Biz Trip Taipei - Zhi Char

As this was my 3rd trip to Taipei, I've made some friends among my colleagues and vendor. I was thrilled when they invited me out to a local place for dinner cause I knew I would be eating good food at a local ambiance location. And from the photo above, I hit jackpot! This place was quite near where our office is via train or taxi, and it was a girl's night out with my Taiwanese girlfriends.

Above is my first time eating rice with minced meat in Taiwan. They are famous for it, but this was the first time I tried it. It was delicious! I had two bowls of it. And my Taiwanese girl friend had seconds too! I knew I was in good company when the girls are not afraid to enjoy their food! And if you look behind, there is a plate or a rather pale looking fried cabbage. I didn't know why my colleague would order such a boring dish, but when I bite into them, OMG, they were so sweet and fragrant and crunchy! Why is it vegetable always taste so much better outside of Singapore? Super super love it. I would have been happy if that was the only two dishes I ate that night and no! There were more! For 4 ladies, we did order a lot, even if the serving was rather small. 

Above is my favourite of the dish ordered, pig intestine with chives stuffing. I thought I've died and gone to heaven. I would have given this dish a Michelin star if I could. Super super lovely! 

We also had bitter gourd chicken soup. This was the first time I ate white coloured bitter gourd. The soup was nice, although I suspect there were some ginger in it. But there was a touch of chinese wine inside it, so I was ok. But with so much good food on the table, it seemed senseless to fill my stomach with so much soup. The sinful looking peanut dish in the photo is actually fried baby squid with salt and better. Needless to say, delicious! If only I had a cold beer then....

We also ordered big head prawn cook in the same salt and pepper flavour. They were also delicious!

But a part of the lovely food, what I enjoyed was the lovely company of my Taiwanese girl friends. Although I can't really understand mandarin that well, and stayed quiet mostly in their conversation, I can understand enough to appreciate it. And I find that they can talk about any topic without being taboo about anything, something which I miss in my Singaporean friends who are always politically correct and never speaks their mind. I find Taiwanese much more often, much more comical, much more warm. 

One of them visited Singapore recently, and I took the trouble to meet up with her and my other Taiwanese colleague who is working in Singapore. It was just as fun. I missed honest conversation, especially with girlfriends cause seriously, I am short of girlfriends, what with me being in the IT industry and growing up with a brother and spending my holidays with my male nephews...

Biz Trip Taipei - Catching Up In Taipei 2017

Surprise business trip to Taipei to support peak volume for Taipei from 23-April-2017 to 30-April-2017. I was supposed to fly back on 29-April, but I managed to extend my stay one more day as 1-May was a public holiday in Singapore, and since I was already in Taiwan! This was my last trip as a completion of my project there. And it was a very social trip indeed, going out almost every night with different people!

I arrived with my colleague on Sunday 23-April, and we rushed to our hotel and check-in. I made my way to my room and even before I could unpack, the phone rang and the receptionist told me my friends were downstairs waiting for me! So I had to just grab my wallet and off I went to my first dinner with my Taiwanese colleague to a hotpot restaurant. Sadly I don't have any good photos of that, but it was along the road of Daan Station.

I also met up with my colleague KC who was in Taipei with her family for holiday. We went to a tea specialty restaurant for dinner and ordered a set where everything was cooked with one tea or another. Above photo shows the dessert and drinks that came with the set. The tea flavoured cheese cake was awesome. I also had bubble tea while she ordered a more traditional hot tea served in a pot. After the met up, we went for a walk at night and just wondered around.

I also managed to catch up with my ex-bosses from my previous company. I messaged them when I found out they were going to be in Taipei for a business trip. Photo above shows me meeting them at around 10pm at Ximending! Yes, there were many late nights out in Taipei. Best thing is, the shops are open! My boss initially wanted to bring me to a toilet themed restaurant, but since I arrived quite late, I was partly glad the place was closed :P

Managed to con a free ice cream from my boss for supper. Interestingly, this was the same restaurant which I met up with  my colleague on my first trip here. It is called Rolling Cafe, and the owner draws on all the coaster there by himself. So its personalized coaster! I took this one home with me. He came over to chat with us when we were about to leave. I find that Taiwanese people are so warm and people are always happy to chat with you. I also suspect that he was high.... Like Uncle Frankie from Jalan Jalan Hostel in Malacca... lol

I don't really like the message on the coaster, but still, it was a nice memento. I like personal drawn art a lot as I find that they are more meaningful. 

 

Speaking of warm shop owner, I took the above two photos of a MOS Burger Restaurant near my office on one of my lunch time. I really like the personal message written on the small black board placed right outside the shop. It translate to "Use your smile to change the world, but don't let the world change your smile". I thought it was really thoughtful advice. And the ambiance of the cafe was really nice too when the afternoon sun shines onto the garden seats outside the store. I even posted it on Facebook with the tag "It's the little things...."

