…….. care for some VIRAL WARTS, anyone?????

 You can find them in your face, your hands & feet, your back and even down south where the sun doesn’t shine. They can spread. They’re unsightly – looking like cauliflowers or blisters or even moles. Well, these dermatological tumours are called……..  VIRAL WARTS  …… you might as well call them  ‘worry warts’ given the type of scare they can give you. 

I really wouldn’t have paid much attention to it, if not for an infection to the ‘mole’ on my mum’s right cheek, which caused the surrounding area to swell to the size of a tomato!  Panic stricken – The worst came to mind. Is it an abnormal facial mole? Is it a malignant growth? Aaargh….please don’t let it be melanoma or some sort of skin cancer.

After an agonising weekend wait, we managed to secure an appointment with a dermatologist Dr. Allan Yee (Hope Skin & Laser Centre) in Gleneagles on a Tuesday morning. Dr. Yee came highly recommended from a good friend JC who works at the hospital….  

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at  the Doctor’s Clinic Suite….. no long queues (like in SJMC), the nursing & reception staff at the clinic were friendly & accommodating & the clinic had a happy feel to it. Why do I say that? Well, a large portion of patients were young & good looking…. so I suspect they were mainly there for cosmetic purposes….. beauty & appearance being the priority.

We were lucky, since the other patients had not arrived yet, the nurse was kind enough to slot us in to see the doctor during this vacuum period & we managed to see the doctor 45 mins before our appointment time!

Armed with the usual apprehension when you go in to see a doctor, all three of us, young & old trooped in! My mum immediately launched into a mini speech on ‘My Theory of How My Mole’s been growing over the years!’ & with my DAD in the background grunting his approvals & disaprovals of her theories….. it’d actually make a good comedy if the situation was not so grave!

Dr. Yee, with an amused look on his face proceeded to shine a light on my mom’s face ……… & declared confidently “Oh, they’re not moles. They’re WARTS!”. Nothing to it. We just need to scrape it off.” OK, now that was real anticlimatic to all the scares that were building in our minds over the past 36 hours prior to the appointment …so we pressed on….. “Oh -but the swelling, WHY doctor?!”…..He went on to explain patiently, “It’s normal, a lot of things could trigger a trauma to warts. Given its raised surface, you can hurt it while washing your face, or even when you are wiping it with a towel…….”

***(So now picture a balloon filled with this gas called ‘PARANOIA’ …..pricked with a needle & fizzling up & down the doctor’s room…)***

Phew! A sigh of relief from all quarters. So what happens next? The doctor said…”OH, I can perform the procedure today!”.  Before we had time to absorb the statement, he was already asking the nurse to prep my mum for a “CURRETAGE & CAUTERY“ procedure!!!!!! Huh???  Greek – All  Greek to me & my DAD ….. Feeling dumb, I asked, “Doctor, what’s that?” to which he replied, “Oh it’s a very simple procedure. We scrape the warts off (hence the word ‘curretage’) & then we burn the remaining surface tissue (cauterise)” …I acknowledged this new found knowledge with an “O.I.C!”  (I read later that the cautery procedure is done to burn away any invasive cells leftover from the warts on the surface of the skin & to curb the bleeding somewhat…) 

So,  the sequence of events went pretty much like this

• 11.15 am. We went in for the appointment.
• 11.20 am. Mum was led off for ‘prep’.
• 11.45 am. Her face was lathered with painkiller cream. (Who would’ve thought things are so simple, no painful jabs, no local anesthetic either….interesting)
• 12.45 pm. She was led to the treatment room. & the door closed…. (my DAD managed to steal a glimpse inside & he said the Doc’s head was all geared up in an ASTRONAUT helmet…for the procedure. SHUCKS…. I missed that. Should have brought a camera!   
• 1.00 pm. Procedure done. My mum had 5 warts -big & small,  removed in 15 mins.

“Did it hurt?” I asked. My mum said….”Yeah, a bit!” She’s a tough gal. My dad said…”I’m SURE it hurt, look at how RED the wounds are…..!!!!” Hmmmph….talk about rubbing it in….but that’s how our parents show their love to each other….really!

By 1.30, we were done with the formalities & after a trip to the pharmacy, we were on our way to the carpark. We were poorer by RM620 but boy were we 3 Happy Troopers! …….& one of us with the potential to look really great during the Chinese New Year, wart free & all! The doc assured mum that she would be so satisfied with the results that she would return to him for more skin treatments to look beautiful! Ahahaha…. we shall see, we shall see!    

So, …care for some VIRAL WARTS, anyone?

