Brandon O'Brien

Monday, December 8, 2014 @ 6:56 AM in 2014 Asia

The redeye flight from Singapore to Beijing was about 6 hours long but like I said in the previous post we were able to sleep through pretty much all of it thanks to a sleeping pill. We weren't in any rush since it was still only about 7am so we had a quick bite to eat and a coffee at the airport then got on the Airport express into the city.

We weren't quite sure how the metro system worked so we got a taxi from the station the airport express dumped out at to the hotel. We paid a little more than we probably should have but we weren't quite sure how far we actually were. Later we found out that we could have gotten to the hotel for about 30 cents if we had hopped on the metro. Oh well, things you learn while traveling.

We didn't really think the hotel would let us check in so early but they had a room ready for us so we were able to check in and get situated. One thing we noticed right away being in China was that all Google services are blocked (which is why there are no photos yet for yesterday or today or probably for the rest of the trip). We couldn't use Google Maps for directions, Google for searching, or Gmail for email (it still seems to come through on my phone though since I'm using my T-Mobile international roaming plan). It's crazy how hard things get when you can't use services you're used to.

We were originally going to visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square but the one day a week they're closed is today, Monday, so we had to bypass that. We said we were going to celebrate our Thanksgiving when we got to China by having some Peking Duck so we did some searching to find a good place to visit. It was hard trying to pin down exactly where it was since maps didn't work and all the other map services weren't in English but instead in Mandarin. We decided on a place called Hua's Restaurant that had gotten some really good reviews and after negotiating the metro we got there and got seated. No one at the restaurant spoke english so it was a lot of pointing at the menu but we got some peking duck, sesame sticky buns filled with pork and some kind of "meat pie" which was more like an elongated wonton cut into strips. Everything was great and made for a good substitute Thanksgiving.

From there we took the metro to the 2008 Beijing Olympics grounds, notably the Bird's Nest and the Cube Aquatics facility. The first stop we got off had actually closed the exit we needed and there wasn't another way to get to the grounds from there so we had to go back onto the metro to the next stop and walk back to the grounds. This is when we really started to notice all the smog. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon but it felt like it was dusk because of all the brown haze. You'll be able to see a lot of this in the photos we took.

We walked around and took pictures of the giant observation tower, bird's nest and the cube before heading back near the hotel. Instead of calling it a night we aimlessly walked around some more and found some big open air malls and markets but everything was pretty touristy and surprisingly for us, a lot less crowded than we were expecting. We were hoping to find some good street food but everything looked extremely sketchy which is saying a lot having just come from Kuala Lumpur where we had some great street food. None of the stuff here was on ice and we ran into some guy who was telling us that no one ever eats at the stalls. He was right... there was an entire block of stalls filled with skewers of meat that were just sitting there with no one buying.

One thing we weren't ready for was the time it gets dark here. Being down in Malaysia and Singapore it got dark around 7-7:15pm because we were so close to the equator but up here it was basically dark by 5:30. Having such a long day to start with made us pretty tired so after deciding to play it safe and getting some pizza we came back to the hotel to take it easy and go to bed early.

Depending on the weather and smog we'll either do the Great Wall tomorrow or go visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

Teaser photos:

Peking Duck and snacks in Beijing

Me at the Bird's Nest at Beijing Olympics park

Observation tower at Olympics park in Beijing

No one buying street meat

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Tags: travels2014, china, beijing, smog, olympics

Posted from: China

Monday, December 8, 2014 @ 6:34 AM in 2014 Asia

Today was our last day in Singapore and we had done pretty much everything we wanted to. Our flight to Beijing was at 12:15am so we had a full day to spend. We were able to push the check out time at our hotel to 2pm so we could sleep in a little in the morning. We had some Kaya toast (toast with soft boiled eggs and extremely dark coffee) for breakfast. It's the traditional workers breakfast and was actually pretty good.

We did some research on Beijing and packed up then checked out and dropped our bags off at the front desk of the hotel. One thing that we hadn't done was to check out the Singapore Botanic Gardens. They were highly rated and it was a really nice day out (although probably the hottest and most humid of the trip). The gardens themselves were really nice. It was like a tropical version of Central Park in the middle of the city. Most of the park was free but we paid S$5 to go into the Orchid gardens. We were walking around for a while before some dark clouds started rolling in and a sudden extreme downpour opened up.

