Feelin' Bloggish

I got back from Vietnam about a week ago. I'm trying to get over the jetlag and catching up on the internet, which I barely went on while I was there. After all, if you had to choose between sitting in a hot room with a slow computer in a tropical country, and laying down in the comfort of an air conditioned bedroom, you'd probably choose the latter too.

The total plane ride was around 20 hours long, if you include the transfer between Hong Kong and Vietnam. I was surprised at how Hong Kong's airport was surrounded by mountains. I wish I had a chance to explore the city.

Our trip felt more like business than a vacation, since we had to deal with family and house issues.
(OMG my grandpa has a mistress DRAMA DRAMA)

This year my aunt and cousins in Maryland came too. One of them brought along her boyfriend. Being Caucasian, he got many stares, which was amusing (and I was relieved I wasn't the only one), but it also worked against us. You know how natives will take advantage/rip-off off tourists.

For example, one of the tours we went on, to the Củ Chi tunnels (used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War), charges a low entry fee for Vietnamese people, and triple that for anyone who don't answer back in Vietnamese (aka tourists/white people). Since we at least spoke the language, we paid the lower price.

We did a repeat of the Nha Trang and Dalat tour. At Dalat, I fed an elephant, but I didn't ride on it like last time. Once is enough for the experience.

I also got to eat deer and porcupine here. Yes, porcupine. I didn't really like the skin on it, but it was edible.

On a related note, on my last day in Vietnam, I finally achieved my dream of eating KANGAROO. I am so happy; it's been my goal for so many years. I would have gone to Australia just for it. I also ate some alligator. It was similar to pork meat, which I don't like (although I'll eat other random parts of a pig). My new goal? Horses; I'm comin' for ya.

Quite frankly, if it's not poisonous, I'll eat it. I want to eat everything that Andrew Zimmern has eaten on his show. But let's save my food discoveries for another time.

Oh, I got my hair straightened early on in the vacation, and cut it to above my shoulders.

Okay, not a good picture. I just wanted to show off the hat
(And I was pissed in the before pic 'cause my mom wanted to take pics after a long-ass flight.)

I was so sad that I couldn't pet all the dogs I saw, 'cause most of them are dirty and probably flea-ridden. People in Vietnam don't treat pets the same way we do. So when I come across a clean, cute dog that rolls over for me, damn right I'm gonna pet it.

The buses here are better than I imagined. The good ones even have ACs. But they will not stop for long, and I mean it. We had to run for them, and climb on while the bus was still moving. It barely even slowed down for us!

And when it comes to traffic, motorcycles generally win since they can weave in and out between cars.

Check out the side of the bus. I don't think this was even rush hour.

I also attended my mom's friend's wedding. First was the ceremony in the biggest church in Vietnam, where most of us wore an áo dài, a traditional Vietnamese costume. The following day was the wedding reception.

I really didn't want to leave Vietnam. It's just so different that I can't help but like it, despite the heat, mosquitoes, sun, dust, I could go on and on... I sprayed my feet with mosquito repellent every night, covered myself in sunscreen before I left the house, and wore a mask and sunglasses to protect myself from dust whenever I rode on a motorbike.

But still, my vacation was like one of those movies where a city girl moves to a rural area and starts to enjoy it.

Tiny pineapples!

(for my previous Vietnam posts, check out my Vietnam category)

I'm going to Vietnam tomorrow, yippee!

... Okay, this is too short. It's even shorter than my tweets.

I just finished finals two days ago and now I am FREE.

I had two finals on Tuesday. They were Law and Philosophy, back to back; my toughest ones too. I was all panicked about them, but they were better than I expected. The only school related things I have to do are clear out my locker and try to get into the classes I want.

Anyway, for Christmass, I went to church today in Long Island and spent the day at my cousin's house.

I tried to teach my cousin the words to "Santa Baby" and later, I found out that the original singer of that song, Eartha Kitt, passed away today. Sad coincidence. I didn't jinx things somehow did I?

It seems like tomorrow might be another Black Friday of sorts. I'm still trying to figure out if I should go shopping in the city or do it online.

On my last post, I mentioned that my cousin Tony from Holland. He came weeks ago and is leaving this Sunday. We went to so many places! Off the top of my head, some of the ones we went to:

- Maryland (got some crazy sunburn on a beach here)
- Washington DC (after an hour of blistering sun, we took refuge in a bookstore for its AC)

- Empire State Building (my mom took Tony up here)
- Statue of Liberty (took pics, didn't bother with standing in long lines to go up to the statue's pedestal)
- Central Park (got sunburn here too; went with my friends)

- Times Square (went to M&M's World and others, roamed the streets)
- Madame Tussauds (took a bunch of pics with wax figures)

- Coney Island (walked around on the boardwalk)
- New York Aquarium (seal show was adorable)

- South Street Seaport (walking, sightseeing, eating)
- Bodies: The Exhibition (looked up close at preserved bodies, touched a brain at the end; best part was the babies)

- Six Flags (went on lots of roller coasters and saw lots of cute animals, even baby and pregnant ones, at the safari)

- Various clothing stores in SoHo and 34th St (well, various clothing stores all over the place in general)

We just went to Six Flags yesterday; we bought tickets at the Port Authority because we had no one to drive us. The only bad thing about it was that we had to wake up early. Other than that, the tickets were a bargain!

