Reset search
SE Asia
  • Darryl C

SE Asia

A 98-day adventure by Darryl Read more
FollowInsightsCalendarShareShareBucket list
Newest first
  • Trip start
    December 29, 2023
    Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Exploring Khaosan Road Area Bangkok

    Dec 29–Jan 2, 2024 in Thailand

    Stayed at Cass Nithra hotel for 4 nights, close to Khaosan Road. Explored the area. Khaosan was a busy street at night with lots of young hostel people, some great live music at the bars. Hotel had great breakfast and a nice pool that we spent some time at during the 35 degree afternoonsRead more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    New Years in Bangkok

    December 31, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    New years Eve 2024 in Bangkok. Dinner cruise from 10pm to 1am. Checked out the Iconsiam mall near the pier before. Never seen so many people. The dinner cruise was great. Lots of food and wine and beer was included all night so people were having fun. Although we were in a different country is was very comforting seeing people from different cultures all having a great time. Because it was so busy and hard to get a ride in the gridlock traffic afterwards, we decided to make the 1.5 hour walk back to the hotel with a stop in Khaosan Road for a couple night caps. On the walk back we felt completely safe, in fact seeing so many families and couples and friends still all gathered on the streets that late laughing, playing games and having a great time was special to see and feel. We went to bed at 5am lol.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Travel to Singapore

    Jan 2–11, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    First observation was how green and lush Singapore is. Second observation was how clean it is. Using Grab has been great in Bangkok and now in Singapore. Very similar to Uber, even used it for our first dinner night at the airbnb. The metro rapid transit train was close to the airbnb and was easy to use. Explored Chinatown and the shopping district on day oneRead more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Singapore Zoo & River Wonders

    January 5, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Visited the Singapore Zoo and River Wonders. Took a Grab and had a great driver both ways. Found it was very expensive to drive in Singapore. You need to purchase an $85,000 driving certificate (was up to $120,000) that is good for only 10 years. The one driver's mid sized Toyota car was $170,000 to purchase, and gas is $3.30 / liter. The Zoo was so well manicured and very lush and the animal displays were first class. Seeing the pandas in person was a highlight. Saw a monkey steal a kids sandwich too.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Little India

    January 5, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Took the trains to Little India and explored the area, and had dinner. A sign at one train station is a reminder of the strict laws in Singapore. Also, any illegal drugs can be punishable by death. Needless to say, you don't see a bunch of crack heads walking around Singapore.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Botanic Gardens & Long Bar

    January 6, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    Went to the Botanic Garden today. Stopped by a mexican restaurant just outside the subway for lunch, then went across the street to the park. A pleasant surprise was that it was free to explore. Was another mixed weather day with sun and some rain. The park was meticulously manicured and very large. After exploring for a few hours, we took the train to city hall and went over to the famous Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel. This is the birth place of the Singapore Sling. This is also the only place you can litter in Singapore by throwing peanut shells on the floor. Two slings came out to $93.52! But it was worth the experience. Then we walked back to the condo, which took a little over an hour. It was an interesting walk with lots to see. A good 26k steps day today. Averaging about 19k steps a day so far.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Downtown walk, Singapore Discovery Cent.

    January 8, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ 🌩️ 30 °C

    Took the train to Marina Sands Station, then walked to Harborview station, which was about 1.5 hours. Saw the spectacular downtown buildings and also the government subsidized housing for low income earners. There are no homeless people in Singapore. Had lunch at an Indian restaurant near the Harborview station, then took the train to the Singapore Discovery Centre. As we were walking in, a fellow that was walking in front of us turned to say the centre was closed for a couple days for maintenance. We introduced ourselves, his name was Yue Weng Leung, Chief Executive of the Centre. Once he learned we were from Canada, he offered us a little private tour of the Centre, which was really special.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Marina Bay Sands Hotel

    January 9, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    We moved from our Airbnb to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel for a couple of nights. It isn't a cheap stay, but it is a once in a lifetime experience, so we pampered ourselves for a couple of nights. Our room is 3616 on the 36th floor overlooking the Gardens by the Bay, which is a spectacular park which had a nice light show at night. We didn't go in the infinity pool today but did check it out. Had a beer on the roof while we waited for our room to be ready and afterward had dinner at the Italian Restaurant called Lavo, which is on the 56th floor with the infinity pool. Our meals were fantastic. We decided to get a dessert to share but it was too huge to eat it all, we left full. After dinner, we walked down to the Gardens by the Bay and watched the light show. Later we also saw it from our room. The view from the room is spectacular.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler
    1

    A day at the Sands

    January 10, 2024 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 28 °C

    We spent the day enjoying the Marina Bay Sands property. Went to the huge gym at 6am that was past the casino. Came back to the room and picked Chris up, and then found some breakfast. Afterwards, we headed up to the pool for a couple hours to take in the amazing views while the weather was nice. The rooftop pool and area are massive. It is a wonder of engineering. There are three restaurants, a nightclub and a lot of lounging areas in the roof. Enjoyed a burger and beer for lunch, had some wine in our room in the afternoon while it rained, had chicken and waffles for supper, and then went back to the roof for a while. Off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrowRead more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Travel to Kuala Lumpur

