ever ever after,

Update

Sunday, December 31, 2006 1:29 AM

Finally updated my vietnam trip post le.... haha..... haiz.... took me 4 days to finish typing everything..... so BEWARE! this is a super duper long post. HaHa.....

Movie - Night at the museum

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 9:40 PM

A movie that is a MUST-SEE! It's incredibly funny and touching.

Larry is divorced with a kid. He had the crazy idea on inventing sth called a snapper. He is always out of job and his kid is starting to loose confidence in him. One day he went to an agency and ask for a job, the woman recommended him a job @ the museum. He went for interview n found out that it is a security job.

Little did he know, in the nite, everything in the museum came alive. 1st he spotted a t-rex (a statue of t-rex wif only it's bone) drinking water. *since it only has bones, y does it need to drink water? funny eh... haha* When he dropped his torch, the t-rex turned n noticed him. Initially tot that the t-rex was chasing him wanting to eat him up, in the end, it jux wanted Larry to play fetch with it. HAHAHA.....

Nxt, the vikings wanted to tear Larry apart... haha.... den the nxt day, Larry tried to do magic when he read that vikings trust magic n sorcery a lot. but his trick went wrong and vikings saw that n once again tried to tear him apart (even more so dis time). HaHa...

Den the lions n mammals. The monkey is sooooo the naughty! Always steal the keys frm Larry. HaHa.. n the lions wanted to eat him up.

Den the "26th american president" is soooo cool! HaHA.....

Den the miniature ppl... deir'r sooooo funny!!! I totally love the part where the wild west n roman empire combine efforts to puncture a tyre in order nt to let the 3 old guys run away... esp the part where cam zoom in onto em holding on to the sphere while the air is oozing out, den the nxt min the cam zoomed out to show the whole picture of the van n den back @ the tyre n the guys den back at the van again.... it's sooooo funny!!! HAHAHA....

Den the efforts to get all "things" back to the museum, leaving tracks which he dun noe... haha.... but instead of making it worse (he gt fired), the reports on the tracks helped him to secure the job. isn't tat touching? Awww.... in the end his son was thoroughly enjoy being with him n doesnt need to go to sleep.... Partying all nite with the statues.... haha.....

All in all, this is a hell of a damn great movie that can't be miss!!!!

Vietnam Trip 30/11/2006 ~ 4/12/2006

Thursday, December 14, 2006 7:34 PM

Wow, sorry guys, took me sooo long to update this... HaHa.... it's cuz i reckon tat it'll be a super long entry, so i'm a bit too lazy to write... HaHa.... anyway, here goes!

WARNING! SUPER SUPER LONG WOR!!!!

30/11/06

Early morn i woke up getting ready to go to the airport. (HaHa, a bit lame sia...Anyway) Our flight was at 2:30pm, so we had to reach the airport be noon. We were gng wif a tour grp btw. My family(5 of us), my maternal gram, my aunt, n my last aunt's family(4 of em), in total, our grp consist of 11 ppl, exc my uncle's fren family (5 of em) our for our grp, dere's 16 in total. All in all, the whole grp we're in has gt 40 ppl in it. anyway, my father had to take his car for servicing tat day, so dey have to leave early.

Normally on the day of depart, he'll take his car for servicing n den we'll take the "Airport service" to the airport. Airport service is a service BMW offer (only @ kampong alam branch). But dis time, we have my gram n aunt and we dun bare to see em carry large heavy bags to take a cab, let alone bur or mrt. So i suggest tat my parents go pick up my gram n aunt n dey took the airport service to the airport, while we 3 youngsters go to the airport our own...HeHe... another reason is tat if we 3 go our own, we can go shop 4 a while b4 gng to airport. HaHa...

Anyway, we're supposed to meet my parents n gram n aunt n the other aunt family @ noon @ airport. We took the mrt dere. After we meet up, we went 4 lunch @ the kopitiam, while my other aunt helped everyone checked in. After we checked in, we went straight 4 the immigration. My father n uncle wanted to buy wine n alcohol... Haiz... Always like tat. 4ever wont change. Everytime go overseas, my father always bought a bottle of liquor to drink in hotel. haiz...

