Just Phuket (Part 2)

Now that I'm able to load images, here are some of the top 10 highlights (and lowlights) of our Phuket vacation.

1. The beach. My love for the beach is well known. Add a good book and a great friend into the mix and I'm in heaven.

2. The pool. When we got tired of the beach, we came here. Not to shabby, eh?

3. The elephant ride. Honestly, we thought this was going to be a lot cooler than it was. I mean, we knew elephants didn't walk quickly but we were not prepared for the slow (and steep!) journey we experienced. We half-joked that our elephant and its mahout (aka driver) were both about 300 years old, but it was true. They were both up there in years and the whole thing made us feel kind of sad. On the one hand, we can say we rode an elephant in Thailand, and how many people have that opportunity! On the other, we wished we'd asked how much to just take our picture on top and then left.

3 1/2. Needless to say, given Jen's distinct dislike of monkeys, we did not patronize the monkey show on the same property. It was all I could do to convince her to take this photo.

4. The views. Since we had plenty of time on the elephant (30 minutes seemed like an eternity), we had the chance to see some beautiful scenery. This was actually taken at a separate vista point, however.

5. Bangla Road. This is where the major party scene is. About a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel in Patong, it was close enough that we could enjoy it but far enough away that we could get away when we were over it. Sure, there are some normal bars and clubs with live music (see number 10), but there were also a lot of seedy entertainment options. Bangla Road was both a highlight and a low light because we literally saw a little bit of everything. Let's leave it at that on the blog.

6. The architecture. These old shop houses were located in Phuket Town in the center of the island. We weren't overly impressed with Phuket Town (shopping not nearly as good as Bangkok or Bali), but we thought these buildings were beautiful.

7. The food. Of the countries I've visited, I think Thailand has the best food, hands down. Poolside food isn't typically great but this pineapple rice was amazing!

8. The Thai massage. Simply wonderful. If you've never had one, it's much more physical than a normal massage you'd receive in the U.S. It was our first time and we were in the same room (kind of like a couples massage but not like that either!). You have to wear these big fisherman's cotton pants and they put a towel over your bare skin while massaging, beating, kicking, elbowing and slapping the stress away. Whatever, it worked. It was kind of funny when Jen's leg fell off her Thai lady's shoulders and the woman giggled, "strong woman!"

9. The ridiculously inverted cost of some things. For example:

- 60-minute Thai massage: $250 Baht/$300 with tip (approx. $7.50/$9)

- Driver for most of the day: 400 Baht (approx. $12)

- Drink at a show: 500 Baht (approx. $15) Note: drinks elsewhere were less expensive, only 50 Baht on the beach so only $1.50 but still!

10. Funny things and inside jokes. 69 Baht foot long. Gross Street. Elvis and Tom Jones memorial cover bands (um, last time I checked Tom Jones was alive?!). They were funny to us, anyway.

Unfortunately, one thing we didn't get to do was take a boat to Phi Phi Island. It rained a ton on Sunday morning when we wanted to go, and we just didn't want to risk the chance of the boat not making it back in time for our flight on Monday. We both said if we ever return we might actually want to stay in that area for a different experience, but it was great fun overall.

Next stop: Jen's currently in Cambodia, and this weekend we're going to Kuala Lumpur (it's my last weekend in Asia!).

Phuket Part 1

Yesterday was yet another public holiday in Singapore: Deepavali, the Hindu festival of lights celebrating the Rama's homecoming after a 14-year exile. It was my last three-day weekend, and Jen and I were determined to take advantage of it, so we set out for Phuket, Thailand.

Phuket is an island well-known for its beaches and its party scene. Both lived up to the expectations and we had a great time. Unfortunately, however, I'm having trouble with Blogger images so I'll save the meat of my post for tomorrow. TTFN!

Jen's first day

Jen arrived in Singapore safely and on time around noon. She even let me hug her! We did a little walking tour around the Arab Street/Raffles City/Riverwalk area then had dinner at Boat Quay along the river. But before dinner we checked off one of the top 10 tourist destinations in Singapore - something I surprisingly hadn't done yet.

