Germ’s Images

Creating these 2 slideshows didn’t take me very long, but looking at the immense look of satisfaction from the faces of Howard, and the students as well as the VIPs generally having positive comments, it was fulfilling for me. The sad thing is that when I converted them to videos to be put online, the colors seem to have lost the “shine”.  

 Opening Act:

Closing Act

On a similar note, seen Duarte’s website? www.duarte.com One day, I am going to start a company just like theirs, specializing in presentation systems for clients (:

Vung Tau is about a 4hrs car drive away from Ho Chi Minh or a 1 hr hydrofoil ride. So obviously I took the second option. Here’s a panoramic view of the ferry terminal. Vung Tau has really nice beaches(no topless girls though) and a really big Jesus statue.

Tickets for the boat ride…

We had Pho Bo before we left for Vung Tau at “Pho 24″. They serve the sides on this plate.

And their noodles with beef brisket here. One thing I like about Vietnamese noodles is that they always taste so fresh! (It’s 5am in the morning, making myself hungry -.-)

Avocado Juice! hehe. with Milk! Damn sinful! Awwwww.

So this is the hill and you can see Jesus statue being on top. He’s really small, meaning he’s really high up and far away. Have to climb quite high just to see the statue… So here we go.

Ok, so here’s what I took on the way up

hehehe, nice view right

This one is like the Great Wall of Vietnam or smth. Communist brothers must learn from each other :p

Ehh, getting closer to the big man now

Once you get to the top, you can climb up the statue of Jesus, the inside of him is hollow with really narrow stairwells. Here’s a side profile of his face, looks really similar to another religion tho

The view from the top must surely be the greatest. (in many senses)

The really nice beaches that it has (strong waves too)

I jumped down really fast and took a photo haha, yea right. Had to take taxi to the beaches.

One of the views I got on the hydrofoil.

Beautiful eh? I timed it slightly wrongly though, the small boat was supposed to be in the middle T_T the hydrofoil was moving too quickly, cant even keep the horizon straight, not to mention the mini boat smack right in the centre. haha.

Ok that’s all folks. Going to Phan Thiet and the Mui Ne beaches! More beach babes ahead. LOL

As promised to Shalynn. Risked my life to shoot this video.     

What could have happened to me:

1.  Someone could have snatched the camera from off my hands
2. Fallen off the bike (nah, I cant be that dumb)

Apparently this restaurant is popular among expatriates and known for its ribs. Big thick fat ribs. Yum. With beer. Sinful Combination. Luckily, I only had one of the 2 evils.

And here are some of the expatriates that were in with us early in the morning.

The ambiance was relaxing, but with smoke =x

The first drink that I had was Iced Vietnamese coffee (my favourite drink since I came here)

That’s uncle James in the background, hehe

He had chicken salad (it had a more posh name, something to the tune of Al Fresco Salad or smth) It was very very very very very good. Fresh! (and healthy)

I had this Mini Ribs. (mind you, mini!) but it turned out to be quite huge.

Cool heh? Super big. But mostly bones. By the time I reached the last piece, I was too full. Not to mention the potato wedges and salad at the side. Made me very stuffed. hehe.

Another dish we ordered was chicken burger (again, got more posh name, but I forgot). Tasty! Too bad it was not for me. Uncle James had it, not the fries though. It’s bad for the heart (too much carbo and oil for him) And I was too full -.-

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As we were touring around Saigon (Saigon is the old name for Ho Chi Minh. HCM is the name of the old man who started communism in Vietnam), I had this feeling for icecream. Blah, one of the worse decisions I made. Bad icecream. Don’t try it

As usual, their coffee.

Longan Icecream. -.-” I was super stun when this arrived. Super creative hor. Damn lame. Arghhh. Kena connnn.

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Went around, reached the wharves, took a photograph there

And bought tickets to Vung Tau

Next episode. hehe

Went to this La Ca Restaurant in District 11. Supposedly it’s owned by an American seafood export company which wanted to diversify into another business. More or less, they allocate a small part of their exports to this business. Supposedly this business wasn’t doing very well, till this Vietnamese guy took over, but more about him later. The ambiance was quite good. The waiters were on roller-skates, to serve food really fast.

