Argentina – July/August 2008

OK, so after being told a few too many times to get back to it, I’m writing a BRIEF update of my time in Argentina…

On our way to Buenos Aires (BA), my fellow auditors and I (total of 5 – 4 girls and 1 poor guy) decided to go to Patagonia for the weekend. The Chilean side was cheaper, so that’s where we went. Of course we didn’t take into account a heft $135 reciprocity fee that Chile nails you with when you arrive at the airport. That was a fun little surprise. The good thing is that it’s valid for the life of your passport, so if you have a new one like me – I have 10 years to go back! I actually intend to because after spending one weekend in Santiago, I decided that I wanted to see more of Chile.

Patagonia was beautiful! It reminded me of a mixture between Switzerland and Alaska. We got a package deal, so we went to the following places:
Flew into Puntas Arenas
Drove to Puerto Natales (stayed overnight)
Drove to Torres del Paine National Park

The only unfortunate thing is that we went during their “winter season” (our summer time), which has very few tourists, and most things are closed. Specifically, we wanted to go to a Penguin Colony, but it’s only open for a few months of the year.

One side note in Patagonia…be careful what you eat! I’m a little too adventurous and without even realizing that I may not be ordering something appropriate, I got SERIOUSLY sick on some calamari my last night in Patagonia. It probably wasn’t cooked properly, but I’ve never been so sickly in my life….I couldn’t sleep and I could barely function. I also had to deal with this lovely feeling almost the entire Sunday when I had to fly back to BA.

We arrived in BA only to find it cold and rainy…again thanks to the wonderful planning in our department – I missed my summer in Chicago for winter in BA.

My stomach was still a little sensitive, so I kept my eating pretty light despite my urge to get a nice juicy steak…after all, that is what Argentina is known for!

My former roommate Kristin paid me a visit for my first week out there. The first time anyone’s come to visit me on an audit! It was really nice because she’s extremely self-sufficient and planned her entire trip and daytime activities on her own.
Plus, I got some company when I came home from work every day!

Overall, I have to say that my time in BA was a little disappointing for several reasons.
1 – my expectations were entirely too high.
2 – I was disappointed in the food. I think partly because of expectations, but also because we were located close to Puerto Madero. A VERY touristy area with overpriced food that wasn’t really worth it.
3 – the weather pretty much sucked the entire time we were there. I have to say that the one weekend that we actually stayed in BA, the weather was nice and sunny and not too cold, so we explored some of the city and actually found some good places to eat and people watch.
4 – I’m not a night-person and these guys go out WAY too late! Turns out that most people don’t even START going out until 2am. Now after eating a late dinner at 9pm, coming back around 11pm – I still have 3 hours before going out? Obviously I fell asleep and didn’t even make it out the door.
5 – I’ve heard how cheap things are in Argentina and how great the shopping is, but I was also disappointed in that. Due to inflation, things weren’t really that cheap and the quality of the clothes and styles didn’t really appeal to me.
6 – There was some drama with a couple fellow co-workers, which definitely didn’t help my mood.

All in all, I might go back to Argentina, but only to explore other parts of the country.

I was pleasantly surprised by Chile though! Santiago in particular had a great night scene! I didn’t really eat out there so I’m not sure about the quality of the food, but they make some great Pisco Sours! – drinks native to Chile

We went to a little winery (very touristy but lots of fun) called Concha y Toro.
If we had more time (and money), I would’ve liked to go skiing as well, but I guess that’s what I’ll do when I go back to Chile within the next 10 years!

My last weekend in Argentina was by-far my favorite…Iguazu.
Iguazu borders 3 countries: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

We stayed on the Argentinean side since you need a visa to go to the Brazilian side (even though I’ve heard you can get there without it for a day)
Of course the first day we were there the weather was cloudy and drizzling, but day 2 was gorgeous!! The clouds parted enough to give us some faint rainbows while we walked along the paths to take pictures from various angles of the waterfalls. They were definitely the most massive waterfalls I’d ever seen!

We stayed in Iguazu (Puerto Iguazu to be exact) for 2 days/2 nights…in a hostel. I have to admit, my first real hostel. It wasn’t too bad except for all the mosquitoes and nats everywhere in our room. Since there were 3 of us, we got a private room with a private bathroom. The community area was kinda cool – they had boardgames and a tv (no tv in the room), and that’s also where we had a simple breakfast each morning. I hung out on the hammock by the pool at night while talking to Jason…very relaxing and I loved the atmosphere!

