On my wish list

When i were a teenager, i used to make a wish list for my wardobe, of course at that time, teenager can't afford fancy handphones, no laptops, no psp, ps3, xbox or what so ever..!! so, my wishlist is always filled my wardrobe with "teenage favored brands" like Ocean Pacific, No Fear, Quicksilver kinda clothing...
When i grow older and start earning, such things need not to be in a wish list, i can go and buy anything i like in my affordable range anytime. My wish list now of course consist of more pricey things..
Item 1

Fossil watch ES1967
This watch isn't too pricey to be own. But you can't find it in Fossil shop anymore as its an old design. So regret i didn't buy it last time. I really love the chrono watch design in so classy white bracelet and diamonte surrounded it... So love it!!! It cost RM499, but i guess i can only buy it through ebay or shop online...
Item 2
 
Nokia E63 - Red
Recently i really have an urge to change a new phone. Though i like my SE660I, cause its a christmas gift from BB, but i really need to ugrade a bit, i realise nowadays smart phones are soooo popular, all my friends are changing to one of it! doesn't matter you are really an IT geek or what... you just gotta have one.. And BB is so use to play with his phone whenever he sits down in a restaurant or cafe with wifi.. So, when he's doing it, i can do it as well! Many do recommend me to get the Nokia E71 instead, but i am so obssess with Red phones~! I'm sure gonna get this.
Item 3

LV Damier Neverfull
This is a posh item to own!! Of course it falls last in my wish list cause i will feel so pain to spend RM2500 to get it! I only like the smallest PM design yet it cost such a bomb~!! so maybe god bless me to kena a lottery so i can get it or maybe i should send my wish lish to Santa Clause~! Blek

A visit to Branded Custom Blended Skincare centre

Oh my god! Oh my god! I'm so outdated to write post on my blog... I have not done my B'day celebration, my trips to PD and Hidden Heaven in Cyberjaya, and more good foods and memorable outings....  But, I'm going to cut the queue and share with you my experience with this Branded skincare centre only datins and rich chicks can afford!

I got a free Eye Spa Relaxation Treatment voucher from Gardens Mid Valley; In fact, my sis gave me this voucher after some huge amount purchases from Robinsons. When you were given this kind of voucher, what would you first expect? Complimentary treatment? No... for me, you'll be expecting "hardcore" negotiation with the consultant and endless "hypnotical" sweet talks to purchase facial package... Why say so? I've been conned to pay for a RM400/session facial when claiming a RM19 facial voucher at S' Sanctuary few years back.. To be exact, this is con, because when they explained what they'll do in the facial, they do not tell you the extra charges.. Who will expect and n.p facial cost RM200 (Voucher only RM19 lah) does not include anything at all... Ok, this was the trick many years ago... Now due to the smarter customers and complains... No one will be successful using these tricks.

Once "kena", you'll learn to be smarter.. I called to make appointment and clarified with them if this is totally F.O.C. The girl who made appointment for me answers me like this: Yes, free, but our consultant will screen your skin and advice you the custom blended solutions, of course no obligations! Okay~~ very clever answer with a big big loophole~!

I went there for the treatment 2 weeks ago on a Saturday... Its located in the Gardens Club together with various other branded salons, executive lounge compatible with airlines lounge complete with Wifi & Blah blah blah, and washroom that charge RM5 per visit at other floors but complimentary at Gardens club for their member and top spending customers.

This is the executive toilet~!

