Exploring the Casinos in Macau

12 Friday Apr 2013

Tags

Asia, China, Day Trip, Ferry, Galaxy, Grand Lisboa, Macau, Selfish Years, Shuttles, Venetian, Wynn

Mr. Selfish and I took a day trip from Hong Kong to Macau. We had recently learned that Macau has far surpassed Las Vegas in terms of casino revenues and braced ourselves for hoards of Chinese tour groups. I am not much of a gambler, and Mr. Selfish only dabbles in black jack, so we didn’t really gamble any in Macau. It was still fun to visit these beautiful casinos and enjoy the free transportation that they provide.

We took the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau, which only takes about an hour. It is a very comfortable ferry and cost about 652 Hong Kong dollars ($85 USD) for both of us round trip. We showed up around 10am to take the 11am ferry but it had been cancelled due to visibility issues. As a result, we had to take the 12:30pm ferry instead. We therefore bought our return ticket then and there since we didn’t want to chance an evening ferry selling out.

Continue reading →

Searching for the Best Dim Sum in Hong Kong

11 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, China, Food & Drinks, Searching for the Best . . .

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Baked Barbeque Pork Buns, Barbeque Pork Buns, China, Dim Sum, Din Tai Fung, Dumplings, Hong Kong, Maxim's Palace at City Hall, Searching for the Best Of, Selfish Years, Soup Dumplings, Taro Cakes, The Manor Seafood Restaurant, Tim Ho Wan

Mr. Selfish is partial to the dim sum in San Francisco, particularly the baked barbeque pork buns, since he’s had it since he was a kid. Since we were in Hong Kong for five days, we decided to try to find the best dim sum in Hong Kong, or at least some that would rival the baked pork buns from Mr. Selfish’s childhood.

First, we went to Tim Ho Wan, which is one of the few dim sum restaurants in the world with a Michelin star. It wasn’t fancy and the décor was quite lacking but the dim sum was delicious. Mr. Selfish was quite anxious to try their baked barbeque pork buns. Although they were sweet and fluffy with an egg custardy top, the barbeque pork was thick and savory. These baked pork buns are quite different from the ones in San Fran. Mr. Selfish still managed to eat four of them, and I had two. There are three buns in one order, which is a steal at 16 HKD ($2.06 USD) per order.

Continue reading →

Hong Kong Disneyland – Part 2

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, China, Disney

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Asia, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters, China, Disney, Grizzly Gulch, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disney, Hong Kong Disneyland, It's a Small World, Jungle Cruise, Mystic Mansion, Selfish Years, Space Mountain, Toy Story Land

In yesterday’s post, I went over my general impressions of Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD). Today, we’ll go over the specific rides on which me and Mr. Selfish went. One common denominator for all of the rides was the wait times were usually about 5-10 minutes. This is a very short wait time compared to the rides at Orlando parks or even the rides at Disneyland Paris.

We’ll start with the rides that were unlike any other Disney ride. In the area known as Grizzly Gulch, we rode Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. Although the ride has a long title, it was a very enjoyable roller coaster. In fact, it is very similar to Everest in Animal Kingdom, which is one of my favorite rides. Both Big Grizzly Mountain and Everest both contain fuzzy characters that mess with your track and cause you to ride backwards for a bit. Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed this ride so much that we rode it three times – in the front, all the way in the back, and (for posterity) in the middle.

Continue reading →

Hong Kong Disneyland – Part 1

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, China, Disney

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Asia, China, Disney, Grizzly Gulch, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Disney, Hong Kong Disneyland, Selfish Years, Toy Story Land

As I’ve mentioned previously, Mr. Selfish and I intend on visiting all of the Disney parks in the world. We went to Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD), which is a rather new and small Disney park. Opening in 2005, HKD adheres to the rules of feng shui in an attempt to avoid any cultural backlash from the Chinese.

Continue reading →

Hopping Around Hong Kong

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, China

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Asia, Avenue of the Stars, China, Hong Kong, Ladies Market, Selfish Years, Victoria Peak

Mr. Selfish and I first visited Hong Kong in 2009 during our “homeland honeymoon.” We saw a lot of the major sights then and decided to take it a bit easier on our second trip there.

Our first full day in Hong Kong had good weather so we chose to go up to Victoria’s Peak even though we had already been in 2009. At 1,811 feet, the Peak is the highest mountain in Hong Kong. We rode the cable car up and down for 75 Hong Kong dollars (~$9 USD) per person.

