Banh Mi Bo Kho

Breakfast.
Stewed Beef, with carrots and tomatoes, and a large loaf of bread.
This has strong aroma of spice, parlsey, and some leaves which I've yet to ascertain (suspected basil, though it's much larger)

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's my Birthday today!

I promise myself, nothing's going to make me upset today. Take things as they come, do things as it should. And just let go.

Moving on to 31. Another year gone by, another chapter to work on. And this year, I'm celebrating my birthday in a foreign land.

Finally

At last. The Viettel technician made a house call at 9:00pm to rectify the broadband connection.
Know what he did?

Accessed the D-Link setting.
Punched in the user ID and password.

Voila. Sigh, why couldn't they just give me that earlier. I would have been in weeks back.

Anyhow, many thanks to Ms. Giac for making all those calls and get this thru. She can see how important this connection is to me.

Errrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!

I just got back from the apartment, with the landlord and the ISP technician. They came, with an attempt to rectify the broadband problem. By seeing this post, my reader would have guessed that things went badly wrong.

The day started off problematic. First the tap ran dry halfway thru my shower. Hence, very limited water to wash off the soap. Apparently, they decided to do some piping rectification without annoucement.

Reached the office, we experienced power blackout at 10:30am. Another Wednesday blackout. Every week. Without fail.

Fine. To the apartment at 2:00pm. ISP technician figured the modem's fine, the connection's fine, my notebook's fine. So probably it's the ISP's side that's not fine. Oops, forgot to mention, this technician wasn't from the ISP office. He's engaged with another ISP. Landlord messed up (I'm not surprised).

So fine again. He called Viettel, the ISP for this connection. Ran thru the IP for the modem, all is fine again. Oh, needs to reconfirm the password for this connection.




You guessed right, no password available. Called owner in HaNoi. Can't find the contract. Oh wait, the contract may be kept in with the rest of the documents in the bedroom next door (one cupboard still retained by owner for personal belongings). Aaaaaaand... roommate locked the door.

What else could go wrong anyway? Being on the 11th floor, the last thing we would want is a power cut. And that's wishes come true. It was a BLACKOUT!

All thru the day. A waste of time. A waste of resources. A waste of money.


This, my faithful readers, is Vietnam.


My colleague here felt bad hearing my laments about her Country. Don't be. It's not your fault that you were born here. Had you seen what I've seen, you'll understand my feelings too.

Still no broadband

It's been almost 3 weeks. Still no broadband at home.
Yerks! This is no good. I can't connect with my family without the broadband.

Till now, I'm still experiencing the culture shock. The country's not exactly well off, and yet technologically they are. Then again, customer service and efficiency is still lacking, far far behind. Even a village back home would have been more prompt.

I bug things to move, it stretched half an inch. I bug it again, it stretches again. At this rate, no wonder progress cannot be achieved.



Oh, I've been zipping about town on the scooter. Finally I get to learn the road, the driver's way. Moving on the opposite side of the road is not that bad, really. Though couple of times I did scare the wits off some motorcyclists. Forgot I'm supposed to be on the right side of the road....

I'm down with a tummy ache the past 2 days. Must have been a bad combination of food. It's not too bad, though the day's been uncomfortably long. I'll get over it eventually (no Chi Kit pills here). Serves me right for not asking what the menu says. Stupid me pointed to a dish in Viet, and I got prawns for lunch. Of all the food that I can take, seafood (prawns, especially) is the hardest to gauge its freshness. Sigh....

Time to go home. Time to spend the lonely nights without broadband again.

The landlady says tomorrow, they will rectify the connection. That's what they said on Satuday. They didn't show up. So tomorrow afternoon. I'll wait and see. Let Vietnam impress me.

The Finance and Sales team of HoChiMinh

Surrounding me, the ladies that holds the fort in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.
From left: Tu Giac, Hong Hai, Khanh Hoa, Tu Giang

Bun Bo

I was introduced to Bun Bo, a beef & pork noodle of Central Vietnam. It tasted almost like the Malaysian laksa, but more watery. The mint leaves and chili oil are quite similar. Vegetables varies, from sprouts to banana flowers.

Nhat Yen

One of the singers from M&Toi was Le Nhat Yen. I did a search, but only found Da Nhat Yen. I'm not sure if it's the same person, or I was given a wrong name.

Anyhow, here's a blog-link I found on Da Nhat Yen.
Found her voice to be soothing. She'll make a good jazz singer :)

M&Toi, the happening Cafe of Saigon

I was introduced to this Cafe yesterday. On the 1st floor, there's a live performance stage, where up and coming singers perform. I had the opportune to listen to Vietnam Idol's candidate, and some whom I believe were veteren singers. Excellent entertainmet.

The service fee per person is VND70k, on top of any drinks we ordered. Fair price, since the 2 hours performance were rather good. It'll be a nice place to hangout for drinks, and some lively entertainment.

Dinner @ Quan Hy

I had our first Hygiene family dinner with the Vietnam team. It was at a client's place (Photos below).

Mr. Duc, Mr. Vuong, Mr. Thanh

Ms. Hoa, Ms. Giang, Ms. Giac

Ms. Hai, Ms. Thu

Mr. Duc

Mr. Duc, Mr. Y

Mr. Alvin, Ms. Hai

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The restaurant, serving Central Vietnam delicacies. The photos below are what we ate, but I've not idea what they're called.

