Back for Now

Arrived in Singapore this afternoon. The girls went to the airport to meet me (after having me wait for half an hour!). Then we went to have Indonesian food at the Sundanese restaurant at T2. Very delicious! Highly recommended, at least as far as I'm concerned, but not what we'd have every other day because it is kinda pricey.

The flight was very short, just 1.5 hours. We arrived ahead of time in spite of heavy turbulence along the way. It must have been one of the worst turbulence cases I've ever encountered - my coffee was spilling out onto my tray and one of the passengers in my section was air-sick. Guess it's all those clouds piling over HCMC and the South China Sea that the aircraft had to negotiate on its path to Singapore.

Yesterday was a pretty relaxed day for me. Went out for a walk from the hotel to the Ben Thanh market which was perhaps just about 2 km away. Took some pictures on the way, but the shots seemed never enough! There's so much to this city that I love. Oh ... except the over-zealous independent motorbike tour operators who can be so persistent it's a real pain in the butt.

Against my sound logic, I splurged on bags again at Ben Thanh. Hehe ... I have a really soft spot for those things. I had to hurry out of the market before I caused further damage to my pocket.

After that, I worked for a while in the cozy and free-flow-drinks-and-snacks Club Room while housekeeping attended to mine. There was wireless facility here; in fact there was wireless anywhere in the hotel except the rooms, which was wired. I wonder why.

Our last round of observation was in the evening. This time, the respondent had steamboat dinner at a local deli so we had the same. As usual, the soup base is more flavourful that our version. A fairly satisfying meal. By the end of the observation and interview, a heavy downpour had set in, sending pedestrians into the deli for a hot steamboat dinner. It was so crowded and noisy, but I was glad to have the chance to observe a slice of HCMC weekend lifestyle; to be a part of a local community, having local food and listening to local banter (although there is not a word that I understood). Most families will eat at home on weekdays and the weekend meal out is a real treat.

Being in HCMC is like taking a trip down memory lane. Back in my childhood, this is just the sort of lifestyle we had in Malaysia. Such lifestyle is slowly disappearing as more people settle their meals outside after work, just like Sugus and Sarsi, my favourite soft candy and soft drink respectively. Yet, I found them in Vietnam! And the day before yesterday, when we were in a 'garden cafe', a lounging place for youngsters set in a tropical garden style complete with foliage and tiny bridges over flowing creeks, New Kids On The Block's "Happy Birthday" played. I had not heard that song in ages and that really put a smile on my face!

Where R U Now?

       A fortnight of absence
       the heart grows fonder
       or colder.

The Vietnam Chronicle Continues ...

It was pouring. Like the Mekong was hurling its body of water across town. As I stood on the pavement beneath an umbrella that was on the verge of yielding to the combined strength of rain and wind, waiting for a passenger to alight from the cab which would take me into the safe harbour of the Sofitel, one tiny mouse laid lifeless next to the taxi's tyre in a fresh puddle, its tiny body still to the whipping rain.

That was a poetic moment for me. As one who embraces life with all my heart, I think of death often. I do not wish to pass from this ephemeral world the way this poor mouse did.

This is the rainy season for Ho Chi Minh City. The months of July till November make the monsoon season which bring higher than average rainfall. As the cab made its way to the hotel, the water level had risen to ankle deep at some parts. Fortunately, the torrential rain abated soon after; otherwise, the city might just come under water.

The rain today had continued from last night. We were out for dinner at a local diner which our Vietnamese colleague had recommended. It's great having him with us on this trip for he's from HCMC itself and knows the local haunts. The place he brought us to was some distance from the hotel. We had to walk for perhaps half an hour or so. Of course, it was a casual evening walk which turned out to be quite interesting, especially the stopover at the model ship maker, where ancient sails and Chinese junks came alive as miniatures on the shelves of their artisans.

We cut through what must be the Little Japan of HCMC where the streets were lined with endless Japanese restaurants serving what looked like authentic Jap food. At least one of them was, according to Lauran, which served the okonomiyaki, a pizza-like pancake which is hardly found anywhere outside Japan. Even restaurants in Singapore, the cosmopolitan city, does not have it. So if anyone knows of any place in Singapore which cooks up this dish, hollaback ya!

At the same local deli, Nhu Lan, we had the largest mooncake ever. Haha ... the one we had was a pea next to one 5KG mooncake on sale at the counter. I wonder who will ever buy such a huge one and what for ...

