Last Days in Singapore

Throughout his life Drew has always been surrounded by women. Moving to Singapore hasn't changed that. What a lucky guy.

It was Drew's roommate's last day in Singapore, so we went out for traditional Singaporean food and drinks. We had Chili Crab. So good.

The plan was to go to a swanky club, but they didn't allow flip flops or shorts, and guess what Drew and I were each wearing. Clearly we were out of our league. We walked around Clark Quay and took in the night life on the streets.

Earlier in the day, we went to Marina Bay to see what the hype was all about. If you love to shop or gamble and have endless money, then this place would excite you. In our case, we could afford a cupcake, so that's what we bought. It was an expensive cupcake, so we had to share.

Singapore's subway puts Boston's to deep deep shame.

By the end of two weeks, I had officially beat the heat and humidity that even superman couldn't withstand. I am awesome.

Halong Bay

I'm back in the US. The flight back was even more hellish than the first one. I woke up in the middle of the flight from Seoul sick, and it has persisted for a week and has now culminated with full blown conjunctivitis. So I type this through the slits of my puffy, watery eyes. You'll have to drag me kicking and screaming to ever get me back on a plane again anytime soon. So it's with great fondness that I look back to when I was healthy and still on vacation.

March 25-26: Halong Bay, Vietnam

Alright. So Halong Bay is overrated. Maybe it's because we visited during the wrong season. It was foggy and chilly, but even so, I don't think Halong Bay is worth a two day trip. One day would have been nice, but to stay an extra night and day to see this so called "Magnificent" Cave that takes you only 20 minutes to walk around is a big dud. I've seen better caves in Tennessee. Plus the water is pretty polluted. Maybe with a better tour company we would have had a good time, but it was a last minute booking so our first choice and recommended tour group was already full. Probably the best experience of our trip was meeting some pretty awesome Australians and an Irish couple.

The bus ride was 3.5 hours long. We stop by the usual tourist traps. We found snake wine, which is a snake infused alcohol. It's pretty much thought to be a cure all and especially used to enhance virility.

We arrived at Halong Bay. Our first stop was to see the Floating Fishing Village. These people live in houses anchored in the bay. They have a school and hospital. It seemed very peaceful.

Halong was definitely beautiful, and I think Drew and I would have enjoyed it more if we were able to kayak around freely on our own.

The huge looming limestone islands are Halong's main attraction.

All the tour boats anchor in the same area at night. Unfortunately all these tour boats contribute to the polluted waters.

On the second day we went to visit one of the caves. Our tour guide said it was called the "Magnificent" Cave, which I can't find when I google the name. It was somewhat underwhelming. I think there are better caves in Halong to visit.

Drew and I returned to Hanoi. Back to chaotic traffic. We tried to get a flight to Krabi, Thailand or Hoi An, Vietnam, but it didn't work out. We spent another night and returned to Singapore the next day. We left with mixed feeling about our trip, but overall it was a good experience.