I was back from Vietnam yesterday afternoon. I've had an EXCELLENT trip to Vietnam this time with my friends. Total places we visited: 15, total day we spent: 9. Total types of food we tried: 30, total photos we took: 700, total souvenir iIbought; 27, what else? Total money we spent: ???????? (read til the end) I know you are dying to see my photos, but I'm sorry because I can't post it up all at the moment. Please gimme this 2 days weekend. I'll promise I will give you the best post about this trip! Be patient! OK? Smile :D
First day!
One photo at the airport first before I start!



We went on 30th Sept, the KLIA airport was quiet, surprisingly. Most of the shops closed at early 12pm. It must be due to Hari Raya I guess. We landed in Hochiminh at 3.30pm, 1h 45 min flight only. It's pretty fast as if when the stewardess gave me the food, I finished up, took a drink and they asked me to get ready for landing off. By the way, the flight attendant whose names Wooi Lian is so cute and handsome. But too bad, I couldn't take any photo with him (*sigh).

The very good thing in Hochiminh Airport is that when you get out of the plane, walk into the hall for luggage claim, your luggage is already waiting for you there since when. Super fast. We didn't have to wait even for 1 minute. Rapidly got out of the airport after checking in, we took a taxi to the hotel. The hotel I already book before I went off so now they were just waiting for me to arrive. We stayed in An An 2 Hotel, located in very happening area for only foreigners and tourists. There are a lot of souvenir shops, restaurants, and especially tour companies there. And no worries, they can speak English even though their English is something like: "I sell you cheap price. This is very beautiful. How much you want?". The room here is pretty small but clean, 1 night only USD22/ room with double bed. So if you go with few of friends, you can save a lot of money for accommodation. Check HERE if you want to find out about this hotel. Settle with the accommodation part. So, what to eat? Of course, beef noodle or we called it PHO BO. I took my friends to a popular restaurant about PHO. Most of the customers were sitting inside are foreigners too. Three of us took spring roll, beef noodle (2 bowls), 1 chicken noodle. This is my food: And the total bill is VND178,000 which equals to RM40. This is a quite high-class restaurant, thus the price is slightly higher. If you eat 1 bowl of noodle at the normal store along the streets, it costs you just RM4 for once. Cam-whoring inside the restaurant for a while, hehehe: When you come to Vietnam, a tropical country, you MUST try the fruit here. Even the mango, the longan, the lychee, it tastes so different from Malaysia. We had try these plus 2 fresh fruit juices. It costs RM4- RM5 all together. While eating the fruit, we were enjoying watching people busy on the street at night. The weather was just perfect, windy and clear. It's kinda fun you know? You guess what is it? The guy who sold dry sotong (squid). with only the small bicyle and a simple stuffs, he grilled the squid on the spot to serve you. See, he was grilling the squid for me. He was standing there for so long to wait for us to buy from him, so we just supported him  It looked a bit ugly but it's very yummy you know? Ok, done with the sotong session, we were heading to the Ben Thanh night market by Xichlo. I'm sure you all know what is 4 wheels drive, but.......3 wheels drive probably you don't. Lolzzz, so this is the 3 wheels drive lor:D This is very very old vehicle of Vietnam in 1990, nowadays they use it for tourism purpose only. I couldn't take any photo in this market due to busy with shopping and looking at the stuffs there. But a tip for you, if you want to purchase something there, the seller says VND600,000 for a skirt, you just pay VND150,000 only, then slowly markup. If they don't want to sell, pretend to walk away. They will call you back, trust me. What if they don't call??? Forget about it and go to the next store because you already know roughly what is the lowest price of that item. So, just go ahead and shopping but be aware of pickpocket as well. Crime is everywhere in the world! We finished our shopping session, then I needed to go to see my friend- the singer as he just ended his show also. He took us with a group of friend to go to eat again! We ate Ice-cream, we ate seafood. I was pretty tired at that time 11.30pm. So took 1 ice-cream photo only. This was mine!

  And after this evening activities, we went back to our hotel to rest and prepare for the next day beach tour.


Second day!