And, I got Mario Kart Wii and another Wii Remote. And Civilization III for the PC for $10. Great games! After I managed to unlock a bunch of stuff in MK Wii, I switched over to LoZ:TP (mentioned in in my last post) and got addicted.

When Tony leaves, that's a sign that the summer is almost over. My course schedule is fucked up, and I gotta pay my tuition in about a week.

But I must say, this summer was probably the most eventful one I've ever had. If I remember, I'll post pics!

Happy 4th of July!

I came back to New York over a week ago and spent most of the week in school helping out my friends with stuff (apparently, I can make a pretty authentic formal letter and certificate... XD).

I miss Vietnam, despite how dirty and third-worldly it can look sometimes. I feel like time passes slowly there, but that was probably because I woke up at the crack of dawn and went to sleep around ten at night. Now, I'm back to my habits of sleeping at three or four in the morning.

Anyway, as I said in my last post, I went to Nha Trang and Dalat. It takes about eight hours to get from Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) to Nha Trang by car.

Nha Trang is a popular tourist area because of it's beautiful beaches.

I even got to go parasailing with my dad!

it makes me never want to go to Coney Island again! And our hotel was a block away from the beach, so that's a plus (and free wireless internet too!).

It's also the site of the Miss Universe 2008 pageant (airing July 14th). I passed by the Diamond Bay resort where it will take place, and it was still under construction, with less than a month to go. There are posters with the previous winner, Riyo Mori (from Japan), everywhere in Vietnam. I wish I could go...

We only stayed in Nha Trang for two days before leaving for Dalat. Between the two cities, you gotta pass through winding roads on high mountains, and you can see the aftermath of rockslides covering the road. They don't use machines to remove the rocks, but backbreaking manpower.

Dalat (Đà Lạt) is another major tourist area because of its climate (you need a jacket at night) and waterfalls.

On one island, I got to ride on an elephant!

The guy who was "driving" it said she was rescued from hard labor where she had to pull trees and logs and was barely fed. On the island, you can also buy honey wine with like, the bees still in it... the wine itself is supposed to have health benefits.

That's most of the fun stuff!
Now that I'm home, I feel like I have so much to do.

I only have about a week left in Vietnam, but at least I have a chance to post something while I'm still here. I'm in Nha Trang right now, but I'll write about that later.
I went to so many places in Vietnam this time around!

I went on a tour around the Mekong Delta (đồng bằng sông Cửu Long) for a few days. There were around 20 British, Australian, and Dutch tourists on that tour as well, splitting from the group and heading for different areas.

Heehee, I got to hold a snake at one of the restaurants. I was born in the year of the snake. I love snakes! They're so cute! Solid Snake!

I went to many floating markets, such as the one in Cai Be (Cái Bè), where people can buy food and other goods off of the boats on the river. The tour guides kept emphasizing that the floating markets in Vietnam were real, and that Vietnamese people make a living of the floating markets, while the floating markets in Thailand were for tourists only.

I even got to sleep on a boat in Sa Dec (Sa Đéc); it wasn't grand like those luxury liners though. Everyone slept in the same room on bunk beds, and my bed was on top, near the lights. There are these insects that love light, and they kept flying around the light and falling on my bed. It was kinda annoying.

When I woke up, I had mosquito or insect bites near my eye and nose that became pimples. I thought it was just acne at first, but a few days later, I had insects bites that became pimples on my leg. I never get pimples on my leg! Freaky ass bugs!

After the Mekong Delta tour, I went to Vung Tau (Vũng Tàu), where there's a beach. Didn't do much here, other than eat seafood and go swimming. I finally got a noticeable tan here, after about two weeks in Vietnam.

I also went to a place called Monkey Island, in Can Gio (Cần Giờ) province. There, monkeys (macaques in particular) roamed freely and guests are allowed to feed them, right out of their hands.

Now, these monkeys are total thieves. I was feeding some monkeys when a big male monkey came towards me, jumped up, and snatched a bag of food right out of my hand. Caught it on camera too!

But it's not just food they steal; they'll steal hats, bags, cameras, anything they can run off with. One monkey jumped on top of the taxi driver's wife (they're family friends) and tried to steal her hat, and he managed to scare it off.

