(December 2025)
It’s been a while that I’ve updated the blog so here I am playing a game of catchup and diving into what my brain was thinking at the time. Thowing it back to December when I was in Thailand and Vietnam.
We made it to Thailand!!! This time around I did most of the planning because Anais did a lot of organizing in Korea. So like the cool old sister that I am, I was scheming. I think one of my love languages is to surprise people. I love to plan surprises, honestly not sure why quite yet, probably because I like to make people happy and see their reactions. Hm well after a long time of reflection, let’s just say that this was probably not the most ideal situation that I put myself and my family in. The start of the secret plan was that the little bro was coming out to join us in Thailand and we were going to backpack around in a fun lil sibling trio. He was short on time because he had to go back to school. So, I tried to plan a nice little loop between Thailand and Vietnam for the 3 of us. Later, our mom joined us to have a nice reunion. So get this, I know that my brother and mom are the surprise, yet my brother didn’t know that the mama was joining. Long story short, we were all together and I think it can be quite normal to have a bit of a dysfunctional family vacation as (at least I hope) most of us do. We had some really wonderful moments together exploring the two countries all together and memories that will last a lifetime. Let me walk you through the path we went through.
A big lesson that I have learnt traveling with the family is that I can only caretake for myself in the way that I can rescue people from their miseries. I can only guide, give advice and at the end of the day, we are the only ones who can act on our life. So live your life to the fullest, live how you would live yours and others will follow or ask questions when they want to change. And it’s hard to be that person who is always being told to do something, and the even harder part is admitting that you were wrong. I guess the advice here is live your life as much as you would and like minded people will join or be curious.
Also, I feel like 1 person travelling impacts so many people, it’s changing how people think about the world. For example, our brother and mom probably wouldn’t have gone all the way to Thailand and Vietnam on their own. Since we set a pathway in sorts, it opened up possibilities and just even an idea. Many people following along are like ooo I want to go there now. I hope that people have different perspectives on traveling and backpacking. When you start to travel and backpack you meet even more amazing people doing amazing things. Like solo travelers, hitchhikers, bikepackers, travelers on a mission or goal for something else. These people I meet along the way inspire me to do more, to be curious about more, and think differently about how to travel too. So here is my lil bit of inspiration for this post. Oh and look how cute this video is of my mama.
Thailand was a whole other world from Korea and Japan. Everything was a lot more affordable, and felt a bit more chaotic which I like in a way. We were so lucky to have met a friend in Korea from Thailand and he happened to be in Bangkok at the same time and showed us around.
The food was so gooood!
Helloooo Vietnam, we started out with Ho Chi Min to visit some family friends we haven’t seen in a long time. The family that we stayed with, I used to babysit one of the daughters when she was a newborn baby and it was so cute to meet back up with them and learn about how it is for them to live in Vietnam. The traffic in Ho Chi Mihn was insane, there are scooters buzzing around all the time and it sounds like a swarm of bees everywhere. Somehow tho, people don’t have road rage. They just beep beep as a sign ‘hey I’m here, watch out’.
There is a certain energy I felt in Vietnam, especially after going to the museum where all the history, facts, photos, and people’s writing was on display. That was such a heavy experience. I had tears in my eyes at the end of it and felt ashamed to relate myself to the US (and today for that matter of fact). Don’t we say we learn about history in order to learn and not repeat the same mistakes? Well it sure seems like there is a whole lot of repeating going on and not for the better.
After we headed to Hanoi and I thought the streets of Hanoi were a lot more calm than Ho Chi Minh. Here we decided to split up, my mom and I went to Halong Bay and my brother and sister went to Nihn Bihn. Halong Bay was pretty chill as a city, really not much going on, which was a nice relief from the bigger cities. Although, once you go out on the boats to visit Halong Bay, it was absolute chaos, people everywhere, tourists everywhere, if you get a photo without a tourist in there you are very lucky. It was definitely beautiful to see, and if you want to see the little islands in the bay go for it. For me though, I probably wouldn’t do it again. I did discover one of my favorite desserts there. It is called sua chua which I believe means frozen yogurt. They serve you some frozen yogurt with milk, boba, red beans, and even some nuts/dried fruits. I could eat that everyday.
I had a wonderful experience learning about detachment. Hello vipassana. I asked my brother to keep my camera with him before I was going to meet up with a friend. At first he said no, and this is also where I probably should have known no means no. I ended up getting back late and I was searching for my camera, I figured that I would find it the next morning. Unfortunately we did not. The camera was misplaced or taken somewhere between when I gave it to my brother and when they got back to the hotel. On top of it we were leaving that morning for the airport and barely had time to go look for it. We did everything we could like contact the taxis and went to report it to the police. I could have gotten really mad, but I didn’t. At the end of the day, I still had the people that mattered most and maybe that camera made someone else happy. Yes it is very privileged for me to write this. What good will it bring to ponder and worry about or “argh maybe if I did this or that I could have it now”. Yes I thought about it, then I just let it go. So this is a reminder to not get too attached to your things, or keep your real valuables nice and safe. I really believe in karma, whatever you put out into the world will come right back to you.
Photos of Vietnam:
Chiang Mai, Thailand~
Yay we made it to Chiang Mai, so I’ve heard the cute hipster perfect square of a city. We spent Christmas here and we didn’t have much of a plan. We kinda took each day, day by day. One thing that just eeks me out a bit in Thailand is seeing old white men with young Thai women. Sorry I said it!!
The night market with all the delicious food was incredible, there are some really good vegetarian places to eat. I also really enjoyed all the temples in Chiang Mai. On Christmas, we went to visit the sticky waterfalls.
So much good food and many vegetraian options!
Then the brother had to leave to go back to school. So us 3 gals were deciding what to do…
(next one is a good one stay tuned). I’ll try to be better about posting here, I’m feeling the urge to write again and I have so much to share with you all. Big hugs and keep shining your light!
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