Krabi/Ao Nang, Thailand

This past weekend,Friday 07/15/2011 thru Sunday 07/17/2011, Gitt, Nicole, Ola, Joel, Patrick and myself flew to Krabi Thailand for a relaxing beach weekend.  It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth, I think you will agree by the photos. Friday we toured the Tiger Cave Temple. Saturday we took a 4 Island Tour via Speedboat. On the tour we stopped at Railey Beach, Chicken Island, and Poda Island. We got to snorkel, walk on a sand bar and just relax on the beach. After the tour, we all went for Thai Massages…that was quite an experience--- I don’t think I’ll ever do again though. Hands down my favorite thing about Thailand was the food. We got Pad Thai from a street cart near the hotel in Ao Nang and it was seriously the best Pad Thai I had ever had in my life. I think I ate 2 or 3 orders of it just myself. We also had these great thin fried pancakes with pineapple and nuetella mmmm. Great Weekend!

Entrance to Tiger Cave Temple

Monastery at Tiger Cave Temple

Cool looking tree at the Tiger Cave Temple

Me in front of the Tiger Statue in the Tiger Cave

Nicole, Gitt, Ola and Joel walking along Ao Nang Beach

We stayed at Ao Nang Orchid Hotel and this is their pool--yes those are rooms in the background which you can walk directly into the pool from.

On the Speedboat to Railey Beach--it was a really fast and bumpy ride

"Dock" at Railey Island

Cave walking up to Railey Beach

Railey Beach

Me and Gitt at Railey Beach

Lots of Random Asians asked to take pictures with us because we were white--it was kind of like we were celebrities

Amost all the Asian were taking jumping pictures--so we decided to do it too

Isn't it soo pretty :-)

Me in front of Chicken Island

Poda Island

Another view from Poda Island---yes that's with my camera not a postcard :-)

Ola, Joel and Gitt on the Tri-shaw to Krabi  (I was behind them in another trishaw with Nicole and Patrick)

Week 5 Highlights

Jurong Lake 5K (Sunday 07/10/2011) about ½ of the EAPSI fellows were recruited by Nicole to run the Jurong Lake 5K. My first road race ever, I was very proud of my 33minute finish time. 

Botanical Gardens Later in the day on Sunday 07/10/2011, we decided to head to Arab street for lunch. Turkey Kebab is soo delicious J And then head to the Botanic Gardens located across the street from the US Embassy in the Orchard Road area. The gardens are absolutely stunning! Unfortunatley it was already 6pm by the time we got there, so we didn’t have much daylight left in the day to be able to take any really good pictures.

Altitude Bar and Lounge Monday 07/11/2011 a few of the EAPSI fellows decided to go for happy hour at probably the most amazing bar in Singapore, Altitude. Altitude is an upscale rooftop bar at the very top of One Raffles Place (63 Stories high). It boasts the most beautiful views of Singapore and let me tell you it did not disappoint. It’s free to take the elevator up to the bar, but you have to buy a $20 drink. While quite an expensive drink, it’s much better than paying $20 to go up to the top of the Marina Bay Sands just for the view. They had a great lounge band and overall fabulous atmosphere—I would highly recommend doing this if you are ever in Singapore!

At the Start Line of the Jurong Lake 5K--there were probably close to 500 people running the race

Me just before the 5k started

Victory Breakfast at Swensen's post 5K

Singapore Ice Cream Sandwhich--yes that's ice cream in a regular piece of bread--It's actually not as bad as it sounds.

Swan Lake Botanical Gardens

Ginger Garden Water Fall, Botanical Gardens

Banana Tree Garden, Botanical Gardens

Stage at Bontical Gardens,  Free concerts here the 1st Sunday of the Month 

Ominous Red Sky at sunset over the Bontanical Gardens

Bonzai Tree Garden, Botanical Gardens

Daylight View of Marina Bay Sands from Altitude Rooftop Bar

Night Time view of Marina Bay Sands from Altitude--Each night around 8pm there is a laser light show at the Marina Bay Sands.  Altitude was a really neat place to watch this.

Me at Altitude

Night views of Singapore--that's the Singapore flier to the top right of the picture

More night views of Singapore

And even more night views

Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia

This weekend, Gitt, Nicole and I decided to take a last minute trip to Melaka, Malaysia. Melaka is a city in Southwestern Malaysia which is about 3 hours North of Singapore by bus. The city has really interesting architecuture from it’s Portugues, Dutch, British and Chinese influences. It was a little too far for a single day trip, so we took the 7:15pm bus from Singapore on Friday 07/08/2011, went site seeing during day on Saturday, then took the 5:30pm bus back to Singapore.

Melaka has so many attactions for the tourist interested in history and art. The first site we saw was the Porte de Santiago (A Famousa Fort)—built by the Portugues in 1511 and was heavily damaged by the invasion of the dutch. A short walk up the hill behind the fort was St. Paul’s church, which was origially built by the Portugues, taken over by the Dutch and finally taken by the British who turned it into an arsenal. Directly next to A Famousa Fort was Melaka’s Saltanate Palace which is now a Malaysian Cultural Museum. I particularly liked seeing the authentic malaysian costumes here as well as the weapon display—I particularly liked the Kris—a distinctly Malaysian dagger with a curvy blade because of it’s name. Once I saw this I was on the hunt to find one of these to bring back for my brother Kris.

From the St. Paul’s hill area, we walked along the Melaka River to see some of the city’s other major sites including Christs Church (built in 1753), St. Francis Xavier’s Church ( twin tower Gothic Church built in 1849), and Cheng Hoon Teng Temple (the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia). The buildings along the Melaka River reminded me of a European City—you could really distinguish the Portugues and Dutch influence. We continued our treck across the city on Jonker street—which had lots of shops and restaurants. Very area that was a great place to buy sourveniers and pineapple tarts.

The food we had of note in Melaka includes Chicken Rice Balls (we apparantely found a restaurant which had the best rice balls in all of Malaysia), Nyonya Asam and Nyonya Laksa (a noodle dish with a thin curry broth), and Cendol (shaved ice dessert that had coconut milk, jelly bits and a mango puree on top).

One of the Newspaper articles about the Restaurant with the Best Chicken Rice Balls in Malaysia

Officially the best chicken rice balls in malaysia...quite delicious but it was more of a kid sized portion for me

Port of Santiago (A Famosa)

Walls at A Famosa are 3 meters thick!

St. Paul's Church

Melaka's Sultanate Palace

Audience Room in the Sultanate Palace

Traditional Malysian Costume--I think this one is from the prince and princess of Melaka

Kris--A traditional Malaysian Dagger--it has a cool curvy blade

Melaka Water Wheel--serves as a gateway of trading between the east and west

Christ's Church

Melaka River--reminded me of a European City like Florence

St. Xavier's Church

 Cheng Hoon Teng Temple--the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia.

 Shrine in the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

Beginning of Jonker Street

Nyonya Asam and Nyonya Laksa

Cendol-shaved ice dessert with unusual toppings

Gitt and me posing in the Tri-shaw with the cool hats we bought