Winter nomadic holiday
It’s that jolly time of year again! I am back on US soil, hanging out at a Starbucks on third street promenade. I can almost hear church bells and wind chimes at every corner in the early mornings and as soon as night fall hits. Winter is such a beautiful season on the western hemisphere! Tiny little christmas trees as center pieces and hot white mocha aroma in the air here at Starbucks. Some lady just passed and side swiped a table and knocked over two glass cups and the employees apologized, gave her a smile and cleaned it all up in a jiffy! What a wonderful situation to be in, lost in a warm wrath and whether or not I have a physical home; I have friends and family, food & fun, cute scarfs & heavy jackets, snow and red noses to keep me sane.
I’ve spent nearly two years aboard in one of the hottest countries in the world! Now i’m layered in scarfs, sweatshirts, stockings and long heavy jeans. I feel about ten pounds heavier after all the feast and festivities amongst friends and family throughout the course of three months, in three different cities. I have two 50 pound suitcases, 1 lighter carry on and a backpack to wrap up my life. I’ve curated ideas, dreams and unforeseen circumstances fit for a nomad.
Whilst on the way home from an extreme Thanksgiving feast, I came up with the idea of taking a short trip (18 hour turn around) to Vegas.
My mind wandered off the pages, until next time!
The Yummy Road Ahead
Of all the streets and alley ways amongst the vast open road of Ho Chi Minh City, my favorite one of all is Duong (the word “street” in Vietnamese) Phan Xich Long in Phu Nhuan district.
The crowded streets of HCMC are often uneven, dusty and barely a batch of weed that should stem from the dirt beneath it. I could drive for miles after miles and still be in stuck trying to balance myself amongst traffic and making sure I don’t run into another ditch or crack on the road that might send me on another crash and burn. But Phan Xich Long amongst all is different. It is one of the cleanest open roads that I’ve seen in HCMC. It is actually the first street that I temporarily resided even before I made the switch to Vietnam. Just about a mile or two of double sided traffic, each road parallel to one another (instead of jammed into), palm trees, grass and flowers are beautifully landscaped in the middle of the road. The vendors flood the street after about 6pm with adults, children, dogs & cats alike, intertwined. It’s as if every night is an open carnival. Cafe’s fully lit and tall and narrow mansions rise profoundly! If I could capture this image in words, it’d be like the a mini New York Paradise (except with stinky rivers along side a vast stretch of road).
And on that wonderful Phan Xich Long road, right across the street from a beautiful grey pagoda, lies the late night vendor of a lady with a sign that reads “Chao Trang La Dua” which literally translates to white porridge/congee in pandan leaves and tastes amazingly wonderful! My heaven! If heaven were made of food, i’d like to fly around the smell on pandan leaves and soak in it all day! Pandan leaves are typically extracted for its juice (which smells like buttered coconut oil dipped in heaven) and people usually add them into sweets like che and this …
or sticky rice, etc. Oddly enough, taxi drivers around town even batch these leaves up and leave them underneath their seats as a form of air freshener, go figure! Well back to my delicious bowl of pandan love (which I will take a photo of and update you all in the near future). She pours a bowl of fresh congee already mixed in pandan extract, you’re asked to chose from the selection of side dishes which include salted eggs, an array of salted fish, and ca phao (preserved Thai eggplant). I usually go with the salted egg and ca phao, yum! The soup is rather bland but steaming with pandan freshness so that’s why you’d pair it with more saltier side dishes.
