Vietnam Trip

Okay, im gonna say the things i did in the vietnam trip, which is a lot of things...

Day 1(Hanoi)

woke up at about 6.30, ate breakfast and took a taxi 2 airport. Met my cousins there, chatted, then checked in our luggages. Waited some more... blah blah then went through the departure gate. Waited some more, for my cousins to come, but they all shopping away... not like us, so kan jiong(however u spell it) so early go wan, in the end nvr shop at changi airport. Anyway, boarded airplane, (Singapore Airlines, Hooray!) closed my eyes and sat down. The airplane took off, ate lunch there, watched some movies and played some games, then landed. Vietnam was quite cold, but not very. Just need one jacket jiu hao le. I expected it to be super cold like 9 degrees like the internet said. Ha, worried 4 nth. Waited 4 our lugguage, very long leh, like 30 min. After that my father gave each of us(me and my 2 siblings) 50,000 dom. Looks like alot eh? Actually it is worth about less than $5. 1 sing dollar is about 11.000 dom. Then we boarded the bus and headed to the hotel, Fortuna Hotel. The bus trip was 45 min. The road in vietnam was very small, and it was PACKED with motorcycles, which was their main mode of transport. It was like a marathon with motorcycles. It was literally PACKED with motorcycles! I think 80% of the road was filled with motorcycles, especially at the rush hour. The reason: The roads are too small and crowded so traffic jams would appear everywhere if most of the vehicles were cars, and motorcycles could travel on the pavement, so it was alot more convinient. And, in vietnam, about 90% of the vietnamese drivers didnt follow the traffic rules, so the traffic lights there was almost useless. Once I even saw a car driving the OPPOSITE DIRECTION on the PACKED road! That was why, the tour guide said, if u learn how to drive in vietnam, u would know how to drive in the rest of the world. Ha ha. There were also no pedestrian crossings at all, so everybody would just cross the road like that. But at least the drivers are all used to this, so they know how to avoid u if u cross the road. It looked quite safe, actually, to cross the road when i saw other ppl doing it. Okay, back to story... Took our lugguage from the bus and check in the hotel. The hotel was quite nice, i think it was a 5 star hotel, and in front of the main entrance there was a small merlion, and there were some places in the hotel that was called, "Merlion Room 1,2,3", and "Sentosa Room", so i assumed that it was a Singaporean Hotel. It was about 3.00 then. Went into the room, then watched TV until 4.20, when we were supposed to meet the tour guide at the lobby. Boarded the bus, and went to watch a "Water Puppet Show". It was indoors, so it wasnt that cold. Okay, went in, waited again, then the show started. There was like a small pond on the stage, and puppets started emerging from underwater. It was nice, with all the old vitenam tools, like a cage, basket and net to catch fishes, and there were dragons and phonixes too, although i dunno what relations they have to vietnamese history... After the show, boarded bus and went to a restaurant to eat dinner. All the houses there where very long and thin and tall, because the land there was very expensive so they need to save money by buying less land. So, most of the resaurants there were two storeys. Ate dinner, very nice. The vietnamese ate alot of vegetables, so they were very healthy. The rice was also very sticky, and it was served in very big bowls, for about 6 ppl per bowl, not like in singapore, where it was 1 small bowl per person. The first dish was called "pho", but u pronounce it as "Phe". Dunno why, its just their language. I also learnt some vietnamese greetings, like "Sin Chao", which means good morning, or im hungry. Depends on how u say it. If u say the "Chao" from lower to higher tone, it means good morning. If u say it from a higher to a lower tone, it means im hungry. Dun really noe how to explain la. Back to story again: Ate alot, because i was very hungry, then went back hotel. I didnt sleep well, slept like 4.00am. Kept on sneezing and have blocked nose. It was probably the vitnamese green tea that i drank alot of. I will continue on another post.