Malaysia / Singapore / Brunei Darussalam

Malaysia Pt. I

Georgetown / Penang

After an awfully long day spent on buses, taxis and Tuk-Tuks, and yet another pedestrian border crossing, me and my lovely German travel buddy Anne arrived in Georgetown late at night and in pouring rain. After looking at about five hostels madame was pleased (to be fair I wouldn’t have wanted to stay in the others either..) and we called it a night. The next day went by meandering through the city which promised colonial charm – we could not quite find it here and decided to leave the next day.

Mountains and city and ocean

Kota Bharu

Traversing the peninsula from east to west this predominantly Muslim city off the touristy trail made for a culturally interesting stopover on our way to the Perhentian islands.

Perhentian Kecil

The smaller one of the two islands was our destination and a (more or less) smooth but wet boat ride brought us there. Accommodation was more on the run down side, so after one day of hiking around for good views we stayed at the main beach for a few more nights. Awesome beach parties to be had here including a fun Swedish Midsommar. I went for a few dives with Lazy Buoy Divers and Anne made first baby steps snorkeling, although still hesitant, if not to say reluctant. This should soon change. Trust me, I will get you below the surface!

Spectacular hiking views

Beachlife

Happy Midsommar!

Kuala Terengganu

Good for a stopover and colorful lit pine trees.

q.e.d.

Cameron Highlands

This place has the highest density of Range Rovers in the world. No kidding. A retreat set up by the British during the colonial era as a getaway sitting lofty amidst the surrounding hills. It rained most of the time we were there, but we enjoyed the chilly climate for a change and engaged in hikes through the lush tropical forests and a tour past the vast vineyards where a hilariously funny local guide explained and entertained. I also have deep respect for the maybe 14 year old son of the lady who owned the lovely hostel we stayed at. He knew all the Bayern Munich football players from the 70s until today. What a champion!

Darjeeling fields

Kuala Lumpur

Bustling KL is a gem of a South East Asian city. Tradition and modernity combined, a multicultural hub and boy, oh boy, the food. Our whole trip was pretty much about food anyway (that and drinks) and whether it was a local market or a Nasi Goreng from a street vendor or a good Italian restaurant, we enjoyed what we were served most of the time. One day we watched the stunning color play during the sunset over the Petronas Twin Towers from a bar with absurdly expensive prices and an inside pool on the 30-odd floor. The views made up for the price - big time. And then it was back to Reggae Mansion, a full-on party hostel with a rooftop bar overlooking the city, where we paid a visit every now and then.

Petronas Twin Towers

At the Hindu temple

Building at Merdeka Square

Singapore          

The city state of Singapore is quite a contrast to other South East Asian cities. It looks rather Western in that it is a city focused mostly on business with a skyline that is dominating the views. Although I found Singapore to be pretty sterile or even clinical it does have a few nice corners where you can find interesting local culture. But then again most big Asian cities have a Chinatown or Little India, so that wasn’t really surprising. In addition to that, the city is really expensive and hadn’t Anne and I had onward transportation to Borneo we probably would have shortened our stay there altogether. Thus we spent a few days just strolling around, walking a lot and trying to get used to that very humid climate in the city. One day we did a pretty cool tour on little scooters with a local guide who took us on a trip through Singapore’s colonial past under its founder Sir Stamford Raffles that ended in the huge gardens by the bay where we stayed for dinner and a cool light show. Another afternoon we eventually took the elevator up the fancy $250-a-night Marina Bay Sands which features a massive rooftop infinity pool with spectacular views of the city at sunset. In order to be granted access to the balcony bar you had to a) dress up and b) purchase a drink. We had a Singapore Sling at $26 for the lady and bottled beer for some $16. Ouch!

Singapore corners I

Singapore corners II

Marina Bay Sands

Mimi

The coolest thing during our stay though was definitely the Night Safari at the zoo. We got to observe some exotic animals from all over the world during their active night hours. But wildlife should soon get even more spectacular.

Malaysia Pt. II

Miri
Off to the island of Borneo it was. The only reason to fly into Miri was because we caught the plane from Johor Bahru just out of Singapore and that meant it was a dirt cheap domestic flight within Malaysia. Miri in turn is pretty close to our next destination, but a total waste of time itself. Especially so when you get poured upon whilst desperately trying to find a decent place to eat and grab a pint. Stay away from there! You have been warned.

