Where to, Gumshoe? – Follow us through our day to day travels and adventures

Saigon/Hong Kong/Tokyo/Vancouver (Day 139): Our Long Journey Home

July 17, 2016

Our long travel day began when our alarms went off at 2:30am, Saigon time. We tried to go to sleep earlier but didn’t really fall asleep until 10pm. We woke up, brushed our teeth, and went downstairs to check out. When we went downstairs, the 24-hour reception turned out to be two guys who were sleeping in the lobby on the couch and a cot. The lights were all off and they didn’t hear us standing there until we dropped our bags (not that subtlety). We eventually checked out and our car was waiting outside (the driver was also sleeping too). With no traffic at 3am, we got to the airport in only about 15 minutes!

We were flying to Hong Kong on United for our first flight of the day. There were a lot of people already at the airport checking in for the flight. The majority of people on our flight were connecting to other North American cities – our flight actually continued on to Newark (different plane, same flight number). At such an early hour there was only a cafe and one souvenir stand open (surprisingly). The plane ride went smoothly and 2.5 hours later, we arrived in Hong Kong.

When we landed in Hong Kong and walked through the HSBC sponsored gangways into the terminal, we already felt like we were back in a first world country. I went to the washroom and felt thankful that it was so clean AND had soap. I’ve been to Hong Kong four times in my life and three of them have been with Tim (first time was a family trip). They were usually just layover trips (2-3 days) on our way to somewhere else in Asia. We both have friends in Hong Kong so those trips are mainly just to visit. We had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong so our plan was to train into Central HK, have lunch with a couple of friends, and come back for our second flight to Tokyo.

When we passed through customs and went to buy our train ticket into town it felt like we were just there because it’s been less than a year since our last time in Hong Kong enroute to the Maldives for our honeymoon. Since we were coming back to the airport in a couple of hours, we bought the same day return trip ticket for 100 HKD = $16.75 CAD. The same day return train ticket is the same price as a one way ticket. The Hong Kong train into town is one of the best and most efficient airport transfers. Hong Kong Station is around 35km away from the airport on Hong Kong Island and the train only takes 24 minutes. I wish all cities had something so efficient, especially if the airport is far from the city centre.

We got to Hong Kong Station shortly after 10am, a lot quicker than we anticipated. We were meeting at Crystal Jade in IFC Mall (which is literally above Hong Kong Station) for lunch, so we didn’t even have to walk outside if we didn’t want to. One of our favourite dim sum places is Tim Ho Wan, which has a location just above the Airport Express Hall in Hong Kong Station, but it’s more of a quick eats type of place and since we were visiting with friends and a baby was going to be with us, Tim Ho Wan wouldn’t work. It also has crazy line ups at all times of the day (next trip to HK we’ll go!). Tim and I walked around IFC to kill time since we weren’t meeting at Crystal Jade until it opened at 11am.

While walking around IFC (International Finance Centre) Mall, I forgot how many stores and brands Hong Kong has. They have everything! After being in SE Asia for so long, going to Hong Kong is such a 180 degree change – especially being in IFC. We walked outside to take a quick selfie and boy was it hot out! It was so humid (felt worse than Saigon) so we quickly took a photo and went back inside the mall.

We got to Crystal Jade ten minutes before it opened and there was already a line up for a table. Howard, Tim’s childhood friend, met us outside while we were waiting and we got a table for four plus a baby. Vicki came shortly after and she made quite the trek to come meet us. She drove to Kowloon and then took the train to Hong Kong with a stroller. Her husband couldn’t make it last minute so I felt bad for her because babies are so much work. Vicki is a university friend of mine who moved to Hong Kong after graduating, and has been there since. She’s now married and a new Mom. This was the main reason for having a stopover in Hong Kong. I wanted to meet baby Ashton, who is 7 months old now. Last time we saw Vicki she was 7 months pregnant.

I didn’t take any photos of the food but we had a few orders of xiao long baos, hot and sour soup noodles, fried Shanghai noodles, green beans, spicy wonton, and pan fried dumplings. It was basically just the 3 of us eating while Vicki took care of Ashton. I think he was teething because he kept rubbing his mouth and was quite upset. Poor guy. Time flew by so quickly and it was already time for us to go back to the airport. Howard was really kind and treated us for lunch. He is part owner of a sandwich shop in New West that just opened recently called Big Star Sandwich. I’m looking forward to trying it out while we’re back in Vancouver!

We said bye to everyone and jumped back on to the train. When we got back to the airport, we went through security and exit customs. We had half an hour before our flight boarded so we walked around quickly and went to our gate. The flight boarded a bit late and we ended up being delayed about 45 minutes. Luckily we had a 2.5 hour buffer in Tokyo (Haneda) before our final flight home. The flight to Tokyo was a little less than 4 hours – you don’t realize how far north Japan is until you fly within Asia. They served us drinks and a small meal on the plane. I had grilled chicken teriyaki and Tim had stewed pork. The food on ANA is pretty decent, but I think Cathay and Singapore Airlines has better food. We both watched Zootopia, which was a really good Disney movie. We were both pretty impressed with it and the (not so subtle) message/lessons about race discrimination.

We finally landed in Tokyo, at Haneda Airport, around 8pm. We had an hour to do our (my) last minute shopping before we boarded our final flight to Vancouver. To get to our connecting gates we had to go through security again, which Tim thinks basically means that they don’t trust the security from other countries. The international terminal had a lot of high end stores, your typical duty free stores, and a food court. I was most interested in buying snacks to bring back home. The selection was alright. I bought some Royce chocolate covered chips, mochi, fried mini crabs, matcha cakes, and yubari melon Pocky. I didn’t really hold back since we didn’t have to worry about capacity because our shopping bags were our carry on. We were hoping they would have a cosmetic/drug store like they did in the domestic terminal, where they had all the Biore sunscreen and your everyday Japanese candies. We did see the sunscreen but it was double the price of what we saw at the domestic terminal so we passed. Even just being in the airport, I was really happy to be back in Japan. *Sigh* I miss Japan and can’t wait to go back one day.

Our flight left on time and we were on our way home! The flight was fairly full and filled with more Japanese tourists than Canadians. The flight time was just under 9 hours – which is a pretty short flight compared to flying home from Hong Kong (14 hours!). We were flying on a Boeing 787, Dreamliner, so the windows were nice and big. There wasn’t much turbulence which made it a pretty relaxing flight for me. The food on this flight was better than the previous flight. I had unagi rice and Tim had a tomato hamburger steak. They came around with Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream after dinner. A couple of hours before landing they gave everyone breakfast boxes that had yogurt and 3 sandwiches (they looked like high tea sandwiches). If they had an egg salad sandwich it would’ve tasted like the ones at Family Mart.

