A small section of Derek's news was on Page 21 of Wan Bao (Sat/Sun). Poor younger bro will tear whenever he talked about Derek. Poor Derek~ Still can't believe he is gone..
These days I've been meeting friends up.. And I finished watching "The Big Bang Theory" and began "Vampires Diaries". However, "Vampires Diaries" contains horror components and I freaked out every now and then. Like in episode 2, it started with a scene where a couple was in a tent in a campsite when they heard some noises. The guy went out of the tent to check out the noise... And I stopped the show. Lol. I find it impossible to watch it unless accompanied by someone. Decided to watch "Fringe" instead. It was recommended by Zhe Ming (Simba's ex roommate) and we watched an episode together. :D
And today, Simba's army friends booked air tickets to Taipei in Feb 2012! Simba was considering but I told him to go ahead. I decided not to tag along since I don't want 4 guys to wait for me while I shopped. Lol. And feel uncomfortable with me, the only female species, around. :D
Maybe I will take Simba to Bangkok next year~!
Blogging about my Day 2 in Vietnam~
We had lunch at the Pho2000 restaurant! We passed by it in Day One and I mentioned to them that I wanted to put this restaurant in our itinerary but was afraid that it would be out of way. Somemore, Simba mentioned that we could have Pho noodles everywhere and anywhere in Vietnam and so I aborted the idea. But since we realised that it is along the way from our hotel, we could have our lunch there.
Next time if u are ever at Vietnam, please try their fruit juices! They are too nice to be missed.
I had curry but it tasted weird. It tasted less weird after i added the lime. Didn't dare to add the crystal cubes into the curry too. Dunno what they are!
While looking at the map, one very helpful local came voluntarily and offered us his help. He told us that the War Remnants Museum which is our next destination was too far from our present location. He recommended that we should take a cab there and the company of the cab we have to take has to be Vinasun. Maybe it doesn't charge as much? I dunno!
This kind soul is actually a trishaw man and we later saw that the company of his trishaw is Vinasun too. Lol. He was just recommending his company cab.!!
And when we reached the War Remnants Museum, it was lunch break for the staff of the museum. We had to wait till 1pm when it reopened.
In the meantime, we walked to another nearby attraction but lost our way. Hence, we headed towards another attraction that was along the way. This structure is known as Pagoda. It is like the Shaolin temple. :D
The gate was closed. Dont think we get to go in as well, so we stood outside to take photos!
It was hot and we were tired. Wanna sit at a cafe and have coffee. Passed by a kind of high class cafe known as the Gala Cafe! Did I mention that alot of cafes there have free WiFi? Yes it is awesome!
Anyway the fish in the tank seemed to know that their lives might be ending anytime someone ordered a dish of it. Simba inferred this by noting their peeled off skinned head. Poor fishes! They knocked their heads too hard onto the tank trying hard to break the glass and swim out.
Most cafes in Vietnam also offer Iced Green Tea with no extra charges. So cool~ Singapore charges for everything.
Map taken from our hotel. The hotel staff circled the famous tourist attractions for us.
The waitresses and waiters didn't understand English. Rare as it was! And 3 of us ordered iced coffee but were given hot coffee.We wanted to ask them to switch to iced drinks but they couldn't understand. After some hand gestures, we finally got them to bring us ice and we poured our hot coffee into glasses of ice.
They did designs on Carine's coffee. I recalled someone say it reminded her of the Green Hornet show in which Jay Chou made the nicest coffee!
My coffee has much simpler design. Just a tree with 2 branches. -__-"
And after some rest, we were ready for the War Remnants Museum!~
I took a photo of the Post Box on the way. Love the different postboxes in different countries.
And the picture found on the pole is Mr Ho Chi Minh who cared for children.
Outside the museum were many model airplanes and tanks that the American soldiers had used in the invasion of Vietnam in the 1970s.
He wanted at first to pretend to be bulldozed by the bulldozer. Didn't know why he changed his mind. Perhaps some other tourists were watching. There were many other tourists from other countries too, especially the Americans. Maybe they hoped to find out their history of how cruel their past generation was! Bet this invasion history was not recorded as their history since it wasn't something that they are proud of.
Simba and his favourite ammunition. :D
He looked weird. Hahahaha.
Pretended to be knocked down by a helicopter. Cute right! Not so realistic since helicopters ascend into air and don't need a runway to start on. Lol.
And we went into the Tiger Cages to understand the tortures that the prisoners-of-war have gone through.
Pictures and information about how the Vietnam war started.
Background info of the Vietnam war from Wikipedia:
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and airstrikes.
The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were withdrawn as part of a policy called Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued.
Got emotional reading the information and how the prisoners were tortured.
I remembered a few inhumane ones,
1) Prisoners were placed in a dark room and had their eyes exposed to high amount of radiation such that they became blind after that.
2) Two wooden planks were placed onto the front and back of the prisoners' chests and applied with so much force that they were crushed.
3) Prisoners were nailed on their skulls, legs, knees and arms.
4) Prisoners were compelled to sit on fire and had their sex organs burned.
5) Noses of prisoners were pumped with so much water that their tummys got bloated. The bloated tummys were hit by sharp tools (hammer or something, can't remember).
And alot more.. Shall not gross u out.
Well.. I cannot imagine how humans can put other humans through such inhumane acts. I was really affected by such an idea.
One prisoner made of wax to give us an illustration of a prisoner in a typical cell back then. His ankles were chained so that he couldn't sleep well. He had to sleep with his knees bent.
In times like this, morales have to be kept high. Look at the walls of the cell! Chinese characters were written by the brave prisoners on these walls and described their high morales.
Took the staircase and saw a painting on the wall of the layout of the cells. I think the prisoners didn't have enough room for themselves and the floors were not exactly floors. They were just rods connected together.
Simba climbing up the stairs. :D
And we saw also pictures of the victims caused by bombings and some corpses in the museum. Some victims were badly disfigured due to the radiation created by the chemical bombs. In some pictures, we saw American soldiers happily posing with many Vietnamese corpses or some with them holding up heads. Omg!
There was this picture which I turned Carine's attention to. It was a picture that focused on the looks of the civilians just before they were shot by the American soldiers. I was actually wondering who took such photos when I remembered that there could be photographers hired to capture moments of the war. This particular photographer shouted "Stop!" to the soldiers, took the picture and then the soldiers proceeded to shoot the victims.
I have heard of nurses, doctors and photographers who participated in wars that commited suicide during or after the war due to depression.
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