A Family Affair in Hoi An

As I said in my last post, my mom came to visit us here in Vietnam last month. It was such a great visit and we packed a lot in to the 2 weeks. Our first trip that we took was down to Hoi An for 4 days. Luckily my niece Sarah, who lives in Singapore, had a long weekend so her and her fiance joined us for a couple of days.

How do I describe our time in Hoi An? Wow… Let’s just say it was full of shopping, tailoring, eating, boat rides, bike rides, beaches, rice paddies, swimming, temples and more!

In this post I’ll just talk about Hoi An town itself. Hoi An is a traditional town with beautiful old buildings and lanterns absolutely everywhere. It is very peaceful since no motorised vehicles are allowed in to the town center.

I must admit that it is very touristy with every building being either a shop, tailor or restaurant, but I absolutely loved it there! It was such a nice getaway from noisy Hanoi.

So I have mentioned tailors a couple of times so far in this post and that is because Hoi An is THE place to go to get clothing tailored.

While we were there I got some beautiful leather ankle boots, a dress, a pants and shorts tailored. Jason got a pants and 4 shirts tailored and my mom got 3 pairs of shoes made.

Overall we were happy with the items that we got made. For my dress and one of Jason’s shirts we went to one of the bigger well known tailors that had a lot of reviews. Then while walking we happened upon a very small tailors with a lovely woman inside, she was offering to make shirts at a much cheaper price so Jason said he’d order one and see how it went.

The next day we went back and found that it was perfect, no adjustments needed, unlike the bigger store so we ordered more from her and were happy with everything we got made.

Now, a month later, the pants and dress have become staples in my wardrobe, I’ve only worn the boots once because it’s summer but they looked beautiful. I still haven’t worn my shorts but I’m sure that I will soon. Jason found all of his shirts very comfortable and perfect for work. The name of the tailors was Thu Linh 2 and the address is 40 Tran Phu Street. There are thousands of tailors in Hoi An but this is my recommendation.

As for my boots. I love them! I got them made at Friendly shop (18 Tran Phu). They are quite well known for making quality leather products and they offer a 6 month guarantee.

I can’t wait to write more about our time in Hoi An, especially the different day trips that we took!

Have you ever gotten anything tailored? I’d love to hear about your experience!

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Currently…May 2017

What a whirlwind couple of weeks we’ve had! I was so fortunate to have my mom come visit us here in Hanoi. It was her first time in Asia and we absolutely loved showing her Vietnam. We took some time off work and managed to visit Hoi An and Halong Bay with her. I’ll be writing about our time in both of those places hopefully sooner rather than later.

Other than that, we’ve also started looking for a new apartment. We love our current apartment but we’ve found that we aren’t saving as much as we were hoping to. We’ve been looking at places that are about $400 cheaper than our current place and are still really beautiful! Just the other day we looked at a one bedroom apartment in an old French building with a balcony looking right over the lake. We are going to look at some more tomorrow and are definitely excited to find our new place!

I’ve also been researching Masters programs and I think I’ve found the program that I want, the best part is that it offers a chance to get a teaching license after the completing the Masters program.

We found a swimming pool with a view near our apartment so I have a feeling that we’ll be spending a lot of time there as the weather gets hotter.

Willy had to have a minor surgery recently. He’s had a cyst for over a year that we had gotten checked before but while my mom was visiting it grew huge in a few days so we had to get it removed. But he did great and is back to his normal self again.

Work has been going good…busy but good. I’ve been learning so much in my role as a senior teacher. In the five months that I’ve been senior teacher I’ve had a chance to train new teachers, observe current teachers, write blog posts for the company website and create and deliver an academic workshop. I’m hopeful that I’ll continue learning even more as time goes on.

That’s about it for now, but I’m really hoping to get better at writing more frequently in the future!

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The Magic Of Ninh Binh

A couple of years ago I wrote about one of my favourite places in South East Asia here. I was of course talking about Ninh Binh. It is absolutely beautiful, peaceful and not yet full of tourists (although I’m sure that with the success of the new King Kong movie, that will all change, since it was filmed here).

When I wrote about my first time visiting Ninh Binh 7 years ago, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I’d have a chance to go back there, let alone twice!

