Vietnam 2013; Hanoi (Part 1)

13 December 2013, our trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.

We arrive at hanoi, in the evening and hanoi being a city with very short day, it was already dark.

Me, while waiting to be transfer to the hotel! 

Our first dinner, this was a great experience, not only because the food is great but also how much fun we had during this meal. Being unable to peak in Viet, we had trouble communicating to the locals. They don't speak English, least not much. Thus, it was already a miracle that we manage to order food. and have food in front of us. But not knowing what to do with the food, we simple look around, and "copy" what the locals did. It was really funny and we had lots of fun eating and cooking!  

Day 2, starts with breakfast of Pho ("fur"), which is a local delight of rice noodles and soup and beef. A must have when you visit Vietnam. 

After breakfast, it was a day of City tour to the various attraction in Hanoi city. 

 @The museum of ethnic minority.  

@ Mr Ho Chi Ming house! 

Chef Iron Hand Stanley!! 

At the final resting place of Mr Ho Chi Ming. His body is still in the building behind us! 

All the temples in Hanoi. 

They have a lot of similarity to China, maybe because it is at the borders of China and from the early days many of its ppl actually comes from China, thus, the culture and all have much similarity to that of China. 

After a day of City tour, we walk to a local stall for seafood dinner! Again the lack of ability to communicate in Viet makes dinner very interesting and brings lots of laugh during dinner. 

We were unable to identify the food which we want. Therefore, majority of the time, we simple look at the person beside us and point at the food which were on their table to inform the locals what we want. 

We end up basically ordering what the guy beside us eat. I think he find this really entertaining and every time we point at his food and say that we want it too he will just give out a loud laugh, which we find very amusing too. 

Finally the porridge, super nice and sweet because of the clam in it! Tasty! 

A must have there! 

This was like the last thing which the guy beside us ordered thus we have it too! Whahahahaha. 

Tips on finding Interior Designer??

As shared in our previous post, we are in the midst of planning for our big day and our house in 2014.

We began our renovation research and planning in June and have almost short listed our Interior Designers and we will very soon be deciding a final one and preparing for the renovation already! 

Eggciting!! 

So here we are on some tips which we thought was very helpful in guiding us on who to choose and all. 

1) Know your BUDGET; Spend within your means!! 

Stanley and I started saving for 2014 quite awhile back, we are very realistic and practical people and it is important to us that we spend within our means; no renovation loan and over the top budget. We are also very determine not to take a single cents from our parents, thus, knowing and having a budget to keep us in line is very very important. 

Here is a range of the estimated amount you may need for renovation. 

But again we are all different so it is best to know what you can afford and create your own breakdown of list and budget to work with. 

Part of our Excel Budget List! 

2) Know what you want and what you don't! 

Interior design might come with many ideas on how your house should look like and what you need to do. As much as we all need to keep an open mind to these ideas, it is also important to remember that you will be the one staying the house for the next many year and that you should know clearly what you want and how you want your house to be. 

3) Design a CONTROL to compare ID

Even with "2)" above different ID will interpret and quote u on different items, sometime, this makes it difficult to compare the ID price and all. Thus, What we did was after the first ID was to come out with a list of specific items we need. Thereafter, using that to distribute it to the ID for them to quote. This allows us to really compare the price items of the ID. 

A little sample of how the list may look like

 4) Research on the ID. 

Renotalk can be your best friend during this period. Knowing the ID you go to is important and what better place to do the research than Renotalk. Research will help you identify possible scam and bad name of ID which we don't want to be involved with. So,  do research before seeing them! 

Renotalk webbie

5) Don't rush into things! 

Do not sign contracts on impulse, it is important to compare and take time in finding out before you sign the contract. No matter what it is a lot of money, so do take time and think through it! 

The process takes time and should be an exciting process for the new couple. So we hope this will help you decide better and make the process better! 

Have fun!! =) 

Getting Ready for 2014!

With our house coming in april 2014 and our wedding at december 2014, we knew that things will get really busy and therefore, being a pair of couple who plans plans and plan, we decided to start doing things progressively and steadily in various phase.

The entire planning of our house renovation and the wedding took place in June 2013; 10 months before the house key arrives and 1 years 6 months before the big day!

It begin with simple research which quickly develops to budget planning and time allocations. We speak to friends who are already married and also friends who are in the midst of preparing the house or the wedding.

We set up budget, time-line and excel spreadsheet. We had ups and downs, happy moment and not so happy ones. but all in all we always remind ourselves why we are doing this all. And of course to learn to enjoy the process and love each other more.

It has been many many months since the planning started and we are definitely looking forward to it more as it is really us achieving our common goals together!

So here are some of the things which we find useful in our planning process and we would like to share it with you all!! =)

Wedding Planner from Singapore Brides 

Draft guest list before deciding how big a wedding to have. 

Know your budget & work within your means! 

Thus far, planning has been going on well. and by starting early we know we have more time, less stress and thus we will not need to be too bother about rushing. But of cause consistent work counts and we hope to be able to keep up with it even when all the work pours in and it gets too busy! 

