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Day 20 January 14: Homeward Bound

Heading home is always such an interesting emotion. This trip has us energized and ready to get back into the swing of things. But FURst, one last adventure.

One of the charitable organizations that Alyssa follows is a rescue dog placement organization called Bunny’s Buddies. One arm of what they do is rescue and find homes for dogs illegally sold into the meat trade in Asia. To help with the cost, they ask for volunteers who are already flying from Asia to the US to let the organization use their plane ticket to check the dogs onto flights (much cheaper than them buying the ticket themselves and flying there and back with the dogs). Alyssa and I volunteered a few months ago and today there are 2 dogs that will be flying to Chicago with us. A young Corgi named Honeydew and a golden retriever named Keanu.

These dogs already have adoptive homes in the US and have been quarantined for health checks here in Korea already. We are their last leg homeward bound. (Subtle reference to the 1990s movie about the dogs who are lost and must find their way home.)

The driver of the dogs ended up stuck behind an accident on the drive in, so we ended up being within minutes of missing being able to check them in, but we made it! The dogs were adorable, and mostly well behaved. One minor escape attempt and one humping episode.

Based on landing at 9 am in Chicago, we should have slept as much as possible on the flight back, but we each only got a few hours. When we got to ORD, the process of getting the dogs through customs was much easier than expected. Their new owners were waiting outside for us and could not have been more excited.

It was a pretty cool experience overall. I would do it again.

The rest of our day included driving back to Indy to get chauncey and trying to stay up late to beat the jet lag. Of course one of the highlights was seeing Chauncey again. I think it’s safe to say she missed us.

Don’t stop tuning in just yet! Tomorrow, I will be posting the trip Burnsy awards (credit the Dundy awards front the show The Office for idea). You won’t want to miss it!

-G&A

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Day 19 January 13: Cold Seoul

Shoutout to our NYC friend KJ for the tour rec today. We loved the tour, we hated the cold. We walked the underground mall to get to the tour and found some pretty loud stairs on the way.

We met our guide Jack at 9:30 and started our walking tour. Jack reminded Alyssa of Papu. We didn’t realize it was a walking tour until we showed up haha it was 21°F today. At times we felt as if we were getting frostbite in the wind, but the sunshine helped a little. We started by walking by the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin, who in the 16th century fended off the Japanese navy in 23 consecutive battles.

Next was the Gyeongbokgung Palace. The architecture and longevity of these 14th century palaces is extremely impressive.

This was followed by the National Folk Museum. I liked how the museum incorporated modern technology into their displays to help make their meaning span language barriers.

The final tour stop was the old Bukchon Hanok Village. This place is still a residential neighborhood so it was a combination of tourists and locals. The traditional outfits were worn by Koreans not from Seoul.

Lunch featured a Korean / Italian fusion restaurant in the shopping district of Insadong. Another favorite.

From here it was time to get the 360 view of the city. We took a cab to the base of Seoul Mountain and took a cable car to the top where we were able to get close to the old city wall.

We then entered the base of N Seoul Tower and took a 30 second elevator ride to the top. We were lucky to have such a clear view. What an incredible one at that. We heard a lot of the mountains during our time in Korea and the view brought them back to the forefront. Our art souvenir features these mountains as well.

The rest of the day was spent wandering our way back to the hotel and then dinner / packing. We did have a to do a quick little bit of laundry too.

I’m just glad nothing we tried to do today was SeoulD out!

-G&A

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Day 18 January 12: Seoul Searching with my Seoul Mate

We landed around 5:30 am and caught a ride into the city of Seoul. The temperature: 28°F. We were able to see a pretty sunrise as we drove in.

I couldn’t tell if it was smog or just fog as we wound through the surrounding hills and rivers, but it burned off by the time we were in the city. When we got to the hotel, it was nap time. Redeye flights to cut a hotel night are much easier when

1. You sleep on the flight

2. You packed clothes appropriate for the temperature (we are both rocking windbreakers with as many layers as we can fit underneath.)

When we woke up, we walked around the city, found a Mexican restaurant, had coffee, and were even able to sneak in a Whale Whale Whale joke as we passed some local art.

I know I’ve been harping on this too much already, but I love the conversations that start to creep up after traveling for 18 days. Without work, school, or real responsibility to worry about, eventually I feel that our minds and seouls begin to open to a point where we can Actually feel deeply what drives us and how we love just being together.

