Day 15-16: Hong Kong

The finale from the Asian New York City, Hong Kong. The red-eye flight from Phuket got us pretty bad, especially the super freezing airport. It felt like negative celsius out there and no chance to take a nap. When we landed to Hong Kong, I surely expected a civilized country with great efficiency in running their operations. The airport was enormous and their Airport Express train got us into the city in less than half hour with super fast train. On the way back you could even check in to your flight and drop of your bags from the city, way before getting to the airport. That was pretty awesome. 

A little gloomy Saturday morning in Hong Kong with an amazingly nice weather greeted us. As we took the cab from the Hong Kong Station for a 10 minute ride, I had a resemblance of 3 cities that I have lived in: Istanbul, New York, and San Francisco. Istanbul for narrow, tiny roads with super busy streets, New York for bustling night life and fast pace and San Francisco for it is hills. Hong Kong looked like an older woman with some great make up on certain parts of its body. Buildings and residential areas were old but the new developments such as IFC centre, shopping areas, the Peak Tram are new or renovated. 

We were particularly excited that we were in HK on a Saturday night to see the night life of this cool city. After catching up on our sleep we walked around the city to get our bearings. My good friend David, who is originally from HK, hooked us up with a great hotel in the Lan Kwai Fong area that is predominantly an expat land. You'll see more Europeans than Asians in this night life capital of Hong Kong. Found a great little spot for grabbing some fresh oysters at Cvche on the Hollywood Rd. People started going out after 10pm so all the places were empty in the early evening. Our next stop was to walk to the Peak where a tram takes you to the top of a mountain for a kick ass view of the city. Wow views were breathtaking and it wasn't even cold up there. Getting into the tram reminded me of getting into the 8x Muni bus in San Francisco's China Town. Elbows started talking. Can't change a culture much I guess :) The Peak wasn't just an observatory to see the city views but they have built an entire entertainment center up in the sky with malls and gallerias, restaurants and cafes all on top of the hill. 

Next I was craving dim sum and got recommended to go to Loyal Diner at Lan Kwai Fong area. They had dim sum service starting at 9:30pm and we were in there right around that time. Their dumplings were delish and I got adventurous with minced pigeons on a lettuce wrap. Ellen got their lobster and rice dish that was delightful as well. 

For the 'clubbing' part we were underdressed heavily so sought a dive bar to grab a beer in. Sapphire bar with Hoagarden awning got our attention. Good mix of cultures, races were all inside this bar where they played mostly 80s music. Around midnight the bar got jam packed. Last stop was a Lebanese spot for hookah. It is amazing that we found a spot for almost all the cities for hookah and they were pretty decent. It was a great spot to people watch and get a feeling for the city. 

Sunday was a long but short day. Our flight is at midnight and I am writing my blog from the HK Airport lounge. I wanted to see the Bruce Lee statute and do a little shopping at the 'Ladies Market" which is a massive street market full of vendors. Took the ferry across from the HK Island to the Kwoloon area to see the Avenue of Stars where Mr. Lee was with his great posture. With the HK skyline in the background it was a great shot to take a pic with the legend. The fact that he was born in SF and lived many years during his 20s has made the visit more meaningful for me. Lastly we had a chance to practice our negotiation skills at the Ladies Market where I bought stuff at 1/3 of the price. True markup. 3x the original value! 

Overall, it is sad that honeymoon is over but I wouldn't take anything back from all these great experiences that we had together with my wife... wow it still sounds not normal to call Siegs my wife but she truly is. We had an exceptional time and very grateful that we were able to make this happen. Appreciated all of our friends and families support on this great honeymoon vacation! It was epic!!

Day 10-14 - Krabi, Thailand

Our chosen city after the cancelation of Philippines trip was Krabi, Thailand. I have done a quick research online about the not so busy parts of Thailand with great beaches and Krabi was the winner. This old fisherman's town became somewhat of a tourist spot in the last couple of decades but nothing as crowded as Phuket. It is two hours away from Phuket, second biggest city after Bangkok. 

After a layover in Bangkok we were in Krabi in the evening with thunderstorms. After checking into our hotel by the beach, we walked around the town of Ao Nang where we parked ourselves. After having some decent Thai food nearby, we ended up grabbing a drink at Moo 2 Cafe, where we listened live music sang by Bob Marley look-a-like singer. There was a great moment that wouldn't be erased from our memories forever… It started to pour down rain around midnight and everyone tried to find a spot at the cafe that won't get them wet. Our Marley had just started singing Redemption Song and everyone was singing along. It was an amazing scene and a good welcome to Thailand for us to the beach town Krabi.

Next day we enjoyed the beach and relaxing with the environment. Our hotel had its own beach access and we hung out there. At night they had fish tasting at the hotel around the sunset. It was nice to taste fresh snapper and barracuda. On our next couple of days we booked excursions to famous sites in this area: James Bond Island, and Kho Phi Phi. 

