Traffic, traffic everywhere

It's strange because after many days here, I am not able to even load the Facebook page. I think it is banned here, just like in China. Oh well...Thank goodness blogging and my emails are still accessible :) Otherwise I'd be so disconnected!!

5 days gone, time to leave tomorrow. Thank God, flight's on a Sunday and there's no mad traffic rush. I would've thought my daily battle with traffic in KL was bad. Traffic in Saigon is worse. It takes between 1 to 1.5hr to get from the city to the industrial area, and that is if you leave at 630 or 7am. Any later, and it'll be worse. It took me 2+ hours to get back one day when I left the site at 5pm. On the day I left at 7pm, it took me 1+ hr too. Bear in mind, I wasn't even driving!! And motorcylists take almost 1 hr to travel 30km to work, according to my subcontractor, and that is because motorcylists get caught in horrible jams too!

rather old photo as now everyone wears helmet

To a certain extend, it makes me appreciate the KL traffic in a way :)


And one morning I witnessed a group of cyclists. My hats off to them. I wonder how the 'battle' with the traffic during their training sessions.


The amazing thing is - no one seems to be involved in any accidents. Intersections spanning 4-5 lanes each direction turns into a messy pool of motorcyclists and loud honking whenever the traffic light changes. I feel for the toddlers who ride with their parents. Some so young. But that's the quality of life there. Everyone dons face/dust masks.

Typical scene. Poor kid. I've seen a toddler sleeping on the bike. Building behind is the famous Cho Ben Thanh (Ben Thanh Market) - taken from stophavingaboringlife.com

I haven't had the chance to ask/see, I wonder how much petrol costs here.

Rain, rain go away, mummy wants to go and play. :) Its raining and I wanna do my final shopping. It has rained twice today. I brought the first rain for the 'rainy season' when I first arrived - so says my Vietnam colleague. Then it was dry for 3 days. Short spurt yesterday and earlier today and now.

All packed and ready but with some space left for last minute buys tonight :)

TATA!!

Ramblings of Saigon

The first time I met my colleague from the Vietnam office, I thought he resembled my ex-GM. Almost the same height and size and even style.

At site, when I met the supervisor of my sub contractor, he had an uncanny resemblance to someone I knew, but at that point of time, I just couldn't pinpoint. 2 days later, I recalled....he's an exact replica of my ex-bf. ;p Only thing, he's a wee bit shorter than I am (my ex was slightly taller than I am), and is Vietnamese ;p even the way he talks kinda resembles him.

Speaking of short, Vietnamese men are kinda short. Well, not all, but from the 15 people I have worked with during my stay here, only 3 are taller than I am and the rest, are either about my height or shorter. Oh well....

And since my site in within a manufacturing company, there are female and male production workers, most of them perhaps in the below 30 age group. either that, or they have young-looking genes. And ALL, with exception of the cleaners and slightly older women, wear their pants really really really low waist-style. Most are slim :) But I expected more...hehehe maybe modenization played its part in fattening them up ;p Genetics!!

They are nice people, though most of them can't really speak English. Even some of the hotel bellboys. Hope to snap some decent pics of the city tomorrow during my morning tour-on-foot :) most are night shots so far and not very nice.

Can't wait!

Something about Saigon

Vietnamese spring rolls

OK OK, it's not 'something about Mary' :)

Somehow, FB seems to be inaccessible from here. Lappy or phone both can't. I wonder why. Even Wifi from another location seems unsuccessful.

anyway, so I post up pics here instead.

A few days before I left for Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), another colleague of mine who just got back from a really really short trip to Hanoi complained she had nothing to eat. Yup, apparently Hanoi had halal food-drought. Well, I was more of the opinion that she wasn't as adventurous and she had a group of other colleagues (international, I must say) with her, so it made it harder for her to go food-hunting alone. So to be safe, although hubby has been here before, he told me to just pack 2 cans of canned food, just in case.

I'm staying right in the heart of town, right smack where all the branded shopping outlets are. And to my surprise, the street right across the hotel is the 'halal' street. Another street not too far away seemed to be the 'Japanese food street' complete with karaoke entertainment outlets.

2 of the 3 halal eateries are owned by Malaysian. But this one (Halal@Saigon) was my choice cos it had local fares.

The other, D'Nyonya was more of a Malaysian fare. I didn't come all the way to eat Malaysian food :)

My less than RM1 bottle of Coke...only if they had Vanilla Coke :)

She ain't heavy, she's my sista!

Don't we look alike? We're going for a ride!! TATA!!

'Pony' ride! Yahoo!!

Miss Saigon

Finally landed in Saigon. Before I came, colleagues, hubby and Dad told me -

1. It's impossible to drive there
2. Traffic really terrible
3. It's very French-like cos it was previously a French colony;

respectively....

and my thoughts?

1. Doesn't look very impossible to drive, but I think its easier said then done. I kinda like how 'co-ordinated' they are, i.e. the motobikes are on the right side of the road, hogging almost 2 lanes leaving the cars/other vehicles to one. (Cars here are left-hand drive)
2. Yes, quite terrible, especially if you try crossing the road. I think only people from Penang or KL city can survive. If you hessitate, you'll never get across.
3. Yes, this place, minus the traffic (and the excessive motorbikes parked along the roads) and if only there were more ang-mohs, would definitely be Paris. Only if it was cool like in Paris too.

*sorry photos in camera and I didn't bring the cable/card reader. will try to take from phone tomorrow.

I was walking and walking ever since I arrived. Certain things are cheap, branded ones I mean compared to Malaysia. But I've held back, since I've not gone to the famous Ben Thanh Market yet. Staying in the heart of the city makes things easy. All within walking distance and the busy streets don't worry me, safety wise.

A bottle of 390ml (have no idea why the odd number...French related, perhaps?) Coke is less than RM1, to be exact, RM0.75 only! *jumps for joy*

Bong Sen Hotel, where I am staying, is right in front of the street, which houses many halal restaurants and a mosque. This includes 'D'Nyonya', a Malaysian restaurant. 'D'Angsana' in a foodcourt in the Parkson Shopping centre is also Malaysian. Don't ask me why the obsession with 'D'. I've already set my sight on a very unique Halal eatery for tomorrow's dinner. Other Halal outlets here are mainly the Indian shops. Yup, northern Indian food or Pakistani food.

But then, tomorrow my day starts at 7am. Yes, I have to report to my Vietnam branch office at 7am!! Gosh! It's actually within walking distance, less than 1km away, but with one cooler box and 2 other bulky boxes of equipment, I'm forced to take the taxi.

Can't wait for an early start tomorrow and hope to clock in some running milleage after work! (Gym is as good as the one in Sibu ;p )

'Out of office' Assistant

That has never been used more frequently than recently.

1 week of travel, 1 week back here. Another travel, another week here. Enjoyable it may seem, but it's worrying when you have to leave unwell kids behind. Pity the kids and the daddy. And knowing the especially-clingy AIR1 to me, I hope he'll not give daddy a hard time.

Back from Sibu, and I've only partially unpacked, to repack for Ho Chi Minh city. Excited. BUt then I feel abit daunting too as it's going to be my first site work alone, in a slightly different area and conditions. Pray that all will be well without hitches.

And of course pray that the kids will recover by tonight and so will not give daddy a hard time.

This wekeend's plans were partially aborted because they were down with flu and all of a sudden fever. Disheartening.

Labour Day Weekend

Oh dear...the long awaited 3-day break came but it wasn't as fun as it was expected.

Kids down with flu and then now fever. And I'm due for a short trip out of the country :(

My oh my...pray that they get well soon and so Daddy can handle them... otherwise over-clingy!