From coffee we headed to the movies. Not sure why, but it just seemed like a movie night. We saw Knives Out. With Korean subtitles of course. Good movie.

And then we got pizza.. I think it’s safe to say we are getting close to being ready to be home. Tomorrow is another action packed sight seeing day, so we are signing off.

-G&A

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Day 17 January 11: Goodbye Sunshine

Today started with my quick run around 7 am. It was already 82° out and very humid. I ran to the cruise ship port to try one last attempt at finding a canvas to buy, but was unsuccessful.

Instead we resorted to offering the hotel desk cash for the one from our room. They accepted.

We had some time to kill and the sun was shining so we hung by the pool and read our books while we still had the option to. It’ll be cold from here on out.

A quick flight to Cebu for our layover where another favorite travel conversation ensued. We haven’t been great at keeping up with the news while traveling, so we did some catching up. This sparked some topics: politics and the future of the world. I love these conversations and the way we can debate and have different opinions (even if Alyssa’s are Wrong) and still love the debate.

We boarded our flight to Seoul around midnight and tried our best to sleep. We ended up in the row in front of the exit row so reclining was not an option. And neither was sleep, but we got plenty of rest during the day anyways.

-G&A

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Day 16 January 10: Zip, Duck, Drive, and Dodge

This morning started with a 1 hour window of time for our pickup. 7-8. I wish I would have taken a psych class in undergrad because I felt myself getting anxious at 7:45. Sure enough, our ride showed up at 7:58. Maybe I’ll read a book or take an nyu psych class.

Our tour group began to get a little testy as we waited outside the last hotel for a half hour. The group of 3 who ultimately joined us were not the most welcome.. especially when we had to turn around and go back for something they forgot. And then stop at an atm for them. Even as I write this, I know I should be more understanding and patient. Something to work on. Our driver seemed to be doing his best to make up the lost time as we sped through the mountains. The roads were winding so quickly that I was definitely getting an ab workout as I tried to keep off of the couple to my left. In a flashback to the family vacations of my childhood, I was middle seat of the back row, reading a new book. Except this time the book is Real Estate Titans instead of Harry Potter (early 2000s Burns family vacation out west). And if you’re wondering why I’m rambling this morning: SE Asian coffee strikes again.

Around halfway to the beach, we stopped at a gorgeous ‘rest area.’

When we arrived at the beach, the queue for the underground river was long, but conveniently there were other attractions for while we waited (for an additional fee haha) I do enjoy how opportunistic people can be, taking advantage of a problem in one situation to create a win win. And I can’t really complain about a $7 zip-line ride with this kind of view. Safer than you’d expect a $7 zip-line ride to be as well.

On our way to the top, we not only hiked, but also took a rope raft across a small river.

After the zip-line, we ate a delicious buffet lunch and then jumped on a motor boat heading to the underground river area. We bounced over large waves as we made our way around the bay. When we got to the beach where the river started, we saw a massive lizard (5+ ft long massive)! The locals call it a Payawak and are adamant that it is not a Komodo dragon. Pretty sure it will be 6+ ft long by the time we tell this story again.

And of course we saw more monkeys too.

The hype was getting real for this underground river. We donned our life jackets, helmets, and audio guides and stepped aboard a 6 person paddle boat with a new guide. I was extremely impressed with not only the caves and guide, but also the audio tour.

We went over 2 km (still just a fraction of the whole system) into the caves and learned about how they were formed, have been preserved, and ultimately how they have been named one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! In some places the cavern was over 100 ft high and in others we had to duck under stalagmites.. or were they stalactites?

One of the main points of advice we were given was to keep our mouths shut. The bats tend to drop bombs for us to dodge.

Just before we headed back to the hotel, we ran into our friends from yesterday’s boat trip. Somehow it came up that they treat their dog like a baby.. I guess it isn’t just us.

We got back to town for a quick cheap dinner and then headed out for our next excursion, night boating through the mangrove Forrest with firefly backdrop. We sat next to an Australian couple with the last name Byrnes (pronounced Burns) and made friends. Good thing too, because I 100% fell asleep on them during our ride back.

The night cruise was nice and peaceful. It was lit by the brightest full moon I have ever seen. There were some fireflies but we think the full moon / time of year kept most away. They were way smaller than good ole Indiana ones.

