November 2018 · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

November 28, 2018

Days 129 – 133: Closing Out Bali In Canggu

Are you tired of reading about us going to the beach yet? I’m not sure we will ever tire of being at the beach, and Canggu in Bali was certainly a beauty.

I will attempt to keep this post pretty short because a.) I’m behind like whoa on posts, and b.) we were total beach bums. Let me try to see what is worth sharing about being super lazy for five days in a beach town in Bali!

Day 129: Travel from Ubud to Canggu in Bali

We really loved our time in the hills of Ubud, Bali and were excited to see what going to the beach looked like in Bali.

I’ll spare you the details, but Ubud is decidedly anti-Uber. Apparently, there is a really strong taxi, umm, union, and we cancelled our Uber after our driver gave us the sketchiest instructions: “Go into a cafe to wait for me. Tell me your names, and when I come in, act like you have known me for a very long time. Very long. Do not, under any circumstances, wait on the street for me. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.” Umm, we’re good. Thank you, next.

After about an hour drive in a taxi, we arrived at our beautiful villa! This AirBNB is owned by a woman from New York, and we had a bedroom and bath that walked out on to a pretty pool and courtyard.

Yes. So Bali– this mural was in our villa’s driveway.

For lunch, we walked down the street to a yummy Thai place called Bangkok Hustle. And here I’m going to share what was probably our biggest frustration with Canggu: the sidewalk situation.

Bear with me. We really do not have the budget to rent a car or bike or pay for taxis except for very infrequently. We also love to walk and find it to be the best way to ensure we get enough exercise. When walking turns out to be dangerous or difficult, we get really frustrated because it makes getting around that much harder.

Canggu was filled with twenty-something kids on holiday who all rent motorbikes, to the extent that there is motorbike traffic. We also watched a very intoxicated woman run her bike off the road. Seriously. So being a pedestrian on these bike-filled roads was not our favorite.

For dinner, we found a place that served authentic banh mi. Well, authentic in taste; they were delicious. At about $3/sandwich, it was the cheapest meal we could find and at least twice as much as we paid while we were eating them in Vietnam. Vietnam spoiled us for authentic, inexpensive, delicious street food!

Day 130: Rich’s Third Haircut

(Of the trip.)

We ate breakfast cooked for us at our villa, and then Rich walked to get his haircut, and I read by the pool.

His hair looked good! The barber left it a bit long on the top, so we’ll see how it does for the next six weeks…Stretching the time between haircuts is one more way to stretch the budget.

We spent the rest of the day blogging and planning and spending time at the pool. If I were to name the place on the trip where we realized we were just worn out, it was definitely Canggu. Being on the move for the past five months caught up with us!

For lunch, we ate our second banh mi and ate dinner at Bangkok Hustle…again. It was during this dinner that we watched the young lady run her bike off of the road, and we bonded over the experience with an Australian couple next to us.

Bangkok Hustle in Canggu — Yummy Thai food at Bangkok Hustle

Joel and Jane, our new Australian friends, shared that many Australians treat Bali, and Canggu in particular, as their playground where they head to let loose. We really enjoyed chatting with them and sharing experiences of long-term travel. Joel and Jane are taking close to a year to explore Australia in a van. As in they are living out of a van. Hard core! Check out their blog if you are interested in learning more about what that’s like!

Day 131: Visiting the Beach at Canggu

We weren’t total beach bums; before breakfast, we jumped out of bed and did a couple of body weight workouts on my Aaptiv app.

We then enjoyed the breakfast provided by the villa and spent a few hours by the pool. We ate lunch at a nearby cafe. Bali has a plethora of amazing restaurants serving fresh, healthy food from around the world. Our budget limits where and how much we eat, but if you are looking for a vacation where you enjoy a smoothie bowl for breakfast, a huge warm pumpkin quinoa bowl for lunch, and practically anything you can imagine for dinner, I highly recommend finding a way to get to Bali.

Late in the afternoon, we walked to the beach to see it and catch a sunset. Our walk was a good thirty minutes– remember, the sidewalk situation– but it was worth every step. The beach was beautiful, with huge, powerful waves. And there were so many surfers! There were easily 50-75 surfers trying to catch a wave when we arrived. It was rather magical; I had never seen any kind of surfing scene like that. It could have been in a movie.

We enjoyed walking the beach, and watching the sun set over the water.

For dinner, we ate at a great pizza place called Luigi’s Hot Pizza. They had plenty of outdoor seating, white bistro lights, and lots of young male servers who clearly had a lot of fun working with each other. We split a tiramisu for dessert, and it was divine. Pizza + beach = great day

Day 132: Football + Work

The Georgia Bulldogs are enjoying a great season, and we woke up at 3:30 AM to cheer on the Dawgs against Kentucky. Thankfully, Georgia won, and then we kept watching football to see the beginning of the Alabama v. LSU game. Alabama quickly went to work against LSU, and we went ahead and ate breakfast.

And then, of course, we enjoyed our UGA victory nap.

We spent the rest of the day:

By the pool,
Followed by banh mi for lunch (again),
Followed by blog posting/trip planning,
And culminating in another dinner at Bangkok Hustle.

We are nothing if not consistent.

Day 133: La Brisa Beach Club

We spent our last full day in Bali– and in Asia!– at the beach. Bali has a number of beach clubs. Each club has a minimum spend on food and drinks, but then you get access to beach chairs, a pool, a pool deck, restrooms, and a restaurant and bar. Finn’s Beach Club is probably the most well-known, but we decided to head to La Brisa as it opened pretty recently, and we liked its aesthetic.

The amount you have to spend is a little lower if you arrive earlier in the day, so we made the sidewalk-less trek over at about noon.

The set up was perfect! We had chairs on the deck above the beach and were able to put our feet up on the ledge and take out our books. We enjoyed a beer, read for several hours, took a quick swim in the pool, and then ordered lunch. It was so relaxing and easy as all days at the beach should be!

For dinner, we grabbed, you guessed it, banh mi for dinner. Our new favorite restaurant had a loyalty program where when you bought five banh mi, you got your sixth free. In five short days, we had earned ourselves a free sandwich. Hot dog! Did I mention we are budget travelers?

Final Thoughts on Canggu

Don’t get me wrong, Bali is pretty amazing. It is one of the most visually stunning places we have visited, there is an abundance of delicious food, and it is really easy to navigate, even if you have not traveled abroad extensively.

We were pretty worn out by the time we made it to Canggu though, and one impression we had of Bali was just that everyone was trying to out Bali each other. It’s a place where you hear sentences like, “Surfing brought such fulfillment to my inner small child while also empowering me as a fearless boss woman. I really worked up an appetite so I cannot wait to devour my chi seed hemp milk with a side of raw organic sprouts. But it also dried my skin out so let me apply this new placenta coconut oil lotion I just picked up.”

It is totally cool if you have that kind of energy, but at that point in our travels, wearing the same clothes out of the same backpack and living on a budget, we just did not. We had a great five days, really, but we have come to realize that our favorite places are places that don’t try too hard to be who they are, or rather where the people who visit do not feel pressure to fit a certain mold and check off extravagant bucket list items. We enjoyed Canggu for what it was for us: five more days to rest and re-charge together, surrounded by beauty.

November 21, 2018November 23, 2018

Days 124 – 128: Ubud, Bali

Since Rich and I started planning this trip, Bali was one of the locations for which I was most excited. It didn’t hurt that in July and August 2018, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, and their children, Luna and Miles, spent several weeks in Bali, braving earthquakes, making friends with dangerous bugs, and filming headband of the day videos. What more could make you want to go?

To provide some geographical context, Bali is an Indonesian island, and Ubud, the first town we visited, is in the mountains. Ubud is incredibly beautiful– the terrain is lush, there are temples and offerings everywhere, and it is known as a place of healing. And there are monkeys! Read along to hear how we spent our five days here.

Day 124: Travel from Yogyakarta to Ubud, Bali

We had an early flight out of Yogyakarta which was a bummer because we had to leave the hotel at 5:00 AM, and the delicious breakfast at our hotel didn’t start until 6:00. Missing out on a free, good meal always hurts.

We took a Grab to the airport, avoiding the terrible walk we did when we arrived, and got checked in pretty easily. Our flight to Bali was also, thankfully, much smoother than our flight to Yogyakarta had been.

Our taxi ride from the airport in Denpasar to Ubud was not so smooth. For some reason, on the hour long drive, our driver kept falling asleep! It was about 10:00 AM there, so we were not sure if he might have been on drugs? Let’s just say we were more than a little concerned and very happy when we made it there safely.

Rich booked our villa, the Moksha, in Ubud through AirBNB, although it really ran like a small hotel with a pool, provided breakfast, and a full spa– all for the low price of $54/night! (I sound like an infomercial).

The Moksha allowed us to check in early, and we enjoyed laying by the pool for much of the rest of the day. For dinner, we ate at a Korean restaurant called Roots, and it was so delicious. I got a bibimbap bowl, and it was one of my favorite meals of the trip– which makes me think that we should add South Korea to our future travel list!

Day 125: A Busy Day of Football Fandom

So I matriculated at the University of Georgia for undergrad and am a second generation Georgia Bulldog. Georgia’s biggest rivals are the Florida Gators (boo), and on the first full day, we were in Ubud, the Georgia v. Florida football game was played at 3:30 PM. In America.

It was played at 3:30 AM in Ubud. Forever committed, we woke up to watch. When the game ended at 7:00 AM, our Georgia Bulldogs emerged victorious with a final score of 36-17.

Beating Florida feels so good, even when you wake up before the sun to watch it.

One of the very best parts of our stay at the Moksha was an incredible breakfast delivered each day. We elected to eat our breakfast in the garden, and I enjoyed a smoothie bowl, coffee, and bread basket.

Then we went back to sleep!

Upon awaking the second time, we spent an hour or so at the pool and then headed inside to crank out blog posts and trip planning, umm, things.

For dinner, we ate pizza across the street.

After dinner, we headed back to our villa for more football. The Philadelphia Eagles played the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, which was an early morning game in America, and a 9:30 PM game in Ubud, Bali.

When the Eagles v. Jaguars ended after midnight, the Eagles had squeezed out a 24-18 victory. Eagles victories being few and far between this season, winning made watching seven hours of football in less than 24 hours totally worthwhile.

Day 126: Salons and Monkeys

As mentioned in our fourth thirty days abroad post, I hold a special place in my heart for Gritty, the new and charming mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers. However, as much as I love Gritty, I did not love that months of being in the sun every day had given me orange hair resembling his.

Time for a trip to the salon!

Hair at Vive Salon in Ubud

So I did several months of research on where to get my hair colored in Ubud, and I landed on Vive Salon. Coincidentally, Chrissie Teigen and John Legend visited Vive Salon in Ubud for spa services in the summer, but we all know that Chrissy Teigen didn’t get her hair done there because only Jen Atkin is allowed to touch her hair.

(I don’t have a job so sometimes I internet stalk Chrissy Teigen.)

Long story long, the stylist Rikke dyed my hair back to brown. A few notes:

Rikke, from Denmark, was also a spiritual healer. She mentioned the Ubud has always been a place of healing, but that lately she felt that there were many more broken people coming to be healed and that the place just felt that much more sad. I found this observation totally fascinating.
Despite warning her that my hair was very dry, soaked up color very quickly, and had in the past turned out much darker than anticipated, she went a shade darker than I thought she probably should have and my hair came out very dark.

Could trusting someone other than your own hairdresser be the hardest part of an around-the-world trip? I kid. Mostly.

