15jan26
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭 STREET ART: NATURE
15jan26
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: WEEK 2 OF THE STREET COFFEE LIFE
If Week 1 was about finding my bearings, Week 2 was about finding my seat—usually a red or blue plastic stool no more than six inches off the ground. In Ho Chi Minh City, the best views aren’t from the skyscrapers; they’re from the curb.
The Liquid Gold: Egg Coffee at Eggyolk
I started the week treating myself to a masterpiece. Cà Phê Trứng (Egg Coffee) is less of a drink and more of a dessert. Watching the layers of creamy, whisked yolk sit atop that intense Vietnamese coffee is a ritual in itself. It’s the perfect “slow” start in a city that rarely hits the brakes.
There is a specific kind of peace found at 6:00 AM across from Bến Thành Market. While waiting for the currency exchange to open, I sat with a Cà Phê Sữa Đá and watched the city wake up. At that hour, the air is still relatively cool, the motorbikes are a steady hum rather than a roar, and the coffee hits just a little bit harder.
One of my favorite captures this week was outside the Central Post Office. I caught two local guys posing for photos while I sat with my own iced milk coffee. It’s a classic Saigon scene: the juxtaposition of grand colonial architecture and the effortless, cool street style of the younger generation.
The uncle at the “Cold Drinks” stands in his plaid shirt smiling and he is as warm as the coffee is cold. Pham Ngu Lao.
The latter half of the week took me to The Simple Cafe.
There is something incredibly grounding about buying a coffee from a stainless steel cart on the sidewalk.
In Saigon, you don’t just drink coffee; you inhabit it. You sit, you watch the traffic, you study your Vietnamese notes, and you realize that the “simple life” is actually quite vibrant.
Quick Tips from the Sidewalk:
• Cà Phê Sữa Đá: Your best friend for 90°F (32°C) humidity.
• The Stool Rule: If there’s a plastic stool, it’s a legitimate cafe. Don’t be shy!
• Timing: Hit the markets early. The energy at sunrise is unmatched.
April 2026
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭 STREET ART: SIKH ON A SCOOTER
25jan26
SAIGON, VIETNAM: 12 DAYS OF FOOD IN MARCH
What I’ve been reminded of about eating in Saigon: the best food is never inside a building. NEVER. The best food has no menu, or a menu you can’t read, or a menu that’s just a woman pointing at what she’s already made. The best food costs less than two dollars. The best food finds you.
March 2026
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭 STREET ART: MUEBON
25jan26
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭: LIVING IN BEGINNINGS
Some people build their lives by accumulating—addresses, routines, long-term plans that stretch neatly into the future. Mine has moved differently. Sideways. Forward. Then somewhere unexpected.
I’ve spent years crossing borders, resetting calendars, learning the rhythm of new cities just long enough to feel them under my skin. I’ve learned how to arrive without unpacking everything. How to be present without pretending permanence is required.
Beginnings used to feel temporary to me—something to get through on the way to “real life.” Somewhere along the way, I realized this is my real life.
Beginnings are sharp. They ask questions. They strip you of assumptions. They don’t let you hide behind habit. Every new place demands attention: How do people move here? Where does the day slow down? What matters?
Living this way has taught me to stay light, curious, unfinished. I don’t measure time by how long I stay anymore, but by how awake I am while I’m there.
These photos aren’t souvenirs. They’re markers of presence. Proof that I showed up, looked closely, and let a place change me—even briefly.
I don’t know where I’ll be next. I rarely do. But I trust beginnings now. I trust the open space before things are defined.
Some lives are about continuity.
Mine has been about permission.
Permission to start again.
Permission to live between chapters.
Permission to stay in motion without apology.
I’ve stopped waiting for the moment when things finally feel settled.
I’ve learned to live right here—
in beginnings.
January 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM: STREET COFFEE STANDS & SPECIALTY COFFEES WEEK 1, DAY 7 ~ SALT COFFEE
My notebook and pen already on the table.
Tried the salt coffee. Cà phê muối. Watched him build it. Strong coffee on the bottom, ice in the middle, then that salted cream poured over the top, thick and slow, curling into itself like it knew I was taking a photo. The cream is whipped with sea salt until it’s heavy and smooth, and when it hits the coffee it just sits there on top, refusing to mix until you tell it to.
First sip through the cream and it doesn’t taste salty. It tastes like someone fixed everything that’s wrong with bitter coffee without adding sugar. The salt tricks your tongue into tasting sweetness that isn’t there. Invented in Hue in 2010 by a husband and wife who needed their cafe to stand out. Now it’s on every menu in the country.
A week of coffee in Saigon and I’ve gone from straight black on a plastic stool to coconut coffee in a cocktail glass to salt cream poured from a pitcher at a street cart. This city keeps finding new ways to put caffeine in my bloodstream and I keep letting it.
27march26
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭: DEMOCRACY MONUMENT
This is the Democracy Monument, and it’s one of the most symbolically loaded places in Bangkok.
It was built in 1939 on Ratchadamnoen Avenue to commemorate the 1932 Siamese Revolution, when Thailand shifted from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy.
This marks the moment Thailand officially moved toward modern democracy.
1. The four wing-like pillars
Each tall fin represents one branch of the Thai armed forces involved in the 1932 revolution:
Army Navy Air Force Police
They stand guarding the constitution, not towering over it.
2. The central structure
At the center is a golden pedestal that symbolically holds the constitution (which is represented as resting on a tray).
The message: the constitution is the heart of the nation, protected by the state.
3. The relief sculptures at the base
These panels depict:
ordinary citizens soldiers and civilians together scenes of collective struggle
The emphasis is not on kings or gods, but on the people.
Political and cultural significance
For decades, it has been a rallying point for pro-democracy protests a stage for political speeches a symbol reclaimed by multiple generations of activists.
When people gather here, they’re not just protesting current politics—they’re invoking 1932 and asking whether its promise has been fulfilled.
25jan26
BANGKOK, THAILAND 🇹🇭 STREET ART: BLUE BUNNY
25jan26
SAIGON, VIETNAM: STREET COFFEE STANDS & SPECIALTY COFFEES WEEK 1, DAY 6 ~ A SAIGON OBSESSION
Day 6. Broke my sidewalk stall streak and went upmarket. Had to try the coconut coffee, cà phê dừa. This one came in a cocktail glass topped with toasted coconut flakes, thick and cold, more dessert than caffeine. Coconut milk or coconut cream blended with strong Vietnamese coffee, sweet and rich, a different animal entirely from the straight black I’ve been drinking all week. Still drinking it on the street, not confined by walls.
A week in and I’m building a routine without meaning to. Morning coffee on a plastic stool. Photograph everything. Come home, collapse, do it again. Saigon doesn’t ask you to make a plan. It just gives you a chair and waits to see what happens.
26march26