We got back to the hotel pretty late and crashed. Great day.

-G&A

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Day 15 January 9: Islands and Italian

We took off around midnight so I’m counting our flight as part of today. I struggled to sleep on the 4 hr flight and when we got to our transfer in Manila, it was the strangest / least organized transfer I have ever been a part of. 2.5 hours, 4 people arguing on walkie talkies, 5 metal detectors, and 1 van that was not quite big enough later we got to the right terminal & gate. At one point our van left the airport all together. We were starting to think we might be getting taken.

We got to the new hotel around 9:30 am and got the rest of our day planned out. Even though the booking desk said we could not do an island hopping tour today as it was too late, we decided to give it a shot on our own. We hopped a ‘Filipino Tricycle’ (this country’s version of a moped with side car) and headed to Honda Bay. Worst case scenario, we end up on a beach.

At Honda Bay, we quickly met another young couple (Charray and Dubay from Philippines) and agreed to split a boat with them. This cut the cost to just a few dollars to see 3 islands! First stop was Cowrie Island. Here we walked the gorgeous sands and soaked up the crystal clear water and Mountain views.

Stop 2 was Luli Island. Highlights here included a diving board, trick photos and Alyssa’s first interaction with Hermit Crabs. Shell never forget them 😏

Oh and I got in trouble for trying to backflip off the diving board. Can’t take me anywhere.

The last stop wasn’t really an island, but instead a floating dock where our boat driver fed the fish and showed us some giant clams while snorkeling.

When we got back to the wharf, I made friends with a dog before heading back to the hotel. Have I mentioned that we miss Chauncey?

After a long day like this, it was time for some food. And of course we chose Italian. We somehow found a tiny place that was very difficult to get to called Olio e Basilico.. and quickly figured out that they didn’t take credit card, and I didn’t have enough cash. So we got another tricycle to an atm and came back. 100% worth it. We made friends with the owner, Mateo, who moved here from Rome a few years ago. His story was great and the food was even better. The whole mantra of his place is to enjoy the food and take your time. We settled in to the cover music and outdoor vibe and enjoyed the best meal we have had in years. Maybe ever.

3+ hours later, we were drinking homemade lemoncello and eating a real Italian banana split with Mateo while he told us his story. If you followed last years blog, you know that there are awards at the end of the trip. This isn’t common, but I think we have an early winner for best meal of the trip.

-G&A

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Day 14 January 8: Goodbye Bali.. for Now.

Today is our last day in Bali. We fly out at 11:30 pm for the Philippines. We are actually going to relax today. Mostly. We got up pretty early to get good chairs at the beach and then had breakfast and read our books for a bit. I’m now on Start Where You Are and Alyssa is on Ladies Who Punch (about the personalities on the show The View).

Before we had to pack up our room for good, I got my Bali workout and run in. It was hot and I think I sweat my sunscreen off, resulting in a bit of a sunburn. I’m not looking forward to running in the cold a week from now.

We went for a few walks and a few swims, but it actually was a relaxing day. Swings seem to be Bali’s thing so of course we found a few more.

We headed to town for a quick dinner and then got ice cream. And then got ice cream again. To be fair, the portions were pretty small.

Although we aren’t typically vacation repeaters at this stage in our lives, our second trip to Bali did not disappoint. It was as action packed as last time, and we are still walking away with a list of new to-dos. (#1 being: Kadek offered for take us to his village when we come back.) It’s hard to Bali-eve, but as of today, Bali still tops the list of places we have seen.

-G&A

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Day 13 January 7: ‘Let’s do Yoga’ Alyssa said. ‘It’ll be relaxing’ Alyssa said..

We started this morning at 6:30, grabbing a quick breakfast on our way out to meet Kadek again. This morning’s destination: Ubud.

First, we hiked the Campuhan Ridge, a path above 2 valleys in central Bali. We definitely underestimated the heat today. The occasional breeze felt great.

When we got back to the town, I found a bag of my favorite coffee (a treat for myself back in NYC). And we headed to Yoga Barn (Kadek swears that it is Yoga Bam lol). My perception of yoga was that it would be nice and relaxing. Some stretching and breathing.. I was wrong. 30 minutes in, I was DRENCHED in sweat! My legs weak, arms heavy.. (if you get that subtle joke, I’m impressed). By the way, this class was called “Gentle Yoga..”

