Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), VIETNAM

August 22 - 26, 2007

It was already after 4pm when we cleared Tan Son Nhat Airport. A young taxi driver approached us and offered to take us to our hotel for USD15 (RM52). I told him I had been to HCMC many times, VND100,000 (RM23) was more than generous. He relented.

I had not been back to HCMC since the beginning of this year. Before, I came here almost every other month, mostly on business and golf. It has not changed much except for some road construction works. It adds more chaos to the already congested roads. It was a slow drive to the hotel. This is the first trip for my wife and son. I couldn’t wait to show them around.


Rex Hotel

We checked into Rex Hotel located at the junction of Nguyen Hue and Le Loi in District 1. It is within walking distance to Ben Thanh Market, HCMC’s top tourist draw. The hotel was voted as Vietnam’s top hotel in 2006 by Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. The sign on the wall proudly says “Top of the Top Ten Hotel”. The Rooftop Garden was selected as one of the best bars of South East Asia by Newsweek magazine in 1996. The bar was known as the venue for the “5 o’clock Follies” by the international correspondents covering the war. The bar is listed in Patricia Schultz’s “1001 Places to See Before You Die”.

One of the 1001 places you must see before you die.

After dropping off our bags, we headed straight to Ben Thanh Market. It was hot and humid. Traffic was chaotic, made worse by thousands of motorbikes on the road. Half of HCMC’s 7 (my friend Nhan said 9) million population are said to own motorbikes. The ratio of motorbikes to cars is estimated at 20 to 1. The sight of traffic on green light is like thousands of motorbikes moving at almost the same speed, zigzagging to avoid bigger vehicles. It takes some skills and a lot of courage to cross the streets.
Ben Thanh Market

Ben Thanh Market is the place claiming to have everything that a person may need. It is crammed with clothes, bags, shoes on one side and foodstuffs, trinkets, and other things on another side. The tourists throng the place for a good bargain and bargain is a must. As a rule of thumb, start to haggle the price by knocking off two third of the asking price and work upward.

Shopping inside Ben Thanh Market

From Ben Thanh, I wanted to walk to Sinh Café where all the cheap tours are sold. It is located at Pham Ngu Lao Street, widely known as the backpackers’ street. Just as we crossed the road at the roundabout in front of Ben Thanh, a cyclo (Vietnamese version of a trishaw) approached and offered a ride. For 2 cyclos, the guys agreed at VND15,000 each. They would take us to Sinh Café and back to our hotel. I thought it was a good bargain.

Coconut juice break by the road side

The cyclos pedaled their way slowly to our destination. Nguyen, my driver even stopped to make sure I held my backpack in a secure mode, tightly wrapped around me. His friend, carrying Ton and Anas said it was to protect against “motorcycle gangster”. These two guys must be the nicest persons in HCMC we met. His friend even helped us to cross the street when we reached Sinh Café.

The nice cyclo man who later robbed us

Sinh Café is not a café, it is a tour agent office. From the looks of it, they are doing brisk business in ferrying tourists around HCMC. We booked a full day’s tour to My Tho and Ben Tre in Mekong delta. It advertised for USD7 but charged USD8. A private tour charges 5 - 6 times the amount.

Uncle Ho & the People Committee Building

After booking our tour we went back to the 2 waiting cyclos. One of them was kind enough to again help us cross the street. It was getting dark as we cycled back to our hotel. When we reached the Ben Thanh roundabout, they started drifting to the right away from Le Loi Street. I asked Nguyen why. He said cyclos are not allowed on that particular street. An offence attracts very heavy penalty. As we drifted further and further to the street with less and less people, I started to sense that it was a trap. I told Ton to prepare for any eventuality.

When we reached what seemed to be a deserted area, Nguyen started to talk to his friend in Vietnamese and they both stopped. They ordered us out and I started to argue. They told us that it was as far as they would go and asked for payment. I was helpless and gave VND20,000 each, 5,000 more than the agreed price. They flatly refused. Nguyen’s friend remarked that the amount couldn’t even buy a pack of his cigarettes. A taxi ride would only cost me VND15,000.

They demanded VND300,000 each, more than the cost of 2 days tour to Mekong Delta. I tried to put up a futile argument. Fearing for the safety of my family, I gave VND300,000 to Nguyen’s friend. He appeared to be more threatening. He must be the ring leader. Nguyen asked for his share of another VND300,000. I told them that the amount was already 10 times of what I was supposed to pay. They let us go. It was a long walk back to our hotel.

