Trip to Vietnam!

"Disneyland" in Vietnam

(Nah... it's their Cultural Center, just a block away from our hotel at HCMC)

Right after Bora, just went home to pack and came back again to the airport next day for my business trip to Vietnam (was also my first trip abroad so was doubly excited!)

It was a rainy flight, but we quickly got settled at Rex Hotel with Dennis, Tita Nida, Tito Jun, Tito Eddie, and Joyce--who was also my batchmate from St.Paul (talk about small world)!

For the first few days, all we had were meetings with distributors, importers, lawyers, advertisers... my mind was going crazy with all the meetings! Good thing we did go at night to do some "sight-seeing". Admittedly, I wasn't really able to divulge much of the tourist spots because of the fully-booked agenda, but what I learned from the culture is something really valuable and life-changing for me.... I was not totally culturally shocked from the trip, because everything looks like Manila, only 10 years behind and non-English.

Some things I loved in Vietnam:

1. No traffic! Everyone rode in scooters! In a highway, three lanes were full of motorcycles, one lane would only be occupied by other vehicles (read: luxury cars). Rode one through the market side streets (10,000 dong for public transport)... super fun!

2. Safe streets. I can walk until 2 am and I need not worry about someone mugging me or snatching my bag. There are VietCongs everywhere. ;-)

3. Beautiful girls! Nope, i'm still straight... they're just really nice to look at. I get envious sometimes... everywhere I look, there are those slim, straight/long-haired, fair Vietnamese women... it's like Temptation Island but in the city!

4. Being a millionaire! 1 USD = 15,000 dong (approx)... I had about 2M worth of shopping receipts in Ho Chi Minh! Felt good to have all those money.. hehehe :-)

5. Soup and spicy noodles.. their specialty!

Some things I missed in Manila:

1. English. No need to sign language with the taxi driver!

2. Jollibee, and all food restos! Filipinos love to eat definitely... I love our taste! And jollibbee there was depressing (was like twilight zone from the 80's). Lotteria was good though, have to go back for their chicken burger!

3. Smart AND beautiful girls! Nuff said... :-)

4. Starbucks (with no beer! haha)

5. Bars (with real happenings! Felt like I was in Havana back there... uh-oh!)

6. CUTE GUYS! All the men there looked like Manny Pacquiao! :-(

7. San Miguel Beer!!! Heineken was good, but there's nothin like good 'ol SMB pa rin ;-)

7. My family and friends (of course :-)

Definitely missed Manila and all its chaos, but HCMC and Vietnam will definitely have a special place in my heart. Will have to go back soon there anyway, for business (and a little bit of pleasure!) I'm grateful for the opportunity and the experience to have gone to a foreign land, it indeed open up my eyes a bit to the world and its possibilities. There's so much out there to learn and grow from, both personally and professionally. At least I'm one step closer to my dream of travelling all over Asia before I'm 30... Europe after, of course.

I'll visit Indonesia soon before the end of the year, and China in 2006 (cross my fingers! Hope I'll push through!) For the meantime... Tiger Airways, here I come :-)

AIESEC @ Bora

Work Hard, Party Harder! Bikinis and Beers all around with AIESEC Friends at Bora :-)

B O R A !!!

Paraw Beach Front :-)

After ten looooooooooong years (not kidding!) finally made my way back to Bora. DEVCON was going to be hosted by UPD there, and this time I'm finally looking forward to being an alumni and enjoying the beach all day all night! mwahahhahahahaha :-P

Friday, May 20
After being stuck at the terminal for what seemed like hours and only Pringles Cheese as lunch, our delayed Asian Spirit flight finally made its boarding call. One turbulent, sleepless hour later, I finally can see the white sandy beaches of Caticlan! :-)

We rode a trike to the port where Cris and I met again with Kristine Largo, got to the boat and rode to station 1. Hannah Hotel, where we were staying, was a cozy place just behind the beach front hotels, but we got a good room (all 7 of us squeezed in it!) where we met with Ding, Chouie, Anne and Rowel... the seven of us partying as the "oldies" in aiesec... :-) miss all my beach buds!

