One Month Had Passed....

When I looked at the clock I just realised it's already 3.42am Hanoi time here. Huh~ I was busy packing my luggage. From one big luggage and now, the luggage had giving birth to a small luggage. I'm now have to check in one big luggage and one smaller luggage. I prayed that the weight does not exceed or more than 60kg. Plsssss.... I've left some of my clothes and my kid's clothes in our Hanoi apartment.

One month had passed, oh my~~so fast the time flies. I still owed everyone of my Hanoi post, many Vietnamese food, things and I think what most attracted all of you is what I have bought in Hanoi within this one month stay here, right?? I'M SORRY!! Please allowed me some time to post it when I'm free. This few days in Hanoi, I've been very busy. Out of the house all the time, doing my last minute shopping & my hubby's friend are lining up to invite us to have dinner at their home.

I'll take the 7pm flight back to KL today. When I think of he is going to stay at the apartment alone, I'm so "kesian" him. I'm sure he will miss us too because we have move in the apartment together. Everyday when he came back from work, he will hear my kids laughing & shouting... the house feels so warm and noisy. Please take a good care of yourself when we are not around and don't drink too much ya!!

AMY

She can't sleep without it...

My 7 years old daughter can't sleep without hugging her soft toys. Not all kind of soft toys she will like but it must be of the same material with the soft toys I bought for her when she is still a baby. She have used to touch and hold the soft toys when sleeping.

I was packing so many things that I forgot to pack her "clown-clown" and when we reached KL, she is so sad that she told me she can't sleep without her "clown-clown". She will give name to each of her toys. So, she got all the different names on her different soft toys. But, the one she need when sleep time is this "clown-clown". No matter where she put it on daytime, she will find it and go to bed together.

When we reached Hanoi the first night, again she missed her "clown-clown" at night. I see her so addicted to her soft toys and I promised her that, I'll buy her a soft toy as her temporary sleeping companion while in Hanoi. She don't choose the outlook of the toys but she'll touch and feel the toys to see if it got the same material as her "clown-clown". After touch so many types of soft toys at the Big C's toys department she finally told me she wanted this not so cute looking Tortoise soft toy. It only cost me RM12 and I think the price is just reasonable, right??

She give her tortoise a KISS and she love her so much ^^
She call her "Quay Quay" such a lovely name ~hehe !!
Quay Quay pretend die ~hahaha!

Quay Quay tail look so funny ^ ^

She hugged Quay Quay day and night on our one month trip in Hanoi. I think her Quay Quay now got her special aroma already. I was joking with her, I asked her to just left her Quay Quay here in Hanoi to accompany her daddy. When daddy miss her, he can just hug and smell her Quay Quay ~lol!!! She just shout out loudly "NO" ..... "NO" ...... She is just cute!

AMY

RM4 Hair Wash,...anyone??

We went to a hair salon in Halong Bay to wash our hair. After asking the price for hair wash, it's only 20,000 dong = RM4. Very cheap right?? I decided to just let them wash my hair. But when the girl there ask me to lie down on their chair I was surprised to see the basin they use is just like the basin we use for our kitchen.

In front of the salon, I can see they use a big pot to boil water. They will mix the hot water with the cold water in a pail for rising our shampooed hair. Oh my, I'm sure we will never have this kind of salon in Malaysia.

They have the facial service there too but they wash our face just like washing our hair. Just use the water they mix and pour on our face after they've wash it with soap, our hair and face all wet...lol~ Anyway, I didn't have my facial wash there. Their haircut for a kid just RM4, damn cheap man. So, my son got his haircut +hair wash for only RM8 in total that day. My 2 daughters are very excited and wanted to join the crowd. They got their hair wash there and I think this will be a great experience for them.

Enjoying his hair wash ... hehe!

Water was pour to clean my son's shampooed hair...
Wash, wash, wash till it's clean ~
Snapped his face when he is almost finish his hair wash.
My 2 daughter so happy...

