software. It messes up pretty bad as some photos kept getting struck and there were like 2-3 copies when I went to the website.

So I switched back to Kodak, as I had lots of china photos. It was slow but better than Flickr. Actually I knew that getting in on Kodak was a waste of time, cos I couldn't link it here at my blog nor in facebook, and I would have to send email to everyone, but I sort of just wanted it up somewhere, and somewhere that kept my archive of photos complete.

After 2 albums, I kind of got tired and distracted. Choosing which photos is a tiring task. Then, sometime later, I kind of decided to upload my photos again onto FB, since most of my friends are there and the upload was faster than either of the above 2 platforms. (but FB doesn't really help me archive my photos, sigh.)

Now, Vox has finally got some uploader, but I have not tried it and really don't want to keep uploading the same photos.

Actually, I kind of think Vox is not really all that friendly, maybe it is too new...cos it doesn't really allow me to email a blog entry into the site like the others. But you know, I am the kind that likes to stick to something cos I hate to leave this page and then create another..which is why I am still SingTel customer cos I don't want to change my mobile no.

If only I knew how to export all my previous posts and if only the other sites had such a nice design, I would be tempted to switch loyalties...but then again... i am too lazy to explore...it takes alot of effort to scan through all the available options and I would rather spend the time to write something... like this.

I had a really nice long break from end Mar till early May. It was about 5 weeks!

Many were surprised how I managed to get so much leave and the trick was that while Vietnam holidays are few, 3 of them are batched up in April - 15 April, 30 April and 1st May. Then of course, I had to use all my time-off and leave as well as applied for unpaid leave, altogether 21 days. Which is my one year worth of leave entitlement. And, it is only May!

Well, this means that all subsequent leave that I take is unpaid, which is fine with me as I really wanted a long trip. I even planned it from last year such that the new staffs will be in to cover me. But alas, due to contracts issues, 2 of them came in April, when I was already back in Singapore so handover was tricky. A few skimishes but nothing major that was due to my absence.

SINGAPORE 25 May - 31 Mar
Attended J's wedding. It was nice but it was the first time where I attend a wedding whereby I only know the groom and bride and one other friend. J was here in Saigon last year and we met up through a common friend. We clicked instantly and he felt that I was so much like his cousin! Anyway, I met his fiance when she came over to visit and I liked her too. Alas, good times do not last and J got headhunted to go back to another job in Sg and that is the end of fun and goofy weekends.

Surprisingly, a day before I left, I was messaging a dive buddy and realised that she was going to the dinner (she is J's NUS course mate), but I had already decided it was too weird to sit with 9 other strangers for 2-3 hours.

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2nd event is my sister and my birthday. We always had birthday celebrations together as our birthdays are a day apart. I remember when I was young I used to tell my friends that my sister is older than me by 5 years, but I was older by a day every year. so if I lived long enough, I would be the same age as her! ok, lame joke.

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China Trip 1 Apr - 24 Apr

This entry is sort of long overdue and I really can't remember much of what I want to say, so I'll just do a short summary of essential information. We did beijing - datong - taiyuan (day only) - pingyao - xian - shanghai - huangshan -shanghai - beijing.

I liked the trip though I have to admit that I am getting too old for real backpacking. I liked all the history and architectural stuff, though we did try not to see everything to ensure we do not get temples fatigue.

Datong was for the yun gang si chu - or Yungang Caves - series of Buddhist Caves. (see explanation in  http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-383239.html) It was amazing but over run with tourist as it was the Qing Ming weekend for the Chinese. Due to the new policy, China split their previous 1st May golden week into a few public holidays as the infrastructure system cannot cope with the whole country traveling.

Taiyuan has a very good museum and it is worth the daytrip that we made though it was quite a tiring day as we had back to back night train rides.

Pingyao is the historical town fixed in time. (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/shanxi/pingyao/city_wall.htm) It is a merchant town, most prosperous during Ming and Qing. As a mid way point for the silk road, this was where the first money exchange house was set up, the beginnings of the banking sector. I really liked it and it reminded me of Hoi An Town, another Cultural Heritage Town but much larger in scale. This was also where B tried to recover from all the bad air, pollution, cold etc.

Xian is a must go, terracotta warriors, Big and Small Goose Pagoda.. but by now... I was not so impressed with city walls and drum and bell towers...What surprised me in Xian was that it was so developed, with various 5 stars hotel and lots of shopping centres and modern buildings. It was totally unexpected as my image was that of chang'an, that long ago tang city that I had helped to build in the virtual 3D format.

