All posts by metag

Life

Cold sunshine

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It’s cold here in LA. There is a lot of space. I shiver and wrap myself on Lily’s air mattress in Beverly Hills.

My days usually begin with Starbucks iced coffee sitting at a high top on Olympic Blvd. I need to warm my frosty hands periodically and wear a beanie to retain my head warmth. This isn’t the LA of my mind, but it’s okay to recalibrate to the cold.

Culturally, LA is extremely different from NYC in both good and bad ways. Mostly good. I traveled all around Asia and Europe, and I haven’t felt as much culture shock as I have trying to adjust to life in this city. Some of the good aspects are that people are generally nicer and more supportive. As my friend Nicole (an East Coast transplant) puts it, “You just have fewer or no negative interactions here.” The industry focus is different, resting on entertainment. Many people know what it’s like to struggle in a creative sense, and I feel that there’s a much more supportive community and vibe here. The undercurrent in NYC by contrast is more testing. I’m going to push you. Can you handle it? The other side of being so nice, of course, is that there is sometimes a kind of artifice that I can’t understand. I understand NYC hard-charging fakeness. I don’t really understand LA fakeness yet. It confronts me in voice and intonation, but I don’t really even know how to place it. This isn’t real. Do they actually hate me? Are they going to murder me in my sleep? Continue reading Cold sunshine →

Life, Travel, Work

Early days in LA

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The Uber pulled up to my Lower East Side apartment. My friend Melanie helped me lug my luggage downstairs – a suitcase, carry-on, and guitar. She’s been there in a few of my final moment type situations with her mom vibe and encouraging wave. When it comes to life decisions, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum with myself valuing adventure, freedom, and challenge and with her valuing building a good, stable life free of sudden movements. She would never blow up her life in the way that I have. Then again, I was never the type of person who would do something like this until I was someone who would do something like this. Continue reading Early days in LA →

Life, Work

NYC, I’m in love-hate with you. Goodbye.

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The day after my 35th birthday, I boarded a flight back to NYC. I hadn’t been back home since August when I booked a last-minute one-way ticket to London.

Immediately, I was back in it. Back-to-back appointments and meeting people. Dinners, breakfasts, lunches, drinks, texts, emails, communications overload. People were flowing in and out of my life and apartment, jamming into this crowded space we call time. My newly-acquired Fitbit was giving me a lot of positive feedback is the upshot. My Metrocard was being swiped. Uber was making frequent stops. I took a nature trip out to Ramapo in Jersey. Classpass reservations were made as I tried to push myself back in shape. Continue reading NYC, I’m in love-hate with you. Goodbye. →

Life, Travel

2016, 2017, life was a palindrome of experience

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I sealed it, wrapped it up, closed the sequence. Or was it the many layers of an onion or the ages shown in the slices of tree trunks?

When I left corporate life in May, I wasn’t sure where to go and what I should do? I had no real plan, though there was an imprint of one in my head asking to be articulated. I would lay in my bed for hours, mind racing through cities, jobs, and possible futures? I believe strongly in intuition, and I believed that if I kept spinning these options around in my head, one would just feel “right.” But the answers never came, and so instead of thinking myself into an answer, I just started living. Instead of asking my brain if I wanted to move to San Francisco, I got on a plane and went there. Continue reading 2016, 2017, life was a palindrome of experience →

Life, Travel

Drifting into New Year’s

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San Francisco was a nest. I flew in a little hatchling straight into my friend’s house on Guerrero Street in the Mission, and I cozied up in her guest room. From time to time, I would sneak bites of the ever-growing chocolate stash accumulating in her kitchen. This was her latest project, obsession, and future business venture. Based on my consumption patterns and the fact that I never ever eat chocolate otherwise, I would say that her business is going to be a raging success.

My New Year’s Eve evening is reflective of my current state of being and hopefully isn’t a harbinger of things to come. I sat around sick for much of a day and started to coordinate plans. Liz brought me a plate of chicken and risotto from upstairs. And then I was in bed tucked away by 10:30pm.

The theme of 2017 is learning to sleep.

Travel

Returning to USA

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My return to USA (oosa, oosa, oosa) almost didn’t happen. We were floating around the pools in Seminyak ordering plates of foods, ice cream, cocktails. I walked out to see my final sunset on Legian Beach. I walked and wandered northward for my final massage. And then boarded my overnight flight bound for Shanghai and then San Francisco.

As uneventful as it was, I am not sure if I’ve ever slept better in my life. There may have been a recognition that something was ending, a chapter of my life perhaps…certainly the year. I unceremoniously rejoiced as I also let it be known to myself that there was a layer to be accepted, whether it would be consciously now or at another point. Let’s just make it to Pudong.

In typical form, I ate myself through the airport as time passed. I considered taking out my guitar and looked askance at the mix of mainland Chinese and SF tech bros/outdoorsy types boarding the plane.

The last few months in SE Asia have been more intense than I had anticipated or planned for, so much moving around from place to place. It has been opening but also impossible to plant any real roots, not just in terms of stability in routine but also what I want to do.

I’ve felt myself flex, grow older, want to do less, and mostly become okay with my choices and getting more in touch with my “wants.”

Goodbye, 2016. You were a great year, the best year. It hasn’t been an easy or straight path, but I think I’m at least finding the start of it.

