exactly 12 days since i last posted here.

its been a week and a half and quite alot of things have happened over here.

Trip to western vietnam province

the lab staff invited us on friday and we agreed to go ( good photo ops)

we had to get up at like 4am and rush down to the university by 6am. ><

it was a long long long bus ride down to the province( ~1.5h ) and by all admissions, i was asleep half the time.

stopped for breakfast at some restaurant, for hu tieu ( basically just rice noodles with beef and pork, its good!) warmed the stomach up and woke me up lol

we saw this really huge luo han fish too (but its not for consumption)

anw, we got back into the bus(or rather minivan) and continued on to the next place.

the next place we went to was the river there. we went to this pier and hopped onto a boat

and the wind was really chilling (but refreshing) and the air was good(compared to the city)

anyways, we went to another small island off the main place by boat and we passed by some HUGE vietnam bridge. Apparently the bridge was named after a temple nearby and it was built just recently.

when we reached the island, it struck me.

" i think i've been here before!"

i think i might have because the stalls inside seemed the same; the coconut candy, the coconut carvers; ban trang making stall etc

i even saw a damn cute squirrel in a cage and tried to snap a picture, but being the genius i was, i snapped my lomo without taking off the lens cover, prolly resulting in a reallly BLACK picture

other interesting things included watching this traditional vietnamese music played while we were eating fruit

(honestly i was more interested in the fruit than the performance :x)

anyway, the honey tea made by LIVE (on the site) bees was really good. maybe i should have bought some to help my sore throat

oh and there was this python we took pictures with. don't know why people are so squeamish about snakes when pythons are really docile creatures feeding only like once a month?

i'll admit they are pretty cold to the touch (cold-blooded DUH) but when i put it around my neck, it felt more like a massage. you could actually feel the muscles rippling inside the snake and it actually coiled around my bag strap LOL

it was a good experience by any means.

by then it was nearing noon, and thus we were headed for the next activity.

we headed upstream to yet another island(i think; i'm pretty lost) where they had this restaurant.

instinctively, i though "oh yea, lunch time!" but it turned out to be a really messy affair

it was time for the "gameshow event"

**"MUD FISHING"**

by that it meant changing into traditional vietnamese fishermen garments and getting down and dirty in the river which had been drained slightly to make it shallower.

we PLOPPED into the mud and it felt really really "muddy" LOL( ok that was bad, it was a sticky feeling)

my feet were perpetually stuck to the bottom; it felt like quicksand

anyway, i almost got hold of the fish but but but it slipped off my hand.

turned out we had to use the bamboo baskets to trap and catch the fish LOL

after an hour of dirty fun, we had a rather respectable haul of fish

(i suspect they put them into the river for us to fish!)

after that, reality sunk in that we were slathered with mud and desperately needed cleaning

armed with a packet of soap( which was incidentally BLACKER than the mud) we headed to the washing area. most of the others went to this hose area to wash off.

never the most patient, ck and i went to the toilets we changed in earlier for washing

*won't go into the details here*

we came out clean and much quicker than the rest; so much so i could slack around and fiddle on my psp for awhile

then, it was LUNCH time!

it was a really fishy business as the table was spread with all the fish we had caught!

grilled, fried,steamed.

we ate the fish vietnamese style; wrapping fish meat with some rice noodles in rice skin (+vegetables of course)

then to my delight, PORK and RICE :D + a hotpot. the soup was pretty good!

fast-forwarding a few hours; i was a content sack of fish and carbs.

it was then time to head back onto the boat back to mainland.

coconut juice was served and i lapped it up within minutes.

songs were sung by the rest (including CK)

i couldn't sing then, it was so blisteringly cold that my nose had become like the houver dam.

it was better when we reached the pier and got back into the bus.

next on the list was the snake farm

took bout half an hour to get there and it was raining when we reached.

left my cap in the van and pulled my jacket over.

headed in and it was damn deserted; not like how i expected a snake farm to be like

(crowded and thronging with tourists and peeps)

oh well, there WERE snakes around the trees in cages and in some pits

the rest kept telling us to stay away from the pits as the snakes were dangerous, but i was feeling kinda rebellious, so i just skulked around on my own with my camera. ( the lomo doesn't zoom so its not easy)

pythons, cobras and a big black bear were some of the things seen.

oh and i saw a bird being caged that made me laugh

it was a.......

MYNA! (the bird i see everyday in singapore is being caged as an exhibition in vietnam)

LOL?

honestly it was pretty disappointing; the snake farm that is; since there was nothing really much to see and do..

oh well

headed back to the bus and scooted back to the city.

NOTE that it was around 530pm when we left, and the traffic anything but smooth.

it was utter chaos, with gridlocks at every corner.

i just chowed down some snacks and proceeded to find the most comfortable position possible;

TO SLEEP!

and when i returned from dreamland 2 hours later; i found myself still NOT in the city ><

the traffic jam was that bad! blurry eyed, i just propped myself up and watched a short comedy on the tv in the bus;

was about some handphone jokes

by the time we reached the uni, it was 8pm.

we were worried coz the bus service stops at 745pm on weekdays, but to our relief, it stops at 830 on weekends.

so we sped to the bus stop and waited...and waited...and waited

it was nearing 830 by the time the bus came and when i climbed aboard, it was a relief!

3,000 per ticket compared to the 50,000 of a taxi.

*reached home; plonked on bed; took a bath; complained about internet; sleep*

Women's Day in Vietnam

Completely forgotten about it, but when we reached the lab; thinking to do flow cytometry. we were greeted with a slew of people outside the main hall, apparently it was some kind of cooking competition and it consisted of different participants from the school's different faculties.

so we dumped our bags into the lab and went to look at the food on display( and for taste)

because i didn't bring my lomo, i had to use my hp camera to snap pics ><>