Ironman 70.3 Vietnam (10 May to 13 May 2019)
Danang 10 May to 13 May 2019
As usual it was a crazy week at work. I was working late almost everyday as I was trying to clear as much work as possible before we fly. At the same time, I had to find time to pack for the trip.
The only good thing was, it was a short trip (and to a hot country) so packing is considered quite easy. I was feeling so stressed out, especially with a stressful video shoot on Thursday. So stressed until I look pale and tired with 2 ulcers causing me great pain.
I worked till quite late on Thursday night and so by the time I reached Teck Whye, it was already 9pm. We brought Lexuan home and continued to pack. In the end, we slept about 11.30pm+. Super tired especially we need to wake up at 4am in the morning.
10 May 2019
It’s 9am flight which means that we have to wake up at 4am. I thought we woke up early but by the time we prepared everything, it was already 5.45am. Thanks Jianhui for cooking the porridge for Lexuan early in the morning.
It was a raining morning. We called cab and thankfully we could still get cab. We took 2 different cabs. Lexuan and me with my hand carry bag and luggage while Jianhui took another cab with his bike, luggage and Ironman bag.
We reached airport about 6.45am. Airport was busy but check in for us was a fast one. After checked in, we went around looking for Yakun. Apparently, it has closed down and so we settled down for McD’s. Anyway, there’s no McD’s in Da Nang so no harm eating it before we fly. Haha.
It’s a short 2hrs+ flight so I don’t have to pump milk. This means that we have more time before boarding. Lexuan was busy walking around the airport and I had to chase after her. It’s getting tiring to fly with her as she grows older especially she could walk now.
Somehow, this flight seems to have a lot of babies. Maybe that’s why we didn’t manage to get bassinet seats. Or maybe because Lexuan is considered big baby now.
The plane took very Long to take off and Lexuan fell asleep quite quickly. She slept for about an hour. Then it’s time for breakfast. Her baby food has omelette, sausage, hashbrown and muffin. It’s not so nice compared to baby food at SQ for our trip to Japan. Lexuan was sleeping and so we ate her food for her. As for us, we had spicy noodles which was actually spicy seafood beehoon. Haha.
It was a short flight and Vietnam is 1 hour behind Singapore time. We touched down about local time 11am. There was a queue at customs. We queued about 30 minutes. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long to collect our luggage and bike box.
We booked our accommodation through sunrise so we got free transfer. After the staff had tagged our luggage, we were told to take the shuttle bus. We were the last one to board and so I took the back seat. And you know what? We have Mr Teo Ser Luck sitting next to us. He’s very friendly and chatted quite a lot with Jianhui. Blur me was still playing with Lexuan and I didn’t know he is just beside us. Haha.
And so all of us reached the hotel at the same time and so there was a Long queue to check in. It doesn’t matter as Long as we can check in. I can’t wait to put down everything in the room and rest. Haha. I’m so tired.
So happy that we could check in (F121)! And the room was so nice! I don’t mind just stay inside the room and nua for the next 3 days. Haha. It was quite far away from the pool but it’s not a problem for us as Long as we don’t have to carry our luggage up the stairs.
After I had pumped milk, we rested a while before we went out for lunch or rather tea break. We ordered the sandwich set which comes with sandwich, a small cake and juice. The orange juice is freshly squeezed juice.
Then we went to expo to collect race pack. There isn’t much merchandise to buy. But, we bought a shirt, card and cap (which looks like Detective Pikachu’s cap). We also recce the swim starting point and finishing line. Then we went back to our room.
We were considering if we should spend 2mio+ for bbq dinner at Beach House. Then we decided to go to Welcome Dinner first and see how. Glad that we made it to Welcome Dinner coz the food was not bad and most importantly, we managed to get Crowie’s autograph and saw the pros. We also took photos with Crowie and Patrick Lange, the current Ironman World Champion.
After dinner, we went back to rest. It was a tiring day. We expected Lexuan to concuss but ended up that she kept on waking up throughout the night.
11 May 2019
Happy 18 months Birthday to Lexuan! She was only 6 months old when she took her first flight to Cairns which was also her first Ironman. And now one year had passed. Now she cannot sit still on plane and we have to keep on entertaining her. Maybe we need to let her watch cartoon for our next trip. And now, she only wants to eat by herself. So it’s very messy. She also starts to throw tantrums at times when she doesn’t get the things she wants. For example, she doesn’t want one piece of biscuits, she wants the whole box of biscuits. But obviously I won’t let her have the whole box as she will end up throwing the biscuits all over the floor. She seems to understand better what we wants her to do and when we talk to her. She can’t really talk yet but she will nod or shake her head.