Travel

Seminyak bookends

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Bringing things full circle. 5 years ago, I had left my 11-year relationship and was about to start a new job that ended up propelling my career in new and very good directions. It was a transition point. I was in Bali. It was my first solo trip. It was momentous. I sat at the bar of an Italian restaurant on my second and last night in Bali after a massage at Jari Menari, and I met my surfer friend Jake, who’s become an oddly important person in my life.

So as I was going through my usual routine of where to stay when I left the Bukit a few days ago, it turned out my friends were all staying in Seminyak. I booked a room at the Four Points Sheraton there. Continue reading Seminyak bookends →

Travel

Christmas in the Bukit

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On Christmas Eve, I was sitting in the breeze of the Kirana eating my breakfast of croissants, chicken bruschetta sandwich, and yogurt, fruit, and granola. I’m not going to lie – it was extremely pleasant (and caloric). I was waffling (not food-wise but mentally) about whether I should hole up and be alone or spend Christmas with three other groups – Jay and the nomads, John and his Singapore/HK crew, or with Jake in the Bukit.

Ever since the summer, I have been wondering if I should see Jake again. I met him 5 years ago in Bali. He’s a surfer who’s been living between Bali, Hawaii, and CA for the past 20 years and a good friend, though things can certainly be strained and odd between us for whatever reason…probably many reasons. He invited me to come stay at his place for the duration of my stay in Bali. He’s always so warm and welcoming, but our worlds could not be more different. His friends seem to all have past criminal records, have served prison time, and do bong rips before surfing in the ocean. The only thing I really want right now is to be taken to a nice fine dining Italian dinner. We have our basic human kindness in common and care for each other deeply even though we seem to barely speak the same language. Continue reading Christmas in the Bukit →

Travel

Culture trekking in Sa Pa

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About 300 km northwest of Hanoi is a town called Sa Pa, a lush and gorgeous area in the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains. Trekking from village to village visiting the hill tribes and crossing the terraced rice fields of the Muong Hoa Valley is the main attraction. Normally, it looks like this:

Source: journeyvietnam.com

I happened to arrive at a moment when it was very cold and enshrouded in fog.

Continue reading Culture trekking in Sa Pa →

Travel

H 2 the H: Hanoi to Halong Bay

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I hopped on a $40 Jetstar flight way up north to Hanoi (Ha Noi was basically a flood zone due to rain, so I decided to skip this much-loved destination). My friend Mark (aka “Marky Mark”) would meet me up there in a few days.

I didn’t see much of Hanoi. I stayed in the Old Quarter, and as my Uber traveled through the labyrinthine streets to my hotel, Essence Palace Hotel, I thought mostly about my fatigue. The hotel itself was lovely. The staff could not be friendlier. I explained that I wanted to book a Halong Bay cruise and get overnight train tickets to Sapa following my cruise, and it was all taken care of. I didn’t care about paying a premium for anything. I went to my room, turned on HBO, stared at the screen blankly. Then I proceeded to eat every item in the mini-bar. Pringles, Oreos, cashews, two bags of M&Ms, Ritz crackers. The list goes on. I was going on tilt. And then I crashed and slept. It felt so good to not do anything. Continue reading H 2 the H: Hanoi to Halong Bay →

Food, Travel, Work

Saigon, day 3 – wiped!

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The day was spent grazing, gymming, and then at a startup event.

Some eats (minus the massive amounts of summer rolls from street vendors):

I ended the day in a co-working space, at an event hosted by 500 Startups and the Canadian government. The panel discussion was interesting, but it left me wondering about how this startup scene was going to be fueled in Vietnam and what it would actually end up looking like. The chit chat networking session after the event made me realize I need to craft a better story about what I’m doing with my life. Explaining that I’m a nomad without an agenda doesn’t really go over very well. Blank stares. I could see the thought bubble over peoples’ heads, “Oh, you’re not important…or are you? I don’t even know what you’re talking about.” Silence. “Excuse me. I’m going to have a beer.” Dismissed.

Food, Travel

Cu chi tour

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My second day is Saigon was spent mostly out of Saigon. We embarked early in the morning on a motorcycle tour with the tour company OneTrip. It was a well-curated day led by our student guides. One of them, Long, had just finished a year of Survivor style (well, maybe a bit less dramatic and more manageable) trekking around Vietnam.

The day began whizzing around the streets of Saigon with the rain drizzling on us. Surprisingly, it was not as bothersome as I would have thought. It was a Sunday, and I was grateful that traffic was more muted than it would have been on a weekday.

We stopped for a misty breakfast. Our guides pulled out Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches, giving us the option to have pork or egg. We opted for pork (ah, the vegan life was temporarily over). First, we were served a shot of iced green tea, as is customary. We watched our Vietnamese coffees drip into their vessels, and I drank mine black as the rest dumped some milkiness into the fresh brew.


Continue reading Cu chi tour →

Travel

Oh my Saigon! Day one

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Ho Chi Minh City, more familiarly known as Saigon, is the crazy bustling commercial capital of Vietnam. Crossing the street is a leap of faith. Little street eateries dot the streets with people cooking next to tiny tables and stools for their patrons. It is a loud, dirty, crazy, and active city. A bit of a shock to the system after weeks of island life and retreats. The first thing that happened to me was getting ripped off, but happily, things improved from there.

Continue reading Oh my Saigon! Day one →