My husband and I decided to take a Europe trip to visit my sister while she was studying abroad in Ireland. It was especially exciting because it would be my husband’s first time in Europe. It was great timing because I was in a rough patch emotionally and physically – feeling stuck and overwhelmed with work and life. Without completely intending this, I was able to experience a lot in Euope that refreshed my mind and soul.
Ireland holds a special place in my heart as I have always felt connected to Ireland. Maybe that it was because I was born on Saint Patricks day, or that I love Irish music/accent/people. In any case, after visiting in 2020, I couldn’t wait to return.
š Ireland trip highlights
ā visiting the lovely sister in Cork. My sister and I travelled together to Ireland in 2020 and it was only right for me to visit while she’s studying abroad again.
š road trip- driving on the left side on the right side of the car Pt2. green, green everywhere. Ireland has the most beautiful shades of green in nature. Looking at the greens is my favorite thing to do while driving across the country.
š eating curry chips at Jackie Lennox
āØ Gap of Dunloe in Killarney is my absolute favorite place in Ireland. We are driving through a deep valley with high green mountains on both sides. There are sheep walking around everywhere. It felt like we drove through a scene from the Shire!
š§±cool old looking rock walls and buildings. I love anything old and medieval looking. Ireland is just the place.
šµ Irish trad music in pubs is a great place to experience Irish energy. Irish people are not afraid to throw down some old tunes and party to it! Also, there are a lot of classic American pop being played in Irish pubs!
Lowlights: We need to learn manual to rent a cheaper car. Lots of cold, cold wind and rain.
Have you been to Ireland? What is a special place in your heart to visit?
Good old backpack from Central America daysWorked at this lovely Cafe in CorkCute streets in Cork IrelandCute streets of Cork IrelandOur car rental for the road trip Gap of DunloeBreathtaking view of Gap of DunloeBeautiful waters of Gap of Dunloe, IrelandProof we were hereOpen roads of DunloeBeautiful views of Gap of Dunloe, IrelandGap of Dunloe, IrelandWalking through the streets of CorkWalking through the streets of CorkPub experienceMy travel bag for most of Europe šBackpack BackpackCool looking rock wallSlept through our whole trip, but glad she was there.This is me on 90% of our shopping trips. #shoppedoutWorking while traveling
Christmas in Korea is a couple’s holiday. And to make myself clarify, I wasn’t single. I was very much in a relationship. I was traveling through Southeast Asia during this festive holiday. I had just finished..
…Continued on August 14, 2022.
… my study abroad semester in Singapore. I can only imagine what I was trying to write five years ago (already 3 years after my travel in Korea). Now we are 8 years after my travels to Korea! It’s amusing to read my old writing, opening a window to my past self and seeing my life struggles.
Anyways, Korea was the next leg after my Japan trip with my then-boyfriend, now-husband (spoiler!), Cuong. We had just gone through 5 months of long-distance relationship, followed by 3 weeks of traveling together in Japan. I felt immensely attached, and then separated from him as I continued my travels while he went back to the United States.
As usual, I fail at saying goodbyes, and couldn’t function properly, moping around for days in Korea by myself (now in 2022, I am still the same way with anyone I grow attached to).
Luckily, I had made plans to meet with a good friend I made while studying abroad in Singapore. His name is Timon (yes, I asked him about Timon and Pumbaa). It was an exciting time, with Korea bustling with festive energy. Compared to Japan, Korea is much livelier, louder, youthful, more colorful- kind of like a hipster little sister and Japan an older sterner big brother (with a kinky side- depending on where in Japan you go (ha!). Everywhere we looked, people traveled as a couple. Timon and I bonded over this and complaining about our love life. Neither of us with our couple, and are spending time with each other during the holidays where everyone else was lovey-dovey.
Timon introduced me to his friends Min Hui and Ayden. These three became my best friends for that week in Korea. We ate delicious food (tried cold noodles with ice in the bowl for the first time- opened my eyes!), drank together, karaoke-d all night, visited beautiful Nami Island, went dancing the night away at a gay bar. We had an incredible time!