As legend would have it, the founder of Nhu Lan used to be a roadside phở hawker. After years of hard work, she accumulated enough money to buy a property and founded a small phở shop. This little shop grew into a chain; in HCMC, there're at least two according to its namecard. Because she's a single woman, she's also compassionate towards destitutes of all kinds. Hence, she takes them in to help out in her shops while earning a roof over their heads and a decent livelihood in this harsh city.

The phở was simply delicious (the key reason why we asked for namecards!) We had crab paste phở which came with a small helping of rice noodles in flavourful soup topped with a lifetime supply of crab meat and roe!! Hehe ... 有点夸张 but Lauran couldn't finish her noodles after stomaching all the roe ... our cholesterol meter must have shot through the roof last night. The soup was simply delicious; the sweetness came without the help of MSG but hours of boiling the crab and God-knows-what other natural ingredients in water. (By the way, the Vietnamese diet is doing me a whole lot of good. Every meal comes with fresh and raw veges, which i duly ate. Voila ... my bowel movement is never smoother :)

We decided the night was still early after dinner (though it was already past 10 pm) so we decided to bask in some of HCMC's night atmosphere. Our friend recommended a couple of clubs, which, to our disappointment, had closed down. We finally stopped by the Q Bar, went inside and found it to be the most 'unhappening' bar we'd ever seen. There's no dance floor and the people were so listless like they were really better off in bed.

So we left. That's when the rain began; first, with a drizzle but soon it became a downpour. We were headed for a walk by the riverside but took shelter from the rain in another bar whose ice-cream parlour attracted us first. The rain never let up even after we were snug in bed after a quick drink at this cozy bar.

Today, I stood on the pavement watching the poor mouse in the rain outside the IndoChina boutique. I was there for a fitting of two tops I had tailor-made during a visit yesterday afternoon with Lauran. Tailor-made!! These are my firsts! I've always bought my clothes off the rack, having not the patience to wait. But the tailors here are incredibly efficient. It would only take two days - they'll be delivered to me tomorrow. Even Lauran's ao dai can be delivered on Sunday! I'm excited to see how these traditionally-designed tops can be modernised with my smart casual sense of haute couture :)

Tonight, we had Vietnamese chicken rice for dinner. Boy, did they give us a lot of rice! But even so, I'm feeling a little hungry now as I type ... hey, it's way past midnight alright! (Maybe it's because there wasn't much oil on either chicken or rice). Perhaps it's because of the lack of oil as in the case of Hainanese chicken which is literally drenched in oil (usually sesame oil), the steamed Vietnamese chicken was a bit tough. Perhaps it's a kampung chicken instead of a commercially-bred one. You know, a chicken which runs freely in the village builds more muscle than one that has little room to strut in its cage ... The rice was fragrant and nice, but sans the garlic and ginger which permeate the rice grains of the Hainanese version that I prefer. Instead, they served ground gralic with ginger separately, just like the chilli. The chilli sauce is also different, more diluted. So I'd say that the Hainanese wins the Chicken Rice War!

These couple of days, we did a couple of observations in the supermarket with our respondents. I almost went crazy checking out the prices of groceries and toiletries. Half price! Or even lower! For example, Lip Ice is only SGD2.50, Carefree Ultra-thin pantyliner 40s pack for only SGD 1.60! I had no intention of buying anything at all when stepping into the supermarts but ended up with 2 big bags of essentials. OK, these on top of the bags, purses and pencil cases - beautifully embroidered with Vietnamese designs that I couldn't resist picking up at the Ben Thanh market. It'll be tough packing the luggage tomorrow ... oh, the beef jerky is also friggin' delicious. Buy the Tuyen Ky brand. Very nice!

Day 2 Ho Chi Minh City

The city looks more familiar today. We had the chance to go shopping after our focus groups. We hit the Saigon Tax Trade Centre at around 5.30 pm. Nothing very much here; most of the things are tourist-oriented so we moved on to Ben Thanh market. Picked up a coconut ice-cream on the way. Sounds exotic right? Before you think it is rich as the curry or laksa, let me tell you that it is deliciously light. Yet, the taste of coconut is not lost. Indeed, it is characteristic of the Vietnamese diet of light, healthy food.

On the way to the Ben Thanh market, I found myself in familiar territory. We walked past the KimDo Royal City Hotel where we stayed back in 2002. I took a quick peek at the lobby to see if that log of a chair was still there (that structure reminded us of an evil character from the movie Little Otik about a childless couple who adopted a tree stump as their child, and it came alive just like Pinocchio, and ate everyone). It was not.