In case anyone wants to go there in future. We had rabbit as one of the dishes, but it didn’t look very special, so I didnt take the photo. The meat was also kinda hard to bite through, too much muscles in a sense I guess. (Now I know if I ever meet with a cannibalistic tribe that I do not taste good) It has this wine sauce with the meat that was quite tasty though.

Hanoi Flower. Supposedly, tasted bland. Try it only if you like the taste of garlic.

The next dish was this steamed vegetables. -.-” Very healthy. In my opinion, healthy is another word for tasteless. You dip the vegetables into this egg mixture

(all the health benefits gone. -.- )

Then we had fried eel. (like japanese unagi, but more fresh)

And unagi soup, haha. The soup was very tasty, a bit sour but very fragrant.

To end of, we had red wine for everybody. Compliments of the restaurant owner. We had 2 bottles. I had about 4 cups before feeling kinda drowsy.

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The end. Thanks for viewing

My boss took me out for a ride on his motorbike, and to his office of course. He lives in the Ben Thanh District, and I stayed in District 6, which is a very long drive here. He didn’t know his way, so we met him up at a local market(Cho, pronounced as Che) and then led him to my place. That’s him behind me in his white Honda automatic bike. hehe.He’s an inspiration and  a friend. (and I said it because he’s the boss, haha)Here’s how the traffic looks like. I didnt have the chance to take a photo at the common roundabouts, I was shivering in the balls to take a photo. haha. Remember, I was on a bike!Never ending stream on bikes. Their average speed is only 20 -40km/hr at most. Very slow traffic. Cars move at the safe speed too.—Here are some sick luggage they carryPardon me for the blur photos, I was on a motorbike while taking the photos.Balls of steel, literally.Rules of Vietnam traffic:

1. Just look in front, no need check blind spot.
2. Can go then go, no need care traffic lights.
3. Left side is for motorist, right side is for motorcycle. But rules are meant to be broken.
4. As long as you have a moving vehicle, you are road worthy.

—Anyway, Amway just started their operations in Vietnam. They’re recruiting. And to serve their purpose they rented the entire stadium to propagate their message. Impressive, the power of human greed.Helmets for sale. Cheap! Only USD$3. haha—Ending off, this is my boss office in HCM city.Till then with further updates!

The adults were busy today so I went to District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City. HCM is divided into many districts and District 1 is considered the District 10 of Singapore. It has many tourists and considered the safest part. It is also rich in culture and heritage.

It’s a photograph of the church built during the French colonial era.

And here’s me trying to spoil the view. hehe.

One of the mosiacs that was in the church. It’s really beautiful. My photo do it no justice.

This one too. Very grand and big inside.

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In addition, there were many retail places in this area that I thought deserved mentioned for their clothes or retail display. There were definitely more I didn’t take photos of, as it wasn’t nice being alone in a foreign land and drawing attention to myself.

Yeah~ LV’s here too

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Took a break at Highlands Coffee. About S$4.40 for the Mango Mania. Fully recommended. Could taste the fresh mango in the drink! Very refreshing.

I also had barbecued pork kebab sold at the roadside! It was very good! Like a cheap version of tontori. haha.

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To end the day off… I had~~

Can you guess? haha…

A manicure and pedicure!

And here’s me and my manicurist! She’s very detailed. Very good. US$3 for the manicure and US$4 for the pedicure.

Walked EVERY street in HCM District 1, haha, tiring day.

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On a side note, “boasted” to the adults about the cheap price about their service. They told me at District 6 can get both services combined for US$1.50. WTF.

