Jang Ji Hoon

That's Rain's true name...Jang Ji Hoon. Found out only at the concert when the throngs of girls from his fan club were screaming his name right from the start!

Yeap...went to Rain's concert....It was an experience I won't forget....

Started to get ready at around 5.30pm 'cos the concert was slated to start at 7.30pm and we didn't want to get caught in the jam so thought to set out early. Read the tickets and it said no cameras allowed...Alamak! How to take pictures and show you guys lah? Anyhows, the concert was in a track & field stadium so I thought to wear more 'cool' clothes and not bring a bag in case I get pick pocketed or something....

Left home at 6ish and reached the venue around 7pm. Lots of people and motorbikes around the stadium...was actually quite surprised to see lots of vietnamese there as I thought that the ticket prices would be a little costly for them.

There were many stalls set up selling stuff...and the wierdest thing was that there were like cosmetic counters, mobile phone counters etc....all selling Korean products! I guess there's that link... Finally found the merchandise counter to see what there were selling.....note pads, caps, t-shirts, programme book etc.....hhmmm...what to get...hard to decide when there were so many choices but they were freaking expensive! But whaddahell, since I'm already there, might as well get something! :P

Made our way into the stadium and discovered that our seats were about 11 rows from the front and to the left side....not great seats after all....sigh....and then....

I saw these people whipping out their cameras snapping away!!! Wah lao eh!! I damn loser lor! So 'guai' I was, scared that they would confiscate my camera if they checked my bag! But then they never even looked into the bags, just checked the ticket...I could have been carrying a bomb for all they cared! F**KERS!

Sigh...was damn upset...felt like such a loser...sigh... Ann Toh the loser.... so stupid! :(

But I guess I had to make do with my camera phone....tried taking a few pics but quality damn fail...sigh....fail lah! See...

So instead of dwelling on my stupidity, I looked around to observe my surroundings and saw some interesting things.... A few seats away from me was this old korean or jap lady, like in her 60s or 7os! Was already amazed that she made it to his concert...but the most amazing thing was that she was wearing his concert t-shirt, his concert dog-tag and his concert cap!! Also noticed quite a few middle-aged and elderly korean and jap ladies and men there as well! Didn't know that Rain's fan club also included such die hard aunties! hehe...

here's a pic of the old lady from the back...

The concert took a while to start and I noticed that there were many empty seats around us, especially in the centre section in front of the stage. And the back was rather empty too.... So we waited and waited....and this Phillippino girl started telling us how she is such a great fan, came all the way to Vietnam to attend Rain's concert and that she had already caught the concert the night before already but she was in the main stage standing area (there's like this sunken part in the centre of the stage where it's only standing area but you get up close and personal) so tonight she's out with the rest of the people to see the concert from the front! And there were all these girls from his fan club, waving styrofoam boards and neon signs and shouting his name. Sigh...those were the days when we were young and would subject ourselves to such embarassing behaviour! :)

8.30pm already.... 1 hr late... the stadium started to fill up....then the announcer spoke, saying the concert will begin shortly....and then chaos happened! People started rushing to the centre section of the seats as they were still empty... so we 'cheong' also lah! Wah lao...it was like running for your lives man! We cheong until we could reach the best seats available and plonked our asses down! And the security guards were like yelling and pulling people back and shining their torch lights at everyone....but nobody moved! We also stayed put and refused to budged! Exciting! hehe.... the view was tons better...sigh...at least now we can see his face without the help of the screen.

Lights dimmed and the stage burst into lights.....the concert has started....tried to take a couple of shots from the phone but it wasn't great so took some from the screens...not great either....

The concert was enjoyable, the stage set up was great, effects were wonderful and of course Rain's dancing was spectacular! He spoke mainly English but spoke a few Vietnamese phrases and sent the crowd wild! But I was actually a little disappointed with his dancers, expected them to be good but they really weren't, especially the female dancers, all lousy except for 1, and the was not a single good-looking male dancer either! Fail...

So after 2 hours, the concert finally came to a close...all his fans were yelling and screaming and crying....poor things....

..... people started clearing the stadium....

..... and the seats were left empty....

I truly enjoyed myself...although I didn't have any nice pictures, I had a great experience and these memorabilias to remind me of his concert...

Hmm....now that my blood is fired up.... which concert should I catch next?? :P

Bunta...

Found this new joint to have local noodles...it was called BUNTA! English version is 'Everything is Bun'....Bun is a type of noodle.

It's a really nice place....very chill and very modern cafe feel....

Food was pretty good too! Especially this crab spring roll noodle and the bbq beef noodle wrap...yummy!

But then again....the one thing that really caught my attention was the menu.... 'Stirved Bun/Noodle'...Whaddat? Simi lai??