So at this point, we kind of got struck as to where to proceed. After checking out the options, we kind of decided to go to Huang Shan and with that, Shanghai. I was excited cos I could then go and visit my friends in Shanghai, and I was kind of desperate for cosmopolitan life/city. Shanghai, we didn't see much since it was more like a stop over for us to get to Huang Shan, but it was enough for me to have an update on the city which is growing so fast.

The best part of Shanghai was that I managed to hook up with M who I have not seen in years and also J who I have not seen in a decade and more. I guess it is my reunion year cos I will be going to US to met another old friend.

Huang Shan was good experience but did not manage to see much due to the light rain that did not stop. It was misty...to misty to see much. But the next day I went to the villages and it really is the highlight of my whole trip. Alas, B got sick again, due to the rain, and he missed the whole thing but I guess he was not as excited over village architecture.

Finally, we got back to Beijing via Shanghai, B decided to cut short his trip so I went to stay with a friend E. The thing about it was that it was fun to stay with friend but she was really far on the 3rd ring towards the north. But it was good as I plugged into the life there. Did a few things like the 789 Factory area, the old summer palace, beijing university, great wall at mu tian yu, and of course the forbidden city and the park behind. We had done the bell and drum tower earlier on the first 2 days, together with the lake area. Just 2 days before the end of my trip, I finally succumbed to the China air and fell sick. It was not so bad, except that I had to rest almost a week back in Sg.

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SINGAPORE 25 Apr - 4 May
Sick for a week, and then realized that I had not enough time. Attended another wedding. Spent time with my family and some friends.

this post is boring...just like a report...sigh.. still trying to sort and upload photos. I gave up on flickr cos the uploading tool is really not so good, kodak gallery is better but facebook is really efficient. So please go facebook for photos.

I have finally subscribed to flickr. I considered it on and off for about 2 years now as I started loading my photos earlier with ofoto.com which was kodak. I really like http://www.kodakgallery.com, as it came with an easy upload software which i could batch load. So i had almost 4 years worth of photos till flickr came along. When my friend first used it, I was so fascinated by the tagging. However, I hesitated cos it was easier to have everything on one site. Also, I had to subscribe and pay for flickr while I had already got credit on kodakgallery cos I ordered an archive CD.

Anyhow, I continued with Kodak but was not updating it much when i started to blog on vox. Vox is nice as graphics and stuff but it was really slow on upload or maybe it is vietnam. Anyway, it is getting worse. the last blog, it totally messed up which photo i wanted from my hard disk. And due to the speed, I was really frustrated whenever i blogged.

Anyway, so i thot i tried flickr as vox and flickr allows cross referencing and I thot flick will be fast. alas, my first batch of 30 took me 2 days, it keeps breaking. and finally when it was done, i realised that there were lots of duplicates.

So it is almost one week and I finally put my photos from flickr to my vox. Now I am trying to blog on a photo from my flickr to my vox. anyway, kodakgallery doesn't link to any blog, what a pity.

let's hope this is better.

btw, the first photo is banana flower which is part of the ingredients of vietnamese hot pot.

it is faster and now i can edit here..

Feb is so short and it flew by so quickly though this year is already a leap year with 29 days....

Flower Nursery Visit

This is the TET, Spring Festival, Chinese New Year or whatever other names associated with it. Just before Tet, I went with my vietnamese school on a day trip to the outskirts of HCMC to visit the flower/plant nursery. This was traditional a family outting where families would go out to see the flowers bloom and shop for the various plants and flowers to decorate the house for TET.

It was fun, and the organisers had prepared vietnamese songs, possible conversation topic etc for us to practice on the bus ride out which took almost 4 hours. so we got there about lunch though we were to meet at 7pm. 2-3 people who signed up did not turn up and we waited about one hour before they decided to go.

Other than flower nurseries, we went to a famous local lady house who makes great Tet cakes. This is a dumpling consisting of glutinous rice, green bean paste, fattymeat. So we learned to wrap the bun and they would steam it. of course we all made a mess out of the whole thing. Somehow, I feel that their method of wrapping is not as economical and easy as the way we wrap our "ba zhang", the pyramid looking dumpling that southern chinese  have for "duan yue" which is also the dragon boating month (i better qualify as i am not sure if the northern Chinese does the same or maybe it is a south east Asian thing).

