Saigon : The few last stories

I meant to update more on Saigon, but suddenly "busy" came up to say hi and never leave me alone since. *sigh*

I was not joking peeps. Kids were getting sick one after another, work has been (as always) crazy even my body got upside down with fever, surprise double visit from my red aunty and everything else.

Anyway, lets mot talk about that. 

Where was I? Oh yes, Saigon..

Saigon, without doubt has so many museums, monuments and nice building. It's really fun to walk within the District 1 and just enjoy the scenery and the nice architectures even doors!

Here's a few picture we managed to snap while we where there.  

Some door. Makes a nice backdrop for photo snapping

Inside one of the museum. I can't remember which one anymore. Initially wanted to take "titanic" like picture but it's too hot I couldn't bother to make the effort. hehe.

With my handsome man. In every 100 pictures of me, he got one snap. Haha. Hail to the invention of monopod now he has the chance. hehe 

Another door. Haha. Doors really make a nice backdrop, no?

Self'us'

Other than museums and building, they also has nice parks in the middle of the city. I really love this about Saigon and you can see their locals really make full use of the parks.

You also cannot leave Saigon without visiting all their famous landmarks!

I actually has a lot of things to say about Saigon, but maybe I save it for my own self. :)

Till we meet again Saigon!

Saigon : Trung Nguyen Coffee

If you haven't know yet, Vietnam is the 2nd largest coffee producer in the world after Brazil and also if you haven't know yet, coffee is so happen to be my staple food. I can survive with no food but never without a cup of coffee.  So you can imagine how exited I was planning for this trip.

While doing the research, I found out that they have a few famous local coffee joint but Trung Nguyen Coffee and Highland Coffee were the famous one and they sure are. Their cafes were all over Saigon!

Anyway, there's a story behind this. It took 30mins taxi ride from the airport to the hotel and along the way, we could see so many Trung Nguyen Coffee joints all over the place! Exited, once we were done freshen up, we went straight for a stroll with a main mission, to have a drink at none other than Trung Nguyen.

But don't know what happened we couldn't find any Trung Nguyen Coffee even after a looooong walk! Turns out we keep on turning at the wrong side. LOL. This one that we went to was so far away from our hotel but actually there is one just around the corner.

This Trung Nguyen is like our Old Town White Coffee in Malaysia. They are everywhere!

His Drink. Can't remember the name anymore. But it tasted OK.

Mine. I like my coffee black and hot. But in Vietnam, their specialty is ice milk coffee and it tasted so good!!!!

Me looking at you, looking at me

Anyway, you can can also get the Iced Coffee for USD1 on the street rather than have a drink at their cafe. Much more cheaper and the taste is similar. They sell it at the back of their motorcycle and it took only a few minutes for them to make one for you since the coffee was brewed earlier. I swear I drank so many cups of iced coffee that my pee started to smell like one. err...

When you're in Vietnam, make sure you give it a try.

Saigon : District 1 ~ The Stroll and Sidewalk Shops

Honestly, we are not much of a traveller (read here why) but when we do, we love to do it by foot. Husband's favourite when it comes to travelling is a local map and walking aimlessly seeking for a unique local gems (especially food) that will later brings such memories. Forget about normal tourist spot, that doesn't excite him. (Me tho will be happy anywhere I can shop, teheee)

So after we were done checking in and freshen up, we took a walk from the hotel and just strolling in search of their local coffee joint (more about it later). Found a lot of nice buildings and shops around district 1 and took a lot of selfie in between.

One of the nice local shop

I am quite impressed with Saigon to be honest. They don't have so many large upscale buildings like we do but the store and shops are quite updated (local and international brand) and they do have a lot of nicely decorated shops and cafes. Sadly most of them are not halal friendly so we just took a peek from the window. 

There are also a lot of bars and cafes (too tired to take photos after walking like forever, haha) and their town area are quite happening too. Too bad we did not go there as we're busy shopping for a tailor-made suits (again will tell you in a different post) and I had (still have) a chronic back pain I can't really take long distance walking.

