Thursday, July 24, 2008

Morning coffee at Nice

Every morning in Vietnam has its own meaning to me since it has become productive in every way. Productive in the sense of getting up at 8 am and going out to get some fresh morning air and sitting my bottom at Nice coffee shop. It may sound so chilling to you but it is totally a whole new improvement to me due to me myself is not very much a morning person. Nuff said...I would not want to drag on too much about myself here because it might cause a bad publicity and that the last thing i would wanna see on my list. Trust me, the list goes on forever ;)

Now you would probably think of the popular franchise brand Starbucks Coffee. when i mention coffee.. Sad news is that Starbucks Coffee is nowhere to be found in Vietnam. One of the reasons that contributes to this is that probably they might find it hard here to compete since the coffee shop business in Vietnam generally and in Saigon particularly is booming at an amazingly fast rate and everyone knows that late-comer in the market do not tend to get appreciated very well. However, it is only my opinion, it could be that the market is not favorable for Starbucks to consider investing their time and money into it yet. Furthermore to add, Saigon may be small and outdated in infrastructure, road system but one thing about it that surely can beat any developed country, that is the coffee shop.

So enough of the coffee shop introduction, allow me to continue the journey. As i mentioned, the hobby of having a morning coffee at Nice is getting more and more like a routine. Located in the central of the city, this coffee shop has a nice view of its own, elegant design and friendly staff, all of these contribute to the success of the shop. The food is another plus point that has to be added here, the variety of food here can satisfy the most picky customer that comes in. Of course in comparison to a restaurant, it is still somehow fallen behind but at the coffee shop level, it is at the top knot. The picture below shows only a part of the shop.

One thing interesting about the life here is that no matter how busy and frustrated life can become, people always somehow manage to have sometime enjoying the coffee. It is like a tradition and cannot be forgotten. That answers to the question of why the coffee business is very desirable in Vietnam. If i had that much money, i would certainly consider to open one.




Saturday, July 19, 2008

Random pictures in Vietnam

These are some pictures taken by my newly bought P1i phone in Vietnam:











Thursday, July 17, 2008

Sony Ericssons P1i

Finally, i proudly announce to the public that i have upgraded to the very first Symbian phone, the first of its kind in my life. Some civilization at last some might say. Why? Because i never had anything up to a normal camera phone whose tasks simply are just for making phone calls or taking some lousy shots. Now with the new P1i, i confidently can say that things can pretty much be done faster and easier.

Integrated with the ability of surfing web, installing applications and 3G, this phone is such an ideal phone for tech people. I repeat, ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE KNOWLEDGE AND PASSIONS IN TECHNOLOGY. If not, please stick to your current phone.

However, i would like to spend this moment to show some sympathies for anyone who have bought this phone before with a **** expensive price. May you learn this painful lesson later on that best phone does not mean it has to be expensive. By the way, i traded in my old Nokia 6270 and got the price of RM800 for this P1i, to me it is a good deal and surprisingly enough that Nokia phones are worth so much more than Sony Ericssons.

No more spending time searching for comps in campus nor waiting for the stupid labs to be free to use the turtle-speed internet and god knows why it's so slow, i finally can enjoy my peaceful time surfing the net whenever and wherever i desire. Sigh, i wish i were in Singapore but Malaysia is fine too.

After few days using it, allow me to point out some of the pros and cons just in case any one of you are planning to get one:

Pros:
  1. Beautiful design, sleek look.
  2. Sensitive touchscreen that could detect almost any movements that happen on the surface on the screen.
  3. Nice package which comes along when purchasing the phone: charger, charger stand, usb cable, headset and extra point pen
  4. Widely supported by the community which means you can find almost anywhere on the web topics related to this phone and that also means good troubleshooting.
  5. 3.2 mp camera is a non-complaint part. I could never ask for more. Auto-focus is another plus.
  6. Good at taking video.
  7. Operated under Symbian OS.
  8. Supported by a wide range of 3rd party application. Java supported.
  9. Wifi implemented.
  10. 1Gb memory stick
Cons:
  1. The size is quite big.
  2. No protection for camera lens
  3. QWERTY keyboard which has never been in the list of my favorite things about mobile phone
  4. Can be very complicated for the first time user
  5. Music player is hard to use.
  6. Cannot view some languages namely Vietnamese unless a specified application is installed.
There you go, i wanna stop here since i like this phone and do not want people to think that this is bad phone. In fact, it is way good enough for me. So go ahead, get one and be amazed.


Sunday, July 06, 2008

Chu Bar

First few days back in Vietnam, everything is brought back to me. The smells, the dust, the environment and people... you would not be mistaken for anything else. Things are so unique in here that even if i travel around world, i doubt that i would find the same experience while i am here. No matter how much i hate and love it, in the end it is still the place i call home. There is a saying from an unknown author "No place else like home" or "Home sweet home" which are very common nowadays among all of us. Forgive me if my knowledge in idioms is limited, if anyone knows a correct version, feel free to fix me.

My first social activity is in a bar call Chu Bar. Apparently, i was not aware of going there at all nor had any intention of having a night life here. However, i got a phone call from dad telling me to pick him up due to he got a lift from a friend to that bar and had no transportation back. Besides, he was 30% drunk and nobody would want him to ride home alone. You probably wonder why i use "ride" instead of "drive". For those who know, we use bikes here and i am a very good biker, ask Drew. So i reached the place, walked in. It's a small bar surrounded by people, the drinking bar is in the middle of the bar and people sat around it. Bartenders, mostly girls, served drinks with the smile on their faces, unlike Barcelona. Plus, they were smoking hot, Barcelona's girl promoters are only 50% of what those girls could be in terms of beauty. I especially laid eyes on the lady sitting at the corner of the bar alone, full with makeup, lovely figure that could melt any gentleman's heart. I guess she was there for a reason: waiting for someone, looking for someone or just be there for the sake of showing off. She looked at me and i looked at her, i smiled she smiled and i saw my dad waving at me so i walked to his table. Sigh... i had like few bucks in my wallet, could not even offer her a drink and besides, i was wearing SHORT and SLIPPERS, thanks to my dad. If i had known it earlier, i would have had worn something a bit more manly. Tough luck...

His usual gang were there whom i call uncles. They are nice people, dad's good old friends. I grabbed a chair then had a bit of Hennessy whiskey. The environment was cozy and filled with laughter, it somehow made me feel more like home than ever. Then we met an American lawyer friend, business associate with my dad 14 years ago and he still remembered me. Amazingly, he approached me and said hi which left me blank there for a moment. Good American accent, time for a change, reminded me of how English was supposed to be like. He commented me on my Aussie accent and wondered how come a Vietnamese had such an accent.

After 2 hours, we called it a night and headed home, had a few bumps on the road along the way but we reached home safe and sound. No pictures were taken due to me myself is in the process of getting a new camera phone. Hopefully, there will be more pictures in the next post.