November Review

A quick update due to holiday delay.

A slow month of running with the Singapore marathon coming up. Got a couple of parkruns done under 18 minutes and it felt like I was starting to make a little progress, but then had to slow them down to allow for half marathon training on Sunday instead. Got a new pair of Invincible 3 and even more shorts from a Nike sale, I don't like the Invincible 3 quite as much as the previous ones, but I've also found the current Vomero a bit too rigid as an alternative. I got in two sessions of half marathon training, although one was impacted by bad wind and rain. I figured due to the heat in Singapore I'll be running slower and don't need as much preparation at maximum effort. On the final day of the month I also had a very slow jog around East Coast Park parkrun in Singapore for a new location and country.

For the money section I had my end of year group of bills all arrive - car insurance, car registration, last holiday things, and RACV. For shares I had one promising week then the constant decline the rest of the month, it seems like a never ending pattern.

Sports is just the NFL and premier league again, although I might fall behind while being on holiday for two weeks, for the NFL in particular.

The to do list is back to empty since I got most of my holiday completed already:

• Holidays
• A few last ticket bookings
• Running Holidays
• Gold Cast Marathon
• The registration opens on December 2 for all events
• Melbourne Marathon registered for half marathon
• The price is rather high for not much runner entitlements

It's been another slow month at work leading up to my holiday, although still getting complaints I have too much annual leave balance.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• TISM
• A few songs from the new album but I liked most of them
• 8 out of 10
• TV
• Sprint season 2
• Needs to focus on more athletes and other events
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• COD Black Ops 5 Cold War
• Purchased
• COD Modern Warfare II
• Purchased
• Elder Scrolls V Skyrim
• Still going

Singapore and Vietnam 2024

November 29

November 30

December 01

December 02

December 03

December 04

December 05

December 06

December 07

December 08

Vietnam 2024, December 08

Had the same options again for breakfast but decided on a different running route afterwards. There's a small park across from the hotel where an MRT station will soon be, then a bit larger September 23 park right next to it. I thought I could run laps of both together, but after the amount of time it took to cross the road between them the first time I had to settle for one park. With a bit of creative lapping I managed to make a loop of about 1.5 kilometres but it was still quite boring.

I'd been having lots of trouble getting my Garmin watch USB to connect and sync for most of the trip, but it just managed to hold on to the end. After that run was finally over it was back to the hotel and pack the last few things, then wait a couple of hours to check-out and head to the airport.

The flight departure at 4:15pm was not the best with a hotel checkout at 12pm, but there was limited options that would connect to the next Singapore Airlines flight. I managed to download BBC Match Of The Day to watch at the airport, faster than 20 megabytes per second so it was over before I knew it.

I decided to check-out from the hotel a bit before 12pm as I'd read contrasting reviews of how slow the airport queues could be. The Grab trip was over in about half the time as it took to arrive, so I was at a deserted airport not long after 12pm with check-in not until 1pm. Instead of watching the Saturday MOTD I just listened to a podcast and rested until a few people started getting in line.

I had premium economy at Singapore but this flight didn't have it, so I was in the regular economy line. The Singapore Airlines check-in desks were quick, but the outbound customs line was super slow again. It was another lucky dip to try and pick a good row, but this time they all seem to be about equal, yet it still took nearly 30 minutes to process at most about 20 people ahead of me.

After a quick security check I was done with all the procedures and had about 1.5 hours to spare. I had a look at the restaurants, and as mentioned online most were strangely charging in US dollars - although credit card would have worked too of course. I only got a drink from one rare place that was still taking VND too, and soon we were off to Singapore about on time.

On board the plane there was an older woman who sounded really sick sitting next to the window, but I was a few seats aways in the middle section. Thankfully the two Japanese woman sitting next to hear asked the staff for a mask and politely handed it to her. Probably only the Japanese politeness could get away with that without offending, but I was also thankful for their effort.

Nothing much else interesting happened for the 2 hour flight, when we arrived some panicked guy started barging through the aisles to leave the aircraft because he said he was late. I'm not sure how he could be late since we arrived early, but it was funny that in his rush he forgot his overhead bag and had to go all the way back and forward a second time.

I thought the 1-2 hours between flights at Singapore would be plenty, but by the time I changed terminals on the link train, went to the toilet, had some food, and walked to the gate it was almost open. This time I boarded quick with premium economy, but then the dreaded high-vis maintenance guys were walking down the other aisle of the plane towards the back. I don't know what was wrong but the delay was less than 30 minutes and we made that up during the flight.

Again nothing much happened on the flight except a guy with a loud cough every 1-2 minutes was right across the aisle from me. I got a little bit of sleep but like usual struggled to get comfortable.

