Sunday, December 30, 2007
Day Four!
SHOPPING DAY!
so finally after visiting the various tourist attractions over the past two days, we specially arranged an extra day for our shopping! ((:
so first, in the morning, my family walked to ben thanh market. walked around and found their local delights! lotus chips! dried kiwi! dried mango! super huge dragon fruit and mango! hahaha went to a few stores to bargain before going back to the one with the best price. bought them back and it was about time to return to the hotel.
met nhan at around 1 plus so that he can bring us to eat more local and delicious foods! ((: so first up was lunch at this really nice restaurant. its carefully decorated, and nicely lit. not too bright and not too dark such that you can see but not see the person. hahahha! the toilet is especially cute! hahahah! what a happy restaurant! ((:
can you see that there's like a 'nature' in the restaurant? ((:
delicious! but i forgot what's inside. but its rice paper on the outside.
something like chee cheong fan. but not really.
i don't like chee cheong fan. ahaha!
beef noodles. again. hahaha!
and some crabmeat noodles. the noodles is super starchy that i only ate 3 bites before stopping. hahahahah!
the pieces on the bowl are actually ginger with sugar. its not very spicy but very crispy and sweet. so you're supposed to eat it with the tea to dilute the strong taste.
and for each dish, there's a special way of eating. all foods come with a sauce. the most common is the fish sauce. haha VERY NICE. ((: best lunch ever in VietNam. hahaha!
so after lunch, we went to Ben Thanh Market again to shop. walked and shopped for the whole afternoon.
we walked the whole place. count the number of shops and that's how much we walked. HAHAHAHA! ((: who said VietNam had nothing to shop? 1 market can last us shopping for 4 days! haha!
so after shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest our feet. bathe. and then meet up for dinner. dinner was at some ulu place. its some small coffee shop. actually its not even a coffee shop. its just a place with tables and chairs for us to sit and eat. the food is ordered from the various small shophouses and they deliver to where we are sitting.
forgot to take pictures but the food is delicious too! Nhan ordered a little for our main meal cuz he's gonna bring us to eat seafood! nice cockerels!
"nails". we termed it another term in singapore. haha! quite nice.
curry lalang.
crab!
more cockerels!
and more cockerels! my sister's favourite. hahah! she only ate these out of the rest. -.-"
and more more cockerels!
and more more more cockerels!
contented and drunk faces after the supper.
my dad's as red as lobster! hahaha.
but i remained sober cuz i only drank a bit of beer! hahahaha
okay so after our supper, we returned back to our hotel and took a final picture with Nhan. the guy in the middle. hahaha! so after taking pictures, we headed to the full body massage next door to our hotel! hahaha!
our last night. ((:
the dress code of massage.
my dad and i! with our respective masseus!
my masseus! ((:
okay so this is what happened at the massage.
we had 5 girls and 1 guy. just nice, 5 ladies and 1 dad. but nhan bullied me and asked me to get the guy instead. !!! i almost died. it's gonna be so painful.. haahha! but of course i demanded for a girl. heehee. at first, we went up to the second level where there was still space. but there were only guy customers so nhan got us transferred downstairs to a family room! hhaha!
so first they did a little head massage which was really comfortable. then they worked down to the face and placed cooling cucumbers on my face! my mom and sister had their face wiped roughly with face towels and they felt as if their skin was about to come out. HAHAHAH! thankfully my face din look oily or something. then because i went to the toilet and came in late while the rest of my family already started their massage, i thought mine was rushed through but turned out to be the best out of everyone else.
then they worked down to our feet. the guy masseus tried to trick me too! after the face massage they all left the room to get more towels and for us to enjoy the cooling effect of the cucumber. hahaha! then when they returned, the guy came in first and sat infront of me. i got a shock! how can they suddenly change masseus like that? !!!!! hahaha and they held me in suspense for super long cuz the guy kept shifting things around me. but then after a while, they started giggling so i figured they were tricking me. HAHAHAHAH!
the feet massage wasn't painful or anything. it was very comfortable! and relaxing. just that when they massage their way up, it was very itchy. at first, i tried to control my laughter but then my younger sister kept laughing and i started laughing too. ahahha!