There are also fewer street vendors. I guess living standards are getting better for everyone. There used to be many hawkers hawking the phở (rice noodle soup) from giant cooking pots holstered on both ends of a bamboo pole which balanced precariously on the shoulders of hawkers who moved from place to place selling the noodles from the sidewalks of HCMC. Now, many of these hawkers have been replaced by the highly popular Phở 24 chain where the phở is sold in a cleaner environment.

When we got to Ben Thanh Market about 7 pm, alas, many of the shops were already closed. So we had dinner at this little hidden treasure of HCMC called Nam Giau Restaurant. It is found at the end of a dark alley that a regular tourist would have been unlikely to venture into. We had noodle soup and shared a combination platter which served up delectable bites reminiscent of the 水晶包 and stuffed 猪场粉 back home. The final total bill for three - VND106,000 (SGD10.60)!

It is very affordable to eat well (in the sense of health too!) in Vietnam. For lunch, we had a more sumptuous 8-course meal which cost USD10 per head (SGD15) which would have cost way beyond that price back home. I can totally live in Vietnam, especially in Huế, which is the country's equivalent of China's Sichuan (especially 成都 where I'll find myself completely at home with the hot and spicy food, laidback lifestyle, Chinese tea all day long and pandas for neighbours :). Huế serves up spicy stuff too; food from this region is what Nam Giao specialises in. Yummy yummy.

中秋节快乐！

I think tonight I can begin to appreciate the poetic phrase 但愿人长久 千里共婵娟.

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the day of the year when the moon is at its fullest and most beautiful (although someone once told me that the moon is actually at its fullest on the 16th due to the legend of 貂蝉 - the Moon goes into hiding for the shame of paling in comparison to the great beauty of 貂蝉 when she appears in the courtyard to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. The Moon only reappears on the following day in its full glory when 貂蝉 is indoors)

Well, anyway, on this day of reunion (it is also the Chinese valentine's other than Chap Goh Meh), I am on a business trip in Ho Chi Minh City. It's been drizzling so the moon is really in hiding tonight! Ha ha ...

It's been a pretty light day today. After arriving in the city, we checked into the splendid Sofitel Plaza Saigon. We're in executive rooms with free-flow access to beverages and snacks on the Club floor ... hmmm ... nice if we have time. We had the same at Sheraton Karachi last time but I didn't get to enjoy the privilege even once! Ok, except for private dining during breakfast but the spread was so limited we eventually chose to have breakfast everyday at the common breakfast buffet floor.

After a comprehensive briefing session to the local team here, we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. Brought the respondents' photo-journals back to browse before the focus groups tomorrow. Very interesting! As I blog, I'm only half-way through those. Gotta have to sleep a little tonight I guess (though I'm dead beat cuz woke up really early this morning to catch the flight despite having turned in really late last night). Luckily, it's an hour behind Singapore here in Vietnam ...

Well, anyway, the reason why I'm still not done with the journals is cuz of the wonderful massage that Lauran and I had just before dinner. It's been a long while since I've had one. USD31 for a full-body massage that lasted 75 minutes - well worth it. I'm so amazed how such a skinny girl like my masseuse can have such great strength in her hands.

That was followed by a Vietnamese dinner at this place called Quan ... something. It's recommended by one of our HCMC friends. The menu consists of specialties from different regions of the country but there's no indication of which dish came from where! So in the end, we still had the normal wrap and some fresh prawns cooked in coconut juice (this one is quite a novelty for me cuz I've never had prawns in santan before though the ones we had tonight were not as flavourful as the ones Lauran had in Brisbane!)

Look forward to resting in the super-comfy, super-huge double bed I have. Nice room. Though not much of a view from here, it's spacious with a nice toilet and best of all, FREE Internet! Or else, I won't be spending time here, blogging on a Vietnamese interface ... haha ...

Okie dokie. Gotta get the work outta the way for tomorrow. Then watch some Korean programme maybe. Gee, the Korean culture is so pervasive here in HCMC - is Korean the new French?

爱: 我抓不到！

Hoho ... my 100th post for this year. Make a wish ... v(^.^)v

My Girl, My Current Favourite

Last year, it was My Lovely Samsoon. This year, it's My Girl.

Just finished watching the series on Mobtv's Asian Dramas (it's a premium channel that my sis subscribes for Falling in Love, that Mediacorp-NTV7 co-production which aired its last episode today during the 7pm slot).

Don't know why I'm hooked on My Girl. Maybe cuz it's really funny, especially the female lead Joo Yoo-rin. She sometimes does completely illogical, stupid even, things with or without male lead Seol Gong-chan, but totally things that I'd do myself so I can totally relate to it ... ha ha.