To travel around Saigon, you have to take taxi or bus. The other option is to ride behind a scooter or rent one. But oh boy you should see their traffic it was like all the scooters in the world are in Saigon.

Here's some photos we took during one of our road crossing.

Anyway, here's another random photos that we took at random places.

Book Juice

We found this small cafe when we were wandering around aimlessly on a scorching hot afternoon. We were looking for a halal eating place but found this juice cafe instead. Ordered one of their hot selling stuff (can't remember the name anymore) and it was really nice and refreshing.

Christian Louboutin by the street. So chill la this Saigon

   

Nice sidewalk cafe. Wanted to stop for a drink but we need aircond haha

Local brand

Another one

Everywhere I go I met you. hehehe.

This store sell alligator shoes and bag. I can just browse, not dare to touch. haha

This is one of their local cafe. We wanted to have a drink after cheking out while waiting to go to the airport but then we got lost and couldn't find the cafe! too bad. The smell was so amazing!

Anyway, will blog more about Saigon (if time permit) later. Honestly, I go so many things to share. Saigon is really one nice beautiful city.

Saigon : The Stay ~ Silverland Hotel & Spa

So you know how this was supposed to be a honeymoon trip. The husband was kind enough to book us a suite at Silverland Hotel and Spa so that I get to have my own Jacuzzi in the room. He also arrange for airport transfer so our journey from airport to hotel was really a breeze.

Always saw this on TV. Cool!

The princess is coming thru!

And because we booked a suite, we get to skip the check-in process (the q was quite long at that time) and was ushered straight to our suite upon arrival. They even turn on the air-conditioner in advance so that the room was cool enough the moment we checked in. 

There's local fruits and they also left us a nice note welcoming us to the hotel. Nice but they spelled my name wrongly (-.-")

This hotel is located near Ben Than market at the so called "Malaysian Street" so finding halal food was easy as there are plenty near the hotel. There's also a night market nearby the hotel so it was quite happening.

I think this hotel was quite nice (heck all the hotels here are nice if you read the reviews) and the price was quite decent. It was clean, the staff are warm and welcoming, and most important the location is strategic.

Okay, gonna soak myself in the jacuzzi. Chiow.

Saigon : The Departure

Our flight scheduled on 12pm, May 15th. We had our breakfast at KL Sentral and took the KLIA express to the KLIA2.

So shocked to see how spacious and elegant looking this new airport is. No wonder our flight tickets were expensive. Anyway, it took us nearly more than half an hour (including bathroom time) to get to the gate. There were a lot of airport staff waiting around all areas with uniform shirt and a big "ask me" board so finding your way is kind of easy. 

Today's Adventure

Number one:

This was supposed to be a honeymoon trip for us but my "red aunty" decided to pay me a visit. (-.-"). Good news is..there won't be the 3rd child anytime soon. Haha. But seriously, we were laughing like mad the moment I told the news to the husband. Lucky I didn't go all out and bought those expensive lingerie. 

Lesson learnt: Check your period date before buying the ticket,fool!

Number two

My full size Keihl facial wash was confiscated by the custom (T_T). I was trying my luck using my charm to make the custom officer let it go but I guess, my charm doesn't really work all the time. Though I can see that the lady officer was giving me a sorry look (sisterhood yo!) but well... nevermind. 

Lesson learnt: Buy those travel size container and use it. 

Well, that summarize our journey (not even arriving Saigon yet, already a lot of drama). Pray for our safety ya!

With Love from both of us.

SAIGON, VIETNAM ~ The Reason

At last.. a trip just for the two of us.