Counting down: 

1) 6 months to key collection

2) 1 year 2 months to wedding day! 

Fighting! 

Escape to Higher Grounds!

Every now and then when i have the chance i would love to escape! As i always say, the only way for me to now work is to leave Singapore! and sometimes even when i am out of Singapore i am working; school trips! So escape to another world is always my kind of thing. And i am really very blessed to have found someone to do this with me, my travel buddy for life; Stanley!!

He can stand my nonsense when i travel, my madness when i am not being a teacher and all my crazy talks and actions.

So here is our little escape to Cameron Highland, also to celebrate me getting older. Haha. -_-'

Travel with 5 stars! 

Walk for miles and was lost! 

Hahaha... 

Higher grounds have nicer flowers! 

Queen Bee!!! 

Strawberry!! My Fav!!

Honeycomb!! Real one ok!! 

Traditional Planting!

Veggie!! 

Farmer Sim!! 

More flowers! 

Catus! All kinds!! 

Looking Wrong! 

Farmer Sim again! 

Watercrest plantation! 

Farmer Tan! 

Modern Farming 

Fruits dropping!! 

So pretty.

Stop and smell the "roses"

Us! 

HOT POT is a MUST here!! 

Love this trip, since cameron is like a very nice cooling place where things are slow and you can just chill and walk around without feeling hot or like you are dying. Will go there again to escape for sure!! =)

Choosing the VENUE

Since we are in the midst of planning for our big day, I kinda got few things going to help us get through this and not die!!

1) Budget Template (for House & Wedding)

2) Saving Plan!

3) Probable Wedding Dates
1st Choice: 13/12/14 (because i like 13 and also if you are writing it in american then is 12/13/14)
2nd Choice: 20/12/14

4) List of things need to do from now up to the wedding!

So up on this list i am here at which VENUE is next, and this will then kinda help me sort out item 3 as well.

So yup, Stanley and i really dont have much expectation on the venue, cos on my part i dont see a need of having the wedding since we are already "married" but yup, stanley also say that we should not move too far from the norm and we should really try to make our parents happy so yup here we are. (actually i not too happy lah, but too bad, it just got to happen!)

All in all, i feel that stanley have a better idea in what he wants for the venue and all. So yup he is the boss now! =)

So here are some of the criterion we listed (actually is he more).

1) GREAT FOOD (this i agree, cos ppl only toks about the food during the wedding, they dont remember anything but the good / bad food.)

2) Nice Environment (we are not looking for classy thingy but have to be presentable i guess)

3) Fuss-free (it will not be nice if half way during the wedding they have to find you to say they run our of beer wanna open a barrel or no more wine wanna limit the bottles, so yup.)

4) Budget friendly. (we are working on quite a tight budget as our house will be in around arp 2014, and we are not the kind who believe the ang bao will cover it so choose the most exp thing you can find, we want to be logical and reasonable and work within what we believe is our means, no need to show off, cos after the wedding is your life u have to live!)

5) Good coordinating manager! (someone who is experience and is able to help you on the big day not give you more prob!)

6) Extra room for the helpers!

So basically, after this list of "expectations" we kinda short listed the hotels we would like to see! And because of criterion 1, we kinda decided that restaurant hotel will be the best. But here is a list which we shortlisted.

1) Peony Jade @ Kepple Club
2) M Hotel
3) Peach Garden @ Hotel Miramar
4) Tung Lok Signatures @ Orchard Parade Hotel
5) Hotel Royal @ Queens by Grand Banquet
6) Orchard Hotel by Four Season Group

With this list it was easy for us to hunt and finally decide. We basically research, call, visit and also meet up with the hotel ppl. When down to a couple of hotels, met the manager there, when down to Royals twice and see real wedding taking place there, like look at the place before their wedding start, look at the hotel rooms. And also since the both dates that we choose are both HOT dates, like how we know right, not like we count, is just random. We have to kinda decide fast. Singapore everything must fast! hahaha.

And finally, decided to go with Hotel Royal @ Queens, since they have a very comprehensive package with free flow of beer, wine and VSOP (God bless Stanley and the merlion team!), they also give us a free helper room, and they have nice teochew and canto food! So yup it was GREAT! So just like this our Big day is also fixed!

13/12/14, Hotel Royal @ Queens

Now it is prep and count down to the big day!! =) 

Ko Paradise!

Stanley and I love to travel, and we have decided to share our travelling here too! Cause he is my best travel buddy and our aim to is travel the world!

We have travel much since we got together! From mini trips like malaysia, bintan, batam to long trips like that of our grad trip. We got lost together and clear our bucket list together!

Here is our recent trip to Phuket, Thailand.

Janice & Ian

Our travel buddies. 

Flying Fox me. 

Stanley with his boobies Island! 

Fishes! 

The great food of Thailand! 

Us. 

Janice & Me

Roomies! 

The island of football! 

Jan & Ian

The Beach! 

Floating Soccer Court. 

Nice! 

Me. 

Stan JUMP!

Food!! 

All of US!

Jan. 

Stan & his food. 

Us!

Phuket 2013!