IM NOT DEAD! + MINI VACAY POST

Hello everybody!! Assalammualaikum,  I just wanna say that I am not dead hehe, tapi harus diakui kalau saya blogger yang sangat sangat sangat buruk dan nggak niat (last post: February 3rd 2011 wth?!) hehe, tapi yasudahlah ngga papa, karena kayaknya ngga ada yang baca jadi who cares right? (sedih)

SOOOO, I wanna share some things with you guys, jadi minggu lalu (may 29-june 4th) adalah momen yang cukup bisa dibilang langka, karena kampus saya LIBUR, yep L-I-B-U-R LIBUR!! (perlu diketahui kalo libur seminggu di kampus saya bisa dibilang miracle) and I was fortunate enough to have a mini vacation with my sister and my mom to Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. Wooot wooot!!!! I was there for 4 days 3 nights, and it was surprisingly fun. Jujur aja, saya ngga gitu banyak tau tentang vietnam kecuali dari the Amazing Race yang sering banget ke vietnam, jd saya cenderung underexpect, pokoknya dibayangan saya Vietnam is worse than Indonesia, negara berkembang gitu, penduduknya ngga bisa bahasa inggris, kotor, panas, masih tradisional banget, banyak ayam nyebrang di jalan2....dsb. But my short visit proved to me that, we should not underestimate a country solidly because your own assumptions, Vietnam is waaaaaay beyond my expectations, in a good way.... :)

Here is my short recap of my vacay

DAY 1

Tuesday May 31st 2011

Alhamdulillah sampai di HCMC dengan selamat sekitar jam 19.00 malem dan dijemput ibu yng memang udah duluan di HCMC sekitar 1 minggu lebih... Belum2 Vietnam had already surprised me, because the airport is somewhat nice! LOT BETTER daripada Adi Sutjipto & for me juga lebih bagus daripada Soetta. Good 1st impression. Hmmm

airport, gimana? you decide ._.

Karena udah malem, jadi kita langsung makan malem aja, yang harus dicoba if you come to vietnam is PHO which is basically vietnamese noodle soup. It is SO GOOD! I love it and we ate pho almost everyday and didnt get bored! Selama di sana kita makan di Pho 24, which is a franchise restaurant (jd di jakarta ada kok, di Grand Indonesia), which is kata orang vietnam itu mahal tapi the plus point is, the staff speaks english and the menu is also in english, so you dont have to worry about eating pork by accident (for me at least). Harga sekitar 30000an vnd yg kalo di rupiahin sekitar Rp 15000 (btw rupiah cukup kuat di viet, so the price for everything is considerably cheap! exciting!).

Pho Bo (Pho sapi)

caramel pudding

Kenapa ada caramel pudding? karena vietnam dijajah perancis jadi they are used to desserts and pastries, jadi ngga heran kalo di pinggir2 jalan lihat orang jualan baguette (roti perancis) di gerobak2 kayak di Indonesia jualan bakso gitu.

Oh and funny thing to notice is that HCMC (and basically the whole Vietnam) people use motorcycle as their primary transportation. So with the term primary what I wanted to say is that MOTORCYCLE IS EVERYWHERE! Mereka super banyak dan super ngawur. So be careful when youre crossing the road. Lucunya lagi, meski motor itu umum banget, tapi mereka ngga biasa pake helm standar (helm SNI) yang kayak di indonesia, semua orang pake helm ciduk (you knowlah the shape kayak gimana) jadi lucu (dan serem) juga ngeliatnya. Worse than helm ciduk mereka juga banyak yang pake helm topi. Yep helm topi........

helm ciduk lucu lucu

helm topi

helm topi nike. haha

DAY 2

Wednesday June 1st 2011

Karena kamera lagi di bawa ibu ke tempat kerja, jadi ngga banyak foto untuk hari ke 2. Places that me and my sister visited are Benh Tanh Market which is the biggest market in HCMC hampir sama kayak chatuchak market di Bangkok tapi much smaller. You could buy cheap souvenirs, tshirts etc... Remember to haggle 1/2 price atau kalo mau lebih tega lagi 3/4 price pokoknya harus nawar, karena hari pertama jadi masih belum pede untuk nawar2 karena suka ngga tegaan, jadi sempet ketipu :"""""(((( tapi yaudah sih....