Luckily it’s only a 2 hour drive from Hanoi so it’s the perfect place to go to escape the stress of the city.

Sometimes returning to a place can be a terrible idea and all of the beautiful memories can be destroyed, luckily Ninh Binh really hasn’t changed all that much since the first time that I was there.

I highly recommend stopping here while on your trip to Vietnam, especially at this time of the year when the rice paddies are so beautiful. They harvest at the end of May, so if you want to see golden rice paddies, go in May!

Here are a few of my favourite things to do in Ninh Binh:

Take a Bike Ride

This is one of my highlights when I go to Ninh Binh. It’s the perfect way to take in the slow pace of life and the beautiful scenery. Be warned that your arm might get sore from waving to the many people that greet you along the way. Most guesthouses and homestays offer free bike rental.

Stay Among The Rice Paddies

I cannot recommend this option enough. If there is one thing that you must do while in Ninh Binh it’s this! We have stayed at the Ninh Binh Panorama twice now and both times have been truly magical. There is no road leading to it, just a dirt path and it is in a magical valley. It is perfectly secluded and you have the best view of the rice paddies and the limestone karsts. In fact, the second time that we stayed here we didn’t even bother with any of the tourist attractions because the views are probably better than anything else you’ll see in Ninh Binh.

 

Our sweet little hut

 

Rent a Boat on Tam Coc

This one is a bit of a hit and miss. Yes the scenery that you get to take in on the boat ride is absolutely beautiful but the river is full of tourists and the boat ride goes on for a bit too long for my liking. I’ve done it twice and both times I’ve been dying for the boat ride to finish by the end. I have heard that Thung Nham is more beautiful, especially at sunset because there are many birds in that area. I have yet to go but hopefully the next time we go to Ninh Binh we’ll go there.

Photo credit: Alotravel Asia

Climb the Mua Caves

This is a mountain with caves at the bottom and steps all the way to the top which has an epic view of the surrounding area. Surprisingly, it never felt very busy there at all!

This is at the bottom of the mountain

How to get there:

It’s so easy to get to Ninh Binh, there are many options. If you walk in to any travel agent in the Old Quarter they can book a tourist bus for you and it picks you up from your hotel. If you are on a budget then you can make your way to Giap Bat bus station and jump on one of the many local buses that go that way. There is also a train that goes from Hanoi to Ninh Binh or if you have the cash to spend, you can hire a private car. If you are feeling adventurous, you can always drive there by motorbike. This is what we did on our most recent trip to Ninh Binh and it is an easy route, you just stay on the same road for the entire time.

How about you? Have you ever been to Ninh Binh? Are there any things that you would add to this list?

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I’m Back!

After taking nearly a year off from blogging for various reasons, I’m finally back and so excited to continue writing about my adventures. A lot has changed since I last wrote and it would probably take more than one blog post to explain everything.

But basically, I now live in Vietnam!
I absolutely loved Colorado, seriously, it was the best place ever! Unfortunately, the job market there, not so much. I struggled so much with trying to find a decent job, which I never actually did find. This led to me feeling depressed and worthless. I was stuck in a job that I didn’t like and earning terrible money. It was the first time in my life that I started regretting all of the amazing experiences that I’ve had. But, myself and Jason also volunteered at a local college in Denver to help refugees and immigrants learn English. This was an incredible experience and it made me realize that I enjoy teaching and since I have so much experience in teaching ESL, maybe I should focus on getting the qualifications related to this.

We also realized that it would be near impossible to get Masters in Colorado with the jobs that we were in and not rack up a huge amount of debt, so this led to us looking for work abroad again.

It was so hard leaving Colorado, the sunshine, mountains, beer, Denver, mountain towns, friends etc. but we have been in Vietnam for about 6 months now and are enjoying our time here. We are also researching Masters programs which is exciting and if all goes well, I will be starting mine next year.

 

I will still write about all of the fun things that we did in Colorado and of course write about our time in Vietnam. I’m so happy to be back!!!

My Life in Denver So Far…

I have been a terrible blogger! I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted a blog entry.