NONE FOR ME THANK YOU!!!! 

P.S. Thanks Doctor Allan Yee, for a quick consultation & an efficient job done. Ever grateful to you & your ever friendly staff.

P.P.S If any one is interested in seeing him, he holds a clinic in Gleneagles Hospital, Jalan Ampang, KL. He is at Suite 618. Phone no. 03-42552930.

P.P.P.S. Thanks to JC for her recommendation too. Much appreciated.

….. Cloverfield questions, fielded!

     …………the lights came on, the credits started rolling …. & people were still glued to their seats, their minds probably reeling from the lack of closure & unanswered questions in the film’s ending …… one guy commented loudly “Apalah…., CERITA BODOH!”………..and that, ladies & gentlemen, was how most Malaysians perceived the movie “CLOVERFIELD”  when Fat Dragon & I watched it last Saturday night at the cinemas …….

Reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project film making genre, this movie was produced by J.J. Adams directed by Matt Reeves and written by Drew Goddard . It tells the story of 5 New Yorkers in Manhattan on the night the city comes under siege from a monster! 

The shaky handycam effect made the film very realistic! All the scenes are supposed to come from the camera of Hud, who was assigned by a group of friends to document a party held for Rob, his best friend, who has been promoted and is going away. He then documents the chaos that ensues following the monster’s trail of rampage. The audience never gets a full picture of what’s happening, just snippets – You see a tail here, a hand there. Explosion here, Explosion there & bam…..suddenly, the Statue of Liberty’s decapitated head  lands in front of a crowd of panicky but curious New Yorkers in the movie.  There’s no hero out there to save the city, no hero to save the world!  All you get is a ground zero experience, just as if you’re in the thick of the action with the 5 friends. 

The producers set out to put the audience in the dark with unanswered questions for dramatic effect ….. but it seems to have gotten the opposite effect with some people. Perhaps you will appreciate the movie more after these questions have been answered…????

1. CLOVERFIELD – where does the title come from? Is it the name of the monster…the name of a place?

No, it’s not the name of the monster or even a place. “Cloverfield” is the case name given by the US GOVT for an incident recorded from an amateur operated handy camera involving an unidentified fictional monster which appears in New York City.  The handycam was found in Central Park, under the rubble of a bridge blown apart in an attempt to kill the monster creature. The fate of its owners is obvious.

2. What is the creature exactly? A giant lizard, like Godzilla? …or a giant ape like King Kong?

Neither. The directors wanted no copycat version of the destructive Godzilla or the ‘adorable’ King Kong. Cloverfield’s creature has two giant gorrila like feet at the front, which it uses to walk. It posesses a giant raptor like head which has two inflating pink sacks on either side. Its skin is brown & coarse while the sacks on the side of its head are pink – transluscent & veiny when inflated. (I thought the veiny inflating sacks makes the creature look real & scary…)

3. How on earth did the monster materialise? From space, from the sea, where?

The creature is a ‘baby’ who has been underwater for thousands of years & comes out of the sea.  It is supposed to be an immature/ new born creature suffering from separation anxiety. It is comparable to real life elephants who get frightened & lash out at the circus. The creature finds itself on land (a place out of its element), it’s feeling lost & scared, so it goes on rampage. Pay attention to its eyes….. the addition of white in the creature’s eyes is done deliberately to look similar to an animal like a horse being spooked!

4.  Why is this not explained in the movie?

Well, in Malaysia we were not exposed to the viral marketing campaign launched before the film to mount curiosity on the film. In fact, the trailer (check the link out) built up the suspense to the movie by giving only the date of release Jan 18 for the film in the US. No title, nothing! As part of the run up prior to the release date, the web site promoting the movie (1-18-08.com) sent out “sonar pictures” of something moving underwater towards Manhattan to fans. So if we were apart of all these activites, we would’ve guessed the creature came from the sea. However, the movie gives the first hint of the monster in the form of a huge, earth shattering explosion followed by a news report about a ship blown to bits! You sort of guess, the carnage starts from the sea.

5. What are the crab like dog sized creatures falling off of him?

Just like whales at sea, this sea monster also carried parasites on his body & these are the very creatures that fall off the Clover field monster’s body. Ingeniously brilliant idea I say!

6. What happens when you get bitten by the crab like parasites?

No, you do not have aliens growing inside your body & exploding out of your chest. The parasites apparently carry a lethal pathogen which infects the body & causes symptoms like fainting, bleeding from eyes & ends up rupturing your blood vessels as depicted in the movie by the character Marlena Diamond’s death.