So scary! It's even scarier when they follow you because they know you have food. You have to carry a stick with you to scare them off. You're allowed to taunt the monkeys here. The taxi driver (a friend of my aunt) used a big branch and waved/smacked it in the monkey's direction to keep them at bay. The people who work there also have a ghetto slingshot made out of rubber bands; they'll hold it up and the monkey sees it and runs.

Sometimes, you'll see a monkey with a baby clinging to it. Baby monkeys are sooo cute! But one of the monkeys I fed had a baby clinging to it, and it watched me take food out of my pocket. When I turned around to feed another monkey, the mother monkey jumped at my pocket to get at my food!

And later, a big male monkey saw me hold a bag of food and started running at me! I was so scared, I ran backwards, then I threw my bag of food at it. If I took a few steps more backwards, I would have fallen into the water!

That's all for today! I'm at a hotel right now, and I'm going to Dalat tomorrow. I'll write about Nha Trang and Dalat next time!

I started typing this four days ago and forgot about it 'til today, so I'm posting it now with revisions XD. (Holy crap, I can use other codes in my posts? Dang, I've had this blog for years and I've just figured that out now!)

I came back from yet another sleepover at my cousin Xuan's house on Tuesday. That's like my third or fourth one this summer. Since I'm not going overseas, I'll just go to other peoples houses.

My days there generally consisted of:

- waking up between 5-7 AM, 'cause my grandma wakes up early to pray and watch the church channel Telecare. I wake up when it gets too loud, then quickly go back to sleep.

- waking up again between 9 AM to 1 PM, 'cause after grandma finishes up her Jesus-related stuff, she turns up the volume and watches Walker, Texas Ranger on USA network for a couple of hours.

(image from Markíza)

Man, she loves this show.

(I think she loves violent things in general.
You're the coolest, my old asian granny!)

She likes talking about Walker's accomplishments, such as how he can drive/pilot anything from a truck to a plane, and how he jumped from a plane and survived (she repeats this one alot). The show is full of clichés and even she knows that Walker always wins in the end. Too bad she doesn't know his name. She calls Walker "white guy" and his partner Trivette "black guy" in Vietnamese.

- playing on my DSLite from around 11:30 AM to 4 PM. Well, I play with my DSLite throughout the day, but this is my main time.

First is Pokemon Diamond. Although all I have left to do is go through Victory Road and everything after that, I crawl through the main plot of the game at a snail's pace 'cause I spend a lot of time watering my berries. After I tend to them, I turn off the game and switch to Animal Crossing: Wild World, then switch back to Pokemon every hour to water my berries again. It's a tiring cycle.

- the rest of my days are pretty much... not more impressive.

Oh yeah, I was watching the Naruto marathon on Cartoon Network, and it made me all nostalgic. I think I'm gonna watch Shippuden soon (I stopped watching Naruto and Bleach during their long-ass filler periods and haven't watched much anime since).

I only came back home for yet another Baruch orientation. The last one was pretty bad, but this one was from 9 AM to 6 PM. I came in at 10:30 and I don't think I missed out on much.

Anyway, college starts on Monday! I'm more confused than nervous about the first day; heck, I don't even know where my classes are. I am so disappointed I can't live in a dorm, so I'm gonna try and apply to study abroad or something in the future .

Two posts in one day? I must be on crack or something! Naw, not really; I just wanted to separate this from my DSLite, Pokemon, and money rant.

I went to Coney Island yesterday with my cousin Linda (visiting from Maryland for another week), her lil' sister Emily, and her cousin Lucinda. A mini-family all-girl gathering if you will.

We went on kiddie rides for Emily, who just learned to love the caterpillar, a pseudo-roller coaster for children like her. I also became infatuated with a little boy who had gorgeous red hair... Ahh, so adorable. He reminded me of a friend from junior high school. Linda managed to snap some covert pictures of him for me. Ladida... What? Oh, here's me and Em on the caterpillar.

I got a chance to eat some of Nathan's Famous chili-cheese fries. Two of my favorite things as a topping? I'm in! Looks disgusting right? It was good, but I got full quick.

Afterwards, we played some games and I won a fake-ass looking care bear for Emily. It became the butt of our jokes on our way from Coney Island to Chinatown.

In Chinatown, I made everyone to follow me for blocks so we could eat at the Thai food restaurant I wanted to go to. When we got there, the place was closed for renovations. Haha, man were they pissed. We ended up eating Viet food. After all the walking and eating, we walked all the way back to the park near the train station we came from. It's so much fun torturing them!

At the park, we tried to teach Emily how to jump rope and eventually, we ended up making a huge scene tossing the "care bear' into the air and trying to catch it as Chinese people looked on with their kids.

The End. ('cause I wanna get back to Animal Crossing. Did you know they have fireworks every Saturday in August? Wow!)

P.S.: We left like, an hour or two before this girl fell from a ride at Coney Island. Man! I could've seen that!