chocosaur

Nha Trang Trip: First Night

Friday, July 19, 2013 • 2:07 PM • 0 comments

Welcome to the second post! I took a lot of these with my iPhone since my uncle was all paranoid and all about muggers and was like "NO LEAVE YOUR DSLR IN THE ROOM LOCKED UP HEUHEUHERHAHHHH" So I had to rely on my phone... sadly. Much apologies to you all. I hope they'll do though. Our hotel was... decent enough. Better than the one we originally booked, because the air in the one we originally had set up for us was so bad. It kicked up my asthma and I had a hard time breathing and started coughing and all ): It was in a weird part of the beach where all I saw were fishermen and the room was like in the back, dude it didn't even face the beach shores. I was like nope nope nope I want my bang for my buck if I'm going all the way out here. So we got another one that was better, I could cross the street and go to the beach! It was next to a Best Western (but man that's expensive, it's more suited for couples that are on vacations than families.) I think we swam for a bit, went inside to rest our butts from the long car ride we had there and went to dinner!

What we had for dinner, grilling some... steak? (I actually don't know what it's called.)

I don't know what I ate, it seems like steak since it was some sort of tenderized beef seasoned with Siracha sauce to be honest and it was spicy to me since I have the tolerance of a baby. It was delicious though. I will not lie, I actually crave to eat some again since it was yummy... we also had some other food but this is my main favorite and I was full from eating this more than the others. T_T

Don't you love the ocean & city at night? The shores are so calming at this time.

I really like this beachside at night, it's spacious and clean which creates a calm environment for you to clear your head. Next to the shores is a mini-park scenario where you have benches and stuff. This is someplace you would probably want to travel with a significant other or a group of friends. There's nothing nicer than a bonfire with some friends on the beaches after all. That or cuddling with your significant other on a bench staring at the calm ocean waves. You could also pull a Vickie and sit there wishing you had someone else to share this moment with... /foreveralone/

Anywho the next post will be REALLY picture heavy since I went crazy with my DSLR. Just a teeny bit.

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Labels: life, travel, vietnam

Nha Trang Trip: Mui Ne stop!

• 1:41 PM • 1 comments

Haaaalllooooo globbers! I just returned from my trip to Nha Trang - which is a beach resort in Vietnam and I went four days without a laptop and living off my phone for various days which was awful I must say. So the posts will be VERY picture heavy in the next few posts about this trip! This beach, Mui Ne is closer to where I live than where Nha Trang is so we made a pit stop here and spent the night instead of driving the full 10 hours all the way out to where Nha Trang is. This one is closer to Ho Chi Minh City.

My view from the Hotel we stayed at

Pictures on the beach at the beloved "Golden Hour" featuring my mother!

There are almost no photos of me on the beach due to the lack of someone in my family who knows how to work a Canon 60D or the courage to give it to someone who may have known but would either run off with it or break it. Anxiety problems man. I just love the ocean, you have no idea.

This is part 1 of my Nha Trang post! (Sorry it's a tad late, I've been busy lately T_T)

Stay updated with my instagram, I only mumble nonsense thoughts on twitter.

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Labels: life, travel, vietnam

Booey's visit + Memorial ceremony! (picture-heavy)

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 • 6:09 AM • 3 comments

So today, I met up with Booey who was visiting from Saigon because she's in Vietnam too! She's my daughter/friend from Kentucky and we just happened to be in the same country at the same time and so we hung out for a bit before she went to the farms to visit her family. My cousin and his friend Ngoc took us to a really nice cafe with a lot of scenery to take pictures at! Excuse my lobster faces though, I sweat a lot and turn red when it's humid/hot out.

(I'm on the left, Booey's on the right)

We ordered our drinks, I got the Ca Phe Sua Da (Iced Milk Coffee) and Booey got the fresh Coconut juice. The thing about the ca phe sua da is I always have to let the ice melt out a little first. They usually make my coffee too bitter for my tastes. I like my food sweet. Booey's coconut juice was good too though, and they give iced tea to go with our drinks. I promise you thats tea and not beer, even if it doesn't look like it.

awww yeah, our drinks! Mine (left), Booey (right)

So we're a little odd, my uncle suggested we go here for the scenery so we ran around taking pictures like weirdos. It was hard for us to take photos because I don't have a tripod here with me and my lens is a little broken so setting autotimer was difficult for me.

