Vietnam Day 6: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay (Part 1)

After we arrived at Hanoi on the overnight train from Lao Cai at 4 am, we hailed a cab that took us from the train station to our hostel at Tam Thuong Street. The cab driver made a big round in the city before arriving at our hostel as it was on meter but there was nothing we can do as the streets were quite dark and we were not too familiar with the roads there.

Luckily, there was a bell outside our hostel and the hostel staff opened the door for us. We freshened ourselves up and waited from 4.30 am to 7.30 am for the bus going to Ha Long Bay to arrive.

We checked our emails and played some computer games in the meantime.

Playing bomberman

We boarded the minibus next and they picked up more people at other hostels until the bus is full. Headed to Ha Long Bay which is about 4 hours of bus journey away.

We stopped at a warehouse selling clothes, souvenirs, paintings, etc at jacked up prices. Most of us didn't buy anything there.

Warehouse stopover

We reached the jetty at 11.30 am and proceeded to board the junk boat. A brief introduction of Ha Long Bay from Wikipedia is as follows.

Halong Bay is a bay located in the Gulf of Tonkin, 170 kilometres east of Hanoi, in northern Vietnam near the border with China. The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves.

There are two bigger islands, Tuan Chau and Cat Ba, that have permanent inhabitants. Both of them have tourist facilities, including hotels and beaches. There are a number of wonderful beaches on the smaller islands. The bay was World Heritage listed by UNESCO at the 18th meeting of the Committee of the World Heritages of UNESCO. It is one of Vietnam's most popular tourist destinations.

Jetty

On top of the junk boat

Leaving the jetty

We settled at the restaurant area while waiting for our rooms to be ready.

On the top deck of the boat

Resting and relaxing

We were all mostly sunburnt after the Sapa tour and the weather was kind to us the while we were at Ha Long Bay.

A smaller boat

Falling into the sea...

My room in the boat

Limestone karsts in the closer view

To be continued...

End of Part 1 (5 am to 2 pm)

Read more...

Venice Film Festival Winners

Biennale Cinema 64th Venice Film Festival Official Awards

VENEZIA 64

The Venezia 64 Jury at the 64th Venice Film Festival, chaired by Zhang Yimou and comprised of Catherine Breillat, Jane Campion, Emanuele Crialese, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Ferzan Ozpetek and Paul Verhoeven, having viewed all twenty-three films in competition, has decided as follows:

GOLDEN LION for Best Film:

SE, JIE (LUST, CAUTION) by Ang LEE (USA/China/China, Taiwan)

SILVER LION for Best Director to:

Brian DE PALMA for the film: REDACTED (USA)

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE to (ex aequo):

LA GRAINE ET LE MULET by Abdellatif KECHICHE (France)

I’M NOT THERE by Todd HAYNES (USA)

COPPA VOLPI

for Best Actor:

Brad PITT in the film THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES

BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD by Andrew DOMINIK (USA)

COPPA VOLPI

for Best Actress:

Cate BLANCHETT in the film: I’M NOT THERE by Todd HAYNES (USA)

MARCELLO MASTROIANNI AWARD

for Best Young Actor or Actress:

Hafsia HERZI in the film LA GRAINE ET LE MULET by Abdellatif KECHICHE (France)

OSELLA

for Best Cinematography to:

Rodrigo PRIETO director of photography for the SE, JIE (LUST, CAUTION) di Ang LEE (USA/China/China, Taiwan)

OSELLA

for Best Screenplay to:

Paul LAVERTY for the film IT’S A FREE WORLD… by Ken LOACH

(UK/Italy/Germany/Spain)

SPECIAL LION for Overall Work to:

NIKITA MIKHALKOV

The Jury is delighted to acknowledge the consistent brilliance of Nikita Mikhalkov’s body of work. His new film is once again a confirmation of his mastery in exploring and revealing to us, with great humanity and emotion, the complexity of existence.

Read more...

Ktv + Movie

Had a ktv session at orchard with Qy and Ys from 3 to 7 pm and it was rock songs all the way from 6.30 to 7 pm. Went to a small restaurant in Lucky Plaza next to have our dinner selling very cheap seafood.

Met up with Stephen at 8 pm and spent some time shopping before catching a movie at The Cathay. We watched Rogue Assassin and we made a bad choice indeed. The movie is not released in United States yet and no reviews for the movie is available at my favourite movie review website www.rottentomatoes.com. Also, no local reviews from local magazines or newspapers were out yet as Rogue Assassin opens on 13 Sep. We decided to watch the sneak preview as it looks like a promising action film with Jet Li and Jason Statham as the lead actors and the recent spat of Hollywood action films are impressive. This one sucks by the way. I feel that the action in the Bourne Ultimatum is 100 times better, Die Hard 4 is 80 times better, Rush Hour 3 is 20 times better.