Brunei Darussalam

Bandar Seri Begwawan

Certainly one of the more exotic countries I have been to. It was en route to our proclaimed destination Sandakan, so we decided to spend the day and one night here. Brunei is a Sultanate and one of the smaller but rather wealthy nations on earth due to petroleum and gas. We did a boat tour on the river that took us past some wildlife and through Kampong Ayer (“water village”) where the wooden buildings (including a fire station, schools, etc.) of some 40,000 inhabitants are constructed on stilts above the river. This reminded me instantly of Belen in the Amazon. We also enjoyed a stroll over the local market just across from our hotel and the visit to the impressive Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in traditional body cover.

Swimming village

The Mosque and I

Since the country’s law is still based on the Sharia (which has actually just recently been enforced to implement a tough penal code) alcohol is nowhere to be found. Or is it? On our quest for a place to watch the Wimbledon final with German participant Sabine Lisicki we stumbled across an article from the Wall Street Journal that claimed there was a top secret bar called “The Lounge” in a well-known hotel in town. We asked at our hotel’s reception and they had question marks all over their faces, but were so friendly to make a few calls and gave us an address. We showed up at that hotel and inquired about the bar. We were then asked how we found out about it and I came up with some story of a friend who had stayed here before and recommended it. Then we were pointed to the elevator and they had to push a button from the reception as we got in. The doors closed and when they opened again we found ourselves in a darkly lit room with a big TV screen on the wall, we had to repeat our story because the girls working they were quite surprised about how we possibly could have heard about this place, but a few minutes later we were sinking a beer and watching tennis amongst a bunch of Chinese expats who seemed to usually occupy this bar. We found the only illegal watering hole in the entire country – winning on all levels.

Malaysia Pt. II

Labuan / Kota Kinabalu / Mount Kinabalu

We took a ferry to Labuan island which has a tax friendly policy and so locals go there to buy cheap alcohol and cigarettes. There is really nothing to be done there except for playing pool and waiting for your onward ferry to Kota Kinabalu the next day. Kinabalu had a great fish restaurant with all the different creatures on display in aquariums. You point at them and shortly after they land on your plate. Yum! We also did a boat trip to Pulau Sapi and enjoyed the (heavily crowded) beach there… well kind of. We thought it better to quickly move on to Mount Kinabalu and I was debating to hike up all the way Malaysia’s highest mountain (4,095 m), but my still hurting and healing foot and the rather rainy weather once I hiked up the first hour or so, made me turn around and just explore the hiking paths at the foot of the mountain for the remainder of the day.

Eat me!

Mount Kinabalu

Sandakan / Sepilok / Kinabatangan

Sandakan was cool since me and Anne used some of our hotel points from our times in consulting to stay at the Four points by Sheraton for a few days. It came with an infinity pool overlooking the city which became our main hangout for those days. I also enjoyed a decent workout at the gym – you don’t get them very often when you’re travelling. The highlight and main reason to come here was without a doubt the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary. The Malaysian state of Sabah is one of the two areas in the world where you can still see wild orangutans and they were just the coolest thing when they showed up to grab some bananas from the rangers. The animals here are usually reported by someone and freed from being kept by local people who buy them illegally from hunters and keep them as pets or the orphans are rescued from logging sites and plantations. They are then brought to the camp and fostered there for a few years and they teach them wildlife skills to prepare them for their exodus in the jungle. Once released some of them return to the camp every night or only leave reluctantly in the first place, but after a few days and weeks they get used to their new surroundings and friends and enjoy a life free of captivity. A few of them still remember to show up for the daily feeding show at 10am which is why the visitors come here. There were about six or so that day we went and it is a remarkable sight observing our close relatives (97% genetically identical) swing on the ropes and doing all kinds of monkey business.

Just monkeying around...

Food secured

Pretty nice was our overnight stay at Kinabatangan river about two hours out in the jungle where we did a few cruises to spot wildlife. We saw a wild orangutan in the trees as well as some proboscis monkeys (the ones with the ridiculously long noses), interesting birds, alligators and a few other creatures, but unfortunately we missed the (wild) elephants that apparently had been there just a few days earlier. After a final night indulging ourselves in the luxury of aforementioned infinity pool in Sandakan we hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur where someone in our group (no names) ended up taking a 4am bath in the hostel’s fresh water tank on the rooftop J

Hungry monkey

Monkey with big nose

Off to the airport with a massive hangover … Indonesia calling!

