Asian Adventures

Growing up in Florida, and having been to Hawaii, the Bahamas, and St. Thomas/John, we have become "beach-snobs." On several occasions during this trip (particularly in Indonesia), we were disappointed with the highly over-rated beaches described in our guide books. The pictures in the book and online always looked better than the real thing!

When we reached the southwestern coast and islands of Thailand, I felt relieved... relieved that the nearly 5-month search was over. We had FINALLY found THE world-famous and gorgeous beaches of southeast Asia.

There are several criteria by which to rank beaches:

1) Soft, white sand that feels like walking on baking flour
2) Turquoise water that is so clear you can see your feet
3) Beautiful scenery around the beach, like mountains, cliffs, etc
4) Snorkeling right off the coast where you can see fish and coral

Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi scored an A+ on all criteria. The movie "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed here and made it famous. It was ranked #7 on a CNN list of top 50 beaches in the world. Click here to read the article. Another "attraction" on the island was Monkey beach. These aren't the cute monkeys that you might think of. One monkey snatched a bag of bananas from a girl, and we saw a monkey steal a hair clip right from a lady's head!

Railay beach also made the list at #25, but how accurate could that list be if Panama City beach ranked #23?! We rented a kayak and took the in the gorgeous scenery. One of our favorite sites were the long-tail boats that also doubled as restaurants.

We did also visit Phuket briefly, which is the top beach-tourist area in Thailand. It was way over-crowded and a bit seedy, but we did enjoy seeing some temples and the unfinished Big Buddha. We made a donation to the Big Buddha project and were given a marble square to write on to show our support. The square will ultimately be used to finish the Buddha. Finally, we went to an interesting cabaret show and got to meet some of the performers afterwards.

Our last stop is Bangkok. We'll be back in the US for the holidays. We're sad that the trip is coming to an end, but there are a few things we won't miss:

-Planning an itinerary nearly every day
-Having to fend off people trying to sell all kinds of things
-Always being a little paranoid so we don't fall victim to scams
-Moving to a new location every few days
-Inconsistent food quality (you never know what you're going to get!)

Our map has gotten too crazy!

After our cultural experience in Ubud, we continued along the 'tourist track' towards the Gili islands. These are three small islands close to the northwest coast of Lombok (a giant volcano island) which are famous for their coral reefs. We stayed on Gili Trawangan and spent most of our first day biking the entire 8km around the island and visiting all of its beaches. As there are no cars or motos on the islands, we spent most of the time dodging poop from the horse-drawn carriages that go around the island! The next day we took a boat over to Gili Meno and did some off shore snorkeling. We were impressed with how much coral was right off the coast! There were tons of fish that we hadn't seen before and we even watched someone spearfishing.

Next we ventured to the Lombok, the huge volcano island, and were surprised to learn that we missed Obama's visit by a couple of days! The Senggigi beaches on the west side of the island are almost all black and a popular place to visit. Besides the usual beach visiting, pool side lounging activities, we did a tour around some temples and villages in the area. It was quite impressive because there was a large mosque, Hindu temple, and church very close to one another. In the middle there was a large worship area open to people of all faiths and the community built it to help support tolerance.

Our last couple of days were spent in some cute bungalows on the southern part of Bali. The sunset fire dance we saw was fantastic - it depicted a classic Hindu tale of good vs evil. The highlight was local monkeys stealing people's water bottles and hair clips! There were also lots of surfers to watch and some amazing cliffs lining the beach. Dave did make a new friend though:

Overall, we had a great time in Indonesia but if you are planning to visit, definitely avoid the main tourist areas! To see the real side, you have to go to the quieter areas.

Surfers, monkeys, giant spiders, and countless Asian tourists wanting photos with 2 blond girls basically sums up our stay in Bali. The two blond girls are Jess's sister Kara, and her friend Mila, who also lives/works in Hawaii. They are joining us for our final 4 weeks in Asia, and have infused some new energy as our trip winds down.

We first started out in Kuta beach, which is a big surfing and party area. The beach was full of surfers, including some local kids who couldn't have been more than 6 years old. Overall, we weren't super-impressed with the beach since the water was murky. It wasn't much of our scene, so we left fairly soon.