7. Why were these crab like creatures introduced in the movie?

Well, there was no plausible way of putting the giant monster head on with the characters in the movie & so the parasites were created for this purpose. The crab like parasites were the movie’s scare factor, creating a far more dramatic effect on the audience than the monster itself!

8. Didn’t they send bombers out to kill the creature?

It obviously is very resistant to projectile weaponry. Shells from M-1 Abrams, AT4 rockets, missiles from F/A-18’s, MLRS and Mk82 boms from a B-2 Bomer failed to create any mortal injury to the creature. In fact, it could even survive the US military’s “Mother of All Bombs”. Well, after all, movie makers would never risk killing off the opportunity of a sequel, would they?

9. Was it really filmed through a handycam?

The producers used the CineAlta F23 high-definition video camera to film nearly all of the New York exterior scenes. The film was shot and edited in a cinéma vérité style, to look like it was filmed with one hand-held camera, including jump cuts similar to ones found in home movies.  Director Matt Reeves described the presentation, “We wanted this to be as if someone found a Handicam, took out the tape and put it in the player to watch it. What you’re watching is a home movie that then turns into something else.”

10. Was it a low budget movie?

Would you call US30m, low budget?…… Not really. But the producers were out to make it look like it was a US150m film. Ummm…. no way Jose, we the audience don’t get conned so easily!

11. Well, if M’sians perceived it as a ‘cerita bodoh’, how did it do in the U.S.?

It was a hit. It grossed US46million worth of box office takings during opening weekend alone in the US & Canada. Look, if it didn’t do well, Hasbro wouldn’t have begun accepting orders for a 14 inch collectible toy figure of the monster and its parasites to be shipped to fans by September 30, 2008! (That probably explains why you can hardly find a decent picture of the Cloverfield monster & parasite on the net. It’s probably to protect it from piracy).

Some critics have labled it an ‘efficiently gripping sci fi/ horror romp’ while others called it a “… Blair Witch Reject” but on average it garnered about 64% positive ratings.

There’s really no way of judging the movie other than seeing it for yourself.  I suggest you immerse yourself into the film as if you’re really on GROUND ZERO….just as if you’re part of the group running around in the film with the monster & its parasites just behind your back……try that for effect! BTW, the movie comes with a warning…..  SO WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK!

It’s a RATTY year ahead………..!

It never ceases to amaze me how different the perceptions of the East & the West are……& in this case, the stark contrast in the interpretation of the RAT ……..

According to the Chinese Zodiac, this is the Year of the Rat (after Feb 7, 2008). Surprisingly, this small animal is associated with hard work, courage, enterprise & even romance. In fact, ancient Chinese would not be caught dead going on board a ship or living in a town that was devoid of rats! It was considered a very bad omen … (common logic, I say – since nature has its own way of sensing catastrophes or troubles).  Given that the RAT is the first animal in a cycle of 12 Zodiac Animals, it also signifies new opportunities & a period of renewal for the Chinese.

In the West however, the RAT is perceived in a rather different manner. Just flip into any dictionary (in my case Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language) & you might find the RAT is portrayed in a less than complimentary light……

In slang, if you called someone “You RAT!” – you could be referring to him / her as a scoundrel; or even an informer depending on what context you choose. Worse still, he could be someone who betrayed you, your party or your associates especially in times of trouble.  Alternately, you could use it as a verb to colour your speech  i.e. “He ratted on you!” meaning he squealed on you or he betrayed you or use it as an exclamation “Oh, RATS!” to express a certain degree of displeasure….  

….Needless to say, when you “smell  a rat….” you really mean to say you suspect or surmise a treachery….  And in this modern age that we are said to be so caught up in a “rat race” chasing riches & wealth that it’d come as no surprise if you end up ‘ratty’ i.e. irritable or snappish!  …….  

Clearly, the ‘rat’ is not quite so glorified in the West as it is in the East……. after all, the Western Zodiac does not even have room for the “long tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger”!  Rats even end up getting lured to the river to be killed in fairy tales i.e. the Pied Piper & we haven’t even started to touch on the role of the rat in diseases such as the Plague.

But, the East might have its way after all, as Hollywood’s been promoting a cutesy image for the RAT with the onset of films like Ratatouille in which the ‘leading’ rat is portrayed to be adorable, smart & possessing a talent for cooking it seems. Not forgetting Little Stuart & MICKEY too …. but then again, they’re MICE  … aren’t they? Did you also know that in Russia there is a surge in RAT sales for pet shops there? All thanks to the popularity of Chinese Astrology amongst some Russians. That’s all good, as long as these people don’t throw the rats out in the streets after the novelty wears off. Or else….you might just end up having a huge RATTY problem. …… after all the RAT represents fertility to the Orientals too, no? Well, at least the PEST CONTROL people will come out winners in this!