I also like that the show, though true to the template of Korean dramas, mocks the formula of poor girl meets rich guy, the family opposes but the lovers are inseparable, more obstacles stand in the way including one of the leads dying of a terminal disease, or after overcoming innumerable hurdles, they live happily ever after!

Or maybe it's just all that tour guide thing (I have a soft spot for that profession, you know) ... wanderlust is setting in on me again. Many scenes are set in the airport, one of my favourite places on earth!

Nevertheless, don't think it'll have the staying power of Kim Sam Soon, which I've watched repeatedly many times. But still, it's too early to say. He he ... if I have time, I probably will get the DVD and play it one more time ... or twice more ...

Miss

       In the name of Miss
       empty feelings
       remain hollow
       Today. Tomorrow?

上善若水

       Like water ...
       modestly flows, as
       great strength grows
       Latent 'til summoned.

Sleep and Fatigue

       When sleep sweeps me
       under her weathered wing
       Fatigue retreats.

9-11, 2001: Tuesday

Wow. It's been 6 years. It was a Tuesday too, when I woke up on 20th St. East in New York City, brushed my teeth and wondered if I should head downtown to the huge Buddhist temple I passed by the previous day combing the streets of Lower Manhattan on my way to Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty perched, overlooking the old Manhattan skyline where the 2 World Trade Center towers stood above the rest like fingers jabbing at the heavily overcast sky. Maybe I should even take the trip to the top of the towers which was said to give a sweeping view of the whole New York City. The things-to-do left over from a day cut short by torrential rain the previous evening, when Michael Jackson performed at Madison Square Garden.

The evening of Sep 10, NYC was assailed by a fierce thunderstorm. I sought refuge at Burger King upon my return from Liberty Island, and used the free Internet to my heart's content, replying to emails although I was scheduled to fly home on Sep 12. Little did I know that I'd be forced to stay put in the Big Apple for the week.

9-11, 2001: Tuesday started out cheerful enough for me. I took a leisurely walk toward Union Square, my ears plugged to one of the local radio pop stations. I was waiting for the guy to fix my croissant when I heard the breaking news - a plane had just rammed into one of the WTC towers. I remember sniggering that a dumb pilot must have lost control of the jet and caused the mishap. Within minutes, the second tower was hit, and then came reports of the the attack at the Pentagon and Flight 93 that went down near Pittsburgh. Even without the reporter telling me that it was a landmark terrorist attack, I knew I was eye-witness to one of the historic moments of my lifetime.

I made it to Union Square where a crowd had already gathered to watch the burning towers. That's about as far as we could get. Lower Manhattan was out of bounds by then. I remained rooted as I watched the towers collapse. All hell broke loose around me. Everyone was calling someone to report their safety. Then it dawned on me that I had better call my parents. I was travelling alone so they must be freaking out if they had the TV on. The telephone lines remained jammed till that evening so I just hoped my sisters thought of checking the email instead.

The following days, NYC was a ghost town. Of course, tunnels and airports were closed and everyone was advised to stay indoors and watch the news for further developments.

I was impressed by the outpour of compassion and generosity among New Yorkers. At one point, the hospitals had to plead for people to stop giving blood because the blood bank was too full and the bags of precious blood were going bad.

I chipped in for the dogs, the unsung heroes of the ensuing rigorous rescue efforts. I also attended several mournful masses at Union Square.

I managed to secure a seat on the plane for Sunday. Regretfully, I was going to miss my sister's convocation, which was on Monday. Coincidentally, my uncle and aunt from Beijing were there in NY too, on a half-year visit with the family of their eldest daughter. That weekend, they fetched me from the hostel where I was staying to their home in Brooklyn. That's the first time I met my cousin in person. I had a delightful time with them - going out to Long Beach and feasting on seafood - that the sadness embroiling Lower Manhattan which I had experienced seemed like an episode from a distant past.

I haven't seen them since. Neither have I been to Ground Zero since 9-11, 2001. I've dreamed frequently of returning before a new building goes up in its place (hopefully not something with a name as cheesy as Freedom Tower). Hope to realise the dream soon. My cousin's kid must be in college by now. Wow.

Red Eye

       Right eye
       don't (be) smart
       Come
       unwind the red-eye effect

我不爱星期天！

       Sunday, bloody Sunday
       a prelude to
       slogging, bloody slaving
       to go on living.

Shh ...

       In the quiet of the night
       silence screams
       with all its might.

Sunny Face

       Oh show your sunny face
       Who is this?
       I melt in your embrace.