Andrew + Allison Around the World

We packed our bags and headed out of Hunter Valley to our final destination in Australia, which happened to also be the final stop on our trip – Sydney. We had spent the first couple of weeks in smaller towns, so we were looking forward to checking out a big city. My friend Amy is from Sydney, so she was able to give us some great recommendations for our time in the city, many of which we took advantage of.

As we entered the city, we got our first glimpse of the Harbour Bridge, which was stunning. As we drove on the bridge to enter the main part of the city, we felt excited to spend the last few days of our trip exploring this beautiful city. We had heard the weather was starting to get colder back home, so we also wanted to take advantage of the warm summer weather while we had the chance.

Before returning our rental car and officially finishing up our Australian road trip, we stopped to get some gas to fuel up the car. When we looked across the street, we noticed Harry’s Café de Wheels, which is one of the most famous places in Sydney to get authentic Aussie meat pies. We had planned to go there at some point during our time in Sydney, so it was just our luck that it happened to be right across the street from where we were. We had to take advantage of this coincidence, so we grabbed a couple of pies for lunch before dropping off the rental car. The cart was busy with people grabbing pies on their lunch breaks, and we noticed a bunch of celebrity pictures of people who have visited Harry’s in years past.

Bye Bye Toyota Corolla Hatchback – you’ve been great!

Since we were back in a big city, Uber was very prevalent, so fortunately we were able to easily order an Uber to take us over to our hotel. We were told by Amy, as well as our friends Shannon and Nick, that the hotel we were staying in was in a wonderful location, with a magnificent view of the Harbour Bridge and The Opera House – they weren’t kidding. The hotel, Park Hyatt Sydney, was absolutely beautiful and the views were incredible.

View of Harbour Bridge from our hotel room

Our hotel was very sweet and brought us complimentary champagne for us to celebrate our honeymoon with, as well as a beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers.

View of The Opera House and harbor from the hotel’s pool area

After relaxing by the hotel pool for a bit, we decided to head across town to try a restaurant called The Buffalo Dining Club. Shannon (my friend who lives in the Sunshine Coast) had told us about this restaurant, as well as their famous dish where they serve pasta out of a cheese wedge. Due to my love of all things cheese, I knew this was something I had to try. Unfortunately, we were a bit underwhelmed by the pasta dish. It was OK, but there wasn’t as much cheese as I’d hoped.

Andrew anticipating the cheese pasta

The server mixing the pasta on the cheese wedge

The final product!

After dinner we decided to check out The Roosevelt, which is known for its intricate cocktails.

The Roosevelt cocktails

We made our way back to the hotel, not before stopping for some pictures along the way with the beautiful Christmas. Obviously my decision, not Andrew’s.

Not Christmas decorations, but a beautiful fountain

 

On the way back to our hotel, we got a great glimpse of The Opera House at night.

When we arrived back to the room, we noticed that someone had delivered a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries, along with a note. It was a wonderful surprise from our friends Katie & Amy who had given us a gift certificate to the hotel’s restaurant, as well as the strawberries, as our wedding gift.

After a workout in the hotel gym the next morning, we headed up to an area known as The Rocks. Andrew had discovered that they have markets with numerous vendors on the weekends, and on Fridays they have about 10-15 food-specific vendors. We tried a few of the different food items and checked out a few of the non-food vendors as well, where we were able to pick up a few other souvenirs. We spoke with a young girl who had done numerous watercolor pieces, all of which were beautiful, and ended up buying one to put up in our future apartment.

Another beautiful view of The Opera House as we walked up to The Rocks area

 

The Rocks Markets

Delicious Turkish food – the line was around the corner, by far the longest of any of the vendors in the area

After the markets, we headed back to the hotel to get some more R&R by the beautiful pool.

Andrew had discovered another local brewery, so of course we had to go check it out. It was called Lord Nelson Brewery and it was packed with local Aussies who were enjoying happy hour after a hard week at work. Andrew’s a big beer fan and always likes finding the local breweries in new places, so it has been fun to check out a number of breweries along this trip.

We then made our way to Opera Bar, another recommendation from my friend Amy. It was packed! It reminded us of a few of the bars in LA, as it was extremely busy, but had some great views of the harbor.

 

We made our way up to check out The Opera House, which was a bit anti-climactic since we couldn’t go in. We didn’t have tickets to the show that night, so we just managed to get some more pictures of the popular sites instead, The Harbour Bridge and The Opera House.

Fortunately, we were able to witness a beautiful sunset.

We headed back to our hotel, as we had made reservations at the hotel’s restaurant after finding out Katie & Amy got us the gift certificate.

View of our hotel in front of the Harbour Bridge

 

 

We enjoyed a delicious dinner with a beautiful view at the hotel restaurant, The Dining Room.

 

View of the harbor from the restaurant

 

 

The next morning we went back to The Rocks area and grabbed breakfast at one of the café’s before taking a ferry out to one of the popular beaches in the Sydney area, Manly Beach.

Of course Andrew had found a local brewery in Manly Beach, 4 Pines, so we stopped there for a few tasters before grabbing some sushi, which we had been craving for a few days. I had never experienced sushi at a “sushi train” restaurant, so I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and had to remember that my eyes were bigger than my stomach in some instances.

We made our way to check out Manly Beach, which was beautiful and a bit empty due to the colder weather. Well, when I say cold, I mean about 71 degrees, so a bit cold to be in a swim suit, but other than that, a beautiful day.

 

 

We checked out another market area in Manly Beach before making our way back to the city. We took the faster ferry on the way back and got a great view of the sailboats out on the harbor.

 

We decided to have our own bar crawl that afternoon, so decided to head over to a rooftop bar called The Glenmore, before checking out another lounge bar called The Argyle, as well as a Bavarian beer house. It was a fun afternoon exploring the Sydney bar scene.

The Glenmore Rooftop Bar

It was a long day and we were pretty exhausted from our bar crawl, as well as being out in the sun all day, so decided to have dinner in the casual lounge area within our hotel. When we came back to our room after dinner, there was another delivery. This time someone had delivered champagne, as well as a cheese plate. Andrew let me know he had done this as a surprise for me on the 2^nd to last night of our trip. It was a very sweet gesture from my new husband.

 

We woke up the next morning a bit sad that it was the last full day of our trip, but excited at the prospect of going home soon to see family and friends, and of course our dog Charley. We spent a majority of the day in Bondi Beach, which is another popular beach town within Sydney. We had breakfast at a place called Bills (another delicious recommendation from Amy), and then headed out to the beach.

Bondi Beach

 

 

After the beach we headed over to the Sunday markets, which were larger than the other ones we had attended in Sydney. There were a number of vendors selling all sorts of things from candles to towels to art pieces.

Bondi Markets

We left Bondi Beach and grabbed some lunch at an Irish pub in the main city center of Sydney. After lunch we made our way to this chocolate place we were referred to called Max Brenner. Megan (the girl we had met in Thailand) referred this place to us and let us know it was something we had to check out while we were in Sydney. We decided to splurge on our last day in Sydney and got the Chocolate Banana Pizza. It was delicious but unfortunately we couldn’t finish it.

 

On our way back to the hotel we passed a Santa art piece made completely out of crates – pretty cool!

Happy Crate-Mas

We ended up ordering room service for dinner to enjoy as we packed up to get ready to leave the next morning. We grabbed an Uber the next morning and made our way to Sydney International Airport, where we boarded the 13 hour flight home. Fortunately, we ended up in a row of 3 and there was no one in the middle of us, so it was nice to have the extra leg room. (And room to lay down for me)

Excited to go home AND excited that no one is between us

I can’t believe how quickly the past 3.5 months have gone. There are so many incredible places to see in the world, and we feel fortunate that we were able to get a glimpse of a few of those places. Many people have asked us which place was our favorite, or where would we recommend to go, but honestly we can’t choose one favorite. While I must admit I’m partial to Santorini since I fell in love with the island, every place we went to had so much character, whether it was the history, the beaches, or something else. There isn’t one thing I would change about our trip in regards to the places we went. While we have thoroughly enjoyed our trip and seeing more than we ever thought possible, we are excited to get home and start the next chapter of our life. We truly want to thank everyone that has supported us through this adventure, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our updates as we made our way through Western Europe, Asia and Australia.

One last thing! In addition to comments about Andrew’s long hair, a few people made comments throughout the past few months that at times this blog was more like a food blog, rather than a travel blog. Therefore, we thought it would be appropriate to rank our top 5 favorite restaurants from our 3.5 months abroad:

Top 5 Favorite Restaurants

• Vine E Vecchi (Italian) – Florence, Italy
• Broodje Bert (Sandwich Place) – Amsterdam, Netherlands
• IL Buco (Italian) – Byron Bay, Australia
• Bodega de la Ardosa – Madrid, Spain (Order the Tortilla Espanola)
• Da Dong – Beijing, China (Order the Peking Duck)

If you end up traveling to any of the places above, you must check out those places!

Good-bye for now, thanks for reading and sharing in our journey with us!

Being that this is our second to last entry, I thought it would be good to give Allie a break and give all my fans a bon voyage!

We said our goodbyes to Shannon and Nick at the airport in the Sunshine Coast and picked up our badass Toyota Corolla hatchback. Out of all the cars we have rented, this actually turned out to be my favorite. Silently, and often, reminding myself to stay on the left side of the road, we made the 3 hour drive to Byron Bay. Over the next 4 days, we would be making our way down to Sydney stopping at Byron Bay and Hunter Valley.

On our way down to Byron we stopped in the Gold Coast in the Burleigh Heads area for a quick view of the scenery. Another beautiful beach town.

We pulled into Byron Bay and immediately fell in love. Our hostel was a 1 minute walk to the beach and a 15 minute walk to the town.

The town is primarily a backpacker’s destination and has a very hippie vibe. It was pretty much dinner time when we checked in, so we unloaded our bags and made our way into town for dinner. Allie had found a great Italian restaurant for dinner called iL Buco. The entire staff was from the Tuscan region in Italy, and all of the food reminded of us of our 3 weeks in Italy. It was such a nice surprise given that we had not found authentic Italian food since we had left Italy.

The next morning we woke up and cooked breakfast in our hostel before making the long trek out to the beach. The wind had picked up so we were not able to lay on the actual sand, but instead hung out on the grass area leading to the beach. We spent the next few hours reading and relaxing.

We ate lunch then headed over to the local brewery, Stone & Wood. We had been on a number of tours already, so we opted for a sampler of all the beers.