We woke up around 6am. After washing up, we went to Greenhouse for complimentary breakfast. This is important as I don’t know where else we can have breakfast if we don’t eat in the hotel. It was really crowded as I think most athletes and family are having breakfast here. There isn’t much variety of food to eat. I would say the sunny side up, waffles, pancakes, croissant and fruits are food. Oh yes, they serve fresh orange juice which is super nice and good for my ulcer! Lexuan enjoyed the croissant and fruits especially watermelon and honey melon.
We had a really full breakfast. Jianhui went for a short bike ride. Then we brought Lexuan to the baby pool. She loves the pool. This baby pool has sand surrounding it so the kids can play the sand and go to the pool to swim. And there are many toys in the pool too. Even mummy wants to play with the sand!
Lexuan slept for a while after the swim. Just before Jianhui went to check in bike, Lexuan woke up and she couldn’t stop crying. Not sure if she misses papa or Xiao P or she is just being a terrible 18 months baby. I gave her biscuits to eat and yet she wants the whole box of biscuits. And when I gave her the whole box of biscuits, she threw all the biscuits out of the box. What’s wrong with her? Haha.
In the end, I had to bring her out for a walk. At least she stopped crying when we were outside. Then we went for lunch at Pool House when Jianhui was back. We ordered Wagyu Burger, Spicy crispy chicken and wedges. The damage was 1.2mio+ dong (about SGD70+). The pool view was good though. It makes me feel like we are on holidays.
Then we decided to go ahead to go Bana Hills (about 45km away from our hotel) though it was already 3pm+. It cost us 650k dong for this to and fro taxi ride. According to conceige, people would usually spend about 5hours there. The speed limit over here is 40km/hr so though it’s not too far away, we took about 45 minutes to reach the ticketing counter. I was so tired that I fell asleep on our way there.
Just when we were about to buy the tickets to take cable car, we saw that it was raining heavily up there and so we decided we will not go up since we didn’t want to go back too late. We walked around the place so that next time if we were to come back, we will know how it goes. We tried their vending machine then we realised the machine doesn’t give back change so you have to give exact amount to buy drinks. We also bought not-so-nice ice cream cone to kill time.
About 5.20pm, we saw our driver and told him we were ready to go back. He must be so happy. Haha. No matter what, we were also happy to be back in hotel room just before 7pm to rest. We ordered room service - Pizza and Korean Bulgogi with steamed rice. Our order came only 45 minutes which was like 8pm+ and the best part, they gave us steamed rice only. Language problem. Haha.
We tried to rest early as we got a Long day tomorrow. After pumping milk, we slept about 9pm+.
12 May 2019
Happy Mother’s Day to all mummies and me! =p When can I claim my Mother’s Day off in lieu? Hehe.
I woke up about 4am to get ready. Jianhui woke up even earlier to check in race stuff as the transition area closed at 5.15am. He came back for breakfast then we walked over together. It’s so nice to have the starting point so near. The race starting at 6am and we could leave our hotel room at 5.20am.
When we reached, Jianhui wanted to dip inside the sea. I wanted to take a photo of him but I didn’t get to see him. I watched the age groupers rolling start for the swim. Lexuan as usual was fussing and I had to entertain her with biscuits. She kept on wanting to walk on the sand and to anywhere that I don’t want her to go. At this time, the pros also finished their swim, so I stayed a while to see them going out of the transition area with their bikes.
Then I went to chop a good place for swim out. Jianhui finished his swim about 45 minutes and I managed to catch him with Xiao P going out of the transition area. Then I slowly walked back with Lexuan. As the route back is also the bike route, we had to wait a while before we could cross over. Seeing that I have a baby with me, 2 policeman helped me with the pram to cross over the road quickly. And luckily there was a lady who helped me to translate as I had no idea what the policeman was talking. Initially I thought that he wanted me to cross road at other place or what.
Then I brought Lexuan to have breakfast at Greenhouse. It was very challenging to get food and handle a walking baby. So I had to make sure I maximized my effort whenever I made my way to get food. Today, Lexuan was only interested in porridge and fruits. After breakfast, I helped to shower Lexuan while tracking Jianhui using the app. I’m very excited for him as he is Cycling faster than usual so he might be able to PB today. At the same time, I was also tracking the pros, especially there are so many familiar pros that I know. I’m rooting for Crowie!
Around 9.45am, I saw that Jianhui is estimated to be back from Bike around 10am+ so I quickly pushed Lexuan to the road just outside Hyatt. Lexuan was sleeping inside the stroller. It must be so hot for her so I used my jungle hat to fan her. True enough, I saw Jianhui soon and then I pushed Lexuan nearer to the run out. After saying hi to Jianhui, we went back to hotel.
Lexuan also woke up and she even shit. I helped her to shower then. We rested a while in the room (or rather I played with Lexuan). Around 12.30pm, Lexuan was giving me nonsense again and so I brought her out. It was just 5 minutes walk to the finishing line.
