Nui Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountains)

Mountains are everywhere in Danang, and yet, Nui Ngu Hanh Son are a well-known feature of the landscape of Danang and Central Vietnam.

From Wikipedia, Marble Mountain (Vietnamese: Nui Ngu Hanh Son "Five Element Mountains) is a cluster of five marble and limestones hills located in Ngu Hanh Son ward, south of Danang city in Vietnam. The five "mountains" are named under the five elements Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).





Although I'm not really fond of marble, but yet I have to admit that, the stone sculpture making, stone cutting crafts, marble carving and wood carving are amazing!! Anyhow, they are pricey too where one small marble bowl might cost you few hundred USD, wow!! I'm obsessed with those marble telephone set.... but yet, nice to see, nice to hold... blah blah blah.... no money, better don't touch. End up I bought two littel little little marble fishermen sculpture for 10USD, argh..... *money money money money.... money*

Oh ya, there is a legend about this cluster of mountains, that the sea dragon came onto the shore and laid an egg. After  one thousand days and nights, the egg hatched and out stepped a beautiful young lady. The broken shell fragments grew larger until they were transformed into five separate mounts that was named after each of the essential elements constituting the universe by a king of the Nguyen Dynasty, and here they are, the five elements as mentioned above.

Anyhow, I hope that there won't be huge destruction here.... I hope not to see such a beautiful natural land-form transformed into scattered stones few hundred years later.

Caffe-Sua-Da

Caffe-Sua-Da, means Iced Milk Coffee in Vietnamese.

It is a famous or so-called common drink in Vietnam, and you can find many coffee shops in every single province in Vietnam no matter how rural the province is. There is a wide range of coffee shop as well, from those rows of chairs along the dusty road *ya.. yam cha while yam-ing dust*, or medium-class coffee shop in residential houses, or up to grand coffee house with car-parking service.



Instead of coffee, they serve Cha-Nong (Hot Tea) or Cha Da (Cold Tea) as well, but coffee is an unique thing that you can't find in any other country (maybe) where the "method" that they use to serve you is really different. A small drip filter with coffee powder to be brewed on top of a cup with condensed milk inside. You have to wait until all of the brewed coffee flowing into the cup, then gotta manually remove the filter and then only put ice into the cup to make an icy drink.



I have no comment of the erm... EFFECT of the "method", but well, at least you can curi tulang a bit while having a coffee break on working day. ;p

Had been very busy for these few days, hopefully can take a chance to taste the famous coffee in Vietnam - Weasel Coffee in this few weeks. Waiting waiting, hehe....

Hanoi

Finally, I reached Hanoi - the capital of Vietnam. Once I stepped on this land, I feel peace... ya, it's a peaceful place for me... and it's more or less like a developed version of Cambodia, with the continuous car honks, the incredible traffic where thousands of motorbikes, lotsa pedestrians and some cars move on the road regardless of traffic rules or traffic light.

We're here to settle some urgent issues of operator, and because of that, lotsa Malaysians are being assigned to be here.... and that's great!! We had our luxury dinner at one famous local restaurant which serves great and famous local cuisine. We had the famous spring roll, their specially-made pork, beef, "bon cha" (Mihun soup), and some special prawn roll with mint leaves.... their foods are always decorated or come with mint.... ya, they like mint.

Along the way walking back to hotel, it's considered quite safe, but still have to watch out for some stalker.... not sure what's their motive but just have to keep an eye on them.

Tomorrow I'll be flying to Danang - the 3rd biggest city in Vietnam, hopefully I can find another story there, ciao.

Hamster's Diary - Swimming Like A Fish!!