:P

A cute little green scooter

During one of the Sundays when I was back in Singapore, I went for prawn mee noodle at Beach Road with my brother, sis-in-law and nephew.... and decided to check out Haji Lane as it was publicised as the new place for local designers and sold funky wares...but the shops were all closed...suspect it was because they don't open till like late afternoon...

But there was this lone, cute little green scooter that was parked along the lane....very very cute...I just had to take a picture of it....I think I can imagine myself driving this along the highway...wind blowing in my hair....(that is if I can drive!) :P

And the celebrations continues...back in S'pore

Back to Singapore I went to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family and friends....and I ate so much! Too much! All the pinapple tarts and bak gua...poo...ate until kenna sore throat! But I think the most I had must have been the 'Lou Hei Yu Sheng'. Almost every dinner I had with friends and family would include the yu sheng dish....think I can do without it for the rest of the year! hehe...

And one of the more interesting dish I had was this 'O-ni (yam)' with stewed mandarin orange. The whole orange was stewed or steamed until super soft before putting it into the o-ni...i must say that it has an interesting taste.....

I must say that I had loads of fun this trip back...other than the pigging out & gambling sessions, I had a great time catching up with friends and family.

Here's me and my bunch of girlfriends back from secondary school days....

And me with some of the ladies from my church small group....

I also caught up with my bunch of crazy buddies.....went to Ashley's new matrimonial abode to 'pai nian' as well as just hang out and spend time with each other....

Check out her shoe collection...

Here's Ash, Shaz and moi...just chilling...

And Rui and Ash....posing...:P

Sigh....and the good time had to come to an end....time to get back to work and back to reality... I guess it takes one to be away for some time to truly enjoy and treasure what one has back home.....Try not to miss me too much too when I'm gone....:P

The Celebration Begins....

It's that time of the year again....Chinese New Year! Lots of things to do...make clothes, buy shoes, get ready to go back to Singapore...

CNY is also celebrated in Vietnam as the Chinese population in Vietnam is quite substantial. You can see all the flowers popping up everywhere, artists appearing on the streets waiting to write the 'chun lian' for customers, fortune tellers setting up stalls waiting to tell your fortune and of course, all the shops and stores putting up the red decorations.

But dont' try to go out unnecessarily as the roads are jammed packed with people going around buying their wares. And in the night, it gets worse as they are out to admire the flower exhibition in the city area....I didn't even dare to step out of the car for fear that I might be runned over by a motorbike!

My aunties were also in the full swing of things....buying fruits, sweets, hanging little dangly red lanterns and gold ingots and spring cleaning the whole house. But one thing really kind of took over the whole house...FLOWERS! They were everywhere!

There were the crysanthemums, cherry blossoms, pussy willows, those red flowers that is a must have in every household, kum quats and the special dragon fruit plant! Yup.... the dragon fruit plant. Am sure you have probably seen the fruit in the supermarkets but have you seen the plant? It's like a cactus that can grow quite huge, but here they've kept them small so that you can bring it home...

With all the festivities in the air, how can we not feel the atmosphere and get into the mood?! I can't wait to get back to Singapore to gamble, receive the ang pows and most importantly eat all the new year goodies!! hehe...

Here's wishing everyone a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!

It's Rain-ing in Vietnam

It's raining men! Hallelujah....it's raining men! Yeah yeah....

So as you can tell, Rain is coming to Vietnam! The Korean singer Rain that is...yup, he's coming to Vietnam as part of his world tour. And guess what....the tickets here are so much cheaper than that in Singapore!

S$250 for the VIP seats compared to the S$888 in Singapore! Since there was so much hype and write-up about his concert back in Singapore, I decided to 'entice' my auntie to go watch with me! Am not really his fan...but then cannot waste such an opportunity to be able to watch a good concert right?! hehe...

Yup...am going to the Rain concert...and my seat is like 4 feet away from the stage! Hope that I don't have to strain my neck watching him....or maybe I'll be close enough to touch his 6-pack! :P

Me going PSYCHO!

Ok....I just gotta let it out of my system!!! Hormones raging and going haywire!!! :}

Was watching a new Japanese Drama last night and boy am I glad that I chose to buy this series even though I didn't know what it was all about....bought it based on the DVD box cover....featuring the lead character of course...


Hayami Mokomichi.....HE IS FREAKING CUTE!!! Wah lao eh....it was major drool time for me! Tall, tanned, nice body, bloody good-looking....damn...why can't we see such fine male specimens in Singapore?? Or wherever we are!!??! And the show was about Regatta (some boat rowing sports thingy) so you could see all the muscles, wet bodies....ARGH!

Yes yes yes....I know... Old already still behaving like a crazed teen....But hey, I'm still a female and I have every right to admire excellent works of nature!! Yummy I tell you....yummy...hehe...

Ok...got it out of my system....back to normal now....back to my dignified and poised self.... :P