Raymond's Random Ramblings

Confidence: The Opposite of Doubt

During the course of these past two weeks, I wrote first about how to overcome the fears that hold us back from achieving our true potential and then followed the post up with one about how to develop the courage that is necessary to master these fears. Today, I will carry this theme along by describing another influencing factor in mastering our fears and developing courage – confidence.

What is…

Last week I wrote about some of the ways we can overcome the fears that hold us back. So for this week’s post, I thought it would be fitting to write about the one thing above all else that we need to overcome those fears… courage. You need courage to admit that you are afraid. You need courage to face those things of which you are afraid. You need courage to tell your family or friends about…

How to Overcome Fear

Welcome back. I hope you had a great week. Last week I shared about ways to set achievable new year resolutions. Reflecting on last week’s post, other than the reasons given in that post, why do you think so many of us fail to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of each year? In a word… Fear. Fear of failing, fear of letting ourselves and others down, fear of not living…

How to Set Achievable New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and joyous Christmas and that you had a safe and happy new year celebration.

So, have we all made our new year resolutions? We all make them. And the list of resolutions we tend to make is nearly endless. Often these resolutions include such things as losing weight, gaining weight, being more active, loving more, hating less, being more…

It’s so hard to believe that yet another year is nearly past and what a year this has been. It’s seen happiness and sorrow, success and failure. I look forward to hearing about how your year was and about any special or significant events that happened to you that you wish to share.

For my part, overall, this has been an exceptional year. However, the first few months were rather uneventful. I…

Top Five Favourite Christmas Quotes

Hello my friends. I hope you enjoyed my post earlier this week about the Spirit of Christmas. In that post, I illustrated that the true Spirit of Christmas does not involve the music, the lights, or the presents… at least not in the sense that is usually associated with those things. The true Spirit of Christmas is all about Christ.

Today, I would like to share five of my favourite quotes about…

The Spirit of Christmas

No matter where we go, Christmas cheer is all around. Christmas songs, Christmas presents, Christmas lights. But how many of us truly understand what Christmas means? How many of us understand the symbolism of the songs, the presents, the lights? Over 2000 years ago, a child was born in a simple manger. His birth was heralded by angels, His birthplace sought by shepherds, wise men, and even…

My Favourite Quotes About Faith

Hello my friends and welcome back. I hope you are enjoying reading what I write as much as I am enjoying writing what I write. Earlier this week, I shared with you my thoughts about how to stay true to your faith, which I felt to be a fitting topic given that Christmas is a little more than a week away. Faith is a profoundly integral part of my life. That is why I had a hard time choosing just…

How to Stay True to Your Faith

In today’s rapidly changing world, fraught with strife and conflict, how do you stay true to your faith? As you take a moment to ponder this question, allow me to clarify that faith has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Faith starts with fervent belief upon which knowledge is built. Religious practice is but one of many actions we take to exercise our faith and gain understanding.

Christian…

My Top Five Favourite Quotes About Gratitude

In my last post, I wrote about the top five people/things I am most grateful for in my life. So I thought that for this post, it would be a fitting companion to share my top five favourite quotes about gratitude. So many people throughout the ages have said so many great things about gratitude that it was difficult to choose five that most clearly and eloquently express my own sentiments…

Top Five Things I am Grateful For in my Life

Let me start by apologising for not getting this post out to you sooner. I have been suffering from severe lower back pain the past few weeks, which has made it difficult to concentrate on sometimes even the simplest of tasks.

How often do you express genuine, sincere gratitude for the things or people in your life? How often do you extend that gratitude to the simple things in life that we far…

The Top Five Places I Want to Visit

Hey everyone, welcome back. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed my short travel series so far, which started out with my top five favourite places I have visited leading into a short three-post series about my travels to Vietnam and wraps up today by describing the top five places I would like to visit. If you had to choose only five places you could visit in your life, where would they be?