Love these fuzzy guys

James Bond Island tour started in the morning with a drive to nearby port. The island is called James Bond because of the Bond movie from 40 years back that was shot here. There is a famous iconic rock formation that stands alone by the island. We weren't particularly excited about the Bond Island as it was super commercialized and there wasn't any moment to relax on the island. They also took us to a little canoeing excursion around the caves. In the afternoon there was a visit to a temple cave with Buddha figures all around the cave, which made the trip a lot more interesting. We were also able to feed monkeys bananas outside of this temple. They are too smart with the way they grab and eat their food. Super fuzzy creatures… Next stop: 7 story Waterfall. Didn't have too much time here to enjoy all the waterfalls but we made the most of it at one of them. The freshest water and the jungle like atmosphere reminded me of Hana in Maui, HI. 

James Bond Island

Our third day started early as well. It was a beautiful day and we were heading to Phi Phi Island as we stopped a few islands on the way. The speed boat that we were in was super fast one and didn't have too many people on it as some of the other tours do. Very first stop was Bamboo island, a true paradise island that takes your breath away. We had over an hour here but it surely wasn't enough. Turquoise color water, super white sand beach and palm trees on the island. If we can remove the people out of the way then I can assure that we really wouldn't have left the island :) Later on. we anchored to a very small cove with amazing water and swam right in there with the amazing fishes.  Third and the most popular stop was Maya Bay where the movie 'The Beach' was shot with DiCaprio. Wow it was indeed THE beach. Not many words can describe this place I don't think. We are so renting the movie and watching it again!! 

Maya Bay - THE Beach

In the afternoon we had couple of spots for snorkeling and they were quite nice spots for watching the fishes. The tour guide was feeding them with watermelon and piece of bread to attract the fishes and it was fun watching them close up. On our last day in Thailand we wanted to relax by the Railay Beach, which you can only get there by a long tail boat. The Railay area had great beaches better than Ao Nang, where we were staying. The weather was easily in the 90 degrees and we arrived to the back side of the beach, Pranang, where practically everyone on the island was laying down on the beach. We forgot to take enough money with us so we had to work our last day with a small amount of cash. That made the day a bit interesting actually in a good way, we just relaxed and didn't spend money on much stuff and used it all up for two can of Singha beer to enjoy the sunset.

The best moment of the day (maybe this trip!!) happened on our way back. T-storms started to hit back to back as we took the last boat out of Railay heading back to where our hotel is. The true down pour happened and I took my tshirt off and took it all in. Splashes from the sea mixed with rain water created a salty& acidy taste. Just a perfect way to cap the beach part of the honeymoon. When we came back to the hotel we just dried up by the lobby as we already checked out. I booked a good deal to have a driver take us to the Phuket airport in the middle of the night. We had couple hours to kill at night. With some good music, drinks and Thai massage (not having one again :) ) we were ready to leave the beautiful Krabi. Got to say goodbye to our Thai Bob Marley on the last day as he played Hotel California for us. Back to civilization on a red eye flight! Hong Kong here we come!

Day 6-9 - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Cambodia is a third world country and I had no expectation of this land being anything super interesting. They speak Khmer language and predominantly buddhist. They certainly believe in Karma and do live in really poor conditions. US $ is pretty much their main currency as it's given as a change back when you buy something. With their mind-blowing amount of temples and history Siem Reap has been a pleasant change for us. 

My favorite moment was being picked up from the airport with Tuk Tuk (the 3 wheeler motorcycles with a small seating area) and seeing the people of Cambodia on the streets. They don't necessarily believe in traffic lights so they didn't even bother putting them up. I think I only saw one traffic light the entire time. Tuk Tuks are the way to go everywhere and they are $1 each way. Everything is super cheap for the Western world but it didn't stop us from negotiating as we bought many items for 1/3 of the asking price. 

Golden Temple Hotel, our cool little boutique hotel near downtown, was spectacular. The amount of service we received from them all 4 days was overwhelming. I don't think I even mention to this hotel about honeymoon in the beginning. They had a nice size pool with Angkor style waterfall,  colorful rooms full of little geckos running across the wall everywhere.They have provided laundry service and we washed our clothes for less than $5, with the express delivery by the way. They provided full hour massage, airport pickup/drop off, constant welcome drinks and fruits, and free Khmer BBQ dinner! This was the best value we got for a really cheap room. Later on I found out that the owner of the hotel is pretty much a big time investor and owns, hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and clubs around Siem Reap. Pretty much a Cambodian Tycoon!

