Lull times

It's school holidays now as everybody knows. A time when mostly everything related to holidays increase in terms of cost and usage. I'm sure Fraser Hills is buzzing with tourists now, its hotels and food outlets almost full of people. The last time I went there, not during the school holidays, mind you, it was like a ghost town, dark and quiet. "macam nilah kak, kalau tak cuti sekolah.."said one stall operator.

My friends, teachers and students are surely enjoying themselves now although a few are known to be lamenting about having not started doing the schoolwork yet. One even called a few school subjects to go to hell, "douse yourselves with gasoline and then give me the lighter". Lol. The pressure.

I don't go out of town this holiday, so far. Fortunately, I went to Vietnam last Chinese New Year holidays with my family but most of the shopping outlets were closed especially the famous Ben Tanh market. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed myself tremendously with their delicious local foods. The local goods although more expensive than usual were still affordable. That is why many malaysians love to go there, and they were quite everywhere.

Ho Chi Minh City side of the Saigon River. The Jaw Floating Restaurant

A dilapidated building across the river from HCMC

The modern buildings alongside the Saigon River

One of the fancy craft shops. Nice to see only

One of the lifestyles in vietnam

This dish is prawn cooked with young coconut shoots. 

This is a floral dish - Tonkin creepers. Flowers play a role in Vietnam cooking. Tonkin is also the name of a body of water up north, Gulf of Tonkin. As malaysian, we learned this in geography.

I

Fried salted eggs. I ordered it out of curiousity. 

 A bowl of prawn soup with pineapple flavour. Nice.

Since the main market was closed, we made do with whatever seller available. This was a part of a mosque.

One of the two fabric shops that was opened only during the second half of the day. I didn't know whether the price at USD4 per meter, if I remember it right, was reasonable or not since my knowledge of the vietnam silk is minimal. 

The traditional dresses of the Vietnam ladies. Most of the girls we met had a very small waist and flat ab.

We bought the vietnam coffees at this stall. We bargained but didn't get much discount. A mat salih simply picked up a packet, paid for it, and left. The 'best' coffee tasted sweetish while the 'blue mountain' (no.3) coffee was more bitter.

I thought it costs less than RM1 a piece. I spent more than an hour and counted up to 250 selected pieces only to find out later that it cost more than RM7 a piece. The lady was very lucky I had sorted out for her the low quality ones which weren't linen. I didn't buy them, of course!

Yet the holidays are not without work, I assure you. I have been to the school twice to clean my work space, throwing out all the junks that I have been keeping for many years, things that I thought might come useful someday. I have been doing the same thing at home except that I called the recycler man to come and collect all kinds of papers, mags and used books. The old newspapers are certainly in demand nowadays because the sell back price is, to me, very good. A few years back it was a mere 50 sen per jengkal compare with RM2.50 I got that day. The good SISWA mags and the used PMR and SPM books are given to the orphanage where they are much needed.

Relatives came down from Tumpat to attend a niece wedding. They stayed with us for a very short time before going off to Kuantan, where we will gather again this friday for the 'majlis bertandang' on saturday. This holiday is really full of wedding invitations from friends who have children getting married like Kak Midah, Kak Esah and several others.

Instead of a ring, the bride puts on a watch.

'Makan beradat' ceremony at the bride's wedding reception. The above pic is a bit fuzzy, no thanks to BB. My previous Nokia E72 produced sharper and clearer pics. iphone pics are no better. But, like people is saying, 'it depends..'. Whatever.....