Christmas in Ho Chi Minh City

Well I'm currently in the Ho Chi Minh City, or also known as Saigon in Vietnam. The original plan was to come here with the CarribeanFrench, but he somehow didn't think to look up the visa requirements so he wasn't allowed to fly into the country!!

I originally thought this was going to be a rather lonely trip and was def more nervous about the safety of this place for sure, but so far everything has been pretty damn good except for being ripped off at the market by more than a bit!! But oh well, I guess it's a lesson for me NOT to shop too much!

I guess after exploring Singapore by myself continuously, I don't really mind doing stuff by myself anymore. And plus, there are enough travellers around to chat over dinner table anyway!

So yesterday was spent touring around the city in general, hitting the markets full of foreigners and also pick pocketers and ripping off merchants and begging children. I, for one did get ripped off for sure BIG time, and now I know to correctly remember the currency exchange next time I travel anywhere! But then saying that, even after going on a tour and all it's still proving to be pretty damn cheap. i mean I'm spending a lot more than I initially planned, but then I'm doing a lot more stuff and eating a lot more than I planned anyway lol.

I also saw a water puppet show last night, and it was much better than I expected for sure. I was thinking it was going to be a shitty run down on like at a lot of asian tourism places, but this was a very very well maintained and although I don't understand Vietnamese, I still understood the suttle comedy and all.

The city of HCMC has very little remnants from french occupancy as I've seen so far. But the biggest influence I saw so far is probably the amount of bread sold at even the street shops. I found 1 that was too tempting to pass by, and the service go as far as a shop attendee follows you around with a tray and gets all the bread for you. I felt like Ive become a royalty or something for sure! And the actual bread? A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. It's nice as the breads I actually ate over at France.

And now speaking of food, the only experience of Vietnamese food that I have is what was served at "Saigon" restaurant in Dunedin. Now tasting the actual Saigon food, I have to say it wasn't that bad back there considering you can't have the ingredients you can easily get over here. The most interesting meal that I've experienced is the plain 'pho'. They are mainly available in chicken or beef, and when you order them, they serve you a plate of mung beans and thai basil and some kinda chinese green vegetable. You put as much as you want in your soup, along with kaffire lime and chilli and just eat it up! And goodness sake they are good!! i've already had 3 bowls and this is only my second day. And also, you cannot forget the rice paper rolls. The ones they serve you over here is much thinner than the ones they sell in nz, and there was no need to pre-soak them. They come out dry and you wrap with whatever inside and then by the time you are ready to eat, it's softened enough from the moisture of the vegetables.

So enough about all my piggy eating and on about today. So today I booked a tour that I booked with my hotel (also not recommended as they are def charge you more than the local travel agents) which takes you to this place called Makeng, 140km away from HCMC. It was a nice cruise which was mainly on a boat taking through floating markets and then some small village house that make coconut candies, popped rice snacks, rice papers and rice wines. And then we went off to further up the river and transferring onto a old style 4 people seater boat for about 30min to a restaurant for lunch. i met a guy while I was on the tour, an Aussie guy who was on it by himself as his gf was rather unfortunate and got a stomach ache on day 2 in south east asia. And he turned out to be a brilliant company! We chatted along the way, and we had a chuckle over how there was old aunties selling pineapples as a snack. They cut it really nicely decorative and then cut them in 4's so you can bite into it like a corn cob (and was tastey!).  and he even payed all for the deep fried fish we shared for lunch as well! we've exchanged number so hopefully we can catch up for lunch tomorrow before I take off and x finger his gf is fine enough to come out! We got back to HCMC at about 7 and went for another bowl of pho for dinner. At the dinner table, I met another fortunate travellers who missed 2 flights coz

When I first arrived here, I was annoyed at the CarribeanFrench for stuffing up coz the whole point of coming over together was so I don't have to feel the loneliness on the christmas day. But at the end of the day, I haven't had the time to even feel it! Amazingly, Vietnam celebrate christmas big time, and according to the tour guy, they drink it up big time too. And you see these toddlers everywhere in santa costume. But maybe it's the thing with both Singapore and Dunedin, that if you stay, you're left behind there coz you don't have a family to go to or you are one of the few that lives in that city. I never liked the feeling of being 'left behind'. It makes me depressed more than I need to.

Anyway, I think this post is getting way too long for single post. And I've become rather healthy and sleeping rather early over here!

Anyway, good night and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I am definitely glad to say that this post is much more happier than the christmas post last year!

New Beginning

It's been a while since I last blogged. It is so hard to have some time to myself these days...

So I've handed in my resignation to my lovely work. Then I started to wonder whether it was too early to pull out my card. Because after I came back from my break, I truely was ok to get back into work again. But then 2 weeks on from being back at work, I think I've finally figured out my main cause of stress from living in Singapore.

CHINESE.

Not just any Chinese (Mandarin), but with Singaporean accent. I came to realisation that when the level (or percentage) of Chinese being spoken at work reaches this certain percentage, I start to get irritated. I used to only get this in the weekends or when I was with my friends before, I didn't like it when others start speaking in language I have no idea about and not being able to engage into conversations.  And how much I can not tolerate the sound of the accent. It sounds so stressful and pushy and fast and there is nothing relaxing about the tone of Singaporean Mandarin!