Anyway, after tat, us children(yeah! me included) decided on the seatings. But den, nth much is changed as the original seating is quite good. HaHaHa.... :P It was a domestic flight and the seats were quite zai... the spacing is quite narrow too.... haiz... vietnam ppl n small size, nt necessary other countries ppl oso same size as em mah.... the seat is ok, quite wide, it's the gap btwn rows tat's narrow.... i can't even scretch my legs fully w/o hitting the life jacket underneathe the front seat. Haiz....

We took Vietnam Airlines btw. N the journey frm gate to the runway ready to take off is soooo the damn slow man. It's like a snail cruising lor.... super super slow. Den when we're reaching vietnam, frm the top view ah, the houses looked like dose cardboard houses tat we would make in an art n craft class.... HaHa... it's true lor.... HaHa.... Den some more, juz b4 landing, the plane was flying sooooo low tat i tot that it's gng to hit the houses below.... Yes it's tat close!

This nxt part i'm sooooo URGH!!!! the plane stopped in the middle parking lot(which means dere's no gate) den we had to take a shuttle to the immigration. This is ok... expected. When we gt to the immigration..... the queue was like WOW..... it's soooo long tat reminds me of like a mega sales tat is held @ expo, all queuing to pay lor... YES! it's tat long.... some more, ALL counters R OPEN!!! dere's like 20 counters lor.... Wat's more fustrating is tat we gotta queue to get our passports chopped for ONE FULL HOUR!!! the efficiency of the officers r sooooooo slow.... it's like ai mai ai mai attitude lor.

Originally our itinery is tat we get to visit some attractions b4 dinner de, but btw we get thru the immigration it's like 5pm. Time 4 dinner. In the end, the tour guide said to check in hotel first den go to central of city 4 dinner. our hotel is only 15 mins frm airport. it's a pretty hotel. 5-star hotel, Omni Hotel Saigon. After checking in, we had some time to relax b4 heading off 4 dinner.

Dinner was on a cruise. While we eat, we're sailing thru the Saigon River. GUESS WHO I MET ON THE SHIP? HaHaHa.... u'd nt believe it when i told u.... too bad i didnt get to take a photo of him.... HaHa.... it's none other than our local celebrity, Desmond Koh (Xu Zhen Rong)!!! HaHa.... he's leading a tour to veitnam too...HaHa.... Dere's a lady (i tink is his assistant or someone frm tour) went on stage after she realise tat one the same deck dere's other s'porean n m'sian tour, helped Zhen Rong la piao, say it's a yuan fen tat even outside s'pore oso can meet. so phone 4 zhen rong @ the star awards to vote 4 him... HaHa....

After dinner, we went back to hotel n rest. As nxt way we need to wake up quite early @ arnd 6:30am (local time) n we have to leave by 8am (local time). btw, deir local time is 1hr behind sg time.

1/12/06

I couldnt sleep tat nite. I had to share a room wif my sis n cousin. since we have 11 ppl, we have only 5 rms. child dun have a rm. Since we have 5 children(yes i'm included!) we naturally asked 4 connecting rm. initially we took the only 2 rms allocated to us on lvl 2, while the adults took other 3 rms on lvl 3. Cuz we tot tat we'd be free since dere's no adult supervision.... HaHa.... But when we open it, it's nt a connecting rm, den my aunt called n she said tat hers n my gram's rm r connecting rm, so of course we exchanged it. Dere's some confusion as our luggage is wif the bell boy downstairs, n only my gram's luggage is wif her.(dunno who took it 4 her) den my aunt jiu xia dao, tot her luggage is lost. in the end, my xiao yi had to drag her out of the room. HaHa...

All of tat was b4 dinner, after we checked in... HaHa... After dinner, we go back to our rms n took a bath. After tat, we wanted to party wan, but we're too full n a little tired, so in the end, we went off to bed... but den.... HaHa.... we couldn't sleep. The 5 of us kept talking n talking n talking, well, more of like shouting as we're in diff rms lying on our beds. it's was well into the nite n we still can't sleep it's like 2am(local time) already. In the end, 1 by 1 we dozed off... all cept me... my cousin had pulled the whole blanket to her n left me wif no blanket. I tried to sleep but dunno y juz couldn't get to sleep. i doze off le wake up again. finally @ 4am, i was fully awake, my cousin as well... HaHaHa.... den we're lying on the bed n tickling each other n chit chatting. Time passes very, i mean super, slow 4 us.... come 5 am found us bathing getting ready 4 the morn. HaHa... After we bathed, i woke my sis n my other cousin. We tot tat we could go down 4 breakfast early, but dey all dilly dally here n dere by the time we can go down it's like 7am.... haiz..... B4 tat, we have to leave our luggage outside 4 the bell boy to collect. Cuz we're staying @ another hotel dis nite.

