10 things to do in Cambodia and Vietnam

Hey hey,
I went on a 2-week bagpacking trip to Cambodia and Vietnam last december and haven't the time to blog about it, despite all the time spent on writing about other insignificant stuff.

There're 10 things you really should do:

1. swat the houseflies before and while you eat, or they may linger around your food or land on you (cities: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap).
2. bring charcoal pills, they come in really handy in case you LS after drinking coffee, esp iced sold alng the roadside (Saigon).
3. bring extra cash, USD (preferred), dong or riel to get into the express queue at the Vietnamese customs at the borders.
4. must love dogs in Cambodia and you can find them everywhere. Think you can find them on the dining table in Vietnam.
5. eat (cooked food)by the roadside, a wonderful dining experience!
6. stock up cup noodles and memories of you mom's cookin before you hit Cambodia.
7. Visit Angkor Wat- but grab all your winter clothing or all of the hotel's towel/blanket you can find when u take the tuk tuk to Angkor Wat early in the morning. Or you can bring a heater;catch sunrise and sunset at Angkor; climb to the top of the "Wats" for the sunset
8. squueze at least 4 persons on a motorbike in Cambodia.
9. read up the history of Vietnam and Cambodia b4 you go, ethnically sensitive issues here n there, dun get your tongue chopped off unknowingly...
10. u can grab a cheong lonely planet for USD 2-10.... must buy ah!!!

Ways to answer THIS question

How many times have u attended weddings and people (usually older people) ask u, "Hey, when r u getting married" or "why r u not married?"... I don't come across these interesting moments that often but I've come up with some possible answers. Spoke to my frens abt it...

Of course, we can give conventional answers like "haven't found the right person", "time is not right", "no money"...no this, no that. Yawn........

How about pretending to ignore or say "I enjoy freedom... i mean look at you..." (if the person is a haggard-looking auntie). Or "I heard your son/daughter is still single. Why so?"

And what about "Uncle, don't u think you're too old for me"?

Maybe I'll try this on my relatives, if they give me the chance to, at my cousin's upcoming wedding.

Birthday Presents -Ideas!

What are some of the memorable presents you have received for your birthday?

For me, I got some interesting presents from my frens and also played an important role in preparing my frens' birthday presents.

Memorable presents received in recent years:

-home-cooked dish
-clothes that didn't fit at all...my sister benefited
-66++ (i think) stalks of roses. My colleagues counted that for me

-a porky hamper with pork floss, bak gut teh cooking powder, canned pork trotters and the ultimate pork sausages, complete with a pig poster as the cover

-a birthday card with McDull cutting the birthday cake and frens singing him a birthday song. I was touched to tears as he is... sorry if this name appears again and again but if you're still my friend at this point of my life, you have to accept it as the ("brutal" for some) truth

Best of all ...CASH

i also had some impressive ideas for my frens which i'm rather proud of...

-leftover, ehem... i meant items set aside, corporate gifts packed nicely in a good-quality shopping bag

-DIY t-shirts... drawing a wheelchair on a plain t-shirt for fren who was in community work and a numbered jersey, using his birth date. I then realsied I'm quite artistic.
-the opportunity to slap/hit my McDull continuously 20 times

MORE to come...

Porky ad

I can finally say I have come across an advertisement which i like 99% recently. I really like the spirit of it. Its on pork.

We see this cute little piglet with a crown on its head looking innocently into the camera. Then when u read on, it talks about the daily supply of fresh pork. Then there're smaller pictures of pork ribs and different parts of the pig below.

This ad captures the essence of my relationship with McDull. See, love and hatred can co-exist!

I love my friends- we can have unpredictable fun together!

After having bruised all my 10 toes during netball, i had another eventful evening yesterday.

A very generous friend invited us to join him for an event on Sentosa which he had been invited to. He assured us that there's no restriction on the no. of guests. I didn't mind travelling to another island since there's free food and fun. When we met at the mrt station, he calmy told us that he missed out on a fine print that said "card admits one only" and he blamed it on the fine print cuz it was too fine. We went ahead to the island to try our luck anyway and ended up eating stale sushi at this green frog restaurant. The air-con was in a working condition that customers were perspiring and its waiters all wet. However, they still insisted that was the normal temperature. So we continued eating the not so fresh food in that stuffy place.

Guess what, we saw this scary story of the sea laser show when we stepped outof the frog restaurant! Some nemo look alike items were on sale in the theme shop.

After dinner, we thought we should do sth different to end the day, so we went to this insect club near vivo. The first floor was rather crowded and we proceeded to the second. It was a karaoke-style drinking area. We thought we bumped into our parents and they had turned the clock 20 years back, yelling away with the music. The coffee shop might be a better choice for them really. Still, we tried our best to bring the ambience back to the present by dedicating more current songs.

And yet, it was almost an hour wait for the taxi home.

Take chances

My hands, legs and toes don't seem to belong to one body. The company's netball practice has taken the toll on me. I used up my energy supply for the year. You know what, me and my colleague said yes to the activity not knowing its going to be a competition. We, no i mean i, am totally uncompetitive. But the session (just started on the first yesterday, not sure if its gonna be the last) turned out rather fun. I could feel my energy burning up but sweating (for the right reason) is a good feeling. Most of all, I think i looked sporty in t-shirt and shorts:)

Well, lots of things happen like that. Like I had wanted to learn Japanese but b'cos the classes at the community centres took forever to start, i took up Korean instead. Now i can sing the birthday song in Korean. Haven't learned how to swear in Korean yet.

I also located a Korean restaurant by chance. I went to CTC holidays opp it but the didn't have any trip to the place I wanna go. I was very angury and went to the korean restaurant across the street. The food at Togi made up for everything!

Lets think about the future

One of friends told me that my blog is a little too dull. I've to live up to expectations. I've decided to share my thoughts a little more....the intended names for my kids (of the Mc 麦 family ) in future:

For boys, it well be
麦包，麦当劳，麦当雄。。。and many more things to sell. English names will be Mc Donalds

Girls:
McDonna (one good daughter is a life-time guarantee thought)....

Undeterminable gender:
麦鱼，麦菜, 麦片，mai hiam.....

Have excluded "mai char" cuz i'm worried my child will be an introvert. Any other suggestions?

The best name is still McDull.

Hi, I'm Mrs Mc (for now)

Heyhey,
This is my first blog, in attempt to share my life as Mrs Mc (Dull). More to come!

But damn! I can't upload pictures from my office pc. By the way, my blogs will be done in office. Will try to make up for the lack of visuals with words.