Oh My Janey

Hanoi Diary: Its People and History

It has been almost three months since my trip to Vietnam, but I’m not yet done blogging about it. I have a few more posts queued for posting, but I can’t seem to find the time to write it. I’ve been so busy with life lately that blogging about a trip that happened a few months ago doesn’t call out to me to hurry up and tell its story.

December is about to end, and the only thing I’m thinking of is how I’m going to fit my budget through all this Christmas shopping and monthly bills and expenses. But every now and then, I long to be on the road again, traveling to someplace foreign, or just someplace unfamiliar. On mornings that I feel grumpy, I miss the coffee I drunk in Hanoi for four days. On afternoons when I feel tired, I think of the sunset at Hoan Kiem Lake and yearn for that calmness again. On nights when I’m nostalgic, I wish to be on a plane heading to my next destination.

Tonight is one of those nights. Or maybe I just really want to finish all my Hanoi posts before the year ends.

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Christmas Wishlist 2014

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I didn’t spend much on material stuff this year. Thus, this is probably my longest wishlist to date!

  1. White/Chambray button-down shirt – It’s on my list every year, wth. I need a thrift shop visit soon.
  2. Yellow Fujifilm Instax – Another one that’s on  the list every friggin’ year.
  3. Tohoshinki’s TONE and TIME tour DVDs – So expensive!
  4. Tablet – Any tablet really, as long as it has an expandable memory that I can fill with movies and ebooks.
  5. Platform white Chuck Taylors – Where can I buy one?!
  6. One Piece UNIQLO shirts – It’s no longer available in MOA! 🙁
  7. Tony Tony Chopper plushie – I love Chopper. ‘Nuff said.
  8. Bandage skirts – Or skater skirts. Whichever will do.
  9. Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl – Also, Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the End of the Lane, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Complete Sherlock Holmes collection, and so much more.
  10. Fujifilm X-E2 – I NEED a new camera.
  11. Moleskin – Too effin’ expensive. Any notebook that can serve as a journal is okay. Hee.
  12. Ballet flats – A black and a red pair please.
  13. The Daykeeper 2014 – It’s a journal/datebook and it’s so pretty!
  14. Scholarship in Korea – I don’t knooooooow. I really really want it but so many objections lol.
  15. Brazilian Blowout or a Brazilian Keratin treatment, too. My hair needs to be saved from all the frizz. Heuheu.

It probably sounds selfish to still have a materialistic wishlist this year, but I can’t help it! It’s not like I’ll end up having all of these anyway. Most of the time, I only get 1/4 of the things I list down every year. And almost everyone of them I buy with my own money. I don’t mind, though. Wanting things makes me work harder, despite my constant complaints that I don’t like my job. Haha.

Also, I’m perfectly happy as it is. I won’t go moping around if I won’t have any of these in the next year. I mean, my family, friends and boyfriend are more than enough to be happy. I can travel from time to time, and I get to watch as many Korean dramas and movies, too! The only thing left I can really wish for is a career I can love. A career, not just a job. But I’m trying to take little steps to achieve that. This year is the most I’ve been writing, really writing, what I want since I graduated from high school.

Anyway, enough about me. What do you want for Christmas? 🙂

Ninh Binh in a Day

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Ninh Binh is three hours away from Hanoi, and it’s situated in a mountainous part of Vietnam. We basically spent our third day in Vietnam traveling for 6 hours, but that sounds a little compared to the 8 hours of traveling to and fro Halong Bay. I slept mostly during the duration of the trip, so the hours passed quickly.

If I have to choose one word to describe this day, it’s calming. For our Ninh Binh day tour, we visited the Bai Dinh Temple and the Trang An Grottoes and were welcomed with utter calmness. The most people we saw that day was during our stopover in the morning. Just like in the previous day, we visited a souvenir station where they sell clothes, potteries, art works, and whatnot. After that stop over, we visited places that seem to be vacated except for us.

This time, we joined a traveling group of mostly Vietnamese from Ho Chi Min City. There’s also a mother and daughter pair from Chile, and we talked mostly to them.

Our first stop is the Bai DinhTemple and was astounded by the vastness of the place. Everything about it is huge. The temples were humongous and so were the Buddha statues. It was pretty solemn since it somehow felt like we were the only one in the place.

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Mad Hatter Party

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It’s not the first Halloween party I attended, but it’s definitely the most memorable!

On the 31st, we had a Mad Hatter Party at the office. We didn’t have to dress up but we had to wear hats or any kind of headdress.  I had no intention of going all out and was just intending to wear a floral crown or maybe a headband. Then Jinky suggested that I do Chopper because I’m obsessed with Tony Tony Chopper! He’s the cutest tanuki reindeer ever. My sister and cousin helped me with the hat because I’m artistically challenged. But I made the wrong measurements so it was too big! It was supposed to look cute on me but it ended up freaky. Haha. No regrets, though.

Most of my officemates went all out and wore the most ridiculous and creative head pieces ever! Ate Ninay won first place because she wore the most elaborate feathery headdress and Eunise won second for her creative cemetery hat! If I were the judge, I would have a hard time picking the three winners. We also had a few games and I won a loot bag! Yay candies. I never went trick or treating as a kid, so yes, I missed out on quite a lot.

As a kid, I also didn’t dress up for Halloween. But now that I’m an adult, I realize that it’s actually very fun! It’s the kind of party a silly and childish me really likes. I wish to attend more Halloween parties in the future. And if possible, try on more outrageous costumes and makeup. This is just the start, my dear friend.

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