Why? Firstly, the plot sucks. I'm sick of the stereotypical Asian triads plot in Hollywood films after watching Rush Hour 3 with their Chinese triads. Now with Rogue Assassin, it is the Yazuka triads. Don't they have a better scriptwriter in Hollywood?

Secondly, it is not that exciting. The action is mainly confined to gunfights and sometimes combat fighting. It's not impressive or intense and my heartbeat probably went higher by a beat or two.

Thirdly, the twist at the end sucks. Some people might find it clever but i certainly don't think so. It is too absurd to be believable and i was laughing at some parts of the movie when it is supposed to be serious.

PLEASE to the director of the movie, do us audiences a favour by firing your screen writer, your script writer, your action choreographer, your film editor and finally yourself for directing this LOUSY movie.

My worst movie of this year goes to Rogue Assassin! To everyone out there, please don't waste your money on this movie.

Read more...

Splurge

After getting my first full month paycheck, i went to look for a treadmill and i bought one promptly. It was a rash decision after the salesman slashed the price by a total of $68 when i told him that i need to take more time to consider buying it. I'm in a spendthrift mood ever since i started working.

Manual treadmill

It's foldable as well

Ok, now i will have no excuse not to run anymore.

Read more...

Jurong Bird Park (Part 2)

Continuing the bird park tour...

Cute lory feeding on bird food

Crossing a bridge in the enclosure

Above the trees

Ostrich and her eggs

Emu

Pelican Cove

Warning! They can bite

Bird park monorail

Pelicans in the fountain lake

The world's tallest artificial waterfall

Artificial mist to simulate the proximity of the waterfall

Feeding

I brought my camera very close to these parrots

Don't scratch my camera lens! Ha...

Penguins!

The nice entrance to the penguins enclosure

I'm glad to see improvements to the tourist attraction such as the nice lories enclosure and the talking parrots section. Overall, there are plentiful varieties of birds for us to see and some birds are really cute.

Read more...

Jurong Bird Park (Part 1)

Went to Jurong Bird Park on sunday morning as Ks had some free tickets for his church's family day. We arrived before 9 am and the programme started with some games involving many large forfeit cloth balls being thrown around. One of the emcees of the event is Lee Hui Fang, winner of Channel U's Adventure Clicks travelogue.

Emcees

Next up was the service and finally the bird show which started at 11 am.

These cartoony birds cater only to the kids

White flamingos

A hornbill at the Pools Amphitheatre hut

The massive crowd

A participant from the audience

Pelicans

After the 1 hour bird show, we had our packed lunch at the amphitheatre and went touring around the bird park.

Is that bird shit on your beak?

Stretching!

Orange birds

Preparing to fly

Victoria crowned pigeon

A hornbill

We proceeded to the large Lories Enclosure with giant nettings surrounding the spacious site.

Lories Enclosure

Walking along the connecting bridges

A colourful lory

To be continued...

Read more...

Comex

Went Comex on thur night with Stephen as i wanted to get all the brochures for laptops. Went again on Sat with Ed, Gs and Jim after analyzing all the laptop deals. Still, i was indecisive of the laptop that i want to buy despite narrowing down the brands to either Toshiba or Lenovo Thinkpad.

Anyway, i got myself 50 pcs of DVD-R ($21) and a portable hard disk pouch ($8). Helped Jim choose a laptop and he got a Dell Inspiron.

I'll be waiting for Sitex in 29 Nov to 2 Dec to get a laptop that i want. If not, i'll probably be buying a laptop from NTU.

Read more...

Movie and Gifts

Went to watch Rush Hour 3 with Yining after work today at Cine. The show is better than i expected as the show generally received lukewarm reviews. Anyway, the story is about an ultra powerful, global-trotting Chinese secret society who wants to recover "Shy Shen", a list of names which will endanger the livelihood the people in the triads. Enter Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker who get embroiled in the action as the Ambassador Han gets killed by an assassin.

I shouldn't mention more about the plot as it is totally unoriginal and unworthy of a mention. However, the show is still entertaining with Chris Tucker blabbering nonsense and seemingly having a time of his life. Jackie Chan has cut down on the combat sequences and introduced more car chases and gun fights. The wacky duo have still sustained their sense of humour after the previous 2 episodes and it is loads of fun if we do not care about the script. Love the nun's french translation sequence.

***

Thanks to Yining for the birthday present which is a leather accessory with the word gun on it.

Leather Accessory

Got a gift from my sis as well which is a Braun Buffel wallet!

Read more...