Dinner and chill-out at BeachCulture @ Watercross …

Work is getting extremely hectic for the both of us. We really needed to recharge to preserve our sanity. Since March holidays were here, we decided to take a short break to Ho Chi Minh City together with my parents.

It was really an eye-opener to be there. Even though it was supposed to be the bustling city of Vietnam, it sure wasn’t as developed as what KL or Singapore had achieved. The markings on the roads were apparently ‘invisible’ to the motorists as they cut through the roads recklessly from all directions. There were more motorbikes than cars on the road. Being a pretty polluted place, most of the motorists wore face masks together with their fanciful helmets. Weather was hotter than Singapore, hitting above 30 deg C. Ladies wore long gloves to protect their skin from the heat as they drove their motorbikes.

We stayed at the First Hotel and being a 4-star hotel, it was indeed a clean and pretty hotel. Very near to the airport but a 15 min-drive from District 1 (their central).

Our tour group consisted of only the 4 of us and it made us feel like VIPs! Haha! Of course, being VIPs, we needed to be conscious and thus gave more tips to our driver and tour guide. We observed that most of the other tour groups also had small number of tourists with them e.g. 2 – 4 in a group.

Food was quite a sumptous spread. We liked the Chinese dinner on our 3rd night so much that we decided to pop in for lunch on our last day there. Specially to try their Roasted Peking Duck.

We went for a water-puppet show and we were very excited to be able to catch it live finally after watching it during TV commercial breaks on Starhub channel 49 (discontinued since Mar 2008). It was very entertaining and we wondered how they could manipulate the puppets under water.

Cuchi tunnel was quite an adventurous trip. We experienced what it was like to be in the tunnel. Though we tried only 40 m, it felt very claustrophobic. Low ceiling, sandy interior, stuffy and dark. At my height, I even had to bend to move through. Sometimes, I simply gave up and did ‘duck-walking’ in it. It was hard to imagine how those bigger Vietnamese soldiers could survive during those war-times.

As for the war museum, I didn’t really like visiting it. It was a disturbing sight to me. I hate to see suffering.

Our most enjoyable trip was to Mytho on our 3rd day. We took boat rides and rode on a horse-cart. It was a pretty serene and kampong-like place.

Despite the hot and unbearable weather, I still enjoy the trip a lot. It’s afterall the company that counts!

We were back from our self-drive trip to New Zealand last week with eL and my in-laws. I still find the scenery as breathtaking as when I visited it 16 years ago with my parents and brother! The difference this time round is we covered only the Southern part while the last time we covered both the Northern and Southern parts when we went with the Chan Brothers’ tour.

Being on a tour last time did not make it any less enjoyable because it’s afterall the company that counts! We even made friends with 2 other children in our tour group. Similarly, going on a self-drive this time is a refreshing experience, too!

When we go with a tour group, they understand that physical needs come first (as in Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs) and so we will usually be given a toilet break every 1.5 h to 2 h whenever possible . This time, you’ll be surprised that we could actually tolerate a no-toilet trip for at least 4 h! The route we took was so scenic that there were many photography stops but no proper toilet stops. I didn’t even dare to alight from the car during photography stops, afraid that any movement will trigger off any unwanted reaction. Hahaha!

Anyway, here are our pictures!

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a sumptuous dinner at Dozo, a self-proclaimed “Japanesque” restaurant which was reviewed on AsiaOne. We were very impressed by the ambience, the service as well as the presentation and quality of the food (a 7-course meal). At a bargain $58.80++ per pax, this is certainly a place we’d love to visit again sometime soon!

Happy 1st Wedding Anniversary!

Welcome drink (Plum sorbet)

Chef’s Seasonal Platter

Sashimi for starters (other items available to choose from but both of us were suckers for sashimi :P)

Not on the menu — but the chef deep-fried the prawn heads from the sashimi specially for us. Yummy!

Tempura side-dish for eL

Gratinated escargots with garlic and yuzu butter — side-dish for Cy
(Extra escargot complimentary! So nice of the boss!)

Cepes Mushroom Soup with Truffle for eL

Seafood bisque for Cy (crab claw for decoration only it seems, but we cracked it and ate it up anyway :P)

Beef tenderloin on a “pu-ye” leaf and granite hot stone – main course for eL

Roasted cod on poached daikon served with miso cream cappucino – main course for Cy

Green tea creme brulée for the both of us

Fruity refresher for eL

Roselle tea for Cy

Mr John Ong also took us on a tour of the different themed rooms in the restaurant, which were impressively furnished!

Two happy and satisfied customers!

Dozo
#02-02/03 Valley Point Shopping Centre
491 River Valley Road
Singapore 248371
Tel: 6838 6966

Another Zamioculcas flower bud blooming in the same pot as mentioned in the previous post. That makes 2 in the same pot (Let’s call it B since it’s the second pot to bloom)! Together with a new bud coming up in pot C and the first one in pot A, there are 4 in all!

To add, our pomengranate plant has also been blooming away these recent weeks, something that hadn’t happened in the past 1 year before! Such a pretty sight!