They should probably just throw away the yoga mat I used. I actually really enjoyed the exercise and peaceful time to think. I told Alyssa it reminds me of the feeling you have after you mow the lawn. Heavy on the feeling of accomplishment; light on the thinking. Needless to say, we felt that we earned a delicious local juice.

We planned today so we could have a relaxing afternoon at the beach. We got there around 3 and soaked up some sun.. 20 minutes later, we were relaxed out and joined a free fruit carving class. I think our work turned out just peachy.

Next we decided to go on a beach walk. We went pretty far and eventually found a peninsula with a sign saying “water blow.” We had to check it out. Something about watching waves crash and shoot into the air is somehow peaceful and relaxing. We watched a gorgeous sunset here before heading to dinner in town.

We actually went back to Uno, a favorite from last year, but branched out and each got new dishes. (and then some ice cream.. I’m convinced I deserved that ice cream after getting my butt whooped by the yoga barn.) Another best day ever in the books.

-G&A

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Day 12 January 6: Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no shipwreck low enough..

Today’s post is sponsored by mom and dad. Their Christmas contribution to our travel addiction made the following possible. We are blessed to have you as such great role models and adventure partners. We love you.

Our 2:30 am alarm came way too quickly. Vacationing as a Burns isn’t easy. We stumbled out of bed and met Kadek outside. He was kind enough to let us sleep for the 2 hour ride to Lempuyang Temple. Bali’s roads are mostly small narrow 1 lane roads with a lot of twists and turns, so we slept in very interesting positions throughout the ride up the mountain.

We arrived around 5:15 and hiked a few hundred meters to the top of the mountain where we found Lempuyang Temple. We wrapped ourselves in our traditional Sarong (skirt like wrap) and were blessed with holy water as we entered. The view out of the “Gateway to Heaven” was indescribable! In the background is Mount Agung (the same volcano we saw from our Mount Batur hike a year ago). This is the largest mountain on the island. 6 months ago, it had a small eruption, with enough smoke to shut down the airport for 3 days.

With a view this breathtaking, we had to sit and enjoy it for a while as the sun came up.

Eventually we started the trek down and got a coffee with a similar view. We shared a small pot of coffee and exchanged many stories / thoughts with Kadek. Have I mentioned that I’m obsessed with Southeast Asian coffee?? I haven’t decided if I like Balinese or Vietnamese better yet. Maybe we’ll have to go back to both places to try them again. Oh and we found a dog. Nearly stole it too.

There were several great photo ops along the way. Maybe one will land me on the wall of a certain chocolate shop.

Next stop: scuba! But first another car ride. This coffee really gets me going, so Kadek and I chatted about everything from his family (wife and 2 sons ages 7 and 9) to his belief in Hindu but also that we all pray to the same god no matter what religion we say we are. Kadek says, the soul and god are in the heart of each human. He is one of the kindest people we have ever met.

We arrived at the dive site and started suiting up. We waddled down the rocky beach as best we could with full tank (no flippers yet) and got started. Our dive guide, Ketut (meaning 4th born) was great! He let us take our time exploring the USS Liberty wreck and took plenty of pictures and videos for us. The ship was torpedoed during WWII by the Japanese.

My favorite thing we saw was the enormous starfish (found by Alyssa) and Alyssa’s favorite was the fluorescent colored shrimp.

This was Alyssa’s first shore dive. She decided she likes shore diving even more than boat diving. 2020 goal: find a mask that fits Alyssa’s face well.

These were the only 2 stops that we requested for the day, but Kadek had a few more recommendations for us. This kind of effort is what earned him the 2019 Burnsy for best guide. First up was Taman Tirtagangga, a magnificent water garden created in the 11th century by one of the Bali kings for his wife.

Next was Goa Lawah, the bat temple. There were thousands of bats inside the cave behind the temple. We even saw a python inside the cave hunting for any bats it could catch.

Finally it was time to return to the hotel. We packed a lot in this morning. It was only 2 pm when we got back. Time for a late lunch and some R&R.

After we watched the sun go down, I headed to get my beard trimmed / hair cut. Pro tip: if you’re getting a beard trim for $3 in a foreign country, make sure you know what you’re asking for. My definition of fade into my sideburns was different than theirs. All in all, I think it actually turned out better than what I usually do.

