first post for the year

Well since it is the 1st January, Happy Neew Year to all :) Last night, Drix & I decided to celebrate New Years Eve by heading out to New Empress Restaurant & Woolwich with Nancy, Kyle & Rachael. Because I felt odd snapping photos while everyone was hungry, I decided not to take any (which is a shame) but we ordered a banquet for 6 people although it was required for us to take out one dish as we only had 5 people. At $48.00 per head, I guess it wasn't bad as we had peking duck pancake, san choy bow, salt & pepper crab, fried rice, rainbow steak (I initially disagreed on ordering this dish as I didn't like it the first time I went to New Empress), honey prawns, seafood combination in bird's nest (the bird's nest was made from potato :o) & fruit with ice cream. Us girls left it to the fellas to finish off everything and soon enough, we were all bloated. We did catch a glimpse of the 9pm fireworks from the restaurant but the trees and buildings we in the way sadly. We left the restaurant at 9.30 and went straight to Woolwich. We thought we weren't going to be able to get into Woolwich as the cops closed off the road to get to Woolwich but luckily, there was shuttle bus services so we were able to park our cars and still make it for the view at Woolwich :) We got there around 10.45pm and were all surprised over how spectacular the harbour had looked and how close we were to the bridge! Well, with time to kill, us girls had a couple of drinks and chilled out before we crossed the road over to the park where a majority of people were already waiting to catch the fireworks. I must admit, not many people say it but I really despise alcohol and its side effects. Both Nancy & Rachael were fine, in which they had more drinks than I did, yet I was the first one to go tomato red & nauseous :( Such a weak drinker I am and all I had was a Jagerbomb & Alize!

 On the bus & gosh, Drix looks so seedy here haha!

 LOL at kyle..

New Year's kiss.. ruined by a photo bomber!

Thank god I did not miss out on the fireworks, as I felt like I was going to throw up. Poor Drix had to walk me to the other side incase I did chunder but it was all good as I did feel better by taking a walk & not only that, my mind was telling me not to feel sick as I could not miss out on the fireworks. Although I spent last NYE in the area watching the fireworks on top of the hill, the view from Woolwich was definately worth travelling for. This year's display was absolutely beautiful & from what I remember there was hearts, diamonds, clouds and many more! After the fireworks finished, we all queued up for the shuttle buses back to the car park and drove back to the area. We got back around 2am and chilled at Rachael's house til 3.30am. It was a memorable night and I'm glad to have spent it with my favourite people :)

 

Toppers Buffet Restaurant & Waqu

Toppers Restaurant/Last days in Vietnam
Its been exactly a week since I've arrived back in Australia and it feels great to breathe in clean, fresh oxygen :) I've been lagging with blogging as I have been out almost every single day. My last night in Vietnam was spent celebrating my aunty's birthday at a buffet called Toppers Restaurant in Parkson Shopping Centre in Saigon. What a better way to spend it after almost three weeks of excess consumption and sleep! My family arrived late as the taxi driver drove us all around the city and jipped us by pretending not to know where the shopping centre was. I must warn, anyone traveling to Vietnam should catch well renowned branded taxis! I told my parents to just stop the taxi and catch another one as our meter kept rising and we were heading to nowhere. We got out on a random street and asked shopkeepers for directions to Parkson and luckily, we were only 5 minutes away from it. We arrived there at 7pm (was supposed to be there at 6.30) and I was quite surprised with what was on offer. There were dishes such as steamed chicken, duck stir fried noodles, fried rice, banh xeo (Vietnamese pancakes), seafood (BBQ prawns, sea snails,grilled octopus, pippies), deep fried and fresh canapes (spring rolls, fish cakes, rice paper rolls, vegetable har gow), assorted salads, prawn and snow pea curry stir fry, Thai style noodle soup, roast beef, pasta, fresh fruits and che (sweet pudding). I'm sure there were many more dishes but that should do for now.

Excuse my bad photography but i had all the servers staring at me weirdly for whipping out my iPhone and quickly took some pictures. At the end of the night, our family went to bowling and this time round, I whipped both my sibling's bottoms and won :D We went home at 10pm and by this time, I felt less bloated thank goodness!