We headed back to the hostel then caught the free shuttle into town. After walking around for a bit, we found a local bar and had a drink before dinner. Byron Bay has a lot of local food and drink spots and it was nice to hang out without much of a schedule. We had dinner at a local restaurant that specialized in seafood called The Balcony. The prawns were amazing and the service was great.

We caught the free shuttle back to the hostel just before the thunderstorm started. We had witnessed a number of thunderstorms in Australia already, but this was by far the largest and most severe. The storm started at 10PM, and went through the next morning until 8AM. Every 30 seconds or so, we could hear the “crack” of lightning outside and all the windows would shake.

We woke up early and made breakfast before heading out for our longest drive of the trip, about 8 hours from Byron to Hunter Valley. Allie and I split the drive up, which helped break up the time. The drive was beautiful and we got to rock out to Allie’s never ending 90’s playlist. I think I n0w know every Shania Twain song by heart… The Hunter Valley is a small wine destination, producing about 3% of Australia’s grapes. We enjoy wine, so we figured we might enjoy Hunter Valley.

We pulled up to our hotel and checked in. After working out, by decree of Allie, we had a quick bite to eat before heading to bed. We had an early morning wine tour booked, so we wanted to be rested.

The next morning we got picked up by Two Fat Blokes Gourmet Tours. The name of our wine tour company seemed very fitting. There were about 10 other people on the tour. We were the only 1/2 day tour as the remaining people had booked full day tours. The 1/2 day was plenty for us as it included 3 wineries and a cheese pairing. The first winery was a small family owned place called Mistletoe Winery. It was nice to be served by the owners daughter and to hear of the different family stories that led to the opening of the winery. Interestingly, the winery had moved to all screw top bottles, as they had a crop of cork that ruined their best vintage wine a few years back.

The second winery including a meat and cheese pairing, which Allie was extremely excited about. We paired 9 wines with 9 different cheeses. Our favorite was the Tempranillo wine and a Manchego cheese, so of course we had to buy one of each before leaving.

The third winery had the best view of the Hunter Valley.

We couldn’t imagine visiting another 2 wineries and brewery, so were happy to head home after the 3rd stop. Also, because of the climate in the valley, the wineries often have to pick their grapes early. This practice leads to some great white wines, but they are not able to successfully grow the grapes needed for the big bold red wines that Allie and I enjoy. As such, we did not find the tour as enjoyable. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the hotel and handling some administrative/logistical tasks for our trip home.

The next morning we woke up early, hit the gym, and got ready to make our way down to Sydney for the last part of our trip!

I am sure Allison will share her thoughts about the trip at the end of her last post, and I want to do the same here. We have had an amazing time and have experienced a lot of unique things. I have a lot of wonderful memories as a result of this trip and feel extremely fortunate that we were able to do this for ourselves. As we near the end, I am torn. I am sad that the trip is ending, but happy to return home and see friends and family. Obviously, I am super excited to see Charley. If you ever have the opportunity to take the risk and travel, I highly advise that you do. I have learned a lot about myself, my wife and the world. Thank you to everyone that helped make this possible and thank you to all of you that have read along with our journey. See you soon!

After a few days exploring northern Queensland, we were looking forward to our next stop in Australia – the Sunshine Coast, which is in southern Queensland. One of my closest friends from high school, Shannon, currently lives in the Sunshine Coast with her fiancé Nick, who is from New Zealand. She moved to Australia about 5 years ago, so we had planned to stay with them for a week. I was looking forward to getting an insight into her current life in Australia.

We took the 2-hour flight from Cairns back down to Brisbane, where Shannon and Nick picked us up. After exchanging excited “hello’s”, we made our way to lunch at a place near Shannon’s old house in Brisbane. We had arrived in Brisbane around noon, so Shannon had decided we would spend the day exploring Brisbane, and then head up to their house in the Sunshine Coast that evening, which is about an hour north of Brisbane.

After lunch they took us to an amazing lookout point in Brisbane called Mt. Coo-tha. We could see the entire city of Brisbane from the top of the hill and were able to capture some great pictures.

Mt. Coo-tha Lookout Point

Next, Shannon and Nick took us to South Bank, which is an area on the southern bank of the Brisbane River that has an outdoor pool area, shops, restaurants, and grassy areas to relax and listen to live music. It was a pretty incredible area and Andrew and I thought it was great that something like this was completely free to the public. We figured something like the large pool area, where a ton of families and young adults were gathered, would cost at least $10-15/per person in LA.

Hanging out on the grass listening to some live music

Another thing that was free to the public was the ferry on the river, which took you to different parts of the city. After grabbing a few drinks at one of the breweries in South Bank, we hopped on the ferry to a Bavarian brewery down the river.

Shannon & Nick 

View of Brisbane from the river

 We grabbed dinner at a Turkish restaurant back in the South Bank area before heading up to their home in the Sunshine Coast.

When we woke up the next morning, we quickly realized how different life in the Sunshine Coast was, compared to life in Brisbane. Brisbane is a big city, so you definitely get that “big city vibe” in the area. However, the Sunshine Coast is much more laid back and the epitome of a “beach town.” Shannon and Nick’s house is about a 10-15 minute walk to the beach, so we spent a few hours at the beach, playing Frisbee and enjoying the amazing weather. One very unique thing we noticed was that the sand squeaked when you walked on it because it was so fine – very cool! The ocean water was also much warmer (and bluer) than what we’re used to back home, which was nice. However, the warmer water also brings in many more jellyfish, which wasn’t so nice. A recent change in the tide had brought in more jellyfish than usual, so we had to keep a lookout while in the water, but overall it was a beautiful day at the beach.

Shannon and I took a short bike ride to Currimundi Lake from her house that afternoon to have our own little happy hour as the sun was setting, and we got a great view of the beautiful lake area.

Currimundi Lake

Since Andrew and I never got to celebrate Thanksgiving, we had all decided we would have a ‘pseudo-Thanksgiving’ dinner that night. Instead of turkey, the boys cooked chicken over the rotisserie, while Shannon made some mashed potatoes and salad, and I baked a French Apple pie for dessert. Their Australian neighbor Tim came over to join us and we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal.

We woke up extremely early the next morning, around 4:15AM, since we were heading out to Double Island Point on Noosa North Shore to go camping on the beach. Part of the trip requires you to drive on the sand, so we had to leave before 5 in order to get on the beach before high tide. Since the sun rises around 4:45AM in the Sunshine Coast, it was already light out by the time we left, which felt very weird since it was still so early. We did get to see a beautiful 4:45AM sunrise.

Getting to the spot on the beach where we were going to set up camp was definitely an experience. We drove for about an hour before we had to take the car onto a ferry to cross the river. We soon arrived to the beach, where we drove about 45 minutes on the sand to get to a good area to camp on the beach. It was a pretty bumpy ride since the tide was already fairly high and we had to drive on the dry sand.

We found a great area to set up camp, which had a pretty spectacular view.

View of the ocean from our campsite

Our campsite

Nick cooking us a delicious breakfast

After breakfast we all took a nap, as we were exhausted from waking up so early. Once we all got some much needed rest, we headed over to a place called Rainbow Beach, which was a secluded beach about 15 minutes from where we were camping. It was absolutely stunning. The water was extremely blue and there were different pockets of water that had formed during different tide changes.

Shannon and Nick have always enjoyed surfing in this area, so they took their boards out to go catch some waves, along with a few other locals.

Nick catching a wave

Shannon’s turn!

Andrew had spent some time surfing in college, so he headed out to catch some waves. I only managed to get a picture of him waiting for the perfect wave to come in.

I have only tried surfing once, and it was years ago, but Shannon offered to teach me the ropes, so I got out there and attempted to surf. After many failed attempts, I finally was able to stand up for a second or two, so overall felt it was a successful experience. Definitely a lot of fun though!

We enjoyed a delicious meat and cheese platter later that afternoon while Nick spent some more time surfing. It was so relaxing out on the beach that day and we felt like we were in paradise.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing around the campsite, playing some fun games of Rummy Club, and witnessing the most amazing starry night we have ever seen. Since there are absolutely no lights around to obstruct your view of the stars, the view of the sky is incredible.

We were able to head back out to Rainbow Beach the next morning for a couple of hours to get some more beach time and surfing in before packing up and heading out. I even managed to get stung by a jellyfish on my 2nd day out surfing, which didn’t feel the best, but fortunately wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. On our way back to their house, we checked out the town of Noosa, which is an affluent beach community.

So many crabs at Rainbow Beach!

 Goodbye Rainbow Beach – you were amazing!

Grabbing a drink in the town of Noosa

Back in the Sunshine Coast, Shannon, Andrew and I took a bike ride the next morning out to another beach near their home called Moffat’s Beach. It was another beautiful day in the Sunshine Coast.

Shannon & I at Moffat’s Beach

After we got back from our bike ride, we decided to head out to hike a mountain area known as Mt. Tibrogargan. We hiked for about 15 minutes before we started to see signs that mentioned needing to be an experienced climber before continuing on. We didn’t think much of it and decided to continue on with the hike, however, the rock climbing started to get really tough so we felt it was best to head back.

Mt. Tibrogargan Hike

We made it up the rocks in the picture below before realizing we weren’t confident in going any further. (Well, Shannon and I weren’t confident…the boys would have kept going if it was up to them, but with a storm coming in, we figured it was best to head back)

Since our hike was cut a bit shorter than expected, we headed over to this cute country town in the Sunshine Coast called Maleny, where we experienced a few Aussie firsts. We tried a couple of the famous Aussie pies, which are different from our “pies” back home. The Aussie pies are savory in taste and usually consist of some type of meat – we thoroughly enjoyed them. While we were enjoying our pies, we also had our first Queensland thunderstorm experience! Thunderstorms are very common in Australia in the summer, and out of nowhere it started to downpour and even hail. We never get thunderstorms in LA, so we enjoyed the amazing streaks of lightening we were able to witness! Most thunderstorms tend to occur in the afternoons in Australia, so it can be a beautiful day at the beach and then around 4pm or so, a thunderstorm can roll in and completely downpour.

Town of Maleny

When we got back to the house, Andrew helped Nick make some delicious venison burgers for dinner that night, before enjoying a few fun hours of karaoke in their living room.

Thunderstorm rolling in back at their house!

Shannon and Nick had taken the time off of work to hang out with us Monday through Thursday, but Shannon had to work on Friday, so Andrew and I decided to check out the Australia Zoo, which is the zoo that Steve Irwin spent so much time developing. We really enjoyed the time we had spent at the Wildlife Habitat up in Port Douglas, so we wanted to spend some time checking out a few more Australian animals. While the Wildlife Habitat was great, this zoo was on another level! The Australia Zoo is spread out over 100 acres, but there are over 650 more acres that the zoo utilizes for the animals, so it is HUGE.