Ton in front of the Opera House

I was really pissed-off on the whole cyclo episode. I knew from tourist brochures that taking cyclo ride at night is a big no. Sinh Café is within walking distance to our hotel. I could have taken a cab for a lot less. It would be safer. The noise from roadside construction and the anger of being cheated kept me awake until the wee hours of Thursday morning.

The cyclo incidence gave me a bad vibe. I decided to cancel the Mekong Delta tour and forfeited the payment made. From the brochures, I sensed lack of safety procedures. The motorized boats are small in size. There are no life jackets. As in other part in South East Asia, overloading is a standard practice. It is better to play safe and skip the trip. For the record, both Anas and I are non swimmers.

We decided to go shopping at Ben Thanh in the morning. After lunch, we took a cab to the War Museum. The ride cost only VND15,000. The museum is a 3-storey building but the exhibits are all found on the ground floor. There are American tanks, airplanes, Huey helicopters, and other arsenals on display in the compound. The indoor exhibit is mostly photo story of American war crimes in Vietnam. When we finished going though the photos and reading of massacres, it started to rain. We watched a video show, mostly in black and white, which was of poor quality.

War Museum

When the downpour reduced to a drizzle, we bought ponchos and walked around the yard. There was an exhibit of “tiger cage” where the hard core prisoners were shackled and caged. An old guillotine used by the French during their colonial rule was on display. A photo of the last Vietnamese patriot to have his head chopped off was on show. The museum was small but the impact was profound. You can’t help feeling sorry for the Vietnamese and develop that anti American feeling.

The following day we booked a cab to go to Cu Chi Tunnel. It is located about 70km from HCMC. It was a slow ride and took about 90 minutes. There were too many bikes on the road. Our driver kept honking to get the motorbikes out of the way. “Many bink bink in Malaysia?” he asked me, referring to his non stop honking. I told him if we honk the way he did we would get killed by irate motorists.

Tunnel entrance

Cu Chi had a new facelift. There was a walking tunnel entrance to get to the other side. A year ago, we just crossed the road from the place selling the tickets. After the customary video show, we followed a group of tourists, mostly westerners under one English speaking guide. Walking under the many trees provided cool respite from the midday heat. The guide took us to the many tunnel entrances, too small to fit the westerners. I believed they had expanded a tunnel to let the bigger size tourists to crawl along. We stopped at a refreshment hut half way through the tour. I went to the nearby shooting range to fire 10 rounds from AK47 for VND200,000. It jammed most of the time. I wonder how a Vietcong could rely on that rifle in a fight.

One of the many entrances to 250km tunnels

It rained very heavily on our way back to HCMC. There were very much less motorcycles on the road when it was raining. It would have made our journey faster if not for the many flash floods along the way.

Snake & scorpion wine anyone?

The next day, we took a cab to the Reunification Palace, the former palace of South Vietnamese President. It was here that 2 North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates and marked the downfall of Saigon.

Tank 843 that crashed through the palace gate

Ton spent more time in our hotel room because she needed to finish piles of works before Monday. Anas and I would go out to have lunch or dinner and took out for Ton. She stayed up almost every night.

Anas having a splashing time at the rooftop swimming pool

We could only manage to go on short sight seeing trip and then back to the room for Ton to do her work. When time permitted we would go for dinner at one of two halal restaurants nearby, Bombay Restaurant, a small sidewalk café serving Indian food or Four Seasons Restaurant for Malaysian-Vietnamese food. Four Seasons is the pricier of the two.

Super strong Vietnamese coffee - keeps you awake until 3AM

It also happened to be rainy season in Vietnam. Whenever it rained, normally in the evening, we just spent our time inside the hotel. Ton with her work, Anas at the Internet room and occasionally I sneaked into the in-house mini casino at Bingo Club. That was our routine during our stay in Vietnam.

Fireworks, Putrajaya, MALAYSIA

August 18, 2007

Anas and I left for Putrajaya to watch a fireworks competition in conjunction with our 50th. Merdeka celebration on August 31. There are 4 competitors from Malaysia, Australia, Italy and Japan. Tonight would be Malaysia team's debut.