Made it a habit to take pictures with the people who asked for pictures with us

Thailand / Cambodia

Thailand:

Chiang Rai:

My one night in Bangkok did not turn out to be that oysterous. In LA I had arranged to spend some time working as a volunteer English teacher in Thailand. I was supposed to stay at a school in rural northern Thailand in close proximity to the Burmese and Laos borders – the so called Golden Triangle. Since I got in late that night at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Int'l airport I was picked up by a friendly Thai woman who brought me to the volunteer house.  I took an overnight bus to Chiang Rai after spending the next day shopping around for appropriate clothes (teachers in Thailand enjoy the same social standing as doctors and lawyers as pillars of the society and are expected to dress accordingly). Waiting at the bus terminal I was surprised by everyone standing up and paying their respects during the king's anthem which, as I was told, is played daily at 6pm on TV. Dexter from www.volunteachthailand.org helped me in arranging my travels and picked the first placement school for me. Once in Chiang Rai I stayed at Fun-D hostel for the first of many times. A brand new hostel which catered to all my needs on my frequent stays there. If you ever come to this town stay at this lovely guesthouse. The staff goes beyond its way to help with everything and I made friends with all of them during my stays there.

I finally made it to Ban Namtok the next day where I was supposed to teach kindergarten and elementary school. I met Hannah and Jeyendra – two volunteers from Germany – who helped out at the annual English summer camp during school vacations. Also, Andrew and Katie, a Canadian couple, got there the same day and the three of us would be the first volunteer teachers of the new school year which would start the next day.

Learning our names in Thai

It’s difficult to put into words the experience when we were introduced to the students the next day. After I had a quick bucket shower with rain water (there was no water a lot of the time) we gathered outside at around 6.45 am in front of our (very basic) rooms on the school property while the kids were already sweeping the schoolyard and classrooms. They sang their morning song and raised the flag at the pole and pledged allegiance and all other kinds of organized activities. From that very first day on I was always greeted with a friendly and smiling “Good morning teacher Maik” which made getting up and being motivated in the mornings the easiest thing in the world. At school we taught Kindergarten in the morning and grades 1 thru 6 in the afternoon. Admittedly, the attention span of a kindergarten kid is that of a squirrel, so after singing the ABC song or introducing some words like “Apple” to underline the alphabet we would usually play with them, which – considering the 35°C outside – was a difficult and tiring task. With the older kids we were pretty much free to teach what we considered appropriate. It’s amazing how attentive and polite these kids are in comparison to the average Western student (me included). Afternoon activities included playing football (soccer) with the young boys and organizing sport games and activities that involved teaching some English words and commandos.

I am great/good/ok/so-so/happy/angry/sleepy/hungry

Pink is the new green

In the village I felt a bit like a pop star. The people were extremely friendly and interested in us foreigners. It went so far that one day, hitching back from an afternoon visit to the next town, one guy drove us to his friends and family instead of school and we had to take pictures with each and every single one of them and try their food and home-made liquor mixed with honey. Only then would they let us go back to the school.

On our first weekend we went back to Fun-D hostel in Chiang Rai where we visited the White Temple or Wat Rong Khun - an impressive contemporary Buddhist temple with all kinds of unconventional and sometimes even morbid installations. On the way back a combination of a lack of driving skills and sand/oil on the road let to me having an accident with my 125cc scooter. I suffered a bad, deep wound on my left foot from sliding across the street for 10m with the scooter on my leg. My beloved shorts that already had paint stains on them from when I got myself into student riots in Chile were now finally ready to go to the trash. The hostel staff took care of first aid, but after three days my foot got heavily infected (no surprise with constant heat and humidity) and I had to leave school to go to a hospital. What then followed was a brutal procedure and certainly not for the faint at heart. A needle with an anesthetic was injected 3 centimeters deep under my wound which instantly drove tears into my eyes so painful was it. Once my foot was numb they took a sterile metal toothbrush and scraped out the wound, so that it was clean. Finally I received some more shots of antibiotics directly into the wound. The nurses first wanted me to stay there for 5 days, but then I could talk the doctor into letting me come back daily to check up on the healing process. The whole operation, including prescriptions and wound dressing was less than $10 - well invested money! The foot eventually took over two months to heal entirely. Now I’m probably left with a sexy scar for the rest of my life. 