Having…

This planet we live on is amazing. It is remarkable how starkly varied different places are. And not with regard to differences in people, culture, and language. But more concerning geography, landscape, and climate. Even within our own countries, travelling even from one city to another can allow one to see many contrasts. But I digress from today’s topic about my third trip to Vietnam.

You are probably wondering why I returned to Vietnam so soon after my trip there earlier in April of this year. As you will recall from my post regarding my trip in April, Uyen and I had hoped to marry during that trip, but due to logistics, it was not meant to be at that time. Just a tad six weeks later, however, I was able to return to Vietnam and Uyen and I were able to fulfil our dream.

Just as with my trip in April, this trip saw us spend most of our time in Saigon with a few trips out to the village. The first week was, for lack of a better way to put it, chaotic and very hectic. My beloved wife (fiancee at that time) had already prepared and planned so much for our wedding, but there was still a lot to do once I got there. While I love Vietnam and its endless beauty, the most joyous adventure one can embark on is getting married. Part of that adventure comes with planning the wedding. But such a fun adventure it was. One of the things we decided to do was to have a pre-wedding photo shoot at a studio. Here are the pictures from that shoot. We then chose our favourite which we displayed at the entrance to our wedding venue.

We planned three ceremonies – two pre-wedding and the actual wedding ceremony itself. The two pre-wedding celebrations were held out in the village, one for Uyen’s friends from high school and the other for Uyen’s family. To give you some perspective on why I chose to call the first week chaotic and hectic, here is a brief timeline. I arrived in Vietnam on Wednesday, June 13th. We did our pre-wedding photo shoot at the studio on June 14th. We departed for the village on the morning of June 15th and had a small and simple marriage registration ceremony in the village that same afternoon. On the evening of the 16th, we met with and celebrated our first pre-wedding ceremony with Uyen’s friends from her high school. On the morning and early afternoon of the 17th, we shared a special pre-wedding ceremony with her family in the village. Then we departed back to Ho Chi Minh City in the mid-afternoon and held our wedding ceremony in the evening.

Our marriage registration ceremony

Holding our marriage certificates

With Uyen’s dad

Pre-wedding ceremony with Uyen’s high school friends

Happy couple

Having fun at her home in the village

Pre-wedding ceremony with Uyen’s family in the village

Studio portrait for entrance to our wedding venue

Wedding venue entrance

Wedding venue entrance

Stage

Our wedding cake

Us outside the entrance just before the ceremony

Blowing a kiss across the greeting table

On the morning of the 18th, we departed for the beautiful city of Da Nang for our mini-honeymoon. As you will recall from my initial post about Vietnam, one of the cities that we visited during that trip is Quy Nhon. Da Nang is nearly six hours northwest of Quy Nhon, on the east coast of central Vietnam. While Dalat is still our favourite city overall, Da Nang quickly surpassed Nha Trang as my favourite coastal city we have visited in Vietnam, though Nha Trang is still an exceptionally close second. A week is all the time we had to spend in Da Nang, but a wonderful week it was. We both look forward to returning here someday, hopefully able to spend at least three or more weeks there. While we took the opportunity to travel in and around Da Nang, there is so much to see and do there that a week was not nearly enough time.

On our way to Black Rock Beach near Da Nang

Black Rock Beach

Black Rock Beach

Da Nang

Da Nang

Da Nang

Da Nang

Entrance to the Chua Linh Ung Buddhist Temple

Marble Mountains near Da Nang

Hot Springs Park west of Dan Nang

Hoi An, about an hour south of Da Nang

At one of the many beaches at Da Nang

I sincerely hope you enjoy what I shared about my travels to Vietnam. It is a beautiful country, and the people are warm and welcoming. Perhaps the day will come when some of you will have the opportunity to visit. Until next time.

