Vietnam Day 4 - Resort Chill & Beach Day

16 Sep - After the exiting adventure yesterday at VinWonders, today is a day for recharging as we take time to chill & relax at the beach. One lesson learnt was that even if you are hiding under the shade, you still need to put on sunblock as the UV rays will penetrate the umbrellas. We only get to know that when we return back to our rooms after a few hours out to find that we are slightly red all over.

Swing by the sea

Evening time (1730 - 1815) we drop by the bar called the "Library" to enjoy some alcohol and light bites complimentary for Marriott Gold Members. Ambience was nice and time pass by quite fast as we do some whisky coke mixers and down their special inhouse cocktail. 

We ended the day by calling GrabFood for our dinner as the pricing is simply too good to give them a miss.

3Q 2025 Investment Strategy Update

Trump (again) continues weaponizing tariffs to force countries to bow to his demands. This quarter, the focus for Trump is on Pharmaceuticals, where he demands companies to move manufacturing back to USA. Frankly, previous deals signed mean nothing under Trump administration, as he can just change the tariffs % as and when he feels like it. Look at India, they are charged additional 25% tariffs to penalize its trade with Russia beginning 27-Aug-25 under so called "secondary" tariff. China on the other hand will seize this opportunity to replace USA as the soft power leader of the world. Market is still not looking rosy at the moment, with frequent news of companies still right sizing their workforce. 

DJI ended at 46397, an increase of 2303 points (+5.22%) compared to 2Q 2025. For Singapore, STI ended at 4300, an increase of 336 points (+8.47%) compared to last quarter. Banks in Singapore (48.7% STI weightage) continues to drive the STI direction. USA Fed has started their cycle of reducing interest rates, and projects there will be 2 more cuts this year. Banks usually do not do well in an interest rate reduction environment. I think STI may just trade sideways for the rest of the year, with banks likely taking a small hit in their share price.

In this current quarter, I did some loading on USA REIT as the real estate has seem to bottom and start recovering with more companies asking their employees to return back to office and interest rate has started to decrease.

Transaction 1: Subscribe NTT DC REIT IPO shares in July.

With the focus in AI, data center will continue to be in hot demand. 7% projected yield looks enticing enough to invest some money in.

Transaction 2: Bought 1 batch Kep Pac Oak US REIT shares in July.

Same reason given as above. The USA real estate has seem to start recovering with more companies asking their employees to return back to office and interest rate has started to decrease. Best time to invest more money in before the share price start rising. Besides, this REIT has a solid sponsor and a good management team.

That is all for now. See you all in Q4 2025 update and thank you for reading thus far.

Vietnam Day 3 - VinWonders Phú Quốc

15 Sep - Today is theme park day and we visited VinWonders Phú Quốc which is located just next to the resort where we are staying. The theme park has an area of nearly 50 hectares, divided into 6 large areas with 12 themes related to famous fairy tales and legends in the world and interesting civilizations such as Europe, China, Wild West, warrior villages and aquarium castles. To me, the whole setup seems to be a rip off from Universal Studio and Disney theme parks, not sure if they have the copyrights to do so or not.

We came at the right day and time. Weather is hot and sunny (Thank God for the weather) to allow us to fully explore the park. Our entrance ticket came with a 150,000 dong food voucher, so our lunch is more or less settled. Overall, the park is not that fantastic per say but given the price of the ticket, I don't mind visiting it again, The turtle aquarium is a good place to escape the sun and chill, and the night final show at the castle is interesting as they project pictures on a water wall, together with music, fire and water jets.

Entrance to VinWonders

The castle serving just as a stage

The Wheel of Time

Top of the ferries wheel looking down at turtle aquarium

Moon Jellyfish

Sea Nettle

Cannonball Jellyfish

Stingray

Hammerhead Shark

Turtle Aquarium

Around Western Frontier in a train

Korean Lunch

Sunset catching on top of the wheel

Waiting for night show to begin

Showtime

Vietnam Day 2 - Grand World Phu Quoc & Teddy Bear Museum

14 Sep - We started the day early to catch the 930am shuttle bus to bring us out of the resort to explore Grand World Phu Quoc, which is supposedly a vibrant entertainment and shopping complex located in the heart of Phu Quoc Island. Known as 'The sleepless city,' this destination offers endless activities and impressive architecture inspired by European cities. Perhaps we came during the low season, there isn't much crowd on the street and not many shops are open. Hmmm. Anyway, we got off at Bus Terminal T1 and slowly make our way to the Teddy Bear Museum.

Urban Park - Grand World (Certainly reminds me of Hokage Rock)

Bamboo Legend - A combination of 42,000 bamboo trees from Tay Ninh

Entrance to the Teddy Bear Museum

Teddy Bear celebrating Vietnam National Day

Teddy Jones

Mount Bearmore

Statue of Beauty

Petra

Costa Rica

Atlantis

Egypt

Moai

Maya

Qin Dynasty, China

Cappadocia, Turkey

El Dorado

Ha Long Bay

Phu Quoc

Vietnam National Soccer Team

Kid's Area - Ball Pit

GrabFood Dinner - Grilled Fish with Chilli and Salt (Yummy and Cheap)

Free Mangos for ordering above 500,000 dong