The Russians Are Coming . . . to Nha Trang!

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Vietnam

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Mr. Selfish and I had originally planned to spend an entire week in Dalat, but after hearing that there wasn’t much to do in Dalat, we decided to split up that week with another location – Nha Trang. I had heard that Nha Trang was primarily a beach town and that there would be good diving there.

Little did I know that the Nha Trang airport has a direct flight from Russia and that the entire town is swarming with Russians. It was kinda surreal seeing Russian on so many signs and menus in a Vietnamese town.

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Simply Eating in Saigon

13 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Food & Drinks, Vietnam

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Mr. Selfish and I took it easy in Saigon. We rented an apartment via airbnb, so we cooked and ate in mostly. We also worked out almost every day. It was glorious. Nevertheless, we had to eat out a few meals…

Our favorite restaurant in Saigon is Xu. We went there for our honeymoon in 2009 and couldn’t forget the coconut martinis. As it turns out, Xu had a buy-one-get-one-free happy hour from 5-7pm. Mr. Selfish and I went – twice.

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The coconut martinis were as delicious as we remembered, but we also got the Xu Tini (with vodka, tea, vanilla, honey, and cream), which was phenomenal. We also sampled the “edible cocktails” which are made with liquid nitrogen. We tasted the coconut (vodka, fresh coconut juice, and liquid nitrogen) and strawberry glacier (rum, strawberries, and liquid nitrogen). Both were quite interesting and fun to eat/drink.

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Our Last Day in the Philippines

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Food & Drinks, Philippines

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On our last day in the Philippines, Mr. Selfish and I spent some quality time with our friends in Manila. We went to Intramuros, which is the historic portion of Manila. We attempted to go into the Manila Cathedral, but it was closed for renovations. However, nearby we enjoyed the 1945 monument, which was dedicated to the victims of WWII. Then, we walked to the Church of St. Agustin, which had a wedding going on. It was interesting to see Asian designs incorporated into a Catholic church (after being in Europe and seeing so many cathedrals there).

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Malls, Massages, and Meats in Manila

10 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Food & Drinks, Philippines

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Mr. Selfish and I learned that Manila had quite the mall culture meaning that because it is so hot out, people usually hang out at the mall. We accordingly acted like locals and spent time at the mall.

Not only were the malls huge with fun arcades but they usually had a floor full of pampering stores. I got a facial and a couple of massages from the mall. The massages were quite well-priced (about $6USD for an hour) and the masseuses used A LOT of pressure. Mr. Selfish also got a haircut at the mall, which only cost about $4USD.

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Enjoying the Activities at El Nido Resorts – Part II

09 Saturday Feb 2013

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Editor’s Note: This is the final post in a three part series on El Nido. Check out our other posts:

During our third day at El Nido, we decided to visit Miniloc Island, which is another island belonging to El Nido Resorts. We were originally slated to stay on Miniloc Island but we were upgraded to Lagen Island. Both islands are beautiful.

At Miniloc, we watched the jack fish feeding. Dek particularly enjoyed it. We also relaxed on the hammocks, and Mike and Dek played some b-ball.

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The Problems with Eating Abroad

08 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Europe, Food & Drinks

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One of the problems with long term travel is you start to miss the familiar. It can be a comforting TV show, a radio station, an appliance (read: dryer), but for Mrs. Selfish and I it was more often than not food – American food.

Since we spent a lot of our days in apartments, this wasn’t a huge problem – we even brought along a knife, a cutting board, and a pack of spices just in case. Unfortunately, there were some things we couldn’t make. Whether we lacked the proper equipment, couldn’t track down the right ingredients (Southeast Asia has a shortage of Parmesan), or just couldn’t make it to begin with there were times where we had to track down restaurants to fill that need.

And most of the time, they were horrible.

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Enjoying the Activities at El Nido Resorts – Part I

07 Thursday Feb 2013

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Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a three part series on El Nido. Check out our other posts:

Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed the many activities at El Nido Resorts. During our first evening, we went on a sunset cruise. It was a bumpy ride on the boat, but Dek had a good time. Although it was a little cloudy that day, we still enjoyed the cruise.

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Luxuriating in Paradise: El Nido Resorts

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

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Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a three part series on El Nido. Check out our other posts:

While Mr. Selfish and I did a “Homeland Honeymoon,” in which we visited Halong Bay north of Hanoi, our friends went to El Nido Resorts on Palawan Island. Both places have beautiful limestone cliffs and emerald waters. During our trip to the Philippines, we decided to see how El Nido compared to Halong Bay.

