Sunny With A Chance Of Fire

DANIELLA.

Eurasian/Hispanic. Actor. Traveler. Magic Maker. Book Lover. Sassy. Nerd. Adventure Seeker.


Right now is all that matters so drink life in, feel whole-heartedly and most importantly, BE FEARLESS!

Hello Vietnam!

So we’re in Ho Chi Minh City which is bustling with the chaos of a busy city!

We decided to hit up Ben Thanh markets which is like Paddy’s back in Sydney except bigger and significantly more interesting! It’s like a maze inside, with itty bitty rows jam packed with everything from alcohol to jade jewelry.

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A variety of knick knacks in eye-popping colours. 

I was drawn to one stall that specialized in selling some form of alcohol with various creepy crawlies in them. The liquid is called Ginseng and comes with your choice of snake or scorpion inside. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can opt for the bottle with a snake killing a scorpion in its mouth (my personal fave). 

Bottoms up!

I’ve seen enough movies to know that in Mexico you can get a tiny worm put at the bottom of your drink because it’s meant to be good for you but I was baffled at the idea of drinking dead snake juice. The only thing I can come up with is that you’d feel pretty powerful, like in ancient stories where the victor of a battle would drink wine out of his victim’s skull. Show ‘em who’s boss (even if you didn’t technically kill it)!



Another stall that I found intriguing was one that sold plates with a variety of images such as religious icons, and traditional costumed Vietnamese women. The interesting thing was that these plates were guarded by little toy Transformer soldiers! I could be hella wrong (in which case , I apologize to the Transformer freaks who are probably disgusted right now) but they looked like Transformer robots and they were very cute bodyguards.

On another note, I discovered something very important about myself today: I’m crap at bargaining. Amongst a sea of things I didn’t inherit from my Asian mother (such as silky straight hair, clear skin and the ability to do maths), being able to haggle is at the top of that list. I soon discover it’s a trait my father also possesses so clearly I’m the weak runt of the pack.

We came across a perfume stall where I spotted one of my favourite fragrances: Moon Sparkle by Escada (Dolce and Gabbana’s Light Blue is a close second!). One of my best friends Popi, got it for me years ago and I’d quickly become addicted. My bottle was almost empty but conveniently, it was in Ho Chi Minh City, tantalizingly staring me down for 20 bucks.

I happily agreed to pay that and was reaching for my wallet, planning on giving this sweet middle-aged lady double the price because it’s so darn cheap. However, my father shook his head before saying to me in French “You can get it for lower. Bargain.” I blinked at him. Bargain?! You wouldn’t ask someone at Myer to bargain on their perfume price. Dad waved me off and started haggling with the lady.

Several minutes later, I’m guiltily standing with a bottle of perfume that normally retails for near $100, only costing me $7. As I scuttle away in shame from the perfume lady, I see her pull out an iPad from her bag so my shame is quickly replaced with pride for my Dad’s exceptional haggling skills.

Besides, at the rate I’m going, I’ll end up paying a few hundred in excess baggage on my way home so my karma evens out! 

<3 D 

My travel checklist! QUIT YOUR JOB: It isn’t exactly about just quitting your job. It’s about getting unstuck. If you’re not happy, what are you waiting for? Quit following the path that is unfulfilled and consider doing something else. The time is Now. For most of us, this is the hardest part of changing your life. Making that first step. You have two choices in life: the path of least resistance, or the path you can’t resist. I say, “why resist?”. Quit. Go. Now. BUY A TICKET: the world is a big place and there’s a million dreams we’ve all had, most of which will go unrealized unfortunately. Buying a ticket means finding a destination where you think improvement can be made and pointing yourself in that direction. The great thing about travel is when we get somewhere new our lives usually appear different to us when we look back into them from the outside. I’ve always thought that as a society we don’t spend enough time vacationing. We spend 50 weeks a year working for the goal of taking 2 weeks off. There’s an obvious problem with this equation. But even one day off, if lived correctly, can be a major return on a small investment. The ticket doesn’t cost that much in the scope of life. GET A TAN: It’s not about the tan. It’s really about letting yourself go, to really learn to relax and become a “local” in your new environment. I’ve found through extensive island travels that its takes a considerable amount of time to become “unstuck” and become a local. Our day-to-day jobs, efforts, trials and tribulations build up a lot of scar tissue and we put up a lot of barriers in dealing with them. This makes seeing the good things hard sometimes. It takes nearly a month to truly decompress. Another month to become yourself again (and by yourself I mean that person who was once full of ideals and dreams that has been slowly silenced by the day to day monotony that seems to change us and put us off course). And again it takes another month just to become indoctrinated in becoming a “local” in whatever new environment you are in. The locals know the roads, the hideaways, the places that make you smile. They are freer than us. So yeah, I guess I’m saying that to truly “get a tan”, and not just a “tourist tan”, you need to be somewhere 3 months. We’ve seen them on vacation – those dark-skinned, ex-patriated locals that make us jealous. Their tans are different than ours. Well so are their minds too. FALL IN LOVE. I think this is a testament to becoming yourself again. It doesn’t necessarily mean “finally finding that perfect person that only exists in faraway fantasy locales”, but by returning to the state of mind that allows you to be open to falling in love. In love with where you are, who you are, and in love with the potential of your future. This love is what allows great things to happen again. And it usually isn’t dependent on anyone other than ourselves to achieve. NEVER RETURN. Well it’s the best ending to being reborn. Don’t go back to the past, keep moving forward, life can be as great as we want to make it, so never move backward. The past makes up who we are. No matter how great, or how bad some events have shaped us, it’s what we’re left with today that we have to work with. This is where true growth happens in our life. By moving forward, building upon the past, seeking greatness in the future. Never returning. —Spencer Antle, Island Company Founder and Creative Director

My travel checklist!