#perksofstayingatracevillage #moneywellspent
Within 5 minutes, Lexuan perspired a lot and she was all grouchy. It was very humid and hot. And I had to carry her since she didn’t want to sit in her stroller.
Finally, we saw Jianhui! It’s a PB for him! Yeah! What an amazing feat given that it was such a tough race under such tough conditions. It was super hot even for supporters!
Lexuan and I went back to hotel while
Jianhui went to collect his race stuff. And so I can finally shower! Haha. I was so
Busy with Lexuan that I didn’t have time to shower despite her showering so many times today. Haha.
We rested a while before we went to Pool House for lunch. We ordered Crispy chicken burger, steamed rice with Fish with comes with vegetables and Fruit platter (kids portion). Jianhui had beer while I had mango smoothie. As usual, Lexuan only ate the fruit platter and so I finished all the food. And she ate until so messy that she got to bathe again. This must be her 4th or 5th time bathing until I lost count.
Then we went back to rest. As expected, Lexuan concussed just like us. So tired. Haha. By the time we were up, it was already 6.30pm+. We went to Greenhouse for dinner. We ordered the 4 course Pho set and pizza. The food was good. We were so used to spending 600mio+ per meal by now.
Another best thing about the hotel was we got to watch Soccer! EPL last March and this was an important match for Manchester City and Liverpool to determine who will be champion. Our room only playing Liverpool match though. Manchester City is just too strong. They won the match 4-1 and so they are the champion (again). And know what? Manchester United lost their last match (0-2) against Cardiff. Sigh.
We could finally sleep after the Match. Zzz.
13 May 2019
My biological clock woke me up at 5.30am. Since we woke up early, we got plenty of time to do a lot of things.
We went to the finishing line to take photos. And I even did a short jog around Hyatt and to Vin Pearl (the hotel we stayed at the previous time). Then we had breakfast at Greenhouse.
Lexuan enjoyed her cornflakes for breakfast today. For us, the food is the same for the past few days so we got nothing much to eat. I’m happy with the fresh orange juice and fruits. And yes, thanks to the orange juice, my ulcer seems to be much better today.
And then it’s Swimming time. The sun is so hot today. Lexuan was enjoying herself but we didn’t want her to get sun burnt so we had to drag her out of the pool after 20minutes of swim. She was protesting when we carried her out of the pool but no choice. Haha.
As usual, she concussed after swimming. This means that it’s a good opportunity for us to do packing. After packing, we can finally relax a while in peace. We requested for late check out at 1pm so we could have more time too.
Around 12pm, we went to our favourite Pool House for lunch. Today we ordered BLT sandwich and chicken satay. The satay was not bad for though I still prefer Singapore’s version. Haha.
Then it’s time to check out! We took a cab which cost us 300k dong. We have free shuttle to airport but we decided to take taxi ourselves to avoid any unnecessary delays. Anyway, it’s a short journey.
Checking in was a Breeze and so we got plenty of time. Da Nang international airport is very new and clean. But there isn’t much aircon. We managed to find air con at Burger’s King. Fast food is not common here and so it is Super expensive. It cost us USD16 for one Super big whopper meal which is like even more expensive than our taxi ride to airport from the hotel.
Lexuan was running around everywhere in the airport. Where did she get all the energy from? The watermelon she ate? Haha.
We finally got to board at 4pm+. Lexuan slept for awhile and Was so active the whole flight. The baby food was pasta which was not nice so Lexuan ended up eating fruits (water melon and peach). We had the spicy seafood noodles (aka spicy seafood beehoon la).
It was a short flight and time passed by so quickly. Then our dear Lexuan also shit when we were about to land. Of all time. She was fussing as she didn’t want to sit down and she only wanted to stand.
Luckily, she was finally in good mood when we alighted. Thanks goodness.
So happy to be back in Singapore. While waiting for our luggage, we sensed something was wrong as we don’t see the bikes and some of the bikes come out were from the previous flight.
Xiao P is so happy in Da Nang that he didn’t fly back with us. Apparently, the plane couldn’t load all the bikes and so he’s still at the airport. Sigh. And we didn’t buy travel insurance. Anyway, we just hope Xiao P to be back safely. Hope we can go receive him today at Teck Whye.
And so we all could take cab home together. Lexuan was so tired that she slept all the way back home.
All in all, it was a great and short trip. Weather was better than what I expected. And the 4D3N stay In Hyatt was just too good. I love the hotel. I would say it’s money well spent.
And most importantly, I’m so happy that Jianhui went back for revenge and he achieved it with a PB! So proud of him. Every trip is memorable and fun as a family. I simply enjoyed the precious family time together, creating lots of memories. I love my family. ❤️
Looking forward to our next adventure together!
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Angeline winks
at |11:26 AM|
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