This Expat Life (Month 53+54): Saigon + Lombok

After moving abroad in July 2014, I started compiling monthly roundup posts about life as an expat in Southeast Asia and all the nitty gritty that goes on behind the scenes here at Travel Lush. Check out my most recent monthly roundup posts June, July and Sept/Oct/Nov.

---

For me, writing is just something that comes naturally. If I’m not writing on paper, I’m often composing in my head. Writing and composing and stringing words together is just something that’s a constant in my life, for work and for pleasure. So, it feels very odd that I haven’t really been able to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – when it comes to this here travel blog.

But really, there’s an obvious reason for that. After all, this is a travel blog and, although it might not seem like it, I don’t spend all that much time traveling…like real vacation-style traveling.

So I guess that’s part of the reason for my lack of posting. I started this blog in 2013, during my one-year trip around Southeast Asia and Colombia. It was my creative project and my way to give other travelers helpful information. But clearly, things have changed in the past five years. Don’t get me wrong: I still love traveling and I still do travel. But, it’s been a while since I’ve visited a new destination and my life in Ho Chi Minh City is, for the most part, rather boring and not all that worthy of being written about.

But I still do love blogging and the community that comes with it, so I’m not going to let this little project of mine go. So here it goes. I’m going to write a post!

Actually, despite my lack of travel the past few months I do have a thing or two to report and some actual exciting travel plans coming up (!!!). So here’s what has been going on in my life the past two months.

December

A quick trip to Phnom Penh

Sure, it was only for a visa run but I was really looking forward to my solo trip to Phnom Penh. It’s a city I became fascinated with during my first trip to Cambodia in 2006. It’s also a city I called home for six months back in 2015. I hadn’t been back since Aaron and I moved from Phnom Penh to Beijing in the winter of 2016, so I was all sorts of excited to visit all of my old haunts and see how the city has evolved over the past few years.

After getting my Vietnamese visa all squared away at the embassy, I decided to go for a walk – my favorite way to explore any city. Not far into my walk, I stepped off a curb and suddenly found myself splayed on the road. My ankle was twisted and my right leg and knee were scraped up, bleeding and full of gravel. It honestly looked like I’d been in a motorbike accident. It turns out I had stepped into a small pothole. Talk about embarrassing.

I should have looked down before I stepped…

Anyway, in one fell swoop, my Phnom Penh trip was done. I hailed a tuk-tuk – the driver was kind enough to give me tissues for all the blood and offered to take me to a clinic. Aside from looking like a total mess, I was fine so I went back to my hotel, doused my leg in iodine (ouch!) and plucked gravel from my leg. I pretty much stayed put all weekend long because, you know, walking with a busted ankle isn’t all that enjoyable. Travel fail!

My childhood cat passed away

Those who know me personally know that I love my cat. He was a strange, curmudgeonly creature that I’m convinced was more alien than actual cat. I got him in high school so he’s actually lived with my mom in San Diego all his life but he was one of the things I looked forward to the most when visiting home. He was old, like a 21-years-old kind of old. He lived a long life. It might have been a happy one too, though he was always rather hard to read. I was able to spend all sorts of quality time with him during my visit to San Diego in October and I said my goodbyes then. He was old and skinny and, at that point, blind. It was time and I knew it was coming but still, I’ll miss my little guy dearly.

Booking tickets to Indonesia

Every year I get Lunar New Year off of work. It’s basically the only true vacation I get each year. Because Aaron is a professor in Vietnam he gets an extended three-week vacation for the holiday. We knew we didn’t want to stick around Ho Chi Minh City for Lunar New Year (aka Tet in Vietnam), so we decided to head back to Lombok and Bali.

Ideally, I would have loved to venture somewhere new. But since I had to work for the majority of our three-week trip I needed to go somewhere with good internet that’s easy and comfortable to work from.

At this point, I know the area so well that it just seemed like the obvious choice. I’m actually writing this post at a lovely hotel in Kuta, Lombok (pictured below). Did I mention this is a nice place to work?

There’s a good reason digital nomads love Lombok and Bali.

Apartment hunting in Saigon

After spending a year living in District 1, the heart of HCMC, we knew it was time to move on. Aaron works in District 7, which is in the suburbs. Without traffic, the commute is only 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the traffic in Saigon is pretty bad and during rush hour the drive can take an hour or longer if it’s pouring down rain. We put the move off for so long because, to be blunt, District 7 is boring.

The majority of apartments in District 7 are in enormous complexes that cater toward foreigners. They have nice pools, gyms and other amenities but they are all so characterless and uninspiring. It’s very cookie cutter. Another big issue in HCMC is that these complexes are new and usually still being worked on so there is constant construction during the day. Not exactly ideal for someone who works from home.

