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?
