Just got my keyboard dock!

Last week, my boyfriend bought me the Asus Transformer tablet and keyboard was on it’s way. Last night the keyboard came in. It’s really small…the “Shift” button on the right side of the keyboard is half the size of the “Shift” button in the left hand side.

Just getting use to the feel and size . Will review it soon.

I really like how this keyboard has full size USB ports and an SD card reader. The tablet itself has also a microSD card slot and a mini-HDMI cable.

How have my two weeks been in the U.S…?

It’s been good. There’s change an I can feel it in the air.

Also I’ve been doing yoga more. Taking some hot power yoga classes. When I’m not taking yoga classes in a studio, I practice at home. Hurray for yoga class apps because yoga is not a cheap hobby. Trying to find as many cost effective ways to keep up with the hobby. I know on Android, they have Daily Yoga for back, abs, and hip. From the same app developer, they also have Yoga Workout Planner in the Android market. Great for days when I don’t feel like leaving the house! I do like going to class for inspiration because there would be times I’d go a lot for 2 months straight but then stop because I’d practice at home and forget about practicing later and then suddenly go back to class again.

For vacation, I did bring my yoga mat just in case and during those two weeks, I didn’t pull out the mat once. When I came back and attended class, I felt so out of shape and left class early. I may have lost 3 lbs from my trip because I walked all the time but I didn’t stretch or didn’t hit the mat(TRESS) doing down-dogs and sun poses.

Siem Reap Day 1 – lets go to Cambodia!

Tags

dinner, exploring, night market, Siem Reap, travel, travelling, village

Left Bangkok at 7 am to Cambodia.

Admiring the southeast Asia landscape.

Arriving to the Cambodian border…

Thailand…

Cambodia

The border town in Cambodia is called Poipet.

Then we went for more driving. I remembered what stood out most in Cambodia is all the French architecture houses. It also made me think how wide the social gap is in Cambodia. I don’t think a person of a modest income in America would even own a house like this. I have seen either very nice French houses or very poor shacks living right next to each other.

Also Cambodia’s government is corrupt. It may be the poorest country in southeast Asia, but I might see a few Lexuses here. Quite questionable…

Siem Reap reminds me of New Orleans a bit. Maybe because of how the buildings are designed, maybe the river, maybe the liveliness of downtown.

New York Bagels

In our first night, we went to a small village in the outskirts of Siem Reap by tuk-tuk.

You’ll random piles of trash or scraps on the road. On the way to the village, we even saw people piling up trash in the river.

Here is the village we went to for dinner.

They made us dinner and it was quite charming eating outside in their porch. We even played with the local children.

Then we went to the Night Market.
WARNING: The vendors are very aggressive.

Thought this picture was funny. Get a fish massage — I didn’t get one myself but I sure think SeaWorld should have one!

How to solve annoying boy drama stories

Tags

boy drama, candid, how to solve annoying boy drama stories

As of last week I’m back in the USA and I went through one week of work!

I still feel that my vacation was actually a two week coma– don’t know where the pictures came from (hahha)

I did get a tablet. Still waiting for the keyboard dock though–can’t be swiping WordPress entries forever. In the meantime, my boyfriend and I fight over his laptop which he takes to school. That means I only post pictures from my trip on the weekends. He does like watching netflix on my tablet when he’s not doing school work.

Still trying to get the swing of things. I do love to tell stories about my trip out and about–whenever I get the opportunity because really — what better way to NOT hear your coworker’s/friend’s/neighborhood barista/random stranger’s boy drama is to tell them to cut it out and talk all about your wonderful trip. It feels so good to put yourself in the spotlight sometimes — even after a few minutes later, they suddenly turn the story back to their boy drama. You sigh and put up with the boy drama story but in the back of your mind you just know that your wonderful vacation stories sounds so much more interesting than their episodic dramas. It feels THAT good to interrupt the boy story you’ve been hearing for the past 4 months ad nauseum– just try it sometimes.

That’s kind of what vacation taught me. Coming back and all the updating on all their episodes just seems a little silly when you know it should’ve been solved a long time ago.

Just go on vacation sometimes.. Find something different. Get your mind off the typical things….

Oh yes, by the way! The day I come back to work from vacation — all the girls in my department are PREGNANT! Isn’t that quite something? No, I’m not pregnant. Got some more life to do and I’m booked until summer 2013. Just ask me then.

Also coming July, planning a trip to New York City!!!