Fortunately we were pretty close to some shelters so we ducked under one with a bunch of other people and waited out the rain. The thunder and lightning started hitting really close by and it hit a so close a few times that we could feel the shockwave. It took about an hour and a half for the rain to die down enough that we wouldn't kill our electronics by venturing out into it.

We caught a bus back to the city and stopped at the Raffles hotel which is the hotel that invented the Singapore Sling which is a gin drink with a bunch of other flavorings and juices. Mike and I each got one but were pretty underwhelmed with it for being hyped up so much and being so expensive. All the sugar also got to our stomaches and made us a little queasy for a while afterwards.

We went into a foodcourt and I got some lunch to help settle my stomach. By now we had a couple hours to kill before we needed to be at the airport so we hung out at the hotel lobby for a while until we needed to catch the MRT to the airport.

The check-in process at the airport was easy enough and we had some time to wait around there before we could board. Rather than having one security checkpoint at the terminal each gate has its own security which made things take a little longer. Since our flight was going to be from 12:15am to 6:30am we both popped a sleeping pill and slept through pretty much the whole flight. I did wake up when they brought by dinner which ended up being some kind of chicken and rice noodles with a little salad and fruit.

Teaser photos:

Botanic Gardens in Singapore

Waterfall in Botanic Gardens

Caught in a downpour

Singapore Sling

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Tags: travels2014, rain, singapore, gardens

Posted from: Singapore

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 9:01 PM in 2014 Asia

The plan for today was to head to Batam Indonesia since it's only an hour ferry ride away from Singapore. We hadn't really read much about the place but it would be fun to say we went to another country. We booked our tickets and got on board the ferry. We thought it would move pretty fast but it was extremely slow going. It was also raining the entire trip over there which was unfortunate since we wanted to spend some time on beaches.

We got to Batam and didn't realize we needed to buy a visa on arrival so we had to get back out of the customs line and get our visa then had to wait in line again. The next issue was figuring out what to do. There were some really good reviews for the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery so we flagged down a taxi to take us there. We thought it would be pretty straight forward but the taxi guy said there won't be any other taxis there so he'd have to wait.

We ended up paying him to hang around with us for 3 hours while we toured the monastery and he'd also be able to drive us around some more. As we were walking around we saw that there was a huge vegetarian restaurant there that was packed. Since we hadn't eaten lunch yet we decided to eat there. It was a really good choice. They had a lot of good food and the sauces and spices used on the fake meat products made it taste really good.

We got back in the taxi and had the guy drop us off at Turi beach resort. It was also a highly rated place online so we figured it would be a good place to hang out and relax by the beach. Unfortunately when we got there they wanted to charge us S$30 per person to have access to the pool and beach area. We weren't about to pay that so we walked around to the next beach over and then cut back through it to the Turi beach area. The resort we cut through was absolutely dead and looked pretty rundown. The area was definitely not the tourist destination that people online made it out to be.

The beach itself was full of trash and wasn't very big. We hung out there for a little while then walked around and out to the pier at Turi beach resort before having the resort call us a taxi back to the ferry terminal. We were originally supposed to leave Batam at 8:30pm but there wasn't anything else to do so we were able to catch the 4:30 ferry back.

On the way back the ferry stopped due to blockage in the jets or something so we had to go pretty slow the rest of the way back to Singapore. Once we got back to Singapore and through customs we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We decided to check out another one of the huge hawker centers at Old Airport Road. This one was really nice. There were a lot of stalls with a bunch of different types of food. I got some black pepper chicken and a chicken curry steam bun and Mike and I split some fried wontons and beer.

It had been another long day so we came back to the hotel to do some work and relax before heading to bed.

For anyone who might stumble across this blog post and are thinking about going to Batam while visiting Singapore, I'd strongly recommend not going. Spend more time in Singapore or go somewhere else. There isn't really anything to do there that can't be done in Singapore 10x better.

Teaser photos:

At the Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya Monastery

All vegetarian lunch at the monestary

Turi Beach

Dinner from these guys at Old Airport Food Center

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Tags: batam, travels2014, singapore, indonesia

Posted from: Singapore

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 8:41 PM in 2014 Asia

Today was a beach and pool day. We started off by hanging out at our rooftop pool for a while. The pool has some great views and a very nice atmosphere. Once we started to get hungry we went out and found some cheap yet very good sushi place. The waiter kept mentioning cowboys after he found out Mike was from Texas.