We had a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, where the drink originated. It must be the start of a great long weekend!

Sweeney Collins Neal Preview

I'm super excited about Jen's trip to Singapore. So much so, that I thought I'd preview her visit (she's en route somewhere over the Pacific now) with a few past antics. Enjoy!

Final four!

Halloween: Martha & Amy

Captiola 2.0

Apparently we were into exercising that year!

And don't forget the Christmas celebrations! (I believe LMB titled this photo "KCN Seriously")

This is the night I accidentally broke her rib in an enthusiastic hug. She's fine now, don't worry...but she might be reluctant to hug me upon her arrival. :)

Fun Videos

Not much to report here personally, but I thought you'd enjoy these videos. Feel free to watch them, rate them if you want to on YouTube, and become of fan of this Facebook fan page if you like it: http://www.facebook.com/HPTouchPrintGo. Even if you're not on Facebook you can take a look at the page and see what's been going on here. I think they're really cute, and I hope you do, too.

Durian: Delicious or Disgusting?

I've referenced the durian off-handedly a few times since arriving in Singapore but until yesterday had yet to try one. Known for its formidable odor, the durian is one of those things most people either love or hate. Here's the picture available from Wikipedia:


My colleague Christina loves durians and she promised to pick out a "good one" for me to try. Always so thoughtful, she brought me one on Sunday and here's a look at my first taste.

Ok, so I wouldn't go far as to say that I hated it but I didn't eat any more than that first bite. What I DID hate was the resulting smell in my apartment. I'm sure you noticed that I tried my first taste at the pool. That's because they're so ridiculously odoriferous that I did not want to open it in my home. Despite the fact that the durian was in a styrofoam clamshell wrapped in Saran Wrap and a plastic bag and behind the closed door of my fridge, it STILL smelled up the place. Brian had enough and said, let's get this thing out of here ASAP, so that's when we went to the pool. Luckily the smell is almost gone now, thanks to a little baking soda and an air freshener.

Brian declined to try the durian. Wonder why?

BTW Brian left this morning (boo) and is somewhere between Tokyo and SF right now. Sad to see him go, we had such a great trip, but I'll be home in 18 days. Jen arrives Thursday and I'm looking forward to her visit so much!

The Beauty of Bali by Brian

We saved the best for last. Bali, by far, was our favorite stop on a two-week journey that took us all over Asia.


As you can see - the island is a beauty. We spent most of our days relaxing on the beach, which was literally a hop, skip, and a jump from our hotel, The Oberoi. And what a stay we had. This was easily the best hotel we've ever stayed at, and the staff treated us like royalty. They even polished our sunglasses at the beach!

Speaking of the beach - good people and animal watching! My favorite were the horses. I ran a long distance to get that photo so I hope you enjoy it. There were also a lot of stray dogs on the beach. Not my favorite, especially after witnessing one pooch use the sand as his toilet. Just as common as the dogs, were the old Balinese women offering on-site beach massages. I passed but Katie got a 45-minute massage for $10 U.S. dollars. She said the massage was OK, good enough for 10 bucks. Her biggest complaint wasn't the sand, but that they massaged her head and got oil in her hair. Poor baby.

The best part about Bali, for me anyway, is that there was no schedule. Y'all know that Katie loves schedules. She's affectionately known as "Clipboard Katie" in Sacramento. However, she did assure me before we left for Bali that I could sleep in every morning. Despite that assurance, I woke up at 5:45am on two mornings. Why, you ask? The Yankees, of course! Not even the beauty of Bali could keep me from watching October baseball, even if I had to do it in the wee hours of the morning. It was totally worth it. Sleep or Yankee playoff baseball? I'll take the Yankees every single time. Afterwards, I enjoyed a hearty "American Breakfast" for what seemed like the 50th time in a row. We more or less had the same breakfast every morning because it was included in our package. Bali wasn't as cheap as the other places we visited, and we figured that was the "fiscally responsible" thing to do. It was good though!