I was greeted by one of the girl at the counter; her name is Pinky. She appear friendly enough to me, ask me to fill in my details in the form, serve me a cup of refreshing green tea. She took a peek at my details and immediately she found a topic to start her “hardcore” selling…  “Oh… you work as secretary? Must be very stress… she started off with. I answer coldly to her :”No”. Ouchhh~!! I put a block to her conversation…  But of course she don’t give up… She ask me again,”Oh… Ya Kah? But you need to look at computer all the time right? I just give her a weak smile..  At the very beginning, she started to tell me the voucher is not for a treatment, but only an 1 hr 15 minutes eye spa.. OK, doesn’t matter, I just want to claim the voucher… She continues with some casual chat and on and off commenting on my skin condition to prepare herself to suck more blood from me….  She keep on telling me how bad my eye bags and dark circle are… (FYI, I dun have eye bags, and very light dark circle only) and one spa couldn’t help anything to reduce my severe skin problem…. ???? She proposed me to try skin analyzing using a scanning machine that she claims they are the only one who has this kind of SO ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY!! Come on lah… I saw this machine everywhere… Sk II got, other beauty salons got, even skincare’s roadshow also have! She keep on asking if I am a frequent facial goer… I answered no because I dun want her to keep on bugging me to sign for her facial package.. But if NO is the answer, they have their backup plan also… they’ll criticize yr skin condition to the max so that you’re so scare you’ll pay for a super expensive facial that you’re convinced to improve your skin condition immediately!

She scanned my skin using that SO ADVANCED MACHINE and my skin surface looks ok. She has no choice and commented: Though you don’t usually go facial, but your skin condition is consider quite good, just you eye area, you just have to take care of your eye area, out of my concern, I really recommend you to do a treatment to improve your skin.  Then she started to introduce her eye treatment package, she explained that firstly they’ll scrub away the dead cells around the eye area, and then it’ll be their custom blended serum, and mask. My question is: Who is the one who custom blend the serum? She said everyone’s skin condition is different and that’s why we need custom blend serum~ But who do it here? She? The eye treatment she proposed to me cost RM480/ session, she keep on convinced me to swap my free voucher of RM200 and pay extra RM280 for this treatment. 

I do struggle for sometime with her as I keep on rejecting her and insist to get the eye spa treatment free. Suddenly, a guy just pop up in front of me staring at me. I got shock for a while and politely ask if he wants to talk to the girl. He says: No. I am analyzing your skin condition… Wah~!!! SO ADVANCED MACHINES also not enough, now you have this superman who can analyze my skin using his bare naked eyes ah? Didn’t he knows that he is sooooooo RUDE!!! Interrupting us. But unfortunately he doesn’t. His purpose is to take over as Pinky couldn’t convince me. Again he criticize my skin deep down the earth… He says my complexion is so good that it shouldn’t be spoilt because of my eyes, I look much much older with such eyes~!!! WHAT THE HECK is this??? Don’t you know that your eyes look 100x worse than mine? Again its hardcore convincing from him till the end of the day I still answer him sternly NO! He asked why is the reason I refuse to go for the treatment, is it because of the price? OBVIOUSLY YES LOR! He then ask what kind of price is acceptable for me but of course the ingredient they use wouldn’t be so good and won’t see very obvious result. FRIEND!!! YOUR GIRL JUST SAID YOU ALL ARE USING CUSTOM BLEND SERUM OK????? CUSTOM BLEND TO SUIT MY SKIN BEST, NOW YOU ARE TELLING ME IF I PAY LESS, YOU’LL USE NOT SO GOOD INGREDIENT? THEN IT DOESN’T SERVE THE PURPOSE OF CUSTOM BLEND SKINCARE. I can spend 20 bucks to buy NOT SO GOOD ingredient from Pharmacy you know????? And what more is WONT SEE VERY OBVIOUS RESULT, then why should I do it anyway? I still refuse and then suddenly he says, NO, I wont do the spa for you cause it doesn’t help, your condition is severe, I will do a treatment for you but I will swap it with your voucher. Eh what cares you whether it helps or not? Pondan! Its my eyes… 

Think he surrender? NO NO NO!!!!! I was guided to the facial room by Pinky and I remove my lenses and waiting for my treatment to start. Then a beautician names Ivy attends to me. She asked me if she could do a skin analysis with me…. Again????? I refuse and told her I did it just now… she walk out and plan her strategy with the rest of them and comes in again… Instead of starting the treatment, she criticize my skin again… this time she didn’t say anything about my eyes, but my skin pulak… she says my skin condition is very very bad! Hello???? I told her Pinky and SO ADVANCED MACHINES also shows my skin condition is good!!! Wah… this time, This Ivy is damn terror… she says we are different from other beautician, we are DOCTOR. We are to savior your skin~! Walamak~!!! Salute her! Again I rejected and she has no choice and do the treatment for me.

