Christmas Day in Ho Chi Minh City - The New World Hotel

So, this is the third Christmas since I left England (I was in England for Christmas last year though). After a nice quiet morning we went to The New World Hotel for an all you can eat and drink lunch.

 

This is the same hotel that I went to the first year I was here. It's an expensive hotel but they do a good and pretty reasonably priced for what it is Christmas lunch.

  

 

There was such a wide selection of food available from all the roast meats to sushi. There was a great cheese board and some good soups too. The wine was very nice and we had champagne too. Only negative was there were no roast potatoes or stuffing.

 

 

It was lovely to be with friends on this day. After the meal we were a bit tipsy to went home to watch films. It was a nice and relaxing day after the trip to Singapore.

 

 

It's hard to believe this is my third year away!!!!

Back to Ho Chi Minh City ffrom Singapore

Today we fly back to Ho Chi Minh City from Singapore. We are planning to go to a party tonight and out to lunch with lots of friends tomorrow for Christmas dinner. Below is a picture of one of the Christmas trees in Singapore.

 

 

Singapore - Day 3 - Shopping and Museums

For our final day in Singapore we did some shopping and went t0 some museums. The main shopping is at a place called Orchard Road which had a large number of enormous malls. You can see how big one of them is from the first video

Not only were they huge but this one also had a river in it which took people down on a boat!

As it was Christmas there was lots of Christmas tree, decorations and lights. It was amazing to see how many shops there were and how busy it was. What was also good was there were a number of British shops there such as M&S which meant I could buy some new clothes I needed.

 

 

In the afternoon we went to some museums. One of them was on all the different civilisations in Asia and how they developed. This was interesting but a lot of information to take in. There were many artifacts from different cultures on display. Below is a photo of me in the Arabian area.

 

 

We also went to the spot where Thomas Raffles 'discoverd' Singapore for the British empire in 1819 (see below). This may go some way to explain why Singapore is so different from the rest of Asia.

 

 

 

 

Singapore - Day 2 - Botanic gardens and Singapore Zoo

Today I went to the Botanic Gardens and Singapore Zoo. In the morning we went to the gardens and looked around at the various plants and trees. It was very pleasant. It was nice to see people using the area for a picnic and running. The botanic gardens covers quite a large area in the city and you can easily spend a long time here.

 

 

There was a ginger garden and an orchid garden, the ginger garden was free but as it was $5 to go into the orchid garden and we'd been walking around for a few hours I was all planted out so didn't go in. It looked pretty good when I peered over the fence.

 

 

In the afternoon we went to Singapore Zoo, which is supposed to be one of the best in the world. I'm not usually a big fan of zoos but this one was pretty good and most of the animals weren't in cages and looked fairly happy.

 

 

There were so many animals here but the best was the polar bear. This is something I've not seen before and it was massive. If the heat annoys me then I'm pretty sure it must get to the polar bear big time,  however he had a really big area with a huge swimming pool and an air conditioned den. He was hiding for most of the time but when he came out of his home he went for a swim you could see how big he was. He swam in circles for a good 15 minutes before I left. It was one of those animals that you can imagine if you met in the wild you'd be pretty screwed whatever you did. I'd also put hippos and rhinos in that category too.

 

 



Singapore - Day 1 - Marina Bay

Arrived in Singapore and had a nice afternoon looking around Marina Bay and the financial district. Our hotel is very close to this area and walkable even though we are two minutes from the MRT (tube)

 

 

Marina bay was very nice and you could walk all the way around the harbour. The skyline was also pretty impressive too. Even though its in Asia it is very western.

 

 

Part of the walk around Marina bay is a section of the grand prix track which took place here in August / September time. This was quite cool to see.

 

 

There was a huge shopping centre under the marina sand hotel (pictured above) which I'll talk about more another time. I didn't go up this building as we were short on time. There is a big swimming pool on the roof but I wouldn't have been able to go into it as its for hotel guests only.

 

 

What really impressed me about this place was how well it's been designed. On the walk around there was a museum that showed you how they designed the whole area from the cabling and sewage underneath to the building with mixed use (offices and living). There were also leaflets with running tracks designed with different distances and other walks, they really had thought of everything.

Below is a video of me panning around the bay.

 

Christmas Carol concert at Notre Dam Catherdral in Ho Chi Minh City

On Saturday night I went to a carol concert at the big cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City, Notre Dam. I've never been able to go in this building before as its always closed to it was a good chance to see the building and get festive too.

 

Notre Dam Cathedral - Christmas concert.

 

It was a pretty good concert. We didn't get the chance to sing only listen and only half the songs were Christmas songs but it was free so I can't complain. It was a little bit long and the benches weren't that comfortable but the Christmas songs they did sing were good.

 

A Vietnamese Vicar

 

It was a packed event. It started at 7:30. Luckily we arrived at 6:50 and got seats. I've not been to a church for a while and it was interesting to see so many people passing the time on their I-pads.

 

I've added a couple of videos of the event.

 

The first one is of the vicar walking down the aisle, accompanied by a pair of candle bearers, carrying aloft a grand looking copy of the good book whilst chanting.

 

 

The second video is of the choir in action singing 'Hark the Herald angel sing' during the service.

 

 

It achieved its goal of making me feel more festive, albeit at least as much as possible whilst sweating.

Nearing the end of my first semester and a pre Christmas holiday

Not much to report really. I've settled into my new job and its all going well. The students are great and I'm enjoying it. I've already been here for over two months now and I'm coming to the end of my first semester. After teaching for10 weeks I have a week break before starting all over again. The good news is that my week off falls on Christmas week! This means I'm on holiday from 21st December - 30th December.

 

Some more good news is that I've booked a pre Christmas holiday to Singapore for three nights. I fly on 21st December and come back on Christmas eve. It should be nice and I;m hoping there will be lots of Christmas decorations.

 

 

 

I've not got any good pictures to put on the blog so I'm going to add one of the Singapore flag.