Life has been very up and down here for me so I’ve just been really focusing on trying to get settled, getting outside and into the mountains and reading more.

I also started my job, which has been exhausting! Running around after 3 year olds all day can be tough and I find that I’m exhausted in the evenings!

My state of mind has definitely been up and down a lot here in Denver. I have been having a hard time accepting that things definitely aren’t going the way we had hoped and then continuing to hope that it will get better.

We are both trying to figure out what career choices are the best for us, I think this current job that I have has helped me realize that I definitely don’t want to be teaching young children long term. The dream of getting a job in marketing is still there and it’s stronger than ever now, so fingers crossed that something will happen for me!

But every time that I’m feeling low or lost (which was happening quite frequently) I try to get lost in the beautiful outdoors of Colorado and remember why we moved here (which works…EVERY TIME!).

Road-tripping from Colorado to Washington…and back again

As I mentioned in my previous post, our Christmas in Washington was awesome!

On our drive up to Washington, we decided to take a different route than the one that we took when we first arrived in Colorado. We thought that it was too much of a risk to drive through Montana and northern Idaho with the snowy weather and mountain passes. So this time around we drove north in to Wyoming, then west into Utah, then into Idaho and Oregon and finally crossing north in to Washington.

It was a long 2 day drive, but the views were absolutely incredible!

We’ve both decided that even from the small part of Utah that we got to see, that it looks like a beautiful state and we wouldn’t mind moving there! We also stopped in Boise Idaho for a short while and decided that it looked like a cool city with a beautiful backdrop of foothills.

Below are some photos that we took during our road trip.

I hope you enjoy them 🙂

 

 

Christmas 2015- A Family Affair

This Christmas was truly the best Christmas that I’ve had in a long time! Living abroad is an amazing adventure but it’s always the hardest at Christmas time, not being able to spend it with your family.

This year both myself and Jason were feeling pretty down about not being able to be with our families, so we decided to risk the snowy roads and drive up to Washington to be with Jason’s family.

Honestly, it was the BEST decision that we’ve made in a while!

Once we arrived at Jason’s sisters house it was like we had magically landed in Narnia! Snow was falling, there were beautiful evergreen trees everywhere and once inside her house it was so festive.

She was making cookies and Christmas movies were playing while their beautiful Christmas tree lit up in the corner. It was perfect!

We spent our first few days just playing in the snow with Jason’s niece and enjoying our time away from job searching and other frustrating things that happen when you move to a new city.

Then on Christmas eve all of Jason’s family came to his sisters house to celebrate Christmas a day early. Jason’s mom and some of his siblings still didn’t know that we were going to be there so it was a lovely surprise for them, especially his mom, to see us and the Elliott siblings were all together for Christmas for the first time in five years!

We had such a wonderful day, the snow was falling outside, the views from Ambers house were just magical.

We ate so much food, I introduced the family to Christmas Crackers and we all exchanged secret santa gifts by the Christmas tree. I think I had a perma-smile on my face for the entire day because it was absolutely perfect.

That evening we drove to Soap Lake, where Jason’s parents live, to spend Christmas day with them.

On Christmas morning we woke up and opened our presents in the guesthouse that we were staying in. Afterwards we went to Jason’s parents house to watch the kids open presents, cook an Irish breakfast, laze around, eat a great ham dinner and play board games.

It was such a wonderful Christmas, definitely one to remember…even if it did take 2 days to get there and another 2 days to get back!

My Top 5…Moments of 2015

Oops, I’m a bit late with creating this post since it’s already over a week into 2016, but I guess late is better than never!

 

2015 was an incredible year and one that I won’t forget anytime soon! Myself and Jason are, for the first time, heading in to a new year with so much uncertainty and a bit of fear. I hope that 2016 ends up being an amazing year, but for now I’m going to focus on how great 2015 was.

So here are my top 5 moments of 2015:

5. WWOOFing in Washington

This was a great chance for both myself and Jason to firmly leave our comfort zones. We worked hard, learned a lot and most importantly had fun while working at Paradisos Del Sol Winery in Zillah Washington.

I highly recommend WWOOFing to anyone interested in getting off the beaten path and seeing the world in a unique way.