When I returned to Saigon, we could see the preparations for the lights as well as setting up of the flower show on Nguyen Hue. This year, I did not managed to catch the full show as i was really too busy before and immediately after TET.

Chinese New Year
I went back to Singapore for Chinese New Year, and celebrated it with family and friends. I know why but despite all the non conversations with people I see only once a year, I must admit that I really do like CNY. There is not much difference to schedule every year and even in the worst years when I was in my late teens to early twenties (totally bored), i would still follow it religiously. Then I did not have much choice but when i got to 30s, the most dreaded period when you get bombarded by aunties, uncles, cousins why they are still giving you red packets, i still went along as I found that I did enjoy it quite a bit. of course, there are times when i would sit there thinking i should have gone on some holiday, but generally it was good to catch up. Added to old routine, i now visit at least one married friend ;)

The question I thought about most is that when should i strictly stop taking red packets and start giving? is there some kind of unwritten rule about it? Of course, now I get token from my relatives, a sign that they really think I am independent enough. So maybe next year I should insist on not taking at all. Maybe I would start giving when I get to 38/9.

Unlike in Singapore, I understand that in Vietnam, once you start working, you are expected to give little ones and those younger than you "ly see". So maybe when next year I give, I can use the excuse that I am following Vietnamese ways... make the transition easier and in a lighter note. so that I don't get asked my age!! hahaha... not like nobody knows what is my age!

New La Salle College Campus at Short Street

I was happy to see the new campus up and filling up with life. I have such attachment cos it was my final thesis site. It is also one of the few examples where the final result is still similar to the winning scheme of the international design competition. It is a joke that RSP did both this campus and the NAFA one and the result is so different. This area is beginning to fulfill the vision of a vibrant local arts and colourful community area.

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Shortly back to Vietnam, I was set to fly to Hong Kong to have a meeting. So I managed to fly there earlier and have a weekend. It was cold and I was partly not prepared as I had packed all my winter wear and brought it back to Singapore. Luckily, I still had some jackets, a sweater and a scarf.

Anyhow, it was still sunny on sunday when we set out to ocean park. Yes, again...I think it is my 5th time there but I do like Ocean Park. With B, my new colleague, we took all the rides including the free fall ride ;) it was fun and we also managed to catch the ice skating show. The only thing was that it was so crowded that the queue for jelly fish display was too long for me to wait. We did manage to catch the pandas! they were feeding and for once we see them active.

 All around, we can see construction as Ocean Park is set to expand at least 30% to fight the competition from Disney or to show that local hong kong theme park can be better. Anyhow, I think it is good healthy competition and seriously it is still more fun in Ocean Park with dramatic hills and more exciting rides. I like the dophin and sea lion show and though I have watched it every time I went, I still like the staged jokes ;)

EDAW is helping on the Ocean Park expansion and I thought at first that they might build a hotel but they told me is it is more F&B and displays including probably a Polar Bear one.

I also visited the ARUP office at Festival Place and I regret that we did not have much time. The office was so nice with an internal courtyard where you could have open air discussions... for smokers... There was all the models of the Beijing Olympics including the Bird Nest by Hezrog & Meuron, the CCTV tower by Rem Koolhas, and the Bubble Aquatic Centre (not sure by who... need to find out).

The Festival Place was built before the old airport moved so it is a flat huge building. The large shopping centre included ice skating ring over and above the usual entertainment and shopping programs. According to Kent Lui, the owner wanted some office use to ensure that the development returns is not totally dependent on retail. He felt that had there been a concept of boutique hotel in the 90s, it would have nicely complemented the shopping center. Too bad we had a plane to catch, otherwise I would have explore the complex more.

Busy, busy...
So that was all in the beginning of Feb, thereafter I was drowned in the amount of work that needed to be completed by the first quarter. It was no joke trying to manage 5-6 projects at the same time and I found myself in short temper. Finally by this week, most of the urgent stuff has been completed and I also realised that there is only so much I could do....

It seems that my pace now is one post per month and I think I will try to at least maintain this rate.

Back to HCMC....

It's been about 2 weeks since I got back to Saigon, back to work. It is always a little depressing after all the rushing to see everyone, the parties, having some time with family and catching up on S'pore, to return back here to work. To return to a city where I can count all my friends on one hand. Of all the people I got to know last year here, 2 of the better friends has left this city. So the first week back here, I called out my remaining friends and within a weekend, I have seen most of them. That is just 2, btw.