Plus stay tune for more pictures!

Bangkok Day 3 – Farewell

Tags

Bangkok, drink, food, pineapple pie, travel, travelling, vacation, watermelon smoothie

Only have half the day to explore Bangkok on my own before I meet my group heading to Cambodia.

Forget about gatorade or vitacoco or something like that sold in the U.S. — I have the real thing for only 50 cents! When you travel with me, you’ll be doing a lot of walking and your body needs some electrolytes!

Another glimpse of the neighborhood I was staying at. This is Victory Monument.

Then later, Whuddi and Mike took me out for lunch for some Thai hot pot. It was a little outside Bangkok and it was interesting getting a look of what is “Bangkok suburbs”. Next door to the Thai hot pot place was Tesco’s (think Walmart in the U.S.). Something I didn’t see in the middle of the city. Also in the Bangkok suburbs, they apartments looked bigger and there might be a likely chance they have kitchens.

I generally hate watermelon juice back home in the U.S. — back home or at a tea shop. I usually dilute it with water (damn you high fructose corn syrup!). But this watermelon smoothie is AMAZING because it’s made from 100% watermelons!

Don’t think Thailand has a yelp but I’m definitely coming back here again!

Actually…the world has tripadvisor—must make a review!!!

Then…they wanted to finish off this hotpot with some pineapple pie at McDonalds. They dragged me into McDonalds because I didn’t really want to go all the way across the world for a McDonalds. Ok…I went to McDonalds in Hong Kong because they were crazy ubiquitous there. I tried their pineapple pie anyways and it was AMAZING!! They also have gulay pie too (maybe another time).

Makes me want to make some pineapple pie myself.

 

hot flaky crust, sweet tart taste — amazing!

That was my last lunch with Mike and Whuddhi. Took the MRT subway to the old city to meet up with my group at the hotel. No sight seeing in Bangkok, just dinner and meeting everyone up and resting for a long day before heading out to Siem Reap.

So glad I did spend the last 2.5 days exploring Bangkok alone. If I just went straight to the hotel, I probably won’t enjoy it as much since all we did was meet up at the hotel and talk about the trip. Besides most of the tour is in Cambodia plus a sneek peak of Vietnam.

Until next time Bangkok! Maybe I’d like to spend 2 weeks in Thailand to visit the old city, go to Chiang Mai and take a look at southern Thailand as well. Everyone says go to Phuket but I don’t think I’ll be too impressed with Phuket. Sounds very tourist trap to me.

Funny sign I saw in the subway.

Day 2 Bangkok Part II – Wish I spent more time here….

Tags

Asia, Bangkok, travelling

Wish I spent more days in Bangkok because I got a glimpse of the old city. That day there was a funeral for a princess and there were no cars on the road and there were no boats on the river. Whuddhi and I took a taxi from National Stadium to check out the hotel where I meeting my group the following day to start my trip to Cambodia.

We were trying to go the Golden Mountain….

But then..it was closed . Here’s a model and some pictures at the cafe. As I said, wish I spent more time in Bangkok so I would have another day to visit Wak Saket and do a lot more things in the old city.

There were suppose to be a lot more boats in the river…but like the roads, the river was empty.

Then took a tuk-tuk and taxi back to meet up with Mike.

Funny sign in the taxi.

Dinner for tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t know what is up with the gap…can’t see it on my editor.

Bangkok Day 2 Part I – When you DON’T have a luxury tour bus to guide you around…

From watching the movies, Bangkok look really intimidating with its busy streets and cab drivers and tuk-tuk drivers and their subways, their sky train, and airport train — didn’t know what to choose from!

While my friends were working, I decided to explore Bangkok myself–even if I’m just exploring a tiny bit.

The one rule I follow when traveling alone is that I never use taxi. Never ever. I don’t even trust using cab drivers in the USA because they rip you off like crazy as though they suddenly forget where they are going. You see taxi driver’s brains do know all the shortcuts and the routes because their knowledge on job helps their brains grow. So when in Bangkok, I never used taxi especially as a foreigner unless I had Whuddi or Mike come along with me. When I explored Bangkok alone, I used BTS skytrain and my sandals of course.

No luxury tour bus today (and the rest of the trip, thank god). With common sense and letting your intuition guide you, you’ll be fine.

source: asiawebdirect.com

A glimpse of the neighborhood I was staying.

The duty free store is in Victory Park.