Landing in Melbourne I must have made record time though security, the luggage arrived as soon as I'd make a toilet stop, and the great paper form hand-in line was quick too. In total it probably all took about 20 minutes, which is how it should be all the time, rather than by exception. Sadly the Skybus hit a lot of traffic on the toll road, and the slow train home stopping at all stations added the usual amount of extra time to complete the journey.

Steps = 17,323 with 12km running

Vietnam 2024, December 07

The last full day of the holiday already. I didn't have much left on the plan since I didn't want to commit hours travelling to Cu Chi Tunnels and back on a nearly full day tour with a long bus ride. The Singapore Zoo also got mostly bad reviews and said the animals weren't in good condition, which some photos seemed to agree with.

After the same breakfast and running I started off the morning for a quick visit to the closest Nike Factory a bit under two kilometres away.

I didn't expect much for shoes, and that was confirmed as they didn't really go past size ten. The clothing range was a bit limited, I thought I might find something a bit unique to Vietnam or at least different to the usual stuff online.

After that I headed back towards and city with a detour via Bui Vien walking street. Despite the name the street was also quite full of motorcycles in the morning. There wasn't much happening at 11:00am but there was several huge restaurants with bars that must get busy and loud in the evenings, since this is the main backpacker area.

Next was a stop to rest in the September 23rd park, not far from the hotel. It wasn't the most amazing park but still good to see some green grass and trees in between the crowded streets.

After a bit of a rest I returned to that hidden underground food court from yesterday that was also within the park boundary. I ordered two red bean taiyaki and an ice cream tub from the Japanese store. It took quite a while to make, and the taiyaki were a bit small and not very well shaped, but otherwise not bad.

That was already everything on my short list that was within reasonable walking distance, the next closest options were two or more kilometres away in other directions. Instead I just went for a walk along the rest of Nguyen Hue street I hadn't been to yet, and another trip to the busy Saigon Center for some bakery items. I also returned to the eco souvenir place on the way back to the hotel, and got to use up some small Vietnam notes on a few more magnets. It was getting towards late afternoon so I decided to head back towards the hotel so drop everything off and pack up for tomorrow.

Steps = 25,248 with 11km running

Good

• Avoided the rain again
• Everything was cheap
• Found a quiet area for running
• Lots of convenience stores around

Bad

• Less activities within the city area
• More walking required
• Slow and dangerous crossing busy roads
• Train lines still not open yet

Missed Out

• Cu Chi Tunnels
• Mekong Delta
• Some other pagodas and temples
• Starlight Bridge
• Tan Dinh Church

Vietnam 2024, December 06

A similar breakfast for day two except they had potato wedges which was a great addition. After fighting through the traffic again I went back to the river for running again, and did a similar route across to the other side.

After coming back to the hotel the first stop of the day was the Independence Palace for the self guided tour, and I didn't bother with the audio guide. The access to the main palace was 40,000 plus another 25,000 for a small exhibition in a separate small building.

The tour was mostly peering into rooms that were roped off, but there was a good amount to see on a few levels. The bunker level was probably the best location, and it ended with a souvenir store so I got a few more magnets.

The exhibition outside just had a few other facts about past Vietnam political leaders, and not many people bothered to visit by comparison. In total I probably spent about 1.5 hours walking around.

Across the road was Ben Nghe Street food market which had a variety of world cuisines that seemed targeted for tourists, but it was a bit early for lunch. Heading back towards the Notre Dame Cathedral for a second time, from the opposite side it was all under construction too. In the same square was the old Central Post Office building that I missed yesterday, which still operates as a post office but was crowded with tourists.

I went for a walk down Nguyen Hue Street which is one of the main retail streets, and also had some of the courts for the teqball tournament. They have this unusual cafe apartments building where the apartments have since been converted into small cafes and food shops on each level, but still with an apartment feel. All of the courts for teqball actually had teams playing today, so I watched for a few minutes but it's a very weird sport and not that interesting.

Another street over was Bitexco Financial Tower with the Saigon Sky Deck, the ticket was about $10 to go up and walk around the observation level. It was a bit surprising that it wasn't on the top floor or even that close, something like 49 out of 68. I was able to get a view of my running route with the 360 degree view, and all the other parts of the city. In the distance there was some other part of the city with a concentration of large buildings to the north and to the east.

Since it was towards late afternoon I stopped in at Saigon Centre for some food to take back for dinner. They had a Japanese Takashimaya group of stores in the basement as well as other unrelated restaurants. I got some pretty boring bread snacks from the Japanese bakery again and some drinks. Before dinner I went for a walk down to a possible smaller running option and found where a Japanese ice cream place was, an underground food and marketplace that was quite hidden.