HAPPY RAT YEAR everyone!!!!!

Prayer for a loved one ….

Weird morning…… Received bad news with regards to a close member of the family’s health….

I will not pretend to understand what sort of feelings a person goes through at times like these. I will not even profess to understand the feeling of helplessness, the anger, the stress & the pain …………of a person who finds out that he/she suffers from the big C.  Different people have different reactions. Some want to be surrounded by loved ones. Some want to be left alone.  Even the strongest people can crumble at times like these. Who knows what kind of emotional storm is brewing in their minds & the inevitable ‘Why me?’ question….. the only thing left for loved ones to do is to offer emotional support & to offer them a positive outlook towards the situation. That’s the best thing I can think of at this point of time.  

Mortality & illness. It’s nature’s way of reminding us how fragile life is. How vulnerable we are as human beings…….

I am reading this book now about problems in life …. it says, life’s filled with walls…either we climb it or we build a door to get past it. The only time when a person has no problems is when he/ she is dead. So the best way to deal with adversities in life is to suck it up & learn to handle the problem. The book teaches you that problems are nature’s way of hauling you out of your comfort zone to help you grow strong as a person. ……..

Please pray for LYL, my sis in law who has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I pray that she will come out this challenge in life a winner…. & this prayer is my little way of offering my energy to help her build a door past life’s wall.  

Good Morning Vietnam! It’s X’mas at the DMZ…….

 Day 4 – Dec 25

…… Good morning Vietnam – It’s X’mas. Up at 5.30 am to do  the DMZ tour …. boy, was it a mistake!!!!!!

The Demilitarized Zone(DMZ) is an area 5 km on either side of the Ben Hai River in Central Vietnam. It is actually a demarcation zone from 1954 to 1975 between South Vietnam & North Vietnam. When Vietnam was engulfed in the American War (as they call it), central Vietnam was the scene of the heaviest fighting around the DMZ. Here the North Vietnamese sought to infiltrate the south along the Ho Chi Minh Trail while American forces and the South Vietnamese allies tried their best to disrupt supplies. Thousands of lives were lost in bloody battles for strategic hills & valleys. 

Since the DMZ is 2 1/2 hours from Hue where we were based then, we decided to do a bus tour. Armed with high expectations, we booked ourselves a full day tour: 6 am to 5pm … so many places of interest to go, so many things to do,……ummmm that is  if only we had the time to do so … (Note the allocated times given by our tour operators for the sights visited) 

• Khe Sanh – a military base high up in hill country (20 min)
• Rock Pile, which was essentially a hill flattened to accommodate the landing of helicopters (5 min photostop)
• Ho Chi Minh trail – the North Vietnamese tried to infiltrate the South along this trail (see from bus only)
• Dakrong Bridge across the Ben Hai river (10 min photostop) 
• Vinh Moc Tunnels which was a honeycomb of tunnels, rooms, meeting points. Larger than the Cu Chi tunnels, near Ho Chi Minh City, these were civilian tunnels.  The location of these Tunnels are phenomenal….  some parts exit into the most beautiful coastline of beach and pine trees where you can hang out & soak in the surroundings!!!! –   (a ‘generous’ 45 mins)

Now check this out. “Full Day Tour : 6 am to 5pm.” That’s 11 hours. It doesn’t take a maths genius to figure this out, the sights hardly took up 2 hours (i.e. 20% of the tour). So, technically most of the day or a major part of the tour was spent picking people up from hotels, traveling in the bus, making 3 obligatory stops at the same restaurant which serves less than mediocre food, dropping people off at their hotels etc at the end of the day…

How exciting!! Hmmmph! If they had cut down on those stupid restaurant stops, centralise the pick up points, we would’ve saved valuable time for sightseeing no?

There’s more. The bus driver seemed bent on a vicious vendetta to punish the very passengers responsible for getting him up early on a wet & cold X’mas morning. How?!  You might ask. Simple. Switch off the air conditioning half the time.  Make sure the windows of the bus are fixed panels of glass that cannot be opened or shut. Picture 24 souls breathing into the same confined space. Green house effect! Ouila – you’ve got yourself a busload of sleepy, oxygen deprived passengers who, in between comatose states, have to execute ‘car wash’ movements with their hands to clean the misty windows for a peep outside .  Mission accomplished.