She put something I guess is her NOT SO GOOD CUSTOM BLENDED SERUM (because I dun pay mah) on my eye areas, and she told me she is using one Japan Advanced technology to oxidize the serum to my skin… Well, it feels like she just use an air pump to keep on pumping on my skin. She didn’t wipe and cleanse the serum and ask me to open my eye and cause so much of irritation to me~!!! Ivy, are you trying to revenge on me for not paying extra???? Of course she clean it for me later on and pass me a mirror to look at it. Ask if I see difference… She then put mask on my eyes and cabut to nowhere…  Until 15-20 minutes later, Pinky comes in again to cleanse the mask for me….

So, the 1 hr 15 minutes treatment includes 55 minutes of Hardcore convinces and 30 minutes treatment. If you ask my opinion, it is a super simple eye treatment you can even do it at home. No need to pay RM480 for it or maybe negotiable price….

After putting back all my lenses and tidy up myself. Ivy was waiting for me outside the consultation area… she hard sell her skincare package to me, telling me that they have special offer for first time customer that they have this credit scheme if I pay RM360, I get doubles the credit to use on facial (each facial is RM360).

Well~ my treatment was done and I told her, ITS OK, THIS IS MY FIRST TIME AND LAST TIME. NO THANKS.

And leave~J

I just hate this soooo much!!! Ok, fine if you are trying hard to achieve your sales target to earn more. But, don’t criticize~! And dun give me bullshits like you are a DOCTOR~!!! Better tell me you are GOD.

Food Guide in Hanoi, Vietnam

This post will be a true drooling page as I’m going to intro to you all the Vietnamese food we had in Hanoi.

STREET FOOD

PHO

First and foremost, the most famous Pho. I  really got confused by the Vietnamese word.. road also they call in Pho, rice noodle they call it Pho?!?! I guess the tiny tiny symbol are the pin yin..  phở is the noodle soup that is most emblematic of Vietnamese cuisine. This simple noodle soup, more than any other dish, is recognized around the world and both warms the hearts and satisfies the stomachs of Vietnamese and others alike. You can easily find it in Hanoi as every single streets have a shop/ stall selling it.. They normally serving Pho Ga (Meaning Chicken Rice Noodle) and Pho Bo (Beef Rice Noodle).

Our First Pho in Hanoi is right after we check in the hotel and starting our DIY adventure. I have some problem communicating with the Vietnamese as most of them can’t speak English.. But no problem, how you order your street food in Hanoi is, see what the other’s eating, they dun mind you to peek at their food.. Point at the food at the seller, and the seller will show you the note meaning how much it’ll cost you.  I guess this Pho is a mixture of pork, beef and chicken…  Their food portion is consider quite big as compare to our local hawker’s portion.. Their rice noodle is soft you feel like it slips through your throat when swallowing.. meat was cook without any seasoning, just cook in the sweet broth and it taste really really nice… But they put too much of greens in a bowl of noodles..  I dun eat parsley and spring onions.. so I had a difficult time to filter all these greens… This bowl of Pho cost us 20K dong.

 

 My First bowl of Pho

Location :Road:Nha Tho. The row of shops at the right side of St Joseph Cathedral.

We had the true Pho Bo and Pho Ga provided by the hotel as breakfast the next day morning.. I’m a person who takes heavy breakfast.. I love it soooo much to have a bowl of steaming hot noodles in the morning..  The hotel didn’t cook it,I guess they bought from the roadside seller in the morning.

