Ho Chi Minh Jan 2013

I returned to Ho Chi Minh City better known as Saigon after a 5 years absence.
I really missed going Saigon for so long, I love the food, the people, the slower pace of life, I love almost everything about it.

I had mixed feelings about going back. During my last trip there, more than 5 years ago, the development of the city was kind of in hyper mode. So my greatest fear was that it would be overly developed for it's own good and lose all that charm which it originally had. Kind of like what happened to Singapore's Chinatown and most of our "original" places of interest.

I landed in Tan Son Nhat airport early in the morning. Upon arrival, I got into a cab and started making my way to my hotel. Right from the airport out, I have already noticed new buildings which were not there 5 years ago. I was starting to fear for the worst.
Throughout the whole taxi ride, I see a lot of clean up on the streets compared to previously. The streets are much cleaner now. New buildings, lots of them, some jarring compared to the 50's modern architecture which littered the landscape all over the city.

By the time I reached my hotel, it was pretty clear that in the last 5 years, Vietnam has gone through a tremendous architectural revolution. With lots of new buildings in place of old ones which were demolished. It felt like Singapore in the late 60's and 70's when it was going through it's own developement into a first world country.
Still, there was the old Ben Thanh market, still standing there proud and enduring. A sign of relief.

I felt a sense of despair along the way from the airport to my hotel, all the things that I love about Vietnam is changing. They are changing at a very fast rate. I estimate in another 10 years or so, Saigon will be just as modern in outlook as Singapore.
I just hope that certain parts of it will retain the old charm of Saigon unlike Singapore where it has gone totally clinical.

The redeeming part of the whole trip though was still the people and the FOOD!!!
Almost every meal I had was excellent. Vietnam food is so clean and cleansing. Compared to our Singapore food which is more rich and heavy in spices.
I would describe Vienamese food as similar to Japanese food in that it's simple and clean. Clean, meaning no heavy accented spices and rich ingredients like coconut milk. Even if there is such ingredients, they still taste "clean". It's difficult to explain, you have to eat it to know.
I guess the ingredients are fresh and are more organic compared to more developed countries.
I hope the food in Sagon don't go in the way that the city is developing into, otherwise, it will be such a pity.

 

Ayer Hitam 12 Feb 2013

It was the third day of the Chinese New Year, I had already promised my friend that I will be joining him to go Malaysia for fish hunting and exploring old towns.
I'll skip the boring fish hunting part and go straight to Ayer Hitam.

Ayer Hitam, a small town on the west side of West Malaysia in Johor state.
It lies at the crossroads between batu Pahat(West) and Mersing(East).
Before the completion of the North South Highway in 1994, all vehicles travelling to Kuala Lumpur(KL) from Singapore and the Southern states had to travel by the old road which was just a two way lane full of meandering bends and pronounced corners. Not to mentioned the hilly terrain typical of the Malaysian country side. It was a very risky business travelling at night especially.
In those days the Coach bus drivers were extremely skilled in negotiating the roads, I remember staying awake at night watching the driver skillfully tackling the roads. It was like taking a roller coster ride at night! As a child little things like these excite me.

Anyway, back to Ayer Hitam.

It was one of the rest stops along the road to KL and it was notorius for one thing.
The Stinking toilets at the rest stops!
They were filthy!
Imagine after sitting on the bus for hours and finally there is a rest stop to get down and pee.
You queue up and when it's your turn BAM!! the toilet stinks of crap overflowing due to blockage as hundreds of users had to stop here to use the toilet.
Worst off is, before or after you use the toilet, the food court is just next door!! Imagine filling up on food and after that going to the toilet and seeing all the floating shit!! Ewwww...:(
Hahahaha!!!!

Ya, that was the infamous Ayer Hitam memory a lot folks travelling to Malaysia had, those were the days.

Now for the nicer part of Ayer Hitam.
It is a town known for it's ceramic ware. Pots, vases, bowls, plates... you name it they have it.
Lots of snacks stalls, plastic flowers and soft toys.
All in a very old school way of display which is all over the stall.
Surprisingly, it has not changed much.
Take a look.

It still retains it's old world charm and felt really nostalgic to me.
It felt like I travelled back in time to a time forgotten, when things were much more simpler and less complicated.

It felt good.

Well, that's Ayer Hitam, still the laid back little town time had forgotten.
If you want to take a trip down memory lane, go to Ayer Hitam

 

Pineapple farm visit

One of my suppliers offered a visit to a pineapple farm supervised by his brother in Malaysia. Since I have never visited one before, I jumped on the chance.

We set off at around 7:30am. Had some Nasi Lemak(Coconut milk rice) at a small stall, pretty good actually. Drank my cup of mandatory milk tea every morning and headed for the farm.

The farm was huge. Weather was pretty cool in the morning but was already starting to turn warm.
Met up with my suppliers brother and they had already been cutting the pineapples and had a van loaded up with some. They cut up one o fthe pineapples for us to have a taste.

Man, it was DELICIOUS!!!
It was so sweet, so fragant!! and Juicy!! Wow!! Fantastic!!

As I mentioned, the farm was huge, we went around the farm collecting different pineapples from different lots. I could not see the end of the farm. My suppliers brother told me that this particular stretch was 5 kilometers long!! WTF!!! Thats a LOT of pineapples!!

By 12 noon, the weather was turning bad. We could see dark clouds heading our way. Since now is the monsoon rainy season, we know it will definitely rain, so we headed out of the farm. My supplier's car was loaded with like 30kgs of pineapple by then.
We decided to have a coffee break at one of the stalls on the main road, as we were just about to order, the rain started to pour!