Visited the famous location where Winter Sonata was filmed.The scene with the perfectly lined trees. Feeling young and making memories
Watching all the Asian dramas, this was the first time I felt like I had friends and part of a whole. Since Korea in 2014, I have seen Timon once more in Netherlands in 2020. We have both matured since we last met and are much different from our younger, wilder days. We reminisced about the past and looked forward to meeting each other again, perhaps in Korea??
I am fortunate to have him as a friend and rest in fate’s hand to decide when our next encounter will be.
Things in life happens when they are ready to happen. When they are not ready to happen, all you can do is to sit and enjoy the ride. Life is way too short; take a deep breath, and go outside.
How much can you change in a year? It’s been more than a year after my reflection in May 2017. I have my journal and blog to thank for keeping track of my reflections and goals of in the past, present and future.
As with a lot of things in life, less is more. Here are some things I did the past couple of months!
Highlights:
I moved to Atlanta!
Since last May’s reflections, I have moved out of NYC and onto Atlanta. I have also taken a lot of time to travel and worked remotely in between. I spent 3 months in Vietnam in 2018, and recovered a little bit at home before launching my new adventures in Atlanta.
So I feel like my life is a bit of a mess right now, but at least it’sĀ my mess.Ā I’m doing the things I like to do, and following my guts to get me there. So far, so good. Except for initial panic of being alone.
For the first time in a long time, I was by myself.Ā
Having no pre-aquainted friends or family in the city,Ā the strange new city was intimidating to me. I was afraid of the crazy traffic, and the notoriously highway I-85 with a horrible accident rate of at least 1x/day. The summer heat of high 90 degrees also didn’t help. I wanted to give up and run away, back to the safe haven of my small mountain town.
Thankfully, with plenty of encouragement from loved ones, I calmed down. I spent the 1 month rent money; if worse comes to worse, I will just pack up my car and drive home. I stayed.
Things I learned in my solitude:
The importance of making connections
I was elated to find out that my classmate, from studying abroad in Singapore, happens to live 20 minutes away from my apartment. I also have relatives going back generations, also living 20 minutes from me. Great news! They want me to move in with them until I can find a job that can support me!
A time to self-reflect
Being alone allows time to reflect on the things I want to do and my goals in life. I started pursuing my hobbies again- something I haven’t done since HIGH SCHOOL. There’s a good 8 years washing along the waves of life. These days, I have been spending a lot time reading, writing, up-keeping photography, listening/playing music, and exploring the city.
On a Hedonic Treadmill
At this point in life, I’m finding many things I do or want to do quite confusing. Chasing after things will get boring after awhile, as happiness comes down to equilibrium. It’s not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. I’m struggling with what I want to do.
A Proud Sister and Daughter!
While I enjoy living on my own, I also learned to appreciate my time with family a lot more. I particularly appreciate my parents for their support.
My 12 year old sister and 10 year old brother are animators on Youtube now! I’m so, so proud of them!
Please check it out and I would love to know what you think!
Winthanh, my 12-year-old sister is borderline obsessive with her artwork. Her DeviantArt contains amazing digital art, so proud of how far she’s come!
10-year-old brother takes after his artistic sister, creating his own style of animation. I don’t get the music they’re into these days, but the talent is real!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU7z5W_bUVY
My parents are taking more time to relax and travel, which I’m very proud for. They have been working too hard in life, and it’s time they let loose a bit and relax.
Trying New Things
Volunteered at a refugee assistance program, something that I’ve wanted to do since coming to the United States.
Made artichoke for the first time. It’s so delicious, my favorite method is roasting them! This is the recipe I used for roasting.
Gardened for the first time, which is a big deal, because I have a deep-rooted fear of earthworms. I’m now thinking of starting my own hot compost pile!
I now have a fitness tracker! At first, I resisted, for fear of becoming too reliant on having fancy technology attached to me at all times. After 2 months of use, I disabled most of my notifications, and now loving the sleep tracking, step tracking, calling/messaging, and waterproof feature!