After getting a little bit of sleep, we finally landed in Vancouver! As we were descending on the city, Vancouver looked beautiful and the suburbs looked so orderly and nicely groomed from the air. We got through customs and picked up our bags without any issues. My Mom was waiting for us when we got out and my Dad picked us up upstairs. Feels nice to be home.

We unpacked, showered, and then our family came over for a family dinner. It was good that we got to visit with everyone when we got home because I think we would’ve ended up napping. I didn’t take any pictures but we had a lot of my favourite food – a good green salad, smokies, lasagna, Cantonese BBQed meats, and my Grandma’s soup. It was a mishmash of things but it was delicious. For dessert we had fruits and I opened all my Japanese and Vietnamese snacks to share. I wasn’t going to eat all those snacks myself so I was happy to share them with everyone.

After 11 countries, 49 cities, 30 flights, and sleeping in 44 different beds, we’re home! We’ll see where our next adventure takes us, but for now we’ll be enjoying beautiful Vancouver and spending time with our family and friends.

Steps today: 4,500

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh (Day 138): Our Last Day

July 16, 2016

Today is our very last full day of this trip! We can’t believe how fast these past 4.5 months went. We’re feeling a mixture of emotions as we begin our long day of travel early tomorrow morning. On one hand, we’re really excited to see all our family and friends and on the other hand, coming back home poses a lot of questions about what we’re going to be doing in the upcoming months and about our lives in general. It was only until we got to Phu Quoc when we started to really reflect on our trip and lives in general. We were both hoping we would do a lot more personal reflection on this trip, but things always seemed to get too busy to do that.

We made sure to get a good night’s sleep last night because we know we won’t be getting one for a while. Hopefully our jetlag won’t be bad when we’re back! We had a pretty simple breakfast at the restaurant downstairs – noodles and toast. After breakfast we went back to our room and did some organizing and packing for the rest of the morning.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called, Com Cali, which is a Vietnamese casual restaurant chain. We passed by a few while in Saigon and there is one down the street from us. Most of the people eating there were locals. I expected there to be more tourists. Tourists generally don’t like to eat at clear chain restaurants but we both think it’s interesting to eat at local chains. As I mentioned yesterday, we’re trying to minimize our risk if getting food poisoning the day before our long travel day, so no street food for us today. We were thinking of getting a banh mi but decided against it (warm mayo is always a risk and we’re being super cautious). We ordered com tam, broken rice with grilled pork, and it was good – no complaints.

After lunch we walked down to the Notre Dame Cathedral to walk down “Book Street”, which is a tree lined street beside the Post Office. It was a warm day out, no clouds, and it was 34 degrees. We went into the McDonald’s close by and remembered that Vietnamese McDonald’s didn’t really have any special desserts like in Malaysia. We ended up just getting a vanilla cone each – 10,000 VND = $0.58 CAD.

We walked back to the Dong Khoi area (where all the nice hotels and malls are) and browsed around at the Union Square Mall. We debated whether we should just stay in the area for 2 hours and have an early dinner or go back to the hotel. There wasn’t much else we wanted to see in the area and we would be walking around aimlessly so we went back to the hotel to rest up. When crossing the streets around Dong Khoi, there are a lot of tourists around and you can tell who has just arrived (we were those people once too, or maybe that was just me) because they’ll wait forever to cross the street. Tim is like a crossing-the-street pro now. He leads a lot of people across the street and tells them they just need to start walking (such a local..). Maybe because we’re darker now, but people have been speaking Vietnamese to us instead of English and are surprised when we say we can’t understand. That didn’t happen to us when we were here at the beginning of the month. Do we look Vietnamese? I guess we don’t look Chinese.

We went back out at around 5pm to have an early dinner. We went back to the VinCom Center basement and walked around a couple of times before deciding to go to Pepper Lunch. The majority of options at VinCom are Korean BBQ or hot pot (all you can eat). So our last meal in Vietnam was Japanese casual fast food. We’ve now had Pepper Lunch in Taiwan, Cambodia, and Vietnam – but haven’t even been to the ones in Vancouver. Since we had some leftover VND, we went back to VinMart and I grabbed a few more snacks to shove into my backpack.

When we got back to our room, we packed up, and Tim organized all our receipts (he’s the best record keeper). We’re taking a car to the airport tomorrow at 3am since our flight leaves for Hong Kong at 5:30am. We’re going to train to Central HK and have breakfast with a couple of our friends for a quick visit. We leave Hong Kong at 2:30pm for Tokyo-Haneda, where we’ll have a 2 hour layover before our last flight home! We’ll finally get home around 3pm on July 17th, which will be the longest day ever for us.

After tomorrow, we will have taken 30 flights, visited 49 cities, 11 countries, and slept in 44 different beds. We’re ready to come home!

Steps today: 14,500

Phu Quoc/Saigon (Day 137): Back to the Chaos

July 15, 2016

We woke up earlier today to get ready for our flight back to Saigon, which was at 10:25am. We had a fairly quick breakfast and made sure we each had one of the caramel flans for the last time – they were really good! After checking out, Billy was there to see how our stay was and send us on our way to the airport. We really enjoyed our stay at Daisy Resort, it was so relaxing and I appreciated how good/friendly the service was. If we ever come back, the island and the resort will probably be very different. There’s already a resort being built right beside it! We left the hotel close to 9am, and got to the airport and checked in by 9:10am with just over an hour to spare.

The Phu Quoc Airport is quite new, built in 2012, so it’s nicer than a lot of the other airports we’ve been to this trip. The majority of flights at the Phu Quoc Airport are domestic with some flights to Cambodia and Guangzhou (coming soon). There seemed to be flights to Ho Chi Minh City every half an hour.

Once we crossed security there were a few souvenir stalls, a cafe, and a Burger King. There was no free airport WiFi but there was WiFi if you buy something from the Burger King or the cafe. Since we had an hour to kill and I’m clearly addicted to being online, I went to see what the cheapest item at Burger King was so I could get their WiFi password. The cheapest menu item was an ice cream cone for 15,000 VND = $0.85 CAD, but unfortunately they didn’t have any ice cream at 9am. We sat back down in front of the Burger King and that’s when I saw a table leave and I spotted the pink receipt sitting on their table. Yup, I went to the empty table, like a scavenger, and took their receipt (I really don’t have any shame in Vietnam) (Tim: I don’t see what’s to be ashamed of grabbing a receipt left behind to get a WiFi password). If you’re at the Phu Quoc Airport, the Burger King password is “burgerkingpqc”.

