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!