Destination Vacation: Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam?

Maybe going to get back into this or I'm going to just be posting occasionally? Anyway! Huge life changes on the Me front! #1 The love of my life (Nick) and I have now travelled to Tokyo, Japan, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Phuket and Bangkok, Thailand! We will be travelling this year as well just don't know when (it's already August!). We went on this amazing vacation last year in September so Sept 2017!
     You wouldn't think of Ho Chi Minh as a destination vacation spot right? You've never been more wrong! Ho Chi Minh is a large city but is way more interesting compared to some of the others I've been too! Keep in mind I enjoy adventuring more than travelling and thoroughly enjoy third world countries so if you don't mine exhaust, running through a street filled with motorcycles and mopeds and an odd exchange rate then it might not be for you! When we were there the currency was roughly 22,500 Vietnamese Dongs for 1 US dollar, which is quite the exchange rate. I bought tons of awesome souvenirs and clothing which is all I still wear, almost a year later after being home.
     We paid $540 Round trip from US  (Newark) - Tokyo - Ho Chi Minh - Sketchy bus ride to Phnom Penh - Phuket - Bangkok and home! We may have started the vacation in Tokyo but for me all the fun was when we left Tokyo and got to Vietnam so i'll be starting there. We landed in Ho Chi Mi in the evening I believe and we waited in line to receive our visas.  Prior to exiting the plane an older gentleman seemed unresponsive on the plane so his wife smacked him still rendering him unconscience, he was laid on the floor while paramedics came on board and usually in America we would wait for the man to get taken off of the plane right? Nope. We were instructed to leave the plane anyway and just step over him, so we did. Here is the first wacky thing to happen in Vietnam and there are many others too. The date mostly everywhere is read at dd/mm/yyyy BUT I forgot to brief my travel companion on this so he misread the date on our visas as giving us one day instead of a month so after arguing through an intense language barrier we figured out we were wrong and hurried along our way to get to our hostel! After getting to our hostel we realized we were about three stories up a beautiful granite staircase and once we were up we unpacked and then went to grab a bite to eat! The next day we visited the Cu Chi tunnels as part of a tour that our hostel booked for $6USD and it was more than worth the money, Vietnam is VERY budget friendly. I never knew what 90+ degree humidity feels like and honestly I could go a life time without again even though with my travel bug we will not spared. The tour was long and awesome, we started off walking through the forest and being told of the war, what happened and how it effects people today. We were shown guns, artillery, the option to shoot a Bazooka, we walked though 100+ meter tiny tunnels that the Vietnamese travelled through, lived in and attacked from, Nick opted to do an extra one while I was dying from the heat and being a solid bubble of sweat. We had the option to take a photo inside of the one the holes which I've attached a photo of Nick enjoying! Mind you, before this vacation I knew I had this photo OP and I wanted this photo so bad, I had bragged and been very excited for such a photo and what happens you ask? I fall into it! I got lowered into it and then slipped into another tunnel immediately and while being covered in sweat, I was now covered in sweat and dirt! A few minutes later I got pulled out and more people didn't talk to us for the remainder of the tour, I was still in good spirits even though my ego was slightly bruised!  We continued on our tour while I went through all of my wet wipes in my purse. After getting on the bus it rained an insane amount in a tiny period of time, we watched the sun set which was beautiful as we passed through small quaint Vietnamese towns. Our bus driver hit a motorcyclist and continued on his merry way without even a glance (usual occurrence there I suppose!). After our wild day we enjoyed a night out on the town and walked around while Nick enjoyed the night life and I enjoyed the bargain shopping life!
     We spent another few days here walking around, shopping, eating and enjoying ourselves! We look forward to going back but next time we are going to go way more places than just Ho Chi Minh/ Saigon and I suggest you do the same! Next time we will have to do a tour down the River and about three more cities! Keeping popping in for my next post which will be at some point soon probably!

'Be back sometime in September'

'Be back/post again sometime in September' some of my last words to you guys! My life has changed in the past half a year for the better and that's for sure! Nick and I went to Tokyo, Japan; Ho Chi Minh Vietnam; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Bangkok and Phuket, Thailand! Also California and now maybe China!? I'll be posting more within the coming days about China?, My 7 ferrets, large garden and happy life! I'll leave you on that note with these photos!

45 days

The title makes it seem kinda ominous doesn't it? Well it's not! As I somewhat attempt to keep you all updated here is another update and a hint and whatever else. First of all I am doing this on my phone and it sucks a lot more than it does on a computer. Second this won't be too long because of that! So the boyfriend (Nick) and I are leaving in early September and our trip is as follows                 Tokyo, Japan

                  Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

                                     Phnom Penh, Cambodia

                                    &

                                   Phuket, Bangkok, Thailand!