Went to a Vietnamese restaurant to have true blue Vietnamese food. It’s much like a Tze Char stalls in Singapore, only messier and they had a live performance which sounded really bad and noisy. We moved away after 5mins to a new table. We ordered a few dishes while waiting for James’s employee to turn up, who took his own sweet time. Anyway here’s the food that we ordered: Prawns in coconut husk and rice liquor. It’s ok, but I think the Chinese version of drunken prawns is better.  This is their version of popiah. There’s peppermint leaves inside, and some random fillings. Tasted not bad, interesting combination. 

Ever watched National Geographic? haha, The half hatched duck egg! First you crack open the shell and dig out the urmm, insides and then you…  

eat it with relish! Take a closer look: Pardon me for the blur image, I was shivering while contemplating it was my turn next to try the dish. This is their version of pancake. Inside the egg, they have stuff like shrimp, onions and pork. You wrap up a portion of it with the leaves at the side, lettuce and peppermint leaves. Anyway, I’ve come to the conclusion that these women have such wonderful features like smooth skin and good figure because their diet largely consists of RAW vegetables. It is indeed really healthy! Another interesting food they have is this. You have rice paper which you wrap it up with what is in the dish. It’s rice noodles which is something like the Malay’s tumayam in Singapore. But their’s more sweet and fresh, mainly because it’s freshly made with rice wine if I remember correctly. Singapore’s version has too much preservatives and not made fresh. What was interesting is that the meat in the middle is wrapped around sugarcane, so the meat tasted kinda sweet. You have to remove the sugarcane before you start wrapping. (unless you’re a fan of sugarcane fibre ) These are fresh oysters are only $1 each. There were 4 of them. I ate one. It was disgusting. Even with the lime and salt to mild the taste. Guess I’m not a grown up enough yet, or I probably have enough testosterone to not need “supplements”.Here’s Uncle James, the sponsor of my trip, in a way. haha and,Madalene and Ah Wein (the one who made us all WAIT) 

—— Anyway here’s a treat for my readers!

Ignoring the ugly face in front, focus on the figure behind me… She was my waiter. Pretty and demure. But Uncle James say not to fall into their trap, haha. Regardless, I took a photo with her…Her figure was pretty darn decent too! omg. But while walking away, I saw she was wearing a ring on her engagement finger. Oh well, good for her! :D And Uncle James made this observation that Vietnamese woman look darn good up to their 30s, but once pass that, they dont look very nice, weirdly enough. So guys looking for Vietnamese wives, do take note! They really have good skin though! 

Tomorrow’s a new day! Good night! 

As much as we would like to think we are different as individuals, we live and we die and deep down we all have a simple wish - and it is to be happy.    

As we wait in the line to queue for something, it’s very easy for us to inwardly criticize other people for their dress sense(ugly color matching), or behaviour(arrogant, brash) etc. Yet, if you reduce us empirically to the lowest denominations, I find that we do all these to be accepted by other people. And if we become accepted by our peer group, we feel loved and therefore happy.  

As I sit in the MRT trains observing people, it’s hard not to come out with prejudices and to think about their thoughts. I also ask myself if they are happy with their current lifestyles because they seem pretty contented on the train. Didn’t they know the material comforts of driving a car, or aspire to own and ride one? Or perhaps a meal in town? After all, for me, having driven a car, taking a MRT, though not demeaning to me, has become an inconvenient mode of transport.

Gradually, as I questioned myself, I realised that I also felt that it was alright to take an MRT and even told myself that I would continue riding the train even after getting my license. Yet, once I experienced a higher level of comfort, going back was difficult.

True happiness means accepting your current condition and making the most out of it and hoping for the best by trying your best.

We have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western World, making love to their Powerpoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others.  What happens to an ecology, when the parasite level reaches critical mass?The ecology dies.If youʼre creative, if you can think independently, if you can articulate passion, if you canoverride the fear of being wrong, then your company needs you now more than it ever did.And now your company can no longer afford to pretend that isnʼt the case.So dust off your horn and start tooting it. Exactly.However if youʼre not particularly creative, then youʼre in real trouble. And thereʼs no buzz-word or “new paradigm” that can help you. They may not have mentioned this in businessschool, but…people like watching dinosaurs die.