    January 11, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Travel day to KL, went a little early to the Singapore Airport to see some of the sights of one of the highest-rated airports in the world. It was a quick flight of a little over an hour to KL. The drive from the airport to our hotel was almost an hour, our driver was going 150km/h on the highway and wasn't going much faster than the other traffic! She was a good driver and was very helpful for offering things to see and do. Arriving at the Shangri-la was nice, we last stayed in a Shangri-la in Beijing. It is a well-appointed hotel and service from everyone is top notch. Our room wasnt ready so they upgraded usbtona larger family room, it has a tent in the livingbroom for kids lol! Went to Arthurs bar for a couple drinks after getting settled in the room and had some appies and made some plans for next few days, Booked a tour to Batu caves for Saturday.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler
    1

    Walking day around downtown KL

    January 12, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Had breakfast in the hotel. They had a great buffet with a lot of options. Then, we went exploring, checked out the Petronas Towers and the mall inside, and then explored the KLCC park. Stopped for a drink at the Healy Mac's Irish Pub, then went back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours by the pool reading. Went back to Healy Mac's for some appies, then walked over to Jalan Alor Food Street, had a delicious beef Roti. While walking, we saw the new Merdeka 118 building, which is 678.9m tall and is just completed, the second tallest building in the world, second to Burj Khalifa. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped on a street with a bunch of bars and had a nightcap, and people watched for a while, which is always amazing later in the day. We also noted that the license plates on vehicles don't have any regional identification, just the license number on a black background. KL is nice, but definitely not as clean or refined as Singapore. They do have some homeless people, whereas we didn't see any in Singapore, thanks to their government subsidized housing for low income workers.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Tour of some spiritual sites around KL

    January 13, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Booked a half day tour of some spiritual locations around KL. Our driver, Vicky, picked us up at 9:00. The first stop was the Batu Caves. This is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. The climb to the top is 272 stairs, with monkeys along the way looking for food to steal. At the top, you enter the cave where devoted Hindus pray and go through their ritualistic ceremonies. The feeling was very powerful and uplifting. We visited the intimate areas and observed, but you had to take your shoes off. No shoes were common in all religious areas we visited today. When we were back at the bottom, we visited two other shrines where more people were praying. The next stop was a silk store where they made custom silk art and clothing. They showed us the wax outline techniques and color dying, Chris had a chance to try the dying technique. Next was the National Mosque Malaysia, it is a huge mosque that can accommodate 15,000 people for prayer. Chris and I both had to wear gowns, and Chris had to button her gown all the way up and keep the hood on as well. The last stop was a Chinese temple. We were able to see a couple of newlyweds getting pictures taken. It was an enlightening day, and Vicky was a great guide.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Hop on hop off bus on last day at KL

    January 14, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Took the hop on, hop off bus today to explore more areas of KL on our last day here. There are two bus routes, and you can hop on and off at whatever stops you like for one flat fee, which is good for 24 hours. The bus stops are staged at major attraction areas. Some great architecture on buildings and enjoyed Little India. There is a major Hindu celebration next week, and Indian people were buying food, flowers, and sugar cane. They place one stock of sugar cane on each side of their main home entrance for good luck.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler
    1

    Arrived in Patong Phuket

    January 16, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    We arrived in Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand, yesterday. Took nearly 2 hours in immigration and was a painfully slow line with a guesstimate of 80% of people in line being Russians from a big Aeroflot flight that landed the same time we did. In the short time we have been here, it is obvious that Russians are an important part of this regions economy. Most signs are written in Thai and Russian, with English in third place. It was about an hour ride with our Grab car, Chris made the comment on how similar the area looks to Costa Rica on the drive. When we arrived at our Airbnb condo at around 4 p.m., the housekeeper was still cleaning from the previous renters, and the language barrier was special, lol. We ran into her later after we had supper on the road out of the condo, and she was saying something about shoes, we tried to understand her but finally nodded and moved along. This morning, it took me over a half hour to find my sandles, lol. It is interesting that there is a big sign in our lobby saying that short-term rentals are against the law - hmmmm. We walked for about a half hour to a grocery store this morning to stock up on some breakfast and snack stuff for the week. Last night, we picked up some wine, beer, and water for the condo. The cleaning lady said the tap water wasn't drinkable, at least that is what we think she said. Prices around are very reasonable compared to Singapore and KL. Every meal so far has been terrific. We walked the beach this afternoon and was amazed how many people (Russians) there were. The water is very warm, and the sand is great to walk on. This week will be an R&R week.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    A lazy day in Patong

    January 17, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    It was a lazy day by the pool reading our books after a late night of listening to a great band at one of the bars. Met a couple from France at the bar. It was an entertaining hour or so using Google Translate. Went out for a late supper tonight and had a fabulous meal. Ordered three dishes to share and a couple of large beers, and it was $38 Canadian. It is crazy how busy it gets at night. It's great for people watching.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Island tours off the coast of Phuket