throughout the whole massage, i din know whether to sleep or to observe what they are doing cuz i din want to waste such an awesome opportunity just sleeping away. but i can't see cuz no specs. so in the end i just kept staring at the masseus. since i can't really see what my masseus is doing, i kept looking at my dad's masseus. and i think he found it distracting cuz he kept looking at me and smiling too! hahaha!
and when the guy was massaging my dad, i was horrified. he used so much strength to massage and for a longer period of time! to think that he's gonna do that to me... oh gosh. hahahaha! and he used a lot of strength. i could hear him sort of breathing heavily everytime he apply large force. but my dad had no expression. goodness me. hahaha.
so anyway, the best part was the hot stones! they placed hot stones on our back while massaging our legs. it was warm and nice.. ((: then after that, they used 4 more stones to rub our back with. though its comfortable for us, i think its burning hot for their hands!
but i had another mini shock too. the person lifted up my shirt and unhook my undergarment. then she rolled my pants and my undies halfway through my butt. HAHAHHA! no wonder nhan din want to let us massage next to the guys upstairs... hahaha. but anyway, i think the guy masseus peeped over. hahaah!
then after that, they dressed us and continued massaging our back. since they are so light, they stepped on us! using their legs to massage our bodies. quite nice. luckily i hadn't sprain my ankles or something otherwise it'd be very painful when they apply force there. i love it especially when they stepped on my butt! haha very comfortable! they also used their knuckles to massage our back and the guy masseus cracked all his 10 knuckles when he first did that. HAHAHAHA! super funny. but this also showed how much energy he put into massaging..
then the itchiest thing was when the masseus wanted us to stretch our stomach by arching our body upwards on them.when she grabbed my underarms to lift me up, i started laughing non stop cuz my skin there's very sensitive you see. my sister's masseus was even better. she grabbed her boobs! hahaha! then my sister pushed her hand away! hahaha and the masseus replaced her hand back there! ahaha.
that was the last massage and mine ended the first. haha! so after that, i sat at my bed and waited for the rest. then suddenly, my aunt fell off from the bed and said, "oh sorry sorry!" and everyone started giggling even the masseus except my aunt and my dad. i felt it was very mean to laugh at her so i tried to calm down. then as i've somewhat calmed down a little, my mom suddenly let out a burst of laughter, 'BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!' and i was in my laughing fits again!
actually she was about to do the arching position thingy. but she rested her legs on the outer stool so when the masseus pulled her up, the stool slid further away and she could not stay afloat so she fell off! hahahahaa! i'm still laughing at it now.
so after the massage, they gave us a bowl of ginger soup and 3 pieces of watermelon to eat. after that, my hands and legs felt really soft cuz of the lotion they used. the masseus are really gentle people! maybe next time i want to go for a massaging course to learn how to massage. heehee.
so then finally we all went back to the hotel and spent the last night there.
Day Five!
my family woke up early to have breakfast and pack our luggage to see how mcuh things we can still buy before proceeding to Ben Thanh Market again for the last grabs!
Ben Thanh Market in the background.
this picture was taken by a really helpful australian or german or european or american? he was like,"maybe i can help you all with that." so nice right? hahahaha
after that, checked out of hotel by 11.30 and then took a cab to the airport. the cab fare was cheap. if we've known that, we'd have taken a cab to Bin Thanh Market instead of going Ben Thanh Market for all 5 days! hahaha.
reached the airport and it's quite small. checked in on time but then our flight was delayed by 2 hours! stranded in the airport with expensive food in 1 restaurant. so we bought chocolates to fill our stomachs! hahaha ritter sport chocolate! so long since i last ate it! yummy!
reached singapore and board on a maxi cab back home!
unpacking time!
our fully packed luggages!
this video shows the amount of things we bought. like super alot and we are really good in squeezing and backing things! everything went into 4 luggage bags! the background music is the hwang jini show. hahhaha! my parents were watching it! ((:
OKAY! so finally i'm done with the VIETNAM TRIP!
I MISS VIETNAM RIGHT NOW!! (cuz no books no lessons no studies no homework just play just shop just have fun!)
planted at 5:38 PM