Visiting the Ubud Monkey Forest

As I shared in the post on Kuala Lumpur, Rich and I foolishly watched a YouTube video where a silly tourist gets scratched by a monkey and has to go to the hospital to get a rabies shot. As excited as I was to visit the monkey forest, I have to admit the image of that lingered a bit in my mind.

Still, a visit to the Ubud Monkey Forest is a must on a visit to Bali. There are hundreds and hundreds of monkeys, and they walk around among the tourists. We were warned that they might attack and that they might steal things, but all of the monkeys we saw– and we saw a lot of monkeys– seemed not to bother the humans unless they were disturbed. I would not call them docile for they were very active and very much wild animals, but they were definitely used to the human company. Note that the guidelines below tell you not to make eye contact with them as it is seen as aggressive behavior. Easier said than done.

Day 127: Yoga + Spa = Heaven

This day was one of my very favorite of the trip– less Chrissy Teigen, more Gwyneth Paltrow. It was quintessentially Bali.

Vinyasa Gentle Flow Yoga

This past spring, Rich and I signed up for a deal at a bikram yoga studio near our apartment in Washington, DC for 10 classes. For the uninitiated, bikram is hot yoga, known as hot yoga because you do it in a very hot (100+ degree) room and sweat like you have never sweated before. I had done bikram on and off for the past five or so years, but both yoga and sweating for 90-minutes without reprieve were a new experience for Rich.

Rich and I both wanted to do yoga in Bali as it totally seemed like a bucket list item. When Rich asked me how different vinyasa would be from bikram, well, all I could really answer was different.

For the first thirty minutes of our 7:30 AM vinyasa flow class, all we did was breathe. I am totally fine sitting, breathing, clearing out my mind peacefully, and even I started getting a bit restless.

Rich has self-diagnosed adult ADD. He told me after the class, he almost walked out during the breathing part. He just wasn’t sure he could sit there and stay still. All of the breathing and sitting seemed interminable.

But then it got better. We did a downward dog, then a cow, then a cat, then python, then child’s pose, and then repeated and changed the cycle several different times. And then class was over!

Yoga in Bali– check and check. Back to the villa for our smoothie bowls!

Spa Day at the Moksha

I can only imagine everyone is thrilled to read about us traveling around the world, enjoying spa day. I hope you aren’t reading this one at work. It was heavenly.

So here’s the deal. When we checked into our villa, there was a list of available spa services. The first one listed was a honeymoon package that for $24/person provided a three-hour experience which included:

A welcome juice
An hour-long massage
A facial
A body scrub treatment
A hot flower bath

We are not on our honeymoon but such affordable pampering was impossible to pass up! It was everything we hoped it would be.

Dinner at Ibu Susu

Special thanks to Deena, a friend from graduate school, who recommended Ibu Susu via an Instagram message. The atmosphere was super hip, and everything we ate was delicious. We were able to sit at the bar and enjoy tofu and shitake dim sum, pork belly steam buns, and the beef rendang. Yum!

Day 128: A Visit to the Rice Terraces

Have you ever thought a place was going to be one thing and then it was really something else entirely? Well, that was our visit to the rice terraces for me.

All of the pictures on Instagram from the rice terraces in Bali involved flowing dresses, passionate embraces, and maybe a dramatic swing over the landscape (see here, here, and here).

Welp, I put on a dress…and then got muddy and sweaty.

Turns out rice terraces, in fact, are not an elaborate Instagram background, but instead, an actual place where farmers grow actual rice. They are terraced, they are green ,and they are beautiful. But they are also hot and super muddy. I wish I had worn tennis shoes and saved the dress!

Rich and I had considered visiting a nearby coffee plantation instead (hey, we love coffee), but we learned that the incredibly expensive kopi luwak coffee is produced by feeding Asian palm civets (small, cat-like animals) cherries and then collecting their defecation to include with the coffee blend. We are adventurous, but we were not feeling that adventurous. We like our coffee poop-free.

Final Funny Story from Day 128

For dinner, we headed to Halal Ubud Burger. In case you are not familiar, halal refers to any meat prepared according to Muslim law. For example, this would exclude pork or any cut of meat from an animal’s hindquarters, and halal restaurants typically do not serve alcohol.

As Indonesia is a Muslim country, a halal burger spot is not unusual. It was near our villa, was cheap, and had high TripAdvisor ratings. Great!

We walk in wearing workout clothes (we obviously immediately changed into something comfortable upon our return from the rice terraces), and a young 20-something man looks at my shirt, and says, “Wow! That t-shirt is awesome.”

I’m wearing a City sports t-shirt that says, “Everyday I’m Mustling.” It’s the only t-shirt with writing on it I packed in my backpack, and while I’m not mustling everyday, I probably am sleeping in or relaxing in this shirt at least every other day.

My “Everyday I’m Mustling” T-shirt (from when we hiked the Cinque Terre a few years ago)

“Thanks,” I reply.

He turns to his girlfriend, “Honey, look at her shirt! Isn’t that great!” The girlfriend looks about as confused as me but nods. He then asks, “Are you <insert word I have never heard>?”

I shake my head no, assuming if I have never heard this word, I’m not it.

He then says, “Oh, you converted to Islam, then?”

I say, “Oh, I’m not a Muslim.” He says, “Oh. Okay. Well, it’s still a great shirt.”

I’m totally confused. They pay their bill and leave. And then it dawns on me.

He thought my shirt said, “Everyday I’m MUSLIMING.”

Final Notes on Ubud

Hopefully, the pictures have reflected this where my words have failed: Ubud was absolutely beautiful. The land was incredibly lush, and there were beautiful temples and sacred places everywhere you turn. It is really clear that thousands of Westerners flock to Ubud each year as it has every food and experience a tourist could want at prices that seem a bit high compared to the cost of other Southeast Asia countries but incredible compared to the west.

Looking back, we had a really nice and relaxing time in the peaceful hills of Ubud. We ate good, healthy food and took great care of ourselves. Isn’t that one reason why you get away? Being in Ubud was truly a treat!

