Leisure Time at Halong Bay

Located near Northern Vietnam in the South China Sea is a beautiful bay featuring thousands of limestone islands.  The most famous part of this bay is known as Halong Bay. It’s unique geography and pristine setting make it a UNESCO world heritage site.  During our trip back to Vietnam, Megan and I explored Halong Bay and neighboring Cat Ba Island via a cruise with Vega Travel.

Enjoying the scenery on one of our more relaxing vacations.

 Boat Life

We arrived at Halong Bay after a treacherous 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi on 1-lane roads with many narrow accident misses.  Our tour guide and boat team helped us navigate the hectic bay and make the way to our Junk Boat.  One of the cool things about Halong Bay is the number of interesting boats.  There are plenty of authentic Junk Boats operated by tour operators that give the bay an authentic Vietnamese feel.  Each boat has lodging available for guests and staff, as well as a kitchen, a dining room, and a sun bathing deck.  Families and crew live onboard.  They work to make each guest's experience relaxing.  It was a like a mini-cruise ship experience.  Throughout our trip we had excellent views of the numerous limestone islands.  Megan and I enjoyed hanging out with the little kids living on board.  There was a cute 2 year old girl who enjoyed playing with our food and a 5 year old little boy who loved playing soccer with us.       

Panorama of the bay from our boat.

Good friends and food

We also met some interesting travelers from all over the world.  There were couples from Germany, France, Ireland and two other couples from the US.  Although it sounds like a "couples retreat" it wasn't all that bad.  People shared war stories from their travels and tips on what to do and see in the region.  We enjoyed drinking and getting to know the Irish folks Alex and Sarah.  The family from the US was great, they taught us a bunch about Vietnamese food and were real fun to spend time with.  Throughout the cruise we were feed really well.  The food quality was solid and the variety of Asian cuisines was nice.  Some of the highlights were: grilled fish, fried shrimp balls, and spring rolls.  It was impressive how excellent the meals were despite the limitations of a small kitchen and boat supplies.   We also enjoyed attentive and inventive bar service.

Adventures on the Bay

Exploring a cave in Halong Bay.

While on the bay we were able to explore the beautiful sights up close.  We had opportunities to kayak at dusk and dawn.  At dusk we entered a peaceful cove that was inhabited by adventurous monkeys.  We got up close and personal with them as they climbed down the jagged limestone cliffs to check us out.  The setting was movie-like in its serene lush aesthetics.  We also were able to kayak around the floating villages of fish and oyster farms.  It was fascinating to the see the juxtaposition of the gritty shanties next to the beautiful abundance of the bay.  While life may be beautiful for the locals it was certainly not easy.

Many of the limestone islands also had interesting caves.  We toured the largest one and were treated to fascinating sights of geological formations.  Our tour guide was hilariously inventive with the animal shapes he saw in the rocks.  Some of his greatest finds were: a lucky turtle, a dragon, a shark, and kissing chickens.  We hiked to the top of one of the islands to get a great panorama of the Bay. 

Boats in the Bay in the early morning

The gritty boating villages in the Bay.

Cat Ba Island Fever

On the last full day of our trip we visited Cat Ba island which neighbors Halong Bay.  There we biked through the country side and saw farms, jungles, mountains and villages all on the same island.  The highlight for me was channeling my inner Tarzan as I climbed a mountain side using a few footholds and ginormous tree roots.  We spent the night in Cat Ba city which isn't much to blog about.  The rainy weather (really the only bad weather we've had in all our weekend trips) was a bit of a downer but even without it there seemed to be little to do and see during non-peak season. 

Climbing the caves in Cat Ba's jungles, using only
tree branches and rocky make-shift footholds.

On the beach taking a break from kayaking.

Conclusion

Seeing Halong Bay was great.  There was a bit of adventure but the main benefits were good service and seeing one of the most beautiful and unique places in the world.  It is definitely worth the trip.   

So what's Singapore like Part 2

This is another post on interesting things in Singapore.  In the last Singapore post, I covered the mystery of Singaporean restaurants specializing in Toast.  After trying the toast for the first time I give it a verdict of pretty good but nothing worthy of staring a restaurant trend.  

