Saigon: LC-A

My LC-A photos! So glad they turned out fine because I was quite worried about the x-ray machine at the Vietnamese airports(they didn't have a film-safe tag on).

Best left over of French colonization, cafes with seats facing the streets.

Hehe adorable sign.

Uncle Ho!

Saigon

So I finally got over my laziness, and here's my Vietnam post!

First thing I learnt in Vietnam is DON'T TRUST CHINESE SPEAKING TAXI DRIVERS. The above image is of the street we stayed at, Bui Vien Street. Very lovely place sprinkled with road side stalls, bars, restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops. Anyway, the taxi driver we got from the airport claimes that although our street was in district 1(main city district), it was really far away from the city center with all the sights, and located beside a park that heroin user congregate in, and that leads to a large amount of pickpockets.(We later found out it was only a 10 min walk from the city center, and there are pickpockets everywhere anyway) So he convinced us to take a look at some hotels he recommended. Anyway turns out they were all a bit overpriced and since we already paid for our deposit at the one we booked, we just decided to make our way there. He became very bitchy after that and kept telling us about pickpockets and whatever fabricated tales of horror he wanted us to believe in. He stopped at a road side opposite our street and we initially made a deal of USD10 for the ride, but he claimed some ticketing system at the airport costs USD5 and we had to pay him that!?!?! That is really ridiculous because USD5=VND94500 and a bowl of noodles there cost VND20000. Considering that average Vietnamese people go to and fro the airport all the time, it cannot be expected that so much money is paid just for that!!!!!!!!! >:( Anyway we sat in the cab for around 10 minutes being very unwilling to pay but we paid him USD2 plus SGD2 in the end and ran off in the rain. HATE!!!

Our hotel was really great though, and such a relief after the stupid taxi driver ordeal. AC+Private toilet+Cable TV for less than USD10 a night. The staff there were really nice and friendly too.

Okay I am lazy to type any more so pictures(from phone):

Weena my travel buddy and some carrot cake thing from a road side stall. The uncle selling it was from somewhere in China so we could communicate and he was really friendly! The mochi-like thing on top was good stuff.

PHO!!!! I love Pho.

Some egg pancake thing that you wrap with Wasabi leaves.

Spring Rolls! With loads of mint leaves inside. Ugh, can't stand mint leaves but I finished it!!!! And blue nails haha we went for a manicure and we didn't wanna leave a tip but the forced us to.

SNAILS. I ate snails. Tasted like squid.

Ice coffee in Vietnam is awesome. Super thick+super sweet.

Road side ice cream from in front of the cathedral and Weena's boob.

Bahn Mi which is french loaves with Pate and ham stuff. (Y)

And to end it off:

Battle scar from a snatch thief attack! They were on motorcycles and the guy at the back reached out his hand towards me. I was quite confused for a moment, thinking he wanted to high five me or something. The next thing I knew, he grabbed the stuff in my hands! But he didn't get anything, my plastic bag just tore+my pouched opened up. I dropped my phone on the floor(D:) but yeah, thank goodness I didn't lose anything. I was traumatized for around 3 minutes.

Chào (hello in Vietnamese)

Going to Vietnam in less than 3 days! I am really quite excited since the last time I travelled overseas(by plane) was Japan in J1, which leaves more than a year in between!!! I love travelling. I love airplane rides. I love how everyone speaks a foreign language and no one knows you. I especially love wandering around foreign places and getting slightly lost! So very exciting! And we're meeting Van there too! Which makes everything easier. But she's coming on the second night so there's a good balance of everything! HCM city is gonna be awesome.

In other news, I'm really quite sad that my last job assignment ended. I became good friends with my boss and the fact that I'll most likely not meet him again in my whole life makes me so upset. D: I'm really bad with goodbyes. I almost cried but that would've been really embarrassing so I rushed off. Le sigh. It was a really fun 11 days though. (The $$ helps too heh heh heh)

Okay I think next post will be when I come back for Vietnam, so watch out for semi-decent quality photos from my phone and l-ca photos a few days later!!!!!!!!! I have yet to pack and I have no bags to bring because the bags I usually use all don't have zips? (In case of pick pockets)

By Leslie Plesser

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Work takes up loads of time. So in the mean time, here's a picture from the arts fest's opening event.

I had an epiphany today.

Excite!

The day before my birthday I won a new phone through the newspaper's lucky draw! I got it today and it's pretty awesome. It's pretty incredible that i won the phone considering how many people the paper reaches and how many entries they would've received(I saw some guy mentioning how he entered a hundred times for the phone that I won) (Which makes me feel bad since some people forked out quite a bit of money just for that and I only used... 20c.) Anyway it's an awesome touch screen sony ericsson and it has a good camera, so hooray for that.

Today, I got myself some badges(above) and a few books. Bought a copy of Ceriph and I have to say it's pretty amazing. Maybe I am just a person who is easily awed but this book is rather impressive. Completely worth every penny. I recommend it to everyone. Support local writings, friends!

They told ya, but you were dying for it

Currently I feel like crap and I know this week is going to be crap. I can't wait for work to start next week so life can be less craptastic(!!) than it is right now. And I hate work.

Life has been so uninspired I don't know if there's anything worse.