Starting off the entry with a gif because I was fooling around with the photos
Can I just take a moment to say that SCHOOL IS FINALLY OUT????? Oh dear lord I have struggled and made it out of the extremely torturous semester — alive. School was so very tough with multiple submissions to clear and tests to study for within tight deadlines and if I had a dollar for every time I thought about 'maybe I should quit school' I'll probably be rich by now.
But it's all over now!!! These days I've been pretty much lazing around, basking in the comforts of freedom while trying to nurse my branded eye bags and dark eye rings away, before I start my internship at Zalora.
So I thought why not share with you guys some really overdue images, dating back to September when I travelled to Ho Chi Minh City — courtesy of a really exciting collaboration between Airbnb and The Nanyang Chronicle — plus more images of the interesting bits of my otherwise really dull social life.
P.S. Can someone... anyone help me out with the sizing of the above GIF? I really just want it to be 300px in width but because I have the css for auto resize coded in the blog's template I can't put it to it's original size and that's why it's so huge!!! PLEASE HELP :'(
Have fun!
The Ho Chi Minh City collection
1. When visiting HCMC, Banh Mi is a definite must try. This was my first one, bought from a little store right below our Airbnb apartment (District 7). The snack was delish — affectionately termed the Vietnamese Subway, the loaf is usually packed with veggies and a meat of choice, depending on what the store has to offer. I ate it for breakfast and as an afternoon snack every other day.
2. Day 2 of our trip, where we visited the famous landmarks of the city. We had breakfast in the most unconventional of ways, but just like how the locals do. We found ourselves a cosy spot in the central park, grabbed newspapers and plopped ourselves down right smack in the middle of the pathway with banh mi and Vietnamese coffee.
3. One of the popular tourist spots, the Notre Dame Cathedral. There were at least five couples having their wedding photoshoot at the rustic place.
4. The four of us were coincidentally dressed in monochromatic colours. Maybe because our wardrobe only consists of basic colours lol.
5. Due to the narrow width of the Vietnamese roads, our main mode of transport was via motorbikes. It was an eye-opening experience, I'd say. We zipped through the tiniest of lanes and even went at like full speed in the rain. I was on a Vespa in this picture!
6. We also visited the largest flower market in HCMC, and I thought the truck with the flowers looked like something you'd see on tumblr so I snapped. Flowers were really affordable there.
7. These spiral wishing candles were popular among the many temples that we visited. The colours in the image look gorgeous.
8. Oh yes, the cafe culture in HCMC was pretty damn strong. Especially in District 1, or the town area, there were lanes after lanes of cafes, and they were found in the most obscure of places. The prettiest one that we visited was called The Workshop, and it was located right above a motorbike repair workshop. (omg is that why it's called The Workshop???)
9. And lastly... A group picture of us taken at the airport because we forgot to snap one in HCMC. Much thanks to Airbnb for our beautiful penthouse apartment, we sure made great memories in Vietnam :)
Moving right along...
11. Impromptu meet up the the Swiss baes (which explains the lack of eyebrows because I was initially just making my way back to hall). Friends that last the weather.
12. Received a pair of media invites to the premiere of Cirque du Soleil and I brought Jared along. The show was superb and all of the acrobats were so fit!!! Enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you so much Amanda, from Base Entertainment Asia.
13. I interviewed Denise, the lead actress on roller-skates on her adventure-packed circus and family life. The feature is in the latest issue of Little - The Star Wars issue.
14. Then comes WKW's biggest event: Halloween. This year Fabs and I went as naked Sims because it was an easy and cost-effective costume option and still got us tons of compliments.
15. For the last lesson of my silkscreen printing module I printed a family portrait with CMYK paint. Didn't turn out so well for my papa and I (look we're missing cyan) but it was fun nonetheless :)
16. Day out with the gang after a media tasting session at Masizzim. We're, uhm, trying out hats in Muji?
17. Caught the final installation of The Hunger Games: The Mocking Jay II with Jared. We had churros before that.
18. A selfie with Phillip, the fattest baby penguin gifted by Jared!!! I love it so much. It's fat and squishy and all innocent looking. That was taken on the last day of finals!!!
That concludes my quick update. I have more ideas for upcoming entries stored at the back of my mind, hopefully I don't get too busy (or lazy) to not put them to words. Ciao!
Much love,
Chels x