Holiday in Ho Chi Minh: Places We Visited

5-9th December 2014

When we were in HCM, we went around without a guide, nor a fixed itinerary.  All we knew we wanted to do was a totally free and easy trip for us and the kids - visiting some "must-see" tourist places which were a stone's throw away from where we stayed in District 1, and of course, eating along the way.  Googling up food in HCM churned out so many yummy food reviews that got me excited way before the trip.  But truth be told, it's easier to just venture around, ask some locals or the hotel staff for recommendation, or just follow your eyes, nose and gut to where food is.  Lunch hour starts as early as 11am, by the way.  

But alas, this post is not about Vietnamese food, which I've written earlier in a previous post.

Here are pictures and short comments of the places we visited during our 5 days stay.

1.  Notre-Dame Cathedral

The ceiling inside the sanctuary

Consider us fortunate to be able to visit a Vietnamese Catholic wedding in service.  The choir songs were simply majestic.

I only know Merci means Thank You in French

Beautiful stained glass windows.

A candle burning

And a man offers a prayer up to heaven

The exterior of the church

Vic intrigued by the ongoing wedding looking through the famous red bars, whereas the boy is already tired and sweaty, yet waits patiently where he found a chair

2.  Saigon Post Office

There were scaffoldings outside the main entrance of the Post Office which did not compliment the photography 

I like that this was a real, working post office which was well maintained and clean too.  Minus the tourists, the place is not crowded as there were very few locals wanting to send mails or pay bills.  

These were ATM booths, which we discovered on our way out that they were air conditioned inside.  And the children were bathing in their sweat outside whilst mummy picked souvenirs to buy!

We saw many wedding photography took place outside the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office.  Easily 4-5, Vic counted.  

3.  Reunification Palace

We arrived nearing lunch hour.  There were two slots, one from 7:30-11:30am, and the second from 1-5pm and entrance comes with a fee.  We decided not to go in, as it didn't interest any of us.  Looking for lunch around this area seemed quite tough, so we hopped into Gloria Jeans and had a snack.  I wasn't keen on spending on spending US dollars on some buns we could get back home anytime, but it was necessary only to fill the children's tummy until we find some decent local food.

Picture taken from the fence

Lunch, brunch or just late morning snack?  

4.  War Remnants Museum

William and the tank.

Kids were very interested to know what is what, and what they were used for.  Definitely not mummy's department here.

Kids found themselves a spot to sit and wait whilst mummy and daddy read through the posters

After going in the museum and seeing all the sad and sordid pictures, I will never looked at a war vehicle the same.  Felt even guilty taking pictures of happy kids in front of these machines used during the war time.  

To be honest, I felt sadness when I read the posters and saw pictures of war victims.  This visit reminded me on how blessed and fortunate we are to be living in a war-free era in our country.  War is the worst thing that could happen that I wish will not happen to anyone.  The aftermaths of war can last for years and generations (like the Orange Agent) and as we see pictures of real people affected, my heart goes out for them.  

God I pray you raise this country up again, to know you and for her people to find love, hope and forgiveness.  

5.  Opera House

Night view

We didn't sign up for the A O Show here because it didn't come cheap, with prices starting from USD25 per person.  I figure this won't be our last trip here, so when the children are older and know how to appreciate these shows, we will come watch it.  

6.  People's Committee Hall

We stayed very near to this place, along Dong Khoi Street. Everything happens nearby, and there's even a Starbucks on the same block a few doors away.  

7.  Saigon River

On our last day, we walked around Saigon River, which runs through the city.  There was only one big hurdle to our destination, which was to cross the wide, busy Ton duc Thang street.  Bearing in mind the tips given by our local guide in Hanoi in February, we walked slowly, each parent holding a child and I kept my hands gesturing the motorists to slow down.  Just keep walking and watch them, as the motorists will try to avoid us. 

Kids looking out at a cruise ship

As you can see, water on the Saigon River is not clean but there probably are still some good catches.  However, none this round 

William's First Day of School

My posts are all haphazard now.  I'm writing anything that comes and goes, not really following the sequence of event or importance or time of happening.

Children's first day - started on a Monday a week apart.  William went to back to school first, as his new school does not need to follow the government's directive to start later.

So,

Monday, 5th January 2015

William's school hours are 8:45am to 2:45pm.  I was initially excited that he need not wake up early to rush out of the house but instead he can have more time to enjoy a hearty breakfast.  (This boy doesn't eat fast like his sister, no not yet.)  But my joy was shortlived when I realized we had to brave across the LDP which was jammed up with vehicles at this peak hour.  I thought I had said goodbye to traffic jams when I left my job in 2008 but looks like it's hello again.  Looking on the bright side, thankfully it's a short exposure on the highway, yet enough to make me sit up and pay extra attention on the road.  More braking and less cruising.

