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The Drive Home

27 Jan

Today is the Reunion Dinner and for the first time for as long as I can remember, we are just leaving home the day itself and not a day earlier to attend the occasion. We just could not leave yesterday because of reasons worthy of another story or two. This year, the dinner is with hubby’s family up north.

I anticipate a ten hour-journey for what is normally a four or five hour drive. Oh well, we are prepared with much music choices, sandwiches, chips and drinks for the car, I just hope traffic will be kind. Who knows? We may arrive on time.

Here’s wishing everyone a very Gong Xi Fa Cai and may the Year of the Rooster bring you much happiness, success and prosperity that you will want to crow about it all year long!

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Fat Fingers

20 Jan

It’s without a doubt that I have gained weight when M1 was back for her Christmas holidays. Every day was an adventure in meals and race against time to check off her ‘To Eat’ list. 

We did pretty good; covered almost all except for a couple of items: Dim Sum and Assam Laksa. She managed to check off the first item immediately upon arrival back in the US. But the second item will have to defer until her next return.

Sadly, not only my waistline expanded, I think my fingers too! I have fat fingers now. And there’s no excuse calling them muscles because gym session has not been excessive. The eating was plus I have been drinking my coffee with creamer and sugar again. Bad.

It’s very obvious because I cannot wear my rings anymore especially the few designer rings that I like. I tried; they were too snug for words and I had quite a battle to remove them. 

Looks like I have do something about my fat fingers if I want to start accessorising again. But with Chinese New Year around the corner and no gym for the next two weeks, I am facing an uphill task ahead. 

Sigh…

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Smitten Not by the Baby

17 Jan

Another Sunday dinner adventure at the mall! This was many moons ago.

It was at a crowded Japanese French restaurant and the three of us were seated at a table next to a young mother and her girlfriend. The baby was in a stroller.

I glanced over and the most high-tech looking baby stroller caught my eye. I have never seen anything like it before.

It was a beautifully engineered piece of contraption that doubled as a high chair and a stroller as well as a shopping cart without taking up a lot of space in the restaurant.

The baby was cute I must admit but I was more taken by the stroller and for a moment, wished how nice it would have been back then when my girls were babies that such amazing contraptions existed. I don’t recall there was.

Not that the one we had back then was not practical. It was. It was a lightweight foldable sturdy Combi stroller that lasted for both our girls. But glancing over my shoulder again at the red and grey thing, I couldn’t help but mentally compared that our stroller was not quite the three-in-one.

Although it moved the girls well without us having to carry them, it was hard to hang shopping bags at the back without the stroller toppling over. This situation became quite a balancing act especially if the child wanted to come out and the back was weighted down with purchases.

Also by comparison, our stroller was way too short at dining tables of most restaurants. The poor child would be looking at our knees instead of being eye level with us if left strapped down. The baby in the red and grey contraption however, was gurgling away at his mother happily. Cute.

Strange that I would rave about a baby stroller, something I certainly have no need for these days. Smitten not by the baby indeed.

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Good Start

3 Jan

With New Year’s Day being on a Sunday, Monday was a replacement holiday, so we didn’t have to work. But the day wasn’t wasted being a couch potato like most times. 

I was determined to get back in shape with the start of the new year. After all those intensive eating with M1 back, my waistline has happily expanded. Sigh… the will has not been strong enough to resist the temptations of our local food, Vietnamese food and more of local food.

My trainer obliged us with a gym session at an earlier time from the usual time slot – hubby, myself and M1 went but M2 opted out. Dang! It was torturous. After three weeks laying off exercise, suddenly going back at it was quite a challenge. 

Thankfully we survived. With that, I’d say it’s a good start to begin the year!

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Year In, Year Out

2 Jan

Happy New Year world! With the new year ushered in, let there be more positive vibes, more love and more stories to share!

This New Year countdown has been different for us. Year in, year out for the last few years, we would stay home for a simple home-cooked meal, paired with a bottle of wine and just relax. By eleven, we would be in bed and by the stroke of midnight, the fireworks in the neighborhood would go off and entertained us. Then in the horizon, there would more fireworks displays and we would ooh and ahh at the bursts of colors as well.

This year, a friend invited us to her house for dinner for the New Year Countdown. And what we had was a front row view of the fireworks display within the community that she lived in. We were only two streets away from the launch site; only the tall hedges between the two streets blocked the view of the actual launch.

For a change, it was breathtaking and simply awesome to see the fireworks display so up close instead of from the bedroom window. I think we ooh-ed and aah-ed for the entire ten minutes, definitely more than all the previous years combined.

It was all good positive vibes especially with the whole place organized as a carnival with lots of people, food stalls, food trucks and even a stage for live performances. A fitting welcome for the year in and curtains down to the year out.

Happy New Year!

   
    
   

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Ending on a High

30 Dec

Yesterday morning, we decided to give Ben Thanh Market another shot and visited again after breakfast. My game plan was not to look at any vendor in the eye and just look at the things on display. And if anything catches my fancy, I’d just whip out my iPhone5S, aim, shoot and walk off. It worked.

Managed to walk certain areas we missed the day before and these pictures sure are interesting. After the walkabout, we decided to walk around the neighborhood to kill some time. After all, our pick up was coming only by 12.30pm and we had more than a couple more hours. Hubby didn’t think we should stay in the room watching CNN and listening to depressing world news. 