I’m definitely spoiled these days with my Marriotts and Sheratons cause it was pretty tough staying in that hostel. It was nice cause the location was great and the people were really friendly, but the bathroom was pretty disgusting.

All in all, that was my month-long trip to Argentina. Some ups and downs, but I wouldn’t mind going back to check out a few other places. Mendoza would be next on my list since I’m a huge fan of the Malbec wine from that region! I heard that the vineyards are amazing.

Sevilla: 6/6 – 6/8/08

Even though Sevilla is Spain’s 4th largest city, it definitely had a “small-town” feel.
Let me back-up to our fun-filled (and extremely long) drive to Sevilla from Madrid. True to my family tradition of driving everywhere, I opted to drive to Sevilla rather than fly or take a train. I had to come to Granada (also in the South of Spain) for 1 week for work, so I though – why not drive?
Jason, a fellow Internal Auditor, is on the Italy audit and decided to join me in Sevilla for the weekend. Since there’s a limited amount of money available to us for the weekends, we tried to save some money by me driving both of us to Sevilla. His flight got in around 9:30pm, so I picked him up at the Madrid airport and off we went!
It started out well, but turned into a little adventure. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a pretty decent sense of direction (thanks Dad!) and I absolutely hate getting lost!
Apparently no one in Spain really uses a map for driving and just relies on their GPS. I don’t really like to rely too much on technology, so I still printed up directions on http://www.viamichelin.com/. Actually a really great site for driving directions in Europe!
Unfortunately, between the darkness and the talking, I got a little distracted and at some point (probably when we stopped for dinner) the GPS reset itself and had a completely different address as the ending point! I didn’t think to check it and we followed the GPS for a good hour (through winding back roads and up and over mountains) before I became really uncomfortable with the emptiness of the roads. We checked the GPS and realized that we were still going South, but not to Sevilla!!
By this time, it was already around midnight (keeping in mind that the drive from Madrid to Sevilla is a 5 hour drive). It took us another hour to get back to the highway and on track, and we ended up FINALLY getting to our hotel in Sevilla at 4am.
On a positive note, I normally would have flipped out at the thought of getting lost, but I was more concerned with finding our way back and kept my cool…
Our hotel, Hotel Inglaterra, is located right in the Plaza Nueva in Sevilla, a really cute shopping square and a great location (walking distance from everything!) As June starts tourist season, most hotels were sold out. The hotel I really wanted to stay in (our fellow colleagues stayed there a couple months ago using points), was approx. $800/night and more Starwood points than I had! We ended up coming across it during our walk on Saturday and I can see why it cost so much! See the attached picture of the Hotel Alfonso below.
Picture of the Hotel Alfonso:
After an exhausting night, we both slept in until around noon and then grabbed some brunch before exploring the town. This time I was able to follow our walking tour as suggested in my Rick Steves’ Spain book…and I’m glad we did! What a gorgeous city!!! EXTREMELY clean (they have sanitation workers clean the streets on a nightly basis) and quiet city! There are approx. 700,000 locals and the rest are tourists. We walked around for almost 5 hours and saw the main Cathedral (gothic architecture and one of the largest of this kind in the world) as well as some gardens and just getting lost among the small streets. We stopped along the way to break from the heat and enjoy some ice cream and later in the day we enjoyed a nice, cold, refreshing beer on our way back to the hotel.

The Giraldi Belltower

one of the many plazas
Even with all the walking, this was one of the more relaxing and enjoyable weekends I’ve had…maybe part of it was the company. In the evening, we had reservations at El Arenal to enjoy a typical Flamenco dance ( show) while we ate Tapas dinner. The food wasn’t bad but the show was pretty amazing. They had 3 guitarists and 3 singers and what appeared to be a family of Flamenco dancers (both men and women). See the pictures attached below. The only other time I’ve seen people move their feet so fast was when I saw a traditional Irish Dance in Ireland (basically like the River Dance)!

my weekend companion and I pre-dinner/Flamenco show

Dinner and the show ended around midnight and since both of us were pretty exhausted…we opted out of the Sevilla night-scene and headed back to the hotel. We figured there would be plenty of time for that in Barcelona when we meet up again in a couple of weeks (along with 3 of my other colleagues coming from Italy).
There wasn’t much time to do anything on Sunday as Jason had to catch an early train back to Madrid to fly back to Rome. I hung around Sevilla a little longer to do some souvenir shopping and bought the CUTEST little Flamenco dresses for my nieces. All the regular stores were closed on Sunday, so I just relaxed with a Frap. And did some people watching in the Plaza before heading out for Granada.
The drive to Granada was actually pretty nice. The weather was great and the landscaping consisted of endless fields of sunflowers, mountains in the background, and tons of vineyards!

