1st week back from Vietnam passed quickly since I was still in holiday mood and couldn't really pick up where I left off so quickly.
2nd week after returning has seen my stress rise back to pre-holiday levels.
3rd week after returning has seen my stress levels shooting through the roof when I realise that there are so many things yet to be done + more n more work load coming down from the top.
4th week?
Scary... ...
Just visited a customer that I have not seen for a few months, and was told that I have a lot more white hair than a few months back... signs of stress and aging...
Judgement day has been brought forward, or looking from another angle, brought backwards.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Back Home!
Oh my, 12 days in Vietnam really flew by very quickly.
Pretty good holiday on the overall.
I really love the northern part, Hanoi and Sapa, where the people are really very friendly and the landscape/buildings have much more flavour and character.
Halong Bay disappointed me a little, after reading so much hype about it before I went there. Perhaps the misty conditions did no justice to the place, but the tour guide was really atrocious.
Had my longest ever bus ride covering around 2000km on land over this holiday. I must say that their long journey open tour bus is wayyyyy much better than what we have running to KL and Trengganu from Golden Mile.
HCMC gave me a very bad first impression when dear and I arrived at 5.30am after an overnight bus trip. Touts were waiting outside our bus, trying to take us to the hotel of THEIR choice, so that they can earn the taxi fare plus commission from the hotel.
小插曲：
We managed to move out of the crowd quickly since our hotel was just 100m down the street.
However, the hotel door was closed when we reached as it was still very early, and we were trying to figure out how to get in, when a motorbike taxi uncle called out to us and pointed to our hotel (which I booked b4 hand). I pointed at the hotel door and he quickly went over to press the bell to signal to the hotel staff to open the doors.
As the rooms were not ready yet, we just left our backpacks with the hotel staff and proceeded to have a early walk about in the town. In the mean time, dear noticed that the uncle could not get a commission from the hotel as we had booked the rooms beforehand, then he turned his target to us.
Dear and I were trying to walk to the market, and this uncle kept following us on his bike on the pavement and shouting at us to give him 1 USD. We simply ignored him and kept walking, but he was persistent, and kept demanding that I give him 1 USD or 20000 Dong for his service of "pressing the bell". He even tried to block our way with his bike, but we then moved off in the other direction. After harassing us for 2 streets I was pretty pissed and started to talk back to him in English (obviously he don't understand a thing) as we walked on. He then lowered his demands to 10000VND, but I was still insistent that he should not receive anything from me since I did not take his taxi, and its not my problem that the hotel does not want to give him the commission. I later stared angrily at him and he finally gave up and left after following us for quite some distance.
That was akin to extortion, but I managed to win the moral battle, since the body language of that uncle was showing me that he did not dare to do anything to us, and it was at most a 1 to 1 situation, which I believe I can easily overpower him. Dear was scared stiff though. Maybe I should have gave him the money to close the issue, which we can easily afford, but I was too stubborn with my principles...
Well, the holiday is over, and I will be back to work tomorrow.
Time to start planning for judgement day...
Photos will come later after dear uploaded them all
Pretty good holiday on the overall.
I really love the northern part, Hanoi and Sapa, where the people are really very friendly and the landscape/buildings have much more flavour and character.
Halong Bay disappointed me a little, after reading so much hype about it before I went there. Perhaps the misty conditions did no justice to the place, but the tour guide was really atrocious.
Had my longest ever bus ride covering around 2000km on land over this holiday. I must say that their long journey open tour bus is wayyyyy much better than what we have running to KL and Trengganu from Golden Mile.
HCMC gave me a very bad first impression when dear and I arrived at 5.30am after an overnight bus trip. Touts were waiting outside our bus, trying to take us to the hotel of THEIR choice, so that they can earn the taxi fare plus commission from the hotel.
小插曲：
We managed to move out of the crowd quickly since our hotel was just 100m down the street.
However, the hotel door was closed when we reached as it was still very early, and we were trying to figure out how to get in, when a motorbike taxi uncle called out to us and pointed to our hotel (which I booked b4 hand). I pointed at the hotel door and he quickly went over to press the bell to signal to the hotel staff to open the doors.
As the rooms were not ready yet, we just left our backpacks with the hotel staff and proceeded to have a early walk about in the town. In the mean time, dear noticed that the uncle could not get a commission from the hotel as we had booked the rooms beforehand, then he turned his target to us.
Dear and I were trying to walk to the market, and this uncle kept following us on his bike on the pavement and shouting at us to give him 1 USD. We simply ignored him and kept walking, but he was persistent, and kept demanding that I give him 1 USD or 20000 Dong for his service of "pressing the bell". He even tried to block our way with his bike, but we then moved off in the other direction. After harassing us for 2 streets I was pretty pissed and started to talk back to him in English (obviously he don't understand a thing) as we walked on. He then lowered his demands to 10000VND, but I was still insistent that he should not receive anything from me since I did not take his taxi, and its not my problem that the hotel does not want to give him the commission. I later stared angrily at him and he finally gave up and left after following us for quite some distance.
That was akin to extortion, but I managed to win the moral battle, since the body language of that uncle was showing me that he did not dare to do anything to us, and it was at most a 1 to 1 situation, which I believe I can easily overpower him. Dear was scared stiff though. Maybe I should have gave him the money to close the issue, which we can easily afford, but I was too stubborn with my principles...
Well, the holiday is over, and I will be back to work tomorrow.
Time to start planning for judgement day...
Photos will come later after dear uploaded them all