Headed home for the weekend!

Hello friends.. after a few great days in Chicago, I'm currently sitting in the United Club at O'Hare awaiting my flight home to Tampa!  The past few days were pretty productive at work, and I always love coming to Chicago, but I am definitely looking forward to a weekend spent at home.

In case you're curious, here are a few random thoughts on my return to America:

- the first thing I bought was a pumpkin spice latte
- I think my taxi driver hustled me
- the arrival process at O'Hare has improved dramatically.. I was able to get through immigration, get my bag, go through customs, and get into a taxi in about half an hour!
- the W at Chicago City Center is not as nice as I had hoped... the rooms are old and tiny :(
- the cafeteria at the Chicago office is fantastic.. when I return to Singapore, I'll be working at a client site where the cafeteria is the only option.. and the variety is not very good..
- in Asia, McDonald's offers wings.. I always thought it was because dark meat chicken is actually preferred over white meat chicken in Asia.. imagine my surprise to see wings at McDonald's in the US!
- I almost forgot to take my trash with me when I was eating lunch one day
- I loved being able to watch Sportscenter while getting ready for work in the mornings

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Tampa, see you soon!

I'm on a boat.. again!

Hello friends!  Currently, I am blogging from the Asiana Airlines lounge at the airport in Seoul, South Korea.  Next stop.. America!!

(Side note - I am so thankful for status.  My layover is five hours, which is just too short to leave the airport and go explore the city, but just too long to actually be bearable.  So thankful that I can hang out in this quiet space with nice bathrooms and free wi-fi!)

It has been, per usual, a crazy past few days.  I only spent about 24 hours in Singapore before flying to Korea last night because I was on a cruise in Halong Bay for the weekend!  Halong Bay is a near Hanoi that is known for its limestone cliffs, and it is UNESCO World Heritage site.  Almost everyone I know in Singapore always lists a Halong Bay cruise among their top destinations in SE Asia.  I've been so excited for this trip since I moved.. plus, I just love Vietnam.

We flew up to Hanoi on Thursday night, but we didn't really get to spend any time exploring the city, which was a real bummer.  It was rainy and late by the time everyone got in, so we just went and had dinner near the hotel because we had to be up early on Friday morning.

Pho!

The only bad thing about the Halong Bay cruise is that it is a three hour car ride from Hanoi.. and car rides in Vietnam are definitely not as smooth and easy as in the US.  Lots of bumps, awful traffic, and a lack of general road infrastructure makes it a bit uncomfortable.  Luckily, the scenery is beautiful, and Stephanie was happy to tell us all about rice paddies and the rice harvesting process!

We stopped at a rest area with lots of random stuff for sale.. including a silk blanked haha

Here's an example of lack of infrastructure.. this is a railroad crossing outside of Hanoi.. the woman goes and pulls the gates closed so that cars can't cross

And as the train goes by, a bunch of men relieve themselves on the left side of the photo.

It was rainy on the drive over, but it had lightened up by the time we were boarding the boat.  We checked into our cabins and had a safety briefing before having a delicious lunch as we set sail!  Seriously, the food on the boat was really great!

Our boat!

Our room!

We sailed over to an island where we could climb up some steps (more than 400 steps!) to have a nice view and then go for a swim on the beach.

We met some fun Americans while we were swimming, but sadly, they weren't on our cruise.  (There were some other fun Americans on our cruise though!)  The second stop of the day was to a small floating fishing village, where we were rowed around in bamboo boats.

The fishing village was kind of crazy because it seemed like it just sprang up out of nowhere.  And all the houses looked more like porches?  Crazy how different life can be..

We headed back onto our boat, had a fabulous dinner, and ended the night with Uno!

The next morning, we woke up to sunshine and blue skies!!

We left the main boat to board a day boat (which was huge!) that would take us around Halong Bay for the day.  It actually ended up being only Americans on the day boat, which was so cool!

Locals will paddle up to your boat to try to sell you snacks and drinks

We sailed around and took in the gorgeous views, explored some islands, went kayaking, and did some swimming!  The weather was great, and we had such a fun day.

We also made a stop at a pearl farm.  I don't know much about pearls, but apparently, Vietnam is a popular source for pearls?