I’ll be in Granada for 1 week for work (during which I’ll be trying to do a little sight-seeing here as well) and then drive back to Madrid where I’ll catch a flight to Ibiza!!

Cute kid playing soccer (with his grandfather) w/an orange!

around town

Here are some more pics of Sevilla:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56292&l=3f07e&id=500066404

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56295&l=00178&id=500066404

The Rain in Spain….

Madrid - June 1, 2008

I arrived in Madrid a day early so I could spend some time doing a little sightseeing before work. Unfortunately, jet-lag got the best of me and all I was able to do was go to the Royal Palace in Madrid. I had also brought the rain to Madrid (so typical!), so I wasn’t really up for exploring much in the gross weather.
A few of my other colleagues came early as well, so Chuy and I decided to explore the city together on Sunday. After dragging myself out of bed, we took the Metro (Ruben Daria) which was 2 blocks from our Intercontinental Hotel to the city centre (Opera station). I bought a Rick Steves’ book on Spain and wanted to do a walking tour, but Chuy was still pretty jet-lagged and didn’t want to do too much. We walked to the Puerta del Sol area and grabbed some brunch first and foremost and enjoyed the weather outside while we ate. We noticed that there were tons of Policia cars – big vans like SWAT cars around the area and couldn’t figure out why. Well, we found out as we were finishing up our lunch. Apparently there was a protest scheduled (quite unusual for Madrid), and the police were there to regulate.
We heard a couple of shots (they were rubber bullets) and Chuy and I ran inside the restaurant to make sure we didn’t get involved in any of it. As we waited for things to die down, a fellow tourist (an Aussie) asked what was going on and we started talking.
Felicity turned out to be by herself for a couple days in Madrid prior to doing a 1 month tour of Europe with her sister. I know I would hate to be by myself, so I invited her to join Chuy and I as we headed over to the Royal Palace. Felicity, a 26-yr old registered nurse from Sydney, was moving to London after this 1 month tour of Europe. Once the protests dissipated, we headed to the Palace where we took a pretty informative 1-hour guided tour (definitely worth the extra 2 euro). It was a gorgeous palace and one of the 3 largest in the world, but unfortunately we weren’t able to take any pictures, so you’ll just have to use the "official website"

http://www.patrimonionacional.es/en/preal/preal.htm

That was pretty much our Sunday in Madrid. I would’ve like to do more, but jetlag had hit all of us and we weren’t feeling up to continue any more exploration of the city.
Felicity and I exchanged numbers and promised to keep in touch. She’ll be in London when I go there for my UK audit in Nov/Dec, so it would be nice to have someone to go out with or show me around when I’m there! Really sweet girl…

Tuesday night...June 3, 2008

My tour book suggested a Tapas/Pub crawl in the central area of Madrid (between Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Santa Ana). I was able to talk a most of my coworkers (the women) into doing this tapas crawl with me. Not exactly what we expected as most of the places did not have seats and you just stood at a counter to have a beer or sangria with one or two plates of tapas.
The first place we stopped at was dedicated to Bull Fighting, La Taurina. Pictures everywhere and bull heads on plaques were mounted on the walls. Spain is really big on pork and seafood, so I opted for some calamari while Sonia, another coworker, got the grilled shrimp (soaked in garlic butter) and we all shared a pitcher of delicious Sangria!
Place #2 – the Museum of Ham…totally touristy, but we had to go. Obviously the chef specialty was anything ham, so I got a ham & cheese croquette while Tracy, one of my coworkers, got the Iberico Ham, and again – we all tried some of the tapas and each had a glass of Sangria. The employees were pretty nice to us and even gave us a few things “complimentary”, so we even tried some really good Chorrizo. By the end of Place #2, I was pretty stuffed, but we Tracy was still hungry so we hit up one more spot on the list.

