Ibiza

It seem so long ago, but our time in Ibiza was only a week ago. Loading these pictures and reminiscing  back really bring up warm feelings of beach fun, late night partying, and great friends.

We were very lucky to have stayed with Jamie's friends who he had met 8 years ago on his trip to Europe! We stayed at their nice house with their dog Knut, who has the cutest over-bite! Most dogs have an overbite, but this one's overbite had a gap! i love dogs w messed up teeth. Our few nights stay in Ibiza basically involved waking up at 1pm, go to the beach, siesta, dinner around 9, sit at Dragan & Jens' bar (Dado) making friends and people watching. Having drinks here is one of the most interesting and fun experiences I've ever had! You see many interesting characters that frequent the same spots nightly. Like this one German couple that come nightly with the woman dressing in latext and whipping the surrounding patrons. On our last night, I finally got whipped. Also, every 30min. or so, you see and hear these club promoters come down the streets in themed costumes. Bars and local restaurants close at 3am, and then to the disco-tech aka from there! One night, amanda lepore came to town, so Jamie and I went to the club she was performing at. Lets say, clubs in the states got NOTHING on the clubs here in Europe. The sound system, the gigantic space....crazy! 

What I've appreciated here is the openness of one's body and sexuality. People are just naked, and free...about everything, and it's normal. We were the ones that was out of place, wearing too much on the beach. 

Ok, I'm keeping this post at 16+. If anyone wants to see video of Amanda Lepore with....nothing on, let's work out a bargain when we're back home. Next post: Italy. Currently in Amsterdam.

6-pack of beer costs 3.50 Euro

Tu sabes, at first arrival I had my hesitation with liking Barcelona because we exited the subway to sights of wide streets and tall buildings. I've come around to appreciating more of the lifestyle and understand more of the beauty that is here. Where we are staying and certain things are reminiscent of Brooklyn for me. 

We still haven't gotten use to the getting up at 12pm, eating lunch at 3pm, dinner at 10pm, and partying at midnight thing just yet. The siesta part, that we are getting very good at! The train ride from madrid to Barcelona was an easy 3hrs, on a very comfortable and fast train. Though on the train, there were many, what I'm assuming Americans, that complained about the train.

Our dinning experiences so far has been mostly "misses" and a few "mediocre." The downside of traveling and not making friends with the local. One distasteful experience had to be Vietnamese food here in Barcelona. We yelped, tripadvisor, etc., and still we were lead astray. It's too much to get into, but we should've known when we saw no Vietnamese people working there, no Asian patrons, and that this is Spain! The menu has misspellings of the Vietnamese dishes, the decor was contrite, and there was an off-brand sriracha(sp) sauce! Jamie had a Vietnamese coffee, which was overfilled w/ ice and milk, so it overflowed as the coffee drip in.

One of our favorite pasatiempo here has been buying beers and drinking in parks and at the beach. Extremely cheap and extremely amazing. A business idea that's trending is people making mojitos on site and selling it! After you buy one, follow up questions tend to be "where are you from?" And "you want hash, cocaine, weed...?"

This city is popular with Gaudi architectures so everywhere you go, you see his work. The first two pictures are from Madrid, then of Güell park. We miss our little man. 

Next up, Ibiza, where Jamie promises days-long dance parties and drugs. Drugs - Spanish lingo for beach time.

First day: A city of perros

I forget how draining International traveling is, but when you've reach your destination, the last thing you want to do is rest!

Our first stop, Madrid, I must say is breath-taking. I really came into this with not much exposure nor expectation of what Madrid would be like, and i must say madrid is beautiful. When we landed, I became that fascinated tourist that wants to photograph everything. Of course mr. "Anti-photos"- jamie shamed me for documenting. 

Having lived in NYC, it prepared Jamie and I to navigate "el metro" like a boss! 3 subway lines and 30 mins later, we were in Chueca, the gay barrio with densely packed shops.

Our studio is beautiful with a small balcony that looks down into the street. Space is scarce here, and like Vietnam, there are plenty of dogs. Clean ones. It makes us miss our little man.

Eventually we succumbed to lethargy, but the most frustrating thing is we could not sleep! It is hot and we had coffees and regardless of being on the 3rd floor, we can hear all the chatters from the street. Little siestas here and there, eventually we forced ourselves up and out to find food at 10pm, normal dinner time. We dined at this Greek restaurant where the waiter was eyeing my man. It's probably what got us free shots after dinner. My Greek chicken plate was very good.

very seldom do I see Asian people. I feel invisible, possibly because I am with a handsome man. All eyes are on Jamie and so when people address us. Maybe my Spanish is bad....

