Back from Ho Chi Min

Just came back from Ho Chi Min. A business trip at short notice - Flew off on Wednesday, but was only informed on Monday -_-". Anyway, since it's only for a few days, I don't really need much time to pack my stuffs. Work wise, it was horrible. We worked like crazy on both Monday and Tuesday, even before fly off on Wednesday, till we reached Ho Chi Min... My conclusion for working late on both Monday and Tuesday was: Woman a troublemaker - women are so indecisive and women change their minds at all times... Is that a in-born nature in women or women can do a bit of changes which will make life better?

Apart from attending the budget meeting, my only "aim" was to grab "Pet Shop". I forgot the name of the plaza where I got this product during my last visit. Surprisedly, Vietnamese doesn't really recognise this brand. The receiptionist tried to her all means to search for me, although she didn't manage to locate it. It was my cousin later told me the name of the plaza - Tax Plaza.

I'd been telling my other colleague, whom I shared my room with, how cute was "Pet Shop". Being affected by me, she aimed to grab something for her daughter. As I reached this outlet at Tax Plaza, I got very excited, just cannot "tahan" the cutiness of the goodies. Can you imagine I spent nearly 2 hours in this this cramped outlet? Me and my another colleague had almost turned the outlet upside down, searching for the bag and pouch because there were just too many choices until we didn't know which one to get. My other colleagues couldn't understand why we could immersed ourselves in the goodies so decided to dump us there.

"Pet Shop" products was quite cheap 2 years ago. I heard from local that the inflation rate in Vietnam hit 15% last year. I can barely feel the price shock as I shopped in Tax Plaza or Ben Thanh Market. It didn't stop me from shopping though. Things that I bought was not volumous but it cost me 678,000 VND still, which is equivalent to SGD67.80. Crazy eh?

There is another shopping heaven for visitors but NOT for myself. I don't like shopping at Ben Thanh market cos I don't really enjoy the fun of bargaining. Basically I don't really know to bargain and ppl always take psychological advantage over me. I know myself will kena chopped by those Vietnamese. That proved me right cos I was kena chopped this round for that one and only thing at this si ren Ben Thanh Market. There was a deep cut in my purse for the bag I bought for my mum. I paid half the price this si zhu Vietnamese girl asked for but still, it was much higher than other stalls asked for before further bargain. *!!!!!!* I then find this place a very sickening place and I really feel like cursing that si zhu girl to the hell. If I ever step in this city next time I will never ever spend a single cent at this sickening place again. It's not the money that matter, ppl who knows me well will understand that I really hate being deceived. I'd rather go shopping plaza where the price is fixed.

As I shopped with majority the aunties, my shopping style had become very auntie style as well. I even follow them buying cooker, soya sauce and chili sauce. -_- Frankly, I never expect I'd do something like this before. The price was considered very low. When my boss told me she always shopped for unecessary stuffs cos she couldn't "tahan" the price as it was too cheap to go for it. I truely understand the feeling where you cannot resist the temptation. The stainless steel cooker cost approximately SGD11.50. It was not a necessity for me but I thought it worth the price for chinese new year. My auntie colleagues who knows the market so well told me it's not available in Singapore so I also die die want to get one. Haha.


It was intially a business trip for budget meeting, coincidently Vietnam office was celebrating their new year party on Friday. It was some sort like our D&D. As our HQ office was rather small, so my boss decided to let the other staffs joining the dinner as well. They were very lucky staffs as they were there purely for shopping and dinner for 3 days, without the need to work. The message on the wall was something like "happy new year". Seeminngly the watermelon and ketupat were a must to go with the message.

Had dinner at Blue Ginger which was highly recommended by my boss. It was located at District 1 which was renowned as one of the best Vietnamese restaurant. What amazed me was this "one string" instrument this Vietnmaese girl was playing, as well as the 春联 which was in Vietnamese.

The development of Vietnam is much more rapid than I expect. I was told that the average salary per head was USD300+ which really exceeded my expectation. I don't know how true it is and I don't bother to confirm as well. I still believe a country can only do well if the government put effort in education. I cannot comment from my Vietnam office aspect as they're in leading IT industry and most of them are software/ hardware engineer. In general, those ppl in service industries still cannot speak English, even cannot understand simple English which is quite disappointing. With no offence, I also think they're quite rude. For instance, I tried to change VND in airport for SGD30 and I was like being told off by this girl as if it's a criminal offence to change VND that equivalent to SGD30 instead of SGD50 just because they don't have SGD to change me back. She refused to change for me is one thing, she yelled at me was another thing. It was such a bad image she gave to a visitor especially when she works in airport. A few times we're treated as if we owed them 100 million and yet, asked for tips somemore. I look forward to the general improvement in this area although they will take AGES to reach there.