Monday, June 18, 2007
To Saigon with so much love…I just got back from Vietnam(Saigon, love that name) yesterday and it’s really weird because I feel so much richer and better a person than I felt before I left. It was truly an enjoyable trip. I feel so overwhelm with everything, I am having difficulties pinning down what exactly it is that I am feeling.
I start from the very start =)
I sms-ed stupid A and he didn’t reply. Great. I caught about an hour of sleep before waking up at 4 a.m. to get ready for the cab that will bring us to the airport. I checked my email and to my surprise, I received an email for the invitation for an interview. To my horror, it didn’t get sent out. But lucky my BF, sent it for me on Saturday, which is a little belated but really, whatever.
At the airport, we saw Daniel and his family. Gosh, he’s so cute I’d love to have a mouthful of him.
First day at VietnamTheir traffic is the first thing we encounter and it was a total culture shock. Motorcycles travel in flocks, how anyone ever gets across the road is still quite a puzzle to me. But by the last day, I think I almost a hang of it, but now, I can’t be too sure.
We had our first Vietnam meal at Pho24. I had noodles with well done beef brisket. We had to add lime and onions, and I absolutely love it. I have a thing for sour food!
Wait on second thoughts; I think I’ll just write all about the Vietnam food we ate first.
There was the fried spring roll wrapping some kind of meat, we had to dip it into this sour clear chili sauce, hmmm… I’m not kidding, it’s crispy, salty, sour and well… really oily.
Then there was also, the coconut ice cream. How… innovative! I don’t mean coconut flavoured ice cream, I meant, ice cream of different flavours in coconut. So while you’re scooping for the ice cream, you’ll also be digging into the flesh of coconuts. And when that goes into your mouth, it is like an explosion going on, bursting with different flavours and different texture.
Alright back to our first day there. We rested quite a bit, and shopped quite a bit more. The shopping there is way better than that of Singapore BECAUSE the service and people there are way more courteous than people here and service here. Gosh talking about bad service in Singapore, I can really go at length there! –Cringe, rolls my eyes and retch-
Second day
We went on a trip to visit the Cu Chi tunnel in Vietnam, where I stepped on a gargantuan millipede. –shudders-
War is a really scary thing. It forces us back to the basic, the struggle with survival. Right now, we don’t have to worry about survival, we have everything we need and easily everything we want. We worry only about how to get richer and better than our friends.
Cu Chi tunnel is where those civilians of Vietnam have to hide in order to survive during the war to bring down the communist in Vietnam. You really have to be there to understand how tough it is. How enclose and stifling an experience it is for the 10000 over people to live under that tunnel which is several stories deep. Those tunnels are filled with steep steps and really small which means they had to crawl.
I tried half a distance and gave up because it was absolute pitch dark and enclosed, I didn’t think I could stand it, especially after stepping on the monster millipede.
I feel really terrible thinking about the things that those people who had to go through that living a life as per ‘normal’, schooling, giving birth, eating. The war wasn’t for a few days or even a few years, so in some ways, life went on for them. Some children may not even live long enough to understand what normal is exactly, except for the intervals where bombing and shooting were stop for rest.
War is never easy but always a duty.
After that, we had more shopping. It weird and sad how easily we could detach ourselves once the situation or event is past, while those who lived through the war would take a life time to forget. We lived vicariously through them yet they had suffered so much more then we did.
Third dayWe visited the war museum. We learned what the American armies did to the Vietnamese. It was horrible, the kind of tortures which were exacted on the civilians, women and children alike. I think it’s really sick. Even if orders were given for those armies, I truly believe they should have a mind of their own to decide if it was right or not! If they were men with integrity, they’d never have done what they did even if force to.
But still I believe there were the really good ones out there, but kind acts are often overlooked to emphasize on the severity of the war.
Alright, alright. I think I’ll stop here though there are some more stuff I can talk about.
Last but not least! Sam is my best sleeping partner ever, after all she’s the only I’ve ever seen NAKED! Ahhhh… hahahaha. And also BF and SF. Our private lingo.
Anyways, I’m her BFF. =)
Oh and Enrique was almost the highlight of the whole trip after Sam! He is so hot I wake up to his voice when MTV of his ping pong song was on.
Anyway, sin yee mentioned something tonight, she implied in this context that I can control my feelings so I’ll never get hurt in a relationship. I was reminded of this thing I read in a mag that we should all know how to get into a relationship without losing ourselves. Actually, she isn’t the first who implied that. I’m not sure how true that is but I really don fancy the idea for falling so much in love I lose my identity.
BUT… I really LOVE Enrique!
I love you the most Sam, you make my days so much more brighter and positive. I feel truly blessed. –Takes in a deep breath, savouring the moment of what its like to love you- I feel so much rich just having you in my life.
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JOANIE
I am pretty much like every other girl. Perhaps not that much. I like thinking for my own. One thing I can't tolerate is for people to tell me they know me. I find that terribly arrogant.
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