Of course, luckily for me, I have also 3 visitors since. Also, one of my Vietnamese friend, M, decided that I needed to be more into this city and dragged me along last Sunday to a hot spring excursion. Which was a good distraction, though I wondered why we travelled 6 hours to and fro to spend 3 hours there on a hot sunny Sunday dipping our feet in 39 degrees C water. We also cooked some eggs in 87 degree C water. Really, I would have enjoyed it more if it was not such a hot day. Nevertheless,  I was happy to spend more time with M. But I think I did not sound too enthusiastic.

Planning holidays...recap...
Anyway, finally by this week, the gloom surrounding me has lifted. So I was happily planning holidays for the coming year. I even thought of doing a getaway this weekend but alas, there was no more seats on the flight. Which was ok, cos actually I made plans how to spend the time.

The big one that I am really looking forward would be the China trip in Mid Apr -Mid May. Actually I have been planning this for some time, discussing it with various friends. It is going to be at least 3-4 weeks holiday, since I think I really deserve a long trip. My last long trip was in Nov 2002. 3 weeks in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Sendai, and Yokohama, Japan. Since then I have done 2 weeks in Cambodia (Feb, 2003), 10 days in Sri Lanka (May, 2005), about 2 weeks in Khao Lak & Phuket (May, 2006).  Hmm, not bad, quick recap...

When I did the "Cities I have visited - TripAdvisor" tagging in Facebook, I realised that all the places I visited are mostly in Asia, save for a few dots in Europe. I was terrible when I did the test knowledge on geography (, scoring just average. was totally lost about all the South Amercian, Middle East, Northern and Eastern Europe, Africa...etc. Surprisingly, I did ok with questions about USA though I have not visited. Not fantastic though. So anyway, I was hoping to do non-Asia for this trip, like go Greece or Turkey (ok, still Asia but at the border), but those places are not so cheap. China is good, cos I really haven't been covered much of China.

 

Looking forward...

So anyway, we are looking at covering north and northwestern China for the Mid April - Mid May trip and this should include Xi'an (covering drum and bell tower, terracotta warriors, etc), Beijing (to do this properly), Inner Mongolia..and whatever in between that we could squeeze. I would very much like to also go to Hainan, Lijiang, Lhasa..but I think that would require a lot more time.

So other than that, I would also be looking forward to my brother family visit in Mid Mar. They would be here to cover Saigon and probably Long Hai/Vung Tau or Phan Thiet/Mui Ne.

But before that, I think I would go Dalat in end Feb with my office people for a weekend. Also, we have been saying that we want to go to Nha Trang too. That would probably have to be in June or July, looking at the schedule.

With trips back to Singapore, in early Feb (1st till 13th) for Chinese New Year, maybe a end Mar trip, my calender for the first half looks really good and full!

This is going to be a great year!

Some more holiday pictures...

My recent trip to Macau and Hong Kong. It seems like I recap more than talking about future holidays... well, I am still more contemplative than a dreamer. ..

It's the year end holidays and trip back to Singapore to see my family and friends again. I have not posted for some time and looking at the history of entries, it looks like an unhealthy trend.

I guess it isn't that i haven't got stuff to talk about, there is my newly acquired artwork, 3 pairs of customised boots/shoes, my recent trip to hong kong/macau..and disneyland. And I also know that some of my friends really do visit and read this, it just that I guess i have fallen into the introspective mood of the year end when I look within me and try to puzzle together what I am thankful for and what i would like to look forward to. it is probably also the uncertainty of what the next year would be like that i struggle to think about what to write or just... not write.

It's been a good year yet I somewhat feel that I am missing out something important. While it is true that I am physically removed from those I treasure most, it has also forced me to focus my time and energy on them when I get my chances. A friend just commented that it seems like I have been away a long time and we figured that it was really because we saw each other more often cos the need to squeeze out time to see each other is greater when there are less chances. It is also probably also that it is a year that we have all experience the most changes and challenges.

With more events and exposure, i also have more stories to tell and this seems to enrich exchanges and give renewed interest to long, stable routine existence. Not sure what i meant by that...ahahahaaaa... I think I am just thankful for all that I have, my family and my friends.

on a more upbeat tone, i am really looking forward to the new year, as much as I dread going back to hcmc and work after this nice break. But that is still some days to go and I really need not worry and just happily spend these few more days of 2007.