The trip is constantly expanding and we are simply so excited! To my happy dismay???? My boyfriend wants a different backpack than mine but you know what this mean, 1. I can hide stuff in his bag that I don't want to carry, I probably won't do it but you never know if I really want that extra bottle of sprite, my sweet addiction. Second, I have to research which is the part that sucks because I've hit a lazy spot these last few days and anything other than binge watching greys anatomy on the couch is incredibly tasking! So I guess it's time to start researching because he should be getting his passport any day now and then we will be applying for our Vietnamese visas finally! I mean we are in the final stages of this trip and I'll show you all the itinerary soon! Also this man is amazing, I mean right now we're mid brief argument but it'll pass and then we will back to watching Netflix and cooking dinner. I think we're doing brownies tonight and maybe tacos???? I have no clue right now which is a shame because its 2130 and only getting later but I think Grey's anatomy is calling me~
Well I'm going to attempt to keep you guys updated as we move along on this road to our first vacation together and I will be posting as we're traveling as well so I mean at least you will hear from me by mid September right? Well I'm signing off for now because it's time for dinner and to research this backpack situation!
Goodnight all!

Corny as ever

Literally the cutest

*updates! Nick is getting the same backpack as me, and we get our visas in about two weeks!

Also! Expect more corny photos of us as time moves through September!

So this happened

Boyfriend & I

Still us~

So because I'm so incapable of staying in the US for more than a year at a time, a great airfare came up and me and the companion (Surprise! We're at 6 months now, go him! I'll post photos of us later). Well first I haven't been posting due to a new job and to be honest my life is really boring except for this awesome trip I have coming up and the fact that the companion and I just did the Grand Canyon but I'm boring. So I won't make you guys wait but I won't tell you the dates I'm going but I, cross that out.

WE are going to

TOKYO, JAPAN

HO CHI MINH, VIETNAM

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

&

PHUKET, BANGKOK, THAILAND

So there's that, see ya'll later~

*Update! Photos are added :)

Giant hole in the ground

Guess who's back....back again~

Vera is now 5 and just getting cuter

My grandpa just loves
 the ferrets!

Hey everyone! Sorry I literally have been completely inactive for a few months now. So here's the good news, bad news, sad news and my mad news.

DISCLAIMER: This post may not include all of the above.

So number one on the list tonight, I got a boyfriend! Crazy right? It's crazy I don't even have to ask that, how he puts up with me I will never know but he does so if he's reading this I love you~ If not, well I love my boyfriend reader so there's that. We started dating back in January and it's been pretty much perfect ever since. We did the Grand Canyon last weekend and we're doing California next month and hopefully Sea World because sharks. He is amazing and wonderful and pretty much perfect and we're starting a garden this week which I'm super psyched about because plants and life and all that hippy stuff I'm into.

Vera learning to play
with her new pals

Numero Dos, I got a new job! So I can't tell you what my job is for obvious safety reasons and maybe I'm a spy ;) Just kidding I'm not but would you believe me? I don't think so~ SO new job, I start in three days and it's crazy, I've been waiting on this opportunity for a while now and now it has fallen into my lap and for some reason now I'm somewhat lethargic about the whole thing. I don't like change because I'm a creature of habit, very much so. But it's a GREAT opportunity, they'll pay for my college and it's good money and same hours and a way better company with real benefits so I need to grow up a tiny bit and take it instead of flying across the world for months on end (Which I prefer any day). Anyway so now I'm growing up the tiniest bit, still will be traveling this year, I don't know where or for how long but I will be going out of the country for minimum two weeks.

Edric being sneaky

Number three; I thought I had more to talk about but I guess I don't? Oh well my crazy hives are back due to my Chronic Autoimmune Urticaria. It's a stupid disease look it up (I'm essentially allergic to myself and if that isn't fun enough, making my boyfriend worry about me going to anaphylaxis is kinda funny, in a sick and morbid way because I don't take it seriously). Check it out it's a stupid disease and I'm covered in hives 24/godforsaken7 if I forget to take my meds which I do because I'm spacey. Also I have hypothyroidism which is stupid because I can't win in life and I always have to have something wrong because what's the fun if I'm healthy. The funny part is I was given too high of a dose of my meds so I went from Hypothyroidism to Hyperthyroidism so from 24-.001 which is not good but I'm alive so it's fine.

Number four: I lied, I had a number three but now I don't think I have a number four so this is me signing off I suppose. JUST KIDDING!

ALERT

I GOT FERRETS PEOPLE

Them as of a few weeks ago, fat and happy

2 perfect

I now am the proud owner of two precious ferrets by the names of Illiyes and Edric and they are perfect and cute and little perfect carpet snakes that I love eternally. Also I got my own new apartment (First time on my own!) and I have my dog and my cat both of which got fixed and neutered last week and they're doing wonderfully. Stay posted for possibly upcoming photos, Jk I will be uploading photos regardless, just gotta do it on my phone because now my new job doesn't have me sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day because now I walk around and clean all day which I'm going to enjoy SO much more than this!

Well for now

Goodnight

See ya'll soon~

The Many Uses of Activated Charcoal!

I mentioned it looks weird during!