The main reason everyone comes to Siem Reap is to see the Khmer Temples from 11th century or even earlier. Angkor Wat being the main temple that served Khmer Kingdom for many years is a breathtaking venue that sits by itself in the very beginning of the 'Park'. We took 3 day pass to around most of the temples with our lovely Tuk Tuk driver Bros. Mr. Bros didn't speak much English but he had the best smile in the world that made me think about Cambodian people as very content, happy people. Maybe he was only making $15/day (that's how much we paid him for driving us around for 7 hours) but he wasn't worried about how much money he was going to make and invest into something else. He was living the moment and I know that the Buddhist philosophy encourages that all the way. It was good to be in the moment for these days in Cambodia and for once not worrying about what's coming ahead.

Coming back to the temples we have seen at least 10-12 different temples and it is amazing that they are all different. Angkor Thom was a massive park within the Park, where the Khmers resided for many centuries after Angkor Wat. I have seen temples that are used as a university with a library monument that reminded me of the 'Library' at the Ephesus in Turkey. All the temples were graceful and some of them were magically wrapped around the trees. Trees that are hundreds of years old were hugging these massive temples. It was super cool to see those. Almost every temple had a Buddha in it where people left inscents and prayed. We were in awe walking around these temples and stopped taking pictures and tried to envision what it would like to be living there a millennium ago. It is all up to the imagination…

Angkor Wat

Coolest Spot

I'll talk about the night life a little bit as well. Downtown is pretty small actually with bunch of street vendors trying to sell you the same item that I saw earlier at the temples. The Pub Street is the main attraction around and our first night we were drenched in the pouring rain as we were walking to grab a dinner. We ended up in local food joint, Khmer Kitchen that had pretty basic local food. Their food is very similar to Thai food and also the cultures are pretty similar to it (more to come on that). The next evening we have visited two places that were #1 and #2 on Trip Advisor in Siem Reap. For dinner, we have visited Haven a swiss-owned restaurant that trained orphan kids to work at a restaurant business and provided housing and money to them. All of our servers were trained from the Haven Academy and they were super nice and educated about the food. The food was delicious where you can select between local cuisine and unique European food. The overall experience and zen-like atmosphere was quite fitting. After Haven we headed to a hookah place that was quite popular with the locals. The owner is a young French-Canadian guy from Montreal and somehow ended up in Cambodia couple years back and stayed here. His hookah was pretty good and we had a nice little chat about Cambodian lifestyle, people and his experience here. He knew quite a bit from meeting locals and he even learned to speak the Khmer language. Great times smoking a vodka-loaded kiwi flavored hookah and drinking tea. 

And next we are heading to Philippines Paradise island... wait a second that was the plan but we can't go there. Super Storm Haiyan hit Philippines on Friday morning all the flights and island access has been shut down. East side of the country is hit horribly and there were thousands of dead people. We were supposed to leave Siem Reap on Sunday night to Manila but had to cancel everything. Vietnam was the next target of Haiyan so couldn't go there as people were evacuating their homes. Thailand was glimpsing at us... we initially wanted to avoid Thailand since we heard it was very touristy and high season start in November. At this point we were happy to dodge the bullet with getting stranded at Philippines and would head anywhere. Ended up deciding to go to Krabi, which is 2 hour boat ride from famous Phuket area. Ended up staying at Golden Temple Hotel one more night and had a little excursing to a cool waterfall that was 40km away from the city. Nice hike to the top of the hill to see the waterfall. We were living my tattoo (Spontanieta) all the way... Strangely felt good for not knowing where we are heading next... Off to Krabi through Bangkok layover!

Waterfall site

Ellen's new BFF

Day 5: Back to Singapore

After yet another crazy ride from Malaysia back to Singapore (less than 2hrs 15 mins :) ) we checked in to our hotel Marina Bay Sands. I just have to explain this city within the city craziness... Have never seen anything like it so not sure what to compare it to. It holds 3000 units of hotel room, made of three big towers which had an cherry on top - 2 acre ship-like platform which has all the entertainment that you can think of. 

Ok we are not rich people but for less than 24 hours I felt like how that feels. I used my honeymoon card to get us upgraded which had a pretty crazy room in my book. Quickly we went up to the famous infinity pool that Levent has told me many times. This place is at one of the highest points of Singapore with a kick ass view of the city of Singapore. We were there all day and truly felt on top of the world for a few minutes. 

2 acre long ship :)

For dinner we wanted to have something authentic and Marina Bay Sands is no different than Las Vegas by itself as far as having the top quality food from all around the world. We ended up in Taiwanese owned dumpling place that serves pork dumplings and amazing noodles. Din Tai Fung is the name of the place and they have franchises all around the world. Couple in SoCal. After we headed to their insane Casino that had 3 stories of gambling with full capacity tables and minimum tables are $50. I knew Asians like gambling but didn't know they love it! It's like a mall with 100 black jack tables total. 

