Christmas in Singapore

I spent Christmas in Singapore with my uncle, auntie and cousins.  It was really nice to be with family during the holidays.  We cooked an amazing 4 course meal with wine pairings for each dish for christmas dinner.  Everything was SOOOO good!
We spent one day out shopping and walking around little India.  Loved it there.  We ate at this India restaurant where you eat everything with your hands.  It was so much fun and oh so delicious!  One night we took a boat ride down the river where we saw some beautiful sights in the city.
Another day we walked through a park.  It was like being in the jungle.  Lots of nice wildlife and interesting plants to see.
The morning before my flight left we went to the botanical gardens.  It was beautiful.  So many colorful and interesting flowers.  It was a great trip.

Bin Duoung Province

Our first weekend in HCMC we were at a restaurant and there was a couple sitting near us with the cutest baby!  We were all making googly eyes at him.  After we were done eating the family came over and started talking to us.  They invited us to come to their home in a small town a couple hours out side of the city.
The sister of the mother we met goes to University in HCMC.  She met us in a 9 person bus the family rented for us, to take six people out there.  When we got there we stopped for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant.  The family is Buddhist and therefore does not eat meat.  Convenient for me!  Then we went to a cafe where their parents and friends were.  They had tons of delicious food out for us and karaoke set up.  We spent most of the day there singing and eating.  So much fun.
Later we all went to their home, where they preceded to give us even more food and presents.  Sweetest people ever.  We are still in touch and talk often.
During my parents visit we went to the mother and father's home(the grandparents of the baby, Sumo).  We spent the day, of course, eating and singing karaoke.  Also, they are photographers and wanted us to dress up and take photos.  They made me wear a wedding dress, my mom got to wear the tradition Vietnamese dress an áo dài, and my dad a suit jacket.  It was very strange, but fun.  Love them.

Mui Ne

After receiving our TESOL certificate's we decided to treat ourselves to a little beach time.  We spent a week at Mui Ne beach about a 6 hour, $2 bus ride from HCMC.  It was really nice.  Very quite and relaxing.  I spent my days laying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and shopping(of course).

Sihanoukville

The weekend before we arrived in Vietnam, they took us on another trip to Sihanoukville.  A small beach town in Cambodia.  My birthday was on Sunday, so Saturday night at dinner they ordered me a "birthday cake", or a pancake type thing with nutella.  It was delicious.  :-)
The beach was fantastic.  We ordered food, drinks, pedicures, and massages all with out having to leave our lounge chairs. 
There was the cutest little puppy who came and snuggled with me.  <3

Siem Reap

We took a weekend trip to Siem Reap.  Saturday we spent the whole day "raiding tombs".  We saw three different temples/tombs/ruins.  We saw Ankor Wat which is the main temple there.  It is on the Cambodian flag.  We also saw the ruins of a temple that was featured in the first Tomb Raider movie.  That one was my favorite.  I wondered off where there were no people.  Another girl in our group followed.  The two of us proceeded to get as lost as we could.  We had just started getting into the good stuff when the group called and we had to head back.  Disappointing...  Sunday we stopped at another one.  It was my second favorite.  There were a ton of little kids that loitered at the entrance and would then take you on a "tour".  They had you climbing rocks and squeezing into tiny crevices.  They were very cute and it was really cool.  Of course at the end of your tour they suddenly put on a sad face and were starving and needed money....