Steps = 27,753 with 12km running

Vietnam 2024, December 05

I was up at 6:30am again for breakfast on the top floor of the hotel, but here it was rather empty. There was a mix of Vietnamese and western options, with much better croissants and yoghurt.

Afterwards I had to fight my through a few streets of very busy traffic to reach Saigon River to start my running at 7:30am. After only about 2 kilometres north I reached a dead end at the bridge, which I planned to cross anyway, but thought it might also be possible to keep going straight ahead as an alternative. To my surprise on the other side there was a lot of deserted or abandoned roads, some with a bit of building construction going on. I had many kilometres of empty road all to myself, an unexpected bonus.

Back to the hotel to get ready for the day, I didn't leave until about 10am since I still had to map out my locations for the day. Started off walking across to Tao Dan Park since it was on the way to the War Remnants museum. It was just a small park but a good break from the streets full of traffic.

Continuing on to the museum I got a ticket for 40,000 VND, it was the first time I had no option but to pay cash. Starting with the outside area, there was some aircraft, artillery, and tanks - a bit too much like a Call Of Duty game. The next section also outside was about the imprisonment system, and the very bad conditions that prisoners of war were subjected to.

The ground floor inside then had a temporary exhibit about the war protests in the USA and all the badges and slogans they made. A second section was showing posters and news reports covering how other countries around the world reacted to the war.

Up to the first floor and it was extremely hot and stuffy, some rooms didn't have air-conditioning and just a few portable fans. The first floor had some more sections on how the community were treated, in particular the horrible agent orange. The second floor had a great section with lots of war photography, but the other two rooms were temporarily closed.

Overall I spent a couple of hours walking around, but was a bit tired by the end. The small museum gift shop had a couple of good small, cheap magnets.

My next stop was a bit further north at the Turtle Pond in the middle of a roundabout. Since it was 2pm I stopped at a convenience store to have a drink and ice cream at the pond.

Continuing to walk east until getting to the Vietnam version of Notre Dame Cathedral, but it was undergoing major redevelopment on the outside.

I missed setting the big Central Post Office that was close by, and went down Nguyen Van Binh Book Street instead, although most of it was Vietnamese books as expected.

I thought Little Tokyo / Little Japan was also nearby but it was actually a few streets away. Once I got there it had some nice quiet small streets with mostly Japanese style restaurants and bars, but not much was open yet. Now heading south I found the Saigon Opera House which was another nice building.

Near to that was the large Vincom Centre shopping mall which had about eight floors. What I liked about this was that it was more of a vertical layout, so less walking and you could see most stores while you were going up or down on the escalators. Down in the basement I found a good snacks store, a great supermarket and another Bread Talk for some food and drinks for later on.

My feet were getting a bit tired by late afternoon due to walking all day, so I started heading back towards the hotel. On the way I happened to come across City Hall and the Ho Chi Minh statue.

There was also some setup being done for this weird sport, the World Teqball Championships. It was supposed to be starting from the day before, but nothing much was happening at the time.

I stopped in at a more upmarket souvenir store close to the hotel, I didn't get more magnets or anything else yet, but may come back if nothing else turns up. That was it for a long day of walking, so back to the hotel for a bit of rest.

Steps = 24,666 with 12km running

Vietnam 2024, December 04

Had the same routine again for the last morning in Singapore, 6:30am breakfast and 7:00am run for an hour. It felt more humid than previous days so I was sweating at the end.

For a change I took a different route along the river to the west, which was alright except having to wait at a couple of road crossings. Then it was back to the hotel to pack up and leave around 10:00am for a 1:50pm flight.

The airport train left just before I was able to change over, but I had plenty of time and the next was less than ten minutes. The boarding pass and visa check was quick, then I changed my 100 SGD I never used for VND at the currency exchange counter. Lines at customs were empty too, so I had plenty of time left to walk around inside terminal two.

There wasn't much too see though, a small sunflower garden upstairs and outside but it had just started raining. For lunch I got some cheese wedges from Go Pizza that were good but a bit small for the price, and some snacks from 7-Eleven.

The departure gate with another security checkpoint opened one hour before the flight. Opening up my laptop started some Windows updates, but lucky it was just a quick process this time. My Garmin watch had been refusing to detect as a USB device at the hotel, and again at the airport it wouldn't even charge the battery via the laptop. Possibly the sync option from the watch face works over blue tooth to the phone instead, so I could at least keep the satellite data updated.

