Ho Chi Minh 2011- a revisit

Kannan outside the Notre Dame Basillica, District 1 

Statues from a victorious regime 

Inside the General Post Office 

I am at the tail end of a 3 day business trip to Ho Chi Minh city,the first since my earlier trip in 2009. The memories and impressions then and now are quite distinct. I find in 2011, the city is still full of motocycles what with the upward mobility and wealth of the Vietnamese people in general, but in addition, where we are staying, in District 1, there are lot of high end luxury sedans and SUV cars. This is far more apparent now than in 2009.

The communist party is still firmly in power, and the people here are thriving and entrepreneurial. However, there is none of the sleaze you will find in  many of the other developing countries. It makes the visit to HCM as a family destination more appealing. On the other hand, the traffic and air conditions are not good even for a decent stay of say 4 to 5 days. I bought a mask when I took a walk out in the city as many Vietnamese are also aware of the impact the polluted air can cause to their bodies. There are literally thousands of masked people in the streets, from motorbike riders, to street vendors to ordinary citizens out and about. The pollution levels here make KL and even Bangkok levels seem quite liveable.

There are literally hundreds of clean and decent looking small hotels to choose from in District 1 alone, so my guess is that, for a walk-in visitor, the rate may drop to perhaps S$50 during the low season. It is preferrable to book online, like I did and paid $ 72 per room per night for a clean, large room and free wi-fi.

There are several interesting places one must visit, and these are (in no order of preference) :

Rex Hotel

Notre Dame Basillica

Reunification Palace

War Remnants Museum

The roof top 5th floor of the Rex Hotel is a must visit. You can view the of whole of Saigon (old HCM name) and take in the sights and sounds of the city without the smog. A must visit. We had a starter, 2 main courses and a bottle of Australian shiraz for a total of U$ 72 or about S$ 95. Unbelieveably inexpensive for dining for 2 at the equivalent to the Raffles (or E & O in Penang) Hotel.

The best times to visit I guess would be in March, April, or October to December as it it considered Spring or Autumn time respectively. June and July would be the swelteringly hot months.

The Vietnamese coffee is also very good, you can choose from the normal, medium to strong. The weasel is one well known brand, and I have just taken a liking to the Moka blend, selling at VND 44,000 per 100 g or U$ 2 per 100 g. Certainly not cheap but very robust, good aroma and flavourful.

It is a great short visit combination of business and some relaxation, in my opinion. 

     

2 excellent Nasi Lemak stalls side by side

                                                             Selera Rasa Nasi Lemak stall

                                                                  Adam's Nasi Lemak

Adam Road hawker center has always been famous for its Malay food, since the 70's and last weekend, I decided to try their famous Nasi Lemak. I went there last Sunday at around 11.30 am and already there was 2 queues of more than 10 people each. Wow ! imagine that, for an 'early lunch' one must queue for one's food - must be really good - I thought to myself.

Anyway, I decided to take the one with the shorter queue, Adam's, but ended up waiting almost 35 minutes before I reached the stallholders. They are a very friendly couple and their helper, and in a flash, the orders were carried out. I ordered 4 packets, 2 Sutra specials which was the fried chicken, with ikan billis, nuts,kuning (cucumber),fried egg, otak (mackerel cake) and the coconut rice. In addition, I ordered for my wife and myself, the fish set which was the fish (small ikan kuning) instead of the chicken.

Adam's stall has won awards from the Makansutra (KF Seetoh's TV series about good foods) as well as several Mediacorp TV food series for their tasty nasi lemak. Anyway, the true test was in the tasting.

The verdict, the fish was nice and crispy, the otah was flavourful and with nice aroma. The best part was the rice was 'sedap' ! Very nice separated grains and retaining the aroma of the pandan leaf it is wrapped in as well as the not so heavy going feeling. The sambal chilli ? Sweet, and not too heavy or thick, rather, it is less viscous and   like a sauce. My preference is for a thicker sambal sauce.

The other stall Selera, was also doing a roaring business and when I left with my packets at 12.10 pm, the queues were growing ever longer. What a wonderful way to earn a decent income, the foodstall business is best as it is a) cash basis b) high turnover if food is good, c) low overheads for the stall and d) no retirement in sight if one is healthy and able.

And I am not even referring to the tax computations !  

Scouts Investiture Feb 26th 2011 - video

Feb 26th 2011 Scouts Investiture

Andrew with the Scouts Salute 

Saturday 26th February was a very proud day for me as a father, my 2nd boy Andrew was officially inducted into the Scout family at the ACS Barker Road Lee Kong Chian Hall. The principles of the scouting movement were initiated by the Lord Francis Baden Powell, and last year was the 100th anniversary of scouting in Singapore.There was a massive Jamboree or meeting of scouts,past and present from 12 countries in Singapore, and our chief scout is the President, S.R. Nathan.

                                         Andrew standing before the troop, he is in Huron Tribe

The principles of scouting are simple, service to God, family and the scout troop. Values cherished are the brotherhood of scouts (also the Girl Guides or  Female Venture Scouts as they are called now), honesty,integrity, uprightness, discipline and being prepared for any kinds of contingencies possible in life and also in daily activities.

