What is it that's expensive in vietnam?
a week has passed! time really flies. we had a few more visits to a carpentry 'factory' in the outskirts, went to a few more museum visits. frankly, the past two lectures by the professor from foreign trade university in hanoi is not very good. she's just talking casual stuff and then she told us her personal war story and cried a little in class. but other than tt, i hardly take anything away from her lectures last week.
on sunday night, she called in to cancel monday's lecture cos she was sick -.-. and we found out that she's being paid (or any other lecturer in the weeks to come) is being paid $200 an hr just to tell us things i can easily find in my nlb library book?!
A lot of us are wondering where our money went. because given such a place like vietnam, cost should not be what we paid! Up till now, there's still a $200 sum that each of us paid that is unaccounted for. And amit jain, the guy in charge did not do his job well either. he was supposed to settle us down for four days last wk, but e moment we landed last sunday, he only attended one lecture w us, and the next thing, he was off to sapa (north vietnam) on a train ride on tue, only to return to singapore last thursday. be with us my foot!
And the hotel he was staying at was so nice! we all think it's either ntu absorbed the cost or we paid for his trip to sapa -.-
Also had to spend some extra costs, like some dinners were eaten outside cos of miscommunication and nightly, we take a cab out to the city area.. costs about $2 per person on average. and that's where i'm spending on such unforseen costs. well. i'm jut glad i did bring more than i originally planned.
not forgetting all these extra costs we forking out is on top of the 2k plus we paid to get here.
Later on in the programme, we have abt 2 and a half free days and we are planning to go up to sapa ourselves to recce. and if we do, that's from our own pockets. all these extra costs.. grrr. what about the package.
i find that the package has too few activities spread over too much time. we went to watch the water puppets show this afternoon, which was nice. but i feel this water puppets show need not be dragged till 2nd wk.
and there are much fewer company and business visits as originally planned. so for that reason, we as a group are quite unhappy. where did our money go?!
But on our own, we're having fun still.. =)
My room's air con is actually working. we finally figured how to switch it on it last thursday heh.
Anyway, the weekend was spent in ha long bay and it was beautiful sight!
Today in the morning we also went to the water theme park. played a few slides and lazy pool.
Everything has been quite ironic here because.. it was raining the whole of sunday and monday.. and the streets in the school compound were even flooded! we had to wade around certain parts in ankle deep water!
BUt back in our hostel rooms, water supply was cut on monday morning and night and the whole of tuesday (today) too! when we came back from the water park, thinking we can shower, the water ss was still off!
i haven't washed my face (just wipe w toner and apply cream as usual).. and i've been using mouth rinse instead of brushing my teeth.
My last bath was sunday. =/
hopefully the well will receive some water supply and we can have our baths at 9pm (10 pm singapore time).
If not it'll be yet another day w/o a bath. good thing i bought powder at our shopping trip last friday night.
nonetheless, thank God for the rain, so e weather hasn't been so hot and sticky that we'd feel really grumpy w/o a bath. havent been perspiring much since sunday. altho the weekdays last week were pretty soaking!
On sunday i also attended our tour guide's cell group at his home w a few other christians in this grp. it was nice to sing some hymns and songs tgt.
Tuesday is ladies night so i guess we're heading out at 7:30 pm (vietnam time) for some free drinks. sigh. i need some beer to cheer me up. heh. (altho i've been taking luminex and we had fun at e water park today...)
i think i miss home a bit. =)
(grrr i need to shit NOW, but since there's no water supply, we can't flush so i can't poop)
on sunday night, she called in to cancel monday's lecture cos she was sick -.-. and we found out that she's being paid (or any other lecturer in the weeks to come) is being paid $200 an hr just to tell us things i can easily find in my nlb library book?!
A lot of us are wondering where our money went. because given such a place like vietnam, cost should not be what we paid! Up till now, there's still a $200 sum that each of us paid that is unaccounted for. And amit jain, the guy in charge did not do his job well either. he was supposed to settle us down for four days last wk, but e moment we landed last sunday, he only attended one lecture w us, and the next thing, he was off to sapa (north vietnam) on a train ride on tue, only to return to singapore last thursday. be with us my foot!
And the hotel he was staying at was so nice! we all think it's either ntu absorbed the cost or we paid for his trip to sapa -.-
Also had to spend some extra costs, like some dinners were eaten outside cos of miscommunication and nightly, we take a cab out to the city area.. costs about $2 per person on average. and that's where i'm spending on such unforseen costs. well. i'm jut glad i did bring more than i originally planned.
not forgetting all these extra costs we forking out is on top of the 2k plus we paid to get here.
Later on in the programme, we have abt 2 and a half free days and we are planning to go up to sapa ourselves to recce. and if we do, that's from our own pockets. all these extra costs.. grrr. what about the package.
i find that the package has too few activities spread over too much time. we went to watch the water puppets show this afternoon, which was nice. but i feel this water puppets show need not be dragged till 2nd wk.
and there are much fewer company and business visits as originally planned. so for that reason, we as a group are quite unhappy. where did our money go?!
But on our own, we're having fun still.. =)
My room's air con is actually working. we finally figured how to switch it on it last thursday heh.
Anyway, the weekend was spent in ha long bay and it was beautiful sight!
Today in the morning we also went to the water theme park. played a few slides and lazy pool.
Everything has been quite ironic here because.. it was raining the whole of sunday and monday.. and the streets in the school compound were even flooded! we had to wade around certain parts in ankle deep water!
BUt back in our hostel rooms, water supply was cut on monday morning and night and the whole of tuesday (today) too! when we came back from the water park, thinking we can shower, the water ss was still off!
i haven't washed my face (just wipe w toner and apply cream as usual).. and i've been using mouth rinse instead of brushing my teeth.
My last bath was sunday. =/
hopefully the well will receive some water supply and we can have our baths at 9pm (10 pm singapore time).
If not it'll be yet another day w/o a bath. good thing i bought powder at our shopping trip last friday night.
nonetheless, thank God for the rain, so e weather hasn't been so hot and sticky that we'd feel really grumpy w/o a bath. havent been perspiring much since sunday. altho the weekdays last week were pretty soaking!
On sunday i also attended our tour guide's cell group at his home w a few other christians in this grp. it was nice to sing some hymns and songs tgt.
Tuesday is ladies night so i guess we're heading out at 7:30 pm (vietnam time) for some free drinks. sigh. i need some beer to cheer me up. heh. (altho i've been taking luminex and we had fun at e water park today...)
i think i miss home a bit. =)
(grrr i need to shit NOW, but since there's no water supply, we can't flush so i can't poop)