Day 1 Hanoi - part two

Apparently, we din noe where to go. Not planned. We do have a map though and hence we walk past stalls and stalls of shops selling flowers, stuff toys....

There's something im always curious about. That is the relative distance on the map and in reality. Being a tourist having a free and easy trip, armed with a map only, it is important to know what you see is what you should get in reality. For the map that we bought at the airport, its not that bad. Rather reasonable.

We walk to Dong Xuan Market where there are 3 levels of stalls. You can find all the little stalls selling all kinds of stuff ranging from shoes, handbags, local clothes and many many more. One thing i've learnt and saw was that, Vietnamese are ALWAYS counting cash. Cash is always kept in pockets with no wallets and tied up with rubber bands around it. Not sure whay they are always counting cash but, yes, that's the way they live by. We did not purchase anything from Dong Xuan market. Maybe not in the mood and maybe the corridor of the walkway is pathetically small. One will need to walk sideways or the walkway is just nice for 1 person. Luckily, the weather was ok, not warm. So not much complaints from me. Another thing i've learnt is that toilet is noted with the letters "WC" in Hanoi. Not sure what it means but yes, that's the identifier.

After Dong Xuan, we decided to walk further down to the lake. Along the way, i've bought 2 pants, wrap around ones at VND90,000 per piece. That is SGD9 bucks. I think its considered cheap.

Took photos at the lake and when round the place before going back to the hotel in the evening and had dinner at a cafe near the lake called Bun Te. Apparently, Bun means noodles in Vietnamese. We had problems ordering food as the menu did not explicitly explain the dishes. Luckily, the restaurant is well equipped with a photo menu. Got myself things that looks normal and hence manage to enjoy my food. Im rather picky with my food, in a sense, simply no vegetables will do....easy right?

Anyway, we roam the streets further before heading back to the Hotel at 8+. Both of us were a little irritated with the horning of the cars in Hanoi. Simply irritating.

One thing i realised about Hanoi's traffic is that in order to overtake a car in front or to notify that you want to overtake, you horn. And miraculously, the car in front will shun. But in old quarters, just like a big orchard road, the roads are dominated by motorcycles. Hence , they keep horning to inform you that they are there and please note and give way. Something like that. Imagine an patient man like BC can get irritated. How bad it is.

Enjoyed the bath back in the hotel. Somehow, taking a bath in hotels is real different. Different touch.

Something i need to add is that, for some reason or so, the toilet paper is placed behind the seat. So, the designer expect the sitter to turn 180 degrees to get the paper. Simply not user friendly. Wrong choice of place.

Tired....time to rest and update the days' adventure tomorrow. Koonz.....nites

Hanoi photos

Ambitious?

Told meixia today that there are 3 types of people who are ambitious

1. Truely ambitious, works towards target. Result oriented. Result - successful and gain respect
2. Ambitious, shallow. Result - failure
3. Ambitious, hollow, smoke a lot. Result - successful but depends on when the hollow centre will be exposed.

BW happens to be the 2nd. Good Luck.

Courage to downgrade

A colleague told me that she is considering to downgrade from a Assistant Operations Manager to Duty Manager. Duty Manager is just an after office hours consultant.

Reason being, she wanted to spend more time with her family, her kids. At the rate she is going, she is given a lot of responsibilities, conveniently and going home with work to do has been a norm. Something that she is getting tired of and a situation that is not improving.

I admired her courage to downgrade. For some, once you have climb to a certain level of the hierachy, its hard to move down in the same industry, needless to say, same company. The level of sacrifice, amazing.

I encouraged her. Praise her courage and support her.

Go for it. Shelby!

Secrets?

Is there such a thing call secret? I doubt so.

Secrets are always shared, with the people you are not suppose to tell. So secrets in the office will be shared at home, with your close or loved ones.

Agree?

Another Chao Geng

My current team stands at 8 inclusive of myself.

Janise - JC (30+)
Bernard - BW (39)
Linda - YL (26)
Rayve - RC (40)
Elisa - ET (21?)
Victor - VC (early 30s?)
Shirle - NS (unknown, should be late 30s)

Shirle is the last to be transfered from Finance to my team. Have heard of her working attitude prior her transfer. Actually, i was quite open to anyone coming to my team. We should give others a chance to prove their capability and i hope that the team's spirit could change somethings.