I played my own share of blackjack and contributed to the Singapore government at the end of the day. Upon going back to my room I grabbed a beer at the SkyPark one last time to see that scene at night time.  There was club scene at 1am on a Wednesday night. Singaporeans know how to partee!  I think this video would give you some idea how insanely beautiful this place is... You gotta check it out if you ever go to Singapore!

Day 2-4: Rawa Island, Malaysia

We were ready for 4 hour road trip from Singapore to the coastal Maleysian town of Mersing. I booked 6.15am car to take us there to make it on time for the latest boat to our destination, Rawa Island. We went through immigration check leaving Singapore and our driver drove so 'passionately' that we made it to Mersing in 2hr 15min. Got lucky that we were able to catch the 9am boat to Rawa for an early check in.

The fact that it was Diwaili, Indian religious holiday, made the trip quite interesting. Previously I was trying to book an island called Batu Batu which was quite untouched but found out that the Sultan of Johor (a State in Maleysia) booked the entire island for a week. I was able to see the Batu Batu from Rawa and thought about taking a short ride up to there to give 'my regards' to the Sultan. Staying at Rawa was interesting as we were given a beach front property that is 100 feet from the China Sea. The weather was quite tropical where we experienced super hot weather coupled with stormy rains at late nights. 

Peacock time!

The service that we received at Rawa was exceptional to say the least. I particularly liked that the staff, who lived on the island year-around, were all around the world. Met folks from Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India. The lifestyle of an islander is very simple actually. These folks truly enjoyed their job and some of them were able to send money to their families. The food was inclusive and we had delicious buffet and a la carte food that appealed Asian, Indian and Western tastebuds. 

Rawa was the perfect spot for honeymooners where we had a great time to relax and not worry about anything for a few days. Water was super warm and it was great to observe coral reefs as we swam along the shores. We had our fun with playing badminton, fussball, and ping pong. Nights were a bit quiet and we hung out by the bar where I DJ'd for the island for a lil while :)

Look from our unit

Hike to on top of the island

6am - Outside of our beach front 

Outside of our BeachFront Villa

Leaving the island I had great memories in my mind as I looked back at the island sitting in the back of the speedboat. The most sticky of those memories would be us sitting on a beanbag that we laid down on the powder like sand a few feet from the turquoise water as I was listening to my music and reading an engaging book. Nothing beats simplicity!

Honeymoon Excursion to SE Asia

Getting ready T-5hrs

After a long and tiring week we are packing for the Honeymoon trip to South East Asia. Trying to pack less and travel light. Going to warm places help on achieving this goal. My cousin Tammy has dropped us to SFO and it started to sink in that we would be gone for 17 days to the wonderland. We were flying Singapore Airlines which was the most affordable and direct way to get to Singapore. Having flown with Singapore on my Korea trip in the beginning of the year, I love their service and the quality of in flight entertainment. At the end of the day, we were going to clock in 15 hour non stop to Hong Kong. It really helped that our flight departed at 1am SF time. We were both able to sleep a good 6-7 hours before we started to watch synchronized movies. Blue valentine by Cate Blanchett was a good movie that was shot in San Francisco.

 Day 1 - Singapore After an hour lay over in Hong Kong we were on our way to Singapore. To be honest, I haven't done any research about this country ahead of time. Part of it was the fact that we only had total of less than 48 hours in there and also I wanted to leave it up to the moment to explore the city. Our first night we stayed at Peninsula Hotel right in downtown which is very convenient to walk around the Bay in Singapore. After dropping the bags we started to walk around the city at 85 degrees. This weather in November is pretty amazing to me. I heard that it gets a lot hotter and muggier in Singapore in the summer.

Our first stop was the Armenian Church in Singapore. The church was two blocks from hotel on Armenian Street and it was on a great site that was built by the Armenian community on 1836 which held 12 Armenians in Singapore at the time. The Sarkies Family (built Raffles Hotel) have done great to preserve the Church and it is used today by the Orthodox families on a regular Sunday service. I particularly liked the outside courtyard of the church where there was a great lush area with cemetery section and various religious monuments. After a month of getting married at an Armenian Church in San Francisco, it was great to pray in another Armenian Church on the other side of the world. Armos truly are truly everywhere :)

Our excursion of exploring the city continued at Clarke, fancy expat area near the financial district. We took a tiny boat trip that showed us the Marina Bay and Clarke area. After completing the tour we found ourselves at Persian-owned restaurant that served Hookah. Combining it with the mint tea, overlooking at the beautiful Marina Bay and the skyscrapers was relaxing as the sun was setting in SG. As our own batteries were quite low and the fact that we had a 6.15am pickup in the morning to head to Maleysia, we opted for a beer-and-snacks-in-the-hotel-room kinda a Saturday night. I had no doubt that in a few days when we stay at the crazy site of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, we'll have our own Saturday night on an actual Wednesday night!