Singapore isn't really known for their beaches but they do have a few. We headed down to Sentosa Island next where they have some man made beaches. We hung out at Palawan beach for a while and went over to explore their little fake island which was built to block the view of all the freighters and tankers on the ocean.

Next up we had to do some MRT/Bus transferring to get over to East Coast Park beach with more views of tankers. The beaches were pretty clean and nice aside from the views. We'd been outside for most of the day so we came back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We jumped in the pool for a little while longer at night to see some of the night views of the city which was really cool.

For dinner we went to the Newton Food Court and got some fried rice and beer. All the reviews said this foodcourt was a little more touristy so we headed over to the Maxwell food court near Chinatown. While there we didn't really find any other food that looked good so we had another beer then came back to the hotel to call it a night.

Teaser photos:

Our pool at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway

Palawan Beach on Sentosa Island

Palawan Beach

Suspension Bridge at Palawan Beach

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Tags: singapore, travels2014, beaches

Posted from: Singapore

Saturday, December 6, 2014 @ 9:32 AM in 2014 Asia

We left Kuala Lumpur early in the morning and got to Singapore on a TigerAir flight that only took about an hour. It was raining pretty hard when we landed which wasn't a good sign. Instead of using public transport we just hired a taxi to take us directly to the hotel for about S$9.

After checking in we decided to head out and see some of the city. We were pretty hungry so we went down to the food court of one of the malls where they all have a ton of food stalls set up. It sounds cheesy but in Singapore it's a really common and popular thing to eat in the mall. They used to have unregulated food stalls all over the streets but the country did a good job of moving them all into regulated areas and the natural progression was to end up in food courts in big public areas. We opted for a place where Mike got some curry noodles and I got some noodle soup.

After eating, we got a tourist card which gives us unlimited travel on the MRT and buses and then headed down to the harbor to see the Gardens by the Bay and the Marina Bay Sands. The Gardens by the Bay were some pretty cool gardens with these tall metal tree structures you could walk between. They also had some huge greenhouses but wanted to charge some really high amounts to get in.

The Marina Bay Sands is a really expensive hotel that has a giant pool at the top of the place that overlooks the city. Originally we wanted to stay there for a night to use the hotel but it would have cost us several hundred dollars each. Instead, we went up to the bar and had a drink so we could still see the views. I had a martini and Mike had a Mai Thai.

Once done we went down and walked around the city. We ended up finding our way to the Buddah Tooth Relic Temple and walked around Chinatown for a little while. It had been a long day so we came back to the hotel to chill for a little bit before heading out for dinner.

I did a little research and found a Japanese place called Jibiru that was right down the street from us. It was a Japanese restaurant that had a huge selection of Japanese beers. The food and beer was a little on the pricey side so we only had one drink each and then called it a night.

Teaser photos:

View of the city from our pool at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway

Gardens by the Bay in Singapore

Gardens by the Bay from the Marina Bay Sands

Jibiru Japanese resaurant

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Tags: travels2014, singapore

Posted from: Singapore

Thursday, December 4, 2014 @ 8:24 PM in 2014 Asia

Since we didn't really do much yesterday we had to fit quite a bit in to today. Yesterday we made reservations to go up the Petronas Towers at 6pm tonight so that was our one major deadline. After waking up we went out to a street food market and got some food then walked over to visit the Thean Hou temple that was pretty close to our hotel. Unfortunately it had started to rain a little bit while we were walking over but it wasn't coming down hard enough to soak us.

The temple was pretty cool but the one by the Big Buddah on Lantau Island in Hong Kong was a lot bigger. We took some photos and checked out the gift shop then headed back into town to catch the train up to Batu Caves. Batu Caves is at the end of one of the rail lines so it's very easy to get to.

Once we stepped off the train we were thrown into a mix of hawkers, beggars and trash. The signage was nonexistent to the caves and we almost got sucked into some fake caves that a guy was trying to sell entry to. The whole area was filled with angry monkeys who would attack people for food or drinks and the actual entrance to the cave was up a huge flight of stairs filled with said monkeys.

The caves were a pretty big letdown. The sheer amount of trash and monkeys around was too much. The "caves" were also filled with a bunch of rundown shrines and people trying to sell mini hindu god figurines. They were more along the lines of some large open caverns than actual caves. We didn't spend much time there and got back on the train to make our way to Petronas Towers.

There wasn't really a good way to get over there so we had to take the train about half way and then walk for a while to catch the monorail line for a few stops to get closer to the towers. We checked in and got in line to go up the towers.