I saw that joke in a video on the internet, and related to it too much. Which reminded me of the blog posts I have not been writing and the endless list of things I want to put on there. It’s been awhile since my last post and I have not updated on my Vietnam trip.
It really is a lot easier said than done, while everything is a work in progress. The more things I do while traveling, the less time I have to write about it.
But as I am too familiar with it, all it takes is to get the first post out to get the ball rolling. I hope my readers will forgive me for my absence and understand that I also owe it to myself to have a good time on vacation. This post will be one that will hopefully kickstart my routine, so it’s really for me, not you.
As I get back into the groove of being in the United States again, blogging is not the only thing on my priorities (though it is, because I did decide to buy a hosting plan that costs plenty of monies). I’m once again making money byĀ working from home.
A short version: Vietnam was awesome. We had absorbed so much during this 2.5 month trip with family. I’m in much more control and aware of myself and my surroundings.
Though I did not come up with as many posts as I’d like, here are some that I had written on Nha Trang. Please peruse and enjoy our photo adventures of Vietnam.
After 15+ hours of our first leg of the flight and suffering from heavy jetlag, we landed in Incheon Airport, South Korea. We have two hours to transfer to to the flight we were on next. The line at security was long enough to worry whether we’d get to our gate on time. Fortunately, we made it through with 20 minutes to get to run to our gate.
With only minutes before doors close, my dad and uncle had wandered off for a quick smoke for awhile already. Why is it so necessary to go right now?Ā I frantically came up and ask the representative to call for their names. I have heard people being called from the intercom many times from being at the airport, but never had that happen to me. The representative was very kind and helpful as she handed me the microphone for the intercom.
I have to say it’s pretty cool that I was able to grab the intercom mic and use it. TheĀ of scene from Home AloneĀ popped into my head, except this time the adults are the ones left behind (the irony).Ā I heard my voice on the intercom, which wasn’t as composed as most of the announcements I hear, but I hoped it did the job.
Seeing no point in six people losing their seats, we decided that we’re taking the flight with the kids, and that mom will wait for them to catch the next flight.
Fortunately, they had held the plane and was able to board the flight at the last minute. I don’t remember too much about the flight, except that my ear felt as if it was about to explode. This usually happens to me with smaller flights, though I don’t know the exact reasons. The food was better the other flight. And, ice cream!
Vietnam is exactly as I remembered.
Very hot, humid, and loud. Even in the cooler seasons, the heat is real.
We were stuck in a two hour long standstill traffic at 3AM. Cars drove 1 inch away from each other to squeeze their way through narrow sidewalks and get past each other. Truck drivers falling asleep while waiting in traffic is apparently a normal occurrence here.
Saigon is about 10 hours away from Nha Trang by car. We traveled through the night, which is great, because it saves time and money while we sleep anyway. I woke up sporadically through the ride and caught wonderful glimpses of the changes from city to county, scenes of acres of plantations, and cool side shops of people doing their routines.
Vietnam offers sleeping buses, where we could travel through the night on a bus with bunk beds for comfort. Pretty fancy and convenient. Our transport is a rented van and driver to take us straight to Nha Trang, which is best for the number of people and luggages we have.
We took many breaks, as much for our driver as it is for us. Stopping by one of the many side road hammock cafes that serve food and refreshments. Meals are as cheap as 20,000 VND, which is a little less than $1!
Jetlags usually don’t bother me too much. Recovering from jetlag is pretty rough.Ā Iām constantly taking naps. Not the typical 15-30 minute naps, but one of those legit 2-5 hours blackout naps. The naps help me not get too sleepy before bed, but still have enough energy to sleep before it gets too late.
Home, sweet home.
The past few days have been a blur in travel, crash sleeping, eating, and sitting, which is surprisingly very exhausting. After bringing all of our stuff in, we were startled by the giant pig standing in our driveway. This is Mį»i, our pet pig. She’s over 2 years old and weights many, many pounds.