After about half an hour and seeing that the rain showed no sign of stopping, we decided to move off. My supplier wanted to head for his durian farm to check up on the status, so we left.
When we reached the durian farm, the rain has subsided. The durian farm was drenched in rain water and the little streams running across it had flooded over, I dipped my fishing net that I brought along and still managed to catch a few rasboras and barbs, what luck!!

There were no durians to be found as the season was pretty much over. The only thing that was available was "Ang Mo Sung" a type of rambutan native to Malaysia. They were still very small and unripe. They should be ready in about 2-3weeks. We would be back to collect them then.

SInce we were all wet and dirty, we headed to town. We went to the foot reflexology shop that we patronised previously to get a quick shower and clean up. Then we went for a massage for about one and a half hours for RM$88(S$35). The massage was fantastic too! my whole body was totally relieved from the walking and bashing that morning. I felt lighter after the massage and more energised. I'll definitely be coming back there!

We went for a simple dinner after that and because it was a Sunday, everywhere was crowded. We had a few simple dishes and headed to Jusco to buy some groceries. Jusco was also packed with people!! We quickly got our stuff and then headed back to Singapore. What a day, I'll definitely go again if my supplier ask. Shiok!!

Bangkok, Thailand, June 2012

Went Bangkok Thailand on the 28th of June this year.
Last time I was there was 2 years ago.
Lots of new hotels at Pratunam area now, price is pretty cheap and most of them have wi-fi.
As usual, no worries about food when staying at Pratunam area.
I think I put on 1.5kg of weight just eating at that area.

I did not plan the trip before that and was quite lost on where to go.
My main aim was to get my FBT cycling jerseys and see the wild Bettas at Chatuchak market.
Weather is hot as hell as usual. Dry fit T-shirts are a must when touring in Bangkok and lots  and lots of fluid.

I manage to find a wild orchid wholesale market instead of buying it at double the price at Chatuchak!!
I also bought 2 Betta Smaragdina and 2 Betta Mahachai back.
They were very shell shocked when I reached home and had closed fins for weeks. I gave a pair to Jimmy.

Nothing much from this trip, as usual, some T-shirts, snacks and fishes bought.
I'm already looking forward to another trip when the airfare prices are reasonable.

 

Time flies

Time flies when you are not paying attention.
My last post was end of last year 2011 and now it's already May 2012!!
Life is short.

An update on some places I've been this year.

I was in Japan during the end of February early March period this year.
Weather was super cold!! freezing!! I had fun though, my last trip to Japan was in the year 2005.
Even though it was freezing, the Japanese girls were in mini skirts!!

In March I was in GuangZhou, China. Weather was freakish there.
When I reached, it was like 28 degrees for like 5 days, then on the last two days I was there, it went down to like 10 degrees!!! WTF!!
I had a bad episode of food poisoning fo rthe first time in China. Had fever and stayed in my room for like 2 days.



In April I was in Penang. Not much changes there since my last trip there last Dec.

Had great Cha Kway Tiao and Chendol there. The trip was very rush as I was there for work.



Tomorrow, I'm heading for Kedah for work, would probably visit Penang again.
That's all for now.
I hope time slows down a bit, these few months has been very hectic.
I need a holiday.

Good Bye 2011

One last post and one last picture to sum up the year 2011 for me.
Taken from my last overseas trip of the year to Penang on 11th Dec 2011.

Time waits for no man, this year for me was like travelling at the speed of sound. I can't even remember what I did a few days ago.

See you in the year 2012!

Shanghai, China 7th Nov 2011

My write ups are getting shorter nowadays, too busy and impatient to note down all the details plus a failing memory is not a good sign, it means life is getting more stressful. This Blog which was created to record travels and to release stress is getting stressful to update now! Hahaha!

Lots of flying around the world and drive ups to Malaysia this year, this most recent trip was to Shanghai, China.

I had heard a lot about Shanghai in the recent years, it's old world charm and history was widely publicised and well documented. Shanghai people were described as proud and business minded.
I arrived at 6:00am in the morning, didn't get a good sleep on the flight. We managed to check into the hotel after an hour long Metro ride from Pu dong International airport. It was during the peak morning working hours. I will just describe it as "cosy" in the train, lots of squeezing.

First impressions on the Bund, their most famous riverside front where all the movies and documentary were always showing, was not impressive. It looked too much like our Singapore river and City Hall colonial buildings. Not impressed.
The less developed parts of the city were the more interesting parts but unfortunately I did not have the luxury of time on this trip. I did manage to visit one of this place called Tian Zhi Fang for dinner. It was an approximately 200m long old housing area converted to retail space with the original tenants still living in the upstairs houses! Really unique!! It was very authentic and real and the idea was fantastic, the shops there were tiny little 3x2m spaces. Artists, craftsman, Designers, young entrepreneurs were all there having their own little space and the quality of the crafts and Designs were of high standards. How I wish our so called "Chinatown" had such a vibe.

That and the weather was the only salvation of my impression on Shanghai. If I get a chance to visit again, I will spend more time to tour the real side of Shanghai.

One thing that I remember strongly was the food there, it was very oily and salty. I never though I'd miss Singapore food overseas but it actually happened! The taste there was just too strong for me.

Anyway, I had only skimp a tiny surface of Shanghai, next target is Beijing, hopefully.