The White Temple

Ouch!

The next day the school’s principal took us out to visit a wildlife camp where we would ride elephants. Pretty cool activity, although I was a bit worried about the elephants being treated in a bad way. I’d much rather see them roaming free instead of having their will broken that way. I expressed my concerns with the local guides there, but they assured me these ones were treated nicely and with due respect for the animals. Let's hope it's true. The same day we also went to see a Buddhist temple where we were given a private audience with a high-ranking monk and were asked to teach the orphan kids some English for an hour or so.

Elephant (left)

Buddhist monk (right)

The dragon is one of the Four Buddhist Dignities

While school activities were always heaps of fun (we organized student president elections, gave radio interviews and generally enjoyed being in such a peaceful environment) the next weekend was reserved for another city trip. This time we went to Chiang Mai - a fine example of urban Asian culture, a student city coming with a great vibe expat scene without the hustle and bustle of Bangkok or the likes. Do I have to mention the enthusiasm, the cheering and the overwhelming feeling when FC Bayern München won the Champions League title that weekend? We were watching it at a German-run bar in town despite the late kick-off at 1.45am. I was crying tears of joy. Mia san mia!

Will he try the crickets and silkworms?

Yes he will!

By the end of the next week I decided to do a visa-run to Cambodia and join another school in Klaeng, about 3 hours east of Bangkok, when coming back from it. My local contact Dexter suggested going there to see and experience something different.

Cambodia:

Siem Reap / Angkor Wat

Crossing the border into the former Khmer Empire now officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia was a hot and messy experience. The travel company asked us to hand in our passports and was going to arrange visas for “only $40 – vely cheap”. Thanks, but no thanks. I jumped off the bus at the border where touts and scams were trying to sell me visas in their offices at prices around $30. I came prepared and walked straight up to the immigration office. A sign there read: Tourist Visa - $20. Aha. After providing a passport photo (luckily I had one on me and could avoid the $5 extra charge for having my picture taken) the not so friendly border official pointed at a handwritten sign that said $7 or 200THB processing fee. Of course, there always is. “Sorry Sir, I have exactly $20 on me.” I kept smiling through his attempts of getting some bribe out of me and reissued my earlier phrase. “Sorry Sir, I have exactly $20 on me.” Finally, I was good to go, obtained my entry stamp at the border, crossed by foot and jumped back on the bus on the other side.

Thai-Cambodian border crossing at Poipet

After a 2-3 hour ride through rice fields we made it to the town of Siem Reap which has something on offer for travelers on all budgets. From major chain resorts to dirt cheap budget accommodation – everything is readily available in this South East Asian micro cosmos of tourism. Me and my new German friends from the bus found something clean and neat for $5 including breakfast. The evening then ended with a traditional Cambodian massage (less painful than the Thai version), an interesting culinary experience thanks to former French influence in the area (frogs, frogs!!), $0,50 Anchor beer cans and the organization of a local driver for the next morning.

Beheaded froglings

Morning in this case meant 3.30am. The driver picked us up in his auto rickshaw (tuk tuk) and drove us the 30 minutes to the world’s single largest religious monument and UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat. The whole area is vast and said to hold the ruins of over 1,000 temples. It is about 10 times the size of the second largest religious monument in the world – the Mayan city of Tikal in Guatemala which I had visited on my birthday just a few weeks before. The sunrise over the little lake in front of the main complex was nothing short of magnificent and worth the pain of the early visit. The truly great thing about the complex that used to serve as the seat of the Khmer Empire from the 9^th thru the 15^th century is that its ruins combine various religious influences – from indigenous cults to Hinduism and Buddhism. Obviously, a single day visit cannot cover all there is to see, but with the good planning of our well informed driver we made it to the most interesting sites within the next twelve hours in the largest urban agglomeration in human history prior to the Industrial Revolution. Most notable of the ruins were certainly the main temple of Angkor Wat and the Bayon with its giant carved stone faces.

A new day begins

Angkor Wat

Bayon

Exhausted from a long day in the sun we finished on Pub Street that night and took an early morning bus back to Bangkok the next day.

Thailand:

Bangkok

Oh dear lord, Khao San Road. Have you read the book The Beach or seen the movie starring Leo DiCaprio? Then you will know what I’m talking about. At least I have a fake ISIC student card now that has been successfully in use ever since.

