Hello Vietnam

Hustling and bustling, ear-piercing vehicle honks coming from all directions crowding the air and contributing to the already very polluted air; yet in the midst of all the chaos, there is a social order, a social peace. Welcome to Vietnam.

Here, the poor work honestly, no doubt aggressively for an honest living. Despite it being one of the fastest developing countries worldwide, one can still see children at a young, tender age working and living from hand-to-mouth. It is a real pity to see kids at such a young age, working between school hours, in hopes of striving their way out of poverty. No doubt, a natural way of marketing too though-the pity factor. My heart sighs every time a young kid approaches me, begging me to buy the stuff they are trying to sell.

I could almost reach the electric cables.

Children playing by the road side at night

While visiting Mr Ho Chi Minh’s place.

Temple

Vietnamese hawkers

Van Mieu Temple

Another hawker selling the exact same stuff

All of us getting a trishaw ride through the 36 ancient streets of Hanoi’s old quarters

Young boy selling rattan handicraft

Typical Vietnam

Trishaw-ing through Hanoi’s old quarters

Imagine doing this every single day for your whole entire life.

Yummy

I tried pushing the trishaw. it wasn’t at all easy

Sis and brother posing

A combination of poisonous snakes, lizards and god knows what, all into a huge glass bowl of wine. We three brothers had a go at it too!

Hotel room in Halong Bay

Halong Bay

Entering Halong Bay by boat

The weather wasn’t all that great when we were at Halong Bay, it was really misty, but nevertheless, this natural wonder is enchanting, and spectacular.

This girl is only eleven. And here she is already, rowing out by herself, selling fruits and vegetables, chopping up coconuts and bargaining with tourists just to earn a decent living, and perhaps her own education.

Iconic Cockerel shape

Mom and dad

Caves

Vietnam is flooded with bicycles and motorbikes, and this is no joke. I wonder how high the accident rates are here and how many people get knocked down every day.

Marketplace at the old quarters.

Wang trying to be pole carrier.

Xiaoyi wanted to try it out too.

Big brother and dad by the roadside

Water puppet show

Wang and Tran Quoc Pagoda

The four of us in front of Tran Quoc pagoda.

The whole family

My sister looking good

Molesting the lion

Do you want to buy something

Running off to school

Tam Coc, also known as Halong Bay on land.

Grass hats

The best part of the trip for me was this boat ride through a series of interlinked caves and rowing through the natural marvels along the river.

Peaceful cruise up the river

Wang and small fish.

My parents and siblings.

Trying to row the boat

Over the mountains and the hills

Full force into the dark caves

Shan

Mom and day enjoying the boat ride

Relaxing in the boat

Us siblings went around looking for dog meat during our duration in Vietnam, but we were never at the right place at the right time.The tour guide was aware of our dog-meat eating fantasy, and was kind enough to go out of the way to get it for us on the very last day. What an experience.

All in all, this vietnam trip was a very good one, as the whole family got to get together for the very first time this year. It’s going to get harder as soon most of us will be away from home studying and working overseas.

=)

hey working ain’t that bad

i’m working right now. well, at least i’m supposed to. ;p

yup, you read it right. my very first paid job, as an intern in Deloitte. god’s grace All my bosses are out and there is nobody in the office to assign me work to do, so i’m bumming around. due to the annoying firewall they set up in the office, facebook, youtube, photobucket, emails are all not accessible, but i figured i could bring life back into my blog! 

it’s awesome being home again, in malaysia’s humidity and heat, working as a corporate finance intern isn’t that bad either, get to learn lotsa stuff. alas, managed to fulfill my dream of diving again in the depths of the oceans last week in KK. will be posting up pictures on it real soon. haven’t really had the time to catch up with friends yet cause i’ve been too occupied with everything. my beloved big brother just got back from hongkong today, and can’t wait to see him after work! looking forward to the family trip up in hanoi, vietnam this weekend too!

time really flies. it’s almost the end of a new year again. soon it’ll be christmas and then the start of a new year.

photos coming soon =)

Tic Tac Toe

Almost there. I am almost there. =)

Back in Malaysia in a heartbeat

Come to think of it, ill be back home in slightly more than a month’s time. really cant wait to commune with family and close friends, indulging in authentic, nice home-sweet-home delicacies again. How true is it when they say you never learn how to appreciate something until you lose it. Being overseas, especially if you’re malaysian, you’re really deprived of good, not forgetting cheap, food. Really dirt cheap lah, compared to a lousy special-fried-rice-wannabe here in adelaide (or anywhere overseas for that matter), that will still command for your 7 bucks after eating! 7 bucks=21 ringgit okay. Just came back from a whole day of slogging out my guts and brains in the library, and here I am sitting in front of the computer, hungry and grumpy.

Indo mee, here I come…again…=0

Invitation to Cambodia On A Mission-Jan 2008

Hey again everybody! Many of you probably know already that I was down in Cambodia earlier this year, and how big an impact that mission trip had in my life. That whole chapter in a less fortunate part of the world, turned out to be the most meaningful, inspiring part of my life. I learned so much as a person and was really humbled by the kids there. And guess what? I am planning another trip there this coming January, and I’m hoping to be able to form a team of friends to go together, to learn, serve and be humbled together by the kids. It’ll definitely be an awesome time of giving and receiving in many aspects.

Duration: 9th-23rd January 2008. The timing might be a little hard for most due to classes, bear in mind though, that the duration of the stay is rather flexible, you can decide to go earlier, later or anyhow. If you are interested and up for an unforgettable experience, please do email me at yongyisung[at]gmail.com and I’ll give you more details there! =)

Love you all. God bless! =) See you there.

Reliving the young and innocent days again

It was an awesome time to feel young and relive the days of innocence and naiveness again when our lifegroup found our way down to St Kilda’s adventure Playground. It wasn’t your usual conventional playground where only the kids and toddlers could have fun, adults could jump on the swings and go nuts too in a place like that, which was precisely what we did! If life gives you lemons, make lemonade out of it.

Slides of sizes and shapes of all sorts were part of the package packed with lots of other surprises and fun.

Looks like a mini rollercoaster ride doesn’t it. If only the slides were a little more lubricated and well maintained.

Where else do you get gigantic seesaws like this?

Climbing up to the top of the slide-where all the fun starts.

Wheeehhh!..

The dungeon of fun. Can you imagine a group of above 19s playing police and thieves in a playground. Wait, or was it ice and fire?

The girlss

The sign reads: Snakes inhabit this area

Shaleeni and Sarah.

Half of our big happy lifegroup family.

Another one just for publicity

Our lifegroup papa joining in the fun and going down the slide.

Shi Wei, Ruth, Ernestine,Debra, Sheelaine, Persis, Sumi

Chris, Jia Ching, Keat loon

Going rounds and rounds until your head starts to spin

The cutest kid on planet earth

The girls had so much fun on this until it was too much…

they decided to torture me back!

Forgot to mention there was a flying fox too?

F-U-N

Tata. Want to have fun too? Join the UV lifegroup!

Have a nice day.