Continue reading →

Enjoying the Night Life in Kuala Lumpur

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Food & Drinks, Malaysia

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Asia, Food & Drinks, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Malls, Selfish Years, Tate, Times Square Mall

Mr. Selfish and I are not really party animals. Truth be told, we’re pretty much old farts when it comes to partying and clubbing in a big city. However, we do enjoy nice cocktail bars with fancy drinks. We hadn’t been to a swanky cocktail bar in a while, so we decided to go to Tate while in Kuala Lumpur.

The Tate’s website states the following as the introduction to the bar:

“Some days, Batman just wants to be Bruce. Not Bruce Wayne, just Bruce.

He wants to lounge about with his other hero friends, all of them in stealth mode. They stand at the bar and recount their adventures; play pool and puff on cigars. They are at ease, undisturbed by fainting damsels in distress . . . .”

It was an interesting introduction, and I was intrigued.

The Tate is located in the Intermark and is behind an unmarked door next to a hanging top hat. The bar is themed like a speakeasy during the Prohibition Era. All of the televisions were playing old Superman episodes, which me and Mr. Selfish found surprisingly hypnotizing.

Continue reading →

Mmmmmmmm…Malay Food!

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Food & Drinks, Malaysia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Beef Rendang, Bijan, Food & Drinks, Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, Malay Food, Malaysia, Malaysian Food, Nasi Lemak, Petronas Towers, Precious Old China, Satay, Selfish Years

While still in Orlando, Mr. Selfish discovered a beef rendang recipe on allrecipes.com and fell in love with it. Since there were no Malay restaurants in Orlando, we kept cooking this one recipe of beef rendang, which epitomized Malay food for us. We knew that we would try as much Malay food as possible while in Kuala Lumpur.

During our first night in KL, we walked to Kampung Baru to feast on Malay street food. The view from the night market of the Petronas Towers was magnificent, and the food was great to boot. First, we tried some delicious chicken and pork satay. They were cooked over an open flame to perfection.

Continue reading →

The Most Awesome Bird Park Ever in Kuala Lumpur

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Malaysia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Bird Park, KL Bird Park, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Selfish Years

Mr. Selfish and I stayed in Kuala Lumpur for three nights. When I found out that Kuala Lumpur had a bird park that it touted as the “world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary,” I knew that we would visit it.

I had to take two photographs because the owls don’t play too nicely with the other vegetarian birds. I loved the Malay Eagle Owl (on the right). His feathers give him so much character!

Continue reading →

Khao Sok – Trekking Around Cheow Lan Lake

30 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Thailand

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Cheow Lan Lake, Hiking, Khao Sok, Khao Sok National Park, Namtaloo Cave, Selfish Years, Thailand, Trekking

Our 2 day/1 night trip to Cheow Lan Lake included two treks. The first trek was to Namtaloo Cave. It took about 45 minutes of hiking through the jungle to reach the cave. Our guide’s name was Ya Ya, and he was good-natured and easy going. When we told him that I was a slow walker, he assured me that we would take lots of breaks for photos.

Continue reading →

Khao Sok – Boating on Cheow Lan Lake

29 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Thailand

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Asia, Boating, Cheow Lan Lake, Long Boat, Rajjaprabha Dam, Ratchaprapha Dam, Selfish Years, Thailand

Other than the accommodations on Cheow Lan Lake, Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed our 2 day/1 night to the lake. Cheow Lan Lake is a man-made lake that resulted from the construction of the Ratchaprapha (Rajjaprabha) Dam in 1988. The lake measures approximately 168 square kilometres and is full of beautiful limestone cliffs. Riding a long-tail boat on Cheow Lan Lake was certainly one of the highlights of our tour.

First, we arrived at Ratchaprapha Dam for our last bathroom break before heading off on the long-tail boat. We had one of our big bags with us, so Mr. Selfish had to haul it down to the boat.

Continue reading →

Khao Sok – Freaking Out About Leeches and Trekking

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Thailand

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Asia, Khao Sok, Khao Sok National Park, Leeches, Selfish Years, Thailand

I am not much for trekking but I knew that me and Mr. Selfish would at least do one short hike in Khao Sok National Park. When I started googling the best hikes in the park, I came across many blogs about how the trails are crawling with leeches. The blogs told gruesome tales of how the leeches will chase you through the trails, find a way to slither up your legs, and suck your blood even through your socks.