This gal on her 2nd day transfer here got my arrow. She simply and conveniently left for the day without issuing her ticket. Now the catch here is that for all reservations, there is a ticketing deadline. If no ticket number is captured in the system i.e no ticket issued, the system will auto cancel the seats and the next day, you will get hell from the client. So, this newbie, sent her booking to her mentor JC for checking prior ticket issuance and without JC's ok to issue, simply left for the day. JC highlighted to me and i reply SN,

"Please ensure that your ticket is issued prior leaving for the day. If for some reasons you need to leave early, please approach someone to handle your outstanding".

She replied "As this is my first day, please give me more time to absorb the information to issue the ticket", something like that.

Oh pls, bullshit. I've only assigned a team's invoicing and she took the whole day to issue 2 tickets? and my goodness, its not even issued!

and so i replied "Dear NS, please ensure JC provides adequate information to you for ticket issuance. For your information, VC and ET has issued the tickets on their first day in the team. You should not have much problems with it. Note that all tickets should be issued the same day consultants handover to us and if for watever reason, you did not issue the ticket without communicating with the consultant and we lost the seat and results in issuing a more expensive ticket, you will need to bear the cost. If there is a need, i will have to guide you personally"

That's the first time.

Today, she claims she has issued the ticket. Yet, my JC decide to check her work again prior leaving the day and that woman never issue AGAIN.

I'll see how she's gonna explain to me tomorrow.....

Day 1 at Hanoi - part one

We were due to depart for Hanoi on 25th Oct. Not wanting to lose too much time due to late timing of the flights, i 'psycho' BC to take SQ which is more expensive than others. He seems to find it expensive too but too late. All's done.

We reached Hanoi Noi Ba International airport at 11.30am local time. (Hanoi is one hour slower than SIN)We got a cab, a fixed charge of 150,000VND, to our hotel at Hang Cot, Jasper Hotel.

(By the way, this whole trip was initiated as i've won a 2 nights complimentary at the Hilton Hanoi hotel and hence, not wanting to waste the stay, i got BC to go with me)

This Jasper hotel looks a bit like a motel from its appearance. We got through the check in without much hassels. Hassel free to the extent that no credit card was required as deposit, they need no forms to be filled, they just needed to safekeep your passport. This is something that im not too comfortable but it seems like we do not have much choices. So the porter then took our luggage to room 402. Upon arriving level 4, he knocks on the room door. BC ask the reason for doing that. I guess its due to superstition but then we realised that no. It was for the fact that there are people in the room and when the door opens, it looks as though a couple of chambermaid dressed in casual clothes were taking a morning nap. We were asked to wait at the corridor while the porter went back to the reception to check things out.

After much wait, we were brought to a different room. Room 502 instead. I was slightly amazed by the look of the room. Modern, neat, clean and looks like a high end hotel minus the technology. Cool. Not bad for SGD60+ per night. As usual, i took photos of the room and BC was playing with the safe. Without much success, the so called English Menu gave him problems and for the first time in my life, the safe's alarm went off. We had to call the reception for help. The same porter and BC struggled for a long 30mins and after much repeated attempts to set the alarm, with the same porter being called to the room many times, we finally got the procedure for setting the safe's code. Phew.

We changed and headed down the streets to experience Hanoi........

Back from Hanoi!!!

Back in my little city i call home....

The 3 and a half days spend in Hanoi was enriching with the different culture (pace of life, the horning of cars, shopping, haze...)

I've seen and experienced quite a bit in Hanoi that i wanted to share with all. Be it tourist attractions, shopping, some new things that i've never done, things that amazed me and many many more. I've started to realise that on an overseas trip, shopping might not be the priority, it's the many new things and life you see and experienced that adds meaning to your life.

In this whole week, i'll share the many experiences encountered and of cos not forgetting the photos i've took......

Stay tuned...

Tired, really tired

Not sure why i feel this way these days. It is irritating, yet uncontrollable.

I sleep for a minimum 7 hours these days, more than what i used to sleep, yet im still tired. Something seems to be wrong..hmm...im not sure

Too many things, too little time, too little energy.

In addition, the human resource management is tiring. Cutting a ticket and invoice on the same day is taxing. Managing a team of 6 adds to the damage. But i chose this path. Point of no return. But i will survive. With my team, and better.

I've borrowed a book "Leading teams", hoping that it will give me more insights to my daily managing. God bless.

Probably i need a little break. Im looking forward to spending some time with BC overseas. A chance to understand each other better and explore a new place together. Memories that will belong to us only.