Fat Buddha

Klaeng, Rayong Province

My teaching experience here was quite different from that up north. For starters, accommodation was a luxurious apartment in a Swedish owned vacation property. There was a kitchen, LCD TV, spacious bathroom, a pool, a terrace… what a treat after a few weeks of living in very basic conditions. The friendliness of the people was the same though. I was being invited for lunch and dinner with the teachers and got to taste the best of Thailand’s cuisine. And the spicy food there is just outstanding – couldn’t be happier with it. On top of it you have all the exotic fruits like Rambutan and Durian and Mangosteen and the list continues. One afternoon I went to one of the teacher’s fruit garden and came back home with like a 5 kg bag full of all kinds of fresh fruit. Much to the delight of my new housemates who themselves were teaching at the local elementary school. I was mostly at that school prepping one of the kids for another speech contest, but since I walked into Franzi early into my stay there I had the opportunity to visit her secondary school where she was working as an English teacher for an entire year and ended up being given a few classes to teach Mathematics to. Challenge accepted and I found myself explaining sets, polynomial division and basic stochastic to 13-18 year old students over the next couple of weeks. I loved it. The kids told me they enjoyed it too, although I was quite happy to have one of the teachers jump in every now and then helping with a translation when blank stares were all I got in return for my explanation. Altogether, these few weeks have been something I can highly recommend to every single one. If you have the opportunity to do it – go ahead and don’t hesitate. It’ll change you and the way you look at things. Such a rewarding experience, such great people I met and the kids are just lovely and ever smiling. Thanks again to everyone involved in this: Dexter, Suvanna, Mr. S, Goong, Pissamai, P’Jam, P’Soy. You guys rock!

M6 (year 12) listening to morning announcement

Gifts and flowers were given to the teachers on this national holiday

Lunch with the colleagues

Koh Samet

We spent one weekend on this island just off the coast from where we lived. There was a festival with local bands and it was really nice to be in a place where we were the only tourists with most of the Thai cheering for the bands at the beach stages. Due to the lack of accommodation we had to sleep on the ground in tents that we rented, but I guess that adds to the experience, because the rest of this weekend can be quickly summed up: beaches, hammocks, live music and cocktails J

Picturesque Koh Samet

Phuket / Krabi

I took off one morning to make it in time to Bangkok for my flight to Phuket. A heavily delayed plane, a few hours of waiting at the airport and finally I got there and somebody was already waiting for me. My friend Anne who I was working with at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants the year before had arrived from Germany. I was pleased to meet her and having somebody to travel with me for a few weeks. The next two days were mostly transit. We spent one night in the southern Thai city of Krabi and having made it to Hat Yai the next day we already saw how the predominant religion switched from Buddhism to Islam. Malaysia was our proclaimed destination (partly because my Thai visa was about to expire once again). And what an adventure it would be...

Sawadee-krap! (Thai: Hello/Goodbye)

People’s Republic of China

Hong Kong:

After a not-so-bad 14 hour flight I touched down in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong which, after a long standing history as a British overseas territory, was handed back to the authority of China in 1997. Here I was. For the first time in my life I made it to the Asian continent and had a few days to spare in this gem of Asian culture before I was headed to Thailand on working matters. Well, more on that later.

The hostel I chose to stay at goes by the name Urban Pack, a fairly new, boutique hostel. I could have opted to get a shabby room in the Indian run Chungking Mansion for as low as 7 or 8 US$, but I was just not feeling like cockroaches, bedbugs and a bunch of STDs some people left in the bed-sheets. Urban Pack was a good place to meet other travelers and it was conveniently located right there in Central Kowloon close to the ferry terminal and an MTR station with frequent connections to Hong Kong Island.

When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of the neon light that split the night

The day after my arrival I spent some time in the Hong Kong Museum of History where I learnt quite a bit about the rise of the city to one of the most important cultural, political and financial hubs of all Asia. It is rather impressive how all this took place in a mere 150 years of British colonialism. Later that day I meandered the Avenue of Stars with views of haze covered Central Hong Kong’s skyline before I ended that day at the famous night market in Kowloon. But the weather that night was particularly… wet. So I went back to the hostel and had a good night’s rest.

