Written by Jane: After a few days of searching, we finally found an apartment that we like! We are on a month-to-month lease, so we plan to stay in this apartment while we search for something (hopefully cheaper) and newer. That said, it’s a super cute studio in an expat/tourist neighborhood. It’s not what one may imagine as a typical “tourist” area. It’s an area for people on vacation and expats who live here, but it’s not overly populated and commercial. It has tourist accommodations, like hotels, beach chairs, bars, and restaurants, but it’s not crowded at all. It’s very relaxing, quiet, and laid back. Our apartment is in a hostel, so it’s nice to have other foreigners around. The people who work at our apartment/the hostel are super helpful and nice. The owner hosted a BBQ a couple of nights ago for the hostel, so we met some other foreigners. A few new things about our apartment:
Check out pictures of our apartment below (slideshow). A couple of days ago, we went searching for food for our apartment. I haven’t had much luck finding vegan food at restaurants here. The only vegan restaurant I know of (so far) is pretty far from our place. I love cooking anyway, so I wanted to stock up on ingredients for our kitchen. On the expat community Facebook group, I found an organic foods business. It’s run by one woman who sells organic produce and foods out of her home. She has a cool selection of healthy foods, including rice, moringa pasta (gluten-free), lentils, turmeric, coconut flour, and coconut sugar. We stocked up on rice, morninga pasta, and got some produce. We’ll definitely be back to her shop! Yesterday, we went to our first large, outdoor market. It was a huge market selling produce, meats, clothes, dry rice and beans, and other random stuff. First off there were live chickens crammed into cages (very hard to see, but they were still treated better than chickens in slaughterhouses in the US) and raw meat being cut up and sold at the market. All that combined with the heat resulted in a pretty gross stench. It’s nice to have a fresh market, but it’s super different than the farmer’s markets in the US, since it was dirty and smelly. It’s just another thing to get used to. I came here for something different, and that’s exactly what I’ve been getting. After the outdoor market, we checked out the supermarket. The Lotte Mart is basically a mall combined with a grocery store, movie theatre, and bowling alley. The grocery store had tons of processed snack foods, meat, and milk. There were no “gluten-free” items, which is not surprising. There were no “health foods” that are common in the US. Actually, I would go as far to say that there were no healthy foods in the store except for produce, rice, soy milk, and oatmeal. Brandon was very happy to find oatmeal- his favorite breakfast. In one of the marts/convenient stores by our apartment, we were relieved to find peanut butter without hydrogenated oils, and chia seeds. That’s much improvement from the Lotte Mart. I’ve heard you can find some healthier stuff at some of the other marts. I’m excited to keep exploring the foods here. Last night, we walked down to the beach for the first time. We live about 3 blocks away from the beach, which is one of the main reasons that we moved to our neighborhood. We walked down the beach where we could see Son Tra Mountain (or Monkey Mountain) and the lit up high rises along the beach. We love the beach. It’s very calming. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach and the feel of the ocean breeze is instantly relaxing. We stopped to sit and enjoy the beach. I meditated for a bit to enhance my senses, and then played around with some head stands. We walked home feeling better and lighter than before. I am so grateful to live so close to the ocean and nature. Pictures from the beach...
4 Comments
Sam
5/12/2016 08:22:54 pm
Just gorgeous. The beach and Jane look lovely as well.
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grisel
5/12/2016 09:55:54 pm
Hey Guys! I look forward to reading more of your adventures in your new life in Vietnam!
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Phillip
5/12/2016 10:42:44 pm
Does it help that your 1/2 Japanese? Lol Excited for you 2, love y'all!
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David G
5/15/2016 09:14:38 am
Hey Guys, Love the Blog! So happy to hear of your adventures and that you are having fun. Eager for more updates!
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