We took the guided tour and learned a bit more about how pearl farming works, and then we saw some of the workers in action.

Cleaning the oysters

Open sesame!

Woohoo!

We ended the day by going back to the boat and enjoying some drinks while watching the sunset!

Dinnertime also included a lesson on making spring rolls!

Sunday morning, we went to explore one of the limestone caves nearby.  It was massive!  In typical tour fashion, our guide pointed out lots of rocks that were vaguely shaped like various objects, and we took a bunch of photos.  Then we headed back to the boat and sailed back to the dock.  Cruise over :(

All the trash bins were penguins?

All in all, a great weekend.  My love affair with Vietnam continues to grow, but sadly, I didn't get to have any Vietnamese sandwiches on this trip.  Guess that means I will just need to go back!

The blog may be a bit quiet over the next few weeks, as I try to enjoy my time in the US as much as possible.  Looking forward to seeing a lot of you in person!!

Good morning Vietnam!

I'm in Hanoi this morning - my fourth time in Vietnam in the past year. We are heading off to Halong Bay in about an hour, and I'm not sure if we will have wifi on the boat, so you may not hear from me for a few days. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A surprise trip to Saigon

Hi friends – I hope everyone has had a great Labor Day weekend!  And happy football season!  I know that some teams have closed out this weekend with a lot of disappointment (both my alma maters), but I’m glad that football is finally back!  And the NFL officially starts this weekend, so hooray for that!

I didn’t get a three day weekend, but I did have an awesome one!  A group of us travelled to Ho Chi Minh City (which is one of my favourites) for a surprise birthday trip for a friend!  We flew up Friday night and met up with the birthday girl for a few drinks in the backpacker’s area of Saigon.  Even though our surprise coordination was a bit lackluster, I think she was still very surprised to see all of us!

(Side note – on our walk over to the bar, we saw the biggest rats ever in the park.  Seriously, I think these things were the size of cats!  Ah, Asia!)

Saturday, we were up early to have baguettes (Banh Mi) for breakfast!  I absolutely love Banh Mi, and they are the thing that I look forward to the most every time I am in Vietnam.  There was a pretty good stand right next to our hotel, so it was a delicious way to start the day.

We headed out for some city exploration - about half our group had never been to Ho Chi Minh before, so we roughly followed a walking tour on Lonely Planet.  We hit the market, the museum, the post office, and a few other sites around District 1.

This was at the Fine Arts Museum.. beautiful building!

One of my favorite things about Vietnam is the presence of French influences (see baguettes above!).  I especially love to see it in the architecture and city scapes.  Ho Chi Minh is interesting because you can clearly tell which parts of the city are where all the French set up shop.. look for tree-lined streets, perpendicular roads, etc.

Continental Hotel

This was my third trip to Ho Chi Minh, and I still love it and would come back again!  I love that I see something different every time I'm here.  Our walking tour included a stroll near the opera house, and we also went to check out some of the famed hotels.  The Rex Hotel was where all the foreign correspondents used to stay during the Vietnam War, and so we headed up to the rooftop in the afternoon.  Incidentally, our group ended up talking about the situation in Syria.. it was ironic to think that years ago, the same scenario would've played out on the same rooftop.. only now we were discussing American intervention in Syria rather than Vietnam...

We also had some delicious noodles and fresh juices while sitting on tiny plastic chairs..

Obviously, I have a coconut

Saturday night, we headed up to the top of the Sheraton Hotel for some cocktails and a view.  Then we went to a fantastic restaurant (Lemongrass) for dinner and had a night out of drinks and dancing!

Great dinner.. we let the server suggest pretty much everything we ate, and it was all wonderful!

Rachel never smiles for photos!

Sunday was more of the same - noodles and baguettes!  Delicious Vietnamese coffee!  A trip to the spa, some more rooftop action, and then it was time to head back to Singapore!

I think I've said this before, but I just absolutely love Vietnam!  The food, the people, the sites, etc.  It's all so great!  Luckily, I am actually heading there again this weekend!  We will be spending a night in Hanoi and then going on a cruise in Halong Bay!  I am so super excited.  And then it will be time to head to America!!  Woo!!