In my last post, I briefly described my first foray to Vietnam in April 2017. During that trip, most of our travels took us out and away from Ho Chi Minh City, travelling to Phu Quoc Island as well as the cities of Dalat, Nha Trang, Tuy Hoa, and Quy Nhon. Uyen and I both agree that among all these, Dalat is our favourite. Contrary to that first trip, this trip had us mostly travelling in and around Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City, at least by my perspective, is a massive city. When you travel from a city that has a population of roughly 38000 to one that tallies in at nearly 8.5 million, yeah, it was a little intimidating and overwhelming at first. For the remainder of this post, I am going to refer to Ho Chi Minh City by its historical name of Saigon. Saigon, the largest city in Vietnam, is comprised of a total of 24 districts – 19 urban and 5 rural. With the sheer size of Saigon, one could easily spend at least 1 to 3 months just exploring the city. One of the things that struck me was the diversity between the different districts. You could be riding along in one district, streets lined with various vendors and open-front cafes and bistros but then cross over into another district where the street vendors have been replaced with shopping centres and the open-front cafes and bistros replaced with enclosed restaurants, obviously catering primarily to those foreigners who either regularly travel to Saigon or have chosen to relocate to Vietnam and have made Saigon their new home.

As indicated, we spent most of our time during this trip touring around Saigon, visiting such attractions as the Cu Chi Tunnels, the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, and the Saigon Zoo & Botanical Gardens. I learned a lot about Vietnam, its people, its culture, and its history on this trip. I think for many foreigners when they hear about Vietnam, the first thing that comes to mind is the Vietnam War. Concerning that, learning about the ingenuity and creativity of the Vietnamese people during the war was surely an eye-opener.

Aside from our travelling around Saigon, we also embarked on a short side-trip to Chau Doc in the An Giang Province. Chau Doc is about 5 1/2 hours northwest of Saigon near the border with Cambodia. The main reason for this side trip was to visit the Seven Sisters, a small range of 7 mountains. While in Chau Doc we visited several pagodas and went on a couple of riverboat tours, as well as visiting the Forbidden Mountain, which is part of the Seven Sisters range.

My next post will detail my third trip to Vietnam. In temporary parting, I will leave you with some more pictures to enjoy. Until next time.

My first trip to Vietnam was in April 2017. This trip would also mark the first time meeting Uyen Nguyen, my internet sweetheart. While this was a very memorable trip for me, it would not prove to be my most memorable trip to Vietnam. I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at 10:00 pm their local time and was met at the airport by Uyen. This trip turned out to be a hectic but enjoyable three weeks.

Our first side trip outside the city was to Phu Quoc Island with Uyen’s dad. Phu Quoc is a relatively small island off the west coast of Vietnam. We stayed in the Praha Hotel and spent a day on the island. One of the more interesting places we visited is the Hiep Phong Fish Sauce Factory. Not sure how many of you have ever tried fish sauce, but I can nearly guarantee that whichever you have sampled is very mild compared to the fish sauce they produce here. Keep this tip in mind if you plan to travel here. Be wary when your taxi driver offers to be your guide. Often they will take you to places they want you to see. Why is this something to be wary of? Surely as a local, they know the area well. Yes, they do. They know exactly where to take you so that they earn commissions on whatever you buy, on top of what you are paying them for the tour.

After spending a day on Phu Quoc, we headed back to Ho Chi Minh City for a few days before heading off for our next adventure. During the second week I was in Vietnam, we visited four cities, starting with Dalat, then Nha Trang, Tuy Hoa, and Qui Nhon, before returning to spend the last week in Ho Chi Minh City. While in Ho Chi Minh City, we also made a few trips out to Bao Thi Hamlet, which is where Uyen’s mom, aunt, and brother, as well as her second older sister and her family live.

