It's All Coming Back to Me Now

Lately I've been struggling to get out of bed to get to school and I take an extra deep breath before I walk into each classroom to face a room full of rowdy students. I find myself daydreaming for the summer days when I was globetrotting across Asia and exploring new places. Thank goodness this weekend we have our first break in the semester - a four day weekend - holler! Nell and I are off to the island of Koh Mak, a very small island in the Trat province near Koh Chang. If the Google Images of the island weren't enough to convince me, I discovered that every beach bungalow for rent seems to feature its own hammock outside - sign me up!

To reminisce a bit on my summer of freedom, I put together a video of all of my trips in the Tour de Asia - Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam - it's all coming back to me now! Check it out below...

Summer Vacation, Asia Style

Starring: Nell Riccio, Meghan Hart, Emily Rall, Amy Wallace, and heaps of cool locals. 

Song: "Go Do" by Jonsi

Summer Vacation: Asia Style from Sarah Rall on Vimeo.

Hong Kong & Macau: We love SARs!

The last stop on the Tour De Asia with Nell and Meghan brought us to Hong Kong and Macau, officially two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China.  As we were paging through the guidebook on the plane, our seat mate from Hong Kong could not stop raving about how efficient we would find Hong Kong, and he was most definitely right on the mark.  I suppose that sometimes compared to Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia almost anything would seem efficient, but Hong Kong really knows how to keep things running smoothly.  It's hard to compare Hong Kong with the rest of the stops on the tour because it was so clean, big and modern - but it was one of my favorite stops along the way.

The first night our plane didn't get in until 9pm and by the time we got to our hostel it was almost 11 so we walked down the street to try and find some food and stumbled upon a restaurant called "Black & White" full of toothless waiters and a giant tank of fish that you could choose to eat for dinner if you'd like.  I played it safe with a bowl of noodles that the chef cut up with scissors, it was salty and had a strong taste of shrimp/seafood which I do not like at all so it ended up being my only disappointing meal during the 3 weeks - but from there all of our culinary experiences in Hong Kong would only go up.

We spent most of our time in Hong Kong walking around, taking the MRT (subway), eating dim sum, hanging out by the waterfront, shopping at all the markets (ladies, goldfish, bird, Temple Street, etc.), riding up the world's longest outdoor covered escalator, and dancing in the streets of Lan Kwai Fong. The first full day we also took the tram up to Victoria's Peak where we spent a few hours checking out the incredible views of the city's skyline by day, sunset and night.  We camped out with a few photographers who told us they were waiting for "the magic moment" just after the sunsets and before it gets too dark out - it definitely made for some beautiful photos!

We also took a day trip to Macau, another SAR, that is heavily influenced by its history as a colony of Portugal.  We checked out some of the architecture, the casinos that dominate much of Macau's economy, and had an amazing Portuguese feast at Fernando's Restaurant on Hac Sa or Black Sand Beach. Due to a long ferry ride and a really slow process at immigration, Macau was definitely not my favorite place, but I did get to add some passport stamps from my stopover there.

We finished off our time in Hong Kong with 3 of the most amazing meals I've eaten since leaving America.  The first stop was 208 Duecento Otto where a friend of a friend was the head chef, he took care of us all night and brought out some truly amazing Italian dishes that you cannot find in Thailand - bruschetta, fresh mozzarella, salami pizza, New York style cheesecake - it was heavenly! Our last day we decided we had to follow the New York Times recommendation and check out Tim Ho Wan for its dumplings.  Apparently, Tim Ho Wan is the world's cheapest Michelin Starred restaurant- in order to get a seat we had to come by the restaurant at 10 am to pick up a ticket that told us we would have a table in 2.5 hours, we then came back at the designated time and waited another hour to be seated, but it was well worth the wait.  The bbq pork buns and spinach dumplings were sooooo delicious! I want more. That night, we checked out the light show from the Kowloon side of Hong Kong before heading back to the island to meet up with one of Meghan's family friends for dinner at the "American Club" up on the 48th floor of a building on the Harbor.  With amazing views once again, we were treated to a meal of steak, Caesar salad, red wine and apple pie - once again all things you won't find in Thailand.  It was an amazing ending to a whirlwind trip through Asia, I'm so glad I'm about to hit the road again to explore the islands and Angkor Wat in Cambodia - traveling is truly an addiction!

Tour de Asia by the numbers...

