Living In These Corona Times and Back From HCMC

We've been in partial lockdown due to Covid since 18 March in Malaysia. Nic and I were lucky as we had just got back in time from our trip to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Meeting Uncle Ho at the HCMC Post Office which is still in use!

We had gone for a week to visit friends in Vietnam and just chill a bit. It was also my post-birthday travel - a little bit of me-time that I try to take once a year. Each year, I try to visit a new country that's one plane ride away.

Nic and I went to the Reunification Palace or Independence Palace.

Inside, there were lots of old, stately furniture but nothing much. If you're in Saigon, just skip this.

More old furniture. A bit ghastly to me.

Food was great though! This was at a popular bistro named Propaganda. What a name.

I don't like transits and last year I did one major solo trip - Penang to Narita for a transit and then Narita to Honololu. It took me almost 30 hours each way including all those stops and long transit or layovers. I made that trip as it was for a programme that I was selected to participate. I had such a fabulous time in Hawaii (thank you East-West Center) and again I found time to put business and pleasure together.

Outside the Notre Dame Church in HCMC. Didn't manage to get in though. It's undergoing some renovation.

As someone who runs a business, it can be hard to take time off. Not because I don't want to. It's because life and business get entangled. Most of my pleasure trips or holidays are often mixed with a little bit of business and networking as well.

It was the same for this trip to HCMC.

Eating street food in Vietnam with friends and having Vietnamese beer.

I was there to celebrate my 46th birthday with two friends that I had met in Hawaii last year. Norhani flew in from Manila to be with me and Ha Thu. Ha Thu was our Vietnamese friend, also from our Hawaii programme. I called it our ASEAN meetup since we represented our three countries - Malaysia, Vietnam and The Philippines!

The two ASEAN pals of mine, Nor and Ha Thu.

That was a strange week in HCMC though as Nor got news that President Duterte was ordering a lockdown. She was freaking out as she didn't know if she could fly back into Manila. Fortunately she got back in time, a day before the Manila city lockdown.

In my own flippant way, I wasn't too concerned about the covid situation in Malaysia then. It was more like, should Nic and I still go ahead with our plans to HCMC? We had booked our tickets and our Airbnb about two months prior and we were checking with our Vietnam friend if the covid situation in Vietnam was under control.

Everywhere we went, we saw Vietnamese donning their face masks. We carried ours along too just to be safe.

Anyway, I have been back and under partial lockdown for the past 30 days. I haven't gone out of the house for groceries (Nic does that). I have been working more too since it's so easy to get sucked into more work since work and home and life seems to meld into this strange cauldron of routine.

I told Nic today, "I have been more productive in the past 30 days than most of the months!"

The partial lockdown or what we call MCO here is good for me. I have no meetings to attend so I can focus on the real work that needs my attention. I have been talking to friends and clients more on the phone.

I have been thinking a lot of what I need to do to reinvent myself (and this included going on FB Live) and suddenly I am deluged with requests for collaborations and interviews! I may have a second career as a FB Live host haha which is not too bad an idea since I like to collaborate, communicate and advocate.

And of course, friends who have resisted using online methods to market themselves are now scrambling to figure out how to sell online. And they come to me for advice.

It's bizarre times for sure as for once, all of humanity on earth are stuck at home, working at home and eating more at home.

I've also gone back to doing yoga and even crochet! I even made pumpkin pau last night.

But I have not been bingeing on Netflix as I am not a TV fan or a K-drama fan.

What about you? What's happening to you and your life in these unusual times?

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