I’d visited her so many times, she’s sure to remember me. I usually visit with my aunt since she lives near by, but today I went alone. I sat for a bit then decided to pair my meal with a sinh to sa po che (sapodilla smoothie)
This is the sapodilla fruit, it’s a tropical fruit of Vietnam. It actually derived from South America and brought to South East Asia through the Philippines during the Spanish rule. It, to me, just taste like chocolate if chocolate were a tropical fruit 
I decided today that I was going to stir a conversation with the vendor lady. She’s quite cute, alway greets with a smile even when her glasses are foggy from the steam because she’d sit so close to the pot of congee. I assumed she must’ve had stories for days! She is 62 years old and has four kids, four grand kids and she lives with her younger daughter and son-in-law. Her husband passed away 37 years ago during the war and her family had been in the house behind her for over 60 years and she had been in business for about 45 years since her first daughter was born. Once her neighbor had to sneak her out of the house in the middle of the night with an oil lantern to the nearest hospital to give birth due to the complexity of the war. On the other side of Phan Xich Long, towards Tan Binh district and Go Vap, there use to be rapid gun fire battles and dead bodies dropped like flies and it would take days until they were picked up for proper burial, if any. She told me that Phan Xich Long for as long as she could remember was always a decent street, whatever bad happened on the other side of the road stayed on the other side of the road. As I sat there listening to her story, every chance I got I peered into the road and imagined as if I were to actually see these events happen in front of me. A light flashed before me and I could vividly see her husband scurry around the road in the midst of the war. Amazing.
With a wonderful meal and a heartfelt story, I lay asleep dreaming of tomorrow! Good night everyone.
The Storyteller
Our political stances are separated by class, but our lives are separated by generations. Our age is generally a main factor in whom we hang out with, what decisions we make and how our lives relate to one another. What touches me more so than anything is seeing our elders. Of course the typical and biased assumptions are old & grumpy, old & cute, old & whatever else you associate older people with. To me, they’re just cute (some grumpy) and filled with life.
Vietnam sheds no different light on the elder. What I find hardest to do is see an elderly beggar, it just breaks my heart. I often times try to avoid eye contact because once I get a glimpse of their facial expressions or glare in their eye, I can’t help but ponder. It’s as if their entire life flashes before me. What are their names? What have they gone through, imagine all the love & hate & trials after trials of life they’ve gone through to be where they are at now.
I remember this Vietnamese lady that came by to visit Hong Kong 4 (an asian shopping mall in Houston) and sat in front of my kiosk quite often. She’d squat on the ground or sat on the bench directly across from me. She was frail, about 4’11 and weighed maybe 80-90 pounds. Her hair was in a bun and she wore an Ao ba ba (traditional Vietnamese clothing typically worn by the elders today). She’d sit in place quietly for some time and then she starts to babble folklores and spoke aloud as if she had a vast audience amongst the open space ahead of her. As I drove home from work one day, I saw her walking along the sidewalk near the back of the mall. I slowed down a bit to glare at her inquisitively and went on about my day. Every one just told me that she was a bit mentally ill and somewhere down the line, someone even mentioned that her kids drop her off at the mall to exercise and amuse herself. They usually pick her back up before dusk, it was quite routine.
I wonder if the tales she told were of her actual life experiences and even if they weren’t, did she just want an audience. Aside from her mental disability, she could’ve possibly just wanted someone to listen to her. I am 23 years old and sometimes I don’t want to hear my own thoughts remotely, it’s nice to share and have some one to listen. What we fail to recognize is that whether or not these stories are believable, some people just want to be heard. Maybe a novel about love or a nonfictional documentary about a war they once lived through, an 80 year old person has 8 decades of experience and stories to be heard. Their knowledge could be of great treasure to us.
The most amazing thing to me is to watch & know that my niece and nephew interact with my parents. I think it is so important for kids to grow up with grandparents around. Although my parents don’t really tell much stories to my niece and nephew, but if they ever asked, my parents would have 6 decades each of stories to share. That’s a lot of life.
We all have a history, at the end of the day our lives are made up of moments. Some people could relive a moment in their mind for a lifetime. Allowing them to share their moments with you allows them to share their happiness as well.
+ Big Fish : A great movie to watch about the elders, storytelling, and a bond.
“Big Fish is about what’s real and what’s fantastic, what’s true and what’s not true, what’s partially true and how, in the end, it’s all true.” – Tim Burton.
Until next time. We bid you farewell! ^_^
Grade School – The Effects of Sexy-Ass-Music
Holub Middle School. Oh how I miss those years. I think 7th & 8th grade were my prime years as a student in grade school. It was amazing! This entry is about 10 years late but damnit, I miss middle school!