A short bus ride took us to Ubud, a picturesque town in the middle of Bali. One of our highlights was the Monkey Forest. The warnings posted outside the forest made you question whether or not you should go in, but once inside, it was an amazing, natural jungle-of-sorts full of monkeys playing, jumping, and seeking any tourist who had brought them bananas. My favorite moment was when Jess posed for a picture with a monkey in the foreground, but as I was framing the picture, another monkey walked up to her and she freaked out that a monkey got so close to her!

We also visited an interesting "water temple" that was fed by a natural spring. A bunch of Asian tourists kept asking to take photos with Jess, Kara, and Mila because of their pretty white skin and blond hair. No one asked to take a photo with me! For lunch, we had a local delicacy: "suckling pig" which is basically an entire pig roasted for several hours. And yes, it was tender and delicious.

Our last day was spent on a bicycle tour through the countryside. We walked through rice fields, and Kara got a taste of some manual labor (beating rice bushels). At one stop, our guide let people handle a gigantic spider and it crawled on people's arms and faces! Fortunately for us, it was not poisonous and never bites (or so they say).

People here apparently hate the book/movie Eat, Pray, Love because of all the people who flocked here to solve their life problems with natural healers and to re-live the book.

Next, some more beach time on the nearby Gili and Lombok islands.

Imagine a country that is made of up of over 1,000 tiny islands (one of the biggest is 2km by 2km). Then imagine that each island is surrounded by its own coral reef, white soft sands, and crystal clear turquoise water. Well that is the Maldives in a nutshell! This tropical paradise just might be one of the best in the world and apparently is 'the place to go' if you are European or Chinese and looking for a beach get-away. After hearing all of this, we decided to go as a 'spur of the moment' side-trip and it was totally worth it.

We stayed at a resort called Club Faru, which was located pretty close to the capital city island of Male. Each of the 100 resorts occupies their own island and so each resort is a different experience (at least that is what our new British friends told us as that was their third trip!). We loved our island because we were able to relax our days away on the beaches, snorkel from the shore, and eat at the all-inclusive buffet. It was a great break from our usual routine of hunting down a place to stay or eat.

During a side trip to Male, we explored some of the local culture. The country is interesting because half of the 300,000 citizens live in Male even though it is only 2km by 2km! The fish market was by far the main event. One of the main sources of income is fishing and the usual catch includes 50-60kg Elephant Tunas. Plus there were Swordfish that were easily the same size!

One of my favorite days was snorkeling at a reef a little further from our island. We rented an underwater camera and I was able to do some free-diving to get some shots. Taking underwater pictures is alot harder than it seems - you spend most of your time trying to sneak up on fish which is utterly impossible and I definitely couldn't swim fast enough to catch up with them! Although, ironically, a little fish called a Surgeonfish always let me get his picture! But we saw tons of colorful fish and coral.

This little side-trip was by far one of our favorites and a great way to begin the last 4 weeks of the trip. Where to next? Well of course another island paradise - Bali!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Many thanks for all of your support!

Singapore is an impressive city. You can't help but notice how clean it is! There isn't anything that isn't modern or new and their love of shopping is only rivaled by the Japanese. Plus when you think that this city is actually an island country of 6.5 million it is even more impressive. We were also surprised that we could actually have conversations with people because the official language is English. It has been a long time since we understand the conversations going on around us! Of course the lack of crime and littering probably has to do with super steep fines and/or caning for breaking the rules. Eating on the subway will cost you $500!

We really enjoyed our days in the city and spent most of our time exploring by foot. The downtown at night was fantastic. Following along the river, you can find food 'hawkers' of every nationality and enough delicious homemade food.

Another day we island hopped over to Sentosa, which is the 'local' vacation getaway. The entire island is literally like a theme park, with 'wild west' monkey shows & a monorail, but to make it even better there is a Universal Studios right in the middle! The beach there was funny because you stare at the ports across the water the entire time.

We also spent time exploring some museums and districts. The Art Museum had a very interesting display of Asian artists with some bold political statements. Again we were reminded of the devastating bombing the U.S. did in Cambodia & Laos and its lasting effects.

Little India, the area our hostel was in, was fantastic. The buildings were colorful and everything smelled like delicious Indian food. We ate there daily!

Well next we are off to the Maldives! We are super excited as these are some of the best beaches in the world!