More from Langkawi

While we really enjoyed our scoot scoot scooter-ing about the island, we also reallllly enjoyed some quiet time at the beach. The beach at our resort was pretty lame, but the main beach in town more than made up for it.

We made our way through three local cafes, and each one was Dave's new favorite bar in the world. This was the last, and I have to admit, that it was pretty tasty. 

Nothing like sipping on a fresh watermelon juice (my new favorite drink in the world) with your feet in the sand. Could I stay right here forever? 

Next time we are passing on the fancy schmanzy resort and hauling ourself to this beach and renting a chair. 

Dave looking prettttty happy. 

Looks delightful right? It was truly paradise, I hope we get a chance to go back and do it over again! I feel like it is however the kind of place that you could go for a weekend and realize 2 months later that you never found a reason to leave! 

And, because NO South East Asian vacation is complete with our monkeys, please find for your viewing pleasure, the monkeys of Langkawi. 

Yummy coconut. This guy was not wasting any time on digging in to someone elses left over coconut shell. 

Monkey and a cow. Not a sight you see in the US all that often ever. 

It was a really great trip- especially considering it was a last minute decision with little to no planning involved. My favorite memory was scooting around the island, following Dave, when we come across not only an elementary school where all the Mommies are waiting on their scooters to pick up their kiddos from school but there is also a heard of cattle meandering through the road. It takes serious scooter skills to successfully navigate around children, cows and large piles of cow poop. Pretty awesome. Thanks for the memories Langkawi. 

Lovely Langkawi

While I am literally DYING to post pictures from our amazing, wonderful, perfect trip to India.... I thought I should finish up posting pics from Langkawi. Seriously- I have a bounty of pictures this week to share! Most weeks I am scrounging up anything worthwhile to post about, but after visiting three countries in 7 days, my photographic cup overflows. But dear readers, prepare yourselves, with over 1000 pictures taken in 4 days, this blog is going to be about all-things India for a few weeks to come!

Back to last weekend in Malaysia...

Hello pretty beaches- I love you so. 

Because the resort complex was massive- and also pretty darn hilly, the hotel staff graciously shuttled the guests around in these modified tuk-tuks. Unclear why a normal golf cart couldn't get the job done, but whateves, we were happy to have a lift. We were also thankful to not be too far away from the lobby so our Sheraton tuk-tuk-ing was limited. 

Kindle, beach and umbrella = happy Dave. 

Not exactly the kind of sign you are hoping to see on the beach at your resort. Is there no where in SE Asia that is not currently being plagued by these monsters? It certainly makes a quick dip in the ocean a whole lot less fun! While we saw lots of dead ones washed up on the beach, we also had the pleasure of feeling lots of not-dead ones stinging our legs and arms when we went for a swim! 

This is the "black sand beach" on the Northern side of the Island. No your eyes do not deceive you, I didn't see much black sand either. But the boats were nice enough I suppose. 

Dave, looking for the mysteriously advertised black sand. 

Whoops- found a patch that was black. Hard to say if it was really naturally occuring though given that the majority of the sand was of the plan-old-vanilla variety so to speak. 

Lovely rice paddies. When we drove by the day before there were people out there harvesting rice, complete with water buffalo roaming about- but just our luck this day it was vacant. 

More to come....

Welcome Home

Yup, in those vast empty spaces at Fair Price- there should be food. But it turns out that if you want to buy groceries on the Monday after Chinese New Year you are OUT OF LUCK! Nada. Nothing. Zippo. If you are interested, the items in the first picture above are 1) jars of minced garlic and 2) bags of mushrooms.  

By some small miracle there was both cereal and milk- so I am enjoying a delicious bowl of fruit loops for dinner. Welcome freaking home. 

Incredible India- Day 1

We are having SUCH an amazing time in India. Its so beautiful and I am very lucky to have my great friend K. to be our designated Delhi expert and tour guide extraordinare. Its a lot more fun to visit somewhere when you have a local contact to put you on the right path. Its Day 2 in India and I am raring to go see things but one of us is not feeling so well (perhaps he should have passed on the runny eggs at breakfast...), so the other one of us is blogging to pass the time. So, while I anxiously await my chance to go rip through Old Delhi and take pictures of its amazingness- here are some of the sights from Day 1's adventures. 