I’d say it was a good workout but one must be careful when walking because the pavements are not even. I stumbled a few times when I was looking up.

We didn’t want to wander off too far and soon made our way back to the hotel, did a final packing, showered and checked out. Traffic was a slow crawl but we still arrived at the airport early. 

After saying our goodbyes to our tour guide and driver, we waited until the counters opened and checked in. And for the first time in five days, we craved something else to line the tummy. So M2 and I had Burger King and M1 had a sushi roll; hubby still chose Pho. 

We had a good holiday. 

 

Pickled stuff

  

Fresh mushroom

  

Dried mushrooms of all sizes

  

Cuttlefish and nuts

  

Missed out eating here. Next time!

  

Nearby park

    

M1 getting a ride

  

On the runway

  

Goodbye Ho Chi Minh!

   

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The River Cruise

29 Dec

The river cruise was typical of any other cruises with the option of a dinner inclusive or not. Ours was dinner inclusive.

The meal was served ahead before the ship departed and like the last few arranged meals, there’s so much to eat. I shudder thinking of my expanded waistline and secretly vowed to go on a diet when we get home.

 

Springroll appetizer

  

Pineapple salad with pork and prawns

  

Grilled pork

  

Fillet fish with mushroom sauce

  

Grilled beef

  

Hotpot

 

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After Ben Thanh

28 Dec

The air con at Takashimaya was very refreshing and we were reenergized so the mall rat in us explored the place a little bit. Although we felt that purchases from outside were better, hubby did buy a pair of Doc Marten’s which were 60% off.

We went back to Saigon Square soon after and felt more comfortable there compared to Ben Thanh Market. I think the reason for this preference is that the vendors are not too pushy and the lanes between the stalls are wider, easier to navigate without being pushed from behind. Plus it’s cooler with air conditioning. We bought some fancy soap this time.

By then it was slightly after two and we stopped by the Street Food Market again for a late lunch. We had two bowls of Pho, a spicy noodle and a rack of ribs, something different from this morning’s Bahn Mi, Sticky Rice with Mango and dessert, eaten here too.

Sated we went back to the hotel to rest and be fresh again by 4.30pm. Such fun we are having!

 

I’m gonna love smelling like grapes!

  

Pho with shrimp

  

Spicy beef noodle

  

BBQ ribs

  

Sticky rice and mango

  

Mung bean dessert

 

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Temple Club

28 Dec

Upon the suggestion of a friend, we opted to go to Temple Club for dinner over Pho 2000, famed for its Bill Clinton visit.

When we told the girls, M2 was like “Huh?! Is it a temple or a club?” Hahaha… sometimes I forget the baby of the family is still a baby.

It was a nice walk to the restaurant because the weather was cool. On our way, we passed the night street market and made an impromptu purchase. Braving to cross the busy streets and junctions, we soon found the place. 

The ambience was pretty cozy. We did not make any reservations so we had wait but only for a short while before we were seated.

However for such a fancy place, our table was pretty warm and there were no cloth napkins. When we asked about the heat, the waiter said the air con was not working! Huh?! How is this even possible? As for the napkins, he brought out one piece for the four of us and told us they ran out of clean ones! Unbelievable. 

Hubby had checked TripAdvisor and Travel&Leisure prior to making the decision to come here and both rated this place well. Contrary to this and the raves from our friend, our experience was a big let down. Certainly not what we expected.

The waiter did turn on the fan and brought out some paper napkins but mood was marred by then. The food somewhat made up for the situation but the ambience and service certainly was a disappointment.

One certainly would call if reservations are required but to ask whether the air-conditioning works, nobody does that. They need to work on their service and attitude to be better. We wouldn’t go back again nor would we recommend despite the good food if they don’t improve.

   
  

The drink choices

  

Mango salad

  

Temple Club platter

  

Sauteed squid with white pepper

  

Duck in orange sauce

  

Grilled fish

 

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An Interesting Day, Part 2

27 Dec

Today we have taken several boats and a sampan to get to our destination. And going to the restaurant on Turtle Island in a horse-drawn carriage topped it all.

The restaurant was obviously set up with tourists in mind. There was a quirky sign near the toilets. Apparently it’s for the adventurous to clean themselves up after trying their hands at catching fishes in the designated ponds. 

Lunch was plentiful; we seem to be feted a lot for our arranged meals. After the meal, we wandered around the area to look at the animals on display instead of lounging in the ready hammocks. Grandmother tales say one should not lie down or be horizontal after a hearty meal. Besides fishes and turtles, there were alligators, toads, porcupines, snakes and more fishes.

A couple more boat rides and a short stop to see the Laughing Buddha at the Vinh Trang Pagoda, we soon were headed back to the city.

By 5.15pm we were back at the hotel. It has been an interesting day. We shall rest now and go out later this evening to see what we fancy as far as food is concerned as I opted not to have an arranged dinner tonight. 

 

Our transport to the restaurant

  
    
  

My first beer of this trip!

      
    
  

Waiter adding veg into the catfish soup

  

 

This was lunch!

 
    
    
    

Tons of toads! Rrbb bitt

    
  

 

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