HCMC Day3

Today is pretty relaxed day. Woke up late (now, that's HOLIDAY), slowly eat breakfast, and then don't know where to go. hehehe

So in the end, decided to go to Cholan (HCMC's Chinatown). Took a cab down there, having a little hard time to tell the driver where to go to.
We stopped at Ming Dynasty Assembly Hall. Nearly missed it, as it doesn't have any sign that shows that it is the place. Only managed to confirmed it by the address it has. Anyway, the person inside there, somehow, closed the gate when we were wondering outside whether to go in to take a look or not.

So we are forced to moved on. So off we go, taking walk in slight drizzle towards An Dong Market.

Reached there probably about 1/2 hr or so later. It's slightly more ventilated than Ben Thanh Market. Concept wise is similar. We didn't buy anything, except coffee powder. The Kohs bought a little more than us, some soursoup sweets. :P

Wandering a little more around the area, at the An Dong Plaza, just beside the market.

Then we decided to take a cab to Quan An Ngon for lunch. This place was very commonly recommended in the internet, books etc. However, we think the cab has altered the meter, costs us 70,000VND for the trip. Kinda expensive compared to the 40,000VND for us to go to Chinatown.
We all agreed that the lunch was fantastic, and cheap! The snail with stuffed minced pork is yummy!
Try it if you are there!

With a fully tummy, took a stroll towards the Notre Dome Cathedral. Not really spectacular place. Just took a few pictures, click click here click click there and tell the place tata.

Then we just headed to the City Hall nearby, took another few pictures with the Uncle Ho statue, and decided to head back to hotel for a short rest.
Cab was cheap this time, didn't even had a chance to jump at all. Flat at 14,000VND.

Idling in hotel, ate the peanuts away. and wait till evening time.

Called up the Kohs at 7+ for dinner. We searched the web for some place to go, and we chose this place Bo Tung Xeo.
Walked there. Mistake. Quite far. hahaha
As we were walking along the stretch of road, out of nowhere, a motorcyclist stopped somewhere 30meters in front, and went near the wall, and pee. :O
There was mentioned somewhere that the Viet men have a tendency to pee in public area.
Oh well. We tried to ignore, and continued our way to the dinner place.
Then from some distance, we saw a woman squatting near a lamp post facing the road.
As we go nearer, we can see clearly that the backside was exposed.
YES. She was squatting there peeing with her pants down!
As we got closer, she quickly stood up and pull up her pants and walked off.
Oh my goodness! Female also like to display public show of passing water!
And at a pillar too! *woof woof*

The place was not how we expected it to be. It is a little similar to some of our big restaurants in Singapore, without aircon, and probably noisy also. :P
Anyway, we just go ahead with what we had chosen, and at least take the recommended food of barberque beef.
Derrick wanted to try exotic food. He chose crickets/dove/pigeon blah blah blah. In the end, he chose crocodile meat, fried version. Not so bad, I had eaten iguana before, so another reptile like crocodile should be fine with me. Karinna was ok with it too. Serene wasn't though. hehe

So in the end, we had the beef, crocodile, vegetable and a plate of fried rice.
Not a lot, but I wasn't too hungry too. Had lots of peanuts you know.

After dinner, all lazy to walk liow. So just took a cab back to hotel.
Before heading into hotel, went towards some concert that is probably celebrating May Day. This week is a big holiday for Vietnam apparently. Streets are filled with people tonight, and we thought there would probably be some fireworks later in the night.
We won't see that, coz we'd be sleeping. Holiday ok!

HCMC Day2

Wakeup call is at 0625. Need to be at the lobby by 8am.

The breakfast at the hotel was simple. Either pho, or porridge or eggs/omelette. Karinna had pho, and I took the porridge. Pretty decent.

So the tour agency came to take us at 8am. We were brought to their office to change to another transport to Cu Chi & Cao Dai.

After boarding the bus, not sure why the driver was driving around the same area for 3-4 rounds before heading the road outwards from the city centre.

First, we were going to Cao Dai. This is a temple, which has a very special religion. It's like combining Buddhism, Taoism blahblahblah, and the costumes they wear, looks like Muslim kind of religious clothings. It worships the 'Left Eye'. Can't remember much of what the tour guide said, but that's the big gist of it. :D
It's a very long journey there, took us about 3 hrs, and the roads there were quite bumpy. Backside pain pain!

After Cao Dai, we made our way to a lunch point. And then, travel another 1 hr+ or 2 to Cu Chi area.

Cu Chi is weird. The ticket to go in is 70,000VND. However, the ticket is broken down into 15,000VND and 55,000VND. This is done so that they can avoid paying tax, which is payable if amount is 65,000VND. Very weird huh?

Then it's time to walk at the Cu Chi area, saw the small tunnel entrance. Goodness, we'll be stucked there for life if we every try going in at all.
Lots of booby traps stuff as well, still very amazed bu the ingenious tunnel size.

At the end of the introductory walk, there's a fire range area where you can pay $$$ to buy bullets to try shooting. I was in the army before, so I don't have the kind of enthusiam to try shooting. Karinna also didn't try, maybe scared. Cheap thrill? Have! Just go to the range area and look see look see and take pic pic.

Finally, it's time to walk the tunnel. Enlarged tunnel of course. Crazy meh?!?
So we walked down slowly the steps, entering the darkened tunnel. Very dark of course. There are some dim lights along the tunnel, still, it's not bright lah.
Then my wife, erh, .... takut sidikit, walked akwardly along the tunnel, and quickly turned out at the first exit. But hey, it's really tiring ok! Thighs feel pretty week just after that short walk. Climb up/down stairs also got problem. hahaha

Then that's the end of the 1-day trip. Back to hotel and rest before heading out for dinner.
Dinner was simple at one of nearby restaurant. Funny thing is, it seems like all the eateries are using the same cook from the same kitchen. So we saw our waiters/waitress go over to other shop and bring our food back! Interesting!