We arrived at 8:30am, just 15 minutes from our house and he settled in nicely in his Year 1 queue at the assembly hall.  It's actually not much of a hall, but the whole area of a shoplot where children from Year 1 to Year 6 would queue and wait for the Principal to give announcements, pray and then dismiss them.

Every Tuesday is Assembly Day whereby they will stand in attention to sing the National Anthem, Negaraku and the school song.  This is also the day that every child will be checked on their fingernails and hair and tidiness.

William's class is located on the first floor, and comprise of only 15 children, as with all the other classes.  They have a daily Devotion time and his subjects include Language Arts, Speech & Drama, History&Geography (in short, he calls it H&G now), Bible on top of the usual Physical Education (PE), Maths and Science.  He also has a computer class, Bahasa Malaysia and Arts&Craft.  Once a week, the children are exposed to Children Church too.  

He has a morning 15 minute tea break and a 30 minute lunch break.  For this semester, we did not sign the lunch package for him, thus William brings his snack box and lunch box to school.  All packed into his new green backpack!  His bag was quite heavy in the beginning as he carried his dictionary and Bible everyday, but now he has started to leave them in his classroom locker.  Yes, each child has a locker for himself (which is actually an open shelf located at the back of the classroom).  William is leaving even some of his books there, if there is no homework to bring back.

Boy is happy in school, and he knows most of his classmates' names by now.  However one incident happened on the second or third day of school... his shaky tooth came out during lesson and he dutifully informed his teacher.  She told her to go to the washroom to rinse his mouth, and when he got back, he realized that his teacher threw away his fallen tooth.  So he asked her for it, TWICE, and even explained that his mummy keeps all his milk teeth.  But alas, the teacher insisted to not to return the teeth to him, and he told me, "Mummy, I give up la..."

Undeniably he is upset over this and even exclaimed that his kindy teachers are better.  Mummy is not happy about a forever incomplete set too, but guess we will have to use something else to represent that thrown-away tooth.  Somehow the teacher got wind of this and came up to me a few days later to apologize.

Other than that, homework is everyday except for one day.  He has an easy spelling test every Friday and the children are given a self-test on topics in their books to ensure comprehension.

So far so good.  Except that he doesn't finish his lunch despite a smaller portion, and packing his favourite food.  In the past two weeks, we have prepared spaghetti bolognese, stirfried pasta, sardine sandwich with egg and cheese, fried rice, stirfried udon, bolognese pie, foccacia sandwich... these are what I can remember.  His snacks have been mee hoon, bread with kaya, bread with cheese cream, banana cake, fishballs, steam sweet potatoes and bun.

When he gets home, he gets another tea break, a quick bath or sometimes not, homework and then off to his Chinese class at 4-5:30pm from Mondays to Wednesdays.  I. Was. So. So. Tired.

So glad that the kids did not start school on the same week, else I would not know how to survive with all the chauffeuring and juggling of time and activities.

Vacation Bible School for Vic

27-29 November 2014

Just a week after the year end school holiday started in November, Vic went for Vacation Bible School which was organized and held at Sungai Way-Subang Methodist Church in Kayu Ara, Petaling Jaya.  I signed her up for this earlier, after asking her if she'd like to accept her friend, Kristen's invitation and she agreed.

The theme for VBS this year is "Weird Animals."  For three days, she left the house at 730am and came home in the evening.  I sent her and her friends on the first morning, and thereafter Kristen's mom fetched and sent Vic home.

The name of her groups. Groups are named after forests in the world

They did arts and craft, learnt about God's words, sang songs, played games, experience science projects which are amongst the things that I know.

On the last day, family members were invited to the VBS concert to watch the children present three songs in their groups.  We had praise and worship too, and I video-ed my ever-camera shy girl.

Back home, Vic enjoyed singing (and even dancing!) to the songs she learnt.  All she did was google up and turn on YouTube to have the song played in the house as she sing along, and got her brother and Kakak to join in the fun!

"I don't want to study overseas..."

This week my boy enters his 2nd week into Year 1 at his new school.

As we neared his school, I pre-empted him that mummy may not be able to get parking, and will just have to drop him off like many other parents.  God has given mummy parking for the past few days despite the many cars, but maybe it's time for someone else to get the parking.  

William would wrap his arms around my neck at random times in the car (sometimes, if Vic is around she gets agitated that he's standing and would snap at him).  At that moment, he did the same, and I see his little serious face next to mine in the rear mirror.  This is when he announced, "Mummy, I don't want to go to university overseas.  I want to study here in Malaysia so that I can be with you."  

Such a touching statement.  I shared with him that Mummy and Daddy would want both him and Jie Jie to study overseas for certain reasons (which I will not publish here) but Mummy will be happy to go stay with him.  Still serious face, he asked me what about Daddy?  

"Well, if Daddy is not working he can join us, or Daddy can take leave to stay for awhile."  Hehehe.