Our Breakfast Menu

Pho Ga (Chicken Pho) 

Pho Bo (Beef Pho)

Location : Hanoi Golden Plaza Hotel

BUN RIEU

Next its this noodle we had as lunch in the old quarter, I think its call Bun Rieu, Its slightly different with Pho. As you can notice, Pho is a thin flat noodle, but Bun Rieu is a round noodle, more like our laksa noodle.. This is the cheapest meal I ever found in Vietnam, it only cost us VND 10K. (RM2). The ingredient is sooo sumptuous for a bowl of noodle cost this price. You have mince pork, fish paste, big sweet radish and also bamboo shoot…  The local loves to squat at roadside for their meal, some even without table, just a small stool and they held their hot steaming bowl in hand… We dare not to try that so we look for a better roadside stall, at least with table.. hahahaha..

Bun Rieu

Location: At the back of Dong Xuan market, next to a fried rice stall

DUMPLING (I dunno what its call in Vietnamese)

 The fried dumpling is similar to any Chinese cuisine dumpling, but in Hanoi, its bigger in size, like a curry puff size with minced meat and vermicelli as filling. Its not cheap though, one cost VND 5000.

 

The Fried Dumpling

Location: a mobile seller in front of Hapro Supermart at Hang Giay.

THIT BO KHO

The Vietnamese salad. We dun even know what is it, we were rushing for the water puppet show and spot it on a roadside stall. The ingredient in it are shredded cucumber, and some vermicelli kind of noodle, chop parsley and greens, the black in color one I have no idea what meat is that, soon found out that its beef jerky, its very hard to chew! And the reddish color meat is like our “Cha Siu”, topping with crushed peanuts and some soury sauce. It taste not bad, but funny, cause you dunno what you are putting in your mouth. Cost VND 10,000.

 

And this is Thit Bo Kho

Location: Roadside stall just in front of Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre.

GRILL

I have no idea what is this, but its similar to our otak otak, and cover with a layer of honey + lime… hahahahaha, very funny combination. It’s one of the street food many of the youngster that hang out at backstreet on Saturday night likes to eat. Each stick at VND 2000.

 

Location: Just in front of Hanoi Golden Plaza Hotel.

RESTAURANTS

CHA CA LA VONG

If you ask recommendation of Vietnamese food from tour guide or even your hotel, they’ll sure recommend you Cha ca la vong, its even recommended in Lonely Planet guide book. This restaurant has very limited choice in their menu and their signature dish is definitely the Cha ca. Cha ca is fish cubes fried in turmeric. There’s a sizzling pan on each table. First they’ll heat the oil, a lot of oil and deep-fried the fish cubes together with herbs and green… And you have to eat together with bun noodle together with a sauce made of fish and shrimp paste. This dish is not really to my liking as the fried fish is tasteless, you can just taste oil and I dun like fish. Cha ca is quite expensive for Hanoi standard, it cost VND 100K per head. I have some difficulties ordering my noodle here.. Since I have had 5 meals of Pho and soup noodle the day before and in the morning, I asked if they have any dry noodle, the waiter assured me “ ok ok, dry noodle! And my dry noodle comes like this!!

My so called "Dry Noodle"

Speechless.. its another bowl of bun noodle with shredded chicken and mushroom.. and compare to the one we had near Dong Xuan Market, that is much more better. This soup noodle is same like the Cha ca, tasteless.. However.. It cost VND40k. We ordered the Bia Hanoi (Beer Hanoi), it’s the bottled type of Bia Hanoi, but it taste very smooth and light. Beer Hanoi is very very cheap here and comparative even to drinking water. A bottle of Bia Hanoi for 2 sharing only cost us VND 20K. Where you can even get a glass at VND 5k at the roadside Bia Hoy Corner J

 

Safe territory - No runaround cats

The Famouse Cha ca la vuong menu

Cha Ca La Vuong and Bia Ha Noi

Rating : 7/10. Average, pricey but clean and have a decent dining area compare to the roadside stall.

Location: No: 14, Hang Luoc Cha Ca (They are so well known they even have a street of their dishes)

THANG LONG RESTAURANT

Thanglong Restaurant is just next to the Halong Harbour. Normally if you take a tour in Halong Bay, they’ll include a lunch in Thang Long Restaurant. This is one of the grand restaurant we seen in Hanoi, its big.. as big as the size of Chinese Restauramt back in our place that can host wedding dinner.

