Halong Bay photo highlights

Halong Bay is enclosed with over 1900 limestone islets. The literal translation is: Descending Dragon Bay.

We did a two day, one night junk boat cruise out into the bay and was pampered with delicious food, superior service and of course, amazing photo opportunities. These photos do not do justice to the actually beauty of the Descending Dragon Bay.

• our junk boat, the calypso cruiser •

• view from the top deck •

• heading deeper into the bay •

• location of "amazing cave*" •

• pure serenity •

• only other ship in our part of the bay •

*interior cave photos to come

Hanoi heat and photo highlights

The heat index is over 110 (with humidity) and grows hotter each day. The bugs are nibbling on my exposed skin which also has a minor sunburn. Our feet are sore from miles of walking throughout the city...and we're loving every minute of it! One disadvantage for being a tourist in Hanoi on a Monday is that most of the museums and cultural centers are closed on Mondays. I really will try to do some minor musings while on holiday or at least photo highlights but will probably do more post-holiday musings of our experiences once we get home when I actually want to write more.

Off to our overnight trip to Halong Bay this Tuesday and then a train ride down to Central Vietnam, Hue...more adventures and photos to come, yay!

• bridge out to Ngoc Son Temple •

• waiting for Thanh Long Water Puppet show •

• recommend the water puppet show •

• Hoan Kiem Lake at night •

• Temple of Literature at 9:00am and 100 degrees already•

• One Pillar Pagoda •

• Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum •

• sunset from our hotel room •

Local hike and abandoned houses

Our friends live nestled in the Los Gatos hills and this past weekend, we took a nice stroll through their backyard full of wildflowers, rolling green hills and abandoned houses! I'm looking forward to shooting these houses again especially if I can get some friends to model. This area has potential for fun and creepy photo shoots!

• the old chicken coop •

• main house •

• feels like texas chainsaw •

• porch was awesome but a bit creepy •

• love the old, clawfoot tub in the house! •

• this house felt really creepy & we think people actually squat there so i did not venture in •

• yup, feels creepy •

Not what I expected...

The husband and I are heading off to spend three weeks in Vietnam and it's going to be exciting to show him part of my history especially since he's never been. We're going to spend a few days alone in Hanoi before taking the train down to Hue (Central Vietnam) to meet my family (parents, sister are also flying out to meet us there) and then we'll spend another two weeks traveling Vietnam by van trekking down to Saigon before flying home.

One of the things that has been on my mind lately is allowing myself some flexibility with vegetarianism while in Vietnam (not with meat but having seafood). When I did my major three month Euro/Asia trip, one of the things that I feel I missed out on was the local cuisine especially since cuisine is a big part of any traveling experience. It has bounced around in my head about being flexible for this Vietnam vacation and I thought that it would be difficult breaking since I've been a vegetarian for almost six years. This past weekend, I did overcome that challenge and had a few bites of the husband's sashimi. I envisioned that the moment this would happen, my taste buds might scream in ecstasy and I would realize how much I've missed seafood. I was surprised to find that this didn't happen and the whole experience was quite "meeehhh." People tend to ask if I ever miss meat or seafood and after this past weekend, it's safe to say that I do not miss it*

So for this vacation, I feel comfortable allowing myself to be flexible if the situation calls for it (i.e. we are doing a two day boat cruise on Halong Bay where they make lunch/dinner from the fish caught directly off the boat) but I don't think that I will be going pescatarian any time soon.

*the only meat/seafood that I do miss is my mother's true/authentic/delicious vietnamese cooking...

• the boats heading out into halong bay •

• fishing boat delivering seafood to tourist boat •

Meeting the new lil' one

An old friend that I grew up with just had her little baby girl two weeks ago and she is just absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to do the actual real, family photo shoot with her and her parents in the summer, especially since these photos were just an informal, hanging out with her mom kind of photo shoot!

• baby feet are way too cute •

• peeking out of her blanket •

• wide awake •

• mother's touch •

• nap time •

• asleep and hungry •