Putrajaya was Prime Minister Mahathir's vision of grandeur. He moved the government administrative centre from Kuala Lumpur to the former oil palm and rubber lands. Several billion ringgits were spent to build beautiful buildings, bridges and state-of-the-art infra structures that were supposed to make Malaysians proud. It went to show that "Malaysia Boleh" (Malaysia can) spirit, a phrase coined to spur Malaysians on.

The fireworks performance by the Malaysian team was on schedule. It was worth the whole day's wait. The show started at 10pm. By then the crowd was already converging onto the area near Putrajaya International Conference Centre (PICC), the venue for the show. It was reported in the newspaper the following day that there were about 100,000 spectators. We must have been on the wrong side. It was less crowded.

We managed to find a space besides the lake near the bridge. It was the spot where the fireworks ended when they were shot from PICC. I had a tough time trying to photograph the fireworks that appeared to be falling on our heads.

Judging from the "Aaaah!", "Uuuhhh!", claps and cheers, or lack of them, the performance by the Malaysian team was just average. The crowd must have expected more.

The show lasted for about 20 minutes. It was nevertheless spectacular. We'd definitely come back for the performance by another team on the night before Merdeka Day.

Class Reunion, Shah Alam, MALAYSIA

August 11, 2007

We left for Shah Alam after lunch to check into Grand Blue Wave Hotel. We were attending my class reunion dinner. After 30 years of leaving our high school, a bunch of middle aged men were going to see one another again.

Good to see you guys! Tendung, red shirt, looks very happy. Also Ailan, Pintu & Nek Kamal

Fitri and I were at the hotel early, making sure that everything was in order and ready for the big night. Fitri was the main sponsor and I was the chairman of the organizing committee. As we were going through things, a familiar face walked in. There came Tendung, an alumnus we had not seen for 30 years. He had grown sideways, as many of us did, lost some teeth but remained as jovial as before. He was the first of the many surprises of the evening. There were more to come. It was good to see them all again.
Topper making sure everybody sign in and pay up


By 8PM, we had a roomful of alumni and family members. It was crowded, boisterous, nostalgic and of course fun. It had been 30 long years since we were together at a residential school, Sekolah Dato’ Abdul Razak (SDAR), Seremban. We call our group SDARA77 (SDAR Alumni 1977).

Main Sponsor's table

We started our evening with singing Negaraku, our national anthem and our school song. Mohd. Noor (Belia), former Head Boy and his assistance, Nek Kamal led the rendering of the school song. Bakar Majeed recited the doa (prayers). There were a lot of professors, from our group. I believe we had a big pool of super smart students then. Suffice is to say that if you threw a stone during our reunion dinner, chances were it would hit a PhD or an MD. Way to go SDARA77!

Singing our school song

I took to the rostrum for the usual chairman’s foreword. I was excited and honoured to be given the opportunity to organize the reunion again. We did the same before for our 20th.Anniversary. Then, it was Nadzar’s (an MD) turn as a representative of the big SDARA. Of course he was also the official photographer since schooling days. He and Topper were the key persons for the success of the reunion dinner.






Mrs Bakar Majeed, Mrs Pak Chin and Mrs Nadzar

Dinner was buffet style. It allowed more time for the guys to mingle around. After all, food was secondary for the night. A lot of them chose to stay outside the hall where they could smoke and chat. It’s time to quit smoking guys!

Dinner scene inside the hall

I tried to call up as many guys as possible to the stage to share with us their lifelong stories after leaving SDAR. We had Tendung whom we had not seen for 30 years. There was Kahpi who is expecting his grand kid soon. We called Hassan Keling who is a lawyer now, newlywed Aziz, cyber entrepreneur Syed Nazim, Khoiri Dimyati, the brain child behind ITIS traffic warning system, Mohd. Noor Belia who said he won’t look old because of his “belianess” (youthfulness), Nek Kamal who has ONLY 8 kids, Umar Shukri who has slightly more than Nek Kamal’s. Boy! They sure knew how to keep busy! Ramlan who came all the way from Manila also shared his stories and last but not least a word from the sponsor, Fitri.
We had to cut short because of the time constraints. After photography session, some adjourned to nearby stall and continued until the wee hours of Sunday.