Finally I've finished my 13 swimming lesson!! Weeeee!!!
Well, swimming might be an easy task for anyone of you, but.... it WAS nearly a mission impossible for me. =(
If you do not believe it, here are some people you might ask for:

1. One of the snorkeling guides in Perhentian (actually all of 'em) *ahem* are very scared of me. WHY? Becoz I nearly tear off their shoulders and made them drown into the sea while trying to drag me back to the boat. :|

Please be noted that, I was with my life jacket on that time, but still I panic and struggled like hell. :|

2. One of my friends who WANTED to teach me swimming last time. As the first step, she asked me to step into the 5-feet pool, I did, and I screamed: "Wuah, so deep!!! I wanna get up!!" Then... she asked me to soak myself into the water while pulling the sides... and you know what? I did not dare to do at all.... not even once. >.

暹内的小天使

暹内(Siem Reap)，以拥有
“The New Seven Wonders of the World” 之一的吴哥窟
(Angkor Wat) 而闻名，这个地方的经济完全依赖旅游业，每一天都有成千上万的游客对吴哥窟闻名而来，所以大大小小的酒店、旅馆、餐馆等等都充斥着这一个不算大的地方，美金更成为了比柬币更为通用的货币。

吴哥窟和吴哥通王城(Angkor Thom) 里所有建筑物的历史价值可是无可置疑的，举凡龙蟠可水池(Neak Pean)，圣剑寺(Preah Khan)，巴公寺(Bakong)，还有著名的女皇宫
(Banteay Srei)等，各式各样的雕塑都让人目不暇给，塔布茏寺
(Ta Prohm) 里翻墙蔓延的树根更是让人看的目瞪口呆，大名鼎鼎的吴哥窟当然也是游客的必到之处，它那70度倾斜而且狭窄的梯级让一些畏高的游客可望不可及，就连我爬到一半往下看时也捏了一把冷汗，还犹豫着应不应该半途折回，但想一想这么难得来到了这儿，不爬完还可真笨蛋，往上看还有些年老的长辈在努力地爬呢，好不容易硬着头皮用手脚并用地爬了上去，双脚都在微微发抖，羞死人了！再来还有吴哥窟著名的莲花池倒影，以及天还没亮就带着惺忪的睡眼以及颤抖的身躯去等待的日出。。。这一切一切，想必是每一个游客必做的功课。

如果你问我，什么东西是令我最难忘的，我会说，是暹内的小孩，是那些白天赤着脚，穿这肮脏的校服，跑几公里的沙路到破破烂烂的学校去上课，然后放学后换上一样肮脏破烂的衣服，在每一个名胜地里向游客兜售名信卡、纪念品的小孩。
“You want to buy T-shirt?” “You buy from me?” “I give you discount.” 暹内的小孩都长得很可爱，乌溜溜的眼睛，蜜糖般的肤色，略带羞涩的笑容，我给他们带了糖果、巧克力，以及文具等等，还有点后悔没带旧衣裳。大部分的小孩都很有礼貌，他们会用双手来接你给的东西，然后双手合十的说声：“Oh
Khun.” 意思是谢谢，然后开开心心的吃糖果，还会把糖果纸丢进垃圾桶，比大部分的马来西亚公民（包括成年人）还要懂事，有些则会收着糖果，不舍得吃，另一些还会说:
“I don’t want candy, can you give me pen? I need to in school.” 心酸吧？

Peeap 是一个很乖巧的女孩，我永远都忘不了她跑向我，递了一张她亲手画上花朵，写上祝福及感激字句的小卡片，并对我说:
“I give you flower, I give you luck, I won’t forget your smile, please do not
forget me too.” 这一幕。还有一位穿这黄外套红裙子，看起来只有三四岁的可爱小女孩，她用童稚的声音说:
“Post card, one dollar.” 非常可爱。。。看着她用布满泥沙的小手开开心心地把五颜六色的水果布丁塞进小嘴里。。。忍不住要亲抚她的小脸。一群孤儿在孤儿院老师的带领下向游客募捐，在递给老师一袋文具以及给了每一个孤儿一些零食后，他们都用感激的眼神不住对你说谢谢，我还记得孤儿纯朴、天真的眼神，当时除了对他们微笑，我还真的不知该说些什么。

我希望上帝还没忘记这一个地方，这里的小孩喜欢说:
“Good luck.”，我衷心地祝福他们，good
luck。