Here is a comprehensive list of every singe blog post I’ve ever written. Happy Reading!
Saigon Chronicle – Week 2: Roadside Barber. Chinatown. Eco-Market.
The initial shock from the overwhelming traffic and noise in Saigon during week 1 has somewhat dissipated. There is now even a sense of calm energy when I watch a steady flow of traffic (preferably from a café window). While slowly settling into the city’s rhythm, we are still moving…
2019 Q2 Business Update
The imposter syndrome returns as I prepare for this Q2 update. My initial feeling: I haven’t accomplished much. I spent the entire month of July traveling before settling into our new home in Saigon. If I’ve learned anything over this past year, it’s that I am a terrible travel blogger,…
Saigon Chronicle – Week 3: Home Goods. Maison Marou. Women Meet Tech.
Hello New Home After over a year of suitcase living, we moved into an apartment that is all ours. For the first time in 13 months, I unpacked all of our suitcases and put them away. Among all of the benefits of nomad living, regaining an appreciation for a physical…
Saigon Chronicle – Week 4: Living Abroad in 2019
The first time I moved abroad was in 1998, from Taiwan to the United States. The Internet was slowly becoming mainstream, but the way to keep in touch with my family was still through faxes and occasional expensive international calls. In suburbia Saint Louis, my only source of Chinese entertainment…
Saigon Chronicle – Week 5: Learning Vietnamese
After stumbling around on non-existent Vietnamese skills for the past month, we finally set up lessons with a private teacher to begin our Vietnamese-acquisition journey. I strongly believe the best way to integrate into a culture is to learn its language. Even understanding basic sentence construction helps one peek into…
U.S. East Coast City Tour: Boston, New York, D.C.
Our epic road trip from Montreal down the Maine Coast ended in Boston. We returned the rental car and commenced the US East Coast city tour across Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. Frenchie has never been to any of these cities. Before our road trip, the only places he…
Saigon Chronicle – Week 6: Making Friends. Exploring Co-working Spaces.
One of the many reasons we put an end to nomadic living was missing a community. Yet, forming a community in a new city doesn’t happen with a snap of a finger. The steps to forming quality connections can be tedious and a little awkward. It’s a little like going…
U.S. Southwest Road Trip: 10-Day National Park Loop Across Arizona & Utah
After a tour of the East Coast, we head west to Las Vegas to begin a 10-day national park loop across the American Southwest. We enjoyed this journey with my parents to celebrate their retirement. The beauty of US national parks is the well-planned facilities and trail path. Regardless of…
Saigon Chronicle – Week 7 & 8: Apartment Rental Search
After a month of living in our temporary apartment, we began the hunt for our longer-term home in Saigon. The process proved to be more challenging than I had anticipated, but I am happy to announce that after two weeks of painstaking search, we have been blessed by the apartment-hunting…
US Road Trip: One Week in California’s San Francisco Bay Area
From geological marvels of the American Southwest, we headed west to San Francisco for a change of scenery, but continued the road trip theme in California. During my time at the fruit company, I had a few extended visits to the Bay Area and wanted to share this beautiful region…
Birthday Giving: Hair Donation in Saigon
Since turning 30, my desire for elaborate birthday celebrations has waned. Instead of large gatherings, I now prefer to retreat and reflect. Recently, there’s been a trend to raise funds for birthdays on Facebook, to support a good cause. This year, in keeping with the “being uncomfortable” theme, I decided…
Recognize Passport Privilege
One of my main goals with this blog is to inspire people to live globally. When contacted by the U.S. State Department to help promote its #BeginYourJourney campaign for Passport Month, I happily obliged. After all, obtaining a passport is the first step to living more globally. Recognize Passport Privilege …
Saigon Chronicle Month 3: 90-day Resettlement – Expats vs. Refugees
I learned on an episode of Sincerely, Hueman recently that the U.S. government’s refugee resettlement program lasts only 90 days. Refugees are expected to be self-sufficient within this time frame. This week, we, the privileged expats in Vietnam, approach our own 90-day milestone. The dichotomy of our experience versus that…
4 Days in Colorful Buenos Aires
On our full-time travel, we picked destinations based on our global set of friends and families. Xav’s brother lives in Uruguay, so we decided to escape winter and migrate down to the Southern hemisphere. We kicked off our three-month South America tour with a 4-day stay in Buenos Aires, visiting…
2019 Q3 Business Update
Q3 was filled with transitions as we settle into our new lives in Saigon. With Xav at work, I am left with ample time to catch up on this blog. Am I A Writer? Being in a new city, one of the most common questions I get is that dreaded,…