To our surprise, our Vietnam Airline flight boarded at the time it actually said on the boarding pass! Considering the airport is only 4 years old, you would think they would’ve built gangways. We all had to board a bus that literally took us 20 metres away. It seemed a bit silly, we walked farther to our plane in Australia.

We were seated in an exit row for this flight and when the flight attendant gave us the spiel about what our responsibilities are, she also said it’s our responsibility to stop others from opening the door. We both feel like this isn’t something that’s told in North America. The flight was okay even though a baby was screaming for 80% of the flight and the little boy kept kicking my seat – lucky it was only 40 minutes.

We collected our bags and went out to the taxi stand to get back into town. We didn’t make the same mistake as we did last time we took a taxi from the airport, and only approached the VinaSun taxi reps. There were a lot of other companies trying to get you into their cabs but we knew better! It took us almost an hour to get to our hotel, which is only 8km away (Ah, Saigon traffic!). After being in different parts of Vietnam, Saigon has the worst and most chaotic traffic out of all the places we’ve been to.

When we got to Platinum Hotel (same hotel we stayed at before), they seemed to have lost my reservation or not know where it was recorded (I had booked before we left Vancouver) because it took them a long time to find it even after showing them my Expedia itinerary. This turned out to be a good thing because they put us in a room on the top floor that was bigger than what I originally booked. It also has a view of the city instead of an old abandoned building which was our view the last time at this hotel.

We dropped off bags and went for lunch down the block at Marukame Udon (same restaurant as Tokyo and Honolulu)! Yes, we had Japanese food today. We had passed by the restaurant on our first day here over a month ago and kept it in mind just in case we got sick of Vietnamese food. The udon choices are different from Tokyo as they are more tailored for Vietnam. We both ordered what we thought was a zaru udon (cold udon that you dip), but when we got it, they were dipping noodles but they were still sitting in the warm water. The prices here are a bit cheaper than they are in Tokyo, but pricey for Vietnamese standards. The tempura selection had the standard Japanese options as well as fish cakes and sausages, which are Vietnamese influences. What they did have that I didn’t see in Japan was a soft-boiled tempura egg (this was delicious!). Lunch was good and made me miss Japan.

After lunch we decided to go to Ben Thanh Market to see if there was anything we wanted to buy. I was looking for a toddler tuxedo for Nate but unfortunately there was nothing at the market. There were a lot of tailor stalls but when I described what I was looking for they didn’t seem interested in making one or giving a quote. They were probably like, why does a 2 year old need a tuxedo? My friend in Hong Kong said she know of a place that sells toddler tuxedos so I’ll stop by quickly before coming home after our lunch together.

In addition to searching for a tuxedo, Tim was interested in buying some dry fit t-shirts. We remembered that Ben Thanh had the biggest selection out of all the markets we went to. But the biggest con of waiting to look here was that we had to deal with the overly aggressive Vietnamese vendors. Tim made the mistake of wearing his Under Armour shirt again so as soon as we walked through the rows of stalls they were attacking. We asked about prices and one lady said 450,000 VND = $26 CAD each, which is obviously outrageous for a fake dry-fit shirt. When we saw the price we were like no way, so Tim walked out the other exit of the stall and I tried to leave but the lady blocked me and another one grabbed my arm! Tim then countered with a lower price but they didn’t really negotiate too much. I told Tim to come back for me and then he got cornered by another man and lady. They said they’d lower the price but considering how aggressive they were towards us we didn’t want to buy anything from them.

While we were at the market, it started to pour outside. It was exactly what happened last time we were here! We tried to wait it out for a bit, but then we got sick of walking around the market, so we walked back to the hotel in the rain. We spent the rest of the afternoon updating our blog and map.

We walked about 10 minutes down Le Thanh Ton St. to Vincom Center, which is the largest mall in Saigon. Vincom Center is owned by Vin Group, which is owned by Vietnam’s first billionaire (in USD). He owns a huge real estate company, resorts, and a telecom. We’re going to be eating more carefully in our last days here. We don’t want any stomach issues on our long journey home. When we go to Vincom Center, we walked around the mall a bit and then went downstairs to where all the restaurants were. They had a really good selection of Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and other Asian cuisines. There are a lot of Korean BBQ and hot pot restaurants and they were all busy (I guess it is Friday night).

We decided to try “Hotto”, which seemed like a Vietnamese rip off of Pepper Lunch. We looked at the Pepper Lunch menu and it was more expensive so we decided to give Hotto a chance, plus we’ve had Pepper Lunch a few times already this trip. I ordered the most comparable menu item to Pepper Lunch and it was okay. Instead of just corn for vegetables they also give you cabbage and beansprouts. Pepper Lunch is better.

After dinner we went to Vin Mart, a grocery store, to browse around at all the snacks/souvenirs. I bought a couple of items to bring home, not as much as I would want because of capacity issues. I saw some Japanese tourists buying crazy amounts of jackfruit chips and these coconut chocolate chip cookies (they almost cleared the shelves), so I copied and bought a pack of cookies too (they’re only $0.50 CAD).

We walked back to the hotel and called it a night. We’ll take it easy tomorrow and probably go for a nicer dinner for our last night in Vietnam. Our flight on Sunday to Hong Kong is at 5:30am (so early), so we’re barely going to be sleeping tomorrow night. Can’t wait to come home!

Steps today: 11,000

Phu Quoc (Day 136): Last Day in Paradise

July 14, 2016

After such a beautiful day yesterday, we woke up to another spell of torrential rainfall. This time it lasted longer than any other day so we caught up on some TV (Amazing Race Canada was in Vietnam!) and Tim worked on our spending summary for the trip. We were glad that we decided to take the scooter out yesterday rather than wait until today.

The sun finally came out so we got changed into our swimsuits, had lunch at the restaurant, and lounged by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. The sun was literally setting on our last day and afternoon in paradise (Tim: “paradise”). When we get back home, we’ll need to do some serious thinking about what we want to do this Fall – Travel more? Stay in Vancouver? Set up camp somewhere and work remotely?

After the pool, I got a manicure and pedicure done at the spa ($11 USD for both thanks to the 50% discount). They didn’t have too many colours to choose from but they did a good job of cleaning everything up. I rarely get my nails done in Vancouver (only for special occasions) so it was a nice treat and at such a good price I couldn’t pass it up. After I was done, I went back to the room to get Tim for dinner.

We shared a bun cha (our favourite dish here, can refer to Day 134 for the picture) and spring rolls. When we get home, I don’t think I’ll be eating Vietnamese or SE Asian food for a while. I already veto’ed a friend’s request to go to Mr. Red’s (North Vietnamese restaurant).

