12 August 2015

It was a pretty crazy day. I went home and saw a letter from someone I should not call, I should not think about in front of my door room. I read it in tear :D How crazy I am. But it's good. I can't be greedy. I have to give up.

After that I tried to do housework to forget uncomfortable feeling. Things are not simple as I think. I was exhausted mentally and physically. Finally dinner came and I had to torture my stomach with what Petra had cooked T_T I wish I could eat just toast with mamelade.

Taking shower after 2 days was so wonderful. Hot water massaged my hurt feet. Feeling fresh, I accidently open a song on youtube. Sometimes a simple thing can give such a huge motivation ^_^

If you tell I am wrong, I dont wanna be right :P

P/S: I hope the best things come to you soon. You absolutely deserve it.

Last Sunday I took one day trip to the sea because I felt bored in the crowded noisy city and needed somewhere quiet to throw away my worries. I would not choose this place to visit in summer because it will be really crowded. But it is winter now and I love winter.

The place I visited is Halong bay where is not far from Hanoi city. It took me about 7 hours on the car and I had only 4 hours on a cruise ship sailing around the bay to enjoy the scenery. Well, with such schedule there were not many activities to do. I spent most of the time sitting on the ship deck to contemplate the beautiful view. I was hypnotized by the beauty of the sea and rocks and the fresh atmosphere. For me, no camera can compare with my own eyes but I still took some pictures.

The weather was really nice that day. The temperature was about 15-19 Celcius degree with cool breeze. The sky was grey and the sea surface was quiet like a mirror. Although it was afternoon when I took these pictures, it looked a bit misty there.

I took a Panorama picture but was not careful and capture a part of another tourist. I was even too lazy to take another picture.  ^_^

Most of cruise ships look similar to this one.

I saw a lot of eagles but this is all I could capture. I just looked up the sky to watch them gliding high over the rocks until I felt the pain of my neck. I envy them. T_T

Another thing I enjoyed during this trip is people I met. I took this trip alone but it turned out I was not alone. The bus picked me up at travelling agency where I booked this tour at about 8:30 am. A man stood up to let me sit by the window. It was great because I always want to sit by the window to have better view of outside. I intended to take a sleep and wake up at the beach but it was not a short drive and sometimes the bus rocked because of the rough road. I had nothing to do because I just found out I forgot the backup battery of my mobile at home so that I have to save the battery until I came home.

Meanwhile, it seemed that the man sat next to me was learning English on his mobile phone. I said hello and we talked. He became talkative after I started the conversation. Kosta is his name and he is from Ukraine. He told me he has been travelling alone for 14 months through many countries. This time he has left China for Vietnam and is waiting for his visa to Myanmar. He talked enthusiastically about the places he visited and showed me pictures he took. Sometimes he stopped to find the words in English to express his thoughts or to check the words I said in his dictionary. Then, he invited me a cup of tea from the bottle he always bring in his bag. He is crazy about this tea which he bought in China. I thought he is a cute young guy but turned out he is 11 years older than me.

On our way to the sea, the bus stopped at a restaurant so that tourists could go to toilet or buy some food, souvenirs. There I talked with a girl from Thailand. Her name is Dolly and she looked quiet. We did not talk much but I felt comfortable going with her from that time to the end of our trip. She is Thai mixed Indian. Her eyes are so beautiful like the eyes of Indian actresses I saw in movies. HEHE :D . We just quietly went together during the day, help each other to take pictures. And we also did not forget to take a selfie together. ^_^

So this is my short but great trip. I was able to cast some of my worries into that beautiful sea.

Little Tree was sitting in the toilet singing while finishing the call of nature. Feeling relax after all, she reached her hand for the toilet paper holder and angrily realized there is no toilet paper left.

After that she decided to go and find the roll of TOILET PAPER in the myth which she often heard when she was a kid. It’s a treasure because it looks normal but never runs out of paper. According to the myth, this treasure is kept at Torture ISLAND where LIGHT never fade and no stranger can enter without being DESTROYED by unknown dangerous ALIENS. How many heroes had died in the search of this treasure but Little Tree had set her mind.

Little Tree reached the island and found that those aliens were all busy chatting or writing blogs and didn’t realize her presence. She managed to kidnap an Alien and used the KNIFE to threaten to kill him but failed. Then she TORTURED him by saying that he will never can chat in EC again. He could not stand it and had to tell where the treasure was. She went to take the legendary roll of toilet paper and came back home happily.

P/S: No hero died in this Island. Once they came to the Island, they joined EC, got addicted, stayed here forever and forgot about the treasure. So another name of this island is EC island.

