07 July 2010 in 07 June 2010
07 July 2010 in 07 June 2010 is Day 3 of EcoVenture 2010.
All of us woke up bright and early that morning as usual. There is not a second to spare! (All right, I exaggerate...)
I said my final good bye to the view outside from our hotel room and did my last minute packing as we were to check out of the hotel that morning. Shoving the few items still left on the table into my bag with some stuffing and squeezing, I managed to pack them all in albeit not in the neat and graceful manner I had intended. Nonetheless, what mattered was that I was able to take along all that I wanted to bring, right?
Everyone gathered together at the hotel lobby, a hum of excitement in the air, our baggage all zipped up and ready to be lugged onto the bus. In a way, it was such a disorganized sight with everyone loitering around and bags lying everywhere, yet, our next step is crystal clear - Breakfast! the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) industrial visit was the next item on the itinerary.
But before that, breakfast! (Okay, so I couldn't resist after all. XD)
Did you notice the bright and cheerful balloons that decorated the place? When I first entered, I thought there was a birthday party taking place and perhaps there was! I have no way of knowing whether or not that is true now, though.
Over at VSIP, the whole area was huge! We were given a brief introduction, a presentation and a tour around the industrial park. As it was such a large area, we sat in our bus as it drove round, with our guide pointing out various features to us as we passed by them. Someone commented that it really felt like being back in Singapore. I also noticed that they used a 3-pin plug just like in Singapore instead of the 2-pin commonly used throughout Vietnam while we were in the presentation room. XD
Most parts of the rest of the day were spent on travelling and the expected journey to Gia Bac was 8 hours. I spent most of my time looking out of the window, refusing to sleep even though I was tired simply because I obstinately did not want to miss the view outside. As we moved further away from the city, the landscape outside changed from rows of houses to mountains and forests.
Once in a while, we stopped for breaks for meals and to visit the restrooms. At one of our stops, I was surprised to see Chinese Characters on the gate.
Asking one of our Vietnamese friends, we later learnt that the Vietnamese previously used "Chinese Characters" complemented with native Vietnamese words. It was later when the Latin alphabet was used to transcribe the Vietnamese language that the present Vietnamese alphabet was developed.
Slowly, as the day went by, the sky grew dark and my eyelids grew heavy. Somewhere, along some point, I finally gave in to my body's command and fell asleep. When we arrived at Gia Bac, it was already dark but it marked the beginning of another new experience in Vietnam.
The dear cook that came along with us to Gia Bac, whom we have grown to call fondly, "Auntie".
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