After a cutie handed us a flyer, we quickly headed to the Pearl of the Pacific beachfront where Kevyn Lettau was giving a free concert! Jonah's milkshakes in hand, we crooned away to "Sun Light... oh sunlight" songs until sunset, walking away with one of our memorables quotes from the show: "If you're thirsty, that means you're already dehydrated"! Harhar! I changed my top and had early drinks at Paraw (our unofficial hangout for the rest of our stay at Bora) with the trainees... dancing with Brazilian guys on ledges, then finally bringing the house down with all aiesecers delegates... all 97 of us! Parteeeeh Time!

Saturday, May 21

Trainees and alumni joint forces for island-hopping and snorkeling along crocodile island... my time to sunbathe and get that tan line finally! My defective snorkeling gear took out all the fun of feeding the fishies, so I chose to watch them from the boat instead... It's ok, took lots of cute pictures anyway...

Last dip with the girls before heading out to Station 2 for South Border Concert, an attempt to have a spa massage, then party away again at Paraw where I had heart-to-heart bonding sesh with Drew :-) Drunken Cris and I had to take Ding to "authentic" Forest Hills (with authentic pre-ordered animal sounds!) before snoozing away ourselves...

Sunday, May 22
Had the best breakfast ever! My choice of 2 scrambled eggs, sausages, pancakes, hash brown, and garlic rice with fresh juice! Jsut the way I like it... Yumyum!

Walked along the beach with stroll master Rowel before we finalized our discharge reports to deliver to the plenary that evening. Legislation took about five hours, while Rowel, Anne and I drowned our waiting time on that mysterious blue drink and more yosi. At three am, finally, "may beer na!".. like kids we shouted in glee! Ding, Cris and I judged Bb. Devcon, as tradition, and got ourselves tipsy again until sunrise where we took loads of pictures again by the shore... :-)

Sunday, May 23

My last attempt at a complete stroll with Rowel and last-minute shopping never pulled through coz we slept until lunchtime! By then, we had to check out and plug APXLDS at closing plenary...

Said last goodbyes and rode the boat back with Monna and JP to Seair where our plane awaited to take us back to Manila...

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Admittedly, I feel like the four days were such a blast but there were things I wished I did: (1) get visible tan lines! (mine disappeared after only a day! aaaargh!); (2) go shopping for P10 beads! (3) ride the banana boat or the flying fish; (4) get a henna tattoo (even just the cutesy little butterfly one... naaah, was too scared kse); (5) go night swimming; and (6) walk from station 1 to station 3 (do 10 laps like Rowel! Harhar!)

Oh well, I guess that means I just have to go back SOON to get those things done then! I miss the beach, spent more time by the sand than the water this time, because of the algae also... Promised Nate I'll go with him this time... Oh yeah, saw JC also, that was one of the things that made the trip really worthwhile :-)

Reunion trip with Cris, Ding, Anne, Kristine, Rowel, Chouie and me already in the works... can't wait to see Bora again....

Life's a Beach :-)

Instant Blog

Was staring out in(to) space this morning, trying to mentally tick off my to-do agenda while obviously envying my whole fam preparing for the beach today...

And i thought that maybe I should just get myself a voice recorder, and my own transcriptionist... *hint hint*i think i know someone like that.. para instant blog na and I dont have to go online just to type in random weird stuff like these...

Hmm....just a thought... :)

Happy Birthday ER!

It's ER's birthday today... too bad I can't greet him coz I dont have his number anymore...

Not that I didnt try finding it, contacted Noel, one of our common friends but he doesn't have it either...

Maybe it's really meant to be that I wont be able to really get in touch with him anymore.. some things should remain in the past where they belong... even "that damn parking lot" has been renovated now....all I have to remember him by are mere memories...and a twinge of regret...