(Photo was taken from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/kelly-wearstler-gold-toilet-paper_n_3830698.html & http://robbwolf.com/2013/06/14/adventures-digestive-distress-also-dining-out/toilet-paper/)

Hanoi has been too hot for these two days. When I walked to work in the morning, I looked up at the sky and imagined it is the blue ocean. The clouds seemed to turn into the white canoe surfing on the sea. Gosh, I miss my 1 week solo travel to the middle part of my country. It was my first experience traveling alone, which I will never ever forget. I had written a short blog about it but did not publish on EC. Today, reading noaslpls’s blog, I feel inspired and want to rewrite it. Well, it is going to be a long story because I am not good at writing a concise blog.

Part 1- Before traveling

Three months ago, when I had quit my job and not wanted to find a new one, I decided to have a trip to somewhere.  I love traveling to new places but for many trivial reasons, I just had traveled to few places near where I am living. I thought this time was a perfect chance to do what I love because I was jobless. So I started to think about where to go. At first, the North-West part of my country came to my mind. There are a lot of breathtaking sceneries since it is the mountainous area. But then I thought it would be more enjoyable staying near the sea than mountains under such hot summer weather. Moreover, as I would travel alone for the first time, I don’t want to take risk going to some remote villages and places. A city would be a better choice. In this case, I had chosen Da Nang which is one of the famous tourism destinations in Vietnam.  It is about 800 kilometers from Hanoi to Da Nang and will take you only a hour by plane but about 15 hours by train to go there. I was so excited with my plan and I called my parents to tell them about this. I knew that they would not like my idea but did not expect their strong objection.

They were shocked and did not agree with my plan. They gave me tons of reasons not to do it. The biggest reason is that they think it is dangerous to travel alone. Every day, we hear the news on TV about trafficking, kidnapping, murdering, rapping, transportation accidents... The world is full of danger and they could not imagine their Little Tree was going to spend a week alone out there in a strange city. So I had to persuade them with a lot of rational reasons. Actually I don’t need their permission to do what I love. I would go anyway. I tried not to make them sad but it was impossible since we have different points of view. I think the world is not as dangerous as we always think. Moreover, I just travel inside Vietnam, my country with friendly people and I am old enough to take good care of myself.

Finally, I booked the one way train ticket thinking I would go as long as I can, until I run out of money hehe. And in order to make my parents less worried, I would stay at a friend’s house and visit my relatives there.

Hanoi was so hot that time. It urged me to escape from it as soon as possible. But watching the weather forecast, I knew that I was just going to escape from this oven to another one.

@@@@@@@ To be continued @@@@@@@

I still remember the first time I recorded my voice and played it back long time ago. I was shocked and told myself what a bad recording program. I asked my friends and they told they encounted the same problem. But when I listen to their recordings I felt those are their real voice, nothing strange here. Then I came to know that only we can hear the difference, other people always feel the same when hearing us speaking or our recording.

With this wonder, I asked google and here, the secret was revealed.

When you speak, the sound energy spreads in the air around you, goes through your external ears and reach the cochlea (a small curved tube inside the ear, which contains a small part that sends nerve signals to the brain when sounds cause it to vibrate). This is called air-conducted sound. Simultaneously, sound also travels directly from your vocal cords through tissues of the head to cochlea. This is call bone-conducted sound. The voice you hear when you speak is the combination of sound carried along both ways. When you listen to a recording of yourself speaking, there is only air-conducted component in unfamiliar isolation. And this is also what everyone else can hear when you speak.

I have to say that I hate my own voice on the recording (my real voice T_T). After so many years I still can not get along with it. It is like I listen to a stranger not me.

References: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvosNz0Xq7g

                 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-my-voice-sound-different/

What is the meaning of life? This question had haunted me for long time and I cannot remember how many times I had searched for the answer on the internet and books. Well, I found thousands of answers but still I am not satisfied with them. And every time I failed to achieve my goals, this question come to me again, making my head whirled. Why do I have to live this life? What is the meaning after all of my efforts?

There was only a haunted void.

One day, I went to a book store and saw a book named “The myth of Sisyphus” and thought reading some Greek myths is not a bad idea. However, this book is not simply a Greek myth but a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. This book doesn’t give me the answer for question “What is the meaning of life” but I think found what I want in it … and a lot of headache as a bonus.

According to Greek myth, Sisyphus was condemned forever to roll a giant rock up a mountain only to see it roll back down to the bottom when he reaches the top. What a cruel punishment. What did he think when marching down the mountain to start this work anew? What is the motivation for him to maintain this chain of repetitive work? It is not only a physical but also a mental torture.

Somehow, Sisyphus’ punishment is representative of the human condition: he must struggle perpeptually in this meaningless work.

“Camus claims that there is a fundamental conflict between what we want from the universe and what we find in the universe. We will never find in life itself the meaning that we want to find. Either we will discover that meaning through a leap of faith, by placing our hopes in a God beyond this world, or we will conclude that life is meaningless.” And if life has no meaning, does that mean life is not worth living or there is another possibility that we can accept and live in a world devoid of meaning or purpose?