Our last activity for the night were massages. Tim got a Thai massage ($15 USD) and I just got a foot/leg massage ($10 USD) because my back was a bit burnt from the beach. They gave us a free facial mask and my lady gave me a nice head massage after. When I was done, Tim’s lady was concerned because Tim’s eczema was acting up. They tried to use Google Translate to tell him to go to the drugstore tomorrow to get medicine for his skin. They told him not to go into the water or the ocean any more.

The rest of the night was spent packing up. We’re getting really good at packing very quickly. It’s hitting us that we’ll be back home very soon.

Steps Today: 2,500

Phu Quoc (Day 135): Scootering in the Sun

July 13, 2016

Today I woke up to sun but then it was short lived as it began to pour like crazy shortly after. I lay in bed thinking that we wouldn’t be able to rent a scooter and go around the island. I trust Tim’s driving skills but the rain here is crazy and we would just be soaked within seconds (having no ponchos). The weather gods were kind to us though, because minutes after the torrential downpour the sun made an appearance! I know, I seem to be hung up on the weather here, but it’s because there isn’t much to do in Phu Quoc besides lounging around in your hotel/resort or going to beaches (all of which are outdoors). The list of “things to do” on this island is a pretty sad looking list.

We went for breakfast and both had a bowl of Pho and some samplings of the other items. Billy was there walking around greeting everyone as they ate breakfast. He calls us Mr. Tim and Mrs. Kate. I’m impressed by the service here. Everyone is so friendly and Billy always says hi and calls everyone by name when he sees them. We never received the same service when we stayed at the Grand Wailea in Maui – Tim likes to mention that a lot. Since the weather was so good, our original plan of renting a scooter was a go.

We rented a scooter from the hotel for 150,000 VND = $8.75 CAD for a full day (so cheap) including “4L” of gas. The last time we rented a scooter while on vacation was 3 years ago in Koh Samui. That was one of the most memorable/best days of our Thailand trip. Since Phu Quoc has a population of just over 100,000, we knew we wouldn’t have to deal with road conditions like any other Vietnamese city. I know Tim misses riding his motorcycle, which he sold 9 years ago, so riding a scooter is the closest thing he’s done since. Obviously not the same, but it’s a start!

Our only plan for today was to go to Sao Beach, which is on the southern part of the island, which according to Billy used to be part of Cambodia. Our hotel is sort of in the middle of the island, closer to the main town of Duong Dong, so getting to Sao Beach took around 40 minutes. The main highway to get there was really easy to ride on with newly paved roads and it even had a median from oncoming traffic. However, the dirt road to get to the actual beach was another story. Phu Quoc is not very developed so there are only certain areas with paved roads, many of the routes on the maps are dirt roads. The dirt road was super bumpy. I had to hold on tight from bouncing too high off the seat.

There are two parts of Sao Beach you could go to – one of them being public and free and the other one you have to pay to park and stay (the cost would’ve been the same price as our bike rental). We opted for the free parking and public beach. The parking lot was filled with taxis, scooters, and tour buses. There’s an open air restaurant along the beach, which we didn’t end up eating at because the prices were outrageous (ie 50,000 VND = $3 CAD for a steamed bowl of rice!)

Maybe because we picked the public beach area, the sand wasn’t very well maintained. So my first impression of the beach was that it was pretty worn and there was a lot of garbage washed up on to the shore (further down away from where most people camped out). The water, however, was gorgeous, and appeared to be clean. Tim read that the part of Sao Beach that charges is spotless because they have staff cleaning up garbage constantly. We found a spot under a small tree where Tim hung out and read and I hung out in the water.

I walked down the beach to an area that wasn’t as busy and came across a huge jellyfish that was really close to shore. I got freaked out because at first I thought it was a plastic bag (since there was garbage) but it was a jellyfish the size of a grocery store plastic bag! After passing by it a few times and using a stick to poke it to see if it would move, I came to the conclusion that it was dead. My walk down the beach was a bit disappointing because there was sooo much garbage that washed up on to shore. Sao Beach could be even more beautiful if the shores were cleaned up. If you just stay in the water and put blinders on, you won’t see all the garbage. But if you just walk a few meters in either direction you can’t avoid it.

After spending a few hours at the beach we were ready to hit the road. We headed further south to a town called An Thoi, hoping to find something to eat. Our drive into town was another bumpy affair. Instead of dirt, it was uneven gravel. Lucky Tim is so steady because if I were driving, we would’ve crashed. As we drove down through town I saw four dog (thit cho) restaurants in the span of a few minutes. Suffice it to say, I didn’t notice any other restaurants that seemed appetizing to me.

We headed back and I kept an eye out on places to stop for lunch along the way. There wasn’t much going on in Phu Quoc, just a lot of construction everywhere. I get why Billy says if we come back in a year or less it will look different. We saw some massive developments for resorts being built along our drive. We passed by some of the tourist attractions on the island – Phu Quoc Prison and one of the main waterfalls. Neither of the sights really interested us so we passed. Tim wouldn’t have minded seeing the waterfalls but when we passed by the parking lot, it was packed with tours so we decided not to go.

We rode through Duong Dong town and saw some more promising options for lunch. I saw a guy grilling some meat outside a restaurant and it didn’t say thit cho (dog) so I was interested. Luckily the sign out front was something that we were familiar with – Com Tam (broken rice with grilled pork). The ladies spoke to us in Vietnamese and were surprised we didn’t understand them. There was no menu so we didn’t have anything to point to. I said “com tam”, and they looked very confused. Then I pointed at the meat being grilled, then they’re like ohh…I forgot that c’s are pronounced with a “gee” sound, so I was saying it wrong. The meat was really good, Tim liked it better than the one in Can Tho. I couldn’t remember what that one was like. Our two com tam’s were 60,000 VND = $3.45 CAD, I forgot how cheap things are in Vietnam.

After a delicious lunch we headed back to the hotel. We were sandy, a bit damp (since we were wearing our swim suits), and sticky (from the sunscreen and sweat). We rinsed off and went to the pool to cool down. The pool was a lot busier than it was yesterday. A family (10 of them) of Americans just checked in today so they were all in the pool. The Americans were on one end of the pool and there was another French family (8 of them) who were there too. All the Asians in each of the families were Vietnamese and all the spouses were Caucasian. It was nice watching all the families vacationing together and further solidifies how close Vietnamese families are.