Ok so we're a little odd

Booey's out of focus in this one ;-;

Oh look, shrooms! (they're fake by the way)

Simple scenery shots of the cafe!

Then after Booey and I parted, my family had a memorial ceremony for my great-grandparents which involves a large luncheon like my cousins in Saigon had. This was just as large, but the problem this time is I had to help prepare it this time. It was painstaking to be honest, I had to make the butterfly shrimp, crab rangoon and peel apart eggroll sheets.

The large table of food we had

The elders of the gathering!

The kiddy table, officially in the kitchen

It's a great experience being able to see my extended family like that. All my life as a kid I never thought my family was very big and I was always jealous of friends who always had relatives in other states coming into visit and having family gatherings. Relatives who gave them money on Chinese New Years every year, drove them places, covering for them, letting them sleepover - it was something I always really wished for and I have all of that here in Vietnam. Events like this make me feel blessed and thankful for what I have here now. It's really great being here in my hometown and being able to experience this.

Tomorrow I'm headed out for the beach! I'll make sure to blog about it and I'll even try to make a vlog about it too! I won't have my laptop so I'm crossing my fingers wherever we're staying will have wifi. I'll be there until Saturday and I'll make sure to get lots of pictures of the beach and everything!

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Labels: life, personal, vietnam

Vietnam update! (picture-heavy)

Saturday, June 29, 2013 • 10:30 AM • 2 comments

Okay so my long-awaited trip to Vietnam has finally arrived! I had two stops: Atlanta, GA and Seoul, South Korea. It was the most tiring, butt-numbing trip I ever had to encounter in my life. It was a comfortable plane ride to there though! I always love flying, it's so nice to go different places since I don't travel that often.

((Airplane foods not that bad....))

Anyways landing in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was awful, it was humid and sticky since it's always so crowded right when you get off the plane, and not to mention we had 8 luggage bags with our 8 carry ons to lug around and I'm the main muscle so I came out looking like the most unflattering woman in the world. The car ride back to Bien Hoa (my hometown) wasn't too bad though, we arrived at 11PM and the roads were clear once we hit the roads. A day after we arrived though, we had to drive back to Saigon for my grand-uncle's memorial ceremony. Meet my abundant amount of relatives. (Should I mention that we have some awesome food when we have memorials in my family....)

I know you want my food.

Oh and the traditional Vietnamese people drinking, of course.

Asides from the course of events that have gone down, I've also bought a few (lot) of things already. Things here are so cheap I can't seem to stay away! Especially the frivolous amount of stuffed animals. No really, I'm awful when it comes to stuffed animals. I got all those pens for less than $3-$4USD, the bun, turtle, dog plush for around $.99, the pencil pouch and notebook for like $1.5 and cellphone holder for like $3.5. I'M SO ADDICTED TO BUYING THINGS HERE AND I KEEP CALCULATING IT IN USD AHHHHH. THE CHEAPER IT SOUNDS IN MY HEAD THE MORE I'M TEMPTED TO BUY. Not to mention I can walk to the department store and get all these, oh my. I plan on getting a lot more before I leave Vietnam though to give away as gifts (if I have the heart to that is) and there will definitely be more posts about my trip here! I'm going to a beach called Nha Trang next week after we have a memorial ceremony at my house for my great-grandparents first (more to come) and I will definitely be splurging there.

Come on who would deny all this stuff...

Ghetto photo booth photos in Vietnam, yay!

Hair accessories here are so cheap too, the popular skeleton hand clips I always saw online was only for sale for a dollar in my local market, I'll wear it probably more when I go back to the USA where I can let down my hair a little more. It's too humid to leave my hair down here or I'll look like a horror film in action.

How it looks in my hair + details!

To sum up what I do on a daily basis... I eat, sleep and snapchat people my thug faces and all of that. That and I like to take selfies and not be satisfied with any of them. Until I go to the beach and stuff I don't really do anything much except read Cyanide and Happiness comics and catch up on my manga (tru thug).

snapchat VS selfies

Anywho, I'll try and start posting more especially now that school and graduation and all of that crazy business is done with and that I'm doing absolutely nothing in Vietnam until I leave for the beach. In the next photo if you'll notice my entire luggage of clothes on the left... but I'll try and find some cute clothes while I'm here and throw together a few outfits or something. I've been dressing like a slob/thug lately so there's not too much to make out of my ootds. If you want to keep up with me more then follow my instagram and other social networks at the bottom! Until next time!

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Labels: life, personal, vietnam

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