✈ 4d3n @ HCMC, Vietnam

"Wan-der-lust:

noun

a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about."

Jack & I found some great deals on Jetstar 3 weeks before we flew. $0 return flight ticket from Vietnam can you imagineeeeeeeeeee???? :) So we booked an impromptu trip and spent the last weekends of August roaming about this foreign city.

Vietnam was nothing like Singapore. The road's messy, the architectures are old.

We reached our hotel at 1030am and managed to get a early check-in!

Famished by 1130am, we walked around our area in search for food and happened to chance upon one of our itinerary recommended food hunt. Two things that came right to my mind was Coconut Drink & Pho! We also ordered two spring rolls - a chicken and another pork skin but the latter was really not to our liking :/

Nha Hang Ngon

160 Pasteur, District 1, HCMC

At the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral. The group of Japanese that helped us took a picture insist we wear the Vietnamese cap haha

Central Post Office

While walking back for a nap, we chanced by another cafe we wanted to go. Decided that we needed coffee, we went in to have a drink & tart. Cafe L'usine is in my opinion the best and most beautiful cafe around Vietnam. We both like the ambiance of the place, the coffee and lemon tart! :) We also went back on the 3rd night for dinner.

Cafe L'usine 

151/1 Dong Khoi St., 1st Flr., Dist. 1

Baguette at Paris Deli for dinner which was unplanned. After we woke up from our nap, it started pouring heavily at night! We had no choice but to stop by Saigon Center. Not too bad though :)

Daily buffet breakfast spread for the next 3 days. I love PB & breads! but somehow, the PB tastes differently.

We took a 1-day tour with an agency to Cuchi Tunnel and Cao Dai Temple. The bulk of the time was spent travelling, our bus ride to the temple took about 3 hours!

Clear blue skies & temple

We had one of the best home-cooked styled food at a random shop along the highway by the tour guide. Love the sour spicy soup!

Cu chi tunnel and I was dead tired at the end of day

We ended the night with a zi-char style dinner at Ben Thanh Market. There were so much we felt like ordering but we could only have 3 dishes for 2 max! I loveeeeeeeeeee the bbq fish! If you're thinking of dropping by, go after 7pm when they set the stall up :)

Day 3 of the trip can be found here.

4d3n is just perfect for a short trip there :)

Medz

Birthday celebration for my girlfriends whom I've known for more than a decade. We had a delish dinner at Medz, a dining concept similar to Marche and it was more than great :)

The night ended with some drinks, desserts and usual girlies talk at Oriole Cafe & Bar. 

It was such a lovely Saturday night spent catching up with these girls <3

✈ Yoga Living // Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

 I found Yoga Living few days before my trip and was glad that they were offering classes on weekends. There were limited studios in Vietnam and I thought I had to forgo the thought of trying a practice there. Yoga Living has 2 studios - one located at District 1 and another 1 at District 3. Since we were only free on Sunday, we took the morning Ashtangah class.

We were greeted by an extremely spacious and clean place and 2 friendly Vietnamese who guided us a little. The studio was huge and there were about 20+ of us in the class. It was my first time doing a non-heated class, and also my first doing Ashtanga and I pretty much enjoyed it. We had the class with Eswar, who is an Indian and his class was pretty much easy to follow

The only thing the studio was lacking was mirrors. I was so used to having fully mirrored room but that doesn't really matter. The class ended shortly 1 hour later and I was happy with the practice. Anyway, 1 class costs 5USD and mats & towels are provided at no charge. Shower rooms & lockers were available too :)

Yoga Living
19 Vo Van Tan, District 3

Since we were around District 3, we roamed around and looked for Hoang Ty, which was famous for their Banh Trang, Vietnamese wrap. We ordered a set for 2 and it comes with a platter of green vegetables, pickled carrots, cucumber and raw bean sprouts.We had fun wrapping and it was definitely an experience!

Hoang Ty
70-72 Vo Van Tan, District 3

Coffee & Chocolate Cake at Highlands coffee, very common coffee place before we went for an 1.5 hour body massage at Cat Moc.