QUIT YOUR JOB: It isn’t exactly about just quitting your job. It’s about getting unstuck. If you’re not happy, what are you waiting for? Quit following the path that is unfulfilled and consider doing something else. The time is Now. For most of us, this is the hardest part of changing your life. Making that first step. You have two choices in life: the path of least resistance, or the path you can’t resist. I say, “why resist?”. Quit. Go. Now.

BUY A TICKET: the world is a big place and there’s a million dreams we’ve all had, most of which will go unrealized unfortunately. Buying a ticket means finding a destination where you think improvement can be made and pointing yourself in that direction. The great thing about travel is when we get somewhere new our lives usually appear different to us when we look back into them from the outside. I’ve always thought that as a society we don’t spend enough time vacationing. We spend 50 weeks a year working for the goal of taking 2 weeks off. There’s an obvious problem with this equation. But even one day off, if lived correctly, can be a major return on a small investment. The ticket doesn’t cost that much in the scope of life.

GET A TAN: It’s not about the tan. It’s really about letting yourself go, to really learn to relax and become a “local” in your new environment. I’ve found through extensive island travels that its takes a considerable amount of time to become “unstuck” and become a local. Our day-to-day jobs, efforts, trials and tribulations build up a lot of scar tissue and we put up a lot of barriers in dealing with them. This makes seeing the good things hard sometimes. It takes nearly a month to truly decompress. Another month to become yourself again (and by yourself I mean that person who was once full of ideals and dreams that has been slowly silenced by the day to day monotony that seems to change us and put us off course). And again it takes another month just to become indoctrinated in becoming a “local” in whatever new environment you are in. The locals know the roads, the hideaways, the places that make you smile. They are freer than us. So yeah, I guess I’m saying that to truly “get a tan”, and not just a “tourist tan”, you need to be somewhere 3 months. We’ve seen them on vacation – those dark-skinned, ex-patriated locals that make us jealous. Their tans are different than ours. Well so are their minds too.

FALL IN LOVE. I think this is a testament to becoming yourself again. It doesn’t necessarily mean “finally finding that perfect person that only exists in faraway fantasy locales”, but by returning to the state of mind that allows you to be open to falling in love. In love with where you are, who you are, and in love with the potential of your future. This love is what allows great things to happen again. And it usually isn’t dependent on anyone other than ourselves to achieve.

NEVER RETURN. Well it’s the best ending to being reborn. Don’t go back to the past, keep moving forward, life can be as great as we want to make it, so never move backward. The past makes up who we are. No matter how great, or how bad some events have shaped us, it’s what we’re left with today that we have to work with. This is where true growth happens in our life. By moving forward, building upon the past, seeking greatness in the future. Never returning.

—Spencer Antle, Island Company Founder and Creative Director

(Source: to-young, via themonologueofasophisticate)

Travel Monkey

My childhood was pretty unique. I grew up in Australia in a mixed cultured home with a French papa and a Filipino/Hispanic mama. From the age of 6 months, my parents would take me to the Philippines to spend several months living there which meant I’d be shuttled back and forth from country to country, adapting as only children do. One month I’d be scaling up palm trees like a monkey to hack down coconuts with the local kids and eating dinner with my hands but the next I’d be using cutlery and playing Mario Kart.

I got to experience some wonderful things like travelling with the local fishermen on their boats far out into the ocean and frolicking with sea critters.  I learnt Chinese and Tagalog at Bohol Wisdom School with other middle-class Filo children but spent my afternoons running amok with the village children, creating worlds of magic with discarded tyres,  seashells and sticks.

I put an end to my double life at 14 when I asked my parents if I could stay in Sydney fulltime to concentrate on my School Cert and then HSC. Yes, I was (and still am) a massive nerd. After the HSC came uni, acting classes and work.  Any spare cash I had was used to travel back and forth to America for my acting career so my return to the Phils was constantly pushed back.

But now, I’m finally returning! I’m so excited to be travelling with my family again, just like when I was a bubba! I promised myself that the three of us would take a trip back to the Phils once again but as the years passed, I grew fearful it would never happen. Thankfully, it has and I’m looking forward to spending time laughing, exploring, loving and bonding with my wonderful parents.

So where does this little blog fit in? Well, I want to remember my trip and pictures simply won’t suffice. I want to write down my adventures and then, at a later date, come back to them and re-live them through my words. We write to live life twice so that’s my aim for Future D.

I won’t be making every entry public but I hope the things that I do share will pull you into my world of

MAGIC. DREAMERS. ART. THRILLS.  JOY. CREATIVITY. ADVENTURES. TRAVEL MONKEYS.  LAUGHTER. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES. FREE SPIRITS. LOVERS. BELIEVERS.

I hope you enjoy the ride, because I definitely will. 

<3 D