Oceanshaft

Recently, I have watched "Hancock", "The Dark Knight" and "Red Cliff".

"Hancock" was a film with an interesting premise. Will Smith was believable in his role, but the tone of the film was uneven. Crude humour, then the touchy-feely stuff, then lots of action all mixed up. Sigh. It was cool though.

"The Dark Knight" was good. Very dark, though. It was a bit sad that Gotham was no longer as dark and atmospheric as in other films, although I guess it was meant to reflect that under Batman the city had cleaned up a lot. Nice touches throughout - I love the fact that the second time the Joker explains how he got his scars, you suddenly realise how twisted and manipulative he really is, not deserving of the little pity you may have given him when you first heard his story.

I didn't really get the ending though. Why blame the deaths on Batman? Just blame the Joker, or leave them unresolved. The ending speech by Gordon was somewhat illogical too, it sounded as if they just needed a speech that ended with those final words.

Good film, but seriously dark, and not exactly for kids.

"Red Cliff" was draggy. The battle scenes were good. The scenes where Tony Leung and Kaneshiro Takeshi converse are good. Some scenes were unnecessary though, I feel. The horse in labour. The pigeon flying across the water. The football scene.

And I'm sure some scenes were cut by the censors, as the shift in scene in certain cases was too sudden and jarring. Which means it must have been, oh, even longer originally?

Oh, and please, no more white doves in a John Woo film can?

Yesterday I took a day tour down to Halong Bay. The bay was nice, the tour was so-so.

Today, walked around Ha Noi a little, met my friend and had ice-cream, then coffee, then retired to his house, then ate at some streetside place nearby (balut, but with quail eggs instead), then left for the airport.

And here I am back in SG. I feel somewhat disoriented. Or rather, it seems strange that just a few hours ago I was in Vietnam...

Day 6 was spent riding in the train, sleeping and observing the people around. The scenery consisted mostly of padi fields; later on limestone outcroppings started to appear, prodding outwards from the fields around them.

It was raining in Ha Noi when I arrived.

Today, woke up early and walked round Hoan Kiem Lake, saw the One-Pillar Pagoda, the outside of Ho Chi Minh's Masoleum, the Temple of Literature, and wandered around the Old Quarter. Traffic here is not as chaotic as Sai Gon, but the streets are narrower and feel older. At least, in the Old Quarter they do. Everything here seems to cost more than in Sai Gon - am I being overcharged? There's a real problem with copycat businesses here, worse than in Sai Gon.

The lake was beautiful in the morning. It's getting hot, I shall retreat to some air-conditioned place soon.

Spent most of day 4 in a train. The view was mostly of forest and padi, except for a stretch near the end after passing Danang, where there were great views of the sea.

Found my hotel and walked around the town a little, had dinner, went back to the hotel, did my laundry and that was the end of the day.

Day 5 (today), woke up early, and went to the Imperial Palace in Hue. Spent about 2 hours there from 7.30 am to 9.30 am. Everyone wakes up early in Vietnam. I was up by 6 and on the streets by 7 but so was 'most everyone else. People playing badminton or jogging in the parks, or just chilling out at the street stalls before going to work, I guess.

The palace was stunning. I took lots and lots of pictures, till I got tired.

The weather was hot by the time I finished, so I had a late breakfast and then retreated to a mall. Then ate some more before retreating to the town area. Going to look for a place to have tea/coffee and just relax later on.

Tomorrow, it's onwards to Hanoi.

Spent today on a tour of the Mekong Delta. Joined this tour run by Sinh Cafe, on the recommendation of one of my Vietnamese friends that they are well-known. Well, they must be. They have a wide selection of tours and there was a huge crowd of people outside the place this morning waiting for their various buses.

For my group, we went to My Tho and Ben Tre. While waiting to board the little boats that would take us to the various islands in the delta, there was a huge bridge under construction next to the jetty. Believe it was the Rach Mieu bridge, apparently it will be completed next year.

Anyway, the day was spent visiting farms where we were shown how they make rice paper, honey, coconut candy and so on. Even had a short performance of traditional Vietnamese music for us. What really impressed was that there was none of that in-your-face style of pushing you to buy stuff. Wares and goods were on display but at no time did you feel you were being forced.

Met a lot of nice people on the tour, there were Japanese, Filipinos, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, and one German guy who had apparently been travelling for almost a year.

Going up to Hue on the train tonight.

Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday morning. Flying in, from the plane you could see rivers and irrigation canals running through areas of padi fields. The international terminal for the airport is really new and clean, but small. I resisted offers of taxis to catch a local bus (no. 152) down to the city centre, to the area where most of the backpacker hostels and budget hotels are - Pham Ngu Lo and De Tham. Got myself a room, a sim card, had pho for lunch and then visited the Reunification Palace.

The Reunification Palace was really worth the visit. Really spacious and clean-lined architecture, while the rooms were furnished just as they were in the 60s, with Vietnamese art. The basement was really dark and brooding, kept pretty much the way it was when it was a command centre in the war. Had tau hua while I waited for my friend. Interestingly, they put ginger in it. Walked around Dong Khoi and the area with my friend, who later brought me to dinner at this great restaurant to have Hue noodles. The soup was like that of pho, but with more spices, like a lighter and clearer version of tom yam...

The traffice here is chaotic. Motorbikes everywhere.

Today, so far I've visited the War Remnants Museum, walked all over town and ate at Lotteria (there's no MacDonald's here). The reason I ate at Lotteria? Primarily to get out of the hot sun. The streets here, by the way, are mostly tree-lined and quite cool. Also found this street that has a very high concentration of Japanese restaurants, more than I've seen in Singapore so far.

The weather here is hot, so everyone comes out at night, except for the tourists of course, who can be seen wandering around even in the daytime.

Oh, I ran into my friend from Singapore, entirely by chance. Rajah and Tan from Singapore is having their firm's trip to Vietnam right now, apparently. What a coincidence!

Wah, Nadal won! I'm having mixed feelings because before the match I couldn't decide who to support. And I didn't get to watch the match. Switched on the TV, saw them play for a few minutes and then play was stopped for rain... Then I find out today that play resumed later. Argh! I missed such a historic match.

Hmm, why so many sports-related posts recently? Don't know leh, I'm not really that into sports actually some more...