The tour guide was really no better coz she was a burnt out middle aged woman in the business for 13 years. Her narrative was fractured. Her historical facts unclear. Her voice monotonous. Her lack of enthusiasm was infectious. So now add  grumpy & bored to describe the already sleepy, oxygen deprived load of passengers! 

X’mas 2007 is turning out to be a memorable day indeed, for the wrong reasons!  

If its any consolation, we did witness a very interesting cultural event during our obligatory stop for lunch at the restaurant they chose! Purely incidental. A wedding lunch to be exact. What boggles me is the scene after the lunch! The place looked like a bomb hit it, seriously. Bones strewn all over the floor, bottles of beer scattered all over, all well placed to engage you in an obstacle course challenge … tissues, food bits,  spilt liquids, you name it was thrown all over ….. Hmmmm….. perhaps there was an inter table competition – “Who can throw more debris on the floor???” Maybe it was prosperity thing…the more you throw the more luck you have?! Beats me… When we stopped by that very restaurant for the 3rd time (sigh…) that afternoon on the way back to drop the guide off & to pick up a waitress hitching a ride), we saw the cleaning crew engaged in the task of hosing  & scrubbing down the dining area literally, with plastic brooms to clean it! Explosive.  

And with that scene overhanging in our minds, we took the slow cooker journey back to Hue, with memories for the wrong things….we probably lost some grey cells too as a result of oxygen deprivation ………

Needless to say, the bus driver & tour guide received NO TIPS from anyone.  Are you surprised?

P.S. If you want to do the DMZ thing…here’s our two cents worth.

You should try booking a motor cycle tour from Dong Ha, rather than Hue which is nearer. It’s gonna cost you but it sure beats taking a tour bus. This way you can enjoy the journey & the destination combined since the places of interest are scattered. Actually you can split the journey into two parts. First along Highway 1 and later along Highway 9.

When you go along Highway 1 you would be enroute to the Rock Pile, Dakrong Bridge & Ho Chi Minh trail. Here you will be traveling alongside the Ben Hai river & you will be able to see some tribal villages along the road. This is followed by an uphill climb to the Khe Sanh Army Base.  This part of the journey commands quite a spectacular view especially after the bridge crossing over the Ben Hai River. Imagine the wind beating against your face as you climb up in your bike amidst these surroundings. Sure beats squinting through a tour bus window eh?  

Later when you switch directions to Highway 9 in order to access the Vinh Moc tunnels, you will feel like you’re traveling in the middle of an ocean of paddy fields. No kidding. They are vast!  Do allocate a whole afternoon for Vinh Moc – not 45 mins. It’s worth exploring the pine treed grounds nearby the tunnels & check out some of the exits which lead to the beaches outside!

 Yup, we think a motorbike tour would do the DMZ more justice! Never mind…next time!!!!!   

To be cont’d………..

Of Little Red Riding Hoods & Big Bad Wolves….

 Have you ever wondered when you were a kid, why “Little Red Riding Hood” was never called “Riding Red Little Hood”? Why the “Big Bad Wolf” was never called “Bad Big Wolf”………………….??????

 

Well there’s a reason to this!  ……….Words like ‘little’, ‘red’, ‘riding’, ‘big’, ‘bad’ are all adjectives. Meaning, they are descriptive words that give you more information about what hood the girl was wearing & what type of wolf  was out to get her in the story……

Did you know that when you use multiple adjectives together, they really are not put together randomly but that they come in a particular order as prescribed by  grammatical rules in the English Language…..?

Let’s look at the different categories of adjectives:

• cool, beautiful, ugly, etc = Opinion
• large, small, tiny, hug, etc = Size
• new, old, etc = Age
• red, blue, green, etc = Colour
• Italian, American, English, etc = Nationality
• leather, synthetic, etc = Type

The rule of thumb is that an Opinion adjective comes first, followed by a Size adjective, Age adjective, Colour adjective, Nationality & then only the Type adjective. So to answer the earlier question about Little Red Riding Hood, that’s why its described in this particular order:

“LITTLE (size), RED (colour),  RIDING (type) HOOD“ 

&

“BIG (size), BAD (type) WOLF“

Do be careful though, some words like ‘good’ & ‘bad’ can be opinion adjectives or type adjectives depending on context i.e. ‘Big Bad Wolf (Bad = here is Type hence it comes last) vs. Good Old Days (Good = Opinion, hence it comes first)

To help you remember the order, think of the first letters of the types of adjectives as a new massage chair brand like OSIM or OGAWA – it would be named OSACONT! So if you have a new bag, you would describe it as follows in perfect OSACONT order & not any other way 

I’ve got a cool, large, new, red, Italian, leather bag

COOL, DON’T YOU AGREE?