Now for the past week, one of the colleague was in Taiwan for family vacation, so the number of people in the lab became only 4. 2 Japanese (including myself), 1 Philippino, 1 Singaporean. So there was much much higher percentage of English being spoken at work, and how relaxing it was at work. Now that colleague is back (she's actually 1 of the senior), the boss and the manager somehow likes to come into the lab and forever chat, make noise, and distract for bloody long and be annoying as hell. When you are trying to work and there are people around you just trying to do everything to disturb you, it gets rather irritating. The whole day, I started feeling off again, and found myself counting down til Xmas, til the new years, til the end of work period.

I've realised how weak I am since I've been here. I though I could suck it up and keep on going, but then I guess 1 thing I will never do again is to move to another country of no plans to stay long term. I could have learnt chinese whilst I was here, but then like my previous posts, refusing myself to "adapt" or "settle in" to this country contributed to not wanting learn. I know my kiwi-ness will never go away, but I do wonder why I was trying to keep it so tight with me. I think there are few things I could have done to make myself comfortable living here, but it's really in the world of "what comes out at the end of the day?"

Living in NZ was perfect, I don't know why I ever wanted to leave that country. It had everything I wanted. I guess I was a little gold fish in a bowl that wanted to see the ocean.

Now the only thing I really look forward to is for that day, that I will return to NZ, to live in the country I love so much in the lifestyle that I love so much. Only if my parents would move back again, things will be just ever be so perfect.

My dear old friend MadScientist randomly  chatted to me the other night. Grumbling about how his silly little brother made a flight booking and mistaking am with pm. Every time I talk to him, I feel at home, we don't really talk about the big this and that type of thing, but everything is so casual. Actually, we do talk about big things like how he was in china the week before and over in Europe and this conference and that conference. But then no matter when I talk to him, I guess I have a trust in him that I will never fall apart with his friendship. Whether I talk to him every day or once a year, he is still there, in good old fashion style that will not change, no matter where he is in the world. I wish I was like him. I wish I was as strong as him and knew myself enough like him.

I'm slightly glad that I have let go a part of my dream. I didn't realise til now how much it was pressuring me until now. That one dream I was running towards for the past 6 years. It seems like such a long time, but I have absolutely no regret about letting it go. But I am more excited about going around the world. I know for sure that money really doesn't matter anymore. It is there to be used and to experience and not just save up forever.

I plan to make a trip of south east asia before I leave this part of the world and then off to Japan, which I hope to organise Visa to see rest of the world. Which I'm hoping strongly it will either be UK or Canada. But I will see how this road will lead me.

This chapter called Asian Experience was rather short, but it has taught me many many things. And I'm just ready for a new chapter once again.

Day 5

I guess there is something more than a bit wrong with me when I reach the point I cant taste anything. Salty, sweet, good, bad, to the point when I start to get sick and throwing up what I ate, yet I want to eat. I won't say I'm anorexic, but it's more like me wanting to get some kinda satisfaction and keep on eating even if I'm full.

Food for me means too much, I love eating, and it's annoying when I'm not satisfied with what I eat. So I end up trying to eat anything and everything to see if I can get that satisfaction. But the truth is, nothing will give me that satisfaction.

But the one that I run to the most it this.

Yes, CAKES.

Whether it's good or bad, I just eat it. Now in case you're wondering, no, I didn't eat them all at one go. But I was preparing myself to be an absolute snob tomorrow and lock myself in so it's more the 2 days supply.

For the past 5 days, I had a visitor crashing on my floor, and it was possibly the worst visitor I had in my whole life. It's been a long time since I shared my room with someone else, but then sharing it with someone that can't entertain themselves for even 5 min or will stare and watch you do anything and everything and not wanting to do anything in particular is rather a torture. And what did I want?

MOMENT OF PEACE.

All I wanted over this week was to be an absolute snob and not do anything, and he just got in the way.

On top, he've changed so much since 2 years a go when I actually did know him to the point I'm too embarrassed to introduce him as my friend to other people.

Now living in Asia is not easy for Japanese. No matter where you go, you know there will be people who do not even want to hear the word Japanese, and I understand it. But I don't understand the mentality of a guy who wants to go to all the war monuments and museum which will always display the story of how vicious and cruel Japanese was when they invaded the country, and honour the bravery of the men who fought against them and battled til their last breath. I'm not in denial about the history, it did happen and I know it was my people who did it. But then what can I do? I can say I'm sorry but to whom? History definitely needs to be taught so the same story won't be repeated again. But everyone at the time of war thinks they are doing the right thing for their country. It is not the soliders or the civilians who should take the blame, it is the power of the people above who decides to start the war that should die. But they are always the one that survives at the end. They brainwash the people below that the "enemy is evil, and should not survive". It is only the people that decides who is right and who is not.

I hate the war, I'm more than slightly anti about military used for any other purpose than for rescue. But then again, who decides what is right and what is not? even if the soldiers are sent to "protect" or "help" the coup in another country for instance, why is the person who is being attacked is the "good" person and people involved in coup is the "bad" person. It is the matter of "majority rules" in this world.

Just like the battle that I'm currently in.

Anyway, the point is having a person messing with my mind while I have enough on mind was just the biggest pain in my life. I now have 4 days left. I know I will be writing a resignation letter and I need to chill. I hope the next few days is going to be full of nothing.....