Saturday, 14th November 2009 The Bintan trip was never part of our travel forecast for 2009. Ideas flew by during one of the nights in Halong Bay. Since none of us had left our footprints on the island, we decided to give it a go. 1 month later, we were on the island. Slight changes were made to the travel line up as SS was seconded to Shanghai for her business trip and Mapletree was simply caught up with her commitments at work. 4 of us arrived at the relatively "Ulu" Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal on the afternoon of 14th November [View Full Entry]

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Of Mondays & Tuesdays, of 19 & 20th October 2009 "When the morning sunrise Becomes a magic show Before your very eyes" ~ Leave Yesterday Behind The Carpenters (recorded 1978, released 2001) Heeding the advice from our tour guide, we were wide awake by 4.30am this morning hoping to catch a glimpse of the morning sunshine over Halong Bay. The morning was especially chilly as I was trying very hard to recover from the flu syndrome. Never mind that eventually, we were just not fa [View Full Entry]

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Day 3: Sunday, 18th October 2009 After saying goodbye to the friendly hotel folks at Hanoi, we continued our voyage to Halong Bay, about 3.5 hours drive from the capital. For USD95 per person, we were given a night's stay on the mid-range Halong Phoenix Cruiser including 4 meals on board. Fair enough, even though we wished that there could at least be 2 bottles of drinking water available in each cabin. Ironically, drinking water was a precious commodity in Halong Bay, something we oftened took for granted back home. A 500ml bottle would drown USD1 from our pockets. The cab [View Full Entry]

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As part of my ongoing efforts to contribute to the travel community, I would normally pen down my experiences @ TripAdvisor.com after a hotel stay for the benefit of prospective travellers. I've gained valuable information from the website and it was time for me to give back to the community. As this Vietam blog was under development, my reviews of Hanoi Elegance 1 Hotel was [url=http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293924-d626131-r47377270-Hanoi_Elegance_Hotel-Hanoi.html]published. About the same time, there was an [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, 17th October 2009 "Losing our way was never fun, but it created instances for us to interact with the friendly locals on the road!" Certainly, we were off to a great start this morning after a couple of successful attempts to cross the busy streets of Hanoi the previous evening. Don't get me wrong, we were still fearful of the notorious traffic. But this was the norm in Hanoi that we had to learn to accept. "A-men, Armithama ..... hold your breath, keep crossing and you would be ok?" After a while, you had to admire our guts. After f [View Full Entry]

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Day 1, Friday 16th October 2009 Our "Halong Hanoi Elegance" discovery kicked off this morning when we boarded the Singapore Airlines flight to Hanoi, about three and a half hours from Singapore. Located at the heart of the Red River Delta, Hanoi is the capital city of socialist Vietnam, home to about 3.7 million of the nation's 86 million people. Touching down at the Noi Bai International Airport at 12.30pm, we quickly picked up our luggage where the hotel representative was already expecting us at the arrival hall. The 45 minutes ride from the airport to the city was comfo [View Full Entry]

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今天突然心血来潮决定回母校看看。 曾几何时，惜日的小学已不复存在。 我延着那条熟悉的小路走去。 多年以后，那条熟悉的小路已不象从前那么漫长。 多年以后， [View Full Entry]

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While exploring the Southern Ridges on National Day, we chanced upon this wonderful Museum. Housed in a restored colonial house and nestled among the hills of Pasir Panjang, the average visitor would have easily overlooked its mere existence. “Reflections at Bukit Chandu” was established on 15th February 2002 to commemorate the heroic efforts of the Malay Regimen who stood by the then Opium Hill (Bukit Chandu). This was the fiercest battle ever fought on this island as a final defence to prevent the Japanese from advancing into the city. Sure, I wasn’t at the City [View Full Entry]

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On Jetstar The holiday mood was still burning in me even though we had cancelled our Bali plans. At the time of writing, we haven't given up harassing Jetstar Asia for our flight issues. Calls had been made and a polite (I read through, and it wasn't nasty) letter sent to the Customer Care. We hoped that a miracle would materialise even though chances are extremely remote. Afterall, Jetstar had already given way by allowing us to postpone our flight to a later date at no extra charge. I would still continue to fly Jetstar in future. With its vibrant and [View Full Entry]

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Afterall, we are not going anymore! The ill-fated Bali trip was supposed to take place tomorrow, 23rd July 2009 but it was never realized due to a sudden turn of events both in Indonesia and at home. While Jakarta hotels were in the limelight for the bombings, the same spotlight was shone on 3 of us by outsiders who weren’t involved in the trip to begin with. Afterall, we tried our best to reassure ourselves and others that things would be alright. Afterall, our hotel was no Ritz Carlton nor JW Mariott. Afterall, we are not staying at the Kuta Beach [View Full Entry]

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