Pouring the water to clean the hair...

The hair was combed and blown dry ^.^

Interesting right?? Anywhere in Malaysia have this kind of hair salon???

AMY

I Love This....

You can see this little oranges selling at every corner of the road in Hanoi now. I love this oranges a lot. It taste very sweet and there is no seed in it. Very juicy too.

They sell it at very cheap price that you can't believe it. RM1 for 1KG ... ^^

AMY

Temple Visit

Talking about temples. I found that Hanoi have quite a lot of temples. Most of the Vietnamese people are buddhist and christian followers. For the Buddhist Vietnamese people, they pray like us using the joss stick too. They listened to the Buddhist-mantra just the like every buddhist around the world.

25-11-08 ~ After having the ice-cream, we visited this temple beside the Hanoi lake. According to Em Trang, this temple is one of the oldest temple in Hanoi and we just dropped by there to have a look and pray of course. Part of the walkway to the temple are still under renovation, they are planting some plant to beautify the place. Okay, I think just let the pictures do the talking ... here we go~

The entrance of the temple
Chua Tran Quoc - I don't know if this is the temple's name??
Beautiful Pagoda
Buddha's statue on the pagoda
Em Trang & my kids ...
Some decorative stuff on the roof of the temple

Bodhi Tree planted by Dr. Rajendra Prasad-former President of India & President of Ho Chi Minh on March 24, 1959

I took this picture under the Bodhi tree ^.^

The exit of the temple

Joss sticks was sold outside the temple...

Namo Amithaba!!

AMY

Buffet Lunch & Ice Cream

25-11-08 ~ After seeing my kids not really like some of the Vietnamese food here. Em Trang suggested that we just go to have the buffet lunch at World Buffet. This buffet restaurant are actually owned by a Korean owner.

We have many different choices there. Vietnamese food, Western food, Chinese food, Japanese food & of course the Korean food. They have many different cakes & salads too. My 2 princess doesn't eat much that day and it's really a waste to bring them there ~ lol..

They just eat some spagetti and cakes... They tried the fried rice there and told me the rice are not nice...ermm, and I dare not try it at all~

She loves the chocolate cakes and she have a lot of cakes that day...
I tried almost everything there...and this is my 3rd plate of food I ate that day~hohoho!
Em Trang & Xin Nin

("Em" in Vietnamese means when we address people who is younger than us. They like to add the word "oi" when they calling someone. So, it's "em oi")

Kai Xen playing the NDS games after finished his food ^.^

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Who Can Resist This???

After having our buffet lunch. We went to walk around and shop at their famous handmade stuff shops. It's one long street selling all the handmade bags, scarf and clothes. After spending sometime there, we end up having some ice-cream at a cafe beside the Hanoi lake. Since the weather are a bit warm that day, we really enjoyed our ice-cream so much.

Ice Cream Time . . .

4 of us and Kai Xen become our photographer~

Jou Nin posing with her ice-cream

This is how our ice-cream look like...it's the combination of choc + vanilla~

En Trang & Jou Nin ~omg...Jou Nin are so white (fair)*
My dimple girl - Xin Nin

Kai Xen enjoying his ice-cream ... ^ ^

The place we sit are just beside the lake and we can even see some uncles fishing there. It's really great to eat the ice-cream and enjoy the cool wind blowing on our face. One best things when eating ice-cream on winter time is, the ice-cream won't melt that fast~lol... We can just sit there and slowly enjoy the ice-cream. If in Malaysia, I think the ice-cream will become milk-shake ald.... blek!!!~ hehe

AMY

Chicken Rice For Dinner

This post was back dated on 24-11-08. We, my hubby & I was busy cleaning and taking care of our apartment when the people here sending the furniture we bought. What I hate most in Hanoi is, it's too much dust everywhere. Each time when I finished mopped the floor here, it'll dusty again when the people come to our apartment to fix something.