There were altogether 67 SDARA77s present. They were: Aziz Rahman (newlywed), Manaf Mat Rashid, Rahman Harun, Razak Hamid (he spotted long beard), Bakar Majeed, Ailan Ludin, Akashah Majizat (Atak), Azami Ibrahim (Chimek), Darussalam Baharom, Hashim Idris, Hassan Basri (Keling), Ishak Mohd. Nor Monen), Jailani Ismail (Jai), Kahpi Ngiso, Khoiri Dimyati, Khairun Nadzar, Mat Nasir Ismail ( Pintu Gang who also supplied our t-shirts), Mazlan Mohd. Noor (Mono), Mohamad Ibrahim (Mike Bra), Jaafar Saroni (Wak), Rani Dali (Yek), Zaki Jalaludin, Dawam Rahman (Mamat), Fitri Aris, Fuzi Hassan, Ghazali Bakar (Charlie), Ismail Aziz, Nasir Ngah (Chungah), Mohd. Noor Yahya (Belia), Sabri Hashim (Walang), Sazali Mohd. Noor (Charlie), Suhaimi Ahmad (Botak who supplied the Hong Leong paper bags), Yusof Yaacob, Mohd. Zin Udin (Jenggo), Azman Mohd. Nor (Mata Malaikat), Fuad Ujang, Musa Bidin, Mustafa Hamid (Linggam), Mustafa Kamal Hamzah (Topper), Mustaffa Kamal Khalib (Mus), Nek Kamal, Nik Khairuddin Fathi, Azizi Mokhtar, Omar Selamat, Ramlan Hamzah, Ramli Ibrahim (Mento), Ramli Basri, Razali Rahman, Roshdzi Arshah, Roslan Hashim, Saifuddin Mungit, Sohaimi Sabri, Syed Abdullah, Syed Jalil, Syed Nazim, Tuan Hassan, Umar Shukri, Yahya Mat Wazir (Wak), Zaharuddin Sarbini, Zaiky Awang (Chandu), Zainal Arif Shaari (Besi), Zainudin Ali, and Zulhaimi Zakaria (Tendung). I hope I didn’t leave anyone out.

On Sunday, Syed Dollah conducted a motivation class for those staying in De Palma Hotel. Syed is a PhD and an accomplished motivational speaker. Earlier, Topper’s wife gave some tai chi lessons. We had lunch at De Palma and bade farewell.

It will be another 10 years before we meet again. Some may not be around. Seven of us had passed away from various causes. Burhanuddin (Chan), Khairul Anuar (Badak), Kamaruddin and Mat Rozi had left us for quite sometimes now. They were followed by Bahari Aban who had a motorbike accident. Recently, Roslen Yusof had a heart attack and Misran died from colon problems. So, take good care of your health guys.

See you all in 2017!

Shopping for a Laptop, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Low Yat Plaza is known as the place to shop for computers or anything to do with computers. The choices are wide and the prices are reasonably cheaper than other places.

We decided to get a laptop as a birthday present to our son, Anas. He is a computer freak. For his age, 10 years old, he is the family’s authority and expert when it comes to computers. Naturally when we asked what he wanted for his birthday, his answer was a laptop with dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard disk, combo DVD/CD-RW drives, built-in webcam and Windows Vista Ultimate. He could tell that his parents were at a loss. Being only partially computer literate, we pretended to grasp the lingo. To avoid further embarrassment, we took him along to shop for the laptop of his specs. Let the expert do the talking and we, the parents, just foot the bill.

The place was buzzing with shoppers, geeks, nerds, tourists and promotional offers. We stopped at a shop just to check out the advertised display. The young salesperson didn’t seem to be interested in trying to make a sale. I asked about the price, he just punched a calculator and without saying anything showed me the figures. I felt like I was shopping in downtown Hong Kong where the salesmen were rude and couldn’t be bothered with the customers’ request. Finally, we found a shop where the guy appeared to be genuinely interested in selling to customers. At least he was very polite.

He was pushing for Acer 4520 that came with all the features dreamt by Anas. It was the only one left and being a display model, he was prepared to cut the price further. We thought RM2,150 was a good deal and bought it.

We took the laptop home and for the next one week Anas was glued to it. After about 2 weeks, we couldn’t get to operate it. When we logged on, it prompted a message that the keys were invalid. My first thought was that Anas must have screwed it up when he used it. I gave him a good not so fatherly lecture and even threatened to take away his computer privileges. He denied any wrong doings.

