GIP Alumni Dinner

Yesterday was a long day for me....morning was taken up by a presentation about GIP Vietnam to all GIP Participants who will embark on their journey come Jan 09.. then started preparations for the dinner. Guests started streaming in from 7 pm onwards.. As the nite went by, the atmosphere became more enlightened .. Graduates and undergraduates enjoyed playing the games which we planned for. I should say, we worked as a team and made this Alumni Dinner a success. Thanks to all GIP Club Committee Members!! Great work hunks and babes!! after the event, caught up with my gip vietnam comrades and went for supper and played pool till late. Came back tired and slept thru the day. Life continues......

Battle Box

On Sunday, I visited the Fort Canning Park - Battle Box located @ Fort Canning Rise. The place showcased the underground command centre used by the British Malaya Forces during WWII. It has now revamped and made accessible to all with audio-visuals and wax figurines. It brings us back to the time when Lt. Gen Percival made the decision to surrender to the Japanese on 15 Feburary 1942.

After that me and my friends made our way to Mount Faber park where it connected us to Henderson Waves Bridge.

Back to skool....

GIP Vietnam ended but skool started. Little rest in between. Nevertheless glad to meet up with great frens....! The past 6 months had been a life changing experience. Skool semester has brought some fun back too... been spending lots of time with close frens...! Though miss my vietnamese colleagues back at Saigon. They had been wonderful people!! Its been a wild ride those past few months and the fun has been overflowing into the new semester. Singapore has not changed that much except for taxi fares and my goodness...time is flying like a russian rocket !! aniwae its great to be back! chao!

GIP Vietnam coming to an end

Hi all....My involvement in the GIP Vietnam will come to an end this saturday. For some of my comrades, they will be leaving in these two days. I will join 3 others and leave HCMC as part of the last batch. GIP Vietnam has created a huge change in me and the rest too. It has been a wonderful and enriching stay in Vietnam for 6 months. Lots of people have come into our lives and made a difference . But I have one person whom I have to thank. His name is Raja and he is my room mate. He has been a great friend and listener. Has always made time for me whenever he could. He is a very good example of a friend being there for another friend. And most importantly we have mutual respect between each other. So this makes conversations smooth and delightful.

At Ta Cu Mountain - Sleeping Buddha.

Phan Thiet - Mui Ne

Over the weekend, I travelled to Phan Thiet with my colleagues. It was planned by one of my colleagues at CPG Consultants Vietnam. It was a funfilled trip with visits to mountains and "fairy streams". We left for Phan Thiet on early morning saturday. We hired a private bus to bring us there and also ferry us during the 2 day trip. The trip is the last one for us. It was a great pleasure being able to experience the trip with our colleagues who are like family to us.

Colleagues and family.

Atop a mountain along the "Fairy Stream"

Whale temple. The temple holds the whale bones which is about 100 years old. The people worship the whale as they consider it divine due to legend which says that the whale once saved a king when he experienced a storm at sea.

On top Ta Cu Mountain- Buddha's resting place.

Visit to War Remnants Museum

Last Sunday a few of us visited the War Remnants Museum which is located along Vo Van Tan Street. The museum displays exhibits on war crimes, weapons and aircrafts used during the war. Most of the displays are well-kept. It was a hot sunday afternoon where not only the heat bothered us, but it was some of the pictures that were disturbing. It explained and showed how the vietnamese suffered during the war. This brought back memories of hearing stories about the Japanese Occupation in Singapore from my grandfather as he had a first hand experience of the 1942 war.

Fighter Aircraft

Empty Bomb Shells

Propeller Aircraft

Tiger Cages - used to hold prisoners of war. In the hot season, up to 14 POWs were squeezed into 1 cell; while in the winter, 3 POWs were held up in the cell and shackled to a long iron bar.

Angkor Wat

Here are more pictures taken during our trip to Siem Reap,Cambodia.

Angkor Wat Surrounding

In Bayon, Face of Brahma - Has four sides depicting his different moods.

Buddha Statue just outside Bayon

In Angkor Thom

Bayon

Preah Khan

Along mekong river in floating village.Crocodile in Floating VillageSouth of Siem Reap
Old Market in Siem Reap - can bargain for the best deals!

Cambodia

Vehicle Ferry in Phnom Penh

Statue of Brahma inside Angkor Wat


Carvings on the walls

Carvings of 5 figures

View from top of mountain

Moving house in the floating village - the motorised boat drags the river house along the mekong river.

Cambodia - Angkor Wat

Visiting Cambodia was an interesting and exciting experience for the 4 of us. Last Friday we backpacked to Siem Reap,Cambodia to visit the Temples of Angkor. We took a 6hr bus ride to Phnom Penh and transferred to another bus to Siem Reap which lasted about 6 more hours. I managed to get one of the tour bus guides to arrange a pickup which was a Tuk-Tuk(similar to those in Thailand) to accomodate us in a guesthouse.Entrance to Angkor Wat

Pathway leading to another temple.

Inside Angkor Wat

On the way to Ta Phrom - Elephants on the road


Face of Brahma

Tree growing on top of the stones.

At Angkor Thom - Stone carvings reveal a story
On top of a mountain.

Vung Tau

Last weekend 7 of us made our trip to Vung Tau which is in the Southern part of Vietnam. Vung Tau is a beach area where the locals head to during the summer seasons. Instead of taking the normal bus rides, we took a hydrofoil to Vung Tau. And we also arranged for a guest house as we planned to put up for 1 night.

This beach is along Thuy Van Street. It is the most popular beach in Vung Tau among the locals.We stayed in a guesthouse along this street.

The beach is shallow up to a few distance offshore. And the tide is not strong. So it was a pleasure to swim in this beach.

At night, we made our way to one of the many lighthouses in Vung Tau. We paid about 10 000 dong to ascend to the top of the Lighthouse. It was a wonderful sight up there....We could see most parts of Vung Tau.

View from the top of the Lighthouse.

Rainy Season

Its been a while since I updated you on our progress in HCMC. Well recently it has been rainy. And there are more motorbikes on the road during rainy periods! Our attachment has been going well so far and some of the guys went on a short trip to Da Lat. They had a great time over there! We haven't gone on any other trips yet because most of us are busy selecting FYP and subjects for next semester.So thats all for now! Chao!

More pictures of Da Lat & Nha Trang

See how cold it is in Da Lat...This shot was taken at about midnight. It was so cold and visibility was reduced.

We didn't know the name of this Tower. But it was a wonderful sight in Da Lat.

At the Summer Palace in Da Lat.

At the Cham Towers in Nha Trang

Me up there parasailing....It was a great view up there...got a glimpse of Nha Trang.