And what really made my day was a message left by the Haba Cafe owner's just three simple words "You are back".  I wrote about him and his cafe here before. He sent me a friend request after I started following his Haba Cafe Facebook page, and we have been friend since. I have never met him in person, but those three words just felt so warm to me. From one stranger to another, it was just so thoughtful, that he notice, and that he welcome me back. It made me felt like I was being welcome home.... I apologies for not visiting him in this trip as I was rather busy with the production support. Maybe next time...

Biz Trip Vietnam - Stuff

This is the last post on my Vietnam, and it is all about the interesting stuff I saw and tried there. Being on a work trip, I was actually in the office most of the time, and above is the photo of my office just outside the staff pantry. Instant noodles! I guess my colleagues there work long nights or are frequently hungry. I though that was a nice tough. Interestingly, my Singapore town office now have a vending machine that sells instant noodle too. Hungry staff are non-working staff! Always feed your staff! Luckily I work in a project office in Changi have have a foodcourt and supermarket just below. 

I think through out the whole trip, I visited Lucky Plaza 3 times. They have a supermarket on the 2nd level, and above are all the sauces I accumulated thought out the trip. I love cooking at home, so everywhere I go, I always buy weird sauce back to try. They are only SGD1 or so per small bottle, so it was great fun shopping there. 

Above are matcha pudding from Pizza 4P's. We actually went to Pizza 4P's for dinner once, but these pudding were sold out. My colleague also tried them at the Japanese BBQ place where I decided to forgo these for Sakura ice cream instead. Well we can't always be regretting over things we want to try but didn't, right? So on the last night there, as usual, I got dragged out for a night walk again and I decided to try my luck at the Family Mart convenient shop to see if they sell them. Luck was on my side! Woohoo, we got two bottles of these and brought it back to our hotel room for supper! Yummy!

My colleague brought the above wine from Lucky Plaza. He said it cost only SGD4. We had it with our matcha pudding on our last night there. I didn't know wine was that cheap in Vietnam. Do they make it there? Wouldn't know until my next trip there cause wine was never on my shopping list in Asia. I think Vietnam in general was bad for my kidney. For the whole week, I drank mostly coffee and alcohol.... I would say this was one of my most unhealthy business trip, sigh.

On my last day, I also went shopping on my own. I got myself a nice pottery cup which I have posted here. I also bought these two jars of pate. Lucky for me, I can read a little French, so rabbit pate! Hahahaha, and mushroom pate. Couldn't miss out on the rabbit pate cause it wasn't something you can find everyday in Singapore. Plus, each jar was around SGD4. How do you eat these you say? Spread bread with them and eat it. They are yummy. Add butter if you don't like them too dry.

I also got like 4 tins of pate whenever I came across them. Each cost less than SGD2, and i got a mixed of all shorts of liver. I know most people don't like liver, but I adore these! Especially spread on toast and butter. Not the healthiest thing to eat, but give it a try. They are creamy and gamey. They serve these in my hotel during breakfast, and I had them daily. 

And so end my first business trip to Ho Chi Minh. I heard that I may be going there once every 2 months in future. Looking forward to it. Stay tune. Next topic will be on my last business trip to Taipei for my project. Highlight would be on Jiufen. Lots of lovely photos to share for that one. Sigh, so many backlogs to post. 

Biz Trip Vietnam - Scenes of Ho Chi Minh

This post is about the beautiful scenes around Ho Chi Minh. My exploration was rather limited to the city area and only half day on Sunday when I arrived, and Saturday before I left. All the photos here were taken only on my last day where I was finally feeling better and more comfortable with myself. Above was taken on my walk from my hotel to Bitexco on an early Saturday morning around 9am. By the way, zebra crossing don't work in Vietnam. Actually, zebra crossing only works in Singapore. I've never seen them work anywhere else before, except maybe Japan....

Above was taken inside the Bitexco building itself, looking opposite these rows of shops. The colours of Vietnam was really beautiful. I think I love it cause they always used such strong colours like dark green, dark brown, bright pink etc. And the trees really add a lovely touch to the scene too. 

I also cross the above building and the garden in front of me of Uncle Ho's statue. Not gonna show those photos cause I hate cliche landmark photos....

The Opera House. Small and petite. Hope I will get a chance to watch a performance here next time. I'm actually headed to Hanoi in November 2017 and they also have a lovely Opera House there. Price for a performance when I last check was around SGD50.

A beautiful hotel in colonial building style. 

Lovely coffee shops everywhere. 