Koala Bears

Checked out the Wildlife Warriors Show with snakes, birds and crocodiles!

Crocoseum – where the show took place

Murray the Crocodile – Star of the show!

After watching the wildlife show, we headed over to see some Eastern Tail Kangaroos, which we were able to pet and feed. They were bigger than the wallabies we had fed at the Wildlife Habitat and they were so cute!

Kangaroos Lounging

Selfie with the Kangaroo!

Tigers, Camels, and Lemurs 

Checking out Bindi’s Island (As a reminder to those that may not know, Bindi is Steve Irwin’s daughter)

Headed over to the AFRICA area, where we saw giraffes, zebras, and rhinos

Red Panda

Dingoes

Sea Otters

We met up with Nick after the Zoo and went go-kart racing at a nearby track. I had never been, so I was a bit “slow” on the track, and the boys seemed to lap me at least 2 times. I thought the whole experience was fun, yet a bit scary, but the boys definitely seemed to love it.

Andrew and I had wanted to make dinner for Shannon and Nick one night, so we cooked some ribs (which Andrew had brined the night before and slow-cooked for 3 hours), as well as some au gratin potatoes and salad. Andrew’s ribs were a hit, as usual, and everyone seemed to enjoy the sides. Massive food comas resulted from this delicious dinner.

Since Shannon and Nick both had some work to do the next day, Andrew and I spent some time at the beach before heading down to the Esplanade near Shannon’s work for a water-front lunch at Drift. Shannon came and met up with us after work and we spent some time exploring the Caloundra area.

Shannon and Nick had a couple of their friends come over that night and we all enjoyed a nice BBQ of pork roast and chicken, as well as some delicious sides Shannon cooked up. It was nice to meet a few of their Australian friends. We spent the evening witnessing some more amazing lightening from an incoming thunderstorm, as well as partaking in some more karaoke at the house. It’s pretty crazy how you can literally see the thunderstorms “rolling in.”

Unfortunately, the week with Shannon and Nick had come to an end. As we packed our bags the next morning, Shannon let us know that she had one more surprise for us before we left. On our way to the car rental location, we stopped in the town of Mooloolaba. The town sits on the water and is known for their fresh seafood. We sat down for lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed fresh caught King Prawns while overlooking the water. Andrew and I had never eaten prawns this way and were fortunate that Nick showed us how to remove the shell. Each prawn had more meat than any other type of prawn or shrimp we have tasted back home. The experience was truly amazing!

We left lunch and headed for the airport to pick up our rental car. After spending the last week with some of our closest friends, it was hard to say goodbye. However, we enjoyed our time on the Sunshine Coast and had such a great time getting an inside look at their life in Australia. On to the next part of our Australian adventure!

As we left Thailand, we prepared ourselves for the next 24 hours of traveling to get to the first stop on our final country, Australia. The flight from Bangkok to Brisbane, Australia was about 9 hours. It was a red-eye flight, so Andrew and I were able to get a bit of sleep, but we all know “airplane sleep” isn’t the most substantial. Our first stop in Australia was actually in Northern Queensland, Cairns, so once we arrived in Brisbane we had to transfer to the domestic terminal and we had a 4 hour layover until our flight to Cairns. The flight to Cairns was 2 hours. Upon arrival, we got our rental car and had to drive about an hour north to Port Douglas, the first city on our stop. This drive gave Andrew his first experience at driving on the left hand side of the road. The road to Port Douglas was extremely windy and it was nighttime, but he managed to get us to Port Douglas with ease. Needless to say, we were completely exhausted once we arrived, so we grabbed a quick dinner at one of the only places that was still open at 9pm, Salsa Bar & Grill. We learned that because Port Douglas is a community where most attractions occur during the day, all stores close in the early evening and most restaurants are closed by 9 or 10pm. However, it is a very cute beach community and we learned that most Australians go here on holiday. We had decided to stay here for our first 2 nights in Northern Queensland, and then head down to Cairns for our final 2 nights.

We hadn’t made any plans in advance of arriving to Port Douglas, so we did a bit of research and found that the Daintree Rainforest is a popular site to see, especially if you have a car. The hostel we stayed at provided us with a great map of the drive up to the rainforest and Cape Tribulation, which is where the rainforest meets the ocean. The map highlighted the recommended stops along the drive, including lookout points, hikes, and restaurants that you can stop at along your drive. We were also told this was an all-day excursion, so we headed out around 9AM and set out for the 2 hour drive up to Cape Tribulation (the farthest you can drive without 4WD). We figured we would drive straight up to Cape Tribulation and then stop at a few of the different points along the way back. The first hour was like any other highway, but then we arrived to the ferry crossing where we had to drive our car onto a ferry to cross the water into the official Daintree National Park. It was pretty cool.

As we started our drive into the forest, we were amazed at all of the beautiful greenery.

We finally made it up to Cape Tribulation and it was beautiful. We stopped at the Kulki lookout point, where we saw the literal meaning of the water meeting the rainforest.

We also saw many of these signs along the beach – no going in the water here! Crocodiles!

We stopped at a place called Whet Bar & Grill for lunch, which was delicious and had an outdoor deck dining area that was situated right within the rainforest setting.

Whet Bar & Grill

As we made our way back down through the rainforest, we stopped at one of the boardwalks, which is a walking path you can take through the rainforest. The first one we stopped at was called Dubuji Boardwalk.

Dubuji Boardwalk

We then made our way to Mason’s Swimming Hole, a local swimming area. Since it wasn’t safe to go in the ocean due to the crocodiles, Andrew figured the swimming hole would be a nice place to jump in for a quick cool down in the humid weather. However, he changed his mind after seeing how shallow the water was.

Along our way up we had seen a sign for a crocodile tour, so we decided to take this tour, officially known as Cape Tribulation Wilderness Cruise. The tour was on a small boat, and went along a creek called Cooper Creek. The skipper was this nice older man who provided interesting information about crocodiles and the mangroves placed along the creek. Unfortunately we didn’t see any crocodiles during our hour tour. The skipper had told us that due to the hot weather, it’s sometimes very difficult to locate the crocodiles as they’re staying in cool resting places. We were pretty bummed at no crocodile sighting.

We saw on the map that there were 2 ice cream shops located along the drive through the rainforest, and rather than pick one to go to, we decided to share 1 ice cream at each. Our first stop was Daintree Ice Cream Company, where the flavors change every day and are based on what tropical fruits are available in their orchard. Each serving of ice cream contains 4 unique flavors, and each customer is given the same assortment. Andrew liked this ice cream, I didn’t love it too much.

In the picture below you can see the flavors we had. I didn’t recognize any of the fruits besides the coconut.

After leaving this ice cream shop, we headed to the other one, called Floravilla, which prides itself on being supernatural, biodynamic, and organic ice cream. Unlike the other ice cream shop, this place had numerous flavors, most of which were fruit-based flavors. We decided to try their newest flavor, which they appropriately named Daintree Rainforest. Our server at lunch had recommended this flavor, however, we were a bit apprehensive when we saw the ingredients. Luckily, it was delicious! It was probably the most unique ice cream I’ve ever tried.

After filling ourselves with ice cream, we headed to another one of the boardwalks called Jindalba. This walk was a bit longer and we saw some pretty interesting creatures and more beautiful greenery.

Jindalba Boardwalk

Our last stop before heading back to Port Douglas was the Mount Alexandra lookout, which provided a great view of the water and a couple of the islands.

It was Thursday evening, so technically Thanksgiving for us, so we decided to be true Americans and go to a brewery for dinner. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any restaurants serving an American thanksgiving dinner, or even turkey. Along the path to dinner, we saw a beautiful sunset.

We also saw one of the craziest things. We looked up and saw hundreds of birds fleeing the trees, and we noticed it was because the bats were chasing them out. As it hit nighttime, it looked like the bats were taking over and kicking all of the birds out of the trees. We don’t see bats in California, so this was a pretty incredible thing for us to witness.

All of the larger black birds in the picture below are bats!

We enjoyed a delicious pizza, salad, and popcorn chicken for our “Thanksgiving meal” at Hemingway Brewery. We walked through town a bit, but as everything was shutting down for the evening, we made our way back to pack before we headed out in the morning.

We had breakfast at one of the cute little cafes in Port Douglas before starting our drive out of town. However, we had planned to see one last site in Port Douglas before heading down to Cairns – The Wildlife Habitat.

As we entered, we were greeted by this (extremely loud) parrot.

As we paid the entrance fees, the lady mentioned a few of the day’s events that were set to occur. We were just in time for the Koala Presentation with Photos, so we made our way over to that exhibit before checking out more of the animals. Once the presentation began, the guide introduced us to Samson, a koala who lived at the Wildlife Habitat. She informed us that koalas are only found in the following 3 areas of Australia: Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales. They sleep 18-20 hours a day (rough life!) and the remaining 4-6 are usually spent eating and filling their bodies so they’re filled with nutrients as they sleep. After her brief introduction came the fun part – I got to hold the koala! Apparently Queensland is the only place in the entire world where you can legally hold a koala. We also learned that koalas can only work 30 minutes a day, and since they did this koala presentation 6 times a day, it left 5 minutes for him to “work” during the time we saw him. They let us know that the reason they allow for people to hold koalas is with the hope that more people form emotional connections with these animals. They feel that if people form emotional connections with these animals, and get to know them, these people can help fight for these koalas and their homes when people want to come in and destroy the forests to build properties and whatnot.

Samson the Koala

After the koala presentation we made our way to the kangaroo exhibit where both Andrew and I got to feed the little wallabies. They would come up to us and take the food right out of our hands. Unfortunately there were a number of annoying birds around that kept trying to take the food, so we had to try and avoid the birds. At one point Andrew spent 20 minutes trying to coax one of the baby wallabies to come over to him so he could feed him since the wallaby was frightened by the birds.

Northern Nail-Tail Wallaby

We also saw a number of other animals, including all sorts of birds and we finally saw our crocodiles!

Sleeping Wallabies

An adult cassowary – very dangerous!

The 2 storks in the picture below just had babies, so you can see the nest where they held them.

Crocodiles!

We said our good-byes to the animals and grabbed a quick lunch back in Port Douglas before heading down to Cairns. We had driven up to Cairns in the evening, so we missed the view on the way up, but fortunately we were able to capture it on the way down. It was a spectacular view of the ocean and reminded us a lot of PCH back home.