How I miss my Sunday now!

Graduation Photoshoot

One day, I would look back on these pictures and think, "how time flies".

Memories for keep definitely :)

First class with HomYoga

Over the weekends, I got myself the prettiest pair & expensive HipWidth yoga apparels from HomYoga! I've been contemplating for a while because of the hefty price but there were no regrets after I tried it on. The material's so so good and cutting is great.

I wore it on my first 2 trial classes and the short was so comfortable for both heated (hot hatha) and non-heated (yin) practices. 

Since I was free and have been wanting to try yoga at Hom, I decided to register for two classes at Orchard, both by Daphne. I like how helpful and gentle she was-helping me to go deeper and also correcting my posture. The yin is a non heated class which really helps to stretch every single muscles in the body. We had to hold long in poses and in some, I almost died. By the time I finished hot hatha, I was shakey from the stretching. I left the place a happy yogi satisfied with my Saturday :)

Made myself a hearty sandwich above, which was perfect for before my classes, here's what you need simply:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 avocado
• 1 tomato
• 2 slices of bread
• pepper

Slice the avocado and tomato. Slap it in between the bread, sprinkle some pepper and ready to eat. 

Till I try the hot hom & hot flow series :)

Breakfast x Banana Oats Pancake

I'm so pumped that weekends is here and all I'm thinking about is breakfast for tomorrow. 

Pancakes has always been one of my to-eat list on a weekends. I used to always turn to McDonald Hotcakes and somehow I don't really fancy it now. After all, McDonald is a still fast food restaurant. I decided to make some pancakes off a healthy recipe found online with some tweaks to it.

I added my overripe bananas into the raw oat flours and yoghurt as dressing. 

Blueberries as toppings are always the best, filled with anti-oxidants. My fridge are always filled with these. Yums

Ingredients:

• 1 banana mashed
• 1/2 cup of dry rolled oats, grounded into flour
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk
• Yoghurt (any of your choice)
• Blueberries

Steps:

• Grind the rolled oats using a food processor into flour bits and mash the banana. Mix the 2 ingredients and add milk in. Stir until well blended. 
• Start cooking with pan. Pour in some oil on low to medium heat and scoop the batter onto it. Wait for a few minutes, flip and it's done!
• Toppings: I used 1/2 cup of blueberries, heat in small saucepan for about 3-5 minutes.
• Pour on some Greek yoghurt and your toppings, ready to serve!

This recipe makes about 3 pancakes and I was satisfied for the day! However, the taste got a little 'gelat' so I'll recommend you not to mash the banana in and add it as toppings instead :)

Now I'm off to bed and have a great weekend!

Learn to move with ease

 I'mmaaa back from Vietnam!

My trip to Ho Chi Minh City was definitely an eye opener... I'm happy to be living in Singapore :) No, don't get me wrong, I like being in that city but I just felt that we've so so so much more here and I'm truly and ever grateful for that. 

I miss my SG practices after spending the weekends away and decided to book my first non-heated yin-yang class with Renu at Anahata after work today. It was just a small class with 7 people and I like how Renu speaks with clarity. There's always a war between my mind and poses during my practices. I realised I have difficulties alot of times trying to maintain my poses and to follow what the teacher is saying (i.e. inhale and you do this, exhale and you do that) but with small classes, it's only exception that the teacher gets more opportunities to correct your postures and we have fun!

Yin Yang class is a perfect blend of deep stretches, also known as Yin Poses, and Yang poses (muscular strengthening), practiced in a non-heated room. My first thought was "cool, will be a breeze for me" but boy, I was wrong. I left the class with achy thighs from the really deep and long (we hold up to 2 minutes!) stretches as compared to my regular hot classes despite not sweating at all (cooling rainy day perhaps) 

I still prefer hot classes but I had a rather interesting takeaway from today's class. I guess it's good to go back to basics and beginner class once in a while since it requires additional level of explanation that all levels of teaching can benefits from :)

Probably try Power and Hot Vinyasa someday!