We washed up and then went back into town to the Dinh Cau Night Market for dinner. The night market was pretty small, made up of some jewellery stalls, a lot of seafood restaurants, and a couple of other (not so great) food stalls. All the seafood restaurants had everything they had in tanks out front and you pick what you want to eat and they BBQ it for you. We ordered a squid (40,000 VND = $2.30 CAD), four prawns (10,000 VND each = $0.58 CAD), and garlic bread (10,000 VND = $0.58 CAD). I just wanted to try a bit of seafood since we were here. There were a lot of Vietnamese people there all with large parties (big families) and were feasting!

We walked up and down the strip of the night market twice and then decided to head back to the hotel. Since it was dark out, I didn’t have my sunglasses on and dust/dirt kept flying into my eyes. It was not a very comfortable ride back. We passed by the club that keeps playing all the loud rave music and the music wasn’t actually as loud as we thought it would be. I think the music just echoes and we’re the unfortunate recipients of the loud music at night. After our second night here, I’m already used to it.

Steps today: 4,500

Phu Quoc (Day 134): Our Most Relaxing Day Yet

July 12, 2016

Today’s post is going to be pretty boring. Phu Quoc is the first place we’ve been to this trip where we’re happy to just hang out at the resort and do nothing. I guess you can say it’s a vacation from a “vacation”. Our first night here was good. There was some serious heavy rain last night that woke Tim up (Tim: Actually, I was just still up when it started raining). It’s unfortunate that down the hill in town there are bars that blast rave/EDM music until pretty late at night. We could hear it fairly clearly even when our doors are closed. I feel bad for Daisy Resort. It’s not their fault the bars here are crazy. If you paid for a nicer room farther up the hill it probably wouldn’t be an issue.

When we woke up it was pouring rain. We called the front desk to get an umbrella so we could walk to breakfast. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was pretty busy. It was like everyone was trying to escape the rain. The majority of guests here are Vietnamese tourists and about 10% are Europeans (mostly French and German). The breakfast selection is decent – a mixture of western and Vietnamese options. They have a soup noodle and egg station that are made to order. My favourite thing at the breakfast was a caramel flan they had.

After breakfast we hung out in our room waiting for the rain to die down. As soon as it stopped and it looked like there was a tiny bit of light, I got changed and went to the pool. I basically stayed outside all morning and early afternoon. Swimming, reading, and relaxing! It was pretty much overcast all day but still about 27 degrees (“chilly” for SE Asia).

We had lunch at the hotel again. Tim was craving spaghetti bolognese so he ordered that and I had bun cha, a Hanoi dish. The food at the hotel has been really good so far. I liked the bun cha here better than the famous bun cha place we went to in Hanoi. Tim was very happy with his spaghetti. Home stretch before we can have comfort food at home!

After digesting, I went back outside and hung out by the pool and swam. Tim had “Tim time” in the room (Tim: my favourite). Late in the afternoon, the sun actually came out which was nice. As soon as the sun came through the clouds it was scorching, so maybe it was good it was a bit overcast or else I probably wouldn’t be outside the whole day.

Happy to have this time to relax and really reflect on our trip as a whole. Been jotting down notes of summary posts and our overall experience. Did you know we’ve slept in 43 different beds so far? Lucky for us we can both get a good night’s sleep in any bed. We were planning on getting a new mattress after we got married because our mattress was pretty bad (Tim: “old”) so all these hotel mattresses have been a luxury compared to it (not sure if Tim will be defensive about his mattress).

Since we’re staying at Daisy Resort for over 3 nights, they offered us 50% off any spa services, which is perfect! Tim got a 60 minute Vietnamese massage ($11 USD) and I got a Swedish massage ($10 USD) in the evening. Both our massages were good and we had an enjoyable time listening to the sound of crickets and toads (lots of toads around).

We had a late dinner after our massages. Tim ordered the bun cha that I had at lunch and I had a chicken caesar salad. We’ve been alternating who orders the western option.

Tomorrow we’ll see if the weather in the morning is more stable. We’re thinking of renting a scooter and checking out the beaches and the island.

Steps today: 2,000

Penang/HCMC/Phu Quoc (Day 133): Are We There Yet?

July 11, 2016

Our “long” (Tim: I added the quotes) day of travel started at 9am this morning. We checked out after a quick last breakfast at our hotel in George Town and hopped into a cab to take us to Penang International Airport. The front desk suggested leaving the hotel at 9am just in case there was traffic. Our taxi driver was a friendly Indian man who liked to listen to Frank Sinatra songs and sing along to them. He had the meter running while we were in the car but we already paid the hotel a flat rate (his meter only said 40 MYR and we paid 50 MYR). Oh well, not all taxi drivers are apparently as friendly as him.

We arrived at the airport earlier than expected. We checked into our Air Asia flight to Ho Chi Minh City, walked around the terminal, and went through customs and security. The only souvenir I bought from Penang, and Malaysia for that matter, was a (smaller) box of pandan egg roll cookies (7.50 MYR = $2.50 CAD) from a place called Ban Heang. We passed by one of their main shops yesterday but I didn’t take a close look, which I should have. Ban Heang is a Penang store that specializes in an assortment of cookies and tambun biscuits. They also had quite a few durian products, which is very Malaysian. The Ban Heang store at the international terminal was located right before you cross security. Ban Heang seems quite popular amongst Asian and Malaysian tourists. We still have a bunch of MYR left over. We spent less than we expected in Malaysia.

Once we crossed customs and security, there wasn’t much going on in the international terminal. They had some stores and a couple cafes but nothing that was very interesting. We’ve noticed that with many SE Asian airports, all the good stores and chain restaurants are all outside the gates. Once you go past security, other than the typical duty free stores, the stores aren’t great and often times they look like they’re selling really random junk.

Our Air Asia flight took off on time and we landed a bit earlier than scheduled. I have a head cold and was pretty congested so flying today really stunk. I felt bad for the lady beside me as I blew my nose throughout the whole flight. Just as long as I don’t get a fever it’s okay. I don’t want to be quarantined at the airport being caught by those infrared scanners.

We landed in Saigon, crossed customs (no issues), collected our bags, and walked to the domestic terminal. We gave ourselves a few hours to make our flight to Phu Quoc and thankfully everything worked out smoothly. We used the Vietnam Airlines self check-in kiosks and then lined up to drop our bags off. The Vietnam Airlines check in area was very disorganized and there was no one at the baggage drop off counter. It was a bit of a mess. We felt like we were truly back in Vietnam while standing at the counter on our turn. A couple came up right beside Tim and flash their IDs in front of the lady helping us like Tim was invisible. This was all happening while the lady behind me pushed her cart up against my legs to make sure no one budged in front of her.