The jammers:
+Kai – Say You’ll Stay
+Jocelyn Enriquez – Do You Miss Me
+No Merci – When I die
+Stevie B – Spring Love
+Pinay – Is It Real
+Angelica – Angel Baby
Those were the days when I thought I was born in to the wrong ethnicity, I thought I was Pinay and had a loathsome amount of Filipino boyfriends. I seriously got really excited going to school and particularly the school dances. My Filipino friends had gigantic families and they always threw parties, I mean ALWAYS. I think that’s how I developed my love for tree houses. My friend’s grandmother’s house had the biggest tree house I had ever seen.
Speaking of grade school and music… what were we, as kids, doing listening to all these sexy-ass songs. The 90s were seriously a decade of raw sex songs. Tyrese, 112, Joe, Xscape, SWV, Ginuwine, Keith Sweat, Montel Jordan! The list just goes on and on. Is this an indication of anything? Are we effected by the music we all grew up on? I mean, I left 8th grade come year 2000, but still! ”Get It On Tonight”, I was lip singing this stuff.
Did we really start off that young, was it the effect of music and entertainment? We were 12/13 years old! Goodness I cannot grasp the reality of the fact that kids now, 12 and 13, are doing what I was doing back then. It’s all way too hypocritical of me.
I had my first kiss, surprisingly not a Filipino boy, in middle school behind some alley, hahah! If I could remember correctly my first boyfriend, of which I asked him out, is Filipino. I remember his name too, Bernardo Marinas. Whatever happened to him. He vanished from the surface of this earth sort of. Anyway, middle school was super fun for me. Of the 13 years (kindergarden) that I spent in grade school, I remember middle school the most. More so, of all the music I’ve ever listened to, I remember lyrics to the songs I listened to in middle school the most as well.
You can’t come out of Alief District without knowing rap music, hip hop, Filipino singers and chop & screwed music. While the rest of the world jammed Pop music and all of Texas were square dancing (kidding), we were kept true to the roots of Alief.
The other day I was watching a movie with my roommate, “Whip It” to be exact. He could name every white person that cameo in the film. Suddenly he was stuck on one, she’s black. I replied, “That’s Eve!” I know my rappers.
Well to be less random. Music is a huge influence, especially while you’re growing up. If you could remember a song that pin points an exact memory, it would probably be while you were young, depressed & going through teenage hormones. Isn’t it great?
Before I sign off on this matter,
This is for Houston.
That’s why we do the …….. !
The World’s Worst Critic
+ (Han) Mulan 2009 Film
+ Inglorious Basterds
+ Avatar
+ Three Kingdoms
+ Flags of our Fathers
+ Letters to Iwo Jima
+ Apocolypse
+ Braveheart
+ Red Cliff
+ Red Cliff 2
+ Hotel Rwanda
I truly love watching war movies (I might get shot for this). Not because I love war, but I love the Art of War. The tactics involved, the dedication of its troops, brotherhood and honorary tribute to it’s country neither right nor wrong. In an utmost contradicting way, its an evolution of humanitarianism. I cannot say that war itself is a relief of freedom; it is not a joyful celebration nor a prosperous resolution but rather it is a sign that we, through decades after decades of existence, continue to fight both mentally and physically for something & someone.
The Art of War is a one of the world’s oldest and most strategic military text to ever exist. Of course an excerpt from Wiki regarding the Art of War:
“Sun Tzu (author of the Art of War) suggested the importance of positioning in strategy and that position is affected both by objective conditions in the physical environment and the subjective opinions of competitive actors in that environment. He thought that strategy was not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather that it requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions. Planning works in a controlled environment, but in a changing environment, competing plans collide, creating unexpected situations.”
In every world; mine, yours, your brother’s, sister’s, neighbor’s, stranger’s, etc there lies a battle. A battle within ourselves and the battles we fight daily. In each battle, there is a plan. Whether strategic, comprehensive, or a faltering one we must have a plan to reveal a successful outcome. The most valuable asset of any man is his plan.
Death is not a deadline, it is a map of our life that we’ve left behind for others to mirror. It is the war that we fought to secure (at least mentally) a positive change in the future we have left.