While we did spend most of our time near the grounds of our hotel and resort, we took one day trip to another part of the island - Ubud. This was inland, away from the crashing waves. We got to see a traditional Balinese home, picturesque rice terraces, and the Monkey Forest. The monkeys freaked me out a bit. Katie even snuck in some shopping at a gallery and a market. My least favorite part of the day trip.

Overall, I give Bali an A, just a notch below Hawaii, which is an A+. But who's complaining? (For the record, Katie gives it an A+.) Check out these photos.

Neals at the Night Safari

Tonight we went to the third must-see place on Brian's Singapore to do list: the Night Safari. It's the world's first (of course it's the first, it's Singapore) evening wildlife exhibit. It's like a zoo but the animals are in recreated habitats and some of them are even free roaming (to a degree, of course). We had a few very tame animals like deer come right up to the tram we rode.

We saw everything from big cats to elephants to giraffes to large rodents to plain dwellers. You could get off the tram in the middle and take some separate trails to see other things up close. I went into a bat habitat where fruit bats where flying freely around. You could feel the flutter as they flew by, but it wasn't too scary because they were harmless. Some of them were hanging upside down and looked like mini Draculas. Brian chose not to enter the bat cage!

Understandably but unfortunately, flash photography of the animals is prohibited because it agitates some of them. How do you take pictures in the dark without a flash? Maybe that's the point... Anyway, to recreate the experience for you, Brian and I posed like some of the lions and tigers and bears, oh my, that we saw.



Hope you enjoyed that. I cheated once on the Malayan porcupine.


I couldn't help it. Besides, if a camera flashes in the jungle and no one is there to see it, did it really flash? Hmmm...

The Night Safari was decked out for Halloween and on Friday and Saturday nights they offer a spooky safari during the month of October. Since we went on a Monday night, I tried my best to scare those around me.

Showing Brian around Singapore

Calling off the Cambodia trip - while disappointing - has not necessarily been a bad thing. It's given us the chance to chill a little bit (apparently Brian doesn't like to go, go, go on vacation as much as he might lead one to believe, and let's be honest: he's no match for me when it comes to checking things off a list, ha ha). Seriously, it's been nice because it's also given us the chance to see more of Singapore than we would have had time for otherwise.

After returning from Bangkok, we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, a Mediterranean place called Al Qasr in Holland Village. Delicious! Then, we started tackling the first of three things Brian really wanted to do in Singapore...



...a trip to O'Bama's Irish Pub. Yes, the one in the nearby shop house I mentioned my first week here and the same one that left the funny F1 flyer. Brian really wanted a t-shirt but all they had were polos, so he just enjoyed his Kilkenny and was satisfied. The bar's slogan was "Change you can drink to."

Yesterday we slept in and bummed around before having lunch at a nearby hawker stand (Brian loves the hawker centers). Then, we embarked on the second thing on his must-see list...



...the Singapore Flyer. Here he is, overlooking the Central Business District and the Marina area. The entire trip only takes about 30 minutes and it was fun for me to see where everything is from a bird's eye view, even though I've done the Flyer once before.


After the Flyer we spent some time doing light shopping in the stretch of never-ending underground malls tracking all the way from the Flyer to the River. Here's Brian along the Singapore River, just before Clarke Quay, where we met Whitney and Josh for dinner and drinks. He'll get the chance to meet the rest of my friends when we're back from Bali on Saturday.

Speaking of which, that's another reason why canceling Cambodia hasn't been all bad. We decided to extend our stay in Bali and will now fly out Tuesday (tomorrow) morning instead of Wednesday. Moving the flight was pretty inexpensive, but when I called our hotel yesterday to add an extra night, I was told that only their equivalent of the Presidential Suite was available - for $950 USD/night. Um, no. I had decided this was a good opportunity to explore the cultural area of Bali called Ubud and began researching hotels off the beach so we could get a different type of experience. This morning Brian called our hotel (the Oberoi) "just to check" and guess what - they had a room at the same rate and we're booked. Yay! Obviously we're really looking forward to it. In fact, Brian has begun researching Bali sports bars so he can watch MLB playoff games in the wee hours of the morning. Hey, if that's his idea of relaxing, that's fine with me as long as it doesn't disrupt my time in the sun!

