Hanoi

Day 1
Arrived early in the morning and when we got out of the plane, the temperature gave us a shock and the winter chill went down my spine. I am imagining the time that I will be away from my son, and the time that I am going to miss him, but a break for myself is really much needed. I was looking for a break away from work, as well as giving myself an opportunity to make some important decisions coming my way.

Done with the formalities in airport, five of us make our way to the hotel on a normal sedan car though we asked for a seven-seater like Toyota Innova. Anyway, the few of us squeezed into the sedan and went on our 30 minutes trip to Hanoi City (Old Quarters). Funny, I have always thought that Hanoi = Saigon, apparently not. From the journey, we started to notice the condition of the road and the way driver communicates with one another. The honking never stops and it just seems that cars are talking to each other with it. The number of vehicles on the road is unbelievable and there are scooters everywhere going in every directions and it seems impossible at times to imagine how get to our destination. Like one of my friends say, controlled chaos. The other word that I cannot get out of my mind is 'population explosion'. This 2 phrases describes exactly how the city is, to us from Malaysia.

Well we reach our destination with the driver unable to find the hotel, which when he finally did, had to reverse back to the hotel because he couldn't figure out how to get there. It was quite a ride! We settled in to www.luckystarhotel.com and it is pretty good. We put down our stuff and embarked by foot to conquer Hanoi. First stop is to search for food.

The first attempt to look for food did not go too smooth, though, we finally landed ourselves on the sixth or seventh eating place we came across. It was for 'pork' rice noodle soup. It was the nicest food I have tasted this year and with the cold weather (around 10 degree Celsius), it was too good. The only down side is that the soup was cooled too fast for our liking. When we were done with food, we then next explored around and went back towards a cafe we saw earlier. And yes this cafe offers 'Kopi Luwak'. Priced at 250k Dong. A bit pricey, I think, so we settled for something less, Vietnamese coffee. The thing with Vietnamese coffee is that it is really strong, and the cup is really too small. I prefer a big cup of coffee, and couldn't find something like it there. We relaxed at the cafe for about an hour before we embarked by foot to Standard Chartered office.

Our friend managed to locate his Vietnamese friend who brought us out for a good dinner. Of all the delicacies we had that day, the "Fried Needle Fish" was probably one of the highlight. It was good. I'll probably have more photos coming up with this in my Facebook, but for now, it is just one great dinner. And, our neighboring tables, when they are about done, they sing to the tune of guitar for like an hour or so. We all had free Vietnamese music :) We got back to the hotel for an early rest at about 1030pm. Day 2... coming up...


~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.

Of Blogging and Journalism

I have been doing more journal entry lately then blogging. I journal by having quiet time, taking down the learning time with the Word of God and having it written in my journal. It has been a long time since I actually sit down and write, as most of the time, I would have typed everything that is in front of me. As I write, I felt a weird sense of hand actually feeling cramp after about 2 to 3 paragraphs. Anyway it has been a great experience and it is refreshing to the soul. I actually felt I learned more during this quiet time.

Let me then summarize the steps of what I do in order to journal. I get up early in the morning and while it is quiet and still BUT awake, I take up the Word of God and start to read using a daily reading planner. Daily reading planner is to ensure that I do systematic reading everyday and not random or choose only what I would like to read. After reading, I would think and meditate upon the word or sentence that strikes me most. I write out the scripture and then followed by whatever observation that is interesting that I could pick up from the passage. Then I write about application of it in my own live and finally a word of prayer for this learning. It is that simple, and it takes me roughly about 30 minutes depending on my level of consciousness early in the morning.

And after I did that consistently for a while, it doesn't feel that bad anymore. It used to be a hard task that I must get myself to do, but now, I do it everyday without much effort. I do feel aligned first thing in the morning after I do the journal :)

As for blogging, I do remember and it always cross my mind that, yes, I have to blog about this and that etc. However coming in terms of doing it wasn't as simple. As for now, I guess there is just too many topics in my mind right now, probably I would just do a quick summary of it.

1. I just joined Project Management Institute (PMI) and is currently an aspiring student for Project Management Professional (PMP)

Tough nuts, a lot to read and a lot to understand. This will take much of my time off me.

2. Chip (my pet) just ran off a couple of days ago. He left me and Dale at home. So sad :(

I have actually been searching for him high and low, but couldn't find him, this is bad. I still continue to try to find him everyday. I look here and there, I take a walk with the hope of finding him, but I still couldn't. I really hope Dale is OK as he has lost a brother and a playing partner. Now he looks so boring and I do not have time or the time to bond with him :(

3. I have conquered Siem Reap along with Angkor Wat.

This is an entry I want to blog about a lot more, but not now due to time limitation.

4. This is the worst news, I got cough again :(

Hopefully it takes much shorter time to recover. Till then...

~~~ Life is an adventure where we search for the meaning of the outcome.