I am really looking forward for this trip but at the same time feeling a bit sad & guilty to leave the kids behind. But we both think we really need this trip to recharge our marriage so its's okay because we know we'll leave them in a very good hands of my parents and and my sister. Two kids with day jobs for both of us, I admit, taking care of each other is the last thing that we do. (T_T)

I got married at a young age.. at 24 to be exact and Rania came just a year after. There were no annual anniversary trips or whatsoever to celebrate our marriage as we are occupied with her and to be honest, we don't really got the money to splurge. I am the paranoid one in this relationship and whatever we do, it's for the kids future 1st then only our needs. Alhamdulillah, even without any huge celebrations or even gift, we manage to hold on still. :) I think our ignorance in celebrating anniversaries played it part too. Because we are both sucks at remembering events so no heart feelings for both of us. Haha

Then came Imaan oh boy both of them are pretty handful to deal with haha but alhamdulillah at the same time our hard work paid off and Allah has given us plenty to be grateful for. So now, with the kids future are safely secured, we can splurge a bit and it's time to take extra care and recharge our marriage. :)

We will be 7 years this 1st June. Honestly, we never had a proper anniversary memories together (except the birth of our two kids which co-incidentally near to our anniversary). Yes of course there were dinners and late night movies but we do that a lot even if it's not anniversary so yeah that doesn't count. haha. So we decided, let's do an annual trip. No need to be fancy. No need to be far from home. It can be just a night stay at any hotels in KL but the idea is, it has to be something just for the two of us (though an oversea trip will be preferable, thank you) haha.

But we really have to thank my mum and dad and also my big sister for agreeing (by force) to babysit my kids. We are fortunate that we still have our family so once in a while, we get to be alone. Alhamdulillah for that.

School Holiday - Term 1, Part 1

School holiday started! Weehoo.

I don't get this school holiday hype before, until my kid started schooling. But we don't really have a plan lining up but we promise ourselve that we will at least bring them (Rania especially) somewhere for fun.

We started with a trip to Pantai Remis last weekend for kite flying fun fun fun!

Kids with daddy. Daddy don't really know how to deal with the kids when they missbehave. Believe it or not, though he is the sweetest ever to me, he can be quite strict with them. I foresee that growing up, he can be really hard on them that they might think he's unapproachable. I am trying my best to capture all the things he did for them as a prove that he loves them so much but daddy just being.... Ermmm daddy.

Daddy and grandpa showing off their skills to the couldn't-be-bothered-much kid. Hehe. Cute.

Our kite flying! So much fun.

Imaan the kite! Hehe. Imaan has no clue what happened or even where we were! At the end, she was bored, cried, drank her milk, then slept through out the outing. Haha.

The end of our 1st school holiday outing!

From Kuala Lumpur to Medan and Danau Toba, and Everything in Between - Pt1

I just got back from Medan and Danau Toba, short holiday with my friends. Masya Allah... this island on island  is simply breathtaking! Don't you agree?

I bought the tickets on impulse on Jan 2011 because I was browsing around Air Asia's website out of boredom when I found a very great deal (RM16 return ticket per person,wtf?) to Medan. Then I tweeted about it and my friend quickly get hers too. Fast forward 9 month later...

.......here we are, reading (or pretend to read ;p) the Indonesian map, routing ourselves around North Sumatera.

Living proof that we actually just pretending. We got Supir to drive us around actually. :p

While I was there, I kept thinking that I should blog about the tips and whatnot on Medan (specifically Danau Toba) holiday because there are so many things that we are no aware of and couldn't get enough information from the net. ( or am I too dumb that I don't know how to google?). I won't share much about things to do because there are numerous website giving info about that, but more on little little things like how to behave at the airport, supir, timing, fares and others.

Anyway, let me start with the very beginning.