By discussing the myth of Sisyphus, he said that as long as Sisyphus accepts that there is nothing more to life than his absurd struggle, then he can find happiness in it.

Therefore, the same solution for us is that:

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
-- Albert Camus --

I think this is really true because I do not need to know the meaning of life to have happiness. And when I live in happiness I don’t ask myself this question.

The title of this blog may give you the thought that I'm a professional in cooking. Unfortunately, it's totally opposite. I hate cooking and definitely I am a bad cook. Sadly, I still have to cook sometimes, for myself or for my parents. And with eggs I can quickly cook some simple dishes. In another word, dishes cooked from eggs are my favourite recipes because they are not complex.

However, I always have problem in cracking open the eggs. The shell of the eggs often shatter into lots of pieces and it's really hard to pick them out. This really annoys me but no matter how many times I cook eggs it still happens. I think it's because my cooking skill is a disaster.

Anyway, I asked Google and see that not only me have this problem. And I also found some interesting advices on Internet.

1. Another way to to take out the soft part of an egg without breaking it.

You can poke a hole at each end of an egg and let it leak out.

2. The quality of the egg can be the cause of my problem.

Cheaper eggs where chickens are not raised well often have thin brittle shells which shatter into lots of pieces when we break it. Better quality eggs hold their shape better and you get two neat(ish) halves

3. Dont crack the egg on the edge of the bowl.

It's better to tap the egg on a flat surface, like a countertop. The curved surface of the bowl just can break a spot in the egg not a line as flat surface can do.

4. Tap the eggs hard enough.

Of course one needs to practice many times to know how is hard enough. If you dont tap it hard enough, the shell rifts but the white thin layout below it does not. Therefore you cant use your thumbs to separate the halves and let the soft part of the egg out.

Well, it seems I have written a too long blog for a simple problem. Now, I need to practice. Hope it works for me.

In EC chatroom, I see many members with great sense of humor and sometimes sense of sarcasm. Today, something comes to my mind so that I feel want to know more about sarcasm. After a short tour around Goolge, I’m surprised with many articles about Sarcasm and  its important role in our modern life.

 Sarcasm involves a composer saying something that is the opposite of what they really mean.

For example:

“I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.”

“If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I would be happy to do it for you.”

I read that children can understand and use sarcasm by the time they get to kinderdarten. Supprised? I see in EC main room, many don’t even understand sarcasm or sometimes misunderstand it as criticism.

So I think that sarcasm is practically considered the primary language in modern society dripping with irony. Everything has 2 sides, so either does sarcasm.

The advantages are:

Sarcasm seems to excercise brain more than sincere statements do

Sarcasm stimulates brain to do more complex thinking

Sarcasm may be a gentler way to critise with indirectness and humour

And the disadvantages:

The mocking, smug, superior nature of sarcasm is perceived as more hurtful

than a plain-spoken criticism.

The Greek root for sarcasm, sarkazein, means to tear fesh like dogs.

So we should be careful to use sarcasm in right situations and with right people.

I even find the instruction how to use sarcasm and how to response to it. It’s really interesting to read even though I don’t think I can become good at sarcasm.

Below are some links I found:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-of-sarcasm-yeah-right-25038/?no-ist

http://www.sfhelp.org/cx/apps/sarcasm.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Respond-to-Sarcasm

When I told my parents that I will travel alone, they were shocked and did not allow me to do that. I tried to persuade them but did not success. However, I still made my decision to travel alone and I will never regret about it. It is the most unique experience I have had until now.

In my opinion, people often don’t want to travel alone because of few drawbacks:

_  There is nobody to watch your back. Everyday  you hear the news on TV about trafficking, kidnapping, murdering. The world is full of danger and you have to be cautious to take good care of yourself.

_  It’s more expensive because there is no one to share costs with. For example, rooms are usually about the same price for one or two. And two people can use one scooter with the same price with one.

_  You may experience the moment of loneniness. Athough this did not happen to me, many people say that they don’t want to travel alone because of this problem

As an introverted person, I think the advantages of solo travel outweigh all of these above disadvantages.

_  My time and budget are my own. I can spend time as much as I want on some places, choose modes of travel I like…

_ I’m a great company. I enjoy spending time alone, listening to my thoughts or just letting my mind empty.  Sometimes I like being in crowded places without making conversation with anyone.

_ Meeting new people is interesting. Although I’m an introverted person, I love to meet new people. When you travel alone, it’s easily to chat with some interesting folks at a bus station, on the train, at a sidewalk café or even joining a traveling group in a while. So, it’s not necessary that you have to be alone when traveling alone.

_ It’s a great feeling I can’t explain. Maybe traveling alone give me feeling of a lone warrior. I feel more independent, more powerful.

So do you like solo travel?