She may seem a bit intimidating at first, but is actually quite tame. We give her most of our leftovers, which is great for not wasting food! Her hair is prickly, what I would imagine a porcupine to be like, but overall, quite cute! She typically lazes around and usually moves when we give her a good rub on her side.
Overall, not many super exciting things happening the first few days, but I’m grateful that we made it safely. It definitely feels good to be home.Ā
From the process of checking in, finding our flight terminal to watching hundreds of people anticipating their next adventure, I’m in love with the energy.
To save time, we checked in online and spent the night before at La Quinta Inn and Suites. It was great for us as we had a nice breakfast and a free shuttle to the airport early next morning.
The day before is always stressful with all the last minute packing for the trip. Not to mention, I have an innate fear of missing the flight and end up with a Home AloneĀ situation.
Weāre fairly used to traveling, but traveling with family is new.
Everyone, kids and adults alike, are excited for the flight. The difference this trip and our typical backpacking trip is evident. We have 8 people on this trip, and we have whopping 13 luggages, most weighting over 45 pounds!
Fortunately, it’s not because we each over pack to have tons of clothes. See, when Vietnamese immigrants (Viį»t kiį»u) return to Vietnam, it is customary to bring back gifts. Ours, prepared by my parents for the last few months), contain new clothes, USA branded shampoo/conditioners, chocolate bars, and various medications.
We were at our gate 3 hours early, which gave us time to explore the airport and relax a before the long haul flight.
Korean Air, well known for its good customer service and professionalism, makes us feel instantly at ease. Our vegetarian meals and seat changes were dealt with in a very friendly manner.
If thereās anything Iām sure of about an international flight, is that itās bound to have a ton of in-flight services. I watched some brand new released movie titles such as Birth of the Dragon, Wonder Woman, andĀ Megan Leavey. This gives me a chance to get my thoughts together and ready myself for Vietnamese food.
Looking out the window while flying over the arctic regions of Canada is one of the coolest sights. There were miles on miles of uninhabited ice. If we look really hard, there would be specks of towns in the distance. This is something we would never see otherwise. The sun in the sky is so beautiful and the treacherous icy slopes.
Do you have any quirks while traveling long haul flights?
The good news is I’ve started enjoying the smaller things in life. Get up, dress up, drink a cup to tea (I’ve recently quit coffee), and go exploring with people you love. What are some of your ways of having a phenomenal day? @ Photo Challenge: Ascend
I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down on creation, And the only explanation I can find Is the love that I’ve found ever since you’ve been around, Your love’s put me at the top of the world š !
For those who have never heard of this challenge, here is your opportunity to read it all the way ’til the end:Ā 21 Weeks of Travel Blogging ChallengeĀ (feel free to do a challenge of yourself!).
After over three months of blogging, there are a few posts that I’m quite proud of for writing myself. Here are some of the best:
As I approached this last post, I feel nervous and excited. Nervous because I feel as if I have exhausted my writing topics. What else is there to share aside from all the experiences I’ve had?
With the end in sight, I’m excited because I’ve stuck to this challenge through the end. There were definitely weeks where I did not feel like writing, but this challenge had motivated me to get back into my blogging grind. Furthermore, this challenge was born from one of my monthly goals list, and I’m quite happy about being able to finish it.
I’ve learned a lot from this blogging challenge. I have practiced determination by pursuing a hobby and passion of mine through long, lazy days. I have learned to flow my writing better. Best of all, I’ve made great fun blogging friends along the way.
Well, now that I’m out of a 3+ month long blogging commitment, I want to take a break from challenge prompts for a little bit.
I’m hoping to get an actual blog domain for myself in the next few months. This would be a great way to explore uncharted waters and take a dive in the deep blogging pool. Adventures ahead!
What are some of your goals and proud accomplishments?
Thanks for reading! This is a response to the 21 Weeks of Travel Blogging Challenge!
green, green everywhere. Ireland has the most beautiful shades of green in nature. Looking at the greens is my favorite thing to do while driving across the country. 
On a Hedonic Treadmill