Waking up at 7am, we quickly had our breakfast and got into the car heading to Vung Tau, a city which is far away from Ho Chi Minh about 2 hours drive. I was so looking forward to going to Vung Tau, a beach city, also a very happening area for tourists and seafood lovers. The weather was just so nice and clear. There was 7 of us all together in 1 car: 2 girls (me & my friend), 5 guys. Arrived there at 12pm (depart at 8.30am but only 12pm we reached the hotel because we stopped along the road to try the food, hahaha...All big eater!) The interesting part when u travel to Vietnam is you can eat a lot and you may feel full at that time, but after 2 hours, you still can try other food as if you have never eaten before :D) That's why once we arrived the hotel, we went out to look for our lunch also. And this is our very southern meal style: Sweet and sour fish. This one was quite nice and I kept eating it non-stop. God! :D

Some of you may know, my parents came to Malaysia to visit me a week ago, they were back Hanoi safely, by the way! On the they went back, there was a big storm in Hanoi. They transited in Ho Chi Minh first before heading to Noi Bai Airport (Hanoi). Flying from 10am, but until 10pm only they reached home! What a long and tiring flight! During their five day and four night trip here, I managed to stay with them two nights at the Hotel Radius International. The hotel is big but seems not many people know about it. It locates in Jln Changkat, Bukit Bintang. You can go and find out yourself if one day you happen to have a  friend staying there. It is quite crowded and happening area. Here you see! The big view!
The first night 20th Sept, my friend sent me to the hotel. I planned to have a family dinner with them but Mom was busy with her company dinner and meeting, only Dad decided not to join to hang out with me. Dad only loves to stay with me every time he comes here, so sweet of him. Then my friend- Alvin brought us to have seafood dinner. A BIG hug and big Thank you.
Here are some photos while my parents were in Malaysia

On the second day, I only manage to stay with them in the morning, joined them for their company city- tour in KL. We've been to few places: Tien Hou temple, Royal Palace, Independent Square,etc... I bet some local people have never stepped into those places. Nothing much to see, only for foreigners come to take photos. I only like to go to Tien Hou temple, the rest, not so interesting. The weather was sunny and hot, it made me headache after that, felt like sick. But after went to Tien Hou temple, the headache was gone. How strange!
After all these tours, I rushed back to the studio to teach at 3.30pm until 6pm. Shaw- my friend, sent me to the hotel again. I owed this guy a lot for his kind helps :) Thanks, Shaw! At night time, I brought my parents to shopping in Sungei Wang. Afer a year plus in working, this is the first time that I could bring them to shop, buy them things that they want. I was so happy to see my mom go to all the shops and happily pick some clothes and shoes. She got these: 1. Wallet (I couldn't recall the brand)~ RM159 2. Shoes: RM59 3. Clothes- RM120 4. Children toys for my nephews: RM100 5. Black crystal jewelry: RM259 Am I a good daughter?. Not bought any for Dad yet because he couldn't find what he want :(. Perhaps, buying for him on his coming birthday then. Give him a kiss first! I like to kiss on his cheeks whenever I can ^_^
Takeing photo with the tourist guide whose names Samantha.

It took me almost 1 week to settle my new room, new house. I'm still staying in the same place, just move to a different block. My new house is pretty new, clean, tidy, neat and overall: It's nice and PINK! It's always my dream to have a pink room since I was very small. And when coming over here, I have to put my dream aside because this is not my own house. However, this time, I signed long contract to the owner hence I decided to decorate it nicely. Some friends have been invited to my room, and their reactions are all same "Wow, so nice, so girly"..... I'm happy. Everyday going back home from work, I hide inside my pinky room and relax. The pink color makes me happy! :D. Perhaps, I should show you some photos instead of talking too much:
My makeup corner!
  It includes 1 small wardrobe, 1 shelf, and some other small pink boxes to put hair dryer, hair curler, and so on. Notice the sticky mirror on the wall? I bought it in Ikea with only RM19 something for 4 pieces. You can buy more to decorate your house. It's light and very artistic. The flower and the pink vases were bought in Ikea too. RM2/ each. Unbelieveably cheap!