The air conditions over here are very polluted. Luckily, we take car and not motorbike. I can see most of the people here are wearing the mask when they riding their motorbike or bicycle. I got my kids the mask too. Will show u all the mask on the next post okay??

Since, everyone of us are busy. We are all just too lazy to go out and we end up having our dinner at home. On the way back home from his office, my hubby packed this one of the Hanoi famous chicken rice for us. I love their fried chicken, not too oily and it's yummy. I don't how they make this, the chicken are very well marinated, the skin very crispy and the chicken flesh are very juicy... one word to describe it!! YUMMY~

The fried chicken ~

At that time we still don't have a dining table, chair or sofa...
It comes with this vege
Lime, salt and the finely-ground peanuts ~ mixed and dipped the chicken with this. It taste sour and salty...most Vietnamese will dipped their meat dishes with it.
My son was forced to post for me with the chicken...we just have our dinner on the floor.

p/s: To all my friends and relative in Malaysia. My kids are doing well here too. I will update more!! Check it out ok!

AMY

Mama Diep's Grandson

Mama Diep (Van Anh's mom) bring her grandson to our apartment. He is Van Anh's nephew and they call him Chip. Aren't he just adorable??? I think he will grown up to be a very handsome boy too.

Mama Diep and Chip
Handsome boy! - dep trai
Xin Nin and Chip

Jou Nin and Chip

When my daughters see the baby, they just can't help to carry and hug him. They love to play with baby so much.

AMY

K-Link Hanoi

Upon arrived at K-Link office in Hanoi, we are greeted by these 3 lovely receptionist there. The picture below is Miss Trang of K-Link Hanoi. She is very pretty right??

Her smile so sweet... (co ay rat xinh dep)~ ^.^

Miss Khanh & Miss Dat~

Dat just got married recent and I want to congratulate her again here^.^

Miss Trang & my daughter.
Two pretty girls and my girls... ^.^

AMY

Awww...

My eldest princess draw me this using my laptop the other day at our apartment. She put the title of this drawing " My Mommy" That was so sweet of her right??? I love the dress she designed for me and that cute little shoes.

Thank you my dear!!

AMY

Boring . . .

I'm sitting in my hubby's office now doing nothing. I was so careless to leave my card reader at the apartment and now I can't upload the pictures from my camera's memory card. Maybe, I just post up an update without pictures. We are doing good here in Hanoi.

Finally we've settle all the stuff for my hubby's apartment. We got almost all the electrical appliances and the furniture we want. Shopping at here are quite tough for us as most of the Vietnamese people don't speak good english. Most of the time we have to bring along a friend that who can be our translator. I also found out that the things in Hanoi are not cheap as well, especially their food here.

Sometime we can end-up spending nearly RM200 for just one meal. They love the food with stronger taste. The Vietnamese people love to dipped their food with many different seasoning too. Another thing which I found it really amazing is, they can carry almost anything or everthing with just a motorbike. Can u I imagine they deliver our sofa sets with the motorbike?? I think this will not happened in Malaysia.

Actually I really have a lot of things to share here. Apart from the great experience staying in Hanoi for the longest period, I've also tried many different Hanoi food, from the roadside stalls to the restaurant food. I really love their rice paper spring rolls, their steamboat/hotpot ~ it's called "Lau" in Vietnamese, mmm..sound a bit like hokkien right? We call it "Lor" in Hokkien.

I found some of the Vietnamese language sounds just like mandarin language too. What I love the best now is the weather. Not too cold and not too warm, which is just nice~~

Xin Cam On !!!

AMY

It's December ~

This few days I'm not able to online. We still don't have the internet connection at our apartment here and the internet connection at my hubby's office are very...very...slow. I tried several time to upload some pictures here but it's just unsuccessful and I give up at the end. Now, I just hope that I can just post up a few words written by me now.

Time flies real fast and we are going to bid-farewell to year 2008 and welcoming the year 2009. I wish all my friends the best and enjoy yourself !

AMY