Once we arrived in Cairns, we returned our rental car and took a short taxi ride over to our hotel. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so we grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel to get to sleep early. We had our snorkeling trip out to the Great Barrier Reef the next day and this was the main reason we had come up to Cairns, so I wanted to feel better for it.

Fortunately I felt better in the morning so we headed out to the marina to meet our group for our snorkeling day trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. We had done some research and had booked our day trip out to the reef with Seastar Cruises, which was the #1 company on Trip Advisor in Cairns for snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

Our boat

Although the main thing to do is snorkeling, the company offers introductory dives if you’re interested in learning how to scuba dive. Andrew and I really wanted to try it, however, we were both getting over being a bit sick from a cold. Unfortunately if you have any signs of congestion you cannot scuba dive due to the dangerous effects it could have on your eardrums and the pressure under water.

We made our way onto the boat, excited for our day ahead. We were told we would be going to 2 locations – Michaelman’s Cay and Hastings Reef, while lunch would be served in between each location. The crew was extremely welcoming and made everyone feel very comfortable throughout the entire day, especially for those a bit nervous in the water.

Nice and shiny from the sunscreen

The ride out to our first snorkeling location was about an hour and 20 minutes. They let us hang out in the front of the boat, which was nice and relaxing. We had lucked out with beautiful weather.

Before we headed out to the water, we were told we had to wear stinger suits to protect ourselves from the sun, as well as potential jellyfish that could exist in the water during these warmer months. As a reminder, Australia is going into their summer season, so the weather every day was in the 70s and 80s.

We were fully covered, including feet, hands, and heads in our suits!

They provided a guided tour for the first 30 minutes of our snorkeling time where one of the crew members took us around different parts of the reef and pointed out various fish and coral. Fortunately, we got to see a sea turtle, grey reef sharks, huge clams, and numerous fish! The coral was absolutely beautiful and no other snorkeling we’ve done in the past even comes close to what we were able to see. It was so colorful down in the water and it was truly an incredible experience.

After lunch, we headed over to the 2^nd part of the reef we were going to explore – Hastings Reef. We went on another guided tour for the first 30 minutes and then spent some time exploring on our own. We got to see another sea turtle, which was awesome. We were told that sea turtles can stay underwater for up to 45 minutes and we were actually able to witness the sea turtle go up for air while we were watching him, which was pretty cool to see.

Below are some great pictures the crew was able to catch throughout the day on their waterproof camera

After each guided tour we were able to explore on our own for a while, which gave Andrew and I plenty of time to look around on our own and find some cool fish!

Here are some shots we were able to capture on our GoPro

After snorkeling they provided a tour on a glass bottom boat, where they took us around on a smaller boat to a different part of the reef and pointed out a few other different things underwater. It was a nice added perk. The picture below isn’t the best, but it gives you an idea of how we were able to see through the bottom of the boat. It was definitely a lot clearer in person.

Overall it was a wonderful day snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and we highly recommend anyone to use this company if they plan to head out to Cairns and go snorkeling.

We were pretty exhausted from being out on the water the majority of the day, so we relaxed a bit in our room before grabbing dinner at one of the local bars nearby. We made our way back to our hotel and since there was a casino located inside our hotel, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play some roulette – I know you would be proud Grandma. 🙂 After getting some good gambling time in, we made our way back to the room to pack up for our flight back down to Brisbane the next morning!

After Beijing, we spent the next 8 days exploring a few of the islands in Thailand. We spent 5 nights in Koh Lanta, one of the less touristy islands on the west side, as well as 3 nights in Ao Nang Beach, which is right outside the main city of Krabi. Much of our time in both areas was spent either at the beach or eating some version of pad thai. We were really looking forward to our time in Thailand, and I’m not going to lie, it isn’t a bad thing when your biggest stress at the time is “what beach should we go to today?”.

KOH LANTA

We had to wake up at 3:45AM to leave Beijing and make it to the airport on time for our flight that morning to Thailand. Luckily we made it through check-in pretty easily, so we grabbed a quick breakfast before boarding the 5 hour flight to Bangkok. However, our final destination was Koh Lanta. So after a 2 hour layover, we hopped on another flight, this one only 1 hour, to Krabi. From Krabi it was a 2 hour drive to our hotel in Koh Lanta, but the exhaustion seem to disappear for a bit as we approached the island and witnessed all of the greenery and beauty. Since Koh Lanta is an island, the car we were in boarded a ferry to travel across the water and get to the island.

On the ferry

Upon arriving to our hotel, Chaw Ka Cher, we received some delicious beverages and appreciated the stylish decor in the reception area before checking into our room.

Welcome Beverage at Chaw Ka Cher & View of Swimming Pool from our room

Reception Area

After checking in, we ended up grabbing dinner at the hotel restaurant and then took a short walk down to one of the beaches nearby. Both Andrew and I knew we had made the right decision on coming to Thailand as it already felt very remote and relaxing. We enjoyed a couple of drinks on the beach as we watched a distant thunderstorm light up the night’s sky, which was already pretty bright with the full moon. Needless to say it was an extremely long travel day and the exhaustion caught up with us by this time, so we were looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

When we woke up we decided it would be a good idea to go for a run – however we immediately regretted our decision, as we didn’t take into consideration the humidity and the heat that already existed at 8 in the morning. It was a brutal run – we were both struggling. After we finally made it back to our hotel, we grabbed breakfast at the hotel before heading out to explore one of the nearby beaches. However, this was not before my daily morning ritual in Thailand, which consisted of putting bug spray over my entire body, and then sunscreen on top of that. Most people know that I’m extremely susceptible to mosquito bites, so I didn’t want to take any chances. Fortunately I only ended up getting about 4 bites during our entire time in Thailand!

There are 2 main beaches in Koh Lanta – Long Beach and Khlong Khong Beach. However, there are also numerous private beaches along the island, so we decided to check out one of these. We stumbled upon this beach that was a short 5-10 minute walk from our hotel and it was absolutely beautiful. The best part about it was that there were hardly any people there, so we basically had the entire beach to ourselves. The water was so blue, the sand was soft, and it made for a very relaxing beach day. In regards to the weather, we didn’t really know what to expect since the forecast showed thunderstorms and about 88 degrees every single day. However, we were lucky and had beautiful, sunny weather for a majority of the time we were there and only experienced a bit of rain.

The deserted path as we walked down to the private beach

After some prime beach time, we headed back to the hotel and rented a scooter. It seemed that this was one of the main ways to get around the island, as we witnessed both locals and tourists maneuvering around the island on scooters. The other major way to get around was on these vehicles known as “tuk tuks”, which we took plenty of. Not the safest vehicles, but a common way to get around on the islands.

Tuk Tuk

We decided to take the scooter down to Long Beach, one of the main beaches in Koh Lanta, and grab some lunch. One of the main things to note about food in Thailand, at least in the islands, is that when you sit down for your meal, you need to ask yourself if you’re in the mood for Thai food or Western food. Western food included things like club sandwiches, pasta, pizza, etc… Almost every single restaurant we ate at had menus with numerous items on the menu, as well as pictures showcasing what each item was. It’s interesting because in Europe we were told to not eat at any restaurant where the menu had a “long list of items”, as well as pictures on the menus, because those were considered tourist traps. However in Asia, multiple items and pictures on the menu seemed to be a normality in both China and Thailand. We opted for Thai food, as we felt inclined to eat as the locals do on our first full day in Thailand.

Another thing you see EVERYWHERE in Thailand is massage places, especially right on the beaches. They’re extremely cheap, compared to back home (around $10 for a 1 hour massage), so I was looking forward to taking advantage of this at some point.

View from our lunch restaurant

Long Beach

Andrew & I on the scooter

After a relaxing day spent at 2 different beaches, we decided to check out Saladan, the northern part of the island. Saladan had numerous restaurants, massage places, and night markets with a variety of items. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, but it had OK Thai food. The real treat was the magnificent view we had of the full moon from the restaurant’s pier. It was beautiful and lit up the water. After dinner we checked out a few of the markets, where I worked on my negotiation skills. We had been told that you should try negotiating for anything you want to buy in Thailand and never consider the first price they give you the “final price”.

After checking out one of the local gyms the next morning, we went to explore the other main beach in Koh Lanta, Khlong Khong. The beach was OK – it was extremely rocky, so it was hard to find a good place to lay out. Although still beautiful, Andrew and I both agreed that we preferred Long Beach better. We enjoyed another beachfront lunch and then decided to take the scooter for a ride around the southern part of the island. We got lost as we tried to find a beach Andrew had found earlier on his map, but it was a good thing as we stumbled across some of the beauty of the island we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. There was so much greenery everywhere and magnificent views of the water from some of the higher elevations.

Khlong Khong Beach

Riding along on the scooter

After going back to the hotel and booking a few other items for the latter part of this trip, we decided we were in the mood for something other than Thai food. We decided to check out this Irish pub called The Irish Embassy for dinner before hitting up a few of the local bars. We checked out a place called The Funky Monkey, where I tried convincing Andrew to get up on the stage and partake in the karaoke, but unfortunately he didn’t want to unleash his beautiful voice on the people of Koh Lanta.  We ended the night at a bar on the beach where we enjoyed another beautiful night.

We went to a place called Lym’s Bar & Restaurant the next day for lunch and we both agreed it was the best Thai food we had thus far. The pad thai was delicious, and we had a yellow crab curry dish, which was full of flavor.

View from Lym’s Bar & Restaurant

After lunch we headed back to our hotel to get ready for a cooking class we had booked! After some online research, we had found a cooking class with a company called Time For Lime. One of the main reasons we went with this company was that a major portion of the cooking class fee goes to support Lanta Animal Welfare, which gives vital help both to stray and owned animals on the island, so we figured it was a win win for both us and the animals. The beachfront cooking class lasted about 6 hours, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this interactive class. The Thai cooking teacher, Mai, was hilarious and spent the first hour teaching us the basics of Thai cuisine, including the different sauces and spices considered “staples” in Thai dishes.

Our cooking stations

Pre-cooking snack including a few of the main ingredients seen in many Thai dishes

Our teacher Mai instructing us on the basics of Thai cooking

After Mai’s introduction to Thai cooking, we each settled into our cooking stations in the kitchen. The first dish we all worked on was a Green Curry Paste, but unfortunately we were just making it for the next day’s class. However, it was interesting to learn how to make fresh curry, as opposed to using the pre-packaged ones in the stores.

