This week we wrapped up our time in Manila Philippines and we are moving on to Vietnam. This week was full of stress for me, but was also a major relief to get our of Urban Deca Homes Ortigas.

Travel Log: Day 178 (12/22), Philippines

JC and I went for separate walks again to rack up some early steps. It paid off and I ended the day with 11K steps, finally eclipsing the 10k mark for the first time in a long time.

For school we did math in the morning and then went to the mall. We had a couple objectives at the mall. One of course was to walk, and the other was to look for sandals and shoes for BC. He blew out his sandals, and his shoes are becoming too small. We found some cheap sandals for him, and I mean cheap even by Philippine standards. They weren’t even $2. The shoes were more expensive though and not a great discount from US prices. We’re going to wait for Vietnam to find those.

In the afternoon I watched the Broncos get beaten down by the Jaguars. We finished up school, and then briefly went outside but it was way too crowded out there.

In the evening AC and I watched Stranger Things while BC and JC watched Home Alone.

Travel Log: Day 179 (12/23), Philippines

We did school straight through in one shot today rather than splitting the day to go to the mall. JC and I walked separately in the morning, but then we went with BC again later and left AC in the condo. We decided that if she locked the deadbolt it would be fine for her to stay alone.

In the afternoon I worked on a blog post about Urban Deca, and then JC and I had drinks. During and after dinner we watched Elway on Netflix which was a walk down memory lane.

Travel Log: Day 180 (12/24), Philippines

I slept really bad last night and had a sore throat most of the night. Through the day my throat felt fine so I’m not sure what that was about. My day was dominated by thought spirals after I opened the scanned contents of a letter. I won’t go into detail about that right now.

Through the constant thinking about that, we went to the mall and went to Zootopia 2. It was pretty good, at least as far as I could pay attention. One odd thing is that they actually start the movie at the stated start time. We missed the first three minutes thinking they would have previews.

Travel Log: Day 181 (12/25), Philippines

Between fireworks throughout the night, a volleyball game at 2am, and my mind spinning, I didn’t even get a sleep score. I slept less than 4 hours according to my watch.

We spent most of the morning preparing to leave the deca. JC and I did a good chunk of walking which was nice, took my mind off things a bit. We just about had everything packed when Marcel showed up about an hour early. There was no traffic so she got there around 1pm, and hung out with us until we left at 1:45. I was kind of frazzled with her there and didn’t get pictures of the living room because she was sitting in there. We managed to double check everything and get out of there though.

Our taxi showed up right on time but we had to find him back behind the community building. The ride was still a little chaotic but traffic was noticeably better than usual. It was such a relief when we made it to the sky bridge. It was huge, open, clean, cool. I immediately felt better and my mind stopped spinning so much. We walked to the hotel, and when entering had to send our bags through an x-ray and go through metal detectors. The security around here is crazy.

It’s nice being in the hotel, and even our hotel room feels more spacious than our condo. JC and I went to the restaurant and had a couple drinks. After those we grabbed the kids and had dinner. It was so delicious; the best thing we have had in the Philippines. We had a soup called Bulalo which was beef, green beens, cabbage, and corn in a tasty broth. It was a family portion and BC and I ate most of it. I had salmon, Jill and AC had some pasta things and salads. We talked with the manager (I think) about local attractions and other things for a long time after we ate. He was really nice. We felt bad for the staff because they had to deal with this asshole old man (American). He was asking for things not on the menu, telling them they were talking gibberish, etc.

Our room is really damp which is an uncomfortable bummer. We have messed with the temperature but haven’t had any luck drying it out.

Travel Log: Day 182 (12/26), Manila To Vietnam

I slept terrible again between the damp bedding and my though spirals. I didn’t even earn a score in Fitbit and probably slept four total hours and choppy at that. JC and I got coffee down at the breakfast area, and then got the kids for breakfast a little later. It reminded me of the Barcelo breakfast at San Jose Costa Rica because it had odd stuff. There were fish heads and tails as the best example. I had some hard boiled eggs and fruit.

Since we didn’t have to check out until 3pm, we decided to do something rather than be stuck in the room all day. We got a Grab and went to the Mall Of Asia. When we first got in there I saw three levels, and after walking around the first level I said “this isn’t that big”. As we explored the upper levels and their little outdoor off-shoots though we got lost. We ended up in a whole separate mall from the main mall. To find our way back we had to show a picture of where we came into the mall to a security guard. The mall was cool, but it was ultimately just a massive mall.

We ate lunch in the hotel restaurant when we got back, and then at check-out time we made the walk over to the airport. It was very full of people and we were glad we didn’t spend the entire day there like we had originally planned. It took a full hour to get through check-in and security. The longest part of that was at checkin when they checked our Vietnam visas.

BC and I watched the Broncos game while we waited to board our flight. We almost missed the final call for boarding, not even realizing it was happening. We had to change gates, but that wasn’t the problem. When boarding started there was no obvious line where they were doing groups one and two, so it never registered that boarding had even started. JC went and asked someone and they said it was final call for boarding. I like being last on the plane though; spending as little time as possible on there.

The flight felt quick. AC and I watched a couple episodes of Stranger Things. When we exited the plane we went and found the immigration fast-track counter that we booked. It cost $75 and oh my god was it worth it. The line for regular immigration was very long, and I imagine it would have taken over an hour. We were through immigration in about five minutes.

Next we got our bags which arrived immediately after we got to the carousel. We exited the customs area without having to stop and entered the eSIM, ATM, money exchange, taxi area. That was pitched as chaotic like we experienced in Puerto Viarta Mexico, but it was not nearly as bad. The vendors were polite and less aggressive. We hit the only ATM option I saw and got 5M VND, which is about $190.

After that we walked outside to the Grab area. A driver approached us and tried to overcharge us. He wanted us to just pay him outside of the app, and quoted us 315K VND ($12.11). He showed us a Grab pricing screen with our destination that he somehow faked showing 315K. We booked through the app getting a different driver and ultimately paid with tip 211K VND ($8.11). The drive was about 45 minutes but was really enjoyable. The car was nice, he was playing good Vietnamese music, and we had some great people watching on a Friday night.

We got into our unit with no trouble. The security guard let us in and showed us the mailbox area where we entered the code to get the key. The condo is really spacious and has AC units in all bedrooms and the living room. There is a lot of initial setup we always have to do like setting up charging, checking for bed bugs, taking photos, getting unpacked. After all of that we went down to circle K and got water and coffee. The checker was so nice and went out of his way to speak to us in English. That was a wrap for the long travel day and we went to bed.

Travel Log: Day 183 (12/27), Vietnam

I couldn’t call my sleep last night good, but it was an improvement in that I actually earned a score from Fitbit. The score was poor (56), but I’ll take it over the past couple of nights.

Our first full day in Vietnam was pretty great all around. While the kids watched shows, JC and I tracked down some food and coffee. Our instant coffee that we bought last night was a bust. It was more of a cappuccino drink with sugar in it. There are countless options right here in the area, but we went to Starbucks for ease since we know they have food options. Our barista spoke very good english and the food/coffee was great.

Next we checked out the pool and gym. The pool is an infinity pool and looks beautiful. There were only a couple people using it. The gym wasn’t packed either and got less packed as the day went on (checked a few times). It has a few good treadmills and plenty of free weights. It also had a scale so everyone can weigh in.

For lunch we went to a restaurant near the base of the building called nhà hàng thỏ. We were blown away by how delicious our food was, and the total was under $12. Immediately from there we went over to a mini mart that might actually be called mini mart. It was almost lawson like with a selection of freshly made food. We bought movie snacks and some drinks for me and JC.

In the afternoon I took a nap, and then FAC proceeded as usual. Before we ate JC and I walked around the streets near our condo, and we came across a stand with carrots and pineapples. We got two big carrots and a pineapple for $.58. It makes me think of how cheaply we could eat if we tried. If we optimized for cost I bet we could spend under $100/month on groceries.

The only glitch in the rest of the night was that we couldn’t rent and watch a movie through prime. It complained about our billing address which sounded suspicious of address changes. I tried it with VPN and the purchase worked, but then we couldn’t watch the movie in this area no matter what I tried.

Travel Log: Day 184 (12/28), Vietnam

We are officially at the half way mark of our gap year today. It’s been great so far and I’m looking forward to the second half.

Vietnam is such an impressive place, and we haven’t even left the immediate area. It feels like it has the safety of Japan. I’m not sure how much of that is reality vs coming from the Philippines where we felt less safe. The food here is equally as good as Japan and possibly better. It does lack true Lawson style stores but makes up for it with everyone speaking better english here. That makes going to restaurants, bakeries, etc much easier. The local people have been so nice to us too.

I slept pretty good last night, getting a 79 sleep score. I was awake from 4am-5am, but this was amazing sleep in comparison to the past few nights. JC and I went to the gym to run. My treadmill was very nice, but JC’s had issues. A really nice Vietnamese man came over and got it working for her, but she couldn’t get it dialed in correctly. The third treadmill opened up and she moved over to that one. I got in a really good run; a 5k at 10km/hr. It felt great to just do something intense after being boxed up in Manila. I’m excited to get some heavy weight workouts in.

For breakfast we went to a bakery at the base of our building called Artisan. It was so god damn good, and cost $12.08. We had a variety of freshly baked buns and pastries stuffed with things like egg or meat. JC had a salad as well.

The kids redeemed their all-day screen time coupons. We expect them to be a wreck tomorrow as that dopamine surge subsides.

For lunch we ate at a sushi place that was good, but a little pricey at around $30. We went looking for Pho for dinner and as we were looking across the street at the restaurants, a lady at one motioned us over and we ate there. They spoke zero english so we had some language barrier issues. The first was not understanding which table they wanted us to sit at. When we ordered we all picked this Pho with “baby” in the name. The guy made a motion to Braxton which at first I thought meant “he won’t be able to finish that”. Later we realized it meant it was a kids item. He served it to us though, and it was a pretty large portion.

Through the rest of the day I listened to a Huberman podcast about weight training to come up with a plan for JC and I to use the weights in the gym. JC and I finished out the night with a movie we started back in Manila.