4/6/2013 - South-east Asian Reunion Tour - Part 1

What happened to March?  Checks out that we are still living in Singapore, still spending a chunk of time in Malaysia and still travelling around the region.  It just seems that work was cranked up to 11 and once it did calm down we had the sudden realization that we would be moving home in a few short months.  So we did what any rationale couple would do.... we freaked out and went a little crazy with the weekend trips!  With just a few key strokes we had suddenly booked flights and hotels to Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok, all set to take place in a 4 week period.  It was almost like a reunion tour or greatest hits album, returning to some of our favorite South-east Asian locations for a final hurrah.  Lets do a quick recap:

Trip #1 – Phuket

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times – we love Thailand and Phuket is always going to have a special place in our hearts.  After a lot of long days, late nights and pretty crummy take-out food we made our escape to the beach.  The Katatani at Kata Noi beach has now become our preferred resting place.  We arrived late in the evening, zigzagged around all the weary Russian tourists and settled in for the white knuckle taxi ride from the north end of the island to the south end.  Honestly, it might be better that it was dark out.  Luckily it wasn’t too late and we snuck into a hole in the wall restaurant for a late night Thai snack.  With a full tummy and some sleep juice inside, we cashed in early so we could stake our beach claim the next day.

The previous visit to Kata Noi was during low season so we were shocked when we walked down the stairs to the beach and it had seemingly quadrupled in size.  The stretch of sand was at least 100 feet wider and instead of 8 umbrellas they were laid out as far as the eye could see.  No worries, we were early enough to settle in and begin the day of lounging.  Somehow doing nothing at all can make a day go by pretty quickly and before we knew it, the sun was getting low on the horizon and friendly voices were saying hello from somewhere in the background.  To our surprise, some good friends decided that we had the right idea and decided to join us for the weekend.   This turned into some entertaining Thai and seafood dinners, a crazy night out in Patong, a late night tuk tuk ride and another day lounging on the beach and floating in the water.   Turns out doing a lot makes the time go by even faster and before we knew it, we were grabbing another blizzard from Dairy Queen in the Phuket airport and on our way back to Singapore.

Trip #2

The following weekend it was off to Vietnam.  We have so many good memories here, but the XO Motorbike Food Tour in Ho Chi Minh City continues to stand out amongst them.  Sarah would tell you she dreams about the Bun Bo Hue (beef noodle soup) we had a year ago so it was kind of a no brainer to do the tour again.  Again, the tour proved they are the #1 rated thing to do in Saigon for a reason.  Once they found out we had previously been on the tour they reduced our fee and brought out extra food at every single place we stopped.  They even offered to let us drive the motorbikes for a minute, but I think I was a little too excited, so the offer was rescinded in the blink of an eye.  Apparently it is still illegal for foreigners to drive a bike, lame.  The grilled prawns, goat meat, scallops and Saigon beer helped to quickly get over not being able to drive and again, it was an eye-opening Vietnamese experience with outstanding food.

The one Vietnamese item still on our to do list was to swing by a reasonably priced, fine dining French Restaurant.  So that is how we found ourselves seemingly leaving the city and driving down some back alleys looking for La Villa (not La Ville, my college apartment).  The difference this time, however, was these Asian alleys had what appeared to be multi-million dollar, 10,000 square foot homes.   After seeing my work logo on an office park in the area, all we could think of was, how can we be expats in Vietnam next???   A three course lunch with choices of steak, seafood pasta and different fruit tarts was accompanied by a variety of free mini appetizers and additional dessert items.   Add in the excellent French red wine and we were suddenly faced with a choice, was Vietnamese food or French food better in this country?  I guess you could say it was a good problem to have.  It seemed fitting to stop by the red brick Notre Dame cathedral in Saigon on our way back, followed up with a stroll in the park.  Very Parisian.

More to come – we’re only half way through the reunion tour and the pancake breakfast and Bangkok were looming....