I'm happy that I didn't make this blog about something super specific like breeds of cats or cars because I have the ability to literally write about anything that I find amusing at the moment and what I'm doing with my life. It would be weird if I was going into a post about the dangers of inbreeding cats and dogs and then I suddenly had a post about how great charcoal is for the body, it can help a lot, even though it can't help inbreeding. Okay, I got off topic, sorry! Writing this at 6am, what else do you expect from me? Gosh, the expectations. Now onto the real reason I'm writing this!

After! So pearly :)

 So recently I've been getting pretty hippy-dippy and one of my friends recommended activated charcoal powder to me to brush my teeth and to take with water when I'm feeling ill, which is like always (I have terrible nausea consistently). So I ordered some off of Amazon, it was this one organic activated charcoal powder. Warning! Charcoal is really good at staining things, I've heard it ruined someone's tile grout and it stains, I haven't had this issue with my sink yet though and I've been using it for a few days now, just don't spill the container on the ground. Also take note that I am NOT a doctor so you should probably message/call/see your doctor before trying new chemicals/medications/charcoal/whatever. So you'd think 'If this stuff is as staining as she says it is and it ruins grout, won't it stain my teeth' the answer to that is No! So basically for whatever reason is does not stain your teeth and it pulls off the plaque and makes them noticeably whiter after a few uses, it can promote good oral hygiene and I'm going to have my mother try it for her gingivitis and I'll post an update here and see if it helps her at all. Its recommended to only use it about 2-3 times a week and that's what I'm doing now. I'm just a simply girl, I don't know the science behind any of this I just know what I've experienced. If you're wondering how much you use when you brush your teeth, you just wet your toothbrush and dip it in the charcoal and brush your teeth for about two minutes and then you keep rinsing out your mouth until the water is clear because at first your whole mouth is black (it's scary but it's hilarious). Feel free to floss afterwards because sometimes there will be small pieces of blackness trapped in your mouth but I found that brushing with toothpaste afterwards dealt with that for me (I do it before work, don't want to scare people now)

When she was doing it often (a few times week)

Apparently some hospitals use charcoal with cases of ingestion because charcoal works through absorption, so it absorbs the toxins and then they're eliminated through regular body processes.
Here's somewhat of a testimony I suppose, well the guy didn't die so it counts. A while back a guy (I think his last name was Marsh?) (I couldn't find what I wanted to in order to write this haha) He took a lethal dose of Arsenic? and mixed it with charcoal and he didn't die, nor did he have any of the side effects from consuming a lethal dose of Arsenic. Don't try that at home kids/adults/humans. I don't have the measurements but charcoal can also be taken with water to treat food poisoning, bloating, and nausea! Once again I'm not a doctor so consult your physician please!

So there's some information on it, I could probably write about this all day honestly because I think it's so great. So feel free to research it more and check it out, and try it! I'd say let me know, but I know it'll work!

Also this may be obvious but I know it's not for some people! Use charcoal that is food grade and made from wood or coconut not from your backyard BBQ or from some wood you burned! Buy it online or in a health food store, food grade people!

Tattoo Number Two

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Happy New Year and all that good stuff everyone! I've been caught up in life as usual, between work, writers block and my life being rather boring without recent travel, or at least what I would define as boring. I have been making some cool plans and getting some cool new Ink! I had a great holiday and all that jazz~

 

The finished fresh tattoo!

This is going to be a rather short post because the title says most of what this post is about. In a recent post I posted my passport stamp from Russia which I got tattooed on my right calf and I got yet another tattoo to my families dismay. Honestly I super love my tattoos and do plan on getting more, right now I'm working on getting a full world map with all the country lines on it but I haven't decided where to get it yet because of how large of a tattoo it needs to be. The new tattoo that I got is a traditional version of St. Basils Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. I didn't originally plan on getting it either. Ignore the fact that it looks crooked, it's on my right shoulder and the way I was positioned made it look that way.

The tattoo before color!

     So basically I went out with my friends on one of my days off and all of us planned on getting tattoos which we were all excited about because of the deal that was going on at the time. However I was never able to get mine done, or any of my ideas because of the complexity of them but in all truth I just think they were tired of me and refused to do it to spite me. So after my friends got their desired tattoos I went on my merry way set to get one, no matter the cost and no matter the shop. I went to my old shop where my mother gets her tattoos and where I got my first one and met a great artist who I spent the next three hours with getting a needle poked into my skin. Totally worth it though, here's a photo of it fresh, before the color and I'll add another one soon when I take a better photo. I never thought I would go for traditional style tattoos but apparently I do, this tattoo is amazing and it cost about $200 and it was absolutely worth it.

The next tattoo I plan on getting is my world map one and then shading in the countries as I travel to them and then I plan on getting a traditional tattoo done when I do my trip in Thailand in 2018. Traditional tattoos are generally done with ink on a stick and then it's repeatedly tapped into your skin, unlike the tattoo machines they use now a days which are inevitably faster. Now I'm not only going to be having this one passport stamp on me either, I spoke to my artist and in a few years I'm going to get all my favorite passport stamps done on me, I can't get all of them because I eventually plan on being in every country so that would be way more than just my leg. I'm excited for my upcoming ink so stay tuned~