The tour was about an hour long and took us up to the skybridge on the 40-something'th floor and then up to the 89th floor for the top level observation deck. Unfortunately Kuala Lumpur doesn't have a super spectacular skyline but it was still cool to see the city from so far up. The elevator runs inside the building so they put some flatscreen monitors on the walls and had a video running that imitates seeing the outside. Unfortunately the screens were old and the video wasn't very good so it almost caused some motion sickness since it was so choppy.

When we got out it was the perfect time to see the towers from below. They had just lit up the towers so we hung out there for a while taking pictures before heading over to the Jalan Alor food street for our last Malaysian food experience.

I got a bunch of skewers of meat and Mike got several plus a giant prawn. People watching while drinking some beers and eating good street food was a really good way to end our last night in Kuala Lumpur. Once we were done we hopped back on the monorail and came back to the hotel to get ready for heading to Singapore in the morning.

Teaser photos:

Thean Hou Temple, Kuala Lumpur

Batu Caves entrance in Kuala Lumpur

Outside the Petronas Towers

Grilled prawn and tiger beer on Jalan Alor food street

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Tags: malaysia, street meat, caves, travels2014, kuala lumpur

Posted from: Malaysia

Thursday, December 4, 2014 @ 7:58 AM in 2014 Asia

I'm a little behind in writing these posts so some of the specifics might be a little lost. Today was pretty much a lazy / do nothing day. We went out for lunch at one of the local street markets down the street. For starters we had some fried bananas which were really good. In the market we got some pork and chicken buns, some chicken and rice as well as some stir fried noodles. When we were leaving mike got a milk coffee and they served it in a takeaway bag which was pretty funny.

We took the rest of the afternoon easy lounging by the pool and getting a little work done. We researched some areas to visit at night where we could get some more local food and one that kept popping up was Chow Kit. It's the Muslim area but was supposed to have really good street food.

Since there wasn't really a good way to get there via public transport we just hopped in a coffee and got straight there. The guy dropped us off on a street that he said was full food. It was a little late so everything seemed pretty dead. We found one market that was pretty full and got in line. It was a buffet where you get everything you want and then sit down and eat with your hands. The rice base they used was some kind of traditional blue rice that they coat with fried and crushed anchovies.

The meal was pretty sketchy. It wasn't bad but it wasn't really good either plus the hygiene factor was pretty bad and we referred to it as the food safety danger zone. After eating we walked around a little more and went back to the Bukit Butang area where there was more normal street food. Mike got a couple meat skewers and we had a beer before heading back to the hotel.

Teaser photos:

Banana fryer

Mike with a bag of coffee

Street meat

Dinner to eat with your hands

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Tags: travels2014, malaysia, kuala lumpur

Posted from: Malaysia

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 @ 5:31 AM in 2014 Asia

We slept in pretty late this morning since we didn't really have much on the schedule for the day. The hotel doesn't have free breakfast so I went out and got some boboa tea and a pastry. After hanging out for a while we went out and explored the area near us. It's a small "Little India" with a bunch of cool food markets.

Mike and I saw KFC had some crazy stuff we'd never heard of before so we tried some if it. I got a Double Down Maxx (two pieces of chicken with a hashbrown in the middle with cheese and sauce) and they gave me some curry/mayo fries with it. Mike tried some jalapeno fries and potato cakes.

We lounged around by the pool for a while before having some beers and heading out to explore the city at night. We went up to the Central Market / Chinatown area and walked around through those markets. It's mostly a bunch of fake wallets and watches with some miscellaneous nicknacks thrown in. We found a food stand that had a huge variety of skewered meats to choose from. Each skewer had a color on the end that each represented a certain price. Once you pick everything out that you want they fry the meat that needs frying and if you get some stuff that needs boiling you can do that at the table. Once you finish they count up all your skewers and give you a price. For enough to fill both of us up plus a beer it only ended up costing us about $8USD.

After dinner we walked around and made it up to Bukit Butang to see all of those food markets and the giant mall. It was getting late so we came back to the hotel to call it a night.

Teaser photos:

Jalan Petaling street market

Street meat near Jalan Petaling market

Mike with a marmaset

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Tags: malaysia, kuala lumpur, travels

Posted from: Malaysia

Monday, December 1, 2014 @ 1:23 AM in 2014 Asia

We got up at 5:30am in order to get packed up and head to the airport. The streets were completely empty that early in the morning so we got to the Hong Kong MTR station really fast. It was pretty cool that Cathay Pacific had a check in counter at the train station. Mike was able to check his bag and everything even though we were an hour from the airport.