Still, thinking about him makes me smile, albeit wistfully... I hope he's doing ok, wherever he is... :)

On Javi

Met with Javi yesterday in halfmoon (like I've been trying to meet all my friends there, promotions tlga :), and the guy is glowing. He smiles more often... it suits him well. He really seems happier than the last time I met him. I'm envious actually.. he's happy because he has all the time now to do what he wants before settling down to work...learn Chinese and go to China (which is both what we dreamed of doing before, go to an AIESEC traineeship there, but learn the basics first here), read all those branding and business books lined up in the to-do list, join seminars, lose weight! All those things I really really want to do right now but can't because of work obviously....

I missed talking to Javi. He's the one who keeps me up my toes, especially when we were still LCPs. There was pressure for me to do exceptionally well, because it seems he always watches what I do. When we did Coaching for ateneo, I was mostly coaching just him, not the whole team. Our talks would go from purely AIESEC, to business, to what we both wanted to beyond our AIESEC careers... He was one who was so principled that he was always able to see beyond the operational requirements, but the vision and the big picture--why we do what we do and what values we should emulate to the members as well. I miss his idealism and zest, often misunderstood by many because he often keeps to himself. But to the rest of us who are lucky enough to know the real him, Javi sure is a one-of-a-kind individual...

In a way, I owe him thanks... He was able to inspire me, even in the briefest moment, to indulge and enjoy life more... Not to be drowned totally in work and in the harsh cynics and bureacuracy we encounter everyday, but to actually pursue those dreams we made back when we still had that youthful idealism...

Cheers, Javi! See you at our AIESEC dinner soon... :-)

Friendster Blog

Weird... weird... weird...

Kept mumbling that for several seconds while I tried to configure my friendster blog. Yep, finally joined the bandwagon and tried to create another one (as if I can't manage three enough db?) It's settings are not too user-friendly. And I actually find it stupid to "announce" the blog to all your first degree friends when there's nothing in there yet anyway... wala lang.

If I tried to link about everyone who created a blog through friendster, I'd have about 100++ links in this blog now. But that's useless anyway, all I get are empty pages of people who wanted to try something new but failed to follow through with it...

Oh well... no harm in trying I guess... I hope my own "announcement" was cancelled before I clicked "send"...

Oh yeah, if you're curious... the link is http://gladaxjudai.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog. For those who might be bored and want to see it... don't say I didn't warn you....wala tlga laman, pramis!!!!

Animal Farm: Trip to Avilon Zoo

My Pet Eagle... Field Trip to Avilon Zoo :)

Early morning, my Dad had his "bright idea": let's bring the whole fam to Avilon Zoo! Oh well...since we were never really at home all at the same time, and it was once in a blue moon that my Dad wanted to go on those long road trips, so we decided to pack a quick lunch basket, my cutie safari attire and headed on to Montalban, Rizal to meet 'em animals....

No one among us was a navigator, because we didn't really have the faintest clue where it was! So we asked random people for directions, looked for "this way" signs, and at last we found the gates to the 7.5 hectare zoo... Felt like twilight zone for a minute there.. the gates looked like Jurassic Park's!

The zoo was well-kept, very clean... similar to a park or even Enchanted Kingdom. Our tour guide Mark was cutie!!! Haha.. flirting with parental guidance nman eh ;-) After a really really quick picnic lunch, we walked on foot with the tour for two hours at 1 pm! Scorching heat I know!... I enjoyed mostly the birds which they had the most number of (Hence the name "Avilon Zoo"). Got even really close to a bird of prey! My dad's favorite was couple of mating tigers... inspired by Felina I guess! Haha :-)

It was really hot trip, but I learned a lot of scientific names and animal trivia for the day. I'm glad I went, can't wait to see the aquariums they'll be building soon though... Maybe we can bring AIESEC trainees there one of these days ;-)