November 10, 2018

Days 120 – 123: Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A Tale of Two Temples

Our first stop in Indonesia was the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java. We made Yogyakarta our “home base” to explore the Hindu temple of Prambanan and the Buddhist temple of Borobudur before heading to Bali.

We ended up spending fourteen total days in Indonesia: four in Yogyakarta, followed by ten in Bali. Stay tuned for the Bali post, but spoiler alert: Bali was Bali. Still, Rich and I would not have traded our time in Yogyakarta with more time in Bali because visiting the island of Java gave us a lot of context and insight into Indonesia that we would not have had if we had flown straight from Singapore to Bali.

Day 120: Travel from Singapore to Yogyakarta

We spent our last few hours in the totally amazing country of Singapore in the most incredible airport I have ever seen, enjoying a very big breakfast at a luxurious airport lounge.

A Bumpy Flight

We came about as close to missing our flight out of Singapore as we have come to missing one of the many, many flights we have taken. The display board in the lounge did not update to indicate that our flight was boarding until the very last minute, and we walked up to our gate just as it was about to close! We received a very stern look from the airline employee and were the second-to-last couple to board. Sorry! It won’t happen again!

Our flight into Indonesia was bumpy, and our landing (Mom, skip ahead a couple of paragraphs) was terrifying. Flying feels really routine to us now, and this landing was anything but. We came in so fast. The European woman next to me said that in her experience flying into Indonesia, Indonesian pilots really enjoy landing at full speed and then jamming on the breaks. Awesome.

We were really sad to hear about the plane that crashed in Indonesia a few days later and felt that much more grateful that we ultimately landed safely.

A Hot Walk to the Hotel

While in Yogyakarta, we stayed at Hotel Satoria, a hotel by the airport in order to split the difference between the two temples we were there to visit. When we landed and Google maps showed us that our hotel was less than a mile from the airport, we decided we would just walk. How hard could a mile be? We are on an adventure!

Hard enough that this incident qualified as Rich’s least favorite moment in the past 30 days.

Basically, Google maps told us that we could walk along a path that went through an airfield, and security put the kibosh on that. Turning around added a good ten minutes to a very hot, very sweaty walk with no sidewalks. Plus, we had just left Singapore, one of the most luxurious countries in the world, and we were back in a smaller, developing city so the re-adjustment was a bit of a shock to our system.

Now, it’s Rich’s turn to skip a paragraph because I’m about to tell you that he was sweating like an animal! In three years of marriage and one hundred and twenty days of traveling– including walking a mile in Hanoi, Vietnam with all of our luggage after 24+ straight hours of travel— I had not seen him sweat like that. It was bizarre and icky. Maybe stress sweating? He was NOT a happy camper.

(Rich did not skip ahead and would like for me to add that my t-shirt was still drenched with sweat the next day. I’ll neither confirm nor deny.)

So we got to the hotel, checked in, showered, and ordered room service for dinner. All is well that ends well.

Day 121: Visiting the Prambanan

Rich read online that the best time to visit the temples at the Prambanan was at sunset while the best time to visit Borobudur was early in the morning. This advice proved really helpful.

We woke up, enjoyed hotel breakfast (winning!), did some blogging/planning work, then hit the hotel gym– basically, we took advantage of all of the things that make staying in a hotel so relaxing. Then we got ready to tour.

Prambanan Background

Transportation costs were really reasonable in Yogyakarta– adding insult to injury to our decision to walk from the airport– so we took a $4 Grab 45 minutes from our hotel to Prambanan. Upon arrival, we bought a joint ticket for Prambanan and Borobudur for $79 total for both of us. While a little pricier than some of the other temples we have visited, it was substantially less than what we paid for entry to Angkor Wat.

Prambanan is a ninth century Hindu temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. The temple was abandoned around 930 BC after a volcanic eruption. While the local Javanese people knew the temples were there, the complex was rediscovered by the British in 1811. The Dutch began reconstruction in 1930, and UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1991. Almost a million people visit each year.

Our Visit to Prambanan

Prambanan was one of our very favorite temples we visited in all of Southeast Asia. First, the complex is huge, but when we visited, it was not overrun with other visitors. It was possible to get a picture without anyone else in it or to walk into a room in the temple and be the only one there.

Second, the time of day and temperature were so comfortable. We arrived about an hour before sunset, and the light on these ancient buildings was just so nice.

Finally, vendors were not allowed to sell anything within the temple complex so it was quiet and felt like an important, sacred space.

I am glad that we have visited all of the many, many temples we have visited throughout Southeast Asia, but I would not call most of these visits relaxing. There was something really calm and peaceful about our visit to Prambanan that makes it stand out.

Day 122: Visiting Borobudur

We had grand intentions of making it to Borobudur for sunrise, but that would have involved us actually getting out of bed at 4:00 AM, and, well, that didn’t happen.

We did arrive before 6:30 AM, and the temple was an hour away, so it isn’t like we exactly slept in.

Borobudur, also built in the 9th century, is the world’s largest Buddhist temple. It was abandoned in the 14th century when the Javanese people converted to Islam and then rediscovered by the British in 1911. Like Prambanan, it was also named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Borobudur is Indonesia’s most visited tourist attraction.

Practicing English

When we arrived at this massive structure, we heard the sound of singing. We quickly saw multiple school groups huddled around their teachers singing bright and cheery morning songs.

We continued walking and were approached by a group of young students. “Miss, Sir, can we practice our English with you?”

Charmed, we readily agreed. The Indonesian children had a whole routine where they told us their names, then asked our names, then asked us a series of questions, “Where are you from? What brings you to Borobudur? Do you think Borobudur is very beautiful? Will you sing us a song?” We declined to sing, but we asked and answered questions with them for at least ten minutes before signing off on a piece of paper to give them a grade (A’s, obviously).

We walked around for another 20 minutes when we were approached by a smaller and older group of students. “Can we practice our English with you?” I agreed, and we spent another ten minutes with this group.