Later I double-parked, hugged him in between the cars, and walked him into the center, watched him take off his shoes and then I had to repark my car again to be considerate to other cars wanting to drop off. I got out again, saw him queued up at his class where they assemble.  He stood there waiting for his friends to arrive.  We waved good bye to each other and as he looked away, I decided to walk off.  With a heavy heart. 

As I slowly drove off, I was so tempted to park and walk back to see him again.  Normally I'd wait till his Principal dismisses them after prayer and announcements, but today is the first day that I did not.  

So there, honestly I had some guilt in my heart, some "mm seh tak", some sadness.  

Holiday Fun at Kidzania

The December school holiday passed like two blinks of the eyes.  We had so much happening and I couldn't recall a day of nothingness, of boredom, of just hanging around.

Amongst the things that happened, Vic and Will had a playdate with their good friends Kristen and Josh at Kidzania.  This was Vic's 4th time (first being her birthday, second and third were birthday invitations) and William's first time.  I recall William answering his sister years back that he knows what's inside Kidzania... and "it's lasagne!"  We all had a good laugh at that.

We booked online with my CIMB credit card as we feared there might be a long queue during the school holidays.  But on that day itself, there was hardly a queue.  It being a weekday must have played a part, and also a staff mentioned that since Kidzania raised their ticket prices, the crowd has lessened.  The disadvantage of paying online with CIMB was that we did not qualify for additional free kidzos (Kidzania money) and a free photo with frame that would have cost around RM35?

Anyway, I got good parking in the building itself, for a flat entrance fee of RM3.  All four kids went to the university first to get their degree in Health Science upon entering Kidzania.  That would entitle them to extra K$3 for certain jobs related to health and medicine.

Taking a degree.. like really!

The crowd build up nearing 12noon, and we regretted not having jumped on the firetruck first because this and the pilot job was amongst the most popular occupations.  The kids did various jobs, from being an IT technician learning to dismantle and "fix" a laptop at Dell, dentistry at Dental Care, performing an endoscopy, working as a cashier (for the girls) and supermarket helper to rearrange thing back onto the shelves (for the boys), learning to make Vit C in a laboratory, making sushi at Sushi King and finally they manage to get an place (without much queue) to be fireboys and girls. This was really fun, as they got to donned a fireproof jacket, and put out a fake fire at a hotel with real water.

The mommies - both me and their friend's, were basically chaperones and keeper of their belongings. Food at Kidzania was crap and heavily overprice.  There's also a lack of benches or chairs for parents to rest.  I think the management should look into this as an area for improvement.

The sushi team!  No kidzos for this, but instead you have to pay to learn but you get to keep your sushi (no salmon or unagi la)

Learning to dismantle a laptop... DANGEROUS!

BIDO BIDO... here comes the firefighters!

Our session ended at 3pm and we were all told to leave.  To ensure everyone does, the shops are closed and no one can play anymore.  I just did a check now, and noticed that a normal day session on a school day gives you a longer time, from 10am till 5pm!

Just before we left... the kids went to jail.  So sad!

A jail with bars that bend!

Looking back, it's a fun trip for the kids.  Don't expect that children will really learn what working life is, or even close to learning.  To them, it's all about the fun, fun fun!

Victoria's First Orchestra

Victoria attended her first, black-tie, orchestra at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, KLCC as part of UMW Toyota Motor's annual Toyota Classics event.  This year, they presented the Covent Garden Soloists Orchestra featuring Pamela Tan Nicholson on the piano and Vasko Vassilev on violin, conducted by Miguel Angel Navarro.

As if all these names mean anything to this 9 year old.  I think the excitement AND anxiety was just that she had to dress up in a skirt and doll up pretty for a special date with Yeh Yeh.  

A week or so back, Yeh Yeh brought her to Setia City Mall to look for a long black skirt and formal shoes to match with.  Yee Sam came along to help give her opinion on fashion as I had to be home to supervise some minor renovation.  

Yeh Yeh bought her a 3/4 black pencil skirt and a pair of flat heel with gold trimming black shoes.  Her jewellery - a simple penguin necklace and matching penguin ear rings are her own, bought from Philip Island, Australia in November 2013.  

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

She didn't take long to prepare, confidently answering Yeh Yeh that all she needed was 5-10minutes to change, but she later took a bit longer.  By the time she came downstairs, Yeh Yeh was already waiting (like a gentleman) with Mama and William in the living room.  Everyone wow-ed as they saw her all dressed up - so matured for only a 9yo.

William was quiet, and later when I asked him, he said he couldn't recognize this pretty girl coming down the stairs.  In his own words, he said, "I thought she was another girl coming down and she didn't look like Jie Jie."

I snapped some pictures for both Yeh Yeh and Victoria - it's definitely a special day as grandfather brings granddaughter out for some VIP exposure.  Yes, it's VIP because there were many VVIPs and even the Sultan of Selangor graced this event.

Dinner was at KLCC for them, followed by the orchestra.  Well, did she enjoy herself?  She said she did, and it was a good experience for her.  Thank you Yeh Yeh for taking her out.  : )