Hanoi, wait for me. Another week to go.....Cya soon.

Dismissal of a colleague - monetary theft

This is the third colleague who left the office. Just that there is a slight difference.

Man, a figure i thought will be strong, someone to rely on, someone who will plan ahead, take care of the main bread and butter of the house. A simple thought. Yet, many did not make it.

One of my colleague, ex colleague i should say, left the company due to monetary theft. He has been working for many years in the company, a contributor, a responsible one. Yet, after his dismissal, i change my views on him.

My fellow colleagues pity him and felt sad at his departure as afterall, he have been a good figure and one who has worked alongside with all the oldtimers for soo long. They hope for the best for him, pray that he will be able to scrape through this ordeal, but for me, i made the comment. "He should be glad or thankful if they do not put him behind bars." They might have find me cruel, but i must say, everyone has a choice to choose his/her way. They can choose to keep the damage to the minimum. Or complain through his living days and wait for a miracle to happen.

In a recent HK serial, i could remember vividly this sentence made. "if you say you will try your best, you will only try your best. If you say you can do it, then there is a higher chance of achieving your goal" There is such truth in the statement. One that all would probably know yet hard to practise. There are many ways to do this. Pick the wrong one and it could lead to a bad end, an unexpected one.

I'm sad that he ended his job in this manner. Not even a chance to say goodbye. Sad that he choose this way. (maybe he din choose, but he allow himself to slowly go through this path?)

MP briefly told us his story. A summon unpaid, laid to borrowing from loanshark and upteen unlucky things that happen to him, that resulted his theft. Mankind has their thousand and one reasons why things happen. Things happen for a reason. We could have plan better to minimise the damage. Yet, sometimes, we are blinded by our own thoughts that resulted a path that was never planned.

I sincerely hope he survived. Better. Do not step in the same footstep again.

All the best. Abu....

Dinner with Enen, Ah Biao and Adelyn

Dinner with EnEn, Ah Biao and Adelyn

Photos taken at BK in Amara.......Dun puke when you see the series of photos Ah Biao pose.....haha

KTV crazy

Was meeting Adelyn last fri for a nite out and us, being ktv crazy, wanted to go sing our hearts out with the new learned songs.

Being a friday and a PH eve, it was gonna be an expensive night. So we called to check out the prices of the various places

1. KBox - Think it was 48++ for its happy hours. That works out to about 30 per person! wah, exceed our budget. We arent willing to spend that money on that night.

2. Partyworld - It was about 48 nett for 4hours. 24 per person. but room is available only 11pm. nah...

We were undecisive. In the end, we decided to meet first. Adelyn was coming to pick me up at my office tower. 30mins from knockoff time, i had to attend to a hotel reservation request that require a room for 2 adults and 2 kids locally. Its soo hard to get rooms last minute. After much attempts, failed ones, i truthfully told the client i cant find the rooms. Phew, he accepted it and i rush off to the poor gal who was waiting for me helplessly. She have been waiting for me the day before as well for our dinner appointment. Work, can be soo unexpected.

Anyway, we finally decided to give Ten Dollar Club a shot and called to make reservations. It is located at Smith Street and we decided to pack our Mc dinner there crossing our fingers that it allows us to bring food in. Adelyn got lost while trying to make her way there as i was dropped off to buy dinner and she went to find a parking lot.

When we finally got there, to our 'shock', it had a minimum amount as well which came up to about 40+. We had 2 hours left and of cos, we left, not wanting to spend that money.

In the end, finally went back to Lucky Chinatown. Decided to give KSter a shot. We finally got a best offer at 15++ per person for a 3 hour slot.

So the two crazy woman went singing finally at K-Ster and we were glad for 1 thing. We finally manage to find Liang Jing Ru's Ye Ye Ye Ye concert version singable at K-Ster. Haha.

After KTV, Adelyn gave me a ride back home and we went for a car wash prior that. It was those manual car wash kind. That's my first experience for a manual car wash. I could remember those days when dad drove us in his cab and went for the automatic car wash, and we had to cover the edge of the windows with a cloth for fear that the water would seep through the window. Those were the days.

And when the soap foam were sprayed on the windows, i went "hey, it looks like its snowing!!!" and i did the those crazy thing. I took out my cam and took photos. Adelyn was just as excited and there, we took our photos in the car....hehe

















By the time i was home, i was tired, from work and a day's out.......zzzzzz