iProject Day One
23Nov 2006

We're all so excited to go to Vietnam. The whole iProject team were suppose to meet at the airport at7.30. I was the third to come. First was Hafeez followed by Jie Ying. My mom spoke to this lady on her left whose daughter from TKGS is going to Australia for netball training. It's like woah, u go all the way down-under just to train. Anyway in the end the last member came at about 8am. Well he has a valid reason; there was a traffic jam. haha. I was so glad some Innovians came over to bid us farewell. Yep, people like Yong Feng, Isa, Sling, Nigel, Te Chun, Kenny. Yong Feng ur stud sux. Thnx for dropping by so early in the morning btw. Oh n Nigel, ur labelled as the loud guy, though i thought Kenny would claim that title. Oh n i was so lucky Mr Lim n Te Chun told my mom im a good guy, which is true anyway =).By the time it was around 8.30, everyone had their baggage checked in and after waving our last wave, we went pass the officer and cleared the first row of customs. It was so funny when we all did a 'general wave' to the parents n our friends. Anyway we proceeded to BK to grab a pre-flight meal. I went to 7-11 to buy some potato chips. Oh n the lady at the counter was quite horny. But nvm. I shall put it to discreet mode.

It was about 9.00 that we met at the boarding gate n took a group photo. OH n i LOVE travellators! If u brisk walk on it, ur practically walking twice ur normal speed. After the group photo we went in, scanned our hand carry and sat down for a while before boarding the plane. Oh n we all started talking Viet. by reading our arrival/departure card. Too bad we cant talk out loud as we are afraid we might insult the language in front of some Vietnamese people there =X

The flight was 3h 30mins long and im proud to be a Muslim cuz we got our food served first. haha. Oh n thanks to Marsha for switching place wif me. Thanks to her, me n Faris could karaoke our way to Vietnam to the soudns of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL.



mann..i love KrisWorld. haha. i have alwaes loved the in-flight meals. I got chicken initially but swopped with Faris for salmon. Prefer fish sometimes. I forgot what movie i watched but it wasnt for long cuz i learnt some Viet. language with KrisWorld, the entertainment set. I found out later that i could have asked for soft toys cuz they have it. Winston got this dog(i guess) from Barnyard. Freddy, u noe him, that crazy fella? yea.

So we alighted the plane and found ourselves going out by two tubes. So we took pictures of each other. haha. Singapore isnt like that okay?




After clearing immigrations, we all had to check for the number of stamps we have cuz some of us lack of stamps. haha. SO funny. At the arrival, some Viet. pple were holding this red banner bearing our college name on it. There were some girls(some hot ones haha) holding several bouquet of flowers. For the teachers i guess. So when the formally greeted us and gave out flowers, i was so shocked that i got a bouquet also!! AARRGGHH OMG OMG OMG!



I have never gave pple flowers, wad more received them..haha I decided to hold the bouquet for the whole trip. Some sort of a companion and something to pose wif u noe..

In the bus we went and travelled the streets of Hanoi. It is beautiful! You can literally feel the clamness the capital has to over. Sad thing is that the traffic conditions is quite scary. Then can never get their hands off the horn button! I found out later that they don't obey traffic regulations either. I juz hope i can survive here. We headed to an old prison which has become part of their heritage. It's because it is that very prison that sparked the birth of an independent Vietnam. It's also sad to see how the prisoners live by each they. Most of them were given a concrete 'bed' to rest on while having their ankles locked to the ground. Their 'toilet' was alos pathetic. Its just a whole wif a big pail underneath. mann.. And for serious criminals they get sent to the dungeon. On the other hand its creative to see that instead or barbed wires they have on the walls, they used pieces of broken glass. PLUS the walls are 5m high n 0.5metre broad. For me i could really feel the sufferings by the prisoners. Also cuz the place is rather creepy.haha

After the prison visit we went to a local supermarket to stock up our supplies. So me n You Ying shopped for food, food n more food. We got about 8 bowls of instant noodles, 8 small packets of milo, 4 strawberry milk, 4 choc milk, 4 plain milk, some chips, snickers, sardines n stuff..i think its quite cheap as compared to grocery shopping backin Sing. Our 2 bags full costs us 240,000 dong which is about S$24...dats S$12 per person. Yep yep.



Then we walked around Old Quarter Street which is like Chinatown + Geylang + Little India and the pasar malams. Theres alot of stuff there. I got some communist badges wif Ho Chi Minh on it. Its 10,000 dong per piece(abt S$1) Bought 10 of those and bargained till i got 7,000dong for all 10. Yep yep. Should have bought more. It damn nice lah! Anyway as we walked on, we got kinda 'conned'. Some peddlers came forward and put the wooden plank wif 2 basket thingy on Hafeez' shoulder and she said 'photo, photo'. Well alrite, we'll take a photo. Then she gave us a bag of bananas n pineapples and said '100,000dong' WHAT THE HELL. $10. oh nono. So i gave her 2,000 dong initially (20cents oops) "NO...100,000 dong" oh mann..fine i return her fruit bag n gave her 4,000 dong(40 cents haha) take it or leave it. And she helped her hands to my money. I pity other who paid her about $3 and even $10. Oh well..i guess its for the experience. That was after we went to this shop wich sells flags, badges n more! they bought this HUGE flag for sling. Can u imagine shorty sling with the big flag?haha i bet when she holds up the flag, it wud be touching the floor!haha kk not that extreme lah. Anyway i bought some Ho Chi Minh badges here. I got a 30% discount, paying 70,000dong instead of100,000dong for 10badges.


Dinner was at Nisa restaurant. Khairunisa(Nisa) was very happy. haha The Malaysian-Muslim restaurant serves Indian, Malay n some Viet cuisine. It was NICE!i felt like home. I ate lotsa meat cuz i noe i wun be having much meat later on. haha. Oh and damn the omelette is nice!

After dinner we headed to the train station at Hanoi to go to Lao Cai and later Sapa. The overnight train was a long 10hour ride. It was quite comfortable and the toilet was amazing. Its literally juz a whole down to the railway track. yep yep. haha. The night was quite cold but i had a good sleep. Cabin roomies: Yeow Sheng + Padro



Till tmrw then!
goodnite vietnam