Booked tour

Things I can only accomplish when she’s in school. 

Needed to book the tour so while the girl sat for her EL papers, I went down to Buddha Tooth Relic to 拜拜 in the morning. Sat in People Park’s Macs reading and listening to music. I made my way to NamHo which opens at 10am. Booked a tour to Vietnam then made my way to Parkway Parade to run some errands until the time I need to pick her up from school. Got some Vietnam Dong whilst I was there. 

Tour related stuffs - I’m left to 

: e-register with MFA

: purchase travel insurance 

: pack bags 

Why did I eventually booked a tour instead of doing it F&E which is what I would prefer?

I’m stepping into the land of unknown. Hanoi (HAN) and Ho Chin Minh (SGN) are turnaround flights on SQ so usually we don’t get down the aircraft. I remember the caucasian tourists coming onboard with huge hats and I always pray hard that none of them got squished in the A310 small overhead compartments. 

I did some planning initially but also found there's problem with transportation. And would I risk having 2 females in Vietnam? Would I put ourselves at risk walking in the streets where vehicles don't stop for pedestrians? 

In the end I felt it would be safer to join a group instead. 

So why Vietnam? 

When I was planning on where to bring lil’ one for a trip, I initially wanted to bring her to 🇩🇪 Germany. Did a quick calculation on where I was planning to go which I must say it was an interesting itinerary I had come up with. Even though I was saving half the price if we had gone on a 

1) “omg!what kind of itinerary tours” - this kind of plan also can cost so much?!

2) “we’ve been to more almost all the places they are bringing people to” - so why bother join tour? I think I can be a tourguide and guide through small alleyways / shortcuts instead 😂

by tour operators. Anyway, proposal was thrown aside coz finance minister says too ex. Anyway, I also didn’t consider the trap I would put myself in. If che-che sees us going Germany, she’d want to go to another place with me. (she's been telling me she wants to go Italy and Greece) Not fair right? So ….. good thing FM didn’t approve my proposal.

Alternative destination Japan is out coz need to go through tour operators and there’s a backlog of visa applications. I’d need at least 2 months to submit and I wouldn’t want to risk it all since I have less than a month to departure date. If not, Japan would be top on the list - DisneySea! All the かわいい purchases, all the Japanese food and snacks and countless trips to Family Mart. Not much of sightseeing coz we’ve done almost all. 

How about Australia? I can bring her to Melbourne since she’s not been there. Moving around the city area is fine but if I want to bring her to Great Ocean Road, how? I don’t want to drive, ok it's the lame excuse "what if we get into an accident there?" I can join land tours from there I suppose. But this country again requires visa. Sigh…

How about Korea? No more sightseeing so we’re basically there to eat, walk aimlessly and eat? Might as well just stay in Singapore and do that? Subjected to testing upon arrival. Haiyah so troublesome. 

That leaves me with Cambodia and Vietnam, places I’ve never been to. Though I think the country is generally safe but if we are only 2 females I wouldn’t want to risk it all so decided to join a tour. 

** Link to my previous ranting **