Today, we're gng to Cu Chi Tunnel. A place where the locals fought the americans during the vietnam war a few hundreds yrs ago. The trip was like 1 hr ride frm hotel. @dere, we tour thru the forest n look @ the tunnels. most of the tunnels were very very tiny. a person my size can't go in. confirm stuck. only someone like a normal pri 3/4 kid can get in. Imagine how small size the vietnamese r? hey it the guys some more wor... HaHa.... Well tat's 4 most of the tunnels lah. Dose tunnels tat r opened 4 tourists to get in r a bit larger, well, large enough 4 someone like me to be able to get in n crawl through. HaHa... but nt someone my height. Nt even 4 ppl like Huiping, your, height wor. Even is you, you still have to bend yer body 90 degrees or squat down to walk thru the tunnels.

The fun thing dere is.... you get to shoot a rifle! HaHa.... you have to purchase the bullet thou, but it's cheap enough. 5 bullets for 100,000 dongs. HaHa... if u see like tat, it's x... 5 for 100,000. but if u convert to S$ it's 5 bullets for..............guess? HaHa..... 5 for S$10. HaHaHa.... cheap rite?

After the tunnels, we went 4 lunch @ a local restaurant. aft tat, we head to vun tung(or du tung, spelling nt sure pronounciation is sth like tat lah...) which is a 4-hr ride. Half way thru, we stopped @ a rest stop for us to relieve ourselves n oso freshen up, while buying some snacks. When we reached dere, we went to a hill where the largest statue of Jesus stood. Aft tat we checked into the hotel, a 3-star hotel btw, n rest n shower b4 we had dinner @ the hotel's restaurant.

Wow, to hotel damn sucks man. Lobby no air-conditioning, it's soooo damn stuffy! dere's only 1 lift n it's sooooooooo super duper small!!!! it can only fit like 4 ppl @ 1 go! When we finally reached our rooms, as usual us children (yes, me included!) initially chose 2 rms which r side by side (we tot it's connected, some more it's @ the other end of the corridor while the adults is @ the opp. end. HaHa), but in the end, we changed yet again. Again, we changed wif my aunt n gram. This time, the rm is nt connected but it's opp each other, so it more convenient 4 us to reach one another.

OH! BTW, this hotel's rm de door is nt auto lock, which means u can actually open frm outside! Wat the f**k! @ nite, we have to double, triple check that the door is locked tightly. Nt only tat, the rm is like long time never use le, a bit stuffy n "smelly".....

This nite, i actually can get to sleep. HaHa... After we had dinner, we relaxed a little @ the lobby (my gram is smokin n we accompany her), while my father n uncle went to the pub to drink. it's a small tiny pub wif only a few tables n 2 pool tables. Since my sis n i yearning to play pool, we went ahead n play. But nt b4 my mother n i went to the in-house souvenir shop to buy some t-shirts.

It was arnd midnite when we went up to the room. by then, my mother, aunts n gram were already asleep.... HaHa.... We have to get up @ arnd 7:45am for breakfast n we're checking out @ 9am the nxt day.

2/12/06

After we checked out, we went to visit several temples. the 1st is Tian Hou Gong. den the other is a local temple called the whale temple. it's actually a vietnam myth abt a whale saved some fishermen frm huge waves, n whenever a whale came to shore, it means tat sth drastic is gng to happen in the sea n fishermen r nt to go out fishing.

Aft tat, we went to another temple, n den to a palace. It's a palace where olden day kings came 4 summer holidays. Den, we went 4 lunch. Actually it's nt lunchtime yet, so the tour guide decided to let us have an hr of freetime to walk arnd (go to the beach or sth) den meet @ the restaurant. It's really crazy to go to the beach lor. It's like 40 degrees under the blazing hot sun wif no trees @ all 4 shade @ the beach lor. Siao! who'd want to go dere. 110% sure get sunburn de. In the end, we went to a sorta like coffee shop to sit down n have a drink. dere we bought several necklaces n a bracelet 4 myself frm a lady seller. After lunch, we went to yet another temple, n den we head back to Saigon, which is another 3 hr ride... Haiz.... 4 the last 24 hrs, we've spent like 8 hrs on the bus.