HCMC Day1

Yesterday morning, we left home around 0720hrs. Took a bus to the airport (Yes! Long time never take bus). Drag our luggage to the busstop, but not so bad, not that far away.

Met up with Serene and Derrick at 0800hrs. Did the usual check-in, and off we go, ready for the flight to HCMC.

Uneventful flight to HCMC, the custom side too slightly long time to clear, and further more, the custom officer (a lady) was very slow, and never smile. Hmmmm. Make you worried that if anything doesn't seem correct, she might just force you to a room for interrogation. :P

Took a cab to Elios Hotel. This is a new hotel, and took me some time to be able to book it. Initially, it was known as Elifo to me. heheheh
Anyway, as long as able to find it, it's ok.
Cab fare cost USD6, pretty cheap. We took a larger cab. Gave a USD1 tip to the driver, very generous.

After a short rest in hotel, off we go to Benh Thanh Market, which is about 5 mins walk from our hotel. The weather was hot, so by the time reach there, we were like damn thirsty. Of course, it's time for lunch anyway.
First meal in HCMC, Pho2000 shop opposite Benh Thanh. Bill Clinton ate there before too!

Benh Thanh Market is, hmmm expected, cramp. Not my kind of place to walk around, but acceptable. Didn't really buy anything there.
Spent about an hour plus there, and decided to go back hotel to rest.
Slight drizzle came along, and we hide ourselves at this New World Hotel on our way back.

So the ladies started looking around at the bag boutique shop, and in the end, only Serene bought something back from there. Karinna just bought 2 new bags less than 1 month ago!
Remember? The trip to Japan!?!?!?

So idle till night time, then go take dinner. Walk ourselves to this Zen Plaza, went to the food court there. Interesting, got people come serve you to help you order. You can order the food yourselves too. So it's pretty weird, makes us wonder whether how should we order the food. ehehehe. As long as can fill the tummy, doesn't matter.

Then it's shopping time at supermarket. Bought water, very important!

Back at hotel, book the trip for Cu Chi Tunnel & Cao Dai Temple. One full day trip!

Finally? Hopefully

Just now the shopowner called me.

She told me that she has told the singing school to stop operations latest by 15 May. Meanwhile, she hoped that I won't keep pestering HDB to give pressure on the noise issues.
She said she intended to talk to Kelly when she is back on 01 May. :P

Well, I told her that in terms of until 15 May, I can't really answer on Kelly's behalf. Rightfully, we can pressurize HDB to fine the shop, who is the shopowner lah.

So things look a little brighter now, hopefully. Anyway, whether to do anything 'weird' from 02-15 May will depend on how Kelly would like to do.
It's now more of our call, so it seems.

Feel good man!
:D

贱

Went to my sister's shop around 4:40 today. Expected, the karaoke singing continues.
That simply means that HDB is not working, inefficient, and cannot enforce its rules that certain shop operators must have approval prior to operations.

4 days have passed, and I have no reply from HDB. No email, no phone calls.
Calls were made, and the person who was taking charge of the case, never pick up the call.

So I was sitting in the shop, cracking my head, and thinking to myself. What if, no damn right people is able to help to resolve the issue? What if, when we go to Punggol MP, we are referred back to Aljunied GRC? That would have been a biggest joke for Singapore MPs. :P
We'll see.

As I was walking in the shop, something came to my mind. If the neighbour can produce noise, hmmmmmmmm, SO CAN I!
So I whack on our part of the partition, and fair enough, someone came over to check what happen. I was trying to go into the shop's main door, but no one simply bothered.

So I introduced myself, and asked for audience of the person responsible. Well, dumb me, I was told to talk to the owner instead. I was quite pissed initially, but I was happy to think that I can use the same answer the next time when I test to see if the wall is breakable, and how loud it can produce sound.

I won't take much action, until next Wednesday.

HDB

My sister's problem with her neighbour shop is still not settled.

Think it's more or less confirmed that HDB simply cannot fulfill their responsibility to get things done.

Problem was presented to them more than 1 month ago, and my sister was asked to check with the police.
After some checking, I discovered it is HDB's responsibility. How exciting.

And now, the problem is still happening. I just went there to check earlier this evening.
So good, HDB allows unauthorised usage of unit for Karaoke singing operations. In other words, HDB allows noise nuisance within your vicinity.

So what if you are privatised?
Sucks badly.

BI

Eh, not bi, as in the erh... sexual preference ok!

BI = Business Intelligence.
I don't have, so don't ask me. :D

Today has been, I won't say busy, but pretty pre-occupied.
Was early in office, and plounged down to prepare some demo stuff.

Need to show the darn SAP BI Tools, mainly on the features/capabilities of BI 7.0, aka NetWeaver 2004s.

So was browsing my SAP BI IDES system for reports to work on, and also prepared some stuff on using Report Designer, and a little of Workbook Designer. All these new stuffs are giving headaches, but I think slowly getting used to them now.

Next is the highly chim chim Visual Composer. Took a long time to figure out how to use some of the stuff. And the way I look at it, I probably used about about 10-20% of its capabilities. Didn't do any analytical application yet, but Visual Composer is supposed to provide a simple visual platform to allow users to create analytical applications.
Chim?
D'oh!