Vacation!

The count down begins to vacation! But honestly, my weekend can be seen as a vacation to some people. My work week of 4 days with 3 days off is pretty nice. Of course, the trade off might not be worth it for some.

Last week, I went to the Monterey's Bay Aquarium w mah boo and the jellyfish exhibit was beautiful! On the same day, we visited the Carmel beach which was spectacular. Even my mom liked it, and she isn't impressed by much. She started reminiscing about her childhood, growing up in Vietnam where she was a daughter of a fisherman. Just think about how many experiences we'll get to reminisce about when we are old!

Reboot

After a long hiatus, i want to restart this blog. It's a great outlet for self expression, and will serve as a collective of stories for when im ready for a memoir.

Pretty soon, Jamie and I will embark on another journey. This time to lands where people live life of leisure. Our first point of entry Into Europe will be Madrid. I'm most excited to have this time to reconnect with myself and with Jamie. I feel that Work culture disconnects me from what I enjoy most out of life; the relationships in my life.

Until next time travel, art, and life enthusiasts!

Attached is our little needy monkey pup.

Best of South East Asia's food Vlog

Check out these two videos of some awesome food experiences we've had. 

First is dried squid that you buy on the street at night. You choose your squid, then they grill it, flatten, and tear into bite size pieces. This is best accompanied with hot sauce and multiple beers. Notice the helpful mobility of the woman's cart!

Second is Ngoc's favorite papaya salad from Laos. Made with the very pungent shrimp paste(mam ruoc), it brings new definition to acquired taste.

Enjoy!

Some stories

Apologies to my loyal readers to have deprived you of my literary gift. I've been reflecting on my final moments here in Asia and did not want it to end. I also was thinking about content so as to not bore you as Jamie have been. I'm supposed to talk about Bangkok, that happened like 3 weeks ago, but this will bore you. Instead, I'll make Bangkok brief and talk about a few funny and unfortunate moments we've encountered on our travel thus far.

Bangkok did not disappoint. It really is as wild and as crazy as you've seen on tv...if you want it. Coming from new york, nothing really surprises us anymore about these big cities. Bangkok had a skyway system, subway, skyscrapers, etc. English is spoken widely and people have enough money to dress nice and drive nice cars. It is also very gay! We went out partying a couple times with a friend that we met through a mutual friend. He was great and showed us the in's and out's of Bangkok. one night, we went to dinner beforehand and had some seafood followed by a dance club that the gays frequent. This was when I started feeling woozy. I tried to toughen it out and just thought it was because of the smoke in the outdoors patio. We proceeded to move inside and after 5 mins later, I started projectile vomiting [luckily] in my dark corner! "okay, let's go home!" said Jamie, and as I took a step, the rest of my dinner came out. Luckily again, we only live 5 mins walk away. That night, I got a fever, and it lingered till the next morning. It was my first time getting food poisoning that caused vomiting and it was traumatic. It also delayed our plans to travel to Cambodia. Till now, I haven't had any seafood, but the craving is resurfacing!

Thailand still had a lot of sandbags around from the flooding. They were just for precautionary, and the flood did not make its way to the center of the city. People were cautious and a lot of business were closed.

Our trip to Cambodia is a blog on its own which includes riding in a Camary sedan packed with 7 other people and a live chicken! In one of the picture, I got to fed a wild monkey which was pretty tame. We were in Siem Riep visiting Angkor Wat when all these monkeys just appear begging for food.

On another trip riding around Angkor Wat (because it's so big, one would need 3 days), our tuk tuk driver had to fix and secure the carriage to his motorbike and accidentally dropped us. Neither one of us got hurt, just rattled, but we all laughed about it during and after.

We've encountered many accidents on our trips of cars flipping over! After awhile, it becomes normal to see a group of people sitting in the shade while the men strategize a way to flip the vehicle over. On this particular accident, it was a truck coming back from the circus that flipped, sending metal carousel and some bananas overboard. I don't think anyone got hurt, and to them, it's just a minor setback on their travel.

We hope everyone in the states is enjoying the holiday season. I'm sure everyone is busy with family and Christmas shopping. We miss you and we will see some of you very soon.