The City of Architectural Wonder

I woke up after 2.5 hours of sleep and immediately regretted the early morning flight decision, as 3:30am greeted me with a bit of a stomach ache (due to lack of sleep, I'm sure). I took a taxi to the airport as the train doesn't run before 5am. 

I arrived in Singapore without any issues around 7:30am and was eager to make my way to the airport city tour sign-up location to make sure I got a spot on the 2-hour 9am tour. Well, I hit my first roadblock, as I found out that the airline (Asia Air) that I took to Singapore does not have an agreement with the airline (Eva Air) that I am flying to Taipei and LA. Long story short, I had to fully go through immigration and clear customs, which made me ineligible for the complementary layover city tour. I spent the next hour trying to figure out the best use of my limited time in Singapore and decided to cab it into the city to pick up a tour on my own. 

I wandered around for close to another hour trying to find the tour company I learned of at the airport and finally located them for a 1-hour tour. It basically rained or sprinkled the entire time, which made it difficult to take pictures, but I made the most of it, put my raincoat on and battled through it to get some decent photos. Due to the rain, I had the entire top deck of the open top bus to myself. That part was pretty fun :) The architecture in Singapore is unbelievable. The skyscrapers are works of art and are too numerous to count or recall even a fraction of them. 

After the tour, I wanted to experience the public transportation system, so I hustled to the train station to make my way back to an airport one last time and commence the long journey home. I cannot tell you how excited I was to see my wife and boys (pups). This trip was a whirlwind, and I am very thankful to Groovy for all the organizing, guiding, and hospitality shown to me in an entirely different area of the world than I am used to. I definitely could not have done this without him. I also owe my beautiful wife and GIANT thank you for her understanding and handling of the home while I've been off jet setting for 2 full weeks. 

I hope everyone has enjoyed the pictures and following along. See you all soon!

- Bob Abroad Signing Off

Singapore Flyer

Marina Bay Sands ... amazing! It's a ship in the sky ...!

Chinatown in Singapore

One of many architectural works of art. 

Monk. 

Really?

The terraces are gardens! 

The famous Old Street Hill Police Station in Singapore

More cool buildings

Colors everywhere

When you know you're back in Taiwan ... 

Almost home!

Finally reunited with mi amor :) 

Adieu Malaysia!

My last full day of non-travel vacation got off to a bit of a lazy start. We had breakfast, relaxed around the house, and I edited and posted my ALS ice bucket challenge video. We headed out around noon, and Groovy wanted to show me Mid Valley Mall - the largest mall in Malaysia. Apparently malls are a big part of the Malaysian culture. The "food courts" aren't what we are used to in America ... instead, they are very high quality places to grab a meal. 

After a quick stroll trough the mall, we went to a local lunch stand where small vendors rent small areas and sell one or two specialty dishes. We had a dish that was very similar to pad thai. The dish and an iced tea cost us $2 a person. From there, we headed to our final massage of the trip (yes, I think I had about 7 massages!). I'm going to miss these $10-20 massages. Somehow it's more relaxing when they are so cheap. :)  

After the massage, we headed to a local coffee shop for a coffee and a couple treats. We finished off our last day with some shopping at a night market that only locals know about and then had an amazing dinner at a restaurant and whiskey bar. I had a flight scheduled to Singapore at 6am the following day and it was close to midnight, so we headed back to pack. My flight from Singapore to head home through Taipei leaves Singapore at 1pm, so I scheduled the first flight in the morning to give myself time to take a city tour in Singapore. 

Malaysian hot food stall/market

I had fried kuay teow ... similar to pad thai!

Farewell to the Towers

Dinner with Groovy's friends and sister

On Top of The World at The Petronas Towers

Our first full day in KL started with breakfast at the house, and then we headed off to the Batu Caves. These caves are massive, and they have praying temples built inside them! You trek up 272 steps to the entrance, and there are monkeys running around everywhere in the caves!

After the caves, we went on a Groovy guided city tour and stopped at the Petronas Towers Mall to see it and grab a coffee. After that, we headed back to the house for a BBQ and pool party with some of Groovy and Manisha's friends. Once the BBQ cleared out, we showered and headed back to the Petronas Towers for drinks at Marini's on 57. It is a bar on the top floor of Tower 3 that has an amazing view of the larger twin towers. The final stop of the night was at Groovy's favorite roadside stand for late night food. We sat at a little plastic table in the alley and enjoyed some fantastic wok prepared noodles and rice dishes. 

Batu Caves

Monkeys everywhere at the Batu Caves. This is  my Nat Geo
submission ... 

Inside the Batu Caves

Looking out of the entrance of the Batu Caves

272 steps to the top (entrance to the caves)! 

Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur

Rainy day at the Petronas Towers

Marini's on 57 at Tower Three

Roadside dinner stand ... accompanied by a cockroach. 