    January 19, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    We did a tour of some islands off the coast of Phuket today. Our shuttle van picked us up at 7:30, and we drove an hour to the other side of Phuket to Phang Nga Bay Marina. We loaded onto a speed boat for our day at sea. We saw towering limestone islands, magical sea caves, and white sandy beaches. We stopped at the famous James Bond Island, where they filmed the 1974 movie, The Man with the Golden Gun. We kayaked around Panac Island, which was spectacular. The tide was at the right height for us to be able to get into some caves with the kayak. Each kayak had a guide, and ours was great. We also stopped at Ko Rang Yai Island, Hong Island Beach, Panyee Island, where we had a great buffet lunch and a tour of a floating village with a school, playground and a bunch of shops. We also explored some caves on foot on one of the islands. Our last stop was at an island with a place called Palm Beach Club, where we swam and had a couple beers at the bar there. We arrived back at the Marina around 5:30, and it took us an hour and a half to get back to Patong. We had pizza for dinner and early night for us. It was a great day!Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Last day in Patong

    January 22, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    This was our last day in Patong. It was hot and humid today. Cold beer was a good refreshment. Chris had her nails done a shop in town and I spent some time at the beach reading. We met up for lunch at a cool ocean front local restaurant. All packed up ready for Koh Phi Phi.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Travel to Koh Phi Phi Don

    January 23, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ 🌧 27 °C

    It was move day, hired a van to take us to the ferry terminal in Phuket. Ferry left at 9:00am and we arrived in Phi Phi at 11:00. It was a nice surprise that the ferry went around another island named Koh Phi Phi Lee, which has Maya Bay and Viking Caves before docking in Phi Phi. Our hotel isn't located right in Phi Phi village so we needed to take a water taxi for a 5 minute ride to our hotel. The Hotel, Phi Phi The Beach Resort, is very nice. The individual villas are located on a hill side and have a nice deck overlooking the bay. It is the equivalent of 15 flights of stairs to our room. There are a couple of restaurants and a bar here. As I type this, I can hear a chorus of geckos chipping away. Chilling at the resort today, exploring tomorrow.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Day in Phi Phi

    January 24, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Did a 4k run around the resort this morning before breakfast. It was a great workout with the steep hills. Buffet breakfast is included, and there were some decent choices to fill us up before catching the water taxi to the village. Taxi is 100 Baht (3.75 CAD) per person each way. We explored the town and then did the hike up to the 3 view points they have. The views were spectacular. Afterward, we grabbed some lunch and lazed around the beach for a couple of hours. Checked a few areas out where the locals lived, and it was great to see the kids coming home from school in their uniforms and playing without phones in their hands. No vehicles are allowed in the village tourist center, so all deliveries are made with homemade steel carts that are pushed. The area is filled with young backpackers. Grabbed supper and headed back to the resort for a cool shower and some wine on the deck. It was a great day, clocked 29k steps and 196 floors on the watch. Just came back from a nightcap on the beach.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Wander and massage day

    January 25, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ 🌬 30 °C

    Our plan after breakfast was to walk over to the other side of the island to check out a remote beach, but as we got closer, there were a bunch of restricted area signs, so we ditched that plan and decided to trek over the mountain to the village to get our steps in and have lunch while we were there and then walk back. It was about 50 minutes each way on a single lane road, and the walk over and down each side of the mountain was pretty steep. In the village, we saw the diesel filling station for the long boats, pretty hokey as they just come with some old containers and fill up. When we got back to the resort, we jumped into the ocean for a cool down, then lazed for a couple of hours and went to our couples massage we had booked. I had the coconut oil massage, and Chris had the aromatic oil massage. Our massages were a bit more intense than we imagined, but we both felt great afterward. The massage for both of us for one hour was about $40 CAD. After the massage, we went to the restaurant and had a slow meal with appetizers and salad, then Chris had chicken satay and I had a chicken soup, all the meals were great. All ready for the ferry over the Ao Nang Krabi tomorrow morning.Read more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler

    Travel to Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand

    January 26, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Move day to Ao Nang. Took a high-speed ferry boat from Phi Phi. The water was pretty rough, so we had a few pukers on the boat. The boat was covered, but there were a few gaps where the boat spray got a few of us wet. It's pretty here as well. It was an hour walk from the ferry dock to our hotel, stopped half was for some lunch and a cold beer. Some school girls stopped us and wanted to take pictures with us, lol. All checked in, the hotel seems nice and about a 5 minute walk to the beachRead more

  • Darryl CSE AsiaTraveler
    1

    Around Ao Nang

    January 28, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Chilling last couple of days. Dropped off some clothes at a laundry service this morning, for rush service for 2.5kg of clothes it was $10 CAD. Checked out the monkey trail and the night market. It was pizza night tonight, great thin crust. It's been nice a sunny.Read more

  • 2025© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice