I am 96% Happy

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nth time in Viet Nam

I'm lying in bed, room 201 Liberty 1 Hotel in HCMC as I write..

I've been to a couple of countries in Asia - India, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Viet Nam. In all these countries, I love Viet Nam the most.

Below are reasons why:

1. Vietnamese cuisine is by far the best I've tasted.
I read sometime ago that Vietnamese cuisine is the original fusion. =D
I like it much better than Thai food which are generally more spicy. Curry foods from India and Indonesia are not my style.

2. Free wifi
This place is amazing. There is free wifi everywhere. As in literally everywhere. All the hotels have free wifi. Airports have free wifi - Ho Chi Minh, Danang and Hanoi. Coffee shops are likewise with free wifi. It may sound exaggerated but when one searches for wifi from any spot in Viet Nam, one can almost see at least three that's free.

3. Catholic churches
and pink at that!
Danang has a pink church and so does Ho Chi Minh. I'm even tempted to get married in the pink church here in Ho Chi Minh... hmmm? why not?

4. Kind taxi drivers
well not all of them are honest, but still they are generally more honest than those from back home. The taxis are also in much better shape than those from home.

5. currency
around here, I am a millionaire. The currency in this country is Vietnamese Dong, 16,000 VND = 1 USD. This means that when I have my $100 USD exchanged, I get a whopping $1.6 Million Dong. hahahaha. No joke.

6. quality silk and embroidered products at cheap prices

7. Vietnamese. They are the kindest and nicest. I like hanging out and working with them more than others.

oniomania

oniomania (O-nee-uh-MAY-nee-uh, MAYN-yuh) noun
Compulsive shopping; excessive, uncontrollable desire to buy things.
[From Latin, from Greek xnios (for sale), from onos (price) + -mania.]

Thankfully though I am still able to control myself. I must admit though that I had at some point, splurged on clothes and shoes. There were days in the past that I would have either new clothes or pair of shoes almost on a weekly basis. Ironically though, now that I have better pay, I have a better grasp of my spending habits. Well, I am still unreasonable at times like impulsively buying a Sony PSP as if it was a candy from the street side. Thankfully, I have never fallen into really bad credit. I rarely loan money from friends or from the bank. 90% of the time I pay my credit card bills (full amount) before due date.

The Shopaholic series of books made me realize the absurdity of spending on useless things. The books by Sophie Kinsella are easy to read and very entertaining. Shopaholics everywhere in the world can surely relate to Becky.

birthstone jewelry

My hunny and I celebrated our 10th year as a couple last year. I got him a Nokia N70 and he got me diamond earrings.

I seldom buy myself jewelry, so his gift was something I appreciated so much. At some point I fancied colorful accessories but decided to ditch them (well actually more like store them) when he got me these nice diamond earrings. He bought me the perfect size which I can wear everyday.

Anyway, my friend Joy's blog was about jewelry. Why wait for your man to buy you one when you can gift yourself what you fancy. hmmm. Oh girls and diamonds. They gravitate towards each other. Or rather girls generally just do..

I surfed the site Just Jewelry and my oh my instantly fell in love with the birthstone jewels. I liked them so much I want to have those which aren't even my own birthstone.. Hahahaha..

shoes for a cause

Pink Ballerina Shoes.

Proceeds to help raise awareness on breast cancer.

You may get this from Schu.

billboard-ize your laptop

Billboards are everywhere. I see them in Thailand, Japan, Viet Nam, UK, Indonesia, Singapore etc.

I've seen ads on a bus, on a train, inside the train, on train stops, on bus stops, on road signs, on doors.. in websites, in blog sites. They're just about everywhere.

but dig this? on your laptop? Macbookbillboard.com
now, this is one funky idea. i think this one is much better than having your gadgets specifically your laptop wrapped via GMask because you in fact earn and not pay.

hmmm. would this work for my laptop? I travel outside the country an average of 3-4 times a year. In fact, for this year, I'm travelling every month until April. 3 times to Viet Nam and once to the US.

so what do you think? who wants to buy adspace on my laptop??? LOL.

on line canvassing of gadget prices

If I want to buy new gadgets - cellphones, PDAs, laptops or MP3 players, etc... visit cgena.com

The list of suppliers may not be complete but it's much better than going physically to all these shops and asking the price yourself.