My last day in Vietnam will not be spoken about as I had spent all day ensuring I packed everything and being frustrated at Jet star for making our trip extremely difficult. The only great thing was that our plane was not delayed and we'd arrived on time back home.

 

Street Christmas lights

The most expensive wrap I have ever paid for !

Home sweet home!

Waqu Restaurant
A couple of days after, the boy took me out on Friday night to Waqu Restaurant. Actually, we had booked it 5 weeks in advance incase there weren't any reservations left. Our reservation was booked for 6.30pm and we ended up arriving 30 minutes earlier. The manager welcomed us in and lead us to our table at the back of the restaurant. We were greeted with the set menu and chose our dishes, where we chose to have 5 course menu for $60. For entrees I opted for the prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta while Drix had pork belly west x east. We also ordered our beverages where Drix ordered me a glass of sweet wine (West Cape Howe, botrytis riesling) and for himself lemon lime and bitters along with still water. Our waiter brings out a complimentary dish (cannot remember the name) but it had crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw. Definitely an interesting mix, in which the slaw reminded me of KFC's coleslaw!

Lemon lime & bitters $4, VOSS Still water $8, Botrytis Riesling $10

Complimentary dish (crisp prosciutto, corn chip and slaw)

It wasn't long after til our amuse bouche came out. The three layered chicken and vegetable terrine was beautifully presented on a brown slate, which i believe is inspired by Japanese culture. What i enjoyed the most of the dish was the light, airy rolled sponge served with the vegetable puree. It wasn't too heavy and tasted wonderful while Drix could not help praise the terrine, in which he adored the leek layer.

Three layered chicken & vegetable terrine (white wine daikon sauce, seasonal vegetable purée and rolled cake, prosciutto)

I think about 5 minutes after, our second dishes comes out. This was a dish that Drix had feared, as he isn't the biggest fan of raw seafood or anything along the words of 'sashimi'. The scallop tattare creme vichyssoise was fascinating on appearance but unpleasant on taste.  I was actually curious about this dish and took a spoonful of the wasabi infused scallop & tomato water jelly. It tasted very odd and since we do not like the taste of wasabi, this was Drix & I's least favourite dish of the night. However, the other components of the dish were nice especially the creme vichyssoise, which was smooth, creamy and went well with the bitterness of the rocket puree.

Scallop tartare creme vichyssoise (tomato water jelly, yuzu + olive oil dressing, rocket salad purée, red capsicum mousse)

I could see in Drix's facial expression that he certainly was not impressed by the dish at all as he looked like he wanted to throw up but at least we know we have a few dishes to go. I was anxious about our entrees coming out as I could see other diners consuming what i believe was the ocean trout, which we both didn't order. When the entrees came out, I was astounded by the presentation of the pork belly dish compared to the prawn+ricotta pasta. It looked magical and too pretty to even eat! I was slightly disappointed with the presentation of my entree but it was actually appetizing and enjoyable. The scampi was cooked right and the combination of ricotta and prawn was nice; however  the texture of the pasta was quite thick yet, it was an enjoyable dish. The two portions of the pork belly was braised to extreme tenderness (with one portion left with a crisp crackling) and was very delectable. Both Drix & I compared the eastern inspired pork to both our mother's caramelised braised pork & egg, which we both love. The miso crumbles were actually tasty and did not taste like what I thought it would.

 Pork belly west x east (pork belly confit and kakuni, asa-zuke salad, dengaku miso crumbles, hollandaise sauce)

Prawn + ricotta mezzelune pasta (grilled scampi, cauliflower flan, apple bisque, parmigiano foam)

Our first three dishes arrived pretty quickly but when it came to our mains we had a good 20-30 minute wait, which I guess was to ensure our stomachs had settled down from the previous dishes we consumed earlier. The waiter finally comes out with two massive plates. I almost forgot to add the waiters do describe the components of each dish to us after it has been presented, which is great as i did forget some aspects of the dishes I ordered beforehand. The presentation and execution of both dishes were even more mind blowing and I couldn't wait to dig in. The roasted veal loin was very tender & juicy, but not being a fan of rare meat spoiled my satisfaction for the dish. I must add, the toasted quinoa tasted interesting along with the truffle essence. The roasted duck was extremely juicy and flavour some, a dish I had intended and should have ordered. I could tell it was an Asian inspired dish, as the combination of the duck breast and hoi sin jus reminded me of Peking duck pancake. The zucchini fritter was unforgettable. It wasn't oily as I expected and the melted cheese centre was yummy. 