Rich: “We have practiced English twice. I think it’s okay if we say no to the next group that asks.”

The next group approaches, and a young student says, “You look like Tom Cruise!”

Guess who did not say no to these students! You got it: Tom Cruise.

One last note on the students practicing English: remember, it was 6:30 AM in the morning. These students were up, dressed in their uniforms, and at a historical site to practice a foreign language with native speakers. It was pretty remarkable.

Thoughts on Borobudur

We liked Borobudur too, but it didn’t have quite the magic for us that Prambanan had the evening before. On the way out, we had to walk through what felt like a million stalls of people selling things without clear directions on the way out.

We made it back to the hotel in time to eat breakfast and then go back to sleep! We enjoyed an afternoon of getting some work done and reading at the pool.

Day 123: We Didn’t Leave the Hotel

Seriously. I do not have a single picture from this day. We woke up, we went to breakfast, we did some work, we went to the gym, we spent time at the pool, and we ate at the hotel restaurant for dinner.

And it was glorious.

The end.

If it isn’t evident, our stamina for touring started wearing thin. Our hotel was really comfortable, the staff was friendly, and the hotel food was tasty. Spending a day not seeing anything felt luxurious.

I am sure there are many lovely areas and restaurants in Yogyakarta we could have experienced. We loved Prambanan and enjoyed Borobudur too, and for this trip and this leg of our journey that was about all we could muster.

Onward to Bali!

November 5, 2018

Days 117 – 119: Singapore, We Love You

Ah, Singapore. You lived up to all of the hype. Rich and I knew you first as a country with a phenomenal educational system, and then we knew you as the home of Crazy Rich Asians, introduced to us by one of our favorite new authors, Kevin Kwan.

While we only had three short days with you, they were meaningful, and we will find a way to be back to see you soon. That’s a promise.

Day 117: Travel from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore

Day 117 may have been one of my very favorite days of the trip from start to finish. Yes, even on a travel day.

Working Out in the Dark in Kuala Lumpur

As I shared in my Kuala Lumpur post, our AirBNB there had an incredible gym. Rich and I woke up extra early to get one more strong workout in. Small problem: we got dressed and headed down to the gym at 5:15 AM. The gym opened at 7:00 AM.

Our apartment building had many incredible amenities including a playground, an outdoor chess board, barbecue grills, and a putting green that might as well have been a miniature golf course. Rich and I decided to head to the putting green to do a body weight workout on my Aaptiv app. There were no lights on the green, so we jumped around and got sweaty with the reflected city lights of Kuala Lumpur all around us.

Love seeing the Aaptiv confetti…because it means we made it!

At about 5:45 AM, before sunrise, the Muslim call to prayer started playing from intercoms in the city. The soft chanting and the bright lights of the tall buildings really created an other worldly experience.

Flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore

One of our Grab drivers told us that there are over 80 flights a day from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore every day. Wild, huh?

Our flight into Singapore was unremarkable, other than the pilot’s reminder before landing that Singapore has the death penalty in place for drug possession. We clearly were drug free. But being reminded that you are entering a country where they can take your life is more than a little intimidating.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Yan, a cute boutique hotel within walking distance of everything we wanted to see. Singapore is pricey so it was the most expensive hotel room of Asia for us at $100/night and was also probably the smallest hotel room we have ever shared. It could not have been more than 100 square feet. The bed was in a corner touching two walls. Good thing we like each other. It also didn’t hurt that they gave us two free cokes, a bag of chips, and two packs of M&M’s each day.

Seeing Crazy Rich Asians in Singapore

I read Crazy Rich Asians in Vang Vieng, Laos in less than 48 hours, before handing it off to Rich for him to devour too. If you are not familiar with CRA, it was a megahit romantic comedy this summer and is based on the novel by the super talented Kevin Kwan. Rich and I have since read the second and third novels in the trilogy.

As soon as we read these delightful novels (seriously, read them), we knew we had to see the film. I also decided that we had to see it in Singapore, where the books and movie are set.

So the first thing we scheduled in Singapore was seeing the film, and when we looked up showings, the only one we found was at 9:30 PM, the night we arrived.

Nine thirty is a little late for us, but it was a bucket list item so we headed to a nearby mall at about 8:00 PM to buy our tickets. When we arrived, we discovered that the only showing was in fact at eleven thirty five, hours past our bedtime. We bit the bullet and decided it was worth it.

We spent the next three hours wandering the Singaporean mall and ate dinner in the food court at an incredible Korean restaurant.

This face says it all. Enjoying Korean food in Singapore.

Seeing the movie in the theatre in Singapore was all we could have hoped for. First, the movie itself is so much fun. But we were looking at scenes set in an airport that we had been in hours earlier and at places we had on our agenda to visit the very next day! This made the whole experience just that much more exciting.

One of my other favorite parts was listening to how the humor translated: there were lines that made us giggle that the mostly Singaporean audience didn’t blink at and other lines that hardly seemed like jokes to us that had them in stitches! This proved totally worthy of the loss of sleep.

On our middle of the night walk home through the beautiful and incredibly calm streets of Singapore, Rich and I agreed that this had been one of our very favorite experiences of the whole trip. Fun for all ages! Five stars! Two thumbs up!

Day 118: We See All of Singapore By Foot

Okay, slight exaggeration, but we did walk a lot!

Merlion Park

We first walked to Merlion Park which includes sweeping views of the Marina Bay Sands, the most amazing hotel I have ever seen. The hotel has three super tall towers with a roof deck that includes multiple bars and restaurants and an unbelievable infinity pool– more on that to come. We took some pictures with the Marina Bay Sands and the Merlion, a giant half lion, half fish that overlooks the lake.

With a nice view of the Marina Bay Sands.