We looked at a dozen places and were so dejected we almost decided to stay in our current place. But then our real estate agent showed us a place that actually had character, cost way less than most apartments in the area and was located right across the street from my favorite burrito place in Ho Chi Minh City. It was like fate! (And yes, I frequently eat burritos in Saigon. I’m from San Diego and I can’t help myself!)

January

Signing a new lease

After mulling it over, we finally pulled the trigger and signed a lease. We’re still a little bummed on the idea of moving to D7, but maybe it won’t be so bad. Plus, if our apartment ends up being half as great as we think it’ll be I think we’ll be happy living there. We’ll also be able to save more money, spend way more time together and hang out with our friends who live in the area. Plus, it’s actually possible to jog in the streets in District 7 since there is way less traffic so I’m hoping to get into a regular exercise routine.

A visit from one of our Beijing crew

We love getting visits from friends and we’ve gotten a surprising number of them since moving to HCMC one year ago. It seems like everyone is looking for an excuse to visit Vietnam! We were delighted when our friend Erin, who was a very close friend when we lived in Beijing, stopped off in HCMC during her trip to Vietnam.

It was so nice to catch up, recount all of our hilarious Beijing memories and antics, and show her and her lovely friend around our new city. We spent a late night gabbing and drinking at a local beer hall, took them to a street food alley so they could sample authentic Vietnamese eats and watched a hilarious Vietnamese rom-com at the cinema. (Seriously, at the end of the movie the characters finally fall in love and the woman is immediately hit by a truck. In the hospital, the doctor said she was miraculously unscathed but that she has melanoma and will soon die. The End.) We had such a great time visiting and it was so nice to see a familiar face.

My mom and sister are coming to Vietnam (!!)

Aside from a visit from Aaron’s parents to HCMC last year, we’ve never had family visit us abroad so this is huge and I’m over-the-moon excited. My sister has never been to Asia and my mom was in Hong Kong a million years ago so this will definitely be an experience. I hope it’ll be a positive one. We’re still in the planning phases, but it’s shaping up to be a great two-week trip!

Moving apartments and heading off to Indonesia

The last week of January was a bit of a hectic one. Aaron had an insane two weeks at work which meant I basically packed all of our stuff by myself. Somehow we’ve accumulated way more stuff than I thought we had.

Our flight to Lombok was on the 27th. Because the tenants of our new apartment were still living there, we had to take all of our stuff to the apartment the night before our flight. While we technically moved in, we haven’t actually spent a night there. The next day we hopped on a plane to Lombok where I’m currently writing this post. Hopefully, the apartment turns out to be nice but we won’t be finding out until we get back. Fingers crossed!

A real vacation

As for now, I’m officially on holiday and I don’t have to open up my laptop unless I want to. So, of course, I’m blogging. I’m going to do my best to relax on Gili Trawangan, perhaps the easiest place on earth to relax. My plan is to swim and snorkel daily, watch the sunset every night and eat all of the Indonesian food.

Travel

So clearly I’m in Indonesia at the moment. I’m not visiting any new destinations on this trip but I’m still jazzed to have the chance to revisit Kuta, Lombok, Gili Trawangan and Canggu, Bali. I still have a few days left on Gili T and then it’s onto Bali. I can’t wait to be back!

My mom and sister will be arriving in Ho Chi Minh City at the end of March. We have about two weeks together in Vietnam. We’ll be hanging in the city for a few days and then we’ll move onto Hoi An, Hanoi and Halong Bay. At least that’s the plan for now. I’m so excited not only to have them come to Vietnam but to visit places I haven’t seen since 2006, my first ever backpacking trip!

Instagram

I haven’t been all that active on Instagram the past couple months but here are my most popular photos from the past couple of months:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

NEW POST: My Vietnam Anniversary: One Year In Ho Chi Minh City! . . . It’s kind of hard to believe but it’s actually been a whole year! Man, how time flies. I actually moved to HCMC on Christmas Day last year. I remember the moment so clearly it’s hard to believe it was over a year ago. In some ways, that day feels like a lifetime ago and in others, it feels like it was just yesterday. So one year later, how am I finding life in Ho Chi Minh City? Here are a few thoughts, observations and anecdotes about my time in Vietnam so far. As always, link in bio. Happy reading!

A post shared by Justine Lopez | Travel Lush (@thetravellush) on Jan 10, 2019 at 6:39pm PST

 

View this post on Instagram

 

This is the perk of working remotely. To be candid, the beginning of my day was spent hunched over my laptop in my hotel room in Lombok, Indonesia. But the good thing about working remotely and having a flexible schedule is that I was able to power off my laptop and spend the afternoon at this lovely beach. I sipped on a coconut, floated in the sea and got a tad bit sunburned. All in all it was good day. After that I fit in a couple more hours of work. I’m not gonna lie. Working remotely isn’t always easy. But it does come with its perks 😎🌴

A post shared by Justine Lopez | Travel Lush (@thetravellush) on Jan 29, 2019 at 6:16am PST

How’s life been for you lately? Any exciting travel plans coming up?