We opted to stay on Lagen Island at El Nido Resorts, which is an all-inclusive luxury resort. Although the price was a bit steep, all of our food and activities were covered for the duration of our stay. El Nido Resorts is my favorite hotel of all time. It was absolutely stunning in every way.

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The All-Encompassing Bohol Countryside Tour

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Philippines

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Mr. Selfish and I took an epic countryside tour of Bohol with our friends. It was an all day affair, and I dare say that we hit up every major attraction in the area. First, we went to a tarsier sanctuary. Tarsiers are the smallest primate in the world. They have large eyes and are mostly nocturnal. They were quite cute and tiny.

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Hanging Out on the Islands of Cebu and Bohol

04 Monday Feb 2013

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After spending a day in Manila, we flew south to Cebu, which is a province in the Philippines consisting of approximately 168 islands. I was excited about Cebu since the lechon (roasted suckling pig) there is legendary. We opted for CnT Lechon, where they chop up the suckling pig in front of you behind plexi glass and you have to buy it by the kilo. It was savory, juicy, and delicious.

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Our First Day in the Philippines: Taal Volcano

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in Asia, Food & Drinks, Philippines

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Mr. Selfish and I spent nine lovely days in the Philippines with our friends and their adorable son. As I’ve noted previously, we are a little travel planning fatigued, so it was nice just to tag along with what they were doing. They were perfect planners, and we had a wonderful time in the Philippines.

During our first day in Manila, we went to Taal Volcano, which is about 30 miles from the city. It is an active volcano that is a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The last time it erupted was in 1977 but it has been showing signs of activity recently. We kept our distance and enjoyed the beautiful view from the People’s Park in the Sky. The park is on top of a little hill, and you could walk or take a jeepney, which is a means of public transportation made from left over US military jeeps that have been decorated. We opted to walk for the exercise.

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Learning to Cook Traditional Balinese Food in Ubud

02 Saturday Feb 2013

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For our last day in Ubud, we decided to take a cooking class. We signed up for Payuk Bali Cooking Class, which is probably the best cooking class I’ve ever taken.

First, they drove us to a rice field and explained to us when and how rice is harvested. My cousin asked if she could walk in the rice fields for the photo op. Our guide promptly told us that she could but that there may be water snakes in the fields. Of course, she walked in the rice fields and immediately came upon a water snake. Below is the action shot of her running from it. I love hanging out with my little cousin; she’s always good for a laugh.

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From Worst to First: Flying Lufthansa 1st Class

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Europe, Travel Hacking

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Mrs. Selfish and I purchased our business class the tickets for the European leg of our trip back in March 2012 for the very reasonable price of $128.27 + 100,000 miles each. The plan was to fly from Washington Dulles, to Vienna with a 6 week stop-over in England. For our return flight we were going to leave from Lisbon, returning to Dulles by way of Madrid.

Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

While in England last August I received an email from United that our Madrid flight to Dulles had been canceled. Their new routing ended up adding an extra layover through Newark and tacking on an extra 5 hours of travel time.

I immediately jumped on United.com to find a shorter alternative, and within 20 minutes found a better route via Frankfurt using United’s partner, Lutfhansa. Not only was the layover time a breezy 50 minutes, but we’d be able to try out Lufthansa’s new business class seats, which been receiving a lot of praise in the travel hacking scene.

Lufthansa’s sexy new business class!

I called United, and within half an hour the new tickets had been booked and seats had been confirmed via the helpful United rep. Mrs. Selfish and I were flying home on Lufthansa in style!

Or so I thought.

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The Beautiful Temples in Bali

31 Thursday Jan 2013

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I was originally pretty blasé about visiting Bali, but Mr. Selfish was quite persistent. He really wanted to visit Bali. Eventually, I started googling images of Bali. This was when I discovered all of the beautiful temples in Bali and was persuaded into including Bali in our itinerary.

Bali is known as the “island of the gods” due to the numerous temples all over the island. While we didn’t make it to the Mother Temple (I figured we could save it for the next trip), we did go to Tanah Lot Temple, which is the gorgeous temple set on the water. Tanah Lot actually means “Land in the Sea” and is one of the seven sea temples in Bali.

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