As b4, we stopped @ the same rest stop to relieve n freshen up ourselves. When we reached Saigon, we went to YET another temple. Aft tat, we went to a tu-can dian to buy tu-can... i actually wanted to get a tailor-made vietnamese dress de, but i dun tink i'd wear it so didn't buy... haha... den we went to the central area to visit the chatheral n post office. aft tat, we went to the binh-tang market or central market as dey called it. we had an hr of shopping time. @ dere we had an arguement wif 1 of the ppl. some more it's the 1st shop we look @. Haiz.....

Here goes the story:

My aunt saw a shirt she's interested in. So she asked to see the shirt. The price dey quote is US$30. far too ex le lor, so my aunt slash the price to US$5. initially dey dun wan, but den dey saw my aunt wanted to walk off, dey call her back. den ok, the shirt sell @ US$5. den my aunt took out her money. dey saw she gt US$1 de notes, dey ask 4 tat notes, but my aunt dun wan, she gave em a US$5 note. isnt tat easier? juz 1 note, den dey say dun wan, dey wan the $1 note.

my aunt dun wan give, she insist on giving the $5 note. so dey took it for inspection. dey scared tat it's a fake, cuz it's old n a bit torn. aft inspection dey still insist on the $1 note. juz den my last aunt came. aft she found out wat's happening, she's so angry tat she shouted "u wan take tat $5 note. dun wan we dun buy." but dose idiots still insist on th $1 bill.

my aunt actually in the verge on giving em the $1 bills le, but my last aunt stopped her n steered her away. Den my mother was oso very angry n she wanted to take the $5 bill back. but den................ the idiots dun wan give back! y? cuz den wan the sales. my mother was sooooo angry tat she tried to snatch the money back. What's up wif dese idiots? 1st dey dun wan accept, nxt dey dun wan give back.... haiz.... so in the end, dey took the money n we take the shirt... HaHa.... Really idiots rite dose ppl.... haiz....

End of story

Den, we carried on walking... aft tat incident, all of us r sooooo fed up n gt no more mood to shop le.... in the end, we didn't buy much tat day. Dose idiots.... spoil our moods... anyway, an hr later, we go back to bus n head to restaurant 4 dinner. It's a chinese restaurant in chinatown. After dinner, we went back to hotel (the one we stayed in the 1st nite) 4 the nite. the hotel had kept our luggage 4 us while we went to vun tung(spelling dunno) n we came back to recheck into the hotel. dis time, our rooms r different. no nxt or opp rm le, let alone connecting rm.

on the 1st nite, we stayed in the normal floor room, dis time checked in, we stayed in the executive floor room. all rite, let me ask u a qn. if u have the room # 432 and # 434, u shld tink tat it's either nxt to each other (probably connecting as well) or opp. each other, rite? well, tat's wat WE tot SO TOO! until! we came up the the lvl n check the directory. to our HORROR!, it is diagonally opp. each other! and rite @ the end too! meaning, imagine a rectangle, pick 2 angels tat r diagonally (not directly, is DIAGONALLY!) each other. YES! tat's wat our arrangement are! nt only our rm r like tat, the other 3 "adults" rm r oso like tat. 1 of em, which my parents too, r on the same floor as ours, but it's oso @ the end of 1 side of corridor. the other 2 rms r on 1 lvl above our, wif the same arrangement. deir r better, 1 rm was juz @ the lift, while the other was rite @ the end on the same corridor. haiz........ to tink we need to walk to each other's rm, imagine how long we have to walk..... haiz.....

3/12/06

Early morning, we gather @ arnd 8am. this day we're gng you chuan he... we're gng to mekong river. when we reached dere, we board a boat n it took us to mekong island. it's said to be 1 of the largest river in saigon, or vietnam. when we reach dere, the 1st time we saw was the coconut candy factory. we saw the whole process frm a coconut, to prodn, to moulding, to wrapping n voila! coconut candy is done! aft tat, we venture further into the "forest" n came to a place where tropical fruits were grown. @ dere, we're treated to some tropical fruits, like pineapple, dragonfruit, chicku(spelling nt sure) watermelon(vietnam sure is a watermelon paradise). den while we're eating, a group of jie tou yi ren came n performed 4 us.

after tat, we walk even further in n came upon a canal or stream. we had to take a sampan(yes! a sampan boat) out of the island n back to our boat. the sampan is long n narrow. if u step wrongly, the boat will overturn n u'll fall into the water. HaHa.... N it's 4 ppl to a boat. me, my father, my sis n my cousin went into a boat. we're the 2nd grp to leave. b4 the boat leave, my tour guide 4 the mekong trip said sth lame. he said "good luck!" HaHa.....

