09 Tuesday Apr 2013
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.
08 Monday Apr 2013
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.
07 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, China, Marriott, Travel Hacking
For our stay in Hong Kong I booked a last minute 5-night award to the JW Marriott HK only a week before we arrived. Under the old category definitions, the JW was a category 7 hotel, meaning it cost 35,000 Marriott reward points a night. Thankfully, Marriott Rewards gives you the 5th night free on award bookings, so our stay cost 140,000 Marriott Reward points.
Since Mrs. Selfish and I both applied for the Chase Marriott Rewards card, we both had a free night and 70,000 Marriott Reward points to burn! Marriott is also nice because multiple family members can apply points toward one award, allowing me to Mrs. Selfish’s points if I fell short. This was especially useful, because for our time in China I was planning on getting platinum status.
Unlike other hotel chains, Marriott allows just about anyone to try their “Taste of Platinum” challenge. By completing 9 paid stays in 3 months, plus the month you request the challenge, you’ll earn Marriott’s platinum status for the next calendar year. Although it’s an amazing shortcut, the biggest benefit is the “taste” itself – for the duration of those ~3 months you’ll actually get platinum status, which gets you free internet, breakfast, a welcome gift, your choice of amenities, and an upgrade to a better room. We pulled a similar trick in Spain with Mrs. Selfish, but the AC Hotels didn’t really recognize platinum status quite the way Marriott-branded hotels in Asia do.
In Asia, they do one better, since there’s a great chance you’ll be upgraded to a suite.
06 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, Hilton, Singapore, Travel Hacking
After surviving many cab debacles in Kuala Lumpur, Mrs. Selfish and I finally got wise and arranged for a cab to pick us up from the Sheraton Imperial. After 3 days in Kuala Lumpur, surprisingly our most honest cab driver was the one that took us to the airport.
Nevertheless it was slightly uncomfortable with all of our bags. The standard cabs in Kuala Lumpur were slightly different from home, and we found we always had to put one of our bags up front next to the driver. The reason being that a lot of the trunk’s space is occupied by a natural gas tank!
But no matter! We were off to our last stop in South East Asia, a one day stopover in Singapore.
05 Friday Apr 2013
Posted in Asia, Food & Drinks, Malaysia
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.
04 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in Asia, Food & Drinks, Malaysia
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.
03 Wednesday Apr 2013
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!
02 Tuesday Apr 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, Malaysia, Starwood, Travel Hacking
After catching breakfast at the Double Tree Phuket, Mrs. Selfish and I were ready for Kuala Lumpur! We weren’t really sure what to expect, but having grown somewhat familiar with Malaysian cuisine, we were excited to see what Kuala Lumpur had to offer.
After a little research, I settled on booking the Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur, which was a little bit out of the center of town, but was highly ranked on Trip Advisor. Since we were running low on Starwood points, I decided to pay in cash. A little searching found an offer online – 3 nights for the price of 2 at Starwood Properties in South East Asia – score! The price was normally 444 MYR a night, which is roughly $143, so at 66% we were getting close to $96 a night before taxes.
Getting there, was a little bit of a challenge, but fortunately Kuala Lumpur removes most of usually airport taxi headaches.
01 Monday Apr 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, Hilton, Thailand, Travel Hacking
After escaping the tetanus-ridden raft houses of Khao Sok national park, Mrs. Selfish and I were ready to high-tail it out of there! Unfortunately, this meant spending the night in Phuket, one of Thailand’s seediest cities!
After leaving the decidedly-beautiful-but-extremely-rustic Khao Sok national park, we were transported back to the Bamboo Orchid Tree House to pickup our suitcases. Unfortunately, midway through the hour long drive it decided to rain, and we were in a semi-open air pickup truck. We arrive at the Tree House, slightly soaked, grabbed our bag, and hopped in a car to Phuket! Two hours later we arrived in civilization at the Double Tree Resort Phuket, on Surin Beach.
31 Sunday Mar 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand, Travel Hacking
When planning the Thailand portion of our trip, Mrs. Selfish and I decided to spend a week on the west coast of Thailand. We knew we wanted to dive Richelieu Rock, and visit Thailand’s Halong Bay, the man made Khao Sak lake, but getting there was a problem. The closest airport to both natural wonders is in Phuket, which is known as one of the seediest places in Thailand – even the natives warned us against going there.
Fortunately, Khao Lak was only a one hour drive north. While searching for accommodations, I found Le Méridien Khao Lak Beach & Spa Resort with one important benefit: a baby elephant.
30 Saturday Mar 2013
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.
29 Friday Mar 2013
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.
28 Thursday Mar 2013
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.
25 Monday Mar 2013
Posted in Accommodations, Asia, Thailand
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.
23 Saturday Mar 2013
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.
The Selfish Years 