Mr. Selfish started freaking out. He wanted to leave Khao Sok the next day and not even doing any hiking. I attempted to calm him down and told him that it was probably only bad during rainy season. We were there on the cusp of dry season and hot season.

The next day, I somehow convinced Mr. Selfish to do one hike in the park and told him as soon as we saw any leeches on the trail, we would turn back. I am happy to report that during our short hike at Khao Sok National Park, we didn’t see a single leech.

Continue reading →

Mr. Selfish Let Me Book Our Accommodations in Khao Sok

25 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Accommodations, Asia, Khao Sok, Khao Sok Treehouse Resort, Khaosok, Selfish Years, Thailand, Treehouse Resort

Mr. Selfish and I had a week allocated for the western part of Thailand. We landed in Phuket but knew that we had to get out of there as soon as possible. We stopped in Khao Lak for a couple of days in order to scuba dive at Richelieu Rock and then we headed to Khao Sok to spend a couple of nights in a tree house and one night in a raft house. Khao Sok is a national park encompassing 738.74 square kilometers. It is pretty rustic and not yet overrun with tourists, which means that there are no chain hotels in Khao Sok.

Mr. Selfish has been expertly collecting airline and hotel miles and points since September 2011, which has enabled us to stay at some really nice hotels during our selfish year. Because we could not use any points for Khao Sok, I was left in charge of planning the accommodations.

For our tree house, I booked the Bamboo Orchid Tree House at Khao Sok Tree House. It had air conditioning and an outdoor rustic bathroom, and cost 4,000 baht ($136 USD) per night.

Continue reading →

Behind the Great Firewall of China

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, China

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Chengdu, China, Panda, Selfish Years, Xi'an

Mr. Selfish and I are currently in Xi’an, China. Good news: we’re seeing the Terracotta Soldiers soon. Bad news: Internet is spotty and we aren’t able to sign into our WordPress blog. As a result, we may not be able to post daily.

Don’t despair. We are alive and well in China and will try to post more as soon as we can.

Diving in Thailand at Richelieu Rock and Koh Tao

22 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Asia, Thailand

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Asia, Diving, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Richelieu Rock, Scuba Diving, Selfish Years, Thailand

Scuba diving is a very time-consuming hobby. After spending so much time and resources getting scuba certified, you want to go diving as much as possible. You start planning destinations and vacations around scuba sites. Moreover, scuba diving is an expensive hobby. It typically involves a boat, a boat, a crew, a guide, and lots of scuba equipment. It all adds up to lots of time and money to scuba dive. However, as cliché as it may sound, it is a whole another world under the water. It can be amazingly peaceful and beautiful under the water.

Mr. Selfish and I planned part of Thailand itinerary around the scuba sites in Thailand, in particular Richelieu Rock. Richelieu Rock is usually rated as one of the top diving sites in the world. In truth, Richelieu Rock was the most beautiful place I’ve ever dived. There were tons of schools of fish and the most luxurious purple coral. We even saw the elusive yellow seahorse, the difficult to find sea whip pipefish, and the more common Moray eel.

Continue reading →

The Delicious but Expensive Food at the Conrad Koh Samui

21 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by mrsselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Food & Drinks, Thailand

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Asia, Conrad, Conrad Koh Samui, Food & Drinks, Hilton, Koh Samui, Selfish Years, Thailand

Mr. Selfish and I truly enjoyed our stay at the beautiful Conrad Koh Samui. The only downsides were: (1) the location and (2) the food.

As to location, the Conrad Koh Samui is quite far from the airport and pretty much everything else on the island. Mr. Selfish already went over how we hired Mr. Samui Samui to solve the issue of transportation. However, the location also made it very expensive and inconvenient to leave the property. As a result, other than a diving trip that we took, we stayed on property, which meant that we had to eat on property.

The food was tasty but man, was it expensive! Luckily, I am a Gold Hilton Honors member so we had free breakfast at Zest. We typically ate breakfast as late as possible to make it into a brunch and then had an early dinner. The breakfast spread was quite impressive. You could order an egg selection from the menu, including eggs benedict, English breakfast, etc., and then still eat from the buffet.