Bruce Lee = awesome

Giant rubber duck promoting peace

Night market neighborhoods

The next day was reserved for a hike up to the Victoria Peak. The lofty hill overlooking the Hong Kong Island makes for great views over the bay. To reach the top one can either take the overpriced peak tram or do it the old school way – a bit over an hour hike got me to the top. All sweaty but happy (>30° Celsius and humidity nearing 90% took their toll on me) I marveled at the stunning scenery from atop and rested for a while. This time I opted for the tram down and since I had made arrangements to meet up with an old friend of mine I let time pass at a cozy bohemian coffee place in Central HK's Lan Kwai Fong area.

Victoria Peak view living up to the expectations

Daniel and I have been in contact the past few years, but it was not until that evening that we would see each other for the first time in 3 years. Previously, we shared an apartment while going to uni for a few months in LA where we would also attend a lecture on investment together. At the time, Daniel was working in the sales department at the Hong Kong subsidiary of a Czech company doing fancy light installations and was just about to relocate to their London branch. We met that night for a good talk over dinner and later went for a couple of drinks making plans for the upcoming weekend.

Rooftop bar - $15 well drinks

The next morning, some hostel guests and I decided to see the tallest free standing Buddha statue in the world at 34m height. Rather excited about what we were going to see we decided it was worth it to spend almost two hours on public transport to get to the site on Lantau island. To sum things up: fail. What we got when we reached the ground station was an expensive cable car ride through the fog covered hills and then, once on top, a place that could not be more touristy and overpriced. By the time we reached our destination things were getting lousier and on top of it all rather wet. It started pouring cats and dogs and the visibility was like 3 feet. I could barely make out the Big Buddha’s massive hand reaching out to give a blessing. Good thing though that a free lunch at a soup kitchen was included in the ticket, so we decided to stick it out there while the rain lasted and by the time it cleared up a bit we were at last able to get a quick glimpse of the Buddha statue. I bet this would have been a nice afternoon activity with a bit of sunshine. Luckily, the local Starbucks (a touristy place needs a Strbcks, right?) came equipped with WiFi and I was able to make an important booking for the next day. I will tell you about Macao in a bit.

A gate in the clouds

Big Buddha sends his greetings down to earth

We ended our tour with a dinner at a place called One Dim Sum. Dim Sums are traditional Chinese eateries, where you can choose from a variety of tasty congees, rice that comes in all variations, dumplings, and also more awkward things like chicken feet and the alike. This particular place was a local favorite and had been mentioned in the Michelin Guide for five years in a row. Rumor has it that it used to claim a single star itself, but I doubt it considering the $6 portions that fill you up for two days. Nevertheless, this was a tasty feast.

I made it over that night to Daniel’s apartment in Central HK where a colleague of his had a farewell party, so we spent the evening celebrating her and trying local brews. The next morning I left early for my final Chinese destination – the former Portuguese stronghold of Macao. Daniel initially decided to come along to the Las Vegas of Asia, which, as a matter of fact, has recently overtaken its American sister city in terms of gambling revenue making it the new entertainment capital of the world. And indeed, you will for instance find an exact copy of the Venetian in Macao along with the MGM Grand and a myriad of other casinos and hotels to be found here. It’s a funny coincidence that I would end up there after just having been to Las Vegas a few weeks earlier. Or, is it?

I'm on a boat!

Anyhow, Daniel started lamenting about a bunch of work that he had to do over the weekend and how he was still hung over from the night before, so I left for the Macao ferry alone. Not without telling him that I expect to see him tonight – once he had finished up his work – at the 5-star resort that I had booked the previous day from the Big Buddha Starbucks. At $200 a night this would usually not be covered in my backpacker’s budget, but fortunately I still have a few hotel points that I collected when working in consulting. What followed was a one hour catamaran ride and yet another stamp in the passport (Special Administrative Region Macao). I then took a complimentary shuttle to the Westinn Resort and after a welcome drink, a few pleasant words, and a free WiFi package (after all this SPG gold status is good for something) I lifted a few weights at the gym, kicked back at the sauna and steam room, and then enjoyed the sunset over the resort’s private bay from my hotel room balcony. Soon after that Daniel arrived and we flipped the city around. And as we all know: What happens in Macao…

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

Dim Sum dudes

I somehow made it to the airport the next day and boarded a plane to Thailand. One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster, isn't that what they say?