On my last day, I've actually planned to have a mid morning snack at this cafe call "L'usine". I have walked past it a few times before, but didn't went in. But on Saturday, although I went back there, I couldn't find the entrance to the cafe. It could be I was too early and it wasn't open yet, it was under renovation (as I saw a sign about some renovation at the same building...), or I really sucks at finding the entrance. 

This is what it looked like from across the street. It looked lovely inside, and it was suppose to have wonderful coffee and breakfast items. Sigh. Maybe next time.

More cafe with lovely dark green themed. People queueing for bread reminds me so much of Paris.

One of my favourite past time when I travel is wondering into weird looking alleys. This one above lead into residential quarters and open up into an inner court inside with lovely French windows and nostalgic metal gates. It was really dark walking in, but it was early morning, and I didn't think it was dangerous. Besides, there were a few old aunties around, so I decided to go in. This looks more like the core life in Ho Chi Minh.

When caught in awkward situation when encountering local residents at such a place, just smile and look stupid. Works every time. Aunty selling pho looked at me curiously like why am I lost inside their alley. Dogs sleeping by the side can't be bothered with me. Moto bikes parked everywhere. Household items and laundry left out to dry inside the inner courts. These are the things that I want to connect with. I have a feeling I'll be back in Vietnam more in future to experience more of it.

And so end the last day of my business trip to Ho Chi Minh Vietnam.

Ref:

L'ucine

Biz Trip Vietnam - Bitexco Financial Tower Eon 51 Cafe

Last day of my business trip was kinda like my last day in Taipei business trip. Slept around 3am on Saturday morning, and woke at 6am. I have a lot of places to hit before checking out at 1pm! And the highlight was finally being able to roam around doing the things I love alone as my colleague have booked himself a 3 hour massage that morning. So although I was dead tired, I drag myself out of bed and headed for breakfast at around 7am plus. Above was my first destination, the Bitexco Financial Tower. I didn't know how to get there, and they open at 9am! So chop chop! Had breakfast with my colleague on the last day and nearly choked when he said he wanted to accompany me on my walk there. But luckily he had to go to the toilet after breakfast and I gamey escaped when he said it was OK if I didn't want to wait for him. Freedom!

The walk there and back was adventurous enough. I'll post the scene in another blog entry. It took maybe 20mins just to walk there. I was more afraid of getting lost then actually being hit by a car. Lucky for me, my sense of direction can be quite exceptional when I need it to be. And mind you, I navigate without GPS! So finally, I navigate myself to the building and ask the concierge where Cafe 51 was. They pointed me to the elevator that takes you all the way there.

Here's a souvenir shot inside the lift. An elevator all the way up! I call it a souvenir shot cause it has the address of the place and the date I visited. 

I have learned long ago that sometimes restaurant and cafe in Asia don't really know how to react when you tell them you need a table for one. But that doesn't really stop me from making things awkward for them everywhere I go, lol. I already had breakfast at the hotel, I was only here for the view. So although I really wanted to order some ice cream, I restraint myself from doing so and settle for a nice cold ice coffee. They seated me in a proper table,  but they also have a section that looks like the photo above which looks like a bar counter and you can look out to the beautiful view of Ho Chi Minh. I want to sit there next time I'm back! Hopefully at night time! Sipping cocktail or a nice whiskey....

Above is the view of my table. I love the flowers on the table, and I super love the ice coffee in Vietnam. It cost around SGD6? Or same price of a Starbuck. But the view! The view was beautiful. Since I was the first customer there, while waiting for my order of drink, I told the waiters I was gonna look around and proceeded to walk all over the restaurant. I spend like 30mins just looking at the view and identifying the places I have been to, and asking them to confirm it. They were more than happy to entertain me. I was also able to trace my route from the hotel. It was fun. And when real customer finally decided to arrive, I went back to my table and enjoyed my coffee. It was peaceful and free, and that was the first time I felt really relax in my whole trip. I guess I just needed to be alone. I still recall my trip to JiuFen a month back and how great that feeling was. Maybe I'll blog about that in my next topic! I've grown so used to being on my own since young that I look forward to every business trip just so that I could be alone with my thoughts. And this, this was one of those wonderful moment. 

They actually have a sky deck there where if you pay like SGD5, you can go out and take a walk around it. It wasn't open yet when I was there. So I just took a photo of it from the cafe. I wasn't interested in it anyway. Actually I wasn't really interested in observation deck before, but having seen the first sunrise from JR Tower Hokkaido in 2017, observation deck can be very memorable. I told myself that I would love coming back here at night next time to view the city lights. Hopefully that can be soon. 

Here are some view of Ho Chi Minh city from Eon 51 Cafe.

And of course the beautiful river that runs through it.

Ref:

Eon 51 Cafe