This is my make up shelf! The first drawer is for hair accessories (hair pin all types (too many to show here), hair bands, hair clip. Next basket is for eyes lash, around 10 pairs in different types if I'm not wrong. The last basket is for bangle (*still need to collect other colors). 2nd drawer is all about lotion and liquid: hair cream (x4), eyes cream (x1), body lotion (x2), hair gel (x3), hair spray (x2), hair oil (x2), facial wash (x2), and others (x3)...Wow, if I don't count each and everything, I don't know I have that many :p. Ok, the last one is all about nail. All together are 20 bottles. Honestly, I don't use them all and not every day either. But I still have to have it because for dancing and sometimes, when I'm in the good mood or when I'm free, I will take good care of my nails with all color and paints.  Perfume corner! My birthday is coming up in 3-month, if you want to give me a perfume, please minus these brands. These are 6 bottles currently in use. I have finished the others and I didn't keep the empty bottle. Among these 6, i still love the lascote, David Doff and Tommy girl. But my most favorite perfume is none of them, surprise? Only the special person will know my special perfume.

  Souvenir corner! I used to keep those cute things in this rack, even the rack is so small you see? The plant with watery gelly is my friend's idea. It's good to put in the room so that you can be in touch with nature :D. Green color is always good for eyes especially for those are short sighted. Ok, move to my PINK collection. This cutie pinky slipper i used to wear it inside my room, bought from long time ago. It looks damn cute and lovely. You only can wear it provided your floor must be clean or else you will destroy it coz mine one the sole is totally made by cloth. Thus, it needs extra care. This is my company gift to me: a 4 sides pink clock with different functions: calendar and time, alarm, temperature and stop watch. Each function will come with different colors as well, very pretty to see it at night. I'm thinking to hang it up instead of putting on the table like this. For what? To let it roll so that I can see all 4 functions. Good idea?

  My pink chair @RM55 is from Ikea too! It was packed inside a box and I assembled it myself. I love this chair. It's just so cute and comfortable of course not for big size people. Yeah! My most favourite stuff of all: a pinky mouse. I had to go to Low Yat plaza to look for those pink computer accessories. I wanted to buy a pink keyboard too, but they didn't have many choices (*it's hard to find actually unless you order from oversea), pink camera, pink headset, pink speaker will slowly be collected later. See my mouse! It's so cuteeeee especially when the light is on. It shines like a dimaond.

Overall my room is here! Pay a visit if you want to take a look at my living room, kitchen, bathroom. My bathroom accessories are decorated up to 90% in pink color too :D So far, everything is pretty good. The housemate are educated and friendly people. They are not money minded people even though one of them is just student. I stayed here more than 1 week but they haven't asked me for rental and deposit at all. They bought me a table, wardrobe, bed, etc... Internet Maxis broadband can be used for free. So if you guys want to try out Maxis broadband service, do ask me for opinion. I'm using it now at home. So, that's about it.

P/s: The pink flowery curtain I bought in Jusco @ RM23 only coz now they are having promotion up to 70%. So many nice pink stuffs there but Yes! need to control.
P/p/s: I know if I'm just crazy about pink but not up to the stage that I will ask my future husband to wear pink underwear, ok? Don't be so afraid :D

Updated! 06/08/08 This guy above is my ex- housemate. To whom who cares about me, you probably know WHAT HAPPENED to me yesterday until now. Alright, temporarily, I'm HOMELESS. The reason was because of the RM30 government house tax (I've been staying here for 3 years plus and renting so many rooms, but I've never ever heard about the Government house tax). Anyway, the conversation went as below:

 10. 05 am- 5th August 2008.  *I received 2 missed called* plus 1 new message from Marshall. (Oh forgot to introduce to you, the ugly, fatty, dirty and lousy man above names Marshall, another name is Stephen Yii Yeo Hui or whatever it is). *His Message*- "Call me immediately or you have no door in" *I replied*- "What happened? I'm in the meeting now, can't call. What is that again" (The reason why I put the word AGAIN was because it's not the first time he wanted to make troubles for me.

A few months ago, there was water leaking in our house, he didn't know how to fix, he then LOCKED the water tank. I and my friend had no water for living during 3 days and we had to buy many mineral water bottles for our daily routines. Can you believe it?

He told me that the management cut the water. (*how could a manager of big condor simply cut off water without any prior notice???). I called a plumber guy come to fix. After that, problem solved! As simple as that. This is just one of the many nonsense stories that I have to deal with every day.

