Teehee

As I was rummaging through the things I brought down from Berkeley to LA, I found these in my box of toiletries:

They're from Hanoi =D

The Bay Area: smaller than one would assume!

The rickety bus zoomed from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong.
A passenger, too excited by her plastic bag brimming with rambutan, leapt for the fields.

Living and Reliving

Afternoon accomplishments in Luang Prabang

Late night indigestion in Vientiane

Something from the vault... just cuz

Bun bo from Bun Bo restaurant in Saigon (HCMC)
Not to be mistaken with pho, bun bo is from the province of Hue in central Vietnam and has thicker noodles and a slightly different broth composition. Nom!

Simple, take me away!

UMF

Great music all the time. Festival weather. Pendulum, Infected, Mstrkrft, Moby. Heck, everyone! I'm so exhausted it hurts to move.

So marks the turning point of the semester and the end of Dance MagIK. Wait, what was I thinking?!

Maybe not forever, but for a very long while. humm

Las Vegas Food = Bread Pudding Time

from Lucky Cafe in the Stratosphere Hotel

It was a bread pudding extravaganza during the Vegas trip. I had bread pudding with every single meal, and some meals really just consisted of bread pudding. Did I end up tiring of this delectable confection?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

Rio Hotel brunch buffet
Plate 1 (bread pudding front center)
Plate 2 (bread pudding back left)
Mimosa, mint chocolate chip and cookies 'n' cream gelato
At this point, there was some pretty painful stomach distention.
But like most things in life, you have to go in with a positive attitude :)

Post-Tryst meal.
You guessed it.

Bread pudding.

Also,

This is one of the gajillion bas reliefs on the Bayon in Siem Riep. I found this tree particularly interesting, especially for its design and the fish-like object that's swimming through the branches. As I was looking at it today, I did notice something of even greater interest!

What's that little fella up to in the lower right corner?
It might very well be some other animal, but I'm just going to pretend it's a rat with a walking stick.

Southeast Asia. My calling for sure.

After a good hour of "ballin'" it up,

I'm having cravings for lok lak, a dish primarily served in Siem Reap composed of marinated slices of beef or pork. This is a photo of my lok lak with Keroppi eyes-like rice. The mixed fruit shake had a dragon fruit base but was super thick because of all the condensed milk.

From The Red Piano in Siem Reap, Cambodia
My photography skills- kinda lame. The dish- GREAT =D

I've finally settled into my new apartment but failed to stock my fridge and pantry with yummies. I'm hungry! As a result, this is what I look at...

Devastatingly tasty pancakes from Bon Cafe in Vientiane, Laos
with iced Lao coffee as a refreshment ^_^

They were so buttery and moist! As you can see, Mike had the blueberry, and I had the butter with butter. I'm pretty cautious when I see pancakes offered on a menu because I've mostly encountered dry, saliva-absorbing sponges. These, however, were poifect.

I'll see you in two, folks!

We're practically the same size.

"We Used to Vacation" by Cold War Kids

The semester has been so fun that listening to the song above makes me reminiscent of the weekend-after-weekend overload I had with my friends this fall. It's only been about one week of focused studying/schooling/working, but I'm already missing our vacation-like term.
It's all good... two more weeks, and we're through!

Time to get serious!

Seriously. I've been on academic cruise control for the last three and a half months. I think this kat needs to whip herself into shape for the home stretch. I may have to push myself to the point of exhaustion, like so:

[Biding time in Hong Kong's main airport]
I don't think I'll push myself that hard, so I'll probably go into all of it more like this:
[Happy little things from Nakhon Sawan]
That looks more reasonable...

Glad to be home..

Thankful for: KOST 103.5 and the incessant holiday music (old skool, please... none of this new synthed stuff!)
Ate some: turon, tilapia + steamed rice + garlic-vinegar dip, Hershey's Symphony bar (the obsession begins..)
Drank: a really awkward iced green tea latte from Elysee, a cafe in Westwood. It tasted like the milk left in a bowl after Lucky Charms consumption. Blegck.
Thinking of: Team Kickass buddies, travel, food, the new move, and family an ocean away:

When Mike and I got to Marungko, we had to make a round of all the Cruz homes. This was just one household! A return is imminent..

I'm using this short break for a baking EXTRAVANGAZALISHITIONIZAWOAH!

Who wants HONEY?

When Mike and I were on Koh Samui, we decided to do some "BIG GAME fishing." Mike is of the fisherman breed- he was inclined to do anything fishing related. After about two hours of moving back and forth on semi-still waters, Mike caught this fella:It looked really weird. I mean, really. Really weird.

I, too, caught fish of comparable size.
In fact, I caught ones just like this guy three times.

wait for it...
VICTORY!

I am sleepy.

Bye bye, Hanoi (..grueling bus ride, no doubt)

Hello, Saigon (HCMC).
Hello, fancy pho and mango shake.
Hello, gigantic banh xeo.

Oy

I have some temporary baggage.

(in Luang Prabang, Laos)

Here's a mike

from Manila (well, more like China?), drinking San Miguel like a pro.

Here's a monkey

from Siem Reap, eating lotus seeds like a pro.

Groceries

I should be restocking. Mike and I bought a few things from Safeway yesterday. The essentials: bananas, eggs, yogurt, bread, juice, ground turkey, beans, salad stuff. We need to make our way to Costco before we become hermits for finals.

We went grocery shopping in Cambodia, and the markets there had these baby carts along with baby aisles. Mike's so animated. =)

The Long Haul

Still sick. Gots a paper. Nevertheless, the weather is shaping up to be sunny with a cheery breeze. For an Angeleno (or as some like to say "Los Angelesian"..?), 60 degrees isn't the easiest temperature to get through. But the holidays are approaching, and I'll get through anything!

Spot the kat! And check out this awesome bodhi tree!

(Pleeease, correct me if I'm wrong!)

Excruciatingly warm weather in this shot.... not your average holiday climate. This is from Siem Reap, Cambodia. Temple name once I remember. o.o

Improvise!

Hershey's carries its famous milk chocolate bar with almonds, which I thoroughly enjoy (although, sometimes I feel like they skimp on the almonds). But, I only have their original milk chocolate bar. So how do I improvise? Well, a little mouth-mixing of pieces of the milk chocolate and Whole Foods almonds makes a winning attempt. [Kinda like peppermint schnapps and chocolate syrup... only... not as inebriating... with some chewing involved]Look at this fancy Vietnamese sammich! It's from Highlands Coffee in Hanoi, Vietnam's premier coffee chain (coffee chain + Vietnam = major ?) This one was about $2.50 with fries.

These two guys were from a street vendor in Nha Trang. The price? A whopping 60 cents for two!

Yummm
[International Travel Care, my Lonely Planet, and my waist pouch- travel essentials at that point]

Now, don't ask me which one was better..

Okay, go ahead and ask.

I would have to say the Nha Trang banh mi were better. They were more accessible and filled with all sorts of yummies that the Highlands version didn't have. Plus, Highlands caters to tourists; ergo, their sammiches don't have all the more questionable - yet tasty - ingredients that other vendors have.

I hungie!