 

Ugly Malaysians rear their head…..!

 I witnessed an ugly scene last Saturday – Jan 5 at about 9 pm. Fat Dragon & I were at the Pavilion GSC Cinema to catch Nicholas Cage’s National Treasure. We had a great time at the movies but the experience was marred by seeing Ugly Malaysians rearing their heads at the parking lot….

It all started with a system fault for the auto pay machines at the Pavilion’s carpark. As we inserted our parking cards, the machine rejected our cards & glared at us with a big red screen! We tried paying at other machines but to no avail… I guess the machines had only gone down a short time before coz a crowd had not built up around the machines yet.

Fat Dragon then drove me to another section of the parking lot. While he waited in the car, I went over to try paying at one of the machines there. No luck. A parking personnel who was working on one of the machines then directed me to the parking management office accordingly. This was fortunately close to where I was at & I quick stepped my way there as a big group was also moving towards that direction…

Fortunately I was 5th in the queue…. but then again I waited about half an hour before I could pay. Only one poor soul was assigned to collect money there & he had to calculate the parking fee manually from the information on the bar code. Then he had to write & issue the receipts …… To make matters worse, there was a lady who lost her parking ticket thereby slowing down the process further….. The crowd built up to at least 40 – 50 people in time…..

Well that’s when the drama began… I started hearing people scolding…. & the poor soul handling the tickets who was joined by another colleague suffered the following verbal abuse silently, from the angry crowd:

• “What is this man??….. MANUAL calculation only ah…. dunno whether  know how to count or not?!”
• “Macam tahi-lah …. this is supposed to be a 5 star Shopping Mall?”
• “You should give us FREE PARKING-lah”
• “Open up the gates lah & let us through… its YOUR SYSTEM that is down …. not our fault”
• “What – you cannot make decision one ah? You got no mouth one ah…. cannot talk ah?” 

The above excerpts were just the beginning I suppose but I did not stick around to hear more. After paying, I quickly reunited with Fat Dragon only to join the car queue which built up towards the exit at B1. It was 9.45pm by the time we hit Jalan Bukit Bintang.

I know this was a very frustrating situation for the people queueing. But then again think about it…. the guy collecting money is just following instructions.  The management was at fault for not posting someone with authority in the line of fire & it was not fair to take it out on the guy who had the misfortune of being assigned this task.  As if all this verbal abuse is going to help the situation. In my opinion, it’d probably make the poor guy more nervous thereby slowing down the paying process further. Besides, if the people in the queue had been more observant… the gates had ALREADY opened up & there was someone collecting money at the gates!!!!!! Talk less & open up your eyes for God’s sake. Don’t hurl your abuse at some poor soul who is just a salaried worker. If you wanted to express your discontent…WRITE to the PAPERS or something. 

I do not blame people for being angry & frustrated but being apart of a social network, we have to remember that civility & basic courtesy should not be lost as we get caught up with urbanisation. Yes, we live in a world of free expression. Complaining is one thing but I disagree if we resort to bullying tactics & to down trod on people who some might think of as ‘unimportant’ beings! Don’t forget, at the end of the day, we are all equals when we get returned to our CREATOR one day.  

STOP BEING UGLY MALAYSIANS.

Historic Hue ….. !

 Day 2 – Dec 24 – Hue

………………..a day visiting a church , the Citadel & X’mas eve by the Perfume River

We arrived in Hue at 8.45am in the morning at the train station….. no hassle there! And a car was already waiting for us to pick us up to Binh Duonh III Hotel! It was FREE OF CHARGE mind you! Talk about service! We only called to book a room the day before & they offered to pick us up from the train station when we asked how far the hotel was from the station.  Thanks Lonely Planet for the recommendation! (FYI: The room cost us US16 & it came with a bathtub, hot water, cable, double bed, balcony with a view & a desktop equipped with unlimited internet service. Location was also centralised! Thumbs up there!)

On the way to the hotel, we managed to catch a brief glimpse of the town…. there was already a hustle and bustle going on, good roads & then lo & behold the river came into view. Perfume River they call it and the town straddles on either side of the river. Well…. perfume or not, there was thankfully no smell coming out of it! You could see tug boats, tourist boats already doing their rounds up the river ferrying people to the sights along the river. We couldn’t wait to check in, get cleaned up & get GOING!

But first we had travel arrangements to make… i.e. buy the plane tickets from our last stop in Central Vietnam back to Hanoi…wouldn’t want to be stranded as we needed to travel to Bangkok from there!)….& wouldn’t you know it…the Vietnamese Airlines office was just a few streets away. See what I mean by convenient location?