I have returned from part 1 of my epic summer adventure! It was a whirlwind trip with two of my best friends that was full of delicious food, beautiful scenery, crazy characters, lots of shopping, immigration lines, jazzercise, Asian beer brands, florescent body paint, dim sum, tuk-tuks, flash mob dances, tour guides, and jumping shots. Sadly, it ended this morning with a tearful good-bye to Megh at the Hong Kong airport, but it was so much fun having a visitor from the US and checking out so many amazing places together, definitely a trip I'll remember forever.

I'll post some more details on each stop later, but for now here's a breakdown by the numbers of my 3 week jaunt around Asia:

• 3: Countries visited.  Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam.
• 2: Special Administrative Regions (SARs) visited. That would be Macau and Hong Kong, which are SARs of China. 
• 10: Cuisines sampled.  While my life in Thailand revolves around rice or noodles, the rest of Asia sure has a lot to offer.  I ate some of the best meals of my life in the past 3 weeks, including a few Michelin starred hot spots.  It was definitely a treat for the taste buds! We tried out some Cambodian, French, Vietnamese, Chinese (Cantonese), Italian, American, Thai, Mexican, Australian, Portuguese - delish! 
• 16: Passport stamps added. With lots of back and forth and in and out for the odd day trips, the trip to Bangkok a few weeks back to add pages to my passport certainly proved to be necessary. 
• 13: Modes of transportation.  Tuk-Tuk. Cyclo. Minivan. Chartered Bus. Longtail Boat. Airplane. Ferry. Cab. Bicycle. Canoe. Songtow. Car. Elephant. 
• 1: Number of poisonous snakes held. Yep. For some reason we decided to take a photo with a boa constrictor. Booyeah! 
• 348: Impromptu singing sessions.  Megh and I tested our harmonization skills and Nell attempted to tune us out but joined in with the occasional high note, for some reason we were human jukeboxes for the entire trip, not necessarily a bad thing in the land of karaoke. 
• 5: Currencies used. To put our singing skills to good use, we decided to make up a song for every currency: Thailand - "I like big BAHT and I cannot lie" (Sir Mix-A-Lot). Cambodia: "I've got RIEL" (J-LO and Ja Rule). Vietnam: "Let me see that DONG." (Sisqo). Hong Kong: "DOLLAR, Dolla bills y'all" (Wyclef and Akon).  Macau: "Who's down with MOP? Yeah you know me" (Naughty by Nature). 
• 5: Types of accommodation. From the room full of dead creatures in Koh Kong to the 3-floor private apartment in Phnom Penh, we definitely hit some highs and lows in our choices of accommodations.  There were mosquito nets, hotel slippers, overnight buses, dead cockroaches, bunk beds, cold water showers, beachfront views, t-shirts as towels, and outdoor toilets. 
• 896: Pictures taken. My camera ran out of memory the very last night of the trip -success! Here's a very small sample and a couple of my favorite shots from the trip. 

What time is it? Summertime! It's our vacation...

Summer has arrived! (Yes, the title of this post does reference a song from High School Musical, mai pen rai.)  Although the 90+ daily temperatures that seem to stay in Suphanburi year-round might lead one to think otherwise, there is an actual summer in Thailand, school is out and vacation is on!

I've had a most excellent adventure living in Thailand the past 5 months, (I can't believe it's been that long), and now the time has come for the real travels to get started.  After 2 weeks of teaching summer classes to a few of the students, I'm packing up my big backpack and hitting the road.  Here's a quick glance at my itinerary over the next 5 weeks:

Starting this Friday: Megh gets here (so, so excited)! Checking out Suphan, a day in Bangkok, and then on to one of Thailand's many islands, Koh Chang. From there we head to Sihanoukville and Penom Penh in Cambodia before crossing another border and heading back to Vietnam to explore Ho Chi Minh City.  The final destination on our tour is Hong Kong.  Nell and I get back to Thailand on April 5th and on April 7th my sister Emily arrives (again, so, so excited!) and we're off to Southern Thailand to dive in Khao Lak and camp on Maya Bay before heading North to Chiang Mai for Songkran and then back to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat before returning to Suphan for more summer classes.

CRAZINESS! 


I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to see all of these amazing places.  I'm super excited to see more of Asia, take on this continent with my two favorite redheads, hang out with my sister, eat new food, do some serious snorkeling, and check out night markets around Asia.   While I'm gone I'll try to post updates when possible, and prayers for safe travel would be much appreciated.

Until then, I've put together a video of some of the sights and sounds of Thailand from my first 5 months.  This is my first attempt with iMovie, so don't expect too much, but enjoy!


Sanuk in Thailand from Sarah Rall on Vimeo.