Andrew chopping up his Green Curry paste ingredients

Afterwards, we began to prepare our first 2 (of 4) dishes for the evening. The first 2 dishes were Papaya Salad and Pad Thai, 2 of the most popular Thai dishes.

Papaya Salad ingredients

Cooking the Pad Thai

The final results – Shrimp Pad Thai and Papaya Salad

After enjoying both the Pad Thai and Papaya salad in the upstairs dining area, we went back into the kitchen to finish our final 2 dishes – Chicken(or Fish) with Sauce, as well as Stir-fried Morning Glory (also known as water spinach). Mai kept the entire class fun and interesting, while including a bit of insight into her life growing up in Thailand and the love and passion that goes into each dish.

The final results – Stir-Fried Morning Glory and Chicken w/ Sauce

Overall we had a great experience learning all about Thai cuisine and are looking forward to making a few of the dishes when we get back home!

The next morning we got ready to head out for the day trip we booked to the islands of Koh Phi Phi, a more populated and touristy area than Koh Lanta. We were picked up from our hotel in an open-air shuttle truck, a vehicle that would definitely not pass safety regulations in the US. Once on board, we met a couple from England, Megan and Jamie. We learned they were on holiday and spending some time in Thailand before moving to Melbourne, Australia. We enjoyed getting to know them and found out they were heading to Ao Nang Beach the very next day, which is where our next stop in Thailand was as well.

We boarded a high-speed ferry and set out for the first stop on our day trip to Koh Phi Phi, which was Maya Bay. For those not aware, Maya Bay was where The Beach was filmed, a popular movie starring Leonardo Di Caprio. While the area surrounding Maya Bay was beautiful, we were saddened to see how polluted the water had become with the constant boats going in and out of the bay. There were also hundreds of people on the beach, so it was extremely congested and not as relaxing as we might have hoped. However, we still managed to get some great shots of the beautiful scenery.

Maya Bay

Our next stop was Monkey Beach, where we were able to snorkel a bit and, of course, see some monkeys! There were so many monkeys on the beach and it was so fun to watch them interacting with each other. There were adult monkeys, as well as baby monkeys.

Monkey Beach

So many monkeys!

After leaving Monkey Beach, we headed to Bamboo Island. We learned the only reason this island is called Bamboo Island is due to this one stick of bamboo that exists in the middle of the island.

Bamboo Island

One stick of bamboo on Bamboo Island

We had lunch and relaxed on the beach for a bit before heading to our final stop on our day trip, Phi Phi Don. Phi Phi Don is where a majority of the actual hotels exist on Koh Phi Phi, as well as numerous restaurants, bars, and tourist shops. We were a bit “beached out”, so we decided to go to one of the beachfront bars with Megan and Jamie and grab a drink before heading back to Koh Lanta.

Phi Phi Don

The ferry dropped us back off on the beach in Koh Lanta and I decided I wanted to try one of the beach massages. We went back to where we had lunch the day before (Lym’s) and I was able to get a massage in a treehouse (only $10.50 USD for an hour!), while Andrew relaxed with a couple of beers and watched the sunset. We grabbed some delicious pizza at a local pizzeria (Bajen Pizzeria) before heading back to the hotel to pack up and leave for Ao Nang Beach the next day. It was a nice and relaxing way to end a long day.

My treehouse massage on the beach

Beautiful Sunset (Captured by Andrew)

We woke up early and decided to head back to our private beach one last time before leaving Koh Lanta that afternoon. We lucked out because we arrived early enough that there was not a single person on the beach with us.

We went into town down the road to grab a quick lunch before we left and we noticed that the tuk tuk had a Chelsea banner!

After lunch we headed down to the ferry, which would take us to our next destination in Thailand – Ao Nang Beach.

AO NANG BEACH

The ferry from Koh Lanta to Ao Nang Beach was just under 2 hours, and luckily it had AC since it was fairly hot and humid outside. We ran into our friends Megan and Jamie on the ferry, whom we had met during our day trip to Koh Phi Phi, and decided we would meet up with them later that night for a drink in Ao Nang.

Ferry Ride to Ao Nang

Upon arriving to Ao Nang Beach, we immediately noticed a major difference between this beach town and Koh Lanta. There were a lot more people in Ao Nang and it seemed to be built up a bit more, especially after we saw a McDonald’s and Starbucks. We arrived at our hotel, The L, and were excited to see it was directly across the street from the beach and right in the middle of the main part of town. We’ve noticed when booking places online, it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’re booking a good area, but we definitely lucked out with this place.

Honeymoon Love

Andrew right outside of our hotel

We unpacked a few of our things and took a look around before heading to dinner at a place we found called Jenna’s Bistro & Wine. Needless to say, we were craving something that wasn’t Thai food. This restaurant actually ended up being really good and they even had a meat & cheese platter, which was delicious!

During dinner it started to rain pretty heavily, so we were happy we had our hotel umbrella. It seems that the rain can come out of nowhere, as we experienced random outbursts of rain a couple more times during our time here. After dinner we headed to Boogie Bar, a local bar that is very popular and has a live band play every night. We met up with our friends Megan and Jamie and spent a few hours listening to some good music and enjoying some delicious beverages.

Boogie Bar – Acoustic singer before the band came on

Megan, Jamie, Andrew & myself with our server in the middle 

The next day we grabbed some Thai food for lunch and explored the city a bit. We noticed that like Koh Lanta, there were *numerous* massage places, as well as tourist shops with things like T-shirts and magnets. We checked out the actual Ao Nang beach, since it was a nice day, but decided to hang out by our hotel pool instead for the latter part of the afternoon.

We had decided to meet up with Megan and Jamie again that night and have dinner with them at one of the beachfront restaurants called The Last Fisherman. I finally got to to try the famous mangos with sticky rice – I enjoyed it, Andrew didn’t care for it.

After dinner we all headed back to Boogie Bar, as Andrew had found out they were going to be showing the Chelsea game that night. Fortunately Chelsea won, so the night ended well and Andrew was a happy camper.

The next day was our last full day in Ao Nang, so we decided to take a long tail boat to one of the nearby beaches known as Railay Beach. As we took the 15 minute ride over in the boat, we realized it was going to be a beautiful day and were thankful for the nice weather. Railay Beach is an absolutely beautiful beach, and we highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the Krabi/Ao Nang area. It’s a small beach, only accessible by boat, so there isn’t a ton of restaurants or shops, but it’s definitely a good day trip.

Railay Beach

 

Long tail boats that take you to Railay Beach

We enjoyed some delicious fruit smoothies, relaxed both on the sand and in the water, and enjoyed a nice Thai lunch during our day at Railay Beach. After we felt our bodies had enough sun for the day, we hopped on another long tail boat to head back to Ao Nang. We were fortunate enough to catch a beautiful sunset right outside of our hotel.

We grabbed dinner at a local Italian restaurant, which actually ended up being really good, before heading back to the hotel to pack up and leave the next morning.

Fortunately the hotel provided transportation to the Krabi airport, which was about 45 minutes from our hotel in Ao Nang. Once arriving there, we took a 1 hour flight back to Bangkok, where we had a 12 hour layover until our midnight flight out to our next destination. We took advantage of the time we had and planned to spend the day checking out the city of Bangkok.

One of the first things anyone visiting Thailand would notice is the numerous memorials and tributes that are placed around the cities in memory of their King who had recently passed. He was incredibly beloved by all of the Thai people and you could see the effect his presence had on the people of Thailand. We went to check out The Grand Palace in Bangkok, and there were hundreds of Thai people dressed in black, waiting in line to pay their respects to the late King.

We both had to borrow clothes to wear since my leggings weren’t allowed, and neither were Andrew’s shorts.

Royal Chapel of the Emerald Buddha

The Grand Palace

We also checked out Wat Po, a famous Buddhist temple right next to The Grand Palace.

Wat Po

Reclining Buddha

My friend Katie had let us know about a place called Thip Samai, which apparently was where pad thai originated, so we decided to check it out. The pad thai did not disappoint and we were lucky to get there before the line started to form outside.

On the left: Pad Thai wrapped in egg – Delicious

We decided to head back to the airport early so we could hang out in an air conditioned building until our flight. As we went to board the metro we had taken into the city from the airport, we were overwhelmed by the amount of people getting on the train. You would think it was completely full, yet a couple of people would walk by one of the door entrances and squeeze themselves inside so they didn’t have to wait for the next one. We were literally sardined next to each other in this metro train. Fortunately we got on and found a spot under the A/C, so it was nice and cool in a very small, crowded space.

Andrew and I really enjoyed Thailand and wished we had spent more time in the islands. We’ll definitely be back to explore more of the islands in the future. However, now we’re off to our final country to explore – Australia!

After spending almost a week exploring Hong Kong and Shanghai, we were looking forward to our final stop in China – Beijing. We said our goodbyes to Nick & Janet, and took off for Beijing with Jesse and Lu. As I had mentioned in my last entry, our friend Lu grew up in Beijing, so Andrew and I were looking forward to exploring the city she grew up in. Before I continue, I should mention that I really should be calling all of my entries for China mainly “food blogs.” Much of our time in Shanghai and Beijing was spent trying so many different types of Chinese cuisine. Lu introduced us to many different types, many of which Andrew and I were never aware of.

It’s an easy 2 hour flight from Shanghai to Beijing, and our hotel was only about 30 minutes from the airport. Unfortunately we landed around “rush hour”, so we hit a bit of traffic getting into the city. We learned there is A LOT of traffic in Beijing since there are so many people that live in the city – over 20 million people! It gets so congested there that people are only able to drive their cars on certain days, designated by the characters on their license plates.

On our first night in Beijing, Lu had planned for us to do dinner with her parents at a place called DaDong. Apparently DaDong is one of the best restaurants in the city to get Peking Duck, which is a famous duck dish originating in Beijing. As a side note, Lu’s parents still live in Beijing but Andrew and I got a chance to meet them a couple of years ago in LA when they came out for Jesse & Lu’s wedding.

As we entered the restaurant, Andrew and I were in awe of the beautiful aesthetics and decor inside. It was great to see Lu’s parents again and they took care of ordering all of the dishes for dinner. They wanted us to try a few things that Beijing and the restaurant are known for, so they ordered multiple dishes, which were all delicious. However, my absolute favorite (and Andrew’s as well) was the main course – the Peking Duck. The chef actually comes out to your table to cut the duck table side, and it’s an incredible thing to watch. He cuts it incredibly thin and presents it on the plate in a beautiful manner. We thanked Lu’s parents for a wonderful dinner and headed out to grab a drink before calling it a night.