I took the laptop to the office where my IT manager told me that the problem was due to using fake Windows Vista. Immediately I brought it to the shop that sold the laptop. They assured me that it was a miscommunication. All purchases come with temporary Windows installment. Sooner or later the buyer has to buy a genuine permanent Windows. For RM400 they could install but only Windows Vista Premium. I had no choice.

To me, it was not a miscommunication. It was a subtle way of misleading the ignorant purchasers. The advertisement said the lap top came with Windows Vista Ultimate. How in the world would I know that it was temporary?

I was wrong to accuse my son of messing up the laptop. Now I know that my boy is a responsible, honest young lad. I owe him an apology, a BIG one.

Hospital Stay, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital (26/7/2007 - 29/7/2007)

About 8.30am, Friday morning, I was lying in a hospital bed when 2 nurses came and woke me up. They brought along a green robe, the kind they put on you before an operation. I was asked to slip into it. “This is it!” I thought to myself. A day earlier I was admitted for some tummy trouble. I didn’t know it would turn out to be this bad.

I had this gastric-like pain since Monday. My stomach bloated like a balloon. I had that uncomfortable feeling that something was not right somewhere. I went to see a doctor on Tuesday, he told me that it was just gastric problems and prescribed the necessary medicines. On Wednesday, the pain persisted but it was tolerable. It was the bloat that was really bothering me. How bad was the bloat? I couldn’t even wear my normal pant and button up. Still, I went out and played a round of golf.

On Thursday, I had lunch with a friend, Mervin. Looking at my problems, he told me to see a specialist immediately. He had almost the same symptoms and the doctor found out that he had ulcers. He put up a very convincing argument and in the evening after office, I headed straight to Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital.

The doctor who carried out the initial examination immediately referred me to a specialist, Dr. Koh. After doing some checks, Dr. Koh told me that I had to be admitted to the hospital immediately for suspected appendicitis. Appendicitis? I didn’t know that the gastric pain was due to an appendix which was about to rupture.

The hospital staff told me to make arrangement to be warded. Since all the reasonably priced single rooms were taken up, I opted for a 4-person room. It was cheaper but lacked privacy. My room mates included a man from Holland who was having liver problems and a guy recovering from motorbike accident. Later, another man joined the club to complete the foursome.

That night I was asked to fast from midnight until the next day. I was given laxatives mixed with 100 Plus, an energy drink, to flush out stuffs from my tummy. I was told that I had to make sure that there was nothing left in my tummy to get a better picture during colonoscopy. I frequented the toilet every 10 minutes. I was sure by 6AM the next day, I had cleared every thing.

I didn’t have a good night sleep so I was naturally very sleepy came Friday morning. I was half asleep when the 2 nurses came to get me dressed up for colonoscopy. After putting on the green robe, I was asked to lie down on my bed. Then the 2 ladies pushed me out of my room. I reluctantly bade farewell to my room mates and they wished me well. I even tried to crack some dry jokes mostly to calm myself down. I had never been warded at a hospital before. I was being taken to an endoscopies room.

Inside the room, another nurse injected something into my hand. I was told to lay side ways with my knees pulled all the way up. Then, she put something in between my teeth to prevent me from completely closing my mouth. I believed by then I just dozed off. When I came to, the same 2 nurses were pushing me back to my room. I was still groggy. They told me that it was over.

About an hour later, the same 2 nurses reappeared. They told me that I was to be taken for appendectomy. This time I was taken to an operation theatre. I was still groggy from the effects of the anesthetics. I remembered a doctor injecting more anesthetics into me. I was staring at the many big light bulbs, the kind that I used to see in a movie scene of an operation room before I passed out.

When I woke up, I was already in my room. I knew I had an operation because I had pain in my abdomen and getting up was a big chore. By then my wife and son were already by my side. All my room mates had checked out. So we had the whole room to ourselves. Ton and Anas decided to stay the night with me. They were a big help as I could not pull myself up to go to the toilet. I could walk but it was too painful.

I stayed at the hospital for another night with Ton and Anas. Family members and friends dropped by to pay me a visit. On Sunday, I checked out from the hospital. It also happened to be Anas’ 10th. birthday.