Kaya Toast - it's a big deal here

I mentioned before how Singapore is extremely well run and clean.  The transit system (MRT) exemplifies this.   I've never been to a city with a cleaner, more efficient transit system.  Eating and Drinking is not allowed on the trains, punishable by steep fines.  The train information is completely digital so it’s convenient to see when the next train is coming.  And they come about every 2-4 minutes.  The trains themselves are not overly crowded and even when they are, people are amazingly civil.  And the MRT network itself is excellent.  Since my last time in Singapore three years ago, they’ve added another entire line that circles the city.  This is something that Chicago needs desperately.  The swipe on/off infrastructure is effective and smart.  The trains have to be the safest in the world too.  Signs are posted warning about even the least dangerous things (watching the inch-wide platform gap, old people using escalators, people breaking through the glass and getting electrocuted {physically impossible}).  The Singapore transit system is world class.  And as a kicker, every MRT stop has a shopping mall; which leads into my other interesting Singapore idosyncracy.

The hyper efficient Singapore MRT network

Super clean and uneventful

Singapore loves shopping.  So much so, that some call it the country’s national pastime.  Retail is everywhere selling junk, designer goods and luxury items.  I work on a block that has three malls with practically all the same stores.  And Singaporean women love their fashion.  Every woman, including lowly assistants and poor students, has to have a designer handbag that costs thousands of dollars.  It’s insanity.  I’m predicting a Singapore retail bubble.  Singapore has the most high-end retail square footage in Asia.  Eventually the masses will grow tired of their conspicuous consumption and then the thousands of empty square footage could be used for something useful.  Like maybe more restaurants selling Toast!

Consequences to Fantasy Football Ineptitude

This past week I had to take a rather disgusting shot of vodka, milk and chase it with brat/beer water.  No this is not an weird Asian custom.  Rather it's a byproduct of the company I keep.

In 2011 we instituted a rule in our fantasy football league that each week the worst performing manager would have to take a shot of the choosing by the best performing manager.  Why?  Because we love schadenfreude.  Given our group of friends things have escalated.  Shots of cinnamon that have lead to puking and shots including borderline inedible stuff (grass and dirt) have been taken.  

I had dodged the bullet for 20+ weeks but this past week my team was, in the words of Charles Barkley, "turrible".  I finished with a third of the points that the winning manager, Danny.  This is about three standard deviations of suckitude.  Danny gave me a penalty that was relatively mild by our league's standards, but nonetheless unpleasant.  Enjoy for your viewing pleasure, the recipe is at the bottom.

"Your shot, inspired by the great state of WI:
1) Cook yourself up a Johnsonville brat (or the closest thing you can find), in water and 1 pint of your favorite brew. Eat the brat, and enjoy. Save the juice.
2) 1 shot of Fleishman's Vodka (wisconsin's best) mixed with 1-2 shots of ice cold milk
3) Chase with 8 oz of brat/beer water. And enjoy."

At least it's not as gross as fertilized baby duck eggs. Other interesting shots:

• Fish sauce, Andre & Miller High Life (given by me to my buddy Ryan) 
• Bailey's and Lime Juice 
• A man shot

Cool Travel Tools

Megan and I have used two cool tools for booking travel that we want to share with everyone.  The first is Flocations.  It’s a search engine that has you input a starting point, dates, and flight costs and returns a map of destinations with flights that meet your criteria.  This tool is absolutely perfect for comparing multiple travel options for a particular weekend.   We choose our flights to Kuching and Penang using this tool.  

Flocations results for round trip flights from Singapore for $260 or less

Flocations is Southeast Asia specific but don’t fret because Kayak has an unknown feature that’s similar and available globally.  The Kayak feature I’m talking about is Explore.  It’s hidden away but you can get to it by clicking on More in the top tool bar and then Explore in the Find Travel options at the bottom of the next page.  Alternatively, here's the link.  Like Flocations, Kayak will let return different flight options that meet your budget from a particular destination.  Kayak doesn’t quite have as much date input specificity as Flocations, but it’s still a great tool for researching trip options.

Kayak Explore shows there are plenty of flight options from Chicago to some place warm this winter

Knowledge is power, so go forth and travel to some place cool in the next couple months.  All we ask is a simple thanks on a postcard J.

Into the Jungles of Borneo

Megan and I ventured into the wild lands of Borneo during the Hari Raya Haji long holiday.  Borneo was unlike any place we had visited in Southeast Asia.  Borneo’s natural wildlife and indigenous cultures are quite unique.   For our trip, we based operations out of Kuching, the capital of the province of Sarawak.*

The exotic wildlife

Borneo’s wilderness is exotic and fascinating.  The island’s separation from mainland Asia has allowed wildlife to evolve in unique closed environments.  Consequently many animals found in Borneo are found nowhere else in the world.  A great example is the Probiscus Monkey.  The Probiscus Monkey has to be one of the uglier members of the primate family.  They have a strange fat body, bizarre coloring and a weird nose which makes them seem almost alien like.  They live in small groups high up in the trees where they feast on fruits and leaves.  We encountered a number of these creatures up close while staying at Bako National Park.