DaDong – Peking Duck restaurant

The chef preparing the duck table side

On the right: The lady is teaching me the best way to eat the duck

Andrew & I, along with Jesse & Lu and Lu’s parents

The next day we grabbed a quick beef noodle soup lunch at the hotel before heading out for the day. One of the most significant sites in Beijing is the Forbidden City, which was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty, which ended in 1912. The area is surrounded by a moat and boasts numerous ancient buildings within. It was fascinating to hear the stories behind the history of the city. For example, we learned that the number of animal statues that were placed on the roof line of the building signified how important the building was in relation to all other buildings in the Forbidden City. If the building had more animal statues that another, it was considered more important.

Forbidden City

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Inside one of the buildings

After spending a few hours in the Forbidden City, we walked over to a nearby park called Beihai Park. It was a beautiful park surrounded by a lake, where Lu mentioned she used to ice skate nearby when she was younger.

Beihai Park

Afterwards we headed over to a little area full of shops and restaurants near the park called Hou Hai. We grabbed drinks on the rooftop of one of the restaurants before deciding we were all hungry and ready to grab some dinner.

Hou Hai

One of the other cuisines Lu wanted to introduce us to was known as “hot pot”, which is a very communal dining experience. With a “hot pot” dinner, you are given 2 different kinds of broth, generally one Sichuan (spicy) and one mild. Afterwards, everything you order from the menu comes out raw and you cook it in one of the heated broths. Andrew is really keen on spicy food, so he was looking forward to another spicy meal, however, I was happy they had a “non-spicy” option. We went to a hot pot restaurant called Haidilao, and since we were early we were able to get seated right away. Apparently this place gets extremely busy, which we saw when we left. The service was impeccable, another thing this restaurant is known for, and we had a great time.

Haidilao – Hot Pot Dinner

Ready to start cooking in our aprons!

The image on the right is a close-up of the spicy broth…so many peppers!

Our server wrote us a special note letting us know that she hoped we enjoyed the rest of our time in Beijing.

After dinner we decided to do a bit of a bar crawl. Lu had done some research and found a few unique bars that were located in actual apartment buildings. It was pretty interesting as the bars existed right next to actual apartments in a high-rise building. The first bar we went to didn’t have a drink menu, but instead asked their customers to look at this book that was filled with pictures and different phrases. It was our job to pick the page in the book that best described ourselves and then they would make us a drink based on the type of alcohol we wanted, as well as our choice of a “fruity” or “floral” flavor. The drinks turned out great!

The next bar we went to was in the apartment building next door and was known for having magicians. I was always very interested in magic while growing up, so I enjoyed being treated to some magic tricks while enjoying a drink at this bar before heading back to the hotel.

We had planned to spend the next day climbing The Great Wall since the weather was supposed to be good. We headed out early, as the portion of the Wall we were going to was about 1.5 hours outside of the city. We had heard that certain portions of the Wall tend to get very crowded, but we were very fortunate as the portion we climbed, known as Mu Tian Yu, wasn’t so busy.

The Great Wall of China (Mu Tian Yu portion)

Starting the climb up…

We climbed up to the farthest point accessible by the public. The final stretch was a very steep staircase and was hard to push through, but worth it once you saw the view from the top.

 

Made it to the top!

We were all pretty exhausted from a couple hours of climbing the wall, so we opted for the cable car to take us back down to where our car was.

We spent a few hours relaxing at the hotel before heading out to dinner to try yet another cuisine Lu wanted to introduce us to. The type of cuisine we had that night was food typical of Beijing, which tends to include “comfort food” type dishes, such as egg dishes and dumplings. Another very delicious meal!

Si Shi Tong Tang – Typical Beijing cuisine

The next day we headed over to a major shopping area known as Sanlitun, which contains a number of bars and shops. Lu had mentioned the last type of cuisine she wanted to introduce us to was Yunnan, so we went to a Yunnan restaurant for lunch, called Middle 8.

After lunch Lu and I went shopping, while the boys grabbed a few beers at some of the local bars. Lu took me to a shopping mart called Silk Street, where you have to be ready to negotiate for the price you want. They have everything from magnets to scarves to every kind of jewelry you can imagine. With Lu’s help, I was able to get a number of items without spending over $35 and we were pretty proud of our negotiating skills (mainly Lu’s since she could negotiate with them in Mandarin).

We met up with the boys at a local bar and grabbed a couple of beers before heading to a brewery that was near our hotel, Great Leap Brewing. We were all craving some American food, so we thought we would enjoy a traditional American meal on our last night, including things like caesar salad and onion rings.

Our very typical American meal at Great Leap Brewing

We headed back to the hotel after dinner as Andrew and I had a very early flight the next morning. Andrew and I both agreed that we were leaving China with a deeper appreciation for their culture, history, and especially their cuisine. This trip wouldn’t have been the same without Lu and Jesse and we were so happy to explore part of the country with them.

As we got ready to leave Hong Kong, we were finally feeling a bit better and were looking forward to our next stop in China – Shanghai! This was especially exciting because we were meeting up with our good friends from back home, Jesse, Lu, Nick & Janet. Both Jesse & Nick went to college with Andrew, and I’ve become good friends with the girls over the past few years. On a side note, Nick spent a year after college living in Shanghai, so he was pretty familiar with the city, and Lu grew up in China (Beijing to be exact), so we were excited to explore the next couple of cities with her.

Our flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai was pretty early in the morning, so we had to wake up at 4:30AM. Definitely not fun, but we were glad to be feeling better, so we packed up our things and headed to the airport. The 2 hour flight was easy. However, we were surprised at some of the differing customs on Chinese airlines. For one, you cannot use your cell phone the entire flight, even if it’s on airplane mode – it has to be completely off. I usually listen to music on every flight so this was a major bummer for me. The second thing we noticed was the decent sized meal you got for a 2 hour flight – something that US flights no longer offer, even on 5 hour flights across the country. It’s interesting to note differences like this as we’ve traveled between the different countries.

After grabbing our bags, we took a taxi to meet up with our friends. Nick and Janet had just come from spending a few days in Thailand so we were able to get some good pointers from them for our visit. Jesse and Lu seemed to have a good, yet long, flight in from LA. We caught up for a bit and then went to go check out the city.

There were some very interesting & modern buildings. We liked the one shaped like a bottle opener in the background of the picture below.

From left to right – Janet, myself, & Lu

Oriental Pearl Tower – Radio & TV tower

After grabbing a delicious dim sum style Chinese lunch, we headed over to our Airbnb to check in. We were all a bit tired from traveling, so we hung around the Airbnb and relaxed before dinner.

One of the main things that my friend Lu has taught me over these past few days in China is the various types of Chinese cuisine that exist. Fortunately, we were able to experience a different type of Chinese cuisine every night we were in Shanghai (and also in Beijing – but you’ll read more about that in my next entry!). We were also able to meet up with one of Lu’s good friends Jenny, who currently lives in Shanghai, for dinner every night. She used to live in LA, but since moving to Shanghai a few months back, she has been able to discover a number of delicious, and very unique, Chinese restaurants. We learned that crab is currently in season in the Shanghai region, so Jenny and Lu wanted to take all of us to a restaurant that specialized in crab dishes. We found out that these restaurants have separate menus for their crab dishes that they only put out between the months of September and November. Jenny and Lu did all of the ordering, since all Chinese restaurants serve most of their dishes family style, and they knew the “must try” items on the menu. Everything was delicious and the experience was wonderful.

Cheng Long Hang – Crab house in Shanghai!

From left to right – Janet, myself, Jenny, & Lu

The next day we woke up to find Jesse and Lu had gone out and gotten us some items that make up a traditional Chinese breakfast. We then headed out to Tian Zi Fang, which is a beautiful, enclosed area in Shanghai with small alleyways filled with shops and restaurants. We spent a few hours checking out some of the shops and enjoying some lunch.

Tianzifang

Beef Noodle Soup for lunch – Chinese fast food, delicious!

Andrew and Nick trying to recreate the statue

After leaving Tianzifang, we found an authentic and luxurious Chinese spa, so Janet and I decided to get our nails done, along with a massage, both of which were very relaxing and appreciated after our morning of walking around.

Lu took a picture of me getting pampered

On our 2nd night, Jenny and Lu wanted us to experience Sichuan Chinese cuisine, which is known for being spicy. However, we learned it’s more of a numbing spice, as opposed to a fire spice, which was very interesting. Andrew loved it since he’s a big fan of spicy food, and I enjoyed it, even though I can’t handle too much spiciness. At one point I accidentally bit into one of the full peppercorns that was in one of the dishes and (unfortunately) was able to experience that numbing spice.

Peacock – Sichuan Cuisine

From left to right – Jesse, Andrew, Me, Jenny, Lu, Janet, Nick

In the picture below, the bowl on the right is a spicy fish dish, and the fish is cooked in all of those red peppers that are shown on the plate. The server is removing a majority of the peppers from the dish before we eat it, so it’s not as spicy, since the peppers themselves are extremely hot.

After dinner we headed to a place for some drinks called Hotel Indigo, which had a few amazing views of the city of Shanghai and “the bund”, which is a waterfront area in Shanghai.

After Hotel Indigo, we headed to another bar that Nick mentioned he used to frequent when he lived there. They were known for their rum, which was served with dry ice. Pretty cool presentation.

The next day was Wednesday (November 9th) in Shanghai, which meant it was Election Day back home. Since our lunchtime was Tuesday evening back in the States, we scurried to find a bar where we could grab some lunch and watch the election results. After many failed attempts, we finally found a restaurant (Liquid Laundry) that had a pretty big set up for the election. Apparently this place is popular among a lot of foreigners, so we were able to watch the election results in Shanghai with other Americans in the city.

It was our last night in Shanghai, so Jenny and Lu wanted to take us to a traditional Shanghainese restaurant, so we could try the food that was typical of the people from Shanghai. This type of food was delicious and probably my favorite of the 3 nights.

Jardin de Jade – Lu & Jenny ordering all of our food, as they did every night

Peeling the scales off of the fish with a spoon!

After dinner we headed to another place that Nick used to frequent when he lived in Shanghai called Bar Rouge. It was another place on “The Bund” with spectacular views of the city. It was a great way to spend our last night in Shanghai before heading to our last city in China – Beijing!

