1) Vietnam Reunification Palace
When we first stepped through the main gates, we were greeted by the two replicas, Tank 390 & 843 which was used to break through the main gate of independence. The last president of Vietnam used to live in there and the bilateral agreement was signed in the palace five years back. Basically, the building has a three level storey with the entertainment rooms at the top level. The colour red was seen in most of the furniture used and it was said that it is a preferred colour due to the believe in power and good luck.

2) War Remnants Museum/Notre Dame Cathedral/Post Office
Being introduced to the Agent Orange In The Vietnam War, as part of Operation Ranch Hand. The objective of the operation wars was to defoliate tropical rain forest, where the liberation force was ambushing, so that it disenabled the Anti American forces to hide in the forest. The August Revolution was carried out successfully on 2 Sep 1945, President Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the Ba Dinh Square(Ha Noi), putting an end to the French colonialist yoke over Vietnam for nearly one hundred years.
Notre Dame Cathedral was build 131 years ago in the middle of the town area unfortunately, it was closed and we only managed to take a few pictures near the statue which stood in front of the cathedral.

3) Cu Chi Tunnels
These were the solid revolutionary base of the determined Vietnamese who took 20 years of work to build the tunnel. The highlight of the Cu Chi Tunnel was being able to experience a 5-7mins journey in the tunnel. Almost all of us practically had our hands and knees on the ground as we manoeuvred through the dimly lit tunnel, sweating profusely.

Gaining a deeper knowledge of the Vietnam history, it has shown us every man is created equal and they deserve every right, towards liberty, peace and happiness.
Dinner was served at the lion city restaurant (Singaporean owned restaurant). If you are thinking that it is cheap setting up business in Vietnam. Rental fee cost around USD32,000 (64million Dong, Vietnam currency) for a multi-level storey restaurant in District 1. The last activity was a two hours stopover at the Ben Thanh market and this pretty much sums up our exhausting yet memorable experience!

More Visiting. :D

Vroom2Vietnam is back! We visited Vising Pack today, a leading printing company whose stakeholder is a Singaporean. I guess Vising Pack comes from the name Vietnam-Singapore Packaging.

He shared with us his experience venturing into the industry and dealing with various clients. He also brought us on a detour around their factory and warehouse, whereby we get to see the whole printing process and how the cardboards are manufactured into boxes and other various type of packaging for the clients. Their clients expectations are high however, their minimum salary of their labour is SGD100 per month. One of the challenges is meeting clients expectations on the quality and quantity of the products ordered.

After which, we went to Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) for the Vietnam International Furniture and Home Accessories 2011. SECC was further more modern compared to Tan Binh Exhibition and Convention Centre (TBECC). SECC is air-conditioned, provides more facilities such as business room, VIP room, and they even have bigger area for both trade visitors and exhibitors to have their breaks, plus the signages around the SECC are clearer.

After lunch, we proceed to An Dong Market which is pretty similar to Ben Tanh Market. The only difference is that they have tiles as the flooring while Ben Tanh Market has cemented flooring. We did not manage to get things at An Dong Market as their prices are highly priced and not that attractive enough. Overall, majority of us prefers to visit the night Ben Tanh Market instead for the shopping experience.
Stay tuned for the last day in Vietnam!! Toodles~

Much love,
Izza & Marissa

Another Awesome Day In Vietnam. :)

Xin Chao.

Back to scratch again. We went to Chi Minh City School of Tourism School and Hotel. We had a very warm welcome from them. They even had LED lights saying: WELCOME SINGAPORE POLYTECHIC *HAHAAH, supposedly Singapore Republic Polytechnic*. However, it is the thoughts that count. We went on a tour around the school, and had the opportunity to see demonstrations on the various courses they have. For instance, restaurant operation and baking courses.

- Enjoyable Moments:

* Games

1) Hair styling

2) Mail Delivery

3) Dog & Bone

* Break Dance by Yen

* Practical Making of Kueh Bangket *hahah*

After which, we went to Kingsmen Exhibits Vietnam and its warehouse. We are honoured to have Mr Philip Goh to share with us his experience and thoughs about having a career in the events industry. And he is from Singapore. Yay! We learnt that we have to adopt and adapt when we work overseas. For example, a common practice from the Vietnamese using of rice paper on the door after end of event to track whether there was someone who sneaks in. We also learnt about the optimum system. *It’s like a lego* We learn how to dismantle the optimum system and assemble it back.

AND!

The highlight of the day YO! We went to the Ben Tanh Market after lunch. Ben Tanh market reminds us of the Singapore Bugis Street. Only that, it was pretty squeezy, humid, dirty, and noises from the bargaining of prices between the customers and sales person.

Unfortunately for our team, we had a few horrible experiences. We observed that the products are unreasonably priced and it was tough to bargain for a lower price as the sales person insisted on their so-called best price. After much shopping, while waiting for our coach to arrive, many of us were paranoid by the sellers-on-the-go. Although we had rejected their offer politely, they kept repeating promotional words like “Vietnam Product” and after a few attempts, they will announce the price of the product, hoping to be able to attract buyers. Some passer-bys gave a weird grin and came closer to get physical contact. Freaked out, we ran to our coach immediately when it arrived at the waiting area. Overall, we hope to see improvements in their hospitality in many years to come. This is essential because it plays a role in creating a great shopping experience for all tourists.