Armed with a photostated map supplied by the hotel, we then set off on a walking tour. It was high noon & hot – 28 maybe 29 ° C! 

Fat Dragon recommended a walk to an old church nearby whose building dates back to the colonial days! What a wondrous building it was. The outward facade looked so European as any other church would but then it had a surprise in store for us….. I noticed that some parts of the roof had bamboo-like tiles looking oddly like the ones you see  in temples! Talk about fusion in architecture.

…

……………..Can you see the Chinese temple looking roof structure at the bottom left corner of the thumbnail pic?

After feasting our eyes on this quaint oddity, we proceeded to head towards the river. We walked and we walked and we walked in search of the bridge that would bring us across the river to the old city which housed the moated Citadel! Suddenly it dawned on us that Hue was a really large city after all so we had a long walk in store for us! The thing about doing a walking tour is… you could take your time…soak in the sights & sounds…stop & take a photo whenever you see something interesting… Yes, of course you have to bear the constant harassment of the trishaw peddlars etc but as Asians you only get HALF the hassle compared to the Whites, so its not too bad! 

When we eventually arrived at one of the side gates of the Citadel which was built in 1804, we were redirected to the Ngo Mon Gate which was the principal entrance of the Imperial Enclosure. We circumvented part of the 10km moat & was greeted with a magnificent sight. The Ngo Mon Gate faces a formidable flag tower & on top of the gate lies the Ngu Phung …. a stage like structure made of marble where the emperor used to stand in appearance to the public.

We entered the gate into a central passageway which is actually a bridge to a pond which was teeming with fish.  When in season, the pond is apparently filled with lotus flowers but we didn’t see any of that. The weather had cooled & a breeze was blowing. A sense of peace and serenity surrounded me. More so because motorcycles & trishaws are not allowed into the main Citadel area hence there was a  welcome reprieve from the constant whir of the motors & beeping of horns ubiquitous in any Vietnamese city. Perfect.

I confess, I’m not much into historical sites but I am now a convert. As the Citadel was an imperial site chosen by Emperor Gia Long’s geomancers, it really does give you the impression that its got great feng shui.  The grounds of the complex are huge so you don’t really feel the crowd although there is a constant flow of people visiting. 

The complex houses the Thai Hoa Palace, the Halls of the Mandarins, the Nine Dynastic Urns, the Emperor’s Reading room, the Queen Mother’s residence, the concubines residence which are all laid amidst a maze of lanes, ponds and gardens! It was endless…….. we spent a whole afternoon there!!!!

That night, when we dined at a restaurant by the Perfume River, right next to the bridge we had walked across earlier to the Citadel, we were brought back to the future. A huge X’mas tree made of Heineken bottles was lit up at a square nearby, party revellers were out in full force. Motorcycles everywhere! Cameras flashing, music blasting…. against the backdrop of the bridge which was illuminated in a technicolor of lights…… and a divine X’mas eve it was!!!!!

……. to be cont’d

A whirlwind Central Vietnam, Thailand trip to end 2007…!!!!

Fat Dragon & I are notorious for making last minute travel decisions & this was no exception. We decided at the last minute that we wanted to do a Central Vietnam & Thailand trip & BAM  ……. the necessary leave was taken off work & we set off on our 9 day adventure! Armed with only our back packs & plane tickets from KL-Hanoi on Dec 23 and Bangkok-KL on Dec 31… we set off on our journey. Talk about lack of planning. We had a rough inkling of our route in between but there were NO pre-bookings of accommodation, NO pre-booking for bus, train or plane travel in between … nothing! That is a dangerous thing when you travel during the peak holiday season what with the X’mas & the New Year holidays! So I was a little apprehensive but Fat Dragon’s drive & excitement fueled me & WHAT a GREAT trip it turned out to be…………..!!!!

CENTRAL VIETNAM LEG – Dec 23 to 28

  DAY 1 – Dec 23. KL- Hanoi 

………. a day spent people watching in Hanoi before we embarked on a train journey to Hue!

We flew from KL to Hanoi on an early morn flight which took us to Hanoi by 9.15 am in the morning (Hanoi time – one hour behind local M’sian time). We were out of the airport by 10am and we rushed to the train station to buy tickets to Hue in Central Vietnam. It was to be a 13 hour train journey so we decided to travel at night & save on accommodation.  When we got there, we were pleasantly surprised. No queue. No touts. We were summoned by a ticketing officer & were served immediately.  We settled for soft seat tickets instead of the sleepers coz we found that they crammed 6 beds (not 4) into one compartment. Now that’s gonna be one hell of a squeeze, especially if the compartment is full of Mat Salleh backpackers! Anyway, that was secondary! Important thing was, we GOT our tickets!!!! Hurray.

