After months of near breathless working working and more working, I decided to take a trip - to Vietnam to visit Tien and get away from my desk and busy and crowded life in Hong Kong. Boy am I glad that I took the holiday, now that I'm back, I am excited to share my travels, but at the same time I am worried, cuz there's so much to write about... :)
Day 1: Hong Kong --> Ho Chi Minh City
I traveled with my mom to Vietnam this time as there was a flight and hotel package offered by Cathay Pacific - 2 travelers, 7 nights or less, flight + hotel was HKD 2690 and up.
left: there's a function to view through a camera on the bottom of the plane, so during the
descent I watched as we got closer and closer to the ground
My mom joined us for Day 1-4 and then we left her in HCM and traveled to Nha Trang.
Tien picked up us from the airport and provided my mom with a hand-drawn map, which included all the department stores, shopping markets, restaurants in the area around our hotel (Oscar Saigon Hotel). She also pointed out that we should only use two taxi companies - VINASUN or MaiLinh. These two provide the best services and don't try to cheat you on the fare.
Close to the hotel is a soup noodle store that serves noodles from central Vietnam (originally from the city Hue).
Then I went to Tien's house by public bus, which was quite fun, as the bus pulled along side the curb, it didn't stop, but just slowed down and I said out loud, "It's still moving, are we supposed to get on?!!?!?!" And Tien just grabbed me and pulled me on... Also we didn't get on at the front of the bus, but by the back door (which most of us would assume is where you get off only). We were laughing, at me being silly and so-foreign, and also the fact that we caught the bus just in time; the bus conductor thought we were way too happy. Yes, there's a bus conductor, who will collect money and give you a ticket. Bus tickets are 4,000 Vietnamese Dong (VND) each.
After a quick tour of Tien's home - which btw is absolutely heavenly, very comfortable :), We met up with her friends for a wedding consultation. To get to the wedding venue, Tien drove her scooter and I rode behind her!!! My first time on a scooter! And actually I wasn't that scared! Well, that's what I think, I have absolute confidence in Tien's scooter maneuvering. But I think you'll have to ask Tien if I really was that relaxed sitting behind her.
Grace's wedding is in early June (the 3rd if I remember correctly) and she wanted some help with decoration and ideas. It was super hot sitting in the banquet hall with no air conditioning, but still it went very well. There's a lot of work for the bride to do leading up to the big date as she only really started to decide on what colours and decorations she wanted. Hopefully, I was able to help her finalize some of her decisions.
After the consultation, we went back to Tien's home for dinner. Tien told me that her mom and dad have been excited about our arrival for days and have been planning and preparing the dinner for days.
Here are a couple of dishes from the dinner. But with all the delicious food, I forgot to take photos of every single dish... :P
left: we drank A LOT of coconut juice EVERY DAY!
middle: fried JUMBO shrimps with garlic, yum yum!
right: fried fishcakes covered in crispy glutinous rice kernels
Khai, Tien's boyfriend had just flown in from Toronto on the same day, came over for dinner; Thuy, Tien's friend from middle school who visited Hong Kong last May with her, also came over for dinner - so nice to see her again, now she's engaged! And there was Phuong, a family friend who visited Tien in Toronto when we were housemates.
Cảm ơn!
(thank you in Vietnamese)
After dinner, we went back to our hotel to rest as we had to wake up bright and early to go on a 2-day trip along the Mekong Delta.
1 comment:
This sounds like such an awesome trip Wingsi! I hope all is well with you :) Don't work too hard!
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