Amazing100: Sep 23, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Day 9 of 100: Meeting with Mr. Ho in his city..(Hochiminh city)

Before I arrived in Hochiminh city (or Saigon or HCM city), I have heard from Vietnamese in Canada telling me how dangerous it is over there. They reminded me repeatedly not to bring a bag, sunglasses, wallet, watches, necklace...pretty anything when walking on the street...So i guess Will & I were a bit nervous when we arrived in Vietnam. We checked into the Majestic Hotel, an amazing historical hotel and we decided to walk around a bit to feel the city as well as the people. HCM city is a beautiful city with a french flair. Lots of colonial style buildings at the city centre such as the Post Office (designed by the same architect who build Eiffel Tower), Notre Dame, which is a bit smaller than the one in Montreal but looks like the original one in Paris!), Opera House (the one and only french style opera house in asia). Of course, I have to take pictures of those giant political propaganda poster everywhere... Oh..and people in HCM city are super nice and friendly. Tourists have no problem walking around even at nite.

Opera House

Notre Dame

Inside the Post Office

Post Office

Opera House at nite

Former South Vietnam Presidential Palace (now Unification Palace)

Mr Ho and Me!

Me and Mr. Ho's pic outside of Opera House

Personal Travel Highlights

o Avid traveler who is smart, creative, adventurous with a passion in international travel and travel planning.

o Traveled extensively to over 150 cities in 40 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North America.

o During the past 34 months since January, 2008,
- I was on over 150 flights (on average 1.1 flights per week);
- I traveled over 300,000 miles (or 482,803km) which is equivalent to flying around the globe 12 times;
- I stayed in various luxurious hotels for >300 nights (on average 2 nights per week)

o Attended universities in North America (Toronto), Europe (Oslo) and Asia (Hong Kong).

o My Top 10 Coolest Travel / Vacation Moment:
1. Currently, I am in the middle of a 100-day self-planned once-in-a-life-time travel extravaganza to Maldives, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Fiji, India, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, which is packed with some amazing activities.

2. Climbed up Ayres Rock (Uluru) in Australia. (Note: Ayres Rock is closed 80% of the time due to various reasons so it was a very rare opportunity to actually climb up the Ayres Rock.)

3. Snorkeling steps away from my water villa and dined at the world’s only under-sea restaurant at Conrad Maldives resort.

4. Zip trekking in the middle of the forest in Queenstown, New Zealand.

5. Took a helicopter to land on the top of Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand and hiked in the surrounding ice caves.

6. Enjoyed outdoor hot spring during heavy snow fall in Niseiko, Sapporo, Japan.

7. Floating on the Dead Sea in Israel with a brick on my abs while reading newspaper.

8. Being detained at the Belarus border because my visa expired by just 5 minutes which was caused by a train delay.

9. Took a 24-hour bus ride from Tallinn, Estonia back to Oslo, Norway & experienced the magnificent Northern Light inside the Arctic Circle in Norway.

10. Attracted turned-head attention from almost the whole town in Vilnius, Lithuania as one of the very few Asians ever visited the city right after strict travel restrictions were relaxed and 60 Polish School kids in a Warsaw hotel lined up outside my hotel room asking for my autograph thinking that I was Jacky Chan.