The unfortunate looking Probiscus Monkey

Bako National Park is a protected reserve on a peninsula in Sarawak.  We stayed there for two days and one night in order to see lots of exciting wildlife.  The lodging at Bako is quite humble and gets ripped on at Trip Advisor “Far and away, this is the absolute worst accommodations we have had anywhere. We have been to 64 countries, traveled backpacker style. We are not all that fussy, but these accommodations were disgusting.” and "Before I'm misunderstood I spent a week living in a jungle before coming here and am not unused to insects, cheeky monkeys or "roughing it" but honestly you're better to tent it than to stay here.", but the nature elements more than compensated.

The humble accommodation - not great but not the
apocalypse of crap that the reviews warned of.

The Park is home to 7 different ecosystems, 3 primate species, lizards, reptiles and 150 different species of birds.   We hiked for 7-9 miles each day through jungles, mountains, and grasslands to deserted beaches.  Along the way we spotted numerous monkeys, bearded boars, carnivorous plants, and much more.  The smells and strange sounds of the jungle were intoxicating.   At one point one of the macque monkeys made a kamikaze style run at Megan to grab her ice cream.  You gotta watch out when you are in Borneo!

Megan crossing the waterfall on a treacherous bridge.

An example of the rough terrain we hiked through

Looking out across the South China Sea.  At the end of the
land mass you can see the landmark Sea Stacks.

At night the rangers lead tour guides back into the jungles to see the wildlife in their nocturnal state.  We came across a Wagler's Pit Viper, the 3^rd most poisonous snake in Borneo.  We saw frogs whose croaks could be heard for miles away.  We saw a beautifully colored Kingfisher bird sleeping the night away.  We also ran into bats, tarantulas, spiders and florescent mushrooms.   The tour provided tons of night time thrills.  As a bonus we had two amateur photographers competing for the honor of being “that guy”.  They both took about 10 pictures and 7 minutes for every animal we saw, no matter how insubstantial the creature.  Megan’s patience was worn to the point where she referred to one of them as Mr. DSLR.  A note to Mr. DSLR if you ever read this blog: ‘We get it dude, you have a nice camera.  In the future can you please take just one picture and stop blinding the animals with your obnoxious flash?’

After Bako we took another trip to Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to see Orangutans in their natural habitat.  Despite the inclimate weather (our first time with bad luck in any of our trips), we were still able to see 3 Orangutans feeding.  These animals were amazingly graceful, coordinated and human-like.   The way they shook the trees as they floated from branch to branch was impressive.  Orangutans live solitary lives and are endangered, so it was truly an incredible experience being able to see them in the wild.  Megan and I made sure to leave a good impression in case Planet of the Apes ever becomes real. 

Orangutans in Borneo

The Culture of Borneo

Like many of the countries in Southeast Asia, Borneo is a melting pot of diverse ethnicities and religious beliefs.   What’s different is that Borneo has a fascinating indigenous population.  The Dayak are tribal people who dominated the island until colonization in the 1800’s.  They previously lived in the jungle areas of the land and had extremely different beliefs than the cultures of mainland Southeast Asia.  For example, the Iban people practiced head hunting which was the decapitation and then proud display of enemy human heads.  The people were also impressively interested in body art.  Many of the males had intricate tattoos in painful places.  The tattoos and body modifications are still observed by their modern descendants.  Megan and I learned much about the indigenous cultures during a stop at the Sarawak Museum.

Megan underneath human heads in a replica Iban longhouse.

The City of Kuching

The City of Kuching kept us busy for a couple days.  Right near the Sarawak Museum were other nicely curated museums on Art, History, Islam and more.  They provided hours of intellectual stimulation, especially the exhibit on different funeral and death customs.  Kuching also offers a nice riverwalk, a variety of souvenir shops and pretty good restaurants.   In terms of local food, the Sarawak Laksa was most excellent.  It was sweet and a bit spicy, not sour like Penang Laksa.

Kuching’s only disappointment was it’s dead nightlife scene.  Megan and I twice explored the city at night and all we found were a few empty bars.  The best place to relax and grab a drink was our Hostel Bar which was themed after an Iban Longhouse.  For a couple nights we enjoyed a few drinks and good company there.

Conclusions:

Borneo was an adventure.  The crazy wildlife, the exotic cultures and the interesting city of Kuching provided great experiences.  Kuching is a great base of operations for travelers interested in exploring the natural and cultural elements of Malaysian Borneo.   Travelers shouldn’t expect a rapidly growing cosmopolitan city like Ho Chi Minh City or somewhere in Bali.  Nevertheless it works as a solid base.