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woke up at 7.30am in the morning dispite sleeping at 4am, having an meeting with some important clients so i die die have to show face there.

had a quick breakfast at the hotel and ate the usual thing i eat almost everyday…

rice noodles with beef, minus the gross veges that vietnamese love to put in their food

took a long cab ride down to their office…and i really mean a long ride, took us almost 45 minutes before reaching the place. from the way charlie told me about their company, i have expected their office to be something big and fanciful but it turned out to be some house that was converted into an office in some rural part of the city.

charlie had a long discussion with them and i was like pinching myself just trying to stay awake. didn’t understand a single word they were talking about but had to look interested in the conversation, that’s like virtually impossible.

after a hour of discussion (my whole hand was red from the pinching), we finally set off for lunch with the client. they brought us to this fanciful chinese restaurant that serves almost every creature that can be eaten.

there were 5 of us but the food we they ordered were enough for 10 people. we had chicken, duck, pork, beef, greens, greens and more greens, a pot of soup that had whole abalones in it and a whole suckling pig. thank goodness the suckling pig came last cause everyone was already quite full and i had almost the whole suckling pig to myself. it was just out of this world.

wanted to take photos of all the food but had to act professional and suppressed the blogging blood in me. the food was really really great and a meal like that in a nice chinese restaurant in singapore would probably cost s$200-s$300 but in vietnam, we only paid around 1 million vietnam dong which is about s$90.

sent the clients back to their office before carrying on the journey to our office, our final official business stop for the day week. took some pictures of the scenery from the office’s balcony when i was having my smoke break.

left my last pack of viceroy menthol lights at the balcony, which means i have to start smoking vietnamese cigarettes and i seriously think they suck!

here’s a sneak picture of charlie “eating snake” at the canteen in the office building…

left office early and took a cab down to some sports stadium where we can finally buy our new badminton rackets, there was a whole stretch of shops all selling almost the same thing but i have my doubts about their quality.

wanted to get some stuffs but charlie refused to let me buy, he told me to wait for his cousin to bring us here again after dinner since his cousin was a southerner and could get better bargains.

i also learnt that northern and southern vietnamese speaks with a different accent and apparently the 2 sides doesn’t go well with each other.

went back to the hotel to freshen up before going down to his cousin’s place for dinner, i was rather reluctant to go since i’ll probably feel awkward but had to give charlie and his cousin face.

there were a total of 7 of us including charlie’s sister, 2 cousins and their parents. the spread was huge but my choice was rather limited.

they had beef from a baby cow which tasted rather odd, clams which i don’t eat, weird looking greens, a soup that was filled with the vegetable i hate most (can’t remember the name offhand but they do have it in singapore as well) and a plate of prawns fried with onions and peppers.

love the fried prawns and onions but barely touched the rest of the food. all the food were spicy and i badly needed water but all that was available to me was red wine.

sat down at the living room for a while (for them to chat) for another 45 minutes which seems like hours to me. thank god for the fruit basket that kept me company. i think i almost finished the whole pamelo myself.

left the place and took a cab down to the place we saw the badminton stuffs hours ago but most of the shops were already closed so decided to go somewhere else. i suggested the club at sheriton hotel but somehow the idea was rejected and we ended up at this club which sells s$19 milk shakes.

there was a live band with people singing. the singers were rather good, better than our singapore idiots idols anytime but too bad i didn’t understand their language. they actually sang some chinese and cantonese songs but i could hardly make out the words…pronunciation was too off.

oh and the fat girl i met last night at dinner came along as well, found out later that charlie and his sister are actually trying to matchmake the fat girl and their cousin (nicknamed fat boy) together.

left the place after an hour or so, i was dead bored there and only had chewing gums and my strawberry milkshake to keep me company.

charlie’s cousin left with the fat girl since it was already getting late but charlie, his sister and i decided to go for a walk and maybe grab some supper.

ended up at this fastfood place, probably their equivalent to our mcdonalds (i didn’t see a single mcdonalds there). the place was open 24 hours but we were the only customers there. ordered a burger meal which tasted very alike mcdonald’s samurai burger but better. however, the same cannot be said for their fries and chicken tenders, they were just aweful!

the set meal…look at the chicken tenders, they look really horrible and it tasted horrible as well.

the burger, upside down. i still have no idea what meat it is but i think it’s beef.

chalie and his sister camwhoring while waiting for my food

i later found out that charlie’s sister is actually not his real sister but his cousin, he didn’t want to explain it in details so it’s probably something i shouldn’t know.

took a walk along the streets after supper and saw this…

from first impression, one would assume this building to be a cinema or a night club from the neon lights and bright colours but it isn’t…it’s actually a community center.

i wonder what’s inside…a small casino?

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