Lunch at the Hawker Stalls

If you have seen Crazy Rich Asians, you know that Singapore has markets of street food sold in individual hawker stalls. My crazy Rich (couldn’t resist) looked up the hawker stalls from the books and movie, and we headed to Maxwell Food Centre for lunch. We were starving so we ordered a lot, and it was all so, so, so good. Like so good that these tiny stalls with kitchens no bigger than what you would find in a food truck have earned Michelin stars.

We ate:

Fried Dumplings. Yum.
Carrot Cake. Forget the dessert. This dish is actually made of radish, garlic, fried eggs, and rice, and the flavor defies description. I’m salivating thinking about it.
Hainanese Chicken Rice. The chicken is boiled, then served with an oily, vinegar-y ginger rice. I am not the biggest meat eater these days, but this was so good.
Char Kway Teow. This is a big plate of charred noodles cooked in a hot wok with eggs, soy sauce, bok choy, and bean sprouts.

For ~$13, we had a true feast!

Fried dumplings from a hawker stall. Amazing.

Carrot cake, chicken rice, and char kway teow

The SuperTrees

After this very big meal, we need to walk again. We walked about two miles to the SuperTree Grove in the Gardens by the Bay.

I feel like for so much in Singapore, you just have to see it to believe it. The SuperTrees fall in this category.

So the SuperTrees are giant, vertical gardens that are the same height as a sixteen story building. The solar panels on the SuperTrees generate enough electricity for all of the lighting in the Gardens by the Bay. The SuperTrees are indeed super: they are home to “over 162,900 plants, comprising more than 200 species and varieties of bromeliads, orchids, ferns and tropical flowering climbers.”

My mom’s garden club back in Nashville, Tennessee would have been in heaven.

Rich and I paid a $3/person admission fee to walk on the walkway above the park for even more spectacular views of Singapore. There was live music on the lawn below, and lots of local families were clearly enjoying their day. If we lived in Singapore, I know what grove you would find us in every weekend!

People just chilling on the lawn, listening to live music under the Super Trees

SuperTrees in Singapore — The SuperTrees are as tall as a sixteen story building.

Drinks at Marina Bay Sands

Rich and I debated whether we just wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon at the SuperTrees grove, but ultimately decided we might regret not at least stopping by the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel.

One of the most replicated shots in the cannon of luxury international travel has to be the shot of the back of a traveler staring off into the Singaporean high rise skyline from the infinity pool of the Marina Bay Sands (for a quick sample, see here, here, and here). Unfortunately, the only way to swim in the pool is to pay for a room there, and at $380 a night, that experience did not fit into our around-the-world-for-a-year budget.

Shoot, at $14/a drink, I’m not sure two cocktails fit into our budget either, but when I tell you that the rooftop bar at Lavo surpasses every rooftop bar, maybe every bar, I have ever experienced in terms of atmosphere, please believe I am not exaggerating for a second. I felt like I was an extra in the Great Gatsby (minus the outfit I walked all over the city in!) sitting on top of a skyscraper. It was really just the absolute coolest.

As close as we got to the incredible infinity pool…

Cocktail in Singapore — Really enjoying a great cocktail at the Marina Bay Sands.

Meh. The view of the SuperTrees from the top of the Marina Bay Sands

We enjoyed about an hour of bliss high above the world, and then, thankfully, caught a Grab back to the hotel. We immediately went to sleep.

Day 119: The Singapore Botanic Garden

Because the Philadelphia Eagles took on the Carolina Panthers at 1:00 AM. If you haven’t been following along, Rich and I are ~~psycho~~ extremely dedicated football fans so despite a 12 hour time difference, we have watched almost every Georgia Bulldog and Philadelphia Eagles football game.

The Eagles lost by blowing a 4th quarter lead, and we stayed up until 4:00 AM. Wah-wah.

More Hawker Stalls

In Crazy Rich Asians, four of the main characters enjoy a meal at the Newton Food Centre. So, of course, we had to eat there too! And we had to make jokes about our friends Colin, Nick, Rachel, and Araminta meeting us.

Rich and I realized that the day before our eyes had been slightly bigger than our stomachs, so we reigned in our ordering. We shared one noodle dish and one oyster omelet and left stuffed!

The Singapore Botanic Garden

Our walk from the Newton Food Centre to the Singapore Botanic Garden was just lovely. Imagine the nicest neighborhood in the city where you live. Now make it greener. Now add sidewalks. Now remove any and all trash. You have our walk.

The Botanic Garden could have been my mom’s garden club’s second favorite Singaporean field trip destination. There is a large lake with swans, but the crown jewel is most definitely the National Orchid Garden.

You may be skeptical that Rich and I wake up at 1:00 AM to watch football and enjoy flowers as much as we do, but put your skepticism aside. This is not any average garden; the National Orchid Garden contains the largest collection of orchids in the world with over 60,000 varieties. The gardens are so peaceful and colorful– we had a really nice time wandering around.

The ION Orchard Shopping Center

From the garden, we headed to the ION Orchard Shopping Center to eat food court dinner and see if we could refresh any articles of clothing in our backpack that were especially haggard after days and days and days of wear.

I should start by saying that Rich and I are not big mall fans. We do almost all of our shopping online. Still Singapore malls are so incredible compared to American malls; we got our first Dunkin’ Iced Coffee of the trip (!!!!) and went to work.

Two stores that we found that we loved:

Uniqlo
Muji

The concepts of both stores was similar: they both offer high quality basics (t-shirts, jeans, etc.) with no labels for reasonable prices. Rich was able to replace a lot of articles of clothing (t-shirts, shorts, etc.), and I picked up a few fresh t-shirts. Winning!

Mall Madness. Dunkin’ equals yum in every country.

Final Thoughts on Singapore

Singapore is just so lovely. The city is calm and clean, and everywhere you look you see greenery and art.

When we were in the Grab on the way back to the airport, we heard a commercial on the radio reminding Singaporeans that they must be united as a people. Multiculturalism, secularism, and meritocracy are seen as keys to social harmony, and collective success is valued above that of the individual.