Biking in the rain

Hahahaa.. I took a ride in the rain, with a pillion rider to boot.
We had to get the license plate for the bike. Halfway there, it started to drizzle.
But the effort's worth it. Bike got a number now.

6125

Nice huh? Good thing it was just a drizzle.
And I was told it's not the raining season yet. :p

Rebellious

I took a ride on the Nouvo today. Don't care if there's no license plate yet. I'm itching to move about. That's how it looked like. We took the black unit, with yellow trims. In the market, it's known as the Yamaha Nouvo RC. Basically a scooter.

Transportation in Vietnam

See the key?
That's the key to my transport in Vietnam.
Now.... I'd need to find the machine that this key fits into.

Nope, no machine. The registration card is not ready yet. No plate number. No can use.
So what's this key for?

Hang it.
Look at it.
Maybe one day, I'll get to use it.

I know Joyce and Kate would be laughing and rolling on the ground. How did things turn out this way? Goodness gracious.

The next time I accept any foreign assignment, I better insist on a paid preliminary visit. Get things done before I touch down. Otherwise, I'm not going to start doing any work. No sirreee....

Vietnamese songs

I was introduced to a website of vietnamese songs.
Apparently, the singers featured on the sites are the popular ones in the Country. Check it out in my music link.

A grand wedding - having a dance performance before the bride and groom enters the hall. I am very impressed. It's almost like watching a live performance.

Vietnamese wedding

An eye opening experience. I was invited to a Vietnamese wedding, of a colleague. Firstly, my Congratulations to Sonary.

The groom, Thanh Tra, and bride, Sonary.

A grand setup, in a large restaurant. This place could cater to two weddings simultaneously, each fitting about 50 tables. There's a raised runway leading to the stage, akin to a fashion catwalk.

Appetizer. Spring roll, in fried rice paper, and prawns with snow fungus. An appetising dish, as the snow fungus had been tossed with sour sauce.

Second dish was fish, with chunks of meat and vegetables.

Third dish was crab meat, scallops and lots of vegetables.

Fourth dish, seafood again. It's a Vietnamese hotpot. Notice the pot's cover in the middle.

We had to wait for the soup to boil.

Unique vegetables (or should I say flowers) for the soup.

Once the soup's boiled, the seafood goes in for a little cooking, and removed to the side. Then the vegetable goes in.

The meal is to be taken by soaking the rice noodles with the soup, and add the condiments of vegetables and seafood. My verdict: This is really, really good. Soup's sweet.

My new home

I woke up early this morning. It's a really peaceful place, on the 11th floor. Quiet, windy. Having moved in alone the day before (housemates shifting in later this afternoon), I've got the whole morning to myself, until the landlord comes in and sort out the light fixtures and airconditioning that's not working. Decided to take a walk to the Bach Chieu Market and get some breakfast.

Bought a local sandwich. I think they called it jambon. Gotto reconfirm. It's filled with pate (pork/chicken/beef I can't tell), sliced roast pork, parsley, sprouts, chili, and generously spiced with soya sauce. Tasted rather good, though it's more of a cold dish. And spicy....wooooo...

My room. No complaints.

Trip to Caibe

The extent of Vietnam became rather clear yesterday. It was my first excursion out of the city, and across provinces. I couldn't really list the names of provinces we passed (I was unconscious a large part of the way), but it's south of Saigon, about 3 hours drive, and located by a river that flows into Phnom Pneh.

Our client, a river cruise ship, that traverse two countries over a span of 7 days.
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.

To get to the cruise ship, we had to take the Caibe Tourist river taxi.

The Mekong, Pandaw.

View of the Sun Deck.

The lounge on the Upper Deck.

Passenger cabins along the starboard and port side.

Dining hall.

My efforts at Stiching multiple photos, taken across a 180 degrees span.

This ship, and her sister, The Tonle, mainly catered to the western tourists who could afford the rates. These cruises do not have much facilities, unlike the Star Cruises that sails into international waters. No swimming pool, no jacuzzi, no casino, no movie theaters. All you get is a lounge to read, a sun deck for...errr.. sunning, pool table and people waiting to attend to your needs. Generally a cruise for retirees. Minimal excitement, lots of relaxation.

Our apartment in Vietnam

This is it. We finally found a place for the 3 of us. It's worth USD600.00, and it's fully equipped. 3 rooms, 3 guys.

Looks like the only place my visitiors can put up will be in my room.

Another morning in Ho Chi Minh

As was the case in the past 2 days, the cacophony of horns blaring away woke me up early. People here do start their day like us. Traffic zooming along from 6.00am onwards. The unusual part, is the day's bright. Seems I'm not going to be able to get any sleep after 6.00am.

I'm starting to miss home. The nights in the hotel room is long and arduous. Not that my colleagues are not around to entertain. We've all had a long day, and longs for some rest. It's just that my internal clock registered it as way to early to sleep. Plus the lack of connectivity, the availability of National Geographic as the only English channel, plus the inability to move about on my own. This is like tying down a bird's wing. I long for my independance to move about. I miss my mobility. At times, it's rather strange how much a transportation would mean to a person.

Sigh, only time will help. We're still sourcing for a suitable apartment to fit the 3 of us. As is the case, proximity to town, and budget takes the priority. I only hope there's WiFi in that area. I can only hope....