For the first two days in Vietnam, we have been eating Malaysian cuisine and of course, EGGS for all meals! Imagine that! Today’s dinner was the first meal we had without eggs! Well, maybe the dessert had some eggs as an ingredients (crembule). We had dinner at PASHA, serving Turkish Mediterranean Cuisine. The ambience was great and food was served course by course, unlike the previous restaurants we went.

Time flies pretty fast today. Looking forward for greater experience tomorrow!! Goodnight lovely people. <3>

The 1st Day Of Activities..

Chao (hello) readers, greetings from Vietnam.

Side note: Everything that took place was according to the time in Vietnam which is one hour behind Singapore!

Today was rather eventful even when we didn’t go according to plan. We took a little tour to the Sesame School of Hospitality after finishing up with our breakfast and roughly reached there at about 9am. While getting off the bus, I noticed the tiny school hiding behind the towering bright orange walls along. Weaving our way through the foot path to our designated meeting place, the students were preparing for the games we were going to play afterwards.

First came the introductions, next we were brought to their work stations. There were 3 kitchens in total and a mini restaurant. They learnt how to cook, bake and serve everything in the food and beverage line. These were unfortunate kids learning how to survive and they are given a better life from whatever background they were from. It was an honour to have interacted with them during games and free time (as I made some new friends)!

We proceeded to have lunch @halal, some restaurant in the town Vietnam, the supposed upper east side of the city. It was a good lunch with a variety of dishes.

When lunch was over, we went to the Lacquer industry that has been providing for Vietnam’s economy over the decades. They have 3 main and different types of material they use as design and decoration. Mother of pearl, Egg shells and Paint are the secret ingredient to pretty lacquered end products waiting to be shipped and sold worldwide. The products can be found in their very own store next to their workshop. They take 2 – 3 months for each process to complete. Pretty as they are, they sure carry a high price.

We went to the Tan Binh Exhibition and Convention Centre (TBECC) to have a look see. We had the privilege to go to an ongoing convention, which was the maritime Vietnam 2011. We inspected the inside of TBECC and found out that there was a huge contrast to what we do or have in Singapore. For example, after every day of the convention, the event organiser would place a rice paper over the door as a precaution for whoever who wants to break into the premise. And also it would prove what a horrible job the security guards are doing. Whereas in Singapore, we have a biometric system that is remote controlled; it enables the doors of the convention centre to be secure by magnetic technology.

We left TBECC to the Water Puppet theatre. It was a vintage and mint theatre all equipped with plush chairs. There were a variety of performances by the puppeteers with original live music played for the show. I think the puppet show was truly humorous interesting and innovative as there we lots of choreography between both the puppeteers and the musicians. I was in awe on how they were able to manipulate and manoeuvre the puppets waist deep in water and still figuring how they do it when we were on our way to dinner (this is the highlight of my day).

We had dinner at a nonya penang restaurant which served really awesome spicy mango chicken salad. The seating allocation for us was horrible though, narrow and “squeezy”. But that would have to do since there are so many of us.

All in all, day two of Vietnam was packed, a bit messy and tiring but fun and exciting. I am going to put the blame insufficient rest.

(Thus, the writer should have a well deserve massage and spa treatment to sooth her muscles and... The writer is just kidding. She jokes. )

TOUCHDOWN!!

We have finally reached Vietnam!!! :DDD

We left for Vietnam at 1740 taking flight SQ186 and reached Vietnam at around 1930.

We are all happy to have reached Vietnam safe and sound. Only if I am able to upload the pictures now then can you see how excited we are. Upon arrival, we went out of the airport, change our money and off we go for dinner. Transportation was provided for us.

On our way to dinner, we managed to see a vast difference between Vietnam and Singapore from the temperature to the traffic. Eventhough it's at night, the temperature here is still warm. And the traffic are full with motorcycles and there are not many traffic lights around.

We had our dinner at Satay House and had quite a sumptuous meal. After dinner we head off to the hotel. When we reached the hotel, we check in to our rooms and then had a debrief of the activities tomorrow. We were also briefed on the fire escape route. After that, we went across to stock our shelves and head back to our rooms and rest for tomorrow.

It's gonna be a long day tomorrow. Gotta wake up at 0630 and will be leaving at 0815. Will blogged again tomorrow! :)

I will upload some of the pics soon. :)

Team 7 :D

1 MORE DAY TO TAKE OFF!

HEY HEY HEY!

This is Team 7's blog for the Vietnam Study Trip to Ho Chi Minh City. Currently blogging is the team leader, Hamyzan. Well, Team 7 consists of Janice Chan, Marissa, Zhi Mei, Izzati and Myzan, which is me. :)

Ok, enough about the introduction. Well, as you guys know, we will be leaving for Vietnam on the 9th, which is tomorrow! I'm sure everyone who's going will be excited today and will be packing their bags right now.

To summarize, we all can't wait to go to Vietnam and learn a few things there about the culture and the places we are going to visit. Do follow our blog and we will keep you up to date about the things we did everyday there. :D