So, this may strike you as an odd picture- but in K.'s lovely neighborhood- there were all these adorable piggies running around. I first saw one big old black pig run by the front patio, so of course I grabbed my camera (and my husband) and went in search of more piggies. We found this little family- and they are so cute! So we followed them around for a while. When we were done exploring, we went back to K.'s house and had a lovely breakfast- including some tasty bacon =)

Its Wilbur! Come on- he is so cute! 

Dave- with Momma Pig lurking in the background. 

 Construction sight- Delhi is growing growing growing. 

After filling us up with an incredibly delicious breakfast, K. was generous enough to drive us from his house to our hotel near India Gate in central Delhi. While traffic lanes are so optional it is unclear why they even bother painting them on the road- Delhi traffic wasn't too terrifying- or maybe K. was just being a really good driver for our sakes. 

Little view of the Delhi traffic from the car. 

K. drove us down Rajpath- where the Presidential Palace is located. Despite being super hazy, it was so beautiful. The architecture is a really unique blend of East and West- and the red bricks are lovely. 

Yup- that is a monkey running wild through the palace grounds. Just proving that no trip in South Asia is complete with out some monkey sightings. While some may argue that there are already sufficient monkeys on Capitol Hill- how much cooler would DC be if there were roaming monkeys hanging out on the grounds of the White House and the Capitol? 

Ok- there is much much more to report from our first day, but the sickie is feeling better and I am anxious to get out of the hotel for some more fun! More later!!!

XoXo- E

Manila Mania

So I am back from my trip to Manila and in Singapore for the next 7 hours before we head to Delhi and wanted to post the few pictures I took in the Philippines. 

View from the conference room. We could see all the way from the mountains to the sea!

Manila gets a bad rap but I had a really great time in my short time there. I stayed at a lovely hotel in a very cool neighborhood, the people I met were super friendly- and admittedly, I didn't visit the rougher areas- but it left a very good first impression. 

The Shangri-la Makati- a very nice place to stay for a few days. 

Beyond the fact that a few people inexplicably decided to speak to me in Spanish instead of English, which I consider to be fairly awesome (thankfully I actually speak Spanish) there were a few things that really stood out about Manila..... 

First, I started hearing showtunes from the moment I stepped in a cab to the hotel. Then there was a cool lounge band singing.... you guessed it, more broadway showtunes. The next day at the salon while I was getting a mani-pedi- show tunes. Now there are two plausible explanations for why cabs, elevators, salons, bars were rocking out to Wicked and the like, either A) the locals share my deep appreciation of all things broadway, or B) they think this is the only music foreigners like. Either way-I took it as a sign that I was reallly going to dig this place- two thumbs up Manila. 

AND- while I was blissfully listening to a very good rendition of some of my favorite showtunes in the hotel lobby bar...I also had a watermelon-mint martini, which has to be the BEST martini I have ever had. Watermelon, vodka and broadway music.... ingredients for an ideal night. 

Second, the shopping is amazing and it has so many more American brands than Singapore does. After work finished up yesterday I ended up with some free time and instead of going sightseeing, I headed straight to a very cool mall- the Greenbelt- which was conveniently located near the Shang. The mall was basically 5 different buildings built on a lovely lush garden and ranged from uber highend retail to your run-of-the-mill drug stores. It had everything the best malls in Singapore have- and more (hello Banana Republic- how I miss you!) and even better, no suitcase-toting, shopping-crazed, loud-and-pushy Singaporeans which make every trip to the mall like a trip straight to hell. There were so many more American stores than we have in the Sing- made me want to stay forever! Later I meandered through the local Mercury drugstore- and it was like walking straight in to the USA. All my favorite brands- and at affordable prices- if I had taken a larger suitcase, I would have stocked up on the essentials that are hard to find here at home. 

