i went off to HANOI, VIETNAM for holiday!! ytday evenin. flight was 5.35pm. it was supposed to arrive at 8.45pm (Spore time) but it din. it taxi-ed for a v long time. and the waiting time for the baggages at vietnam airport was long. it ended up having meet our "tour guide" at 10pm. well, dunno why that airport so funny...put 3 flight's baggages all at the same belt! making the area super crowded..and the immigration officer..quite handsome but i dun lyk him. dun lyk his attitude. also look at me cheekily. then, lyk dun wanna return my passport aft stampin it. hmph.

saw budget terminal for the first time. small. not too bad. at least Hanis cafe owns it all outside the area. but the only thing is, THERE'S NO FREE LOCAL CALLS!! Grr...

met turbulences during the flight. one made my heart in the mouth feeling. and now, getting giddiness. feeling things and myself moving up and down. painful...

so my family and le jing's family are travellin tgt. also, my mum's other fren, aunty joanna and her family. altogether there are 16 of us! =) well, it was a 45-min drive to the hotel so took tt chance to tok to le jing abt the games. then, aft we checked in, headed to a nearby bar cum restaurant for dinner! and we were practically eatin dinner at midnight. ordered at 11.30pm and food arrived at midnight! interesting. and for once, i made a good choice for the family. ordered a hanoi fish and it came on a pan on a charcoal pot! plus noodles and crushed peanuts. it tasted fantastic! and also called the other dishes which were delicious! and relatively cheap too. altogether we spent S$30 for 6 of us. quite cheap for a restaurant and good food :)

at Hotel Elegance Hanoi, they gave complimentary fruits! so cool! but also dangerous cos they provided a blade knife too. scary. then, there was this beautiful red rose! and you know how much i love roses! and the water was warm enough. the guy at the reception was nice. watch me settle down in my room b4 leaving. and he climbed up 6 storeys of stairs! btw, there's only 1 lift in the entire hotel and only 3 rooms per level. so u can expect the hotel to be small. in fact, both my sis and i thought the buildin looks lyk a restaurant frm the outside! haha. and they gave us a very nice rose in each room! and you know how much i love roses!

first impression of hanoi: vintage! it really looks so cottage and ancient style. 3 storeys at most and triangular-pointed roof. doors at the first floor looks so cottage-like and like storybooks.

well, also visited the Ho Chi Minh's residence. I din know it was a great man in Vietnam! i tot it was jus a name of a place! they even have the 2 cars that he used! interesting. a pity the monument isn't open for visitation. and it was there tat i found out that Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam! my general knowledge sucks. ha. saw a beautiful peacock too! look!

Temple of Literature which is the first university of Vietnam was our nxt visit. their textbooks are carved on stones that look like tortoises! it was interesting. but also quite sad to see that the sch children are praying to Confucious on that day. and i saw the big drum where Bill Clinton (i think) used his head to bang against it. ha.

then, off to the Museum of Ethnology where they have life-sized houses of the different tribal groups of Vietnam. one of the stairs is v steep. but interesting to climb. there were many bridal couples taking photos there too! nice and beautiful!

well, using the PC in my hotel room now. free internet and a PC too! meant to upload my prom pics frm the cam to facebook. BUT, i forgot to bring the cds to install into the com so the usb cable can be recognised! grr. now have to wait till i return home. i tried tis afternoon and waited for 16 mins. in the end, it was operation failed. waste my time...

tokin abt this aftnoon, today marks the last day of work at the childcare. though i was pretty excited initially, i dun think i wanna go back there. it's hard to handle the nursery kids. and bathing them too. it becomes more of a chore than findin enjoyment in work. mum says it's cos i dun study child psychology so hv trouble handling them. perhaps. but i dun think i wanna go back there..

all in all, well, jus wanna say sorry to victor. i said i'll go online right? and made u wait so long. sorry. i hope u got my sms. n i hope khalis got my sms too..cos neither of them replied me yet. oops. wun be able to use com anymore! ciao!