There was still no sign of staff starting to boarding the plane, and finally they announced a 30 minute delay, but at least it didn't get extended several more times. The flight was pretty quick once we got going so made up a few minutes. Meal options on the flight were chicken with mashed potato or egg rice with prawns. The kid in the next row was complaining his rice had prawns in it, which is just what I was thinking.

In the HCMC airport the lines for passport control was the stupid lucky dip process where you have to hope you pick a good line out of about twenty choices. My line had two people get held up so five or more minutes each, while people either side were going through every minute or so. Finally after thirty minutes I was able to head down to collect my suitcase, which had already been taking off the conveyor belt since it had been so long.

I got the Grab app open on my phone, and I still had mobile data working, so was able to book a trip to the hotel. Initially the app still thought I was in Singapore so had to mess around with it for a bit to change location. Finally I got something booked and chose the more spacious car option, which was like 8 Australian dollars instead of 6. The only problem was again it was difficult to find where the pickup spot was, I thought it was in the middle traffic island but it was actually all the way across the road and near the car parks. While searching for the car number plate I had numerous other people trying to sell me a taxi ride, which was annoying.

The car trip was less than 10 kilometres but very slow due to the afternoon traffic, particularly lots of motorbikes cutting through traffic. We made it to the hotel at last and I received this little tea set while they complete the check-in, then got taken up to my room.

I had a spacious room on the sixth floor with about 25 different light switches, and a Japanese heated toilet. The only problem with the room was that it was at the very front of the hotel, so I already could hear lots of noise coming from the street traffic below.

While unpacking the rain got heavy so I was stuck in the room for a while working out where to get some quick food from. Scanning the TV channels I found a few movie channels but didn't see much sport. After the rain cleared I did a quick lap around the local streets and stopped at some convenience stores, got some bread, drinks, and ice cream. There was also a much better variety of drink options this time, and all for about one Australian dollar or less. I walked down one aisle of Ben Thanh market but didn't find any quick hot food to get, just had aisles full of clothes.

Steps = 19,063 with 12km running

Singapore 2024, December 03

My last full day of Singapore had come around already. Only a small breakfast at 6:30am since I was a bit bored of the same stuff and not feeling too hungry.

Another run in the same general direction but I crossed the bridge before Boat Quay and went around the northern esplanade side instead. There was a bit of construction detour onto a narrow footpath for one section, but overall it was a better way to get to the gardens. This time I also went a bit further across the Marina Barrage bridge to a new Gardens East section that is still being built. Today's total was about 12.5km but it glitched again going through the esplanade section this time.

I didn't have much planned for the day since I had decided not to go to Universal Studios for the day. My reasons were I wasn't sure about all the standing and walking, and some reviews have some rides aren't always running lately. My basic plan for the day started off by going Bayfront on the MRT and walking over to the Gardens By The Bay entrance.

The first stop was a Floral Fantasy zone with a temporary Disney theme, I wasn't interested in getting a ticket for that but bought a couple of things from the shop next to it.

It was quite a long walk to get across to the rest of the main attractions, but I didn't plan to do them all, and some I'd been to previously but I wasn't certain of which.

I was pretty sure I'd done Cloud Forest but not so sure about Super Tree Observatory, but got that combo ticket since it wasn't much different in price. The person at the counter said I had to do the observatory first due to weather.

I found that a bit strange since it was only 11am and it didn't rain all day either, with only a bit of rain possible in the late afternoon. Following the advice anyway I walked down to this observatory first and took the elevator up to a viewing deck above the tallest of these artificial super trees. The views of the gardens and the rest of Singapore was good, but that's about all there is to do on two levels. After baking in the sun on the roof for a while it was back down and over to Cloud Forest.

I definitely remembered coming here previously, and it didn't seem to be much different, but I suppose there isn't much they are able to change since it is a fixed structure. Following the recommended route takes you up to the top and then you work your way back down, the waterfall at the beginning is probably the highlight of the visit.

The scheduled mist shower began just as I got there, but it was quite light and didn't add much to the experience.

It took a while to end up back down at the bottom, then I was in another gift shop but didn't get anything else.

There was another Shake Shack nearby so I stopped in for lunch again. Sitting outside there was a incredibly aggressive bird trying to eat people's hamburgers out of their hands.

It was quite a long walk all the way back to the MRT near marina bay, then continuing on the same downtown line to Rochor. There was this giant old shopping centre of six levels with nothing but computers, phones, and similar discount technology stores. I came specifically for this retro video game store that looked good, only it was closed from December 1st to 4th.

With that idea quickly over I walked on to the next station over at Bugis again, for a different line down to Raffles Place. Just made a quick detour on the way out of the station to visit the marina bay and the merlion, even though it meant more walking.