Elephants & The Cheap (Good) Life

Day 10:

Sheraton Breakfast

Elephant tour

Thai massage in Thailand

Travel back to KL 

Billionaire party

After breakfast at the resort, it was time for the much anticipated Elephant riding tour. We took a short 10-15 minutes van ride to the sanctuary and boarded our elephants. The elephants' skin was so rough it would make the nastiest and roughest of feet seem as soft as a baby's butt. Riding an elephant has a way of reminding of how small you really are. You can definitely feel their power. Halfway through, my guide jumped off and let me get on his neck/head and "drive" him solo for a bit... Then my guide took my seat in the back and let me drive him all the way back for a good 20-30 minutes. I had a blast. When we finished the ride, we fed them bananas and squash from our hands directly into their trunks. It was quite the experience. 

When we got back to the resort, we had about 90 minutes before we had to leave for the airport, so I grabbed a quick shower, packed real quick and headed to the beach for one more massage, this time a traditional Thai massage as I just couldn't leave Thailand without getting a Thai massage. Cost... 250 baht, about $8 U.S. for 60 minutes. I'm really going to miss this unbelievably cheap pampering. I absolutely loved my time in Thailand. I will remember it for its delicious food and hot muggy weather... but more than anything, for the picturesque landscape. All of which I wish my wife could have been here to enjoy with me! 

We headed back to Kuala Lumpur in the early afternoon and had a big birthday party to attend for a billionaire family friend of Groovy's. Needless to say, I anticipated an interesting evening of observing how this side of the economic spectrum throws a birthday party. We ended up with our first major travel delay when our plane had mechanical problems, and we sat on the runway for over 3 hours before taking off. The delay caused us to miss a lot of the party, but we still managed to get there. The property is difficult to explain, but basically these people have about a 20 acre compound in KL with a huge lake in the middle and multiple houses, garages, entertainment buildings, a par 3 golf hole, beach volleyball courts, and probably much more that I didn't see since it was nighttime. The party was a grand production complete with a band and the whole nine yards. I will say the people were very nice (especially Groovy's close friends) and we had a great time. 

Hi Cate! You would have LOVED this!

Awesome massage! 

Railay Beach & An Evening in Thailand

Day 2 in Thailand started the same as the first with a huge buffet breakfast at the resort. Once again, it looked like the weather was going to be kind to us. Initially, we were going to play golf if the weather allowed, but decided to take a traditional Thai water taxi (called a "long-tail") to Railay beach again to do some kayaking though the island caves and do some rock climbing since Thailand is known as one of the best places in the world for rock climbing up the beautiful flat-faced limestone mountains (I did my ALS ice bucket challenge on the kayak in one of the caves where we stopped to have a beer and listen to some music). It was one of many moments on this trip where I took a second to pinch myself and appreciate how lucky I am to get to have this experience. Somehow the late afternoon views and horizon from Railay beach were even more breathtaking than yesterday. I took as many pictures as I could but my camera died forcing me to just take in the beauty. 

That night we had dinner just up the hill from Lae Lay at Hilltop where they had live music in an open air tent and we enjoyed a huge lightening and rain storm (huge downpour) during dinner. It was a nice reminder of how lucky we have been. The storm subsided by the time we finished dinner and we went back to the Longhorn for music, billiards, and drinks. This time we with played with some guys from London and Australia. Another great day in Thailand came to a close as I went to bed sad that we only have one more day here, but excited for our scheduled morning elephant adventure. 

Pictures from Railay Beach

Long tail boats, rock climbing and more ...

The dock for the water taxi.

On the taxi (long tail boat).

Rock climbing at Railay Beach.

Rock climbing - you have to look closely to see me.

Dinner

Krabi

Our first full day in Krabi started with a buffet at the resort with a huge array of traditional Thai dishes and fresh fruit (and some western food as well). The weather seemed to be cooperating for us as the sky was mostly clear, so we decided to look into renting a private boat for the day (to tour 4 nearby islands) while the weather allowed for it. It was hot and extremely muggy, but we definitely didn't complain. I won't try to put the scenery we took in on the boat rides and islands into words ... the pictures give you the gist of it, and as beautiful as there are, they still don't fully capture the extraordinary sights of this place. 

We snorkeled off the coast of Chicken Island and had lunch at Railay Beach. When we got back, we hung out at the pool and had a massage on the beach. For dinner we headed into town (Krabi) for dinner at a restaurant called Lae Lay. After a great dinner, we took a stroll through town, and stopped at a local watering hole (Longhorn) for live music (a Thai band playing western music is something everyone should experience in their lifetime... Good fun), a couple drinks and played billiards with some locals. Thailand is infamous for transsexuals, and we definitely saw some groups of them dressed to the nines trying to get everyone to take pictures with them for some Baht (Thai money). Overall, an amazing day and I hit the pillow completely wiped out. 

Leaving the docks in Krabi. 

Poda Island.

Missing my wife and wishing she was here.

Poda Island.

One of the many islands off the coast of Krabi
(Groovy weighs more than Cate would have in this picutre!)

Chicken Island (some call it Turkey Head, as you can see it looks like
a turkey's head) - where we went snorkeling. 

Long tail boats

One of my favorite pictures of the day. 

Limestone mountains everywhere. 

Coming back into the docks. 

Our dock - step carefully! 

The Saloon 

A long way from home ... 

My pool buddies