The old woman paddling the sampan is very, VERY strong! she soooo petite tat she's only arnd a normal 12-yr-old kid (no i tink the kid is even bigger size dan her), but she's super strong wor! Its actually standard tat a old woman in front, n an uncle or another old (but younger) woman behind. our is an uncle as is the 1st team n the team aft us. as i turn arnd several times, i saw the uncle is like very relax de paddle, while the auntie in front de stroke is very big n very forceful. in no time @ all, we caught up to the 1st team tat went b4 us. HaHa... yes, we almost overtook them, but never cuz the stream was too narrow.

After we reached the main river n the boat, we were treated to a free coconut drink. the coconut was very sweet n tasty. aft tat, we visit YET another temple, which is near the river. den we went 4 lunch. aft lunch, we head to (yes) YET another temple. a ma zu temple again. den, as dere's 2 ah soh ill previous nite n miss the central market, dey suggested gng back dere. so on dis day, when we reached dere, we have like 2 1/2 hrs of time dere... haiz.... so much 4 shopping... haiz....

initially the tour guide intended 4 us to shop @ chinatown shopping center de. Actual Shopping Center! haiz..... forget it..... aft the shopping we went to chinatown 4 dinner. when we get down the bus, it's total chaos out dere. children rushed fwd n begged 4 money, nt a few, but loads n loads of em! after dinner when we came out, the kids rushed fwd again.... dey're normal healthy looking kids lor, nt some sickly or handicapped kids lor.... haiz....

after tat, we went back to the hotel. on the way, tour guide asked anyone still liked to shop as it's still early, arnd 7 or 8 pm only, so a handful wanted n he dropped em @ a street a couple of blocks frm hotel, n later dey made deir way back deir own. the rest of us went back to hotel to rest. since it's still early, the kids (dis time w/o me n me sis, but inc my cousins) frm the tour wanted to go to the pool for a swim.

As i saw frm the web tat the pool is nice, so i went down wif my cousin n have a look. aft tat, i went back to pack my luggage. it was after shower n my aunt n i wanted to go down to the casino to play jackpot. stupid policy tat is (4 both the travel agency n the casino). the thing is, the casino only allow ppl to show deir passports to enter, while our passports is wif the tour leader who said it's coy's policy to keep our passports. my last aunt tried to take it frm him, but he said tat we only need to tell the casino tat the leader say can go in den dey let us go in.... stupid leader tat it.... so we go in n dey say cannot... only need passport den can go in.... (dey only allow foreign passport only some more wor).... we offer to write down our name, ic, tele no, etc, but still cannot.... haiz.... so in the end, all of us have an very early nite rest.... haiz....

4/12/06

We have to wake up very, very, VERY early! our flight is @ half past 10, so we have to check out n leave 4 airport to check in @ 8am... so we had to have breakfast @ 7am. dis morn, i woke up @ 5am n we began to wash ourselves. last nite we decided to wake up early n go down have breakfast early. the restaurant served breakfast @ 6am, so we tot we'd go down to have breakfast @ 6am.... to our surprise, when we go down (@ 15 past 6), almost 1/4 of the tour grp members were having breakfast already.

The 5-star hotel's breakfast compared to the 3-star one is like Earth n Land.... haiz.... 5-star hotel breakfast has gt international food like Japanese food(yes, jap food like sushi n rice n miso soup), english breakfast, local noodles, etc.... 3-star hotel ONLY consist of porridge, local noodles, baguette and drinks. That's it! zhen de shi xiang cha shi wan ba qian li ah.......

checking in is the same as immigration.... s..u..p..e..r.. s..u..p..e..r.. s..l..o..w......haiz...... each couple need @ least 15 mins to clear.... haiz... after getting thru custom, we went inside n found a duty free shop. earlier on still thinking on how to finish all our vietnam dongs, now we finally get to clear it, cuz vietnam dong is only worthy in vietnam. outside of vietnam is like normal paper, no value.

~~~~~

Well, that's all i've gotta say for my vietnam trip. very long i noe, haiz.... took me 4 days to finish this.... haha..... so, hope u've enjoy this. cya nxt time! :)