But with only 2 hours of sleep the night before due to an unplanned night out with friends…. we were supposed to wander the streets from 12 pm to 7 pm (in other words, do the ‘zombie thing’). Wow … what a formidable task indeed!  But we all know, when it’s a holiday, no matter how tired you are … there’s always this extra energy reserve that’s packed with adrenaline to keep you going….

The weather was a in a cool region of , ‘give or take’,  20 ° C & the delicious smell wafting out of a restaurant selling Pho (Vietnamese noodle) immediately woke us up! Our noses led us to this busy little restaurant which was serving up delicious looking bowls of noodles with soup, chicken & whatever else that was swimming in the soup….With a smattering of body language & finger pointing we ended up ‘over ordering’ (as usual) two bowls of noodles & a giant sized plate of boiled chicked. We gorged  ourselves full.  FYI, we still don’t know what that ‘whatever else in the soup’ was…. …it was crunchy & rubbery at the same time…. probably an entrail of some kind. Tasted pretty good really but then not knowing what it was kind of hindered the appetite a bit… Nevertheless Fat Dragon polished it all off with gusto “in the name of a holiday”, you see! 

             Yumm………!!!

The rest of the day was spent sightseeing & people watching at the West Lake by the Old Quarters. We had ice cream despite the cold & Vietnamese coffee. 

From our wanderings, we observed some changes from the last time we visited Hanoi in Nov 2006. The motor cyclists were all wearing helmets!!!! What an uncommon sight indeed. Before we could see ladies rushing past with their long shiny hair blowing in the wind. Well no more of that. Due to the high accident rate amongst motorcyclists in Vietnam, it is now mandatory to wear helmets & the citizens have abided by the rule this time (apparently earlier attempts failed). They must be imposing a heavy fine this time. A little of the old charm has somehow disappeared but nevertheless, its a good thing. Safety comes first!

          ………  How cute is that?

Given that it was the X’mas & ‘winter’ season in Hanoi, it was  fun seeing people all dressed up in furry coats, knee high boots, hooded coats, ‘Santa’ outfits – you name it! Children were wearing helmets adorned with cartoon figures, they were wearing knee high candy cane striped socks – see pic above. Such a fashion galore! 

By 6pm in the evening, after a full day of people watching, a wrong turn into the market place which put in a full frontal view of a roasted dog carcass & getting fleeced of some Vietnamese Dong by a tout acting as a helpful official assisting people to their platforms at the train station ……………., we managed to park our weary bodies into the seats allocated to us in the Hue-bound train which was scheduled to depart at 7pm ….. & DEPART AT 7PM IT DID – RIGHT ON SCHEDULE!!!!! A good start to our adventure indeed!

…. to be cont’d

P.S. TIPS ON TRAIN TRAVEL IN VIETNAM …………….        

Train travel in Vietnam is easy. Info on routes, schedules & fares  is readily available on the web.  Here is some additional info to add to your list based on our personal experience for the Hanoi-Hue train leg:

1. If you’re claustrophobic, don’t get the sleepers. 6 sleeper compartments are available, but if you were above average in size or tall, you would be in for a sleepless night especially if you get the top bunk…. imagine having the train roof plastered to your face while sleeping in your bunk!  Buy soft seat tickets (specify soft seats, or else you’ll get hard wooden seats).

2. The soft seats are reasonably comfortable & can be reclined. If you’re not a fussy sleeper, you should be able to catch a good night’s rest.

3. There are no vendors coming in from the outside to sell stuff so it is reasonably peaceful. However, the train does offer food & drinks. So occasionally, before 12 am, there’ll be a food cart coming by now and again. But none after 12 am. The activity only resumes after 6 am. You should be able to sleep during this break & you can actually turn off the lights closest to you as the switches are nearby your seats.

4. If you are armed with your own tea bags or 3-in-1 coffee packs, you can even get hot water from a dispenser at the end of each coach & make yourself a nice hot night cap before you turn in!

5. If you’re worried about the toilets, don’t! It’s reasonably clean. Each coach end is equipped with a sitting and a squatting toilet…whichever your preference is. Twin wash basins come in a SEPARATE compartment. How about that? So washing yourself before you sleep & when you wake up in the morning is very convenient indeed!

6. The best thing is these seats are occupied mainly by locals…what better way to immerse yourself in the local culture!!!!