The Chapters consist of :
- Laying Plans explores the five fundamental factors that define a successful outcome (the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership, and management). By thinking, assessing and comparing these points you can calculate a victory, deviation from them will ensure failure. Remember that war is a very grave matter of state.
- Waging War explains how to understand the economy of war and how success requires making the winning play, which in turn, requires limiting the cost of competition and conflict.
- Attack by Stratagem defines the source of strength as unity, not size, and the five ingredients that you need to succeed in any war.
- Tactical Dispositions explains the importance of defending existing positions until you can advance them and how you must recognize opportunities, not try to create them.
- Energy explains the use of creativity and timing in building your momentum.
- Weak Points & Strong explains how your opportunities come from the openings in the environment caused by the relative weakness of your enemy in a given area.
- Maneuvering explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon you.
- Variation in Tactics focuses on the need for flexibility in your responses. It explains how to respond to shifting circumstances successfully.
- The Army on the March describes the different situations in which you find yourselves as you move into new enemy territories and how to respond to them. Much of it focuses on evaluating the intentions of others.
- Terrain looks at the three general areas of resistance (distance, dangers, and barriers) and the six types of ground positions that arise from them. Each of these six field positions offer certain advantages and disadvantages.
- The Nine Situations describe nine common situations (or stages) in a campaign, from scattering to deadly, and the specific focus you need to successfully navigate each of them.
- The Attack by Fire explains the use of weapons generally and the use of the environment as a weapon specifically. It examines the five targets for attack, the five types of environmental attack, and the appropriate responses to such attack.
- The Use of Spies focuses on the importance of developing good information sources, specifically the five types of sources and how to manage them.
Each of these steps could be applied to any war without a battle. And even if we are not fighting a physical war, a mental one is not worth losing either.
Our next battle, human vs. universe.
On a more comic relief,
Oh Kids.
The year of the alien
Greetings New Year!
Chip chip, cheerio! It’s already four days into 2010. Today, we mark the transition of the Isabelle Du shuttle, she departs to Hong Kong for three months. Boo-hu-hu! She has this obession with mui tieu chan ( salt, pepper & lemon) and frog legs so we’re going to have a not-a-goobye-dinner-but-a-i’ll-see-you-later-dinner then a layover at Yogen Fruz for frozen yogurt and fun. I’m truly happy for Isabelle, she is one of the biggest inspirations and a true professional in her field of work. Cheers to a grand slaming new 2010 for you Isabelle!
I’m usually not much of a science, treky, intergalactic nerd but lately (not because of 2012 or anything) I’ve been having these weird obsession and daydream consumptions of outer space, spaceships and such. I want to build space ships, jump around in the skies and kiss the moon. It must be the coffee talking. I even found a cute sales post on craigslist for spaceships, cute!
How was my new years you ask? I spent it at a cute art gallery gathering in Binh Thanh district then to a private gathering in Phu Nhuan district then transitted to Cage (which I rarely go to) and then Q bar! I don’t have much evidence but here’s a mental picture.
yoooooooooo!
Blasting off (pew pew pew) bye kiddies!
Chronological order of events, sort of.
The great thing about uploading photos on to Facebook is that it keeps track of your series of events, even if your memory doesn’t remember it, Facebook will for you.
I started the year off a little on the rift-raft, I was still on board with the game show. Newspaper and TV stations were starting to pay close attention to our every move. Our show host fainted and I was starting to question my management ability in a foreign country. Everything was a little unstable for me. If I could recall correctly, I went out every night. The beginning of 2009 for me were a series of blurred events. To be honest, I don’t quite know where I’m going with this. My words are as unclear as my memory, let’s move on to the pictures.
Maybe my travel photos are better a montage:
Yep, that’s how Vietnam spells, pronounces and regurgitates my name.
Seriously, Brith-tha-nay? // BILA BILA, We were inseparable.
Day & Night view from my balcony in district 4. $450 for a 2 bedroom apartment, that’s a steal.
Landy & Isabelle were in town and life was amazing.
I took my first trip to the land of Chinese action films, Hong freakin’ Kong. Yep, amazing.