We got to the airport and went up and hung out at one of the executive lounges where we had some pretty good food. We were in the premium economy class which meant we got to board before most people and also had a lot more room on the plane. We were served some pretty good food and slept for most of the 3.5 hour trip.

We could tell as soon as we stepped off the plane that the humidity and temperature were a lot higher. We got a ticket to the KL Sentral train station on the KLIA express train. It's an express train that goes back and forth between the airport and train station which is where our hotel is. The train station was packed with people and it took us a little while to find our hotel.

Once we found the hotel we checked in and relaxed for a little bit. The hotel is the Aloft and it's a pretty modern style hotel with a free minibar and snacks. We did some researching on things to see and places to eat while we're here. We found some really good reviews for a restaurant called Songket over near the Petronas towers.

We wanted to go up the towers but it started raining and was a little gross out so we decided to hold that off until later. The towers themselves are pretty neat looking though. After snapping some pics we found our way to the restaurant for dinner.

Being a Sunday night, the restaurant was pretty empty but they seated us outside where it was pretty humid. The food itself was really good though. We started off with an appetizer sampler that had four different items and some spicy sauce. We ordered a sweet and spicy chicken and a coconut curry chicken that both came with rice. The coconut curry chicken was really good. Afterwards we got some dessert. I opted for the coconut ice cream and Mike got some kind of classic Malaysian dish called Sago Gula Melaka.

We came back to the hotel where we got to bed early since we had a couple long days back to back.

Teaser photos:

Downtown from our rooftop pool

Petronas Towers at night

Appetizer sampler at Songket

Dinner at Songket

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Tags: travels2014, malaysia, kuala lumpur

Posted from: Malaysia

Monday, December 1, 2014 @ 12:56 AM in 2014 Asia

Last night ended up being quite the night. After getting back from Lantau Island we took a little nap before heading out for dinner. We originally wanted to hit up a wonton place that was recommended to us but didn't realize what time it closed and we didn't get there in time. Instead, I tried something at McDonalds called the Green Lantern burger. It's basically a hamburger with a hashbrown and some weird sauce on top. I wouldn't get it again but it's interesting to see the different variations of food they have at the global chains.

After that we took the MTR to the mainland part of Hong Kong and were planning on checking out some of the nightlife. Instead, when we got out of the MTR station we saw that we were dead in the middle of some of the Occupy Hong Kong protests. We hung around there for a while taking photos and seeing what was going on.

By the time we wanted to head back to the hotel we realized that the MTR had shut down and we were on the wrong side of Hong Kong (aka, the hotel was on the island and we were on the mainland). None of the taxis wanted to take us across so after about 45 minutes of wandering around we finally found a bus that would get us to our island. After that we had to catch a taxi to get us closer to the hotel and still had a 10 minute walk afterward. We didn't end up getting back to the hotel until around 3am.

Today however, we wanted to head to Macau and check out their version of Vegas. We slept in a little bit since we got to bed so late last night. For an early lunch/late breakfast we went to the wonton place that we missed last night. The food was good and also really cheap.

The process of getting a ferry ticket was really easy and once we were on it, it only took about an hour to get to Macau. Macau itself was actually really disappointing. The entire place was under construction and crowded. None of the casinos were really that impressive. The nice thing about Vegas is how it's built around entertainment whereas Macau is strictly built around hardcore gambling.

Macau used to be controlled by the Portuguese so we were excited to find some legitimate Portuguese food. We did some searching and found a few places. When we got to the one called O Santo we sat down and started looking through the menu. It was a joke how expensive everything was as well as how lame all the food was. It would have been $22+USD just for some pork fried rice. None of the food was authentic Portuguese (we saw some people eating and it was mostly frozen style french fries and chicken or pork).

We left without ordering and found a sitdown fast food place called Curry Monster. Mike and I were able to each get a milk tea and full meal and combined it was less than the average food price for one dish at O Santo.

We walked around a little more and decided to see some of the casinos and then head back to our hotel. We used the free hotel buses to get us to the ferry terminal and booked our ferry back. I think we both passed out for the ride home and got back around 1:30am.

Teaser photos:

Portuguese square in Macau

Venetian hotel/casino in Macau

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Tags: travels2014, macau, hong kong

Posted from: Hong Kong