A quick shower and we walked back into town for dinner at a Brazilian place with some great live music. Alyssa was feeling it! What a great way to finish off an action packed day.

-G&A

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Day 11 January 5: Cliff Notes

Today’s title is meant to be ironic, as this is not going to be a short post. The day started out with rain. Heavy rain. We headed up to Ubud hoping to bike around the rice terraces if the rain would break. It was not looking good on the ride up, but the clouds finally broke right as we got on our bikes! The rain was on and off for the next 2 hours while we biked through villages, temples and farms, but we were lucky enough to have sun for probably 90% of it.

The views were incredible as we biked everything from mud trails to paved paths. Unfortunately, we also saw some aspects of Balinese life that we were not quite expecting or pleased about seeing.

We finished early enough that today we have time to see Aling Aling Waterfall, so we caught a ride up the mountain to find it. Our driver had never heard of Aling Aling, so we were getting worried about its existence as we got closer and closer and the roads got smalller and smaller. We finally arrived at a small shack collecting a few dollars for “tickets” to enter. Local guide and water bottle included. Our guide was quiet, but took great videos! I’m sorry to say that I did not catch his name.

At the first waterfall, we watched a few others jump from the 5m (~16.5 ft) cliff before it was our turn. I jumped first and then our guide quickly gave Alyssa a 3 2 1 countdown. She jumped with a spectacular butt smacker. I’ll spare you all the pink booty picture haha but she was hooked. We jumped this cliff a few more times and then headed to the next waterfall.

This one had a 10m jumping cliff! (~33 ft) If I’m being 100% honest, my stomach was upside down when I jumped. There was no way Alyssa would do this one..

or would she? When I got back to the top, she was ready to go! She had me go first but said she thought she might jump after me. When I surfaced, I looked up to see her at the edge. I gave the 3 2 1 countdown this time and she leapt! This woman never ceases to amaze me.

We did this 10m jump a few more times and headed to the 3rd waterfall.. you guessed it, with a 15m (~49.5 ft) cliff jump! Alyssa went to the bottom to film while I psyched myself up for the biggest jump. This time it was she who had to give me the 3 2 1 countdown. Man that countdown is effective. What a rush.

We had one more waterfall to see, but there was no cliff at this one (Probably a good thing for my feet’s sake), but it was gorgeous. We had to just sit and take in the beauty for a while because it looked too perfect to be real. Words cannot describe how blue the water was.

Aling Aling waterfalls are definitely real and we 100% recommend them to anyone who travels to Bali. They are off the beaten path, but sometimes those are the best travel gems.

We had gotten so deep in our exploring that it took us several hours to get back to the hotel. We caught a bit of the sunset on our way down the mountain, but It was just past 9 pm when we arrived so we decided to stick around the hotel again for dinner. No better way to end our exhilarating day than with a date night in (room service while watching Jack Ryan).

-G&A

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Day 10 January 4: Can’t Rain on our Parade

“Let’s just have a nice relaxing day on the beach today..” haha we made it until 1 pm. Because we arrived so late, we slept in until 9:30 and then had breakfast (including some incredible local coffee and hot chocolate.. I’ll let you guess who had which.) We are staying at the same hotel as last year, so we know our way around well.

It started to rain around 11, so I sprinted to our beach chairs to grab our books. I ran too quickly to hear Alyssa yelling that there was an umbrella in the room 😓 and there was an umbrella over our beach chairs too so the books weren’t even getting wet. Made for a good story though.

While the rain came down, we relaxed on our balcony while refining 2020 goals and planning out a few more of our days. We quickly realized we still had a ton we wanted to do in Bali. No time to relax today or we’d miss out! We decided to go to Aling Aling Waterfall and rushed to the hotel taxi stand where our driver from last year (and 2019 Burnsy Guide of the year) Kadek Jaya was waiting for us.

He talked us into doing Aling Aling waterfalls a different day when we had more time, so we headed to the west side of Bukit (southern peninsula of Bali) to see some of the sights. We started at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Statue. GWK is the 4th tallest statue in the world, towering 40% taller than the Statue of Liberty.

They did a great job making the walk up to GWK a maze with plenty of other attractions and statues. My favorites were the eagle statue and the old school food trucks.

Alyssa’s favorite may have been the ice cream shop.

From here we headed to Padang-Padang Beach (featured in Eat Pray Love). The water is just as beautiful as we remembered it! Kadek was telling us that some Australians come to this area and rent a villa for a month.. for 500,000 IDR ($35). Maybe we won’t come back. Can someone please send Chauncey.. and $35.

And finally we arrived at Uluwatu to watch the sunset. The cliffs were incredible and the water so blue. There was a storm on its way in, so the wind was fierce and there wasn’t much of a sunset, but the rain held out just long enough for us. What a gorgeous view!

Kadek then drove us back to the hotel where we ate a delicious Balinese buffet dinner next to more live music. The band crushed it! Songs ranging from lady Gaga to Journey. We shut the place down.

Both of us feel our December colds creeping back upon us so we are going to try to get some real sleep tonight.

-G&A

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Day 9 January 3: Peanut Butter and Sunshine

We fell asleep watching a downloaded episode of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan last night.. fairly early in, so we woke up nice and early. I ran down to save us a good spot in the sun and stayed for the sunrise.

Breakfast featured a bowl full of peanut butter. Alyssa would like it to be known that she had gone 10 DAYS since her last peanut butter hit.

I tried to get a run in before it got too hot. It was definitely too hot, but the scenery made it a good run.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach, having a few tropical drinks, lunch and reading.

Just before having to head to the airport, we got one last ice cream and hit up our favorite swing.

Now we are off to Bali where we will arrive around 3 am. Here’s a gorgeous photo of the sunset from the plane.

-G&A

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Day 8 January 2: George’s Town

We slept in a bit this morning and then made the most of the complementary breakfast. Then it was beach time. I finished Freakonomics and Alyssa read Girl Stop Apologizing while we relaxed in the sun.

I was right last night. The landscape was gorgeous!

The morning also featured a nice beach walk (where I caught a baby crab), swinging with a view, and one of my vacation favorites: long conversations about future / past dreams, goals, blessings and challenges. Get ready 2020, we are ready to Roar.

We headed into Georgetown for a late lunch and to walk around some of the historic architecture. Fort Cornwallis reminded me of Treasure island.

We walked to the lighthouse, clock tower, Chinatown, Penang Times Square and Little India before eating at Cafe Barista. We were starving.

The next stop was Penang Hill and it’s cable car. Highlights included the cable car ride itself, the views of the island, the view of Kek Lol Si Temple, countless monkeys, and of course ice cream.

From the hill we raced back to the hotel to see if we could catch a beach sunset. We made it with a few minutes to spare! It did get quite cloudy, so it wasn’t the most impressive sunset, but still an incredible view. Stay tuned for a day of relaxing and more flying tomorrow.

-G&A

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Day 7 January 1: Running

For some reason 2020 started with insomnia. I woke around 5 and was unable to get back to sleep. I got up, lifted and then ran a few miles down to the marina. It was a gorgeous run. If not being able to sleep is a bad sign for 2020, I hope getting a good run in is good enough sign to counteract it!

When I got back to the hotel, we packed up, ate breakfast and headed to the airport. Long story short, we hit some travel bumps and given our already tight timeline for Myanmar, had to make a change. We pulled up a map and decided to jump a quick flight to beautiful Penang, Malaysia. Although not ideal, we made the most of the situation and are having a blast. A quick flight later and we were on island time. What an adventure! I love how we can still smile and laugh through any situation.

It was dark by the time we landed, so our taxi ride to the airport was uneventful, but I had a feeling that when the sun came up, the landscape would be gorgeous.

When we got to the hotel, we were greeted with a delicious local drink and sat to watch and listen to their live music for a bit. Alyssa loved the Taylor Swift covers.

Last on the night, we walked the night markets and wandered the Batu FerringhI town area. I got a new shirt and Alyssa a ‘Prada’ purse. Half the fun is negotiating with the vendors. The purse ended up being around 1/3 the starting price. We are truly blessed to be having such a great time and having safe travels thus far.

-G&A

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Day 6 December 31: 2020 Vision

Given the short amount of time we have in Singapore, we decided to take the quintessential city bus tour. But not until I gave braiding Alyssa’s hair a try. Maybe if we have daughters, I will get better at this, but for now I am not great.

First, we went to the Merlion (half lion half fish) statue park. The bus driver kept saying that the statue was 86 meters tall. We couldn’t figure out why we couldn’t find this massive statue.. until we realized he was trying to say 8.6 meters tall.

From here we traveled to Chinatown and the Thian Hock Keng Temple. We were unable to take photos inside, but I did bet Alyssa $5 she wouldn’t stick her head in this random fountain. (keep in mind I’m in school and she’s working so really the $5 was already hers). She did it haha it was extremely hot, so she probably wanted to anyways.

Exactly 1 year ago in Thailand, we went to and Orchid farm, and today we hit up Singapore’s National Orchid Garden. There were thousands of flowers!

The final stop was little India, where we tried a traditional tea and explored the old Horse track.

After the bus ride, we found a great Italian restaurant and then took a quick nap. Another repeat staple from last year.

Finally it was time for the fireworks. We headed back toward to Merlion park and packed in like sardines. We ended up with a really good spot. There were a few pre-show firework sets and then immediately before midnight, there was an incredible drone show. The finale was a massive floating clock that ticked down to midnight.

The fireworks were probably the best I’ve ever seen. They just kept going and the backdrop was tough to beat as well.

Another late night, but we are finally off to bed. Myanmar tomorrow.

-G&A

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Day 5 December 30: Explore Singapore

One last Cambodian breakfast and we were off to the airport. See below for the contact info for the best guide in all of Siem Reap. Call Destination Asia and ask for Chhay.

Our flight to Singapore was quick and easy. I got a chapter of Freakonomics read and Alyssa worked on organizing some of our countless photos. We landed around 1 PM Singapore time.

With no time to waste, we checked into the hotel and headed for Orchard Street (one of the shopping districts). Prada is a bit out of our price range so we didn’t stay too long. A quick (and extremely clean) subway ride later and we were at the Marina Bay. Stop 1 was coffee. The shops here were even more high scale! This place is a shocking contrast from Cambodia.

Stop 2 was the “Gardens by the Bay” where we explored and took too many photos by the Dragonfly Pond, Marina Bay Sands Hotel, and “supertree grove.”

By now it was time to head to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for the sunset. It was far less crowded than we expected and the view was breathtaking.

After the sun had gone down we headed back to the gardens to see the light shows. They were mesmerizing to say the least. The super trees had a show synchronized with Christmas music that made for a nice little dance mood.

Shoutout to Alyssa for getting me the tripod that made many of these photos possible (and to the many strangers who helped capture our memories.)

By this point we were starving. Having too much fun to stop for lunch can be exhausting. The final stop was Lau Pa Sat Hawker Center. Which really just means massive food court. Our food disappeared faster than it took us to decide what we wanted in the first place!

Even though today was really just a half day, we still managed to put down over 20,000 steps each, so we were definitely ready for a shower by the time we got back to our hotel. Unfortunately, the hot water was out. Alyssa managed to work her magic and got us upgraded to a suite (including hot water) a bit after midnight. Now we are off to bed to recharge for another day of exploring.

-G&A

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Day 4 December 29: Lake Season

We fought the jet lag as long as we could this morning, but still ended up out of bed around 6. On the plus side, we were able to take full advantage of the complementary breakfast.. as strange as Alyssa’s for choices might be haha

We booked a kayaking tour today for Tonle Sap Lake. Our guide, Nick, picked us up at 8:15 and we headed on our way. Nick is originally from the UK, but has been in Cambodia for the last 13 years. During the car ride, Alyssa tolerated my 20 questions about his opinions and perceptions on the history and current state of Cambodia.

An hour ish later, after bumping down a dirt road for several miles, we arrived at a shallow channel of Tonle Sap Lake, where we boarded a motor boat and headed for deeper waters. Because of the variability of water depth between rainy and dry seasons, the boats propellers are extremely far behind the hull and not very deep into the water. The engineer nerd in me loves checking out the mechanics.

Eventually we ended up near the floating village of Maichrey where we inflated our kayaks and started paddling. The local fishing community was extremely welcoming and waved as we passed their floating homes, schools and shops.

5 km of kayaking later, we were in the open water of the lake. It is a massive body of water, even though this is the dry season. We got back on board the motorboat and spent the next hour talking with Nick about the culture, history and ecosystem of the lake and Cambodia as a whole. Again, we had a phenomenal guide.

On the trip back in, we road on top of the boat and ate a great traditional meal of chicken, vegetables and noodles.

We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing, repacking and doing laundry. Off to stop 2 in the morning!

-G&A