This week we really got settled into our great Airbnb and the immediate surrounding area. Feeling comfortable with our surroundings, we started exploring Ho Chi Minh City. First up was the tallest building in Vietnam, and the 17th tallest in the world, Landmark 81 (Day 185 below). Next was a motorbike tour of food and cultural sites (day 189), followed by the Saigon Skydeck (day 190). We also spent a lot of time at the gym across these days. If you really want to slit your own throat you can read day 191 where I recount my mental struggles.

Travel Log: Day 185 (12/29), Vietnam

I finally had a great night of sleep. My fitbit gave me an 87 and I’d concur. Later in the afternoon I also fell asleep hard for an hour nap. I’m not sure if that was a positive thing though. I sort of felt anxious all afternoon after that nap.

JC and I went to Highland Coffee this morning, and then we cooked breakfast in the condo. We realized how little cooking equipment we actually have. It further solidified our plan to just eat out most of the time. For lunch we went to Ministop to try their Lawson-like fresh offerings, and they were pretty good. I had a spicy chicken and coleslaw sandwich, and an egg salad sandwich. They really did remind me of Lawson.

In the afternoon we finished the second season of Stranger Things. After that we took a Grab over to Landmark 81 which is the tallest building in Vietnam. The area around that building was incredible. There is a nice grass park in the middle called central park, with palm trees surrounding it. We walked through that and over to the Saigon River and watched a variety of shipping vessels pass by.

After that we went and found a place to eat. We just walked straight into this Pho place thinking it would be the easy option. It was weird and not good, and they were out of Pho. We were seated next to a table of businessmen who were celebrating something and drunk as shit. JC had to use translate to ask for water, but they only brought us glasses with one big ice cube in them. BC got up after we started eating and looked for a water dispenser, and the staff gave him a bottle of water that we shared. It was very strange. The food wasn’t great either.

Uber back to our place was no problem, which was a relief after our Urban Deca experience.

Travel Log: Day 186 (12/30), Vietnam

We got breakfast at Artisan today, which is our second time there. I got a salad instead of the baked goods this time.

JC and I attempted to go to the gym after breakfast but there were a lot of people. We went for a walk instead and managed to cross the big street behind (in front of?) the complex. It was a long stretch of sidewalk over on that side and we walked down past an Australian international school.

After the walk JC went and lifted weights even though there were still as many people there. It was really great to be lifting heavy again. We did a full body set of eight or so exercises. I forgot how much I just love being in a gym.

For lunch we went to 7-Eleven after a brief stop in Ministop where we realized none of us wanted that stuff. I had a sandwich and a salad.

After lunch JC and the kids went to the pool, and I got on a Grab motorbike to go to a fitness store. The bike ride was a steal at $.50 for the 6.2km ride. I tipped another $.50 and would have given more but didn’t know if it would seem weird to tip even 100%. At the store I found isolate protein and creatine for 3,000,000,000vnd which is about $115. That stuff isn’t a bargain here in Vietnam.

JC and I went on a second walk in the late afternoon over to the Saigon river. It wasn’t a great experience because we went up on this bridge over the river but it was heavily trafficked. That portion of the river wasn’t very zen to look at either. There is an area with a restaurant over across the street which looks like a better river viewing point. We’ll try that next time.

For dinner we went back to the first place we had lunch at, which translates to Rabbit Restaurant.

BC redeemed his bonus movie coupon from his Christmas coupon package. We watched Garfield which was actually pretty good.

By the time bed rolled around I was beyond tired. I was completely wiped after lifting weights, and it had been a bad day of negative thinking patterns. This life is in reality how you perceive it, which I think is fortunate and unfortunate. You could be miserable in great circumstances, and happy in negative circumstances depending on your mental state. I noticed today that my readiness score was an 18 (bad) on my fitbit. I had never put much stock in that score, but it did correspond to more negative thinking. Also lacking protein never helps my mental state either, and hopefully I’ve eliminated that variable for now.

Travel Log: Day 187 (12/31), Vietnam

We had breakfast in the condo today, just eggs and fruit. I also had protein and creatine, and my body and mind are starting to feel pretty good. My readiness score of 91 lined up with my thought patterns which were much more positive today.

I went to the gym for a while in the morning. I had planned to do some abs, but started with my knee exercises instead. To do the step down exercise I grabbed a yoga block and used the edge of the elevated area to get more height. The gym manager came over and told me to stop. He didn’t actually speak english he just did the universal X sign with his arms. I think I wasn’t supposed to stand on that with my shoes, but I don’t really know. It could have been a liability thing too for them.

Just a few minutes later he was walking around with a phone showing it to people including me, which was a picture of the sign saying they close on Wednesday from 11am-3pm for cleaning. Now I’m further confused as to whether the yoga block was the issue, or he was just trying to tell me it was time to go.

After lunch AC went to get her nails done, and BC and I started figuring out his haircut. He really wanted me to cut it so I started it. As I made the first cut I realized how much I would be taking off even with the 1″ attachment and a comb underneath. We pivoted and decided to go to the barber at the base of the building. BC got the best haircut of his life for $1.70.