Before Crazy Rich Asians came on in the theatre, there were a number of commercials that played instead of movie trailers.

One commercial urged Singaporeans to save for retirement as not being a financial burden on their children was the greatest gift they could bestow. Another commercial highlighted the importance of young adults becoming early childhood education teachers in order to teach small children values and skills they would carry forward throughout their life. The final commercial encouraged Singaporeans to avoid antibiotics when they have the flu because the flu is a virus and not a bacteria, and they could develop resistance to antibiotics by taking them when they were not helpful.

My point of sharing these anecdotes is that we did not love Singapore just because it looked pretty, although it is visually stunning. We loved the beauty of the ideals of Singapore. Since its founding in 1965, Singapore has experienced a meteoric rise economically and socially. It is clear that there is national pride in being the best in every possible area, and in pulling all citizens up with every success achieved.

We are excited to visit Singapore again in the future…like when the sequel of Crazy Rich Asians hits theatres!

November 2, 2018November 2, 2018

Our FOURTH 30 Days Abroad: By the Numbers

These posts feel a bit like the monthly baby photos– we should have brought some sort of cute stuffed animal to mark our time away!

Not to compare our travels to raising an actual human child, but I will admit to feeling a little #proudparent -ish of how we are growing as travelers. These posts may not mean as much to our readers as they mean to us, but Rich and I really enjoying spending time together reflecting and crafting these every thirty days.

Amanda has an unhealthy obsession with Gritty, the new Philadelphia Flyers mascot. He’s ugly, but he’s our ugly. It was only a matter of time before she slid him into the blog.

Without further adieu, our FOURTH 30 days! And if you like this post or want to see the progression of thirty day reflections, be sure to check out our first , second , and third thirty day review posts too.

Dates Included: September 24 – October 23, 2018

Countries Visited: 4 (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia)

Cities/Towns Visited: 9 (Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi, Koh Samui, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Yogyakarta)

TRANSPORTATION

As you can see, our modes of transportation varied greatly in these 30 days! It’s not just planes, trains, and automobiles for us.

Flights: 7

Bus Rides: 1

Taxi/Uber/Grab Rides: 28 (22 Grab rides)

Van Rides: 3

Tuk Tuk Rides: 1

Funicular Rides: 1

Ferry Rides: 1

Train Rides: 1

Long Boat Rides: 2

Rich boarding the ferry to Koh Samui, Thailand

LODGING

AirBNB’s: 5

Hotels: 4

FOOD

Percentage of Meals Eaten Out: 60% (41 meals)

Percentage of Meals Eaten In: 21% (14 meals)

Percentage of Meals Eaten in Airport Lounges: 15% (10 meals)

Percentage of Meals Provided by Hotels or AirBNB’s: 4% (3 meals)

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

If you are a frequent reader of these posts, you know that while Rich and Amanda spend most of their time together, walking what you would assume to be the same distances, Rich consistently records many more miles than Amanda. Will the tide turn? Or will Rich continue his walking dominance?

Rich

Total Distance: 342,795 steps (158.40 miles)
Average Daily Distance: 11,460 steps (5.28 miles)
Daily High: 22,434 steps (10.30 miles)
Daily Low: 1,676 steps (0.77 miles)

Amanda

Total Distance: 296,857 steps (133.22 miles)
Average Daily Distance: 9,895 steps (4.44 miles)
Daily High: 20,759 steps (9.07 miles)
Daily Low: 132 steps (.06 miles)

Rich wins. I am also confident that the day I only had 132 steps was a day that I had my FitBit off, if only because we have not stayed anywhere where I could have only gone 132 steps and still eaten food.

INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY

We had a tough time finding anything to read where you would want to read the most: the beaches of Thailand! As you can see, Rich and I both continued to love Kevin Kwan, the author of megahit Crazy Rich Asians.

Rich

Books Read: 3 (Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend)

Amanda

Books Read: 4 (China Rich Girlfriend, Truly Madly Guilty, Me Talk Pretty One Day, The Slap: A Novel)

OVERALL COSTS AS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL BUDGET

Flights: 16% (12% decrease)

Other Transportation (Buses, Trains, Ferries, Taxis, Funiculars): 10% (5% increase)

Lodging: 41% (1% decrease)

Food: 21% (5% increase)

Sightseeing: 3% (same)

Other (Books, Haircut, Laundry, Toiletries, Massages, Yoga): 9% (3% increase)

FAVORITES:

Favorite Meal:

Amanda: Rich’s birthday dinner at Akira Back in Bangkok. We had the best sushi of my life.
Rich: My birthday meal at Akira Back in Bangkok. Amazing sushi.

The aforementioned sushi. It was so delicious, we forgot to take a picture of it until after we had eaten a few pieces already.

Favorite AirBNB:

Rich: Our AirBNB in Kuala Lumpur ($40/night) It was located right in the middle of all of the places we wanted to explore. Below the building were a bunch of cool restaurants and coffee shops, and I enjoyed the views and the gym. I just wish I could have gone swimming in the amazing infinity pool.
Amanda: Our AirBNB in Kuala Lumpur ($40/night) The views were amazing, and I LOVED the building’s gym. The location also could not have been better and allowed us to walk almost everywhere we wanted to go.

Favorite Hotel:

Amanda: I really loved the Grand Sunset Hotel, our hotel in Phuket, Thailand. There was a beautiful rooftop pool, and they had all kinds of little free treats throughout the day: coffee from 3-4 PM, popcorn and a cocktail from 6-7 PM, and free ice cream from 8-10 PM.
Rich: I loved our boutique hotel in Singapore, Hotel Yan. It was stylish, sleek, and perfectly located. They had the best toiletries and mini bar with free Cokes, M & M’s, and chips replenished daily.

Favorite City/Town:

Rich: Singapore
Amanda: Singapore

Favorite Beach/Pool:

Amanda: So many beaches! I really liked Railey Beach in Thailand. Runner up goes to Phuket where we got the amazing sunset pictures.
Rich: Railey Beach was beautiful, but so hot! We lasted maybe 30 minutes before we were covered in sweat and retreated to the water, followed by a couple of Tiger beers with a view.

