1st Thursday of 2008...

2008 is here...been meaning to sit down & reflect & to pen down my goals for the year ahead..but frankly, I've not had the time nor the energy to do so
Though I really hope to be able to do it this weekend..Sit down & think about things...

All I can say is that the past 2-3 months have been pretty hectic and sometimes abit draining.
Oh well, you've heard all about it. I blog so infrequently these days...and when I write, it will be mostly about me being tired...Gosh, I bore myself even haha..

The last two weeks were a rush of things at work..these few days too..
Just for the simple hour-long briefing to a minister tomorrow afternoon.
So much work, ,just to prepare for a 1hr - 1.5hr slot with him.

Wonder how it'll be tomorrow...haha..don't think I will be asked to speak else I'll pee in my pants..will just be there as part of the bosses' entourage..
Macham going for a triad meeting..so many people there..but only the bosses speaking.. haha..

Such is civil service life for the working level people...;p

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First time in my life that I spent the New Year's overseas. Ahboy & I went Ho Chi Minh..
It's much like how Bangkok is..but the traffic was horrible..

Traffic
This is one glaringly obvious characteristic of the city...Nobody paid attention to road signs, nobody cared where each other went haha..It was a stressful first day. We just stood by the road side and were dumbfounded, didn't wuite know how to cross. There were lots of zebra crossings...but no one stopped..haha.

Took us at least a day to get the guts to just cross like the local people..i.e. take a leisurely stroll across...the vehicles will just swerve and scoot around you...(hopefully) hahaa...

Oh yah, motorcycles galore...Actual statistics says there's like 5 million bikes in HCM itself. wah lau, more than SG's population...You can see families of 4 riding on one single bike. Dad controlling with a little one in front. Mum at the rear, with another little one in between her & the Dad. I saw a bike carrying 4 adults too...wonder how they balance man...kaozz...
I suddenly feel a surge of love for the orderly traffic here hahhaa...

Food
Food was ok lah..Bangkok's food is much nicer..but the coffee is good. Not that I drink it..but ahboy ordered a number of times so I just took a few sips...and most that I tried, whether iced or black or with milk, were good. :)

People
The girls are generally slim with good figures..mostly well-endowed. If you think Taiwanese girls have good figures or are slim, so do Viet ladies... haha..

The people there are not so well-versed in English compared to those in Bangkok, both street vendors & hotel staff alike.
I had a massage done. The girl spoke to me 100% in Vietnamese. I just stared at her thinking wtf?

Weather
Weather's good at the end of the year..not very hot...bright but not too sunny. Only on about 2 occassions it was very sunny and very very hot but even then it was only for awhile...

Sight-seeing
Went to visit the War Remnants Museum..saw lots of war photos..some disturbing, others normal...Saw how bio warfare can be so-so-so damaging to a country..In fact, till now, the bio warfare effects are still around...
Kids being born deformed..some are now in their adulthood but unable to care for themselves..blah blah...Saw photos of those who were tortured and who were paralysed for life after that...saw jars of preserved deformed foetuses..

Went to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels as well..200km worth of underground tunnels used in the Vietnam war to fight the American GIs...well, Am proud to say I walke dhtrough like 30m of it? ahhahhaa...Eh, damn stuffy lor...and you have to duck walk through it..it's that small..and yet, that section of the tunnels were actually enlarged already for tourists to go through...My guess is for the ang mohs cos they are larger in physique...

NYE
It was a busy busy noisy noisy night...alot of streets were packed with people & stalls & stages...it wasn't one consolidated stage...more like a few big stages here and there, a few small stages here and there..all belting out performances of their own...
We hid in the hotel room...not much of a crowd-person I am..so is he. Lol...so I crossed into 2008 in a Deluxe room of the Liberty 4 hotel along Pham Ngu Lao street in HCM.
Haaa...

Technology
Hmm m...I was subtly impressed when I took a 2hr bus to the Cu Chi tunnels...and I passed by the outskirts of the city...relatively ulu places actually...and I saw shops carrying signs that said "Internet ADSL here"...lol...
Okook, I know I am bad..but I seriously did not expect them to even have Net access in the more rural areas of HCM...
Wah lau, I even saw at least 2-3 people in HCM using iPhones lor!!! (hmm...dunno whether are they authentic pieces or not hehe ;p)