There wasn't a quick way to get back to the hotel without one or two more train line changes, so it seemed walking would be about the same result.

There was a Marks And Spencer back near Raffles place, but most of their items were very expensive British imports. Back towards the hotel I also found this large Don Don Donki supermarket in the basement of Clarke Quay Central selling mostly Japanese products. In Japanese tradition there was lots of flashing lights and recorded messages running on repeat around the store, felt like being in Osaka or Tokyo. Unfortunately since it was my last night I couldn't stock up on more items.

Finally the last of the walk back to the hotel and my left foot was killing and in need of rest to hopefully recover for the remaining few days. After some dinner I packed up most of my stuff for the morning, which was quite easy since I still had half of the stuff in the packing cubes.

Steps = 26,706 with 12km running

Good

• Daily train prices were very cheap
• No rain
• Trains run often at all times of the day and night, and never saw any delays
• Warm and humid but not too hot

Bad

• Half marathon result
• Lack of new activities close to the city
• Limited drink options at convenience stores and supermarkets
• Lots of walking around MRT stations underground

Missed Out

• Hotel pool
• Some hiking trails and nature reserves, each a long distance from the city
• Universal Studios

Singapore 2024, December 02

Another early morning, getting up at 6:30am for breakfast so I'd be back in my room in time for the Gold Coast half marathon registration at 7:00am. It was probably a bad decision by the organisers to open every race distance at the same time, as it took nearly 30 minutes to register due to repeated page errors.

From what I heard later the marathon distance sold out in a few hours like Melbourne, and the half marathon wasn't too far behind. I don't know why the marathon is still increasing in popularity so much every year, but I suspect most of those people would be just walking or jogging as a novelty. While the mass participation opportunity is great for everyone, I think they also need to provide some better access for serious runners to qualify based on time. The elite runners never have a problem gaining entry and all the other benefits that come with it, but the people at the next level below that get no help at all, even as good as the top 100. Additionally a public ballot might be necessary now with races selling out in a few hours when people might not have access to a computer.

After all of that was taken care of I went for a morning run across to Gardens By The Bay and back via Clarke Quay, Boat Quay, and Bayfront for about ten kilometres. A good run except I had to cross over the road once via a staircase connecting two buildings.

The morning travel time to the Art Science Museum was much less than I expected, so I had to wait a while for my 11:00am booking time to arrive. The museum had a special Word Of Studio Ghibli exhibit running for the summer.

Inside was a bunch of set creations for many of the animated movies, and a limited amount of background information to read on the walls.

Strangely they only got as far as Spirited Away and they it all ended at the gift shop, I figured at least Howl's Moving Castle would be included. There was some good stuff on display, but overall it wasn't really long enough or detailed enough. I didn't find any particularly good magnets in the gift shop, they were mostly selling badges and pins instead, and most of other stuff was like four times what you'd expect.

As per usual my legs were tired from lots of standing and shuffling, so it was time for lunch and somewhere to sit down for a while. It was quite a long walk back to the MRT station and then again to transfer between lines, which is the only real problem with the otherwise great Singapore train network.

I got out at the Promenade station to go to Suntec City. Perhaps I purposely forgot from last time but this place is a horribly confusing arrangement of shops split between 3 or 4 tower buildings. To make things worse not all floors are connected properly, so sometimes you have to up, down, and around to get from one section to another. Finally at probably the opposite end of the whole place I found some food stores and went to Jamba Juice and Shake Shack.

It was another long walk all the way back to the MRT again to travel a short distance to Bugis. The plan was for a quick walk around near the Little India area with some good street art, souvenir shops, and such. Instead I spent like 15 minutes walking underground trying to find the best exit, but ended up almost all the way back at Promenade station by the end instead. Finally walking to my intended destination, Haji Lane was the most popular location but I didn't see much street art or other nice buildings, but did find a good magnet though.

Learning my lesson from last time I walked back to Bugis Junction shopping centre and MRT station the shortest way this time. The shops in the basement here were incredibly similar to the first time I visited Singapore and stayed near here, which was all the way back in about 2013.

My last plans for the day were to go back towards the city hall and marina area but it was 4pm and I was quite tired so just headed for the hotel instead. Feeling a bit revived after dinner I got a quick 10 minute train to Bayfront to see the new version of Sands water light show running at 8pm.

There was already a big crowd right in front, which I think has a better view of some illumination that you can't see much of from a side angle. The show went for about fifteen minutes and was alright, but didn't have much variety to the water elements and colours.

Steps = 26,983 with 10km running