Vietnam!

I returned home from my trip from Vietnam on Saturday, around evening time. Woke up close to the afternoon on Sunday, watched a movie, came home and relaxed, was too lazy to update my blog. The next day, I don't know why, but I got seriously sick! I felt like vomitting everytime I sat up and at one point I couldn't really walk! My head felt like it was about to drop off and my whole body felt like there were tiny elves just hammering away! What made it worse was that I had my period too! Ladies, I know ya'll can sympathize with me... :) I thought I could wake up, make myself lunch, then update my blog and play my Sims. Instead, I spent the whole day just lying down because that was the only way I felt comfortable! Then yesterday, Monday, I still wasn't feeling too well, which is why it took me until now, 3+ days after my return, to update my blog...

So here's what happened on my trip to Vietnam. I went with my Uncle and Aunty, Dad and 4 of my cousins… We went to 2 places: Ho Chih Minh and Nha Trang.

1st Day
Met at Budget Terminal, which is a far cry from our other terminals, ate lunch and prepared to leave. This is my first time taking a budget flight and it got delayed! I think it’s something to do with the flight schedule for the pilots and flight attendants, cos the pilot didn’t sound too happy. Anyway, after about a half hour delay, I took a flight for the first time with my cousins! Previously, we’ve all taken flights separately, so this is the first time for me with them! Taking a budget flight isn’t too bad. It’s just a little more cramped, they don’t serve food, and the stewardesses aren’t too pretty. When we reached, we checked our bags temporarily into a hotel called Liberty 2 and went to eat at a place called Pho 2000. It’s the best food I had in Vietnam! Pho is a soup-y noodle with either beef, chicken or pork. I had the chicken on and ice milk coffee. Vietnamese coffee is the best man. Its fresh and has a real aromatic taste!

That night, we took a 7-ish hour train ride to Nha Trang...


2nd Day
In Nha Trang, we stayed at a wonderful 6-star (according to my uncle and aunt) hotel called Vinpearl. Its actually a resort and spa and you have to take a ‘’speedboat’’ to it. The entire island is the resort and spa, so its very nice, quiet and private. We checked into our rooms and then went swimming! The water was damn cold, both in the sea and the swimming pool. In the sea, I went a little too far and panicked when my feet couldn’t reach the bottom. The strong waves made it difficult for me to get my feet back to the bottom, but luckily I had my trusty cousins to help me! I got pretty tanned that day... After that, we went to a water park where we all got our butts seriously injured after taking a few rides that totally slammed our butts to the floor of the slides! Then we went to the aquarium, it’s like a mini version of our Underwater World. After that was a ride which we all thought would be pretty easy to take. I was even thinking of taking a couple pictures while it brought us up, but as soon as it started spinning, I had to grab onto the railings for dear life! That’s the thing about the local Vietnamese, they’re so not kiasi (scared of dying). The guy did not tell me to hold on to the railings, nor were there safety belts for us, when the ride took us up about 5 stories and constantly spun us around! Haha… my cousin vomited a little. After that, we were all a little tired, so we had dinner at a real nice Italian restaurant and went back to sleep! I was so tired that my Dad’s snoring did not bother me one bit! :)


3rd Day
We went back to the mainland and stayed at a rather haunted-looking hotel called Dream Hotel. It had a pretty decent view, but due to… administrative problems, none of the kids got that one room. All of us did manage to stay beside each other though... I don't really remember what happened after that. But based on my pictures, we went for a little unvolunteered sightseeing and then dinner and shopping. I think it was this day that we had a 2.6 million... dong dinner! Haha... That's about SGD$260 for 8 adults, so its not that bad. We all laughed at the most ''expensive'' meal we ever had! I didn't really enjoy the meal, cos it was full of things I didn't like to eat. Like crab, some weird lobster porridge and *gulp* lobster sashimi. I promptly spit that out as soon as it went in my mouth! :) After that, we walked around, shopped a lil' bit, then sat at a cute lil' culture place and sipped tea in their very nice and cozy garden...


4th day
We went on a boat trip this day. The boat was filled with people, which I found to be too many... but we met some realy nice people there. My dad made good friends with these 2 Australian guys who turned out to be ex navy and air force people! When one of my cousin got cut when she was coming out of the water, the navy guy gave her some helpful tips on how to clean the wound... so cool. There was a cool English dude with his girlfriend, who did not like football! All the English people I've met don't seem to like football! Haha... This was also the first time I swam in deep sea. We were supposed to see corals, but apparently the sun wasn't bright enough to see the corals below us. :( After the trip, we went back, got ourselves showered and went for dinner. Dinner was pretty good. There was fish, something I am familiar with, and I learned to eat crab (claws) and oysters! After dinner, we did a lot more shopping... :)


5th day
I think we went for more unvolunteered sightseeing and a tiny bit more shopping, before it was back on the train ride to Ho Chih Minh. I enjoyed the train ride a tiny bit more this time. Jixiang sacrificed himself and slept on the floor while the rest of us got our own bunks. I read quite a bit while my cousin played tai ti (?). I slept so comfortably until I was rudely awoken by my uncle just banging away on the door... sigh...

6th day
Reached our 3rd hotel at about 4 in the morning and just crashed in the lobby. We were all dead tired cos we only got about 3+ hours of sleep... We only checked in about 9 in the morning then took a shower and did more shopping! The girls and I got some alone time and we had a pleasant break from the adults!

The next day, we managed to squeeze in a lil' more shopping before we had to leave for our flight at 2.10. This time, it wasn't delayed and we arrived on time. When we finally touched down in Singapore, I spent over $100 on liquor! And when I saw my mum, I hugged her until she could barely stand straight! I tole her some pretty touching words! Haha...



Here are some other things that didn't really fit in anywhere...

My Dad and I

Hotels...

Scenery...

Food... they give vegetables like its free over there!

The wonderfully cute animals (and some creepy fishes) that I met over there!

Phew! Update is done! I'm still feeling a lil' sick, still feeling like I wanna vomit, but with a lil' rest from the computer, I think I should be fine!

Until the next time!