If you enjoy nature, then you will surely appreciate Dalat. Located 4900 feet above sea level, Dalat is a refreshing reprieve from the often stifling tropical heat typical of southern and central Vietnam. When I was there, the average daily high in Ho Chi Minh City was around 38 degrees celsius, yet during the three days that Uyen and I spent in Dalat, it was 24 degrees. Dalat has a lot to offer, whether it be a casual stroll around Xuan Huong Lake or a visit to the Dalat Center Market. Venturing outside the city core are numerous waterfalls that are well worth the visit, including Prenn Waterfall, Datanla Waterfall, and Thac Pongour. Other notable waterfalls which we did not visit when I was there, but plan to when we go back include Elephant Waterfalls, Lien Khuong Waterfall, Waterfall Bao Dai, and Tiger Cave. All in all, I highly recommend a visit to Dalat as it is sure to please.

Continuing with our week of travel adventure, we headed further east and a little north to arrive in Nha Trang, a highly popular destination on Vietnam’s southern east coast. Nha Trang is well known for its pristine white sand beaches and considering that Uyen and I only had a couple of days to spend in Nha Trang, it is little wonder that we spent most of our time there at the beach across from the hotel. It surely is a stark difference from home. Here, wading into the ocean, even in the summer, is sure to chill you down in a hurry, but there it is like wading into a warm bath. Like Dalat, Nha Trang has a lot to offer to travellers, more than just its fabulous beaches. Uyen and I are very much looking forward to returning and being able to spend a few weeks there, to enjoy such activities as touring the Nha Trang Oceanography Institute, visiting both the Long Son and the Tong Lam Lo Son Pagodas, experiencing the architecture of the Palace of Emperor Bao Dai, enjoying a relaxing soak at the Thap Ba Hot Springs, and exploring Monkey Island. And these are just to name a few.

Journeying northward brought us to our next destination, Tuy Hoa. While not as popular a destination as Nha Trang, Tuy Hoa does have its own appeal, part of which is the fact that it is not as popular and thereby, not quite as crowded. As Uyen and I only had a day here, we did not do as much exploring, again sticking mostly to the beaches. Among some of the sights we plan for next time we are here include Nhan Tower, Bai Xep, Ong Cliff, Long Thuy Beach, and hon Chua.

At the end of this week-long excursion, we headed further north to Quy Nhon. This is a more popular destination than Tuy Hoa, but still nowhere near as popular as Nha Trang, but, just like Tuy Hoa, Quy Nhon still has a lot to offer, depending on your likes and interests. As with Tuy Hoa, Uyen and I only spent a day here. The primary activity we enjoyed was a trip out to Cu lao Hon Kho, a small island off the coast of Quy Nhon. Just as with Nha Trang and Tuy Hoa, we look forward to returning and enjoying a bit more of what Quy Nhon has to offer, including Ky Co Beach, Eo Gio, Thap Doi, Quy Hoa Beach, Vung Chua Mountain, and Cu Lao Xanh Island.

Part of the fun and adventure of this side trip together was the journey back to Ho Chi Minh City. Instead of flying, we took what is known as a sleeper bus. Sleeper buses do not have regular upright seats, but are more of a lounge style seat, allowing you to sleep. If you have never experienced this mode of travel, I do recommend it at least once for the experience.

Once back in Ho Chi Minh City, we only had a few more days together before I had to return back to Canada. I hope you enjoyed this brief expose about my initial trip to Vietnam. I look forward to sharing about my second and third trips back there as well. I look forward to your feedback and future post suggestions. Until next time.

The Top Five Places I have Visited

Greetings friends and welcome back. On Thursday I shared with you regarding the top five most important people in my life. In line with my Top Five Lists series, today I will be sharing about my top five favourite places I have visited.

I will admit that I am not yet well travelled but have had the opportunity to see a small part of this wondrous planet outside of where I live. Both my wife and I…

The Top Five Most Important People in my Life

Hello and welcome back. Though I only started my blog this past Sunday, I hope you have enjoyed my posts so far. Today I will be starting my Top Five Lists series, beginning with the top five most important people in my life. As I thought about this topic, the challenge I encountered was whether to relate about five specific and individual people or if I could get away with grouping as well. I…