One Night in Bangkok

Actually, we spent three nights in Bangkok, but you wouldn't know it because Brian's theme song the entire trip was "One Night in Bangkok." If (like me) you do not remember this 80's song, check out the video here. Then imagine Brian singing or humming it for three days straight...

Brian's musical inclinations aside, we enjoyed our trip to Bangkok though neither of us plans to return any time soon.

Among many things, Bangkok is known for shopping. Since it was pouring rain our first morning, we decided to hit the indoor shopping circuit first. I'd love to show photos from inside some of the crazy malls - both high-end and market-style, but photography inside is discouraged and we tried not to tick people off while we were there. Neither Neal is a huge shopper though I bought a few silk pillowcases and a wall hanging. Despite its diversity, shopping wore thin on Brian after a few hours so we regrouped and headed over to Khao San Road, which came highly recommended by friends Carolyn and Ali.

Khao San Road is a pedestrian-friendly street once frequented primarily by backpackers. Now you can find just about anyone there, milling the streets with $2 beers and bags full of jewelry, t-shirts and other souvenirs. We really enjoyed this area in part because it was so chill, in part because of the "bargains" we thought we got, and in part because it was the first time it had stopped raining. That night we had dinner at a great Thai seafood place on the river called Baan Klang Nam. Ali recommended it and it was delish!

Luckily, it didn't rain our second day there so we got to enjoy the Grand Palace in its full glory.

Because the adjoining Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddha and other nearby buildings are sacred, bare shoulders and shorts were not allowed. We knew this going in but it was just so hot and humid in Bangkok, we decided to rent the cover-up clothing for an hour or two and be comfortable the rest of the day. These photos don't do the intricacies justice, but I'll save the details for the Snapfish album.

This is a mini-replica of Angkor Wat. I actually debated on taking this photo since Cambodia was our next stop. However, due to flooding in Siem Reap we have canceled the trip we were supposed to begin tomorrow. We really went back and forth about this until we saw photos on this blog of downtown Siem Reap: http://cambodiacalling.blogspot.com/. It made our decision pretty easy, and confirmed it when our "non-refundable" flights and hotel reservations were refunded except for $16. My peace of mind is worth more than that (and I'm sure my mother's is as well).



Anyway, I digress. Here we are outside Wat Pho, the oldest temple in Bangkok. As you can see some of it is quite worn down...


...while other parts have been restored. Wat Pho is the site of the famous "Reclining Buddha," a large gold statue that depicts its namesake. Photos discouraged.


We couldn't resist photos of the street scenes, however. We spent a lot of time in cabs because traffic here sucks. Not sure if you can really tell here, but many streets are rather dingy, the sidewalks are broken, and the buildings have soot on the outside. This is near the Chao Praya River area, while the photo above is of the Sukhumvit area near our hotel.

Yesterday afternoon we took a river cruise after enjoying lunch alongside the river.

I love this photo because it epitomizes our Bangkok experiences and observations. Note something so nice and lovey next to something so run down. In many ways it saddened us but the people were quite happy. Thailand is known as the Land of Smiles, and we found most people (cabbies who didn't want to turn on the meter aside) to be quite friendly.

Back to the ugly, though...we also checked out the sin city aspects in the late afternoon, including the Patpong and Soi Nana areas. We did not take photos out of respect for both the "professionals" and the "patrons" (no doubt seeking secrecy). Even in some of the seediest areas, we never felt unsafe.

Last night we wrapped our evening at the Suan Lum night market, which had thousands of shops and dozens of food stalls in the bier garden. We didn't shop long but we enjoyed the food and the Lady Gaga cover song entertainment. Everything we ate in Bangkok was delicious - food was definitely a highlight of our trip (much to Brian's relief after a couple of sketchy instances in Beijing).

Since we're no longer headed to Siem Reap tomorrow, we're going to enjoy a few extra days in Singapore. We're also considering an additional day in Bali, but we're waiting to decide tomorrow. For now, we're off to dinner and to enjoy one night in Singapore. Lar lar lar.