We had lunch at Popeye’s and Burger King. I had a Whooper Jr. and Tim had chicken tenders. The last time we were at this terminal was on our way to Da Nang, back when Tim wasn’t feeling great, so he couldn’t enjoy the chicken tenders. So I guess he’s making up for that.

I’ve never heard as many delays or change of gate announcements than at the domestic terminal in Saigon. It seems like every 3 minutes there’s an announcement. It was pretty much inevitable that our flight to Phu Quoc would also be delayed. Our flight time of 3:50pm came and went without an announcement. Finally at 4pm, they announced that our flight was delayed at 4:35pm and our gate changed.

We finally boarded our last flight for today. It definitely is summer holidays because our flight had a lot of kids. The flight time to Phu Quoc was only 30 minutes, and it was fairly smooth until we approached Phu Quoc and the turbulence was bad as we were passing through a thunderstorm. Phu Quoc is Vietnam’s largest island (same size as Singapore) and is actually closer to Cambodia’s southern coast than Vietnam.

After landing safely, we picked up our bags and saw a representative (later learned his English name is “Billy”) from Daisy Resort holding up a sign. When we approached him he gave us a warm welcome and led us to the van. Daisy Resort is around 15 minutes away from the airport and sits on the side of a hill with views of the ocean. It took us a while to figure out where to stay in Phu Quoc. Beach front would’ve been nice but Daisy’s glowing Trip Advisor reviews and price ($58 CAD/night) won us over.

Billy was telling us in the car that Phu Quoc has been changing quickly and probably won’t be recognizable if we come back to visit even in a year’s time. Just three years ago the Vietnamese government began putting a lot of money into Phu Quoc wanting it to become a tourist island. There are 5 star resorts on the island and I’m sure there will be a lot more in the future. Billy said many of the hotel staff are from Saigon or Hanoi (he’s from Hanoi) and management from other parts of SE Asia, showing them the ropes.

Once we got to Daisy Resort, we checked in and were given welcome drinks. It had just finished raining and the sun was about to set so we didn’t get a great look at the grounds in the day light. From what we saw it looked nice and very cozy. The rooms are all villas and tiered on the hill. Since we booked the cheapest standard room, we’re at the bottom of the hill and face the courtyard gardens. The pool is nice and should have nice views of the ocean during the day. It’s down/rainy season right now so hopefully it won’t rain every single day we’re here!

We settled into our room and rested up a bit. We decided to eat at the hotel tonight and be more adventurous with what’s around tomorrow. The restaurant prices were about double the price of street restaurants but it was still very reasonable by western standards. We shared a vermicelli bowl with grilled beef (140k VND = $8.20 CAD) and an order of spring rolls ($7.30 CAD). When the food came it was so nicely presented compared to the street food we’ve been eating. Our bill came to $16 USD for our food, two fruit smoothies, and a coke. So it won’t be a horrible option to eat here more than once.

Looking forward to spending time here and relaxing. Hopefully we get a bit of sun!

Steps today: 8,000

Penang (Day 132): George Town, a Hawker’s Delight

July 10, 2016

We woke up this morning and looked at the calendar. Exactly one week until we’re home. So crazy! We read that Sundays in George Town are very quiet so we had a leisurely morning ourselves. We’re both getting a bit of a cold, so today is mostly going to be a rest day for us as well (I guess that’s our sign to come home soon).

Tim was feeling better today and even ate some breakfast. We got there around 10am and breakfast ends at 10:30am. The staff in the restaurant aren’t very friendly or personable. They don’t acknowledge you or even break a smile. The clock inside the restaurant is also 5 minutes fast, so at 10:25am, the attendant started unplugging and turning off the appliances and then turned off the lights. There were about 5 tables still eating, so this was pretty rude and unprofessional. They should really change the clocks in the restaurant.

We’ve been catching up on Suits (on Netflix) over the past couple of weeks, so that’s what we’ve been doing while resting. It wasn’t until around noon that we headed out for the afternoon. Our main attraction for today was to visit “Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul“.

Penang Road restaurant was about 8 minutes away from our hotel by foot and away from the heritage area. When we arrived, we found a crowded looking alley with people lined up at the teochew chendul stand. It was a bit confusing because they have a cart outside with the chendul and then a whole lane was made up of their restaurant stalls. We walked down a bit further to get char koay toew (6 MYR = $1.95 CAD) and sat down to eat it. When we were sitting and eating, staff kept coming up to us asking if we wanted chendul. It was only then we realized that all the stalls belonged to them too.

The row of stalls had many of Penang’s specialties, so you could check off a lot of Malaysian dishes at one location. There was no way we would be able to check off all the food on the list in just a few days, but this was a start. I saw an Assam laksa (aka Penang Laksa) stall closer to the beginning of the alley and was interested in trying it. I’ve only ever had Singaporean laksa (curry based laksa), which is more popular and common at home than this one. I know there are some restaurants in Vancouver that serve Assam Laksa, but they like to warn customers before they order it because it may not be what they expect – with that warning, I never ordered it. Since we’re in Penang, the birthplace of this type of laksa, I wanted to try it.

While I was waiting for my laksa to come, Tim went to the Penang fried chicken stall and got a thigh and a wing (6 MYR = $1.95 CAD). As with other hawker’s markets here, we ordered at the stall and they found us. We had a few waitresses on occasion asking people if this was their dish – they should have a numbering system like Red Garden. The Assam Laksa (4.80 MYR = $1.56 CAD) was surprisingly good – but has a very fishy smell (so if you don’t like fish you shouldn’t eat this) and is sour and a little spicy (more like a tom yum broth than curry). There was a lot of ingredients in the soup and when you watch them pour the soup into the bowl, they scoop the soup and then drain all the liquid out but hold in all the “junk” in the bowl (repeat a few times). Tim’s chicken was good and I liked the sweet and spicy dipping sauce they gave with the chicken.

After we were done our mains, I ordered a chendul (2.70 MYR = $0.88 CAD) from one of the waiters. I know they have a few different options to choose from but since we weren’t near a sign or a menu, I just showed them a picture of the chendul from my food pamphlet. The chendul the waiter brought us was a coffee flavoured ice with coconut milk, green pandan “noodles”, and red bean. I can see why people like having this dessert in hot climates, it’s very refreshing! But the ice also melted in a couple of minutes, so you should eat it really quickly.

After lunch we walked back into the heritage zone and saw how dead the city was. Even more so than the two previous days, more businesses were closed on Sundays. We walked down a street called “Love Lane”, which was close to our hotel, which had a bunch of Chinese association buildings and schools. All the businesses were closed but all we could hear through the closed doors were the clanking of Mahjong tiles. I wanted to take pictures of all the Grandpas sitting around playing MJ but as I peered through the window, someone would always see me looking.