Roasted veal loin (truffle essence, aromatic mustard, enoki + quinoa, snow pea sprout matsunomi ae)

Roasted duck (hoisin jus, mango purée, zucchini zukushi, crispy prosciutto)

Now that we have almost finish dining, we both weren't anticipating on dessert as the thought of 'souffle' was unpleasant. One of my first experiences of tasting souffle left me feeling queasy & dissatisfied and since then, I have avoided ordering any 'souffle' desserts at restaurants.(it was the passionfruit souffle I had at Est. Restaurant that had me hating on souffle). We were both wrong about our desserts, which was both our favourite dishes of the night. The white chocolate macaroon was delightful and full of flavour but the highlight of the dish was the orange cheesecake souffle itself. It was so light and melted in my mouth. Actually I should say, each component of the dish was absolutely enjoyable and divine!

Orange cheesecake souffle (blood orange sorbet, orange coulis, mascarpone espuma, cardamon yoghurt, white chocolate macaroon)

 

Good evening to the most beautiful city in the world!

Although the servings are quite small, I was satisfied with my experience at Waqu. The wait staff were attentive, the food was enjoyable and most of all, it was nice to be able to spend my night with my other half after three weeks of not seeing each other :)

18/12

It's my third last day in Vietnam and gee, it has gone by so fast! It's hard to admit this but I don't want to go home yet as I know I'll have to face the bad weather back in Sydney. Well last week I travelled up north to the shores of Nha Trang. Our family had to be at saigon at 5.30am (Tuesday morning) as the coach was leaving at 6am. I Bought some hot corn from a poor man on the street as I was starving since I had to get up at 4am and gosh I've never tasted such a bland, taste less corn in my life! But oh well at least I helped the poor man :) Our coach was hot pink and white and reminded me of something barbie would travel in haha. Anyways , our tour Guide introduced himself And told us about our schedule for the 3 day tour. I think every time he stood up and spoke to those abroad, i fell asleep haha! He had a member from each family to introduce themselves & speak about where they were from. I think about 70% of the coach were foreigners either from Australia, America or England. We stopped by for breakfast at 8.30am & I had dry hu tieu (Dry glass noodles), which was hard to swallow as I usually have a bowl of oats and fruit. For this tour, it covers basically our breakfast, lunch & dinner til the end of our tour. The next stop was for lunch by a beach (cannot recall name :() but the water was stunning and aqua! Too bad it had to shower as the area (as well as nha trang) is known to rain. Another 3 hours and we finally arrived in Nha trang! We got there approximately 7pm so basically it took 13 hours to get there due to the frequent toilet breaks and terrible weather. We arrived at Yen Sao restaurant, basically a restaurant specialising in distributing bird's nest products. Dinner was rice with stir fried squid, canh chua soup, pan fried tuna, Prawn salad and pineapple for dessert. I might as well add that I consumed at every restaurant consisted of some sort of fish, squid and pineapple lol. We went back to the hotel, unpacked and settled for the night.

Next day, dad told us to get up at 5.30 so we could dine in the restaurant at 6.30 for buffet breakfast. I don't think there was much I could eat besides fruit (the usual pineapple, dragon fruit, papaya) but here are some photos!

We were supposed to be at the coach at 7.30am but knowing my mother will be late, our family hopped on at 7.35am and our tour guide punished my mother by having her repeat a tongue twister 10 times while the pack were laughing. We head to Diamond Bay resort (where miss universe was held in 2008) and it starts sprinkling. I slept til about 10.30am and was awoken to mud crabs, sea snails and squid in front of me. I obviously could not resist and had some, in which our tour guide notifies us that lunch was at 11.30am. Excellent, stuffed myself with all these crustaceans and there's still more food :( I won't repeat myself but the menu for lunch was almost the same for dinner. Next we went to an aquarium and I could not help but sqeal when I saw the baby seals & turtles. Such gorgeous mammals! There were also small sharks, tropical fish and skeletons of some whales. Well that's pretty much what we did that day.