10.30pm- *Calling to Marshall
Me   : Hello! Marshall? What happened again. I don't get your message. :
(*He raised up his voice) I told you to pay RM430 including the RM30 house tax. Why you only pay RM400. Do you want to create troubles with me with only RM30. You are damn troublesome, you know?
Me: What's troubles? What did I do?
He: Do what? You brought Nurul your friend to stay here also brought a lot of troubles with me, WTF. (*Nurul is my colleague, she rent a small room in my house because she didn't have any place to stay that time. When she moved out, this guy didn't give her the deposit as well which was worth RM500. Before Nurul, Nicole was another victim but not my friend)
Me: (*feel like painted. I'm damn blur. I needed to take 5 minutes to absorb what it's all about). Not RM30 that matter. I already told you, WE are not supposed to pay for Government house tax, the owner is supposed to pay. All of my friends who are renting rooms never pay for such thing. That's why I'm not going to pay for it.
(*He screamed on the line). You don't compare other houses ok. You are living here, in this house, so you HAVE TO PAY. Or else, you can move out now. I will pay you the deposit back. You can move out anytime. Are you stupid?
Crystal: (*damn angry but try to stay calm, and because there were many people with me that time) Ok, I'm talking nicely to you now. You don't have to raise up your voice. OK? So you just want me to pay to you RM30, isn't it? You just want RM30 only, right?
The asshole: RM30, and the lack portion of the deposit. Last time you moved from a small room to a middle room. So now pay the deposit for the middle room as well, plus the phone bill, Internet, water, electrical bill also. And you give me your passport also. I don't trust you anymore.
Crystal: (*what the..., I think): OK, fine. I'll come back and settle with you later.

6.30pm- I'm home. Damn tired and exhausted. (*knocked his room door) 
Me: Marshall, I need to talk to you. : (*holding the paper in hand with all calculation of what I needed to pay and with a normal face)
He: OK. So you need to pay me all together RM330 
Me: OK, you told me just now. If I move out, then you will give me back my deposit plus the August house rental, right?
He: Yah (so confident face. Perhaps, he thought, I wasn't able to move out)
I: OK, I agree with your condition. You give me money, I will move out by the end of the week. You give me my money now. 
He: (*a big shocked face-It took him few seconds to know what I'm saying) You are damn troublesome you know. What do you want?
I: I want my money back and I will move out as soon as I can. The rental for this month, you can give me half. I don't mind. So I think, it's fair for both. 
He (*screaming and pointing at me): OK. you move out now. 
I: How am I supposed to move when you haven't given me my money and all my things are here.
The asshole: YOU MOVE OUT, NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! (*he totally lost his mental and control. I don't know why! perhaps he has some mental problems)
I: Yah, I will. But at least you have to give me few days to pack my stuffs.  
He: MOVE NOWWWWWWW AND GIVE ME THE HOUSE KEY. YOU MOVE, NOWWWWWWWWWWW. (*keeps screaming with the eyes as big as his mouth, pointing at me)
I: Don't point at me ok? (I removed his finger then he beat on my hands. Perhaps he wanted to slap me)
He: What? YOU MOVE NOW. GIVE ME THE KEY. MOVE!!!!! 
I: Ok, OK. Cool down. I'm not moving, I go out to take the money to give you. OK? I go out now. 
He: Where you go? I don't trust you. You give me your passport. 
I: Go to Giant, I don't have enough Cash with me. I'll come back and give you money later. I don't have my passport with me, it's with my company. So can't give you. 
He: You bank in money to my Public Bank, take the receipt and bring back here for me. Tomorrow, You photocopy your passport and give me then I let you know whether you can move out or not.
I: OK, ok. 

I quickly got out of the house and asked my friends to come over to help. About 3 of my friends who are bigger than he is, came after 45 mins. I decided to move all my things out immediately and sent them to my friend's house. We packed, we shifted, we arranged everything within 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES. The stupid guy came home while we were packing and moving out. His face was damn shocked. THIS IS TOTALLY OUT OF HIS EXPECTATION. You know what he reacted???? I updated later. Now office closes.

