Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (Indochina 2012)

*Original title was supposed to be Hoing in Ho Chi Minh but that’s disrespectful and highly inaccurate as there were absolutely no hoing involved. Pho-ing, on the other hand…

November 21, 2012

As you can see, I’m woefully behind on my travel blogging and I’m not sure how much I remember at this point. I’ve switched mobiles so all my notes on the Indochina trip is now long gone, but but BUT thank god for tripit and the meticulous boardroom planning that my co-travelers did. (We literally planned this stuff in an actual boardroom)

Hong Kong: Ten Thousand Buddhas (and infinite embarrassment)

June 29, 2012, Sha Tin

You know how easy it is to get around Hong Kong via the MTR? Well, it is. The problem was when we exit the stations and try to find our way to our destination by foot. Asking the locals was a task that was as frustrating as it was fruitless (sometimes “straight” really means “there’s a huge building blocking your way so you might have to go right then left then under then over a bridge then right and then do the hokey pokey”).

Our last destination as tourists was the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, which was a grand Buddhist temple up a mountain peppered with statues of not ten, but thirteen thousand buddha statues.

We decided to walk down Pai Tau street from the Sha Tin station of the MTR, passing by an Ikea along the way (Sorry, this is the only landmark I remember!). And found this place…

Hong Kong: Arsenal Asia Tour 2012

I only have a little over two weeks before I head of to Jakarta for the Arsenal Asia Tour 2013 and that is a glaring reminder of how remiss I’ve been about blogging. That is, I haven’t even posted about the Arsenal Asia Tour 2012. So here it is.

Fans Party, July 28, 2012

Hong Kong: Ngong Ping Village and Disneyland

Early on our second day in Hong Kong, we made our way to from our hostel in Nathan Road to where we’re supposed to board the cable cars to Ngong Ping Village in Lantau Island. It was an easy enough trip from the TST station (near where we’re staying) to the Tung Chung Station, with only one transfer from the Tsuen Wan Line to the Tung Chung Line via Lai King Station.

Click to enlarge (image from http://www.mtr.com.hk/). There’s an MTR tourist app that might be helpful for planning journeys; we didn’t download that last year.

2013-2015 Travel Goals

When I write goals down– or better yet, publish them on the internet for the world to see– then I’m more inclined to make those goals come true. So I’m making a list of the places I want to go to for the next ~3 years. Correction: list of places I WILL go to.

Who wants to go with me? 🙂

2013

• Indonesia for the Arsenal Asia Tour 2013. But if Arsenal announces they will go to Beijing and have a friendly against another PL team or (ZOMG please) Real Madrid, then this could change to Beijing.
• Back to the UK! Well, London and Edinburgh. The original plan was to go to Japan late this year but my homies in London have convinced me how much more fun it would be to go back to London. Didn’t take much to convince me, to be honest. There is also a very small possibility I (we) will extend my trip to include a few days in Paris.

2014

• Brazil. And yes, this is for the World Cup.
• Boracay or Bali. 2014 is the year of the B’s!

2015

• Italy with Angel. The plan so far is Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and Tuscany. This is a rough plan and will change a lot over the next two years. It could also morph to a complete Euro trip, depending on the state of our finances by then.
• Japan. I’m sorry I keep pushing off the Japan trip  further and further in the future. Gomennasai!

How can a poor person like me with a mid-range salary make this happen? I don’t know, but I made 2012 (Singapore, Hong Kong, California, Nevada, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and South Korea) happen somehow so I remain positive. Well, not financially. Financially, I might be in the negative. Haha.

EDIT (1/18/2014):

Quite a lot has changed. I did go to Indonesia last year but UK Part II has been moved to May 2014 (ZOMG that’s soon!). And instead of Brazil and Bali, I’ll be heading to parts of Belgium, Amsterdam, Paris, and parts of Spain for Sept 2014. And maybe spend the holidays with my family in the US.