 

Good morning Nha Trang 

Cutie baby seals!

Little turtles

The same occurs the next day. Get up at 5.30, head to breakfast at 6am and hopped on the coach at 7.30am. Thank goodness the weather was warmer yet still cloudy. Today, our tour takes us to Vinpearl Land, a "5 star" island resort which consists of a theme park, water theme park, private beach, shops, accommodation and restaurants. I had to prepare myself, as the main way to travel to the island is by cable car. It is known to be the world's longest cable car and takes approximately 10 mins to get to the island. At first, our family had to purchase a entry ticket costing 360 000 VND (about 17 AUD) which entitles us to unlimited rides, arcade game plays and more in order to access the island but first we had to hop into the cable car. It felt like my heart was going to drop but luckily, it wasn't bad at all!

 Not high at all..

 Being the typical tourist I am ha-ha!

We could see the whole city of Nha Trang and it's beautiful beaches. As we hopped off the cable car, our first option was to enjoy the water theme park first as it was the area that was closing the soonest so we went. The first ride we went on was the multi slide. That actually killed my eyes as I slid down but in the end, I came last to my siblings and father. Next, our family chilled by the beach before my siblings decided to walk around and find more water rides. Since my brother admitted he had no balls and didn't want to go on anything, my sister and I went on The giant slides (in which was a mission to travel up the stairs to reach the slide as the metal steps hurt my feet). The ride was fun but not thrill seeking enough so my sister and I decided to try the Tsunami slide. I thought I made a mistake when I realized how many steps I had walked up and how high the slide was. Pretty much every person carries a donut to the top and the instructor pushes you off the ledge as you sit on the donut, where it takes the rider down the slide in see saw motions. I cannot really explain how the ride works but here's an image of the ride.

The time flew by so quickly but the rides were closing up and we could go a second round so our family swum by the beach til sunset. I also must add, there must have been more foreigners at this theme park than local residents! We then went to the arcade area, where the arcade games and dodgem cars were free of play. I took advantage of that and played so many rounds of shooting hoops that my right arm was starting to ache :$ Our family waited for the 6pm 4D movie session, which wasn't even that great as my dad chose to sit at the front and all I felt was cold air shooting in my face (one of the 4D effects). My parents actually intended on watching the light fountain show, which was amazing. I did record the show and photograph it but here are some pictures :)

We left Vinpearl Land at 8pm and travelled back to town, where the taxi took us to a seafood restaurant on the opposite side of Nha Trang. We had the usual crab, sea shells and grilled prawns along with sweet and sour fish soup and braised tuna but since the food was not that great, I didn't bother takinh photographs nor remember the name of the restaurant. After dinner, we cabbed it back to the CBD and walked around, in which my dad got stuck in a shopping centre while it was closing as he was trying to find the toilet. It was so embarrassing as we could hear the staff and security call out his name on the speaker but I guess it was hilarious in the end. That leads to the end of the day so i today was more enjoyable than yesterday!

The last day in Nha Trang was absolutely dreadful. I got up at 5am and did not want to eat anything from the buffet so all I could consume was dragon fruit and pineapple pieces, along with a ham, cheese and tomato toast. My stomach starting kicking in as soon as i finished eating and I was left gripping onto my belly all day. Our tour guide took us to another beach, about 50km away from Nha Trang and we spent all morning there. It was a shame that the sun was out and it was hot but I felt too sick to do anything. Lunch was rice with the usual and then we were taken to a mud bath resort back in Nha Trang. In Australia, it takes roughly an hour to travel 50km but in Vietnam, it took 1.5 hours to get there and back. Feeling queasy, I thought I'd get a massage at the mud bath resort. The massage was relaxing and lasted about 20 minutes; however, when the therapist asked for a tip, I felt so uncomfortable and pretended I didn't understand her. Obviously it is optional to leave tips wherever you go but to ask for one is definitely impolite! Our next stop was to the markets called Dam Markets (known for dried seafood and fruit) before we waved goodbye to our tour companions and cabbed it to Nha Trang train station. Before we left, my parents bought roast pork rolls along with rice with egg and pork chop in case we were hungry during the train trip but in the end, no one had eaten much and slept all the way home. We board the train at 6.30pm and departed at 7pm. The trains were better than i expected as they looked very antique on the exterior but inside, it was fitted with new bunk beds, a flat screen TV and air conditioner. I did not sleep for long on the train as my stomach kept hurting during the night but I did manage about an hours sleep. Initially I thought the trip would take a lot of time but the next thing you know, the guards knocked on our doors at 4am and told us we were already in Saigon. At the time I thought 'thank goodness we were re back in the area, better food and cleaner toilets'. Well that was my 3 day trip to Nha Trang. I'm not sure if I would return to this city the next time i travel to Vietnam but it was good experiencing this popular tourist destination.

