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Viet-Cambodia FoodTrip :-)

Monday, May 31, 2010

"In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted. Only artistic excellence is incorruptible. Pleasure cannot be bargained down. And sometimes the meal is the only currency that is real."
- Liz Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

Trying out a grocery-bought ice cream in Cambodia

Ana's fave dish of the trip: shrimps drowning in cheeeseeee sauce! :D

My Vietnamese spring rolls: authentic yo! :D
Had booboo at first coz they served me with chicken bits, but they agreed on replacing my dish with pure vegetables. :-) Really really good! :-)

Out of the 4 hotels we stayed in, breakfast buffet in Somadevi in Siem Reap Cambodia is the BEST!
I love my salad and yogurt! :D



On our first night in Phnom Penh, we had dinner in the fanciest looking resto we passed by.
Although they also serve local dishes, we opted the Western section of their menu. Maybe we missed pasta on our 4th day out of the country already! ;p 
Mango shake: to join Ana's little quest of the trip: Search for the best mango shake! Haha!

Quick breakfast at Hotel Cara before a long day of touring the city! =) I tried the noodles, the vegetables, the congee, and of course: yogurt! :)

"An apple a day..."
For snacking purposes, we also bought a bag of apples in the mini grocery near our hotel. ;p 
Ate 2 of the 4 apples...one during a night of movie marathon in our hotel room, the next one in our lobby while waiting for our tuktuk.

Free fancy bus food is always a nice surprise. =)

First dinner in Vietnam (Saigon): New Pearl. =) I love my coffee and the free cocktail they serve to all their customers! :)




Delish dinner at New Pearl Bar and Resto: And each meal only costs us around P200! (with the shakes!!!) (around $4 per meal with drinks! :D)


My ultra-favorite meal for the whole trip! At Gon Cafe (my namesake! :D)...
Flavored rice with coconut milk and peas and carrots and tofu bits! :) With side dish of more tofu, plus my yummy strawberry yogurt shake! :-)

I also ordered this in the cafe: eggplant with veggies topped with super-thick mozzarella cheese!!

Gon Cafe Iced Coffee while on tour: Really really delicious!

Ana just can't get enough of shrimps!!!

My tasty vegetable curry!

Tamems' Tapioca dessert. :)

Posted the other food photos in my past blog entries. =) These are just from day 3 onwards. =) If there's something I'll go back to in Vietnam and Cambodia: It's their food! They're affordable and delicious, tasty and with the right serving! =) We trio always look forward to our next eating time! As Liz Gilbert said in her book: "But is it such a bad thing to live like this for just a while? Just a few months of one's life, is it awful to travel through time with no greater ambition than to find the next lovely meal?" =)

From the Daily Kabbalah (May 30)


Sunday, May 30
Differences of opinion, challenging one another, this is how your relationships grow. Love is kindled through friction.

Today, it's OK if they don't agree with you, or vice versa. Find the grain of truth in their view, and know that there's no such thing as right or wrong. 

world revolves around relationships

Sunday, May 30, 2010


For me, that is.



For the world might be full of concerns and obstacles, but in the end, I guess my ultimate goal is to have good relationships with my family and friends. =) That's what I learned in The Feast for the past few times I have attended it. And also in all Bo Sanchez books I've read.


The theme for this Sunday was No Rush. To live in your now/the present. To savor every moment. To keep in mind that "Wherever you are, be there." so you wouldn't one day say "where did my life go?"

"We crucify ourselves between two thieves: Regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow."
- Fulton Oursler

And although with the topic, the speaker Arun Gogna said in his talk to "Deliberately take lots of vacations." To waste time with loved ones, and to put people first before things. I love this! :-) 

Venti Frap with my little sister Cea = also means putting time and money for her. =)

Saturday, on the other hand, was spent with my barkada (group of friends). Met with Alli in Greenbelt (after months of not seeing her!!!), while she was transacting for her Mac Book purchase (omg!)...



Later on, Ana showed up after her taxi ride with a cab driver who talked nothing but politics. ;p We had coffee in CBTL while Alli tested her new laptop. =D I was not into viewing albums of my Facebook friends if they're loaded with their faces from Macbook's Photobooth-ing, but when I tried out the feature with Alli and Ana, being vain can really be addicting! Haha!



Alli left in an hour for mass with her family, that is, after she purchased some items from my site to help me out financially (Which for me is the sweetest. Really!). She even texted me sorry for not staying too long, and she enjoyed the company, and a repeat soonest must be planned. I love her for that. =)


Ana and I waited for Marj and Me-an at around 4.30pm in Red Mango, and decided to just watch any movie first to waste time since the girls texted they'll arrive at around dinner time. Robin Hood was super cool, although wasn't raved too much. Ana and I actually enjoyed the the famous thief-for-the-poor's history. =) Didn't expect the film to be too long though, when we finished it, Marj and Me-an had to go somewhere else already. ;p 

Ana and I ate at our usual place when we don't want to spend too much: Kitchen--just to say I had my dinner coz I cannot just miss a meal. ;p Haha! Ana had mozarella sticks (which look yummy!) because she said she was full already from our coffee-froyo-popcorn pre and during movie watching. I feel I'm such a big eater for ordering pasta, hehe! We also stayed in CBTL post-dinner to waste time. :-) Wasting time with a friend = really so much fun. =) 

taking photo of the photobooth. ok weirdo. haha!

Decided to sleep over again at Ana's even though I wasn't prepared. After I texted my mom to inform her of the spontaneous not-going-home tonight, she suddenly called in my phone and I was nervous she might get mad because I'm always like this..but I only got a laughing mother at the end of the line asking how my day was. =) I love my family!





Outfit for the day! :-) "The perfect white dress" I bought in a department store, accessorized with blues and browns. =) I wore shorts underneath, which is the peeping denim, because it was really hard to be a commuter here (or anywhere else, I guess!). On the go life! I thought it will be a rainy day and my sun dress might get wet and dirty and out of place, but the weather proved it's unpredictability once again as it was hot hot the whole day! =p

Ending this post with more of our photo booth camwhoring! ;p Forgive the once in a blue moon narcissist attack! ;p



Thank God for friends and family. =) <3

Angkor Wat Tour

Friday, May 28, 2010






Third day of our trip was spent in Angkor Wat, Siem Reap Cambodia. We alarmed really early, it was still dark outside, to catch the beautiful sunrise of this foreign country in a proper location...and basked in the heat for the rest of the day...touring the religious structures (by feet and by tuktuk), Khmer architectures, and temples of this Cambodia Must-See. 
Angkor Wat = "City Temple".










(a favorite in this tour...climbing this unfinished temple, and being helped by a local to go up--and down! the steep stairs, while lecturing us with interesting trivia of the structure and the places near it.)





For Little Miss Geek like me, I enjoy a little history lessons, and culture-dipping once in a while. :-)


☮♥