Vietnam (in bullets)

And so I went to Vietnam (Saigon-Nha Trang-Mui Ne) for a post-birthday vacay with travel buddies Poma and Alecz. Here’s what I have to say:

1. Saigon is quite a shock at the beginning. It’s like one big Maynila (binondo, monumento, quiapo). Award sa dami ng rotonda. But it grows on you especially as it changes its face at night. Parang nagiging sosh pagsapit ng dilim.

2. I was a millionaire in Vietnam.

3. Sinh Café is a savior when it comes to tours. As in just go to their office (161 Pham Ngu Lao, Dist 1, HCMC)and you can book your tours/bus tickets na.

4. I almost lost my sanity inside the Cu Chi tunnel!! Mega dilim and death by claustrophobia! It was an experience, nevertheless.

5. I so loved the food. There’s blandness that translates to love. Hahaha. Well I’m a fan of bland.

6. First time to ride a sleeper train. Hard sleepers are not so bad except we had to ride with strangers.

7. Restlessness to the nth during our 8-hour train ride to Nha Trang. As in nagigising ako every hour!! Good thing we decided to simply take a domestic flight from Nha Trang to Saigon.

8. Nha Trang is so not the boracay of Vietnam. It’s more of Galera with a hint of Roxas Boulevard-ness. I don’t really recommend Nha Trang if you wanna beach yourself to death in Vietnam. Go to Mui Ne if that’s the case. Or stay in the Phils na lang. Boracay Island is the best pa rin!

9. Despite the fact that I was not feeling well Saturday night, I super enjoyed our Saigon bar hopping experience. Good company!

10. Bars in Saigon close early as compared to Manila ones. Wag ka umasa ng gimik until 4ish onwards. By midnight…ready to pack up na the gimik people.

11. If you get too drunk in Saigon Saturday night and you have an early morning bus ride to Mui Ne the following day..you can always sleep during the 5-hour bus ride.

12. Mui Ne is peace. More of bora if not for the absence of mga nagtitinda ng kung anik anik whatever. As in I enjoyed!!! It was kinda like my Bohol experience.

13. Big waves can be fun. And tiring. Haha.

14. Red Sand Dunes sledding is fun fun fun. Pero hindi masarap makakain ng lupa. Pwe!

15. If pressed for time, you can always buy pasalubong in supermarkets. :P

16. I loved their version of patis. I had to bring home a bottle!!

17. Will be back in Vietnam. To the northern part next time!!

18. Much love to Julio Malantic for all the kindness (and overflowing patience)!!

19. If you find yourself in Saigon, Nha Trang or Mui Ne, visit:

SAIGON

QBar- dungeon-ish bar! So I don’t get why most guests preferred to stay in the outside part of the bar.

Opera House, 7 Cong Truong Lam Son, District 1, Saigon.

Bounce- this is kinda like version of Embassy Cuisine, I think. Nice but weird lang the mix of the crowd. Parang all ages. Ganyan.

39 Le Thanh Ton, District 1, Saigon

Warda – chill chill place to drink and shisha yourself to death.

71/7 Mac Thi Buoi St, Ho Chi Minh City

Quan An Ngon- this is the best for me! Super loved the food: Lotus Salad; spring rolls; sweet and sour pork chever;etc.

138 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, Dist. 1

Lac Thai- super delish Thai food and nice ambiance. Really loved the catfish salad.

Nguyen Van Chiem Street, District 1, HCMC

NHA TRANG

Louisiane Brew house- magsawa ka sa beer! Go variety!

Lot 29, Tran Phu

Pho Cali- cheapest meal we had in Vietnam, I think! And sarap!

7G Ð Hung Vuong, town centre

MUI NE

Golden Sand Saloon Resort- for seafood monsters! Oh, and Saigon beer is cheap.
81BIS Nguyen Dinh Chieu

Guava—for the gigantic yummy burger!!
53 Nguyen Dinh Chieu

RECAP

Not a regular blogger anymore. *sigh* been busy with A) work; B) play; and C) dramarama.

WORK

Eeek. I don’t talk work when it comes to blogs.

PLAY

Due to the taranta levels at work, didn’t get to write about my Iloilo experience and Singapore Trip. Super delayed na this one, but I’m super itching to write about something so I’ll just go, kebs!