Third, and importantly. It was CHEAP. I love a good bargain- and Manila was full of them. Starbucks was cheaper, the drugstore was cheaper, my delightful self serve fro-yo was cheap....it was super. I got a pretty decent mani-pedi for 550 Pesos- which is around 12 USD- and then followed it up with a 60 minute full-body massage for the same price! Let me tell you- it was a rough night *sigh*.....I realized this is probably the reason I couldn't live in Manila, because with amazing 12 dollar massages on offer, I would probably never go to work anymore and would just go to the spa instead. 

Finally, I really really liked the jeepneys. 

According to my primary source of all relevant information in the world, wikipedia..... a jeepney "is the most popular means of public transportation in the Philippines. They were originally made from US military jeeps left over from World War II and are known for their flamboyant decoration and crowded seating. They have become a symbol of Philippine culture." And they are everywhere- and each is decorated a little differently- but all with a lot of pizazz. Manila is a very modern city- especially in Makati City where I was located- so I liked these jeepneys because I thought they added a little pop of flare, color and culture to the city. And I am told the ones in Makati are E-Jeepneys- running on electricity- which is pretty cool as well. I wanted to hop on in one but was told by my local clients that it wouldn't be a great idea for me to take one alone- so I will have to wait until another visit to give it a shot. 

Seriously- pretty cool looking right? 

I wish I would have had more time for some exploration of old town Manila and to check out some WWII sights to see where my Grandpa was hanging out during the war... but I was really lucky to have any free time and really enjoyed what I was able to do. And, assuming we can find some cheap flights...I think we will be back for more. Until then- thanks for a great time Manila- you rocked. 

This is the Jollibea- which is like Philippine McDonalds (I think)- I just thought he was super cute. 

Langkawi Love

Seriously- I cannot say enough nice things about Langkawi. The beach was amazing, the scene was low key, the sun was perfect, the scooters were fast, everything was cheap (OK- the hotel was sub-par, but you cannot win them all) I am finally in love with a South East Asian island. 

Don't get me wrong, we have had some really good vacations before, but there has always been a little something to complain about- the beaches in Bali are really only so-so, and the traffic is maddening, the beach we were at in Phuket was basically non existent and the hotel involved a lot of stairs...Krabi was suffering from a terrifying jellyfish infestation. And generally we have had some iffy weather on our vacations last year. All good trips- for real- but nothing left us begging for more. (I know, its like getting a dozen chocolates and complaining you didn't get two dozen... but we are being honest here right?)

And then we met Langkawi (cue the sappy love song). We were cautious because, well...our previous foray's into Mah-lay-zia have been somewhat underwhelming. KL is never going to be described as paradise and Kota Kinabalu was fishy....literally-our hotel reeked of decaying fish.  But Malaysia really out did themselves with Langkawi. To be fair there were even some minor issues with the trip (ie: wee little jellyfish stings and not our ideal demographic at the hotel- more about that later), but the rest of it was SO great that the sub-par bits were totally forgive-and-forgettable. 

It. is. heaven. 

Hello Langkawi- we have arrived! Yay for mini-vacation!

Has to be one of the prettiest beaches in the world. 

The sand is brilliantly white and so soft, there are pretty jungle islands right off the shore...

(pardon the poor quality pics- I understandably didn't bring the serious camera to our lounging in the sand adventures)

Paradiiissseeeeee. 

We had heard that the thing to do on the island is rent scooters and scoot scoot around on the relatively uncrowded roads- so scoot scoot we did. And I LOVED it. Having previously proved to Dave on a trip to Uruguay that despite a spotty history with motorized vehicles and grave bodily injury- I can in fact be trusted with a scooter (no such evidence has been found with respect to jet skis and rollerblades)- we rented these cute little yellow automatic scoot scoots for the low price of 35 Riggitt (US$12 dollars-ish) and we were OFF zooming around the place for 24hrs. We saw a ton of the island and generally had a great time. My favorite moments included navigating around cows that were strolling down the middle of the road. Wish I had a picture, but my scooter skills require both hands, which limits my picture taking abilities. Perhaps next time I should get a helmet cam...