Bar Rouge

 

I had mentioned in my last entry that Andrew and I were looking forward to heading to Asia since it was somewhere we had both never been. We were also looking forward to our flight since we had booked Business class seats months ago using miles we had accumulated through work travel and points – we figured it would be nice to treat ourselves to a bit of travel luxury halfway through the trip. One of the things that comes along with Business class seats is access to the Business Class lounge at the airport, so we got to the airport plenty early to take advantage of this perk. Unfortunately it took over an hour to get our tickets because of some mix-up on their end, so we were only able to grab a quick bite to eat before heading to board our flight. It was a very comfortable 11 hour flight, to say the least. We had originally booked seats next to the window, which put us one in front of the other, however, after take-off we moved to 2 pod seats that were next to each other. The flight crew was amazing throughout the entire flight and even gave us a “Happy Honeymoon” card that the entire crew (including the pilots) had signed, along with a delicious dessert and champagne. Overall it was a wonderful experience flying on Cathay Pacific.

Our original window pod seats before we moved…

Our new seats!

The sweetest gift from the Cathay Pacific flight crew!

We had left Paris around noon on Thursday and got into Hong Kong around 7AM on Friday morning. Needless to say, we were exhausted since neither one of us slept much on the flight, albeit the comfortable seats we had. It was an easy trip to get to the hotel from the airport, which was on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong, across the bay from the main island. While we had planned to check out the city a bit, we decided it was best to take a short nap first. Well, we ended up sleeping for 7 hours and woke up around dinner time.

Unfortunately Andrew started to feel a bit of the sickness I had on our last night in Paris, as he didn’t feel the best after waking up from our nap. I was still recovering as well so we decided to take it easy and walk around the city a bit and try a ramen place, Ichiran Ramen, that came highly recommended by our friend Lu. We waited about 45 minutes before getting seats, but the ramen ended up being well worth the wait. The layout of the restaurant was interesting as there were no tables together; everyone sat in individual cubbies and filled out their own custom ramen form. We learned they set up the restaurant this way so everyone can have their own privacy while enjoying their bowl of ramen. We really enjoyed this place and will definitely have to go back. Apparently the restaurant is based in Japan, so if you’re planning on going out to Japan any time soon you can check this place out there too!

Streets of Hong Kong

Ichiran Ramen

We wanted to explore the city a bit more, but both still weren’t feeling the best, so decided to call it an early night. The next morning we were feeling alright so we headed out to Victoria’s Peak, which apparently gives the best 360 degree views of the island. We had taken the metro around the city the night before, so we decided to opt for the Star Ferry to get a different view heading over to the island.

View of Hong Kong from the Star Ferry

After a bit of confusion with the bus lines, we made it over to Tram Peak ticket line, which was much longer than we expected. It ended up taking about an hour to get our tickets and take the tram up to Victoria’s Peak, but it turned out to be an awesome view from the top. We walked around a bit and checked out a few different look out points, and then waited in another 30 minute line to take the tram back down the mountain. At this point we weren’t feeling the best, so although we had planned to eat out somewhere, we headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.

Victoria’s Peak

So many people waiting to go up!

View from the top!

After a bit of rest and relaxation at the hotel, we decided to head out to the Temple Night Market to check out all of the different vendors and see what they were selling. It was a pretty cool scene and we ended up walking away with a few things after some good bargaining!

Temple Night Market

The next morning Andrew and I woke up and still weren’t feeling the best so decided to spend the day in the hotel room just resting up. We ordered some bland room service food that we thought would be easy on our stomachs and rented a movie. Although we were bummed we weren’t able to check out a few of the things we wanted to in Hong Kong, we knew our bodies needed the rest.

After a full day of rest, we were able to work up enough energy to head over to the Intercontinental Hotel that night since we had heard the hotel lobby lounge had a great view of the entire Hong Kong island, as well as the nightly light show that happened at 8:00PM. We got there around 7:15PM, so were able to grab a great seat in the middle of the lounge area. Unfortunately the light show was pretty underwhelming. Apparently all of the buildings used to take part in the light show, and it was pretty grand, however, now there are only a couple of buildings that participate so it’s not that exciting. It was an enjoyable time though and it felt good to get out of the hotel room.

View of Hong Kong Island from the Intercontinental Hotel

We headed back to our hotel to pack up, as we had an early flight the next morning to Shanghai where we were going to meet up with a few of our friends from back home!

After letting my other half share his writing talents with you for the past few blogs, I’m back to recount our 5 night stay in Paris. Going into Paris Andrew and I had received numerous recommendations from various friends and colleagues about different sights to see and restaurants to try, so we felt fairly prepared on what we wanted to do during our time in the city.

After taking the train from Brugge into Brussels, we had our first international “bus” experience. We have taken local buses within the different cities, but hadn’t yet taken a long distance charter bus between cities. We decided to opt for this option for our trip from Brussels to Paris with the company Flixbus. After grabbing a quick bite to eat in Brussels, we hopped on the 4 hour bus to Paris. Fortunately, the bus ride wasn’t too bad. The seats were comfortable and there was WIFI available in the bus, so I spent most of the time watching Orange is the New Black, which has been my latest show addiction.

We arrived in Paris on a Saturday night and hopped on the Metro and headed over to our Airbnb, which was located in the Le Marais area of Paris. We were told this was a good area to stay if you wanted to immerse yourself in the Parisian culture with the locals. When we arrived in the area we were pleasantly surprised with the amount of cafes, bakeries, and cute shops that surrounded the area and knew we had chosen a good area. We ended up going to the local market to pick up some food items for the week and made a late dinner back in our Airbnb that night.

We woke up the next morning with the intentions of going to a local gym we found nearby. However, upon arriving around 8AM, we found out the reception desk didn’t open until 9AM, so ended up just going for a run around the area we were staying in. Afterwards, we headed out to meet our tour guide for another free walking tour with SANDEMANs. While we didn’t go to all of the major sites in Paris on this tour, we were able to see quite a few things and hear some interesting stories about the history of Paris. Our tour guide Hugo was entertaining and kept things fun throughout the 3 hour tour. One of the things we’ve really enjoyed is the overlapping of different stories we hear from different tour guides in different cities.

Fontaine Saint-Michel – Where the tour met up

The most narrow street in Paris…

Notre-Dame Cathedral – According to our tour guide, it took 184 years to build this beautiful cathedral, which is one of the most famous gothic cathedrals in the world today.

Beautiful architecture

Bridge in the picture on the left is the oldest bridge in Paris

After the tour we headed back to the area where we were staying and ended up enjoying lunch at one of the local cafe’s called Le Bar’Bouille. We did a bit of future trip planning at the Airbnb, then headed out to a local bar called The Long Hop, which was showing the Chelsea soccer game that night. Andrew was a happy camper as the team won 2-0. After the game we headed over to the Latin Quarter, which happened to house one of the most famous crepe places in the city, Au P’tit Grec, which came highly recommended by our tour guide earlier that day. We ended up having to wait about 45 minutes for the crepes, but they were well worth it!

We had no planned tours the next day, so were looking forward to sleeping in and getting a later start to the day. We ended up sleeping in until almost 11AM, and then decided to make our way to the local gym. On our way back from the gym we picked up a few additional items to make lunch back at our place and Andrew couldn’t wait until we got home to try his first Parisian baguette…

One of the things we had wanted to do in Paris was put a “love lock” on the lock bridge. We had heard that the original lock bridge (Pont des Arts) no longer had any locks on it since the weight of the locks had started to push the bridge deeper into the water. However, people have found a nearby bridge (Pont Neuf) to continue on with this tradition, so we wanted to add our own lock to the bunch.

We headed over to the original love lock bridge, Pont des Arts, to check it out, and stopped for some greats shots in front of the Seine River along the way.

Pont des Arts – Original love lock bridge that now has new railings with glass and wooden panels that don’t allow you to attach any locks

We explored some more of the city and beauty of the Seine River then headed over to a famous bakery, Laduree, and finally to the Arc de Triomphe.

Laduree – Known for their delicious macaroons!

Arc de Triomphe

It was Halloween night, so we had signed up for a Pub Crawl with the same tour group we did the walking tour with. We weren’t too sure what to expect, so we grabbed a quick dinner at a local cafe and made our way over to the meeting place. While we weren’t the oldest, we were definitely in the minority. A majority of the 50+ pub crawl participants were college students currently on break or visiting the city. However, we enjoyed the night as we went to 3 different bars and finished up at a local club.

Pub Crawl official with our wristbands…and introductory shots

Face Paint…The extent of our Halloween “costumes”

We were pretty scary…

We were both pretty exhausted from moving around so much the past few weeks, we decided to spend most of the next day just relaxing at our Airbnb and booking a few other parts of our trip. It was nice to spend the day this way, as traveling and constantly being on the go can be a bit exhausting.

While we spent the majority of the day inside, we had plans to have a picnic dinner on the grass below the Eiffel Tower that night.We had hoped to get some bread, meat, and cheese from local shops to enjoy on our picnic dinner. Unfortunately we didn’t plan very well because that day happened to be All Saints’ Day, which is a public holiday in France, and a day where a lot of local shops are closed. While luckily we found one bakery still open with a few baguettes to choose from, we couldn’t find a single meat or cheese shop that was open. After succumbing to picking up meat and cheese at a local grocery store, we headed to the Eiffel Tower where we learned that most of the grass areas were closed off for renovation. Strike Two on our picnic plans! Fortunately we found a nice bench right below the Eiffel Tower, with great views, where we were able to enjoy our food and some wine.

Eiffel Tower – We had learned on our walking tour that this tower was almost torn down, however it currently remains functional as the largest radio tower in the city.

Delicious dinner!

Our picnic spot

The Eiffel Tower lights up on the top of the hour every night and is a beautiful 4-5 minute show.

We headed to bed pretty earlier as the next day in Paris was our last full day, so we had booked a number of sights to check out. We went for a run along the Seine River before our day of sightseeing, which we later regretted after the amount of walking we ended up doing that day.

We spent the morning exploring The Louvre, which houses over 9,000 years of history, including Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It is a pretty incredible museum and while we saw a lot of it, it is definitely not possible to see everything in one day.

The Louvre

Our handy audio-guides!

Great Sphinx of Tanis (and me!)

Venus de Milo – Ancient Greek sculpture sculpted between 130 and 100 BC

We obviously had to check out the Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings. As most have stated before, it was much smaller than expected! Our tour guide had told us the only reason this painting is so famous is because it is known as the painting that once got stolen from The Louvre. Now it is the most protected piece of art at The Louvre and sits behind bullet-proof glass.