Went to Iloilo last January for the Dinagyang festival and to enjoy the gimik scene with friends. Well, fun fun fun. Didn’t get to watch the entire festival nga lang because I was super sleepy! But super saya! Drums drums galore, I love!! I will definitely go back! Kainis that this Iloilo kwento is not as detailed as the Bacolod one. Pero that doesn’t mean na hindi fun sa Iloilo ha. Super saya lalo na the night life. Flow may be the more popular bar in Smallville, but honestly, I enjoyed Bourbon Street and Crave. Not super crowded and chill lang. Eeek I wanna go back! Haha. Many thanks again to Mor Espinosa for the warm welcome!

@ Buto't Balat; the Crave party; Dinagyang festival

The Singapore trip was a spontaneous plan of the Domingo Clan. Wala lang. But anyways, I went there partly because of work. Additionally, I went there din for some quasi-ocular inspection. Hahaha. I’ve been thinking of moving to Singapore kasi eh (hopefully with Team Patajo). After the trip and after further research, I think I’ll have to extend my self-imposed deadline. I don’t think I can leave yet. *sigh* (I’ll save this story for another day).

Palawan Beach, Sentosa Island; yum hawker food; go shopping!

Singapore was fun! I miss prata-cheese from Food Rep and that flat noodle thing form hawker stalls. Enjoyed Charles and Keith and Aldo sale! Go drown in shoes and bags, I love!!! Yun lang afford ko then. I’m trying to save for my birthday trip and a lot more. :p

DRAMARAMA

The old me would write and rant about the drama. Ha! But I’ve changed. At any rate…I’ll wait til the $h!+ hits the fan (in case it does) and then MAYBE I’ll write about it.

Now, back to work.

p.s. I can’t wait for my next trip. Eeeek, sana one more trip before my Vietnam one for June! I’m restless again.

From Hairspray to Another Weekend Getaway

Watched Hairspray last Friday, 28 November 2008 with Ma’am Pok and Honey “the closet wild girl” Lopue. It was another amazing race-ish adventure for me as we struggled our way to find the right theatre. Anyways, Hairspray was really entertaining. As in super laugh the three of us during most parts of the musical. Michael De Mesa was super kaaliw and super galling. Sayang nga lang, the sound system wasn’t yata in tiptop shape mejo sabog ang tunog at times. Inis actually because some of the lines didn’t come out clear, the actors had great singing voices pa naman. At any rate, we enjoyed the show!! Kudos!

After the show, I was off to another weekend getaway.

Background: Two weeks ago, Lil Pok and I planned on going to Baguio. Why? For Volante’s pizza lang. Seriously! Haha. Sarap daw kasi eh, so I got curious. Anyways, in the two weeks that passed by, Ida and Jonah decided to go with us (Carla and Cuz din dapat, but basta they weren’t na able to come). By the time Lil Pok met up with me and Ida in Ortigas, kasama na rin pala si Iya.

The Roadtrip Begins:

It was 1-ish in the morning when we left for Baguio. Crazy laughing during the entire Edsa stretch of the trip up to Pampanga part. Come Tarlac (or maybe even before), I fell asleep already. Pagoda tragedy na, hello galing pa ako sa Hairspray!! Contrary to pop belief, napapagod din ako noh.

First Stop: Baguio City

Headed straight to Volante for the much-awaited pizza! Yeah, we arrived early but kevs, Volante is open 24 hours!! The pizza was delish and not expensive ha. Must try their smoked salmon pizza. As in. Super worth it ang trip to Baguio! Can’t wait to go back.

After Volante, we had coffee at Café by the Ruins, ukay visit for a bit (and believe it or not, I didn’t buy anything) then off to the second leg of the roadtrip na. I think we spent roughly 3 hours lang in Baguio! Lav ettttt.

Second Stop: Manaoag, Pangasinan

Before zzzzing my way to Baguio, I had to remind Lil Pok that I need to pass by Manaoag. Basta I needed to go. Lil Pok responded by asking, “Sis, ano ba pupuntahan natin dun, as in si Our Lady?” I didn’t really have the chance to think, so bigla ko nalang natanong…”Bakit, meron bang ‘our boy’?”