4. Weekend trip to Seattle

For Jasons birthday I got him tickets to see the Mariners play baseball. That, coupled with the gourmet food tour that our friend Ian gave us, created an awesome weekend full of fun memories that I’ll cherish for a long time to come!

3. Beomosa Temple Stay

What an incredible experience! We got to live in a temple for the weekend, meditate, pray, eat and drink tea like monks. We also learned a lot about Buddhism and were able to clear our minds for that wonderful weekend. 

2. Finally Spending Christmas with Family

It had been 6 years since I’ve spent Christmas with any family. Both myself and Jason were getting down in Denver thinking about spending another Christmas alone, so we made the decision to load up the car, drive 2 days to Washington and spend the most incredible 2 weeks with his family! We even had a white Christmas…it was so perfect and gave our spirits a badly needed lift.

1. Our honeymoon in Singapore and Bali

Ever since myself and Jason got engaged we both knew that if we had to choose, we wanted our honeymoon to be the highlight instead of the wedding. At the end of the day, we care way more about travel and experiences than we do about dresses and place settings so we did exactly that, had a low key wedding and enjoyed the most wonderful 2 weeks in both Singapore and Bali. We splashed out and stayed in an amazing villa with a private pool in Ubud and the memories from our honeymoon are going to stay in my mind forever.

 

So there we have it, my top 5 moments of 2015. It was so nice to look back on them while writing this.

How about you? What are your favorite memories of 2015??

 

2016, The Year Of…Books!

Happy new year everyone!!

I have been terrible and haven’t been blogging much recently, in fact I’ve had 2 posts written for the last month but I’ve been having some much needed family time with Jasons family and just didn’t get around to adding photos and posting them…will do so soon!

So, I’m not a huge believer in making huge New Years Resolutions but I do love the idea of getting to start new and fresh on the 1st of January and making small doable changes.

Last year, I decided that I would work harder on my blog and post double the amount of posts that I did the year before. It was a fun year and I smashed my quota by May. I loved the new conversations that more blog posts brought about, learning more about blogging and getting to know people only from reading their blogs or people commenting on mine. It’s a great little community and I’m glad that I worked hard on updating my blog last year.

This year, I have decided, is going to be more about relaxing and changing myself. The one thing that I really dislike about myself is the amount of time that I spend on my phone and Facebook. It is so boring but strangely addictive. So this year I have decided to delete Facebook from my phone and spend the time that I would have spent scrolling on my phone reading instead.

I have found this great reading list from PopSugar, which you can find here, and I have already started it. It is definitely exciting to have a checklist and to be working towards something rather than just saying that I’ll read more books. I’m excited because this list is going to bring me out of my comfort zone and introduce me to new authors and genres.

I have also joined the library near our apartment which was very exciting. After spending 5 years in Korea, where English books are really hard to find, it feels awesome to have all of the books at my fingertips, and it’s free too!!

I received an adult coloring book as a Christmas gift and I’m crazily excited to start spending time relaxing and coloring.

How about you? Do you make resolutions? Have you made any resolutions?

 

A Day Trip To Vail

Last week, I was feeling pretty down about the job hunt so myself and Jason decided to take a day trip to Vail, CO. So I’m sure most of you have heard of Vail before but if not then it’s a big ski resort in the mountains about an hour and a half away from Denver.

 

The drive to Vail is absolutely beautiful, we passed some other smaller ski resorts such as Brekenridge and the scenery was just breathtaking!

Once we arrived we found a parking lot (which was shockingly expensive, $20 for 2 hours parking!)

We got Willy and walked around the town.

It’s an absolutely beautiful town, it’s so clean with beautiful German inspired buildings everywhere.

There was a beautiful skating rink and small local stores everywhere.

It was such a great way to spend a day and it has made me so excited for the thousands of other small towns in the mountains that myself and Jason have yet to explore!

The place that I want to go the most is Telluride. They have an awesome Bluegrass festival in the summer and unfortunately the tickets went on release last Friday and are almost sold out (being unemployed makes it impossible to afford it right now) But I’m sure that this time next year I’ll be more than prepared to get some tickets!

How about you? What’s your favorite Colorado town?