Updated * 08/08/08. This is the latest news that I have had since last night.
When I saw this piece of paper pasted on the advertisement board, I already knew that was him. Last time, I saw a bunch of these in the house when he wanted to look for people to rent out the room.

There was nothing new here except for: HAND-PHONE NUMBER. He was using 014 or 016 before and now is 018. Well, he changed the hand-phone so that I couldn't contact him at all to ask for my deposit which is total RM600.00. This is considered a month salary of some people, you know? Some of my friends asked me to do a police report or either to hire a lawyer to settle this. I'm still considering whether should I do it.

Of course, I have some witnesses and other victims with me. Look at the photo closely, you will see the red circle "PREFER LADY HOUSEMATE". For what? Prefer lady housemate so that he can easily bully them, cheat their monies and threaten them off. The previous 2 victims couldn't do anything. They just had no choice but shut the mouth, kept quite and let him swallow the money. (each of them RM500.00). You can't imagine, how terrible his voice was, when he shouted out loud, from the lift to his house (3 houses away), you still can hear it very clearly. And his face was something like this: But of course, the guy in this picture is much more handsome than him. Oh yah! I forgot to tell you guys about how he reacted when all 3 of my friends came to rescue me on that night. His face was about to explode like above picture when I said I want to move out. But then when he came back to see we were packing stuffs, he didn't dare to say any words. Shutting the room door very strongly and making some calls, he pretended as it's normal moving out. About 15mins later, the security guys came to our house and asked:

 Security: "There was someone complaint about something in this house. What happened?" 
Crystal: Oh, nothing! I'm moving out and some of my friends came to help me out. 
Security: "But we received a phone call and said that some guys came to disturb your house!" 
Crystal: No. No one disturbs anyone. We are just moving out. You also see it. : (*the idiot runs out to say eagerly): Yah yah, I called. Who are all these guys? Why you let them enter the condo, enter my house and disturb me. 
Crystal: (talk to the security) No, I'm moving out, and they came to help me but there is someone makes trouble with me. Thus, he bothers you as well. There is no problem at all. If you need them to register before entering the condo, I will ask them to do that later. 
Security: Ok, then please ask your friend to go down to register first. If not this guy complains to my manager, then I will be in trouble. I've just worked here 1 day only. 

And then, I told the security guy about the story. He even stayed at the house with me for a while to make sure the idiot cant do anything to me while my friend went down to register. After that, my friend came up and continue. Since there was no supportive party behind, the asshole started changing his voice tone. He spoke to my friend (the biggest one) so friendly as if he was never ever friendlier before. : Sorry ah, bro. For security purpose only. Sorry ya (touch and shake my friend's hands some more).
Vincent: Oh ok, no problem. :
The asshole (*smiling and keep talking) Yah, thanks. Sorry ya. So now you just help her to move lah. Just of security only. Thanks ya. 
Damn! I felt like spitting on his face. I didn't even bother to look at the idiot face, then he came to talk to me: Excuse me. You just move out first. Tomorrow, I give you back the deposit ok?
Crystal: OK, Call me. Once you give me money. I'll return you the house keys. Then I left. 2 days later, he still didn't call me. And last night, when I saw this advertisement with a new hand phone number, I knew what the asshole wanted to do. Perhaps, he didn't need the house key and the lock can be changed to a new one. So...Will see later on then.

Those who wants to know more about this guy can contact me. Those who think I'm over-reacting or creating a story to offend people, well i can say: I declare that all information and conservation are true. If you don't believe and want to try, let's go and rent a room at KELANA PUTERI CONDO, BLOCK E-901. You're always welcome and now he is so desperate to look for new people to give him money.

 Updated on 11/08/08 Latest news! I already found a new house, so much prettier, cleaner than the previous one. Just need to touch up something and decorate few things for my room. Last but not least, GREATLY & DEEPLY THANK to all my friends, students, colleagues even my client :) who have supported me during this hard time.
 A BIG hug to Shaw, Vincent, Pun, Alvin, Frank, Nurul, Yvonne, Danyta, Ryan, Kacey, etc.... Surprisingly I got numbers of emails from strangers who visited my blog randomly but they spent a little short of time to write me an email to support, offered me a room to stay, etc...but I couldn't take this sweet help coz it's too far for me. Anyway, thank you guys. Thanks all!