Favorite Mode of Transportation:

Rich: I really enjoyed the rawness of traveling in the long boat to Railey Beach and back. It was exciting wading into the water and climbing in and out of the boat. There was a real authentic feeling that made me feel like a local.
Amanda: I did not enjoy the long boat because I thought we might drown. I don’t have a specific flight, but I loved anytime we flew and got to go to an airport lounge. It is so nice to be able to eat as much as we want and drink an extra latte without worrying about costs.

In front of two long boats in Krabi, Thailand

Favorite Book:

Amanda: I weirdly read two books (Truly, Madly, Guilty and The Slap) about adults behaving badly at backyard barbecues in Australia. Me Talk Pretty One Day was the first David Sedaris book I had ever read, and it was both hilarious and touching. So it wins as my favorite book for these 30 days.
Rich: Crazy Rich Asians. If you have not noticed yet, I…love…Kevin…Kwan… Almost as much as Amanda loves Gritty.

Least Favorite Moment:

Rich: We landed in Yogyakarta and our hotel was only a 23 minute walk from the airport according to Google Maps. We decided to tough it out and walk, can’t be that hard right? WRONG! We had to go a different route than what Google Maps stated due to airport security, and it added about 10 minutes to the walk in 90 degree heat with 20 and 25 lb backpacks on. When we arrived at our hotel, we were tired and drenched in sweat. FAIL!
Amanda: Trying to hike to the Big Buddha statue in Phuket and failing because the blog directions I followed were terrible. I should have done more research before leading us down the wrong road in really hot weather. Not finding a statue is really not that bad, but Rich and I got cross with one another, so that moment stands out as being my least favorite. If you are going to argue, you should at least be able to do it in air conditioning.

Most Favorite Moments:

Amanda: I loved the day in Singapore where we walked and walked and walked and saw the SuperTrees and then had a drink at the top of the magnificent Marina Bay Sands. It helped that we had seen Crazy Rich Asians in Singapore the night before– on our long walk, we passed so many places from the movie. I also loved getting a Thai massage in Krabi, Thailand, and I loved our routine in Kuala Lumpur, especially getting to go to the amazing gym in our building. On our last morning in KL, we got up to go to the gym but it didn’t open until 7 AM so we headed to the building’s putting green (yes, the building had a putting green) to do an Aaptiv strength training workout in the dark. Right as we finished, the Call to Prayer came on softly in the background, and we were surrounded by all these huge skyscraper buildings– it was a moment where I really felt like I was a world away from home, experiencing something I never could have scripted if I tried.
Rich: I loved the sunsets at our rooftop pool in Phucket. I also loved our Thai massages in Krabi. But my favorite thing was EVERYTHING in Singapore. From seeing Crazy Rich Asians to eating at the hawker stands to the beautiful SuperTrees to the drink and view from the Marina Bay Sands, it was everything I imagined. One day, I will swim in that infinity pool.

Enjoying Singapore and being on top of the world at the Marina Bay Sands.

DELTAS:

Looking back on the last thirty days, here are a few things we might have done a little differently.

Eating out so much has been tough. I think we have been to three grocery stores in Southeast Asia. There are frequently 7-11’s or small local markets, but if I were to try to cook a whole meal, I’m not sure I would know where to start. Eating out occasionally is nice, but Rich and I are both pretty introverted and so we find eating in way more relaxing. And I miss cooking and eating what I have cooked.
We would not have gone to Iceland. Wait, aren’t you supposed to be talking about Southeast Asia? Yes, stay with me. We were looking at the budget last night, and we have done a pretty decent job staying on budget in Southeast Asia. And yet, we are still over budget on the trip…for almost the exact amount of money it cost us to go to Iceland. Iceland was pretty but was SO expensive, especially when viewed in light of how far the money for those 6 days would go in Southeast Asia (read: it would pay for everything for 19 days). And we slept in a tent in Iceland and ate hot dogs. We should have saved Iceland for a trip of its own versus including it in our around-the-world trip.
We wish we had picked a better AirBNB location in Bangkok. As I think about how much we loved Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and how meh we felt about Bangkok, I have to think that if we had been in walking distance of the things we wanted to visit in Bangkok, we would have liked it more. Bangkok traffic was insane (makes 75/85 traffic in Atlanta and 676 traffic in Philly look light) and so it took forever to get anywhere. And Rich and traffic are not friends.

LOVES:

Our new planning routine. Since Phuket, Rich and I have dedicated time to meet with each other to calendar out our time in each new location. This facilitates a discussion about our priorities for what we want to see and do in each place so that we are on the same page from the jump. If I am being honest, sometimes it is hard to really tune in and listen to Rich, not because he isn’t charming and interesting, but because we spend all of our time together and sometimes he’s talking to me, but I am daydreaming or playing on my phone or am just otherwise distracted. During our meetings though, I can totally tune in, focus, and pay attention.
The balance of beaches and cities in the last 30 days. We had a lot of beach and pool time in Thailand, but we also spent a significant amount of time in some of the largest cities in Southeast Asia in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. The balance was nice. We could chill in the beach towns, and then enjoy walking and moving as much as we did in the big cities.
Being together! Nope, not sick of each other yet. In fact, the longer we are gone, the more common experiences we have to compare and share with one another. Rich was organizing our Insta stories the other night, and just watching videos of everywhere we have been and all we have done was so fun. Remember when we watched the World Cup in Croatia (but left because the fireworks were scary and the fans were throwing beer bottles!), and then we were in Malta and we ended up at Friday Happy Hour with the St. Vincent Retirement Community, and then we were in Hanoi, Vietnam exercising with thousands of people in the early morning hours? All of our experiences build and build and build. This is truly a trip of a lifetime, and we love sharing all of it with each other.