 Last day in Nha Trang & despite the clouds, the beach was beautiful

 Farewell Nha Trang!

Hrmmmm....

So I've been in Vietnam for 12 days and I am slowly adjusting to the weather except sleeping under the Aircon every night is killing my throat & I really miss my lovely comfortable bed. Well, I am currently in Vung Tau & I did not bring my laptop so i'll make this a short post. Spending time away from home has left me reminiscing about many things, particularly the past and present. I don't like regretting anything I have or have not done in the past but there is a lot I wish I had done. If I had a time machine I would definitely ensure I would make good use of it. There is Not a particular period I would rewind back to but honestly, If I was more inclined to study harder, think productively and efficiently for myself & made wiser decisions then I am sure I would be more different than I am today. Maybe I would be more joyful or even depressed. I guess god created this pathway I'm treading so that I would actually yearn about decisions I did not make previously and learn to adjust it for the future. This is such an emotional post but I needed an outlet to vent out my thoughts and hopefully, if I have time, create a more interesting post about what I have been doing here.

Vietnam so far..

Okay so i have been extremely lazy with blogging as i have been out quite a bit since i've arrived here. So these past few days, I've been to the country side south of Vietnam to visit my relatives and places my family had wanted to visit. But I'll start off with what I did on Wednesday. I went to Hung Vuong shopping complex which consists of a massive department store (very similar to David Jones/Myer), food court, Gaming arena, Bowling alley, a cinema and a extremely hectic gym! Firstly, we started off with exploring the department store which had many cosmetic brands. The store had some legitimate brands as well (Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, Guess, Levi's) which had reasonably priced products but nothing had appealed to me because I didn't intend on buying things here when I could buy it in Sydney. We then went upstairs to the food court and had frozen yogurt. The pricing is quite similar compared to home as the yogurt & toppings are weighed per gram. It was 10000 dong per 100gm which is equivalent to about 50c per 100gm. I had melon and vanilla yogurt which i shared with my brother as i came to realise i overfilled the cup. Oops! the toppings were ordinary but i could not get over their yogurt ball topping. They looked like pearl balls except they were filled with yogurt tasting juice which popped in my mouth and tasted yummy! My sister had some sushi as well, which tasted very bland as the rice was not seasoned and there was no meat fillings. We then went up another level to explore their gym. I had an expectation that their equipment would be dodgy but I was wrong. There were at least 40 treadmills, 40 cross trainers and 50 spin bikes, each equipped with an in built TV! At that moment i felt like working out and doing some cardio but too bad that won't be happening for a while :( Next, we went to the gaming alley which had bowling alleys too so the siblings and I decided to play. They proved to me how much of an awesome bowler I am lol! After we finished bowling, we went back to ground level and caught a taxi home. On the way back home, i stopped over my family friend's hair/nail shop and got my nails done. It costed 80000 dong (about $4 AUD) and it was amazing how quickly and beautifully the young girl drew on the designs. After a long day, I went back home, skyped with Drix and had an early night.

 VIP entrance haha!

 Frozen Yogurt toppings

 Topped off with blackberries, lychee, strawberries & yogurt balls.

 

 One of the most hectic gyms I have ever came across!

 

Vietnamese sushi

 

Final score of 48! Go me =='

Awesome nails :D