We picked up dinner things for the kids at a convenience store, and JC and I went out for happy hour and dinner. We walked around trying to pick an option, and I was kind of in a daze for some reason. JC decided we should just try Beer Studio. It was pretty good but only had beer. We drank a few of those, at least after JC finally found one that they had in stock. The first three times she ordered they came back out and apologized that they didn’t have it. The same thing happened with our food, but then about fifteen minutes later they did have those items. Not sure what was up with that.

In the evening the kids and I watched a couple episodes of Stranger Things. I didn’t make it to the new year; fell asleep around 10:30. AC and JC both got stomach aches, so AC went to bed just before midnight. JC and BC made it though.

Travel Log: Day 188 (1/1), Vietnam

Today felt like end of days for me after terrible sleep last night (58 score). The alcohol just sent me into mind spirals through the night and all through the day. I’m tired of dealing with bad days following drinking. JC and I agreed to a dry January, and may go longer than that if it’s a positive experience.

We ate Artisan again for breakfast, and K Market for lunch. It’s already getting tiresome to eat out all the time. JC and I went to the little grocery store right here and got breakfast and dinner options for $20. That will be several meals which will be cheaper and allow us to stay in.

In the afternoon we went to the pool. We did a lot of walking through the day, getting over 10K steps. I worked through our backlog of receipts in the evening, and hopefully tomorrow enough will clear so we can do the December budget.

Travel Log: Day 189 (1/2), Vietnam

Today we went on a motorbike tour of top sites and food. We had to Grab over to an area in range that they would pick us up, so we chose the Saigon Opera House as the meeting point. There were four guides on four bikes, and we each rode on the back of one. For the kids, riding on the back of those may have been the best part of the tour. The food/drinks we had were a rice covered banana dessert, sugar cane juice, Bánh xèo (Vietnamese pancake), rice noodle bowls with various add-ins and a spring role, and Vietnamese coffee. My favorites were the coffee and the dessert, but everything was really good.

The sites that we saw included a temple where you can light incense and pray for a good outcome on whatever you are facing. We saw an old apartment building built by the US to make up for housing getting leveled during the war. The Vietnamese government apparently wants to get rid of that but the people love living there too much and won’t leave. We walked quickly through a flower market with a staggering array of flowers, a meat market with a gross display of meat, and we also visited markets in China Town. Probably the coolest place though was this hidden bunker and weapons cache under a floor in a building. We got to go down in it and even held the guns.

After we returned to our Airbnb, JC and I hit the gym to lift. We then had a light dinner and watched Hamilton, AC’s pick for movie night.

Travel Log: Day 190 (1/3), Vietnam

We had a quiet morning after yesterday’s activity. JC and I broke our FAC pattern and decided not to drink. It was nice waking up without any alcohol effects. I still slept not very great according to my watch. AC and I took a bro nap in the morning.

I went to the gym around lunch time and did ab workouts.

The Airbnb host offered to send a cleaner today and we took her up on that. During that window from 3:30-6pm we went to the Saigon Skydeck. The views were definitely great, but at ~$33 it wasn’t the best value.

Travel Log: Day 191 (1/4), Vietnam

My sleep was disrupted last night around 11pm due to a fire alarm in the building. It was really confusing because I could hear it out in the hall with an automated message in Vietnamese and English. It said something like “a fire alarm has been triggered, we are looking into it, please remain calm and wait for further instructions”. Looking out the window, I didn’t see anyone evacuating the building, so we stayed in our apartment. Eventually it stopped and I went back to sleep. I have no idea if we should have left the building.

I didn’t sleep good the rest of the night. Around 3:30am I woke up and never went back to sleep, not even receiving a sleep score. In the morning I felt pretty good overall though. JC and I went to the gym, and she ran while I did elliptical. My knee was feeling slightly off after lifting and I didn’t want to risk it by running.

I started fading pretty hard around noon. My energy and mood dropped, and of course with that comes even more overthinking than I already do when I’m feeling normal.

I have been feeling more over time like I’m not mentally tuned for this chaotic world, with the way I overanalyze and worry about things. For anyone who doesn’t have this problem, you have to imagine not having control over what you think about, just about at all. There is always a biggest problem in everyone’s life, and my brain is constantly overclocked processing whatever that problem is, regardless of whether it’s significant, insignificant, or somewhere in between.

That type of anxiety, or whatever the diagnosis would be for that condition, has been a good tool at times. Taking my career as an example. In that setting it was still torture on me to have my thoughts constantly hijacked, but it lead to a lot of success. I could often think of every scenario and pitfall in the work we were doing. The cost of that though was involuntarily thinking about work around the clock. Besides wearing me out, the real impact is not being present in the day to day moments of my life. I’d estimate I have spent 70% of my leisure time in that state, which is unfair to those I’m sharing those moments with.

As I get older I don’t have the same energy for the constant mental overclocking, but my brain forges ahead anyway. Being a person who doesn’t worry or overthink anything sounds pretty good to me. Those people tend to be carefree to the point of being unproductive or allowing other issues to creep into their life, but I bet they live in the moment and really enjoy life.