In Manaoag we all lit candles and said our respective prayers. At one point super silent kami when we got back sa car. Then I think we started discussing the gist of our prayers/petitions. Mainly they were all about forgiveness. And peace. Yeah, peace.

Third Stop: Gerona, Tarlac

Next stop, Isdaan in Tarlac. We were hungry again kasi and I seriously wanted to take a shot at the famous Tacsiapo wall. Ewan ko ba, initially kasi I actually thought I still needed to throw a couple of plates and saucers just to release all the anger that I may still have within my system unknowingly. Oh, but no….kerri lang. Tapon to death kayo jan, I was just really hungry. Angry? No longer. I was a bit surprised actually.

Anyways, Isdaan? Good food, bad service. Tagal ng food grabe! Place is great for picture taking though.

Final Stop: Angeles City, Pampanga

Kapagod na!!! By the time we reached Fontana (where we planned to spend the night), we were all ready to just chill and drink the night away. Fun fun fun!!!

Pahabol Stop: Trinoma, Quezon City

Since we couldn’t agree on where to have lunch the following day, Jonah decided we should just starve ourselves to death until we reach Manila. So there Pepper Steak food trip!!!

I got home around 7pm. Tired but still in high spirits due to the fun fun fun weekend that we had. And due to the fact that 1 December is a non-working holiday. Cheers!

Pok Pressure High in Tagaytay

Kat and Jonah picked us (Me and Gee Jay) up at Warehouse around 10pm. On the way na to Tagaytay! Another spontaneous trip, actually. Carla invited us kasi to her house but since she also had gimik that night, she asked us to go ahead nalang then she’ll follow nalang daw. Hay ang bruha, didn’t naman show up! How weird is that?! A weekend getaway without the host!! Haha.

We arrived around 11ish then met up with Vane and Jeffrey. Super chill lang sa house. By 2am, Cesar, Tang Tang, Mike, Mina, Steph and Liz joined in. Alcohol and chika. And we had so much fun!!!! Yun nga lang, we missed Ma’m Pok (formerly known as Ate Pok). Workaholic na kasi! We had the party going until around 5:30pm the following day. Had so much fun, rockstars!!

By the time I got home, was kinda tired already but still had enough energy to have a couple of drinks @ Kei’s birthday party! Chika chika lang about cruel boyfriends vs. the good ones. Then RJ had to bring me home already as I was too tired na talaga and needed rest. Lotsa work waiting pa for the following day!!!

Another wow weekend for me!

What About Bohol?

Aside from the initial drama/adventure, these are the things that made the Bohol trip super fun and memorable.

1. The peace and quiet one can get from the beach. Not magulo like Bora. My 1 hour worth of cat nap felt like deep slumber for 5 good hours!

2. Bohol Beach Club. Super laki ng resort. Picture taking to death.

3. We had the best tour guide everrrr, Majesty Jala. She was not able to meet us up at the airport kse di nagising on time! Nagpakita na sha sa amin 8pm na!!

4. The yummy dinner we had at Bohol Bee Farm! I miss the cabcab already!

5. Accidental catching up with DJ at the airport! (tagal ng di nagpapakita ng lola. nag FA lang nawala nalang bigla)

6. Steady inuman. Buying our drinks from the sari sari store! (Nasa akin pa ang deposito slip!)

7. Baclayon church. The name still makes me smile. And of course, this conversation with Maj:

Trina: so why is this church special nga ulit?

Maj: kse oldest church ito in the Philippines.

Trina: how old is this church na ba?

Maj: as in tinayo sha before pa dumating dito ang mga Spaniards.

Trina: (confused and ready to burst into laughter if not for the fact that they were still inside the church)

8. Poma’s obsession with his DSLR. That means I don’t have to take much pics and I get to be in most of the pics taken!

9. I did my very best to be friendly with the Tarsiers. (di ko talaga kaya)

10. The man-made forest!

11. Partycrashing in Tagbilaran City. (party hosted by Maj’s friend, Pam)

12. And of course, the best part of the trip…….CHOCOLATE HILLS!!!

Much thanks to Poma and Maj. Cheers to CH!

I had a blast!