Coronation of Napoleon – 2nd biggest painting in The Louvre (Painted by Jacques-Louis David)

The Wedding Feast at Cana – Largest painting at The Louvre

Such a model…

Psyche revived by Cupid’s kiss on the left; The original selfie on the right

Took some fun shots on the blocks outside of The Louvre, which we learned were actually put there specifically for people to take pictures on

After The Louvre we headed over to Chipotle for lunch. I know, a lot of you are probably thinking “Why would you go to Chipotle when you’re in Paris?!”. Well we were given 2 free coupons from the Regional Manager in London to use at any of the 3 Chipotle’s in Paris, so we thoroughly enjoyed our free, American lunch. After traveling for so long and experiencing a lot of international cuisine, a good meal that tastes like home is not so bad every now and then.

After walking through the city a bit, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, where we had tickets to go to 2nd floor. Tickets are sold for the 2nd floor and for the very top, however, when we tried buying them online a few weeks ago, tickets to the very top were sold out. Fortunately upon arriving to the 2nd floor of the tower, you’re able to upgrade your ticket if you want to go to the very top, which we did. We captured some great panoramic views of the city and although touristy, it was definitely a fun experience.

The Eiffel Tower (again), but this time during the day!

View of the city from the 2nd floor – Loved the shadow of the tower in this picture

Views from the top! 300M up!

Back down on the ground

We had some time before our last sight we planned to check out that day, so we checked out the Montparnasse Tower, an office skyscraper and another large, famous tower in the city. We also spent some time relaxing at a local cafe and enjoyed some warm drinks and creme brulee! (Andrew’s favorite dessert)

Montparnasse Tower

The final sight we had planned to see in Paris that day was the Catacombs of Paris. These catacombs exist under the streets of Paris and contain the remains of over six million people. While a bit eerie, it was definitely an interesting sight to see. We had booked the 6pm time slot, which happened to be the last time slot of the day. While during the day this is one of the most popular tourist spots to visit in the city, we were fortunate to experience them with very few people. In fact, there were times when we were walking through some of the tunnels and we were the only ones in them. A bit creepy, but a very unique experience that you usually don’t get when you visit this famous site.

Heading down numerous stairs into the underground catacombs!

We’re the only ones here…

After a very long day, we had made reservations at a local French restaurant that came highly recommended from Andrew’s parents and sister. Since they had visited Paris a couple of weeks before us, they had gone to this restaurant that had delicious local cuisine and a nice atmosphere, so we figured we would try it out. We arrived at La Laiterie Sainte-Clotilde and appreciated the cozy atmosphere and friendly service. The food was delicious and it was a wonderful way to spend our last night in Paris.

After having one last glass of wine at a local cafe near our Airbnb, we headed back to start packing. We had planned to stay up late so we would be able to sleep on the 11 hour flight to Hong Kong, but unfortunately I was hit with a horrible case of food poisoning. The next 6 hours were not fun and I was a bit nervous I wouldn’t be able to make it on the flight. Fortunately I woke up feeling a bit better and we were able to make it to the airport on time for our flight. Although still feeling the side effects from the food poisoning, I was very excited as we were leaving Europe to travel to the next continent on our list, Asia! Andrew and I have both never been to Asia, so we knew we were in for an exciting adventure in a new place.

Let’s play a game. Or, maybe two? Let’s start with “Where in the world is Allison Bertea?”. It’s my favorite rendition of “Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?”. Or how about our take on,  “Where’s Waldo?”; “Where’s Bertea?”. All fun games, I know. Well, currently, she is passed out next to me on the bus. Maybe we will see her again at the end of Paris, I don’t really know. I just do as I am told…

Our train out of Amsterdam left on time. It was a nice change of pace compared to our experience with trains in Italy. The two hour ride to Brussels provided some pretty spectacular views of the countryside. After our arrival in Brussels, we made our way over to the regional train platform to catch the commuter train into Brugge. After traveling for 1.5 months, we have this whole train and transfer thing down. We typically don’t need to look for help or even an English translation. Just make sure the stop we need lines up to the listed stops on the departure card, and we are on our way. The one-hour train to Brugge was easy. We passed the time by playing Uno, and discussing what Charley was probably doing. Considering it was 5AM back home, we figured he was probably sleeping. The train station in Brugge was bigger than expected and we caught the local bus to a stop near our hotel. As we made our way into the center of town, we were pleasantly surprised by the architecture. Brugge is a medieval town, and city ordinances protect the buildings from being demolished or altered. Walking to our hotel, we were impressed by the amount of chocolate shops and vowed to stop in a few of them later in the evening. We checked into the hotel and our energy to explore the city had been drained from traveling most of the day. Allison took the time to do some research for the rest of our trip and I caught up on my beauty sleep.

Dinner time came and we made our way to the most authentic Flemish restaurant you could imagine, Ribs and Beer. Alright, while it might not be an authentic Flemish restaurant, Ribs and Beer was a highly-rated dinner spot. Our reservation was for the second sitting. The menu consisted of multiple different types of beef, chicken, and other assorted dishes. However, true to their name, the restaurant was famous for their ribs and beer. Allie and I both chose the all-you-can-eat ribs option and two glasses of Blonde Ale (I know, I am just as surprised as you are Bruce…). The dinner was excellent and a nice reminder of home. We had planned to possibly go out for a bit after dinner, but we were both so full that we decided to head back for the evening.

Excited for all-you-can-eat ribs!

Left: Before Dinner // Right: After Dinner

We had chosen to go to Brugge as we had seen beautiful pictures of the city and had read that is was a very romantic town. As our decision to visit was made at the last minute, we did not have time to plan any sightseeing activities. The one thing I made sure to plan was a tour of the De Halve Maan brewery. Belgium is known for its chocolate and beer, so we had to make sure to check both out.

On our way to the brewery, we got a glimpse of the famous bell tower in Brugge, Belfort van Brugge, along with a bit of the medieval-style architecture.

Belfort van Brugge

Streets of Brugge

We had a delicious lunch at the brewery and then had some time before our afternoon brewery tour, so we checked out a park nearby known as Minnewaterpark, which houses Minnewater Lake, known as the “Lake of Love”.

Minnewaterpark

There were about 30 breweries existing in Brugge after World War II, yet this brewery is the only one still remaining. It has been around since the late 19^th century and went through a modernization project in 2006. As the exterior of the building could not be modified, they had to fit all of the modern pumps, blowers, transfer tubes and brewing tanks within the existing building. It was quite a sight to see! Additionally, the brewery had just completed their final project a few months back. Prior to this year, all of the beer was made in the brewery and then transported, via container trucks, to a warehouse 3km across the city. In the other warehouse, the beer would mature for 2-4 months before being bottled. As the brewery began to expand, and produce more beer, the logistics of moving the beer across town became a bigger issue. In order to resolve the problem, the brewery dug an underground tunnel and created a pipeline to pump the beer across town. The pipeline had been finished at the beginning of summer, 2016, and all testing had been completed a few months before we got there. To their knowledge, they are the only brewery that currently employs this method to transport their beer.

At the end of the tour we found ourselves in the old tavern of the brewery. There, we would “taste” 3 of their different beers. The tasting actually turned out to be 3 full glasses of beer. All of the English speakers congregated at two tables with each other, but Allie and I made a point to sit at the “Dutch” table. We sat with 3 couples, all from the Netherlands. It was an enjoyable experience to hear about their travels and recount some of our stories. Inevitably, the conversation turned towards the election in the United States and, to the amazement of our new friends, time-off policies within the United States. We finished up and said goodbye to our newfound friends as we made our way back to the hotel.

Left: Beer hops! // Right: Malts, which affect the color of the beer

Process the brewery used to utilize to dry the malt 

Beautiful view of the city from the roof of the brewery

Fun on the brewery tour

Their Heritage beer is only made once a year

Along the way back to our hotel, Allie and I stopped in Dumon Chocolate shop, one of the most well-known chocolate shops in Brugge. The chocolate shop is still run by the original founder and one of the members of her Dumon family, Nathalie. The shop originated in Brugge and has 3 different locations across the city. While Nathalie and the owner did not work at the location we went into, you could feel that the shop was very much a family business. If you read my last post, I was blown away by the Jordino chocolate and proclaimed that See’s had nothing on Jordino. Well, I am sorry Jordino, but you have nothing on Dumon. The chocolate was incredible. I have never tasted chocolate this good before. If we had chocolate like this back home, I would have a serious problem.

Dumon Chocolatier

Streets of Brugge

We went back to the hotel for a bit before going to a local salad restaurant for dinner. After all the meat and beer, it was nice to order a salad. We were fairly tired, so decided to call it a night after dinner.

A sign we appreciated at our dinner spot – Salade Folle

Belfort van Brugge at night

Chocolate and Beer!

One of the famous landmarks in the city is the bell tower, known as Belfort van Brugge. If you have seen the movie, “In Bruges”, the tower, and scene concerning it, is one to remember. Allie and I had tried to climb it the previous day, but had arrived too late. As the passageway to the top of the tower is very narrow, the tower only allows 70 people in at a time. We noticed that the tower opened at 9:30AM, so we planned to get there early and climb the tower before we left the next day. The previous day the line to enter the tower had been over an hour and we hoped that we could avoid the line in the morning. We got up at 8, packed our bags and took advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel. From there, we made the short walk over to the tower.

 

We got there at 9:15AM and we were the 2^nd people in line. At 9:30AM, the doors opened, and we went in to buy our tickets. The couple in front of us was paying with credit card, so we moved over to the cash-only window. After getting our tickets, we moved through the turnstile and started our ascent up the tower. 366 steps, narrow passageways and limited hand railings made for not such an easy climb.

The bell

However, when we walked through the doorway at the top of the tower, our frustrations quickly faded away. The view of the city was beautiful. There was still a slight layer of fog, but you could almost see it burning off in front of you. And the best part, we had climbed the tower ahead of the couple in front of us and were the first ones to the top that morning. In fact, we made it up so quickly that we stood at the top of the tower alone for 5 minutes.

View of the city from the top of the tower

We were soon joined by another couple and then the groups started to fill in. We decided to make a quick escape before the tower filled up and headed back to the hotel to grab our belongings. Before leaving Brugge, we decided it would be best to stop by the Dumon chocolate shop one more time. Apparently, the chocolate troll had eaten our chocolate the night before, and we wanted some for our trip to Paris. This time we were greeted by Nathalie, who helped us pick out a number of chocolates for the remainder of our trip. As we boarded the train to leave, we both agreed that Brugge would be a town that we would be returning to in the future.

One last shot of the tower on our way out of the city…