[cold but relieved]

jus came back from a children's party held at my chr! it was nice! i was the photographer so you wun see me in any of the pics. boo. a big grp of them. from Fei Yue BB and CCK and of course, Bible Clubs. played games, tell stories etc. glad the youths came to help out! thanks!

okay. so continuing and finishing off my Hanoi story...

so the nxt day was shopping day! i blogged the previous entry until so late that i'd a hard time waking up! then, got rushed downstairs for breakfast. sorry to le jing and uncle christopher for waiting for me. din get a chance to send off aunty joanna's family either. reuben also forgo his shopping time so he can slp in. ha. but that shopping time proves worth it! i'll tell you why...

we went to the market. a common market. definitely not to buy vegetables etc but to buy gift items! and we bought SO many shell purses! there are 3 storeys to that market place. it looks a bit lyk beach road the army shops kinda layout. the 1st floor is the one that attracts us the most and the 2nd is selling cloths and shirts while the 3rd is selling children's clothes. then, in the 1st floor, all the bags are located at one area, the jewelleries at another etc. so organised eh?

and it was there tat i got a new bag!! i got a North Face bag! it was super cool la! suddenly my mum and dad say that my yellow bag is too old and shld be thrown away. so they decided to buy me another bag with the same volume. ha. so there it is! i got a new orange bag! but i feel quite sad to leave my yellow bag. it's wad my sec sch frens recognise me for. i rmb sam's incident. and it has stuck with me since sec sch :( had to throw it in vietnam. in the pic below, the lady beside me is the shop seller. haha. funny and random.

i also bought lots of shell purses and pop-out christmas cards! so cute! at one stall, after i'd bought a mirror, one of the salesgirl said "Terima Kasih"! i was shocked! do i look Malay or...?? anyawy, down there, grandma and i took nice photos with the hats. see!

and you know wad? i met Michael!! haha. so coincidental and nice! wanted to tell him tat i was glad to see him but somehow it din come out. lol. i saw En Ting first then Michael boo-ed beside me (lyk wad i did to him last time. ha). saw the whole family too. haha. and Xiang was saying that tho we may be staying in different hotels, we can meet at the center which is the market. how true eh? :) well, glad to see him! and liseal bought so many vietnamese hats for her chr youths! shocking! haha.

so after all the shopping in the market (which was a bit of disappointment cos it din sell as much as the side-streets stalls), we all headed back to the hotel. dropped our things then picked reuben up for lunch and more shopping!! so we headed out again for lunch and a matter of money/who pay came in again. oh well. adults. then, walked the streets!

near our eating place, there was a Dilmah Tea shop! so boy went in to buy Mint tea (his favourite flavour is mint) and i bought Peach. thanks to Wei Hao who made me drink tea so now i can start drinkin tea with more guts! thanks! after that, we headed out to buy 40 embroidery coaster sets! FORTY! i'm not kidding you. aunty jacinta wants 30 and my mum wants 10. wah. even the shop keeper din believe us but we literally took tat number. haha. and got quite a good discount! saw a big wooden dragonfly too! it was nice!

after that, it was CRUMPLER! yeah! le jing and i both bought a crumpler bag! at a v low price. they claim the materials are from australia while the workmanship is in Vietnam. hmm. anyway, i bought a laptop bag! jus as i wished. the padding was good. got my dad to check. so i guess, as long as it works, i'm fine. then, dad bought a samsonite laptop bag! and my family bought another deuter bag! for camping purposes. and uncle christopher got another orange deuter bag too! so all in all, we bought 5 bags! happy ppl!

so after that, le jing and i did manicure!! it was super cool and fun la! it was the first time for le jing and i! it was super fun la! choosing the many designs they offer. but also a bit scared when they start to clean my nails. so now i have this!

it has a pink background with white flowers on it plus glitters. and mind you, it isn't stickers okay? it's really that gal paint for me wan. using a thin brusher. i paid S$5!! it was cheap! at least cheaper than in singapore. yay! so tempting to go back for more manicure. and the gal was also asking me to keep my nails! haha. but i still wun la. i dun lyk to have long nails. feels so dirty. anyway, I LOVE MY NAILS NOW! and it looks funny seeing pinky nails swiping arnd the keyboard! :P the other set with white flowers and green leaves..it's le jing's manicure design!

so then, it wasn't much shopping already. my bro got 2 nice embroidery purses. glad he and dad bargained for a good price. so met Xiang in the afternoon. was showing her my bag and my manicure! haha. i'm glad le jing and her got a chacne to talk on the bus all the way from the hotel to the airport. got to know her better through their chats. she waited for us to check-in. then brought us up to a restaurant for dinner. but she din join us. so we bid her farewell. boy. i'm goin to miss her lots! she was a really nice and wonderful tour guide! flexible and sociable. takes good care of us and makes sure things are done. and easy to tok to. not strict or too task-orientated. and she's willing to share with us her life--her past and present and future. and indeed, she knows lots of Vietnam. man. I'LL MISS HER LOTS!

the flight was delayed but smooth. touched down at arnd 1.30am. reached home arnd 2am. and slept close to 5am. boy. it was super late. i almost wanted to jus stay up but told myself that i needed slp for the day today. and i feel so bad. all the ppl in my family caught my cough! sorry! they are coughing really badly =(

all in all, here's a few thoughts..both random and not:

1. after buying the crumpler and doing the manicure, it jus seems lyk the entire trip in Hanoi is about that. lol. i muz remember the sight-seeings too!
2. sat on 2 new transports: Land and Sea! the night train rides and the boat rides! it's a pity don't have air lyk sky-diving or parachuting or hot air ballooning. but my bro was saying--aeroplane! haha. i dunno *shrugs*
3. Rule the world by Take That. the theme song for Stardust. it keeps getting stuck in my head towards the end of my hols. haha. it's a really nice song!
4. had quite a line scratch on my face during the trip. din noe how i got it but it looked quite bad. glad it's okay now.
5. Hanoi has lots of noise pollution! in the sense, they vehicles are practically horning everywhere and everytime! and there are lots of motorcycles on the road! grr. and crossing the road is super scary. have to cross slowly. you can never wait for the road to clear b4 crossing. towards the end of the trip, kinda got used to it already (: but nevertheless, dangerous!
6. thank God that my grandma survives the many streets that we walked and the steps that we climbed and the cold weather we endured! really thank God for preserving her life and health. many ppl in my grp were wow-ed that she can walk and climb.
7. Thank God that mum survived despite her fractured toe too!
8. thank God for the breaks. never went overseas so many times in one year before. though it's rushing, i still thank God for this holiday and the mission trip :)
9. aunty Cas gave me a lip gloss today! i was surprise cos it's really unexpected. thanks! so now i gotta make it a habit to put it on regularly!!
10. I pray that my family members including myself will get well soon! esp sarah and reuben cos they'll be goin for youth camp nxt tue!
11. I've uploaded pics on the prev posts. together with a prom post (with pics) which i purposely altered the date. so do check it out! the date of entry should be 6 dec
12. yh is goin to NS tml! all the best, man! and you'll survive! and make good frens too!