Our lunch here was included in our Halong Bay package and its pre-order but not inclusive of drinks.

We share the 8 dishes lunch with our travel buddies on the junk.

The dishes include

o    Vege soup

o    Stir fired squid with onion and vege. Though I really hate to eat onions, but this is my favorite dish.. I like the chewy squid!!!

o    French Fries

o    Sweet and sour chicken

o    Fried Spring Roll (The Vietnamese signature dish) Wrap in the thin rice paper, not our type of popiah skin. Filling is meat, vege and I think I tasted taro. And dip in the clear fish sauce. Yum yum

o    Stir fried noodle with a lot of vege. This is the first time I really tasted dry noodle in Vietnam after so many days of soup noodle.

o    Sweet and Sour Fish – I didn’t touch at all cause I don’t eat fish.

o    And also a fried cabbage..

 

Anti Clock wise : Vege Soup, Stir Fried Squid, French Fries, Sweet & sour chicken, Spring Roll, Fried noodle.

Next photo : Sweet & sour fish and fried cabbage

I must conclude that they don’t use a lot of MSG in their cooking unlike our Malaysia Restaurant, they use a lot of fish paste in their cooking.

 

Rating : 7/10. Another commercialize restaurant meant for the tourist. You don’t see local dine in there, all tourist. They have souvenir shops inside and unlimited roadside seller that beg, force, pester or persuade you to buy souvenir once you have eye contact with them.

Location : Next to Halong Harbour.

RED CAFÉ RESTAURANT

A visit to Red Café is another lunch meal included in our Day tour program. Red Café is link together with a Hotel I couldn’t remember the name and the tour office of Hanoi Open Tour. It’s again served with white rice and dishes. We share the dishes among 4 of us, and again, no drinks included…. I ordered a chilled soft drinks cause its just too hot outside. It cost me VND 8000. I pay a note of VND 10,000, suppose the waiter thought the balance is going to be his tip. I’m so cheapskate to ask for the balance back…. I tot VND 2000 is a lot but its only converted to RM 0.40… So malu…. The Vietnamese must be thinking that Malaysian are super stingy~ sorry I spoilt the reputation….

Our lunch package of course is less sumptuous as the one in Thang Long Restaurant. It only comes with 4 Dishes and refillable white rice. At first we have the Fried Spring Rolls, Its very crispy and nice. Fried beancurd with tomato sauce, you can see tomatoes from the picture, but frankly speaking, I did not taste any tomato taste at all. This dish is salty. Fried chicken, also taste salty, but acceptable but I hate the fat chicken skin attached~ yeeeewwwwww. And lastly, it’s the fried Chinese mustard (Choi Sum) with nothing. Just fry, and of course, it taste like leaves!!

 

The Red Cafe Restaurant

Fried Spring Roll                                  Tomato Beancurd    

Chicken                                               Fried mustard

Rating 4/10. The waiter and waitress doesn’t response to you despite many times calling them.Our tour guide need to serve the food to us. Overall, only the spring roll is nice, the beadcurd, chicken and mustard taste awful.

Location : Hang Be Street.

3 MEALS ON BOAT

Signing a package for Halong Bay gets you the chance to have your meal in the scenaric Halong Bay of mountains and waters… Let see how’s the Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

We’re provided with breakfast the second day morning, we only have the basic breakfast of 4 pcs of bread with butter and jam, and a piece of fired egg (Telur Mata Kerbau), and serve with a plate of fruits. The coffee is not inclusive, cost you VND 15,000 (About RM3)

The 1^st meal we had on junk was the lunch served 1^st day.

We have Fried fish, Dunno what fish but with a lot a lot of bones (I didn’t eat lah of course)

 

Fried Pumpkin. My fist time eating pumpkin, surprisingly it taste quite nice!!

 

Fried Beancurd with Tomato. (Also no tomato taste, funny!)