We spent the rest of the late afternoon watching Suits and resting up since not much was open and we didn’t want to push ourselves too much and be more sick over our last week away. Being away for 4 months, it’s impossible not to have rest days or else we would’ve burned out a long time ago. This last part of our trip has been more “go go go” since wanted to see a bit more during our SE Asia leg. Looking forward to Phu Quoc and just being able to fully relax and not feel like we have to see anything.

For dinner we decided to go back to the food vendors on Lebuh Chulia where we went on our first day here. Since it is Sunday many of the vendors that are usually there were not. Only about half of them were still set up today.

Tim got a Hokkien “bak chang” (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves or a “dung” in Toi San) which he was craving since it looked and tasted like the Taiwanese ones rather than the Cantonese ones I’m used to (he ended up ordering a second one after he finished the first). I ordered Penang style chee chur fan (rice roll with hoisin) and a small order of wantan mee. We grabbed a seat and the beverage station at this particular group of vendors was a fruit juice stand. The lady came around and asked if we wanted something to drink, so we shared a guava juice.

The juice stand looked like it was made up of a Mom, Dad, and their middle aged daughters. We sat at a table close to them and it was entertaining watching the Mom (boss lady) bark at everyone about the orders. They spoke Cantonese, Hokkien, and Mandarin interchangeably so it was hard to follow. I could understand bits of the Cantonese (mostly just the names of fruits) and Tim could understand most of their Hokkien and Mandarin. Hokkien is the same as Taiwanese but in Penang they speak Penang Hokkien which is slightly different.

We’re leaving Penang tomorrow and heading back to Vietnam. Our flight to Ho Chi Minh is at noon, so we have to leave George Town around 9am. The hotel is going to book us a taxi and they advertise a ride to the airport for 50 MYR = $16 CAD. This is a bit more than coming here on the airport vouchers but it’s safer to pay the hotel than go in a metered taxi in Malaysia.

Steps today: 7,000

Penang (Day 131): George Town Street Art and Heritage Weekend

July 9, 2016

After last night’s wan tan mee, I knew that I would really enjoy my time sampling all of Penang’s delicious food. I get why it’s Malaysia’s food capital now. I feel bad that Tim isn’t feeling well enough to eat anything. Hopefully his stomach is all better so he could at least try some. We got a Penang Street Food guide and it’s pretty overwhelming – too much food, too little time.

We got ready and went down the hall for breakfast. Breakfast was alright. They had eggs made to order and other Malaysian breakfast options. I’ll probably try some of those tomorrow. We got to breakfast close to when it was ending so pickings were pretty slim.

We began our walk towards Armenian Street (Lebuh Armenian), where the majority of George Town’s street art is. We had a map that listed out where all the murals around the city were. We only made it to 80% of them today (making sure we saw the most famous ones). On our way to Armenian Street, a lot of the streets were blocked off to cars as the city was beginning to set up for festivities that were going to happen tonight for Heritage weekend.

Half way through looking at the street, we stumbled upon CF Hawkers Market. We had just watched a portion of Anthony Bourdain’s episode this morning and he went there with a local guide at night. They were open for lunch so we decided to find something to eat there. More than half the stalls were open for lunch but many of them were closed until dinner time. I got a char koay teow (6 MYR = 2 CAD) and a watermelon juice (2.80 MYR = $0.90 CAD) for lunch.

The hawkers markets in Malaysia (from the couple that we’ve been to) are different than the ones in Singapore in that you don’t pay upfront when you order. You order at the stall and then you sit down and they’ll come find you and bring your food to you. There’s no buzzer or number system (at CF Market), so you’ll see food vendors wandering around the seating area with trays of food looking for their customers. Also, beverages are all sold from a central vendor, whose workers go around to each table and ask if you want anything to drink. All the drink selections are usually on big signs around the market.

It was really hot out today and there weren’t many trees or shade in George Town. Tim was feeling pretty tired and weak so we headed back to the hotel for the afternoon so he could rest. On the way back to the hotel, there was a famous chicken and BBQ pork (char siu) restaurant across the street that I wanted to try.

When we got back to the room, we rested up and I looked up the hours and saw it closed at 2:30pm AND they aren’t open on Sundays. Disappointment. I will not be trying Penang’s best char siu. Tim stayed in the room to rest and I went back out to see if the hours were wrong online. Nope, they were right. It was closed. I walked down to 7-Eleven to get some Gatorade type drink for Tim and on the way back I passed by a Hainanese chicken restaurant that looked good. I ordered one plate to take back and try. It was only 5 MYR = $1.65 CAD for chicken rice with a mix of boiled chicken and roasted chicken. The Chinese Malaysian vendors have all been really friendly and helpful so far. Actually much friendlier than I found the vendors in Singapore’s hawker markets.

After an afternoon’s rest, Tim was feeling better so we went to one of George Town’s hawker’s markets called Red Garden. It’s listed as a place to get good satays and it’s also where Anthony Bourdain got Penang’s fried oysters while he was in town. The walk to the market was only about 8 minutes away. It would be faster if George Town had proper sidewalks. Most of the time you have to walk on the street hugging parked cars.

We arrived at Red Garden Market just before 7pm and it was still light out and not that busy yet. The crowd was a mix of locals and tourists, but it was probably more tourists than locals. Tim and I did a loop around the market to see what we wanted to eat. Since we came here for satay, I ordered 10 chicken satays (they come in orders of 10) and a small order of fried oysters (from the stand that Bourdain went to). Tim went to get a bowl of lor mee, which are noodles served in a thick starchy gravy – it’s a Hokkien dish eaten by Malaysians and Singaporeans. The prices here were a bit higher than what we’ve been seeing on the street but it was still very cheap and reasonable for western standards. At this market, each vendor asks for your table number when you order so they can find you – this seems more reasonable than just searching for you aimlessly.

Everything I ordered was really good. The fried oysters were actually more of an oyster omelette similar to the ones you find in Taiwan. It had that same starchy consistency but had a different type of sauce on it which I enjoyed more than the Taiwanese ones. Tim took a few bites of his noodles and he was done. He was being a bit too ambitious about what he could eat right away on a recovering stomach. Since I was basically eating all the satays and fried oysters myself, I didn’t attempt to try to finish his noodles. The lor mee was a very hearty soup noodle since the soup is so thick, but I probably wouldn’t order them again.

After dinner we walked back into the centre of town to check out the George Town Heritage festivities. We only went to some areas of it because Tim wasn’t feeling 100% (Tim: Kaitlyn feels like it’s very necessary to mention multiple times how I’m not 100% :P) so we wanted to have an early night to rest up. The festivities that we did see were a bunch of traditional Penang games for children to play and a performance by the Penang Chingay Association.