                                                      Putting on the scarf and woggle

                   Its now 2 generations (maybe 3 as my father ,Geoffrey, I recall was also a Scout if I recall properly) in our family, that all the males have all become scouts and proudly so too. Admittedly, I was not a very enthusiastic scout during my time, but did attend the activities for at least 2 years (Sec 1 and Sec 2) in secondary school. There were weekly footdrills, the scouts camp in Sarimbun 2 times a year, the preparation for the tests such as cooking, knot tying, map reading etc. etc. which all earned us some badges if we passe them. Then, there is the annual Job Week where the scouts have to go to strangers or housing estates and offer to do jobs for whatever they paid us. I remember vivdly doing jobs for my father such as washing the family car and cleaning the office and being rewarded for S$ 5, a princely sum then.

                                                Wearing the Green Beret with Pride

       We all aim to leave our mark in this world during our lives, and as a father, I am proud to say that I am doing my bit to ensure that the next generation grow up well adjusted. We have our failings and disappointments along the way but pick ourselves up, wipe the dust and tears away and press on towards the goal without fear of further failure. Being in part of a uniformed group gave me, and I'm sure for my sons too, a sense of mission and responsibility to the troop and ultimately, the overall well being of one's self.

                                                    Proud father with his Scout son

   What I hope for my son to be in the years to come is that he will be an upright person, God fearing, and always give of his best. There will be many activities which will be deemed as 'character building' such as scout camps, jamborees, Job week and badges of merit such as knots, cooking and jungle survival. These so called survival skills will hopefully equip him well for the trials and successes  well for his future life.

Andrew at Attention in front of his troop

                                              Reciting of the Scouts Promise in front on the Colours

Boy Scouts in the Family - 1975, 2008 and 2011

                      My investiture or formal acceptance ceremony as a scout in 1975, 35 years ago !

 This is a much treasured picture of me and 2 mates of mine, Freddy Choy (extreme left) and Chew Ping Nan (right) during our investiture ceremony in the opne field of St Andrew's School at Woodsville.The date was sometime in February 1975 when I was 12 goingon 13.  Now the area is called Potong Pasir, the field no longer exists but the school and its premises have expanded to include the St Andrew's Junior College and so provides for 12 years of seamless education.

I recall vividly the ceremony whereby we start out as recruits and after 2 months or so, get promoted to be fully fledged scouts. After the investiture, we were made to crawl through a human tunnel with the senior scouts forming a triangle with their spread legs and we had to crawl in the mud through their legs. When we started crawling through, the seniors then took their berets and whacked the hell out of us !
Some even were made to be the 'horse' and were pushed face first intot the ground. It took about 10 minutes for us to finish the tunnel and after that I was so tired and muddy, I still remember the occasion to this day !  

Although this photo is in black and white, I must add that the uniform of the day was brown or khaki,
with black belt and silver buckle. The beret is a dark green and scarf is white with red stripes representing Singapore flag colours. Our scout troop was numbered 2501, or the first troop in the Potong Pasir constituency.

We had many campfires and night games were remembered with relish. Jamborees were the events where we could meet with scouts from brother and sister schools (they were called Girl Guides then).

I put this post up as I was invited to attend my son Andrew's Investiture yesterday at the ACS Barker Road school and was full of curiosity as to what to expect. The event is put up in the next couple of posts.

Coincidentally or not, my 2 sons, Noel (16 going on 17) and Andrew (13 going on 14) are also Boy Scouts, here is a picture of Noel taken in 2008 (above). He was made Patrol Leader in 2010 in Sec. 4 last year. The uniform is now a faint green with dark green pants, the beret is green and the scarf is red.

Christmas 2009 video - my first Youtube upload

This video is my first attempt at uploading videos via Youtube. The event is the annual Christmas lunch hosted by my Mum and Dad for as long as I can remember,maybe 25 years or so. This lunch is normally at their house and now in recent years it has been hosted at my house. The people here are mainly my Mother's sisters,their families and my parents' close friends. This video brings back warm memories of my parents - just taken over a year ago.  

New Hobby Sport - Triathalon

                                                     Felt Tri Road Bike ; weight approx. 2.5 kg

I have finally managed to afford the basic triathalon bicycle, the brand is called the 'Felt' and it is made in Taiwan. The interest was stoked about 2 years ago when I had a pulled hamstring and I was contemplating taking the 3 discipline sport, which athletes have to swim, cycle and run. The distances vary from the mini-triathalon which has a 200 m swim in the sea,20km cycle and a 2 km run. For the sprint triathalon, it is 500 m swim, 40km cycle and a 10 km run.

I am motivated that one of my long time friends who has recently retired, (ie. made a lot of money while still young) is the champion in the Osim category of the mini-triathalon. Coupled with the fact that my elder son, Noel, wants to give this multi-discipline sport 'a try' has gotten me off the backburner so to speak. It has got everything to do with tie discipline, 'transitioning' (changing) from one medium to another, and using different sets of body parts. In short, it has more complete use of all the limbs than the marathon.

As my blog has always proposed 'seizing the day' I decided that now was as good a time as any and I plunged headlong into buying the starter bike for my son, so that we can share, and started planning a run-bike-swim schedule with a July race in mind.

I took the first ride today on the tri-bike and my impression was "Wow ! Great ! Why didn't I try this earlier ?'   Well, the answer is of course, firstly one needs to be able to afford the time and also invest in some serious money as the starter bike can set one back at least $2,000.

Anyway, the feeling for me is that, this is one race I will try at least for a couple or more times. Time is running fast away so I had better make the most of it.