 

Fried Squid with Vege (Onions, Purple cabbage, spring onions and carrots) The squid is nice but the purple cabbage is so raw and taste a little bitter.

 

Fried Kangkung. Not our usual style fried with Sambal Belacan. Not spicy

 

We were so hungry after long hours of travel and all dishes were gobbled up by 5 of us.

The dinner were served at around 7.Outside was all dark you can’t see a thing and the light in the dining cabin was dim…  Dinner were served more dishes than the lunch. This time we share a table with the Vietnamese couple and their daughter and Mary from Australia.

We had these for dinner.

Fried Spring roll. Taste the same in every restaurant. They maintain the standard of making it everywhere

 

French fries

 

Fried fish again that I dun eat

 

Cucumber

 

Fried Peanut

 

Fried Egg

 

And fruits

Rating : 5/5. Common food, nothing to be shout about.

Location : Junk - Tung Tuang 18 on Halong Bay.

QUAN AN NGON

This is the best restaurant we found in Hanoi on our last night. Many traveler guide book will highly recommend this restaurant and even the local do. The concept at Quan An Ngon is a one stop shop for Vietnamese street food of every region and variety. Quan An Ngon is designed with seating in a spacious courtyard surrounding a giant central tree, with food stalls on all four sides cooking the food to order so you can also browse the stalls and simply point at what piques your interest to order. All items on the menu are translated into English and the names of dishes describe quite literally the ingredients and method of preparation.

Quan An Ngon   

 

The interior of Quan An Ngon

We’ve tried as much as possible Vietnamese dish in Quan An Ngon.

Banh Cuon (Rice flour spring roll- non fry type)

Filling is minced pork, shrimp, lettuces, shredded carrots and spring onion. Eat with the peanut Sauce.

 

Beef Fried noodle

I ordered this. The noodle is actually similar to our kuey Toew but the fried it to crispy like a roti canai…(confuse). Gravy similar to our beef kuey teow serve with a large portion of beef and mustard.

 

Mung bean sticky rice

Our tour guide recommended this dish so much. It’s a glutinous rice with crushed mung bean paste. So so only, more like a dessert.

 

Pork chop rice

This is Teh maincourse. White rice served with Deep fried pork chop (With honey), omelet and fried shallots.

 

Seafood Fried rice

Both mummy and Seh ordered the seafood fried rice. Its no different with any ordinary fried rice. Nothing so special, but tasty.

 

Che

Che is a dessert similar to our cendol. Ingredient: red bean, corn, attap seeds, the greenish chendol ingredient, and brown sugar syrup… Too sweet for my liking!

 

The total bill for all these food comes to less than VND80,000 per person.

Rating : 9/10. Nice ambience, a food heaven gather of all Vietnamese food. It’s a must go in Hanoi. But its kinda far from old quarter.

Location : 18, Phon Bai Chau at the west of Hoan Kiem Lake

FOOD I BOUGHT BACK FROM VIETNAM

GREEN BEAN COOKIE

 The Green Bean cookie is a recommendation from our tour guide. We bought it at the Handicap Art Center on the way back from Halong bay for VND40,000. You can actually find it in shops in Old quarter and the Intimax Supermarket. It’s also too sweet for my liking. But it makes a great souvenir.

 

TRUNG NYUYEN COFFEE POWDER

No one visit to Hanoi will leave without buying the Vietnamese coffee powder. I bought this 500g Coffee powder and the coffee filter at only VND50K (RM10). I bought also the pre pack G7 Coffee but this sachet pack is not as good as the filtered coffee. Vietnamese coffee is very strong in aroma and highly caffeinated. However, me and BB like this Vietnamese version of Espresso, and its best to have it with ice.

 

VIETNAMESE INSTANT NOODLE

My BB commented that this is the best instant noodle he tasted before. It’s a instant kuey teow to be exact. The noodle is not to saggy and the soup base just taste too nice to die for… I bought many packets from Intimax Supermarket, and its cheap. About VND3500 per packet… many flavour