US Road Trip: One Week in California’s San Francisco Bay Area
September 5, 2019
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 with my family. Upon landing at SFO airport, we picked…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 7 & 8: Apartment Rental Search
August 29, 2019
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 gods, and landed on a great two-bedroom apartment, with a…
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U.S. Southwest Road Trip: 10-Day National Park Loop Across Arizona & Utah
August 22, 2019
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 your physical abilities, there is something to enjoy for everyone.…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 6: Making Friends. Exploring Co-working Spaces.
August 16, 2019
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 on many friend dates, and hope the conversation clicks. As…
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U.S. East Coast City Tour: Boston, New York, D.C.
August 14, 2019
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 has seen in the US were St. Louis, Missouri, and…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 5: Learning Vietnamese
August 9, 2019
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 a culture’s thought process. We have traveled the world without…
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Give the Gift of Experience, or Cash
August 6, 2019
Last week, I published our approach to unique and affordable wedding planning. Unexpectedly, readers seemed very interested in the Chinese hong-bao tradition – giving cash in a red envelope. Hong-Bao literally means red (hong 紅) – bag (bao 包). It’s used not only for weddings but also for birthdays, Chinese New Year (our Christmas equivalent), graduations, etc. Unlike in the…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 4: Living Abroad in 2019
August 2, 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 was the books I had brought, a subscription to World…
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Four-Part International Wedding Under $8k USD
July 29, 2019
Today marks one year since Xav and I concluded our international wedding celebrations. Recently, I’ve heard and read various reports on the ever-growing wedding cost, and the trend of newlyweds going into debt from weddings. This motivated me to share our approach of planning a unique four-part around-the-world wedding celebration for under $8k. Disclaimer: This post aims to share what we…
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Saigon Chronicle – Week 3: Home Goods. Maison Marou. Women Meet Tech.
July 26, 2019
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 space that we can call home is on top of…
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