After Benh Tanh we went to Nguyen Du Park, its the biggest park in HCMC, the park is very pretty, lotss of big trees, ada gym equipments for people to use, playground.... Something that I really wish Jogja could have, a nice and safe park. Where everybody from young and old could enjoy, I always love parks, because I enjoy people watching and seeing the activities that people do... Ayo dong jogja :s

Nguyen Du park, look closely ada kakek nenek latihan dansa. Awww :")

Adek dan gym equipment

Next next next.... Sorenya us 3 (+ my mom) went to the Water Puppet show which is located near the Nguyen Du Park. I found the place from the TripAdvisor.com and decided to give the show a try. It was very cute! So they used puppets in the water surface, and the puppet masters where behind the curtain to move the puppets, I cant really describe, but it was worth seeing. Cuma sayangnya the show narration is entirely in Vietnamese so I couldnt really understand the plot, but it was cute nevertheless... And ticket price is 120.000 vnd or Rp 60000.

water puppets

 

Malemnya kita pergi ke daerah Le Loi, yg merupakan shopping district gitu, ramee banget, dan banyak gedung2 yang arsitekturnya bagus, if you want cheap souvenir shopping you can find it here or if you opted for branded items shopping you also can find it here... Dari Marc, Chanel, Banana Republic etc etc, malah Louis Vuitton storenya denger2 paling gede se ASEAN gitu... Tapi ya kita ngga berani masuk hehe. Funny thing of the day is saat makan di KFC, we know that Vietnamese are very healthy people, they eat vegetables a lot, dan ngga banyak makan goreng2an, jadi ngga heran sih orang sana langsing2... Tapi agak mengagetkan juga waktu pesen paket nasi ayam di KFC, paket nya served lengkap dengan lalapan! Haha. Super LOL

Paket nasi KFC + lalapan

DAY 3 

Thursday June 2nd 2011

Setelah lihat TripADvisor.com (lagi) kita memutuskan untuk pergi ke War Remnants Museum, atau museum peninggalan perang.. Tau kan ya Vietnam kan perang sama Amerika selama 19 tahun... And I can easily say that this was the highlight of our trip! Saya ngga mau memihak mana yang benar mana yang salah Amerika atau Vietnam, karena toh perang udah selesai, dan ngapain juga create drama ya nggak? Tapi saya belajar banyak dari museum ini, bahwa perang memang ngga ada gunanya, dari sisi kemanusiaan sangat2 mengiris2 hati ngelihat foto2 korban perang terutama penduduk sipil dan para war survivors yang bisa terus hidup sampe sekarang. Perang selalu dilihat dari skala besar: siapa yang menang siapa yang kalah, sampai kadang kita nggak value someone's lives. Berapa juta anak yang kehilangan ayahnya untuk pergi perang? How many mothers out there who wait in uncertainty for their sons or daughters to come back from the war? Banyak banget hal yang bisa direnungkan, and this museum is just so inspiring. I cant help but shed a few tears :''')

MUST VISIT banget pokoknya, and ticket price is super murah. Cuma 7500 rupiah saja

entrance

chinook used during war

Setelah berharu biru di museum, kita sempetin untuk nonton Kungfu Panda 2 ehehehe (abisnya ngga ada di Indonesia)

yoohoo! Kung Fu Panda twoo!!

Basically abis ini we spend the day ke market untuk beli oleh-oleh dan ke Le Loi  & Dan Khoi Street lagi untuk beli some other things for ourselves. Oh, also check out their little boutiques owned by young local designers. Ngga nyangka banget bisa nemu barang2 lucu disini dan harganya semacem harga2 di mangga 2 :D

cute store

Ohhh and I also found an adorable cookie store called cookietalkie who made amayzing cookies just like these:

cool cookies

DAY 4

Friday June 3rd 2011

I went home.

:""""""(((((

Whoaaa I got tired writing this post, its late at night and I have campus thingy tomorrow, you probably are bored reading my post anyway, So, that was my short 4 day trip to Ho Chi Minh City, It was a great experience, the people are very friendly, and its just simply great to meet people from different cultures and learn something new everyday. 

Appreciate things for what it is, and you will find joy in the simplest thing in life..

Forever grateful.