Typical street market

KFC in Bangkok and it’s everywhere! I actually didn’t have any KFC but Mike and Whuddi said it’s really good. Until next time .

Grocery store inside the mall

D for donuts

Then I went to the BTS skytrain and these juices caught my eye. I bought the grass jelly one. Love how these are fresh about .50 USD.

Picked up some snacks too. These are bananas wrapped in sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves!

View from the sky train platform

Interesting thing I found at the giftstore.

Random bunny rabbits I found near the MBK area.

I saw no storefront. Possibly strays??

Of course I need a picture of Thai tea. It’s only 1 dollar at 7-11.

Then Whuddhi met up with me in Siam and we were waiting to get a cab ride to check out the hotel where I meet up my group the next day. These boards are so cool…informing how traffic is like at the moment. They have this too in Tokyo for the freeways — why can’t the USA have this for the freeways — especially in California!

Stay tune for more pictures

New computer

Tags

asus, candid

Just got the Asus transformer tablet. It’s got keyboard swipe. Can’t wait until my keyboard dock comes in!

Bangkok Day I Part II (even more food!)

Tags

Bangkok, food, restaurant

I ate a lot in Bangkok but that’s because the food is amazing! And its cheap. I was not looking forward to the day after because it would be my last day roaming Bangkok.

Even though I ate a lot of food, I felt like my pants and sports bra getting looser because of all the walking I did. I heard mixed ideas if people lose weigh while traveling. But this is only Day 2 of travelling. I’ll conclude that on my last day of my trip.

I noticed there were a lot of 24 hour restaurants and I think that is because most of the apartments in Bangkok (at least in the more dense area) they have no kitchens! Maybe a most a kitchenette with a mini-fridge and a microwave but otherwise no kitchen! Whuddi’s place was a studio with just a sink in the corner in his room but no oven and microwave and no counterspace and no fridge. Mike’s place had two rooms — not two bedrooms — just two rooms. One room he makes it as his living area/bedroom/TV room/office and the other room is his closet space and other storage. Mike has a mini-fridge but no oven, stove, microwave, and a counter.

As you can see, that’s why they eat out all the time. ALL THE TIME!

Some restaurant that Mike likes to go to. The only thing here really is the roof above us!

I let Mike and Whuddhi do the ordering. If I did the ordering, I’d only be ordering foods I’d eat in a Thai Restaurant in the U.S. There were pictures in the menu but the whole menu was in Thai…I let them order so I can try what they like.

Chicken feet!

Bok Choy and fried pork

Pork blood and chestnuts

Papaya salad and vermicelli rice noodles. Never seen papaya salad served like that before. Usually there’s no noodles. There’s super fresh crab inside.

The desserts section for some reason didn’t have a picture. This is Whuddhi’s dessert, it’s basically coconut soup and inside is coconut jelly and tapioca balls.

This was my dessert. It’s some sort of fruit chilled in some ice — it’s a bit sour. I blindly ordered this dessert. I kept asking Whuddhi and Mike — what is this before I said my ordered. They kept telling me to just order! So I ordered but I didn’t like the dessert too much. Whuddhi’s coconut dessert tasted amazing–wish I blindly chose that one.

The bill for my first dinner in Bangkok was less than 5 dollars.

Anyways folks stay tune for Day 2 of Bangkok!

FYI: I’m backlogged since my computer broke when I was on vacation, doing some catching up yet…going to update slowly so no one can miss out.

Bangkok day 1 part 1 (food)

Tags

Bangkok, food and drink, travelling

I’m back and I’m using my boyfriend’s computer. It’s a little slow but it is better than NO computer.

Anyways Day 1 of Bangkok. I was glad to out of the Hong Kong rain. There really isn’t much to do in Hong Kong when it rained. As soon as I arrived, to sunny and humid Bangkok I removed my sweater. Seriously, I was waiting inside the airport and I was sweating.

In my opinion, out of the four countries I’ve been to — Thailand has the best food and its super super cheap. Anyways more into detail later.

First meal in Bangkok -- at the airport. Food in Bangkok is love at first bite!

Papaya and watermelon; pad Thai, chicken intestines

All this food between me, Mike, and Whuddi — less than 2 dollars each. Street food is everywhere! And I didn’t get food sick!

Please make sure you buy bottled water!

Pink taxi cab

Sneak peak 2

Just arrived to Vietnam. The scenery is beautiful.

Sighs

2 more days until I reach a computer. I got lots of pictures.