LCC TERMINAL, KUALA LUMPUR - POLONIA AIRPORT, MEDAN

Our KUL-MES flight was scheduled on the 15th of September, 0740hrs. Well here's a little "interesting story" about our departure the other day. We nearly missed the flight! (0_o). We took SkyBus from KL central and we missed the the 5.30am bus and was forced to wait another 30 min for the next bus to depart. The journey took a solid 1 hour, it was already 7am when we reached LCCT! Thank God for mobile check in! We were a bit relax after we arrived at LCCT since the ticket showed 0710hrs departure time, so we off to perform our subuh 1st but boy oh boy apparently the departure time was 0700hrs! And the Air Asia staff gave a really good panic attack on us that we practically running towards gate T72 thinking that the whole flight was waiting for us. But actually, the plane was so far off the gate and our 400m dash deserves a gold medal in Olympic that we were among the earliest to board the plane. Such a drama. Haha. 

On the plane finally. BIG tips, don't fall asleep without finished packing or you end up in such a drama like us!

It took only 1 hour to reach Polonia Airport, Medan. But since we haven't had our breakfast yet and we were sort of really exhausted from the drama earlier we decided to buy breakfast on board. A freaking RM23 breakfast. But oh, I really have to mention this, Air Asia's Tandoori Wrap is the yummiest! We end up buying another 2 pack on our flight back to KL and I am drooling while typing this.

Touched down Polonia Airport on time, passed the immigration and horas! welcome to Medan.

A few tips on Polonia Airport:-

• They don't mind photography. Snap while you can!
• Upon exiting the airport, a lot of people will come to you offers taxi or even grabbing the bag from you. They will follow you although you said no. So if you want a cab, took a Blue Bird's cab because they charged based on meters so you won't get rip off. 
• If you are going somewhere distance like Lake Toba and haven't make any arrangement yet, ask around 1st. Bus is the cheapest alternative but not advisable because it will take you longer time. If you travel in group take a supir in minivan (our case is Toyota Innova) instead. They charge Rp600k to Rp700k per car so the more people you travel with, the cheaper it will be). Bear in mind, if you take the minivan, you have to pay for their meal also. Normally there will be 1 stop for meal before you reach Lake Toba.
• Whatever "hospitality" that they offer at the airport comes with a price. So pick up you own bags, check in and find the way yourself if don't want to end up paying them anything. You may say no but they will still help you and demand a fee in return. 
• Airport tax is Rp75k per person that you can pay at the left side of the entrance door before you depart from Medan.
• No bottled water is permitted at the waiting area. But they allow you to go in and out as you pleased and you may drink the water outside.

That's all about the airport. Will write about getting to Lake Toba in the next post.

Till then. :) 

To Die For: Chili Crab @ Newton, Singapore

*Excuse the picture quality. I don't know what happened and how to fix it*

Contradict to what you people might think, main reason I went to Singapore the other day is not to shop. The husband actually had a wedding to attend in JB and the sister wanted to go and meet her long lost friend in Singapore. So I thought, why not? Let the husband be single for the day, enjoying his days with all his friends (who also happen to be wife-less for the day) and me accompany my sister to Singapore. (yes, I am cool like that one)

Days before we actually there, the sister already had the day all plan up, including where to eat!

So we heard that Singapore is really famous with their chili crab and being a food junkie, we ask my sister friend to bring us to the most delicious chili crab ever in Singapore.

Well, she did brought us.....to the nearest food court to her house! Haha.

To go here, just take MRT to Newton. It's nearby. Walking distance. I don't know how to explain but just ask any local passerby.

We choose this stall Heng Heng BBQ - Stall No 31 and it so happen that the owner (or helper, I dunno) is a Malaysian! So he gave a really really good service to us! And he is damn funny too.

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See the crab? OMG so big. I know.

My sister posing with one hell of a BIG FAT crab. Which after 5 minutes.....

........became this. Yummy!!! Eh eh kesian En. Crab.. hehe

This butter prawn is also super yummy. The best I've tasted so far

Man Tao. Tak pernah terfikir nak makan Man Tao cicah Chilli Crab until that day. Super duper double orgasm! :)

Other than that we ordered baby kailan in oyster sauce. The dish was prepared for 4 person. And it only cost us SGD66! So cheap!

Go eat chili crab the next time you visit Singapore will you? Better yet go to this stall. I promise you, you'll never be disappointed.

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