Vinyl toys are my favorite, very Asian yes. The toys above sits in my office, they fit in perfectly.
I had tea time with Mrs. Joe
The hangover cure, Pho & Cafe Sua Da.
I met the Milk Brothers (Ly Van Sy boys & Catie) and I think we partied til the break of dawn.
Tet on Nguyen Hue st. extremely crowded & crazy friends & family fun.
I co-hosted a show with the awesome crew from Indonesia/Singapore for Channel News Asia, “After 12″ with Jamie Graham.
Put in countless hours at the Crea TV office & made great long lasting friendship beyond borders.
My work was published.
I had a drastic life changing crazy, amazing experience, S Film Pro. We’ll discuss this another day.
I visited Thailand for the water festival/ Thai New Years then and again for a business trip.
Another business trip to Singapore then back to Hong Kong. A trip with Isabelle to Busan, South Korea (as mentioned here)
Mui Ne/ Phan Thiet with Catie & Cuong. Slept overnight on the shores of Mui Ne.
My Mom came to visit so we took a trip out to central Vietnam. Hue, Quang Tri, etc.
I turned 23! Yes I am that young
I got into my first motorbike accident then mugged twice. Lost my passport and had to get it renewed.
I directed a music video for Mr. Ung Hoang Phuc (cangactrong.com)
Played in the rain and finally visited Hanoi.
Finally took a trip back home to Houston and it snowed! It never snows in Houston, ever.
I got my first ever tattoo.
Introduced secret santa to my staff, had dinner with amazing friends & what the hey, I had a hell of a year there’s no room for complaints around here!
I will sign off with this…
Let’s do it all again. Cheers to you 2010.
Visual stockroom
I remember reading somewhere that Vietnam was amongst the top countries that pirated DVDs, that’s kind of a no brainer. In Ho Chi Minh City alone (in district one – the city center) you could either visit Saigon Square / “The Russian Market” or the street parallel to Sunwah tower off of Nguyen Hue to submerge yourself in piles after piles of DVDs. Every genre to TV series, Grammy boxset, Korean dramas, even a hidden porn selection. Each DVD is 10,000vnd which is equivalent to roughly 50 cents. If you’re paying 11,000 vnd at the Russian Market, you’re paying too much. I even saw Avatar on “Blue Ray” (it’s definitely not blue ray) two days after it’s worldwide release. For the past month or so (before and after my visit to the states), I’ve watched over a dozen movies.
THE CHICK FLICKS
1. Love Happens
2. Four Christmases
3. Bride Wars
4. 500 days of Summer
5. Management
6. Another Cinderella Story
7. My Sassy Girl (American Version)
8. Post Grad
DRAMA
9. The Blind Side
10. The Reader
11. Curious Case of Benjamin Button
12. My Sister’s Keeper
13. Eagle Eye
14. The Talking of Pelham 123
15. Endless Summer
16. One and Only
COMEDIES
17. You Don’t Mess With the Zohan
OTHERS
18. Apocalypto
19. Red Cliff 1/2
20. All About Steve
Whew! & Not to mention in theater movies & inflight movies
Sadly, I have the worst case of memory lost when it comes to storage for feedbacks on movies that doesn’t appeal to my memory circulation. I even started doing Sudoko, the jumbo issue.
I don’t like to admit that i’ve gotten lazy nor lost the appetite to scavenge the streets of Ho Chi Minh City for fun, it’s a mental experiment. What kind of mental experiment I have yet to figure out. It’s just relaxing, I needed the self-seeking alone time with a couple of movies and jumbo sudoku and every so often, reading a page a week in my book.
Until next time readers of the universe, this is Brittranicals over & out.
It’s Official
A couple months of being scatter brain and two relocation later, I’ve finally settled. I can now call Ho Chi Minh City my home for the next xx years. Yes I am being serious and no I am not here because I got knocked up or decided to marry to some random local guy, that’s just crazy.
I was granted a wish & somehow it came true!
No matter the situation, life really is mapped out. Some people just get lost that’s all. I may not be 100% on the right path, but at least I know where I’m going!
“Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”
“The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!”
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