There is not a ton "to-do" on the island (which is fine by me) but the big attraction is this gondola ride to the top of a peak- where it is claimed one can see Thailand on a clear day. 

We wouldn't know- because one good look at this bad-boy and I chickened out so quick it would make your head spin. Its hard to see in the picture, but there are only 3 polls- and between the 2nd and 3rd- there is a big saggy cap of wire which leaves the gondolas hanging precariously over a really freaking steep mountain side. Now this aversion to gondolas may come as a surprise, since I have no qualms about taking them at ski resorts. But I trust that ski resorts know what they are doing with these things- and I remain utterly unconvinced that a bunch of Malaysians- who live reallly far away from any ski resorts- can be trusted to properly operate the lift- and totally convinced that plunging to my death on the side of a tropical island is not how I want to go. Also, after reading about a few unfortunate accidents on the goldola ride in Singapore and avowing not to ride it- it seems like good policy just swear off all cable car rides in Asia. This is probably an overreaction- I am sure Malaysian engineers are very capable people- but I am pretty cool with both feet firmly on the ground at all times. 

No matter, it wasn't a clear day anyway

More love notes to Langkawi later- for now I am off to bed in Manila! 

Oh the places you will go...

While I was getting a delightful massage in a lovely spa for approximately US$11 in Manila today, I had one of those moments where it hits me how very lucky I am to have the wonderful/crazy/fun/bizzare experiences that I have had in life. I have been fascinated with travel since I was a very little girl in living in small-town Colorado- and wow, I am really fortunate to have been so many wonderful places in my life. I also recently had to provide a list of all of the countries I have visited in the past 10 years to the Indian government for my visa, which made me wonder....exactly how many countries have I been to? Well, let's find out (in quasi alphabetical order and sovereign territories included)

A: Argentina, Australia, Aruba
B: Bahamas
C: Canada, Chile, Colombia, China
D:
E: Egypt, and the airport in Ethiopia
F: France
G: Germany, Gibralter
H: Hong Kong
I: India (tomorrow!), Indonesia, Italy
J: Japan
K: Kenya
L: (Hoping to go to Laos soon!)
M: Malaysia, Morocco, Mexico, Macau
N:
O:
P: Philippines, Peru, Portugal
Q:
R:
S: Singapore, Spain
T: Thailand, Tanzania
U: Uruguay, United Kingdom, USA!
V: Vatican City (aka: the Holy See... it counts! and crossing my fingers for a trip to Vietnam soon!)
W:
X:
Y:
Z: Zanzibar used to be a country- does that count? No? Darn.....

This makes 33 foreign countries & territories which is well more than my age- not too shabby. (and I know Dave will readily point out if I have forgotten one or counted wrong....) And, with our recent trip down under- I have been to every continent except Antarctica- and you better believe its on my list.

And, for those who are counting, I have as of today been to 7 countries in the past year (Singapore, Indonesia 2x, Malaysia 10000x, Thailand 2x, Philippines 1x, Japan 1x, Australia 1x and the US 1x). With India soon making it 8!

This alpha list tells me I need to start hitting countries which start with D (I could do Denmark), N: (Nepal? New Zealand?), O: (Oman is the only 1!), Q: (Qatar is alone with the Q), R: (I have been thinking about Russia), W: (The W's are kind of weak, Western Sahara perhaps?) Y: (Yemen has the sole honors here) and Z:  (Zimbabwe is probably out of the question, so we will shoot for Zambia)- and there are NO countries which start with X! All in all- those letters are sort of hard- not a lot of really easy choices there!

For my final statistic, I am currently in the 3rd country I have been in since Sunday night, and will be in my 4th by Thursday morning. That is a LOT of different currencies hanging about in my wallet!

Ahhh- life is pretty cool- I am thankful for the opportunity to get each and every one of those passport stamps- and looking forward to collecting many many more!!!!