We headed back to the hotel and got our free drinks upstairs. The movie tonight was “The Kingsman”, a movie we’ve seen before but was still good enough to watch again.

Hopefully Tim will be back to normal tomorrow! It’s our last full day in Penang before heading back to Vietnam. Our 4.5 months away is almost over.

Steps today: 11,000

Kuala Lumpur/Penang (Day 130): A Nice Change of Scenery

July 8, 2016

Packed up and ready to go, I was a bit sad to leave our room and the hotel. It was a really comfortable bed compared to Asian hotel beds that are fairly hard and the room in general was a lot nicer than what we’ve been used to. The hotel is what I’ll miss most about Kuala Lumpur…

We decided to go for breakfast at the lounge instead of the main hall today to avoid any crowds. I think we both want a bit of peace and quiet before we made our way to the airport. As expected all the Malaysian tourists who were at the lounge for cocktails weren’t there for breakfast. If you only want western choices then being in the lounge is better, but if you want more options, downstairs is better. I think if it weren’t a national holiday I would have liked to eat downstairs everyday, but having to deal with the crowds negatively outweighed my desire for more food options.

After checking out, we made our way to the Ampang Park LRT Station to go to the airport. We asked the hotel how much a taxi would cost from our hotel to the airport and they said it would be around 150 MYR = $50 CAD using their services. They said a metered taxi would probably be around the same. We read that taking a taxi to the airport is more of a gamble because Malaysian taxi drivers are notorious for ripping off foreigners and there’s no law that prohibits them to do so (as per WikiTravels) so they take full advantage. At least at the airport there was the voucher system so they couldn’t play around with the meter.

Basically taking the express train to the airport was our best and safest bet. We still had credit on our MyRapid card so it was good we could use it to get to KL Sentral Station. KL Sentral Station is about 6 stops away from Ampang Park and cost 2.40 MYR = $0.77 CAD. When we got to Sentral Station there were signs for the KL Airport Express train which was easy to follow.

Tim read that using the kiosks to buy your tickets give you additional discount so we used one. But after punching in which terminal we wanted to go to the price wasn’t discounted! After we went through the prompts and Tim paid (with his Mastercard), the price changed from 110 MYR = $35 CAD (for both of us) to 88 MYR = $28 CAD. We saw a sign later that if you pay with Mastercard you get 20%! What a pleasant surprise.

We boarded the train (which reminded me of the trains from HK Airport) and we were some of the few people with luggage. If you’re flying Malaysian Air, Emirates, Etihad, or Cathay, you could check in and drop your bags in at Sentral Station. The train was spacious and comfortable – there’s even free WiFi on board!

We got to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in less than half an hour after leaving from Sentral Station (we buffered a lot of time just in case). We were flying with Malindo Air (Malayian and Indonesian), a fairly new airline that’s based out of Malaysia. Our flight to Penang was only 135 MYR = $43 CAD per person, which included bags.

KLIA domestic terminal is very modern, and it had a lot of stores and dining options after you cross security. We walked around and saw a fast food looking restaurant called Marrybrown. It looked like a Malaysian Jollibees, as the menu was mostly fried chicken. Apparently they have locations around Indonesia, Brunei, India, and Sri Lanka. Tim ordered a chicken meal and I ordered nasi lemak with chicken (or nasi Marrybrown as they call it). Their chicken was pretty good. I liked it better than Jollibees, but not as good as Popeye’s!

We headed to our gate after lunch and found out that our flight was delayed because the plane that we were waiting to take hadn’t landed yet. We didn’t end up taking off until about 3:30pm, almost an hour delay. The flight was on a 737, which was a lot bigger plane that I was expecting for such a short flight. I wasn’t complaining since I really do hate small planes. Our flight wasn’t even half full, I wonder how Malindo is making any money with their cheap airfare (and baggage included).

The plane was nice. It had leather seats, in flight entertainment (I watched an episode of Modern Family), and more leg room than Air Asia. Malindo Air was recommended to me by my former manager, who is planning a Malaysia trip in the future. He’s tall so the leg room matters more to him than it does to me. But I do appreciate the extra leg room to stretch out. They gave us water and some crackers for snacks, which was nice of them for a 40 minute flight.

We landed at Penang International Airport, grabbed our luggage, and bought a taxi voucher at the taxi counter. Since we’re staying in Georgetown, it’s considered zone 5, which is 44.70 MYR = $14.50 CAD. We took our taxi voucher outside and hopped into our cab which took us into Georgetown, ~18km away from the airport.

While driving into Georgetown, the city seemed quaint and charming. I liked it already! We’re staying at Chulia Mansion, which is central to many of the heritage sites in Georgetown. The hotel has a lot of perks for guests – free drinks each night at the roof top bar, free ice cream and cookies everyday starting from 2pm, free breakfast, and 1kg of free laundry each day. As soon as we checked in, Tim wanted to go the kitchen and get ice cream (he loves ice cream). Overall, pretty happy with the hotel. The room is clean, the perks are nice, the location is central, and it was only $55 CAD/night.

After our ice cream break, we walked around town to get a preview of the town. We walked past Lebuh Chulia’s street vendors, which were all very busy serving dinner. All the food looked and smelled delicious. I’m most excited about all the food in Penang. We walked through Little India towards the Esplanade and City Hall. We both didn’t sleep that well last night and with our long afternoon at the airport we were both tired.

We walked back towards our hotel and I got a Malaysian wan tan mee (their version of wonton mein). The wan tan mee stall had one of the longest line ups and while watching the cooks put together a bowl, it looked good, so I ordered a small bowl (3.80 MYR = $1.25 CAD, large bowl is 5 MYR = $1.65 CAD). It’s a dry noodle (thin egg noodle) with a dark brown sesame/soy sauce covering the noodles, slices of BBQ pork (char siu), vegetables, two boiled wontons, and one fried wonton. It was one of the best things I’ve eaten this trip. Tim’s stomach wasn’t feeling great still and he took a bite and agreed. I think we’ll be back!

We came back to the hotel and washed up and then went upstairs to get our free drinks from the bar. They had a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic options (you get one free drink per night). At 8:30pm at the roof top bar, it’s movie night. Tonight’s movie was Pitch Perfect 2, which we saw together in theatres when it came out. We enjoyed our drinks and they gave us free popcorn while we watched.

Looking forward to exploring more of the heritage buildings and sights in Georgetown tomorrow. Hopefully Tim will feel 100% so he can eat all the delicious Penang food.

Steps today: 10,500