Place #3 had phenomenal wine! We went to La Casa del Abuelo. I was too full to eat, but Tracy ordered the specialty, shrimp w/garlic butter. Same thing as the first place, but everyone agreed that Place #1 was better. However, the wine was so good at Place #3 (and cheap at 1.90 euro/glass!), I’m definitely going back to pick up a bottle to bring home.

The only downfall I have to say about the food (as yummy as it is), is that Spaniards use entirely too much Olive Oil!! I've never seen so much oil in my life - from eggs, to fries, to paella and shrimp....you name it, there's olive oil on it! I'm gonna have to work out double-overtime just to offset all the heavy food I've been eating!
After almost 3 hours of “tapas-crawling”, we decided we had had enough and headed back to the Metro to go to the hotel. The Metro in Madrid is fairly new and SUPER clean!!! Extremely easy to use and what I consider pretty cheap! Only 1 euro/trip or 6.70 euro for a 10-ride pass. The train itself reminded me of a MUCH cleaner version of the Paris trains. The stations were clean and simple; however not handicap-friendly, and definitely make you climb TONS of stairs! I joked with the girls that no one needs to go to the gym if they just use the Metro a few times a day.
That’s pretty much it for Madrid (for now)…work has been keeping me pretty busy and I’ve also been hitting up the gym almost daily. Getting used to the eating schedule of Spaniards has been a little difficult and will definitely mess me up when I get home.
Lunch doesn’t start until 1 or 2pm and most things are closed from 4-8pm.
Restaurants don’t even open for dinner until 9pm daily and most people usually go to dinner around 10pm. Pretty tough for someone who needs lots of sleep and typically goes to bed around that time!
I’ve also been driving a lot around Spain. We have rental cars for work and since most of my coworkers don’t like to drive (especially in the horrible Madrid traffic), I’ve been taking the wheel every day. Our Controller was nice enough to let me borrow his Tom Tom (GPS), but even so, I’ve gotten lost a few times…not fun in an unfamiliar area and when it’s rush hour traffic!! I’ve definitely had my fair share of Honks to last me a while.

The Plaza Mayor - awesome place for people watching!

As you can tell, the architecture of the buildings is amazing....check out this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56284&l=f8c7a&id=500066404

A Scenic Tour of Western Ireland

Things have been EXTREMELY busy at work these days for me, so I've been a little behind on my posting already. I figured I could at least post my pictures so you guys could see what's going on in Ireland. It's definitely winter here, but at least it's not as cold as it was when I was in Chicago!! However, we DID bring the snow here! Apparently it hadn't snowed here in years...little did they know that I bring crazy weather (usually in the form of rain) wherever I go. We went to the Cliffs of Moher near Galway - they were gorgeous, but unfortunately it was too foggy to get a good view. It was also ridiculously cold and windy!

Well, here are my pics and I'll try to write a little more later. It's kinda nice having a car to drive around (even though it's on the other side of the road)...we're able to check out the country side and drive to different spots within the country. On our way back from Galway, we took the scenic coastal route to Sligo and stopped every 10 minutes or so to take pictures.

Obviously we couldn't do this the whole time or we'd never make it back, so after about 4 hours we decided to just get back to the comforts of home (well, hotel).

enjoy the pics!

I'm moving to Langkawi!

Langkawi, Malaysia (Jan 25 - Jan 27, 2008)

I can see why most Malaysians come here for vacation. We stayed at “the best” hotel/resort on the Palau Langkawi Island, The Andaman, and it held true to my expectations. Phenominal service, beautiful hotel located in a 50-million year old rainforest. The beach was gorgeous and we were able to take a G-Cat out on the Andaman Sea and also kayaked out to a small nearby island.
All in all, a great relaxing weekend with a little bit of activity to keep us from getting bored. Got some good sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather!
Click on the picture below! Maybe it’ll warm you guys up! :-)

Karaoke and Thaipusam in KL

Click on both pictures below to see my fun Karaoke experience (Jan 22, 2008) with our local office and the witnessing of Thaipusam at the Batu Caves (Jan 23, 2008)

Karaoke!!




@ the Batu Caves

Booo Bangkok…1//18/08 – 1/20/08

Tuk Tuks and Taxis, No Thanks!




So this is probably one of the more negative entries you’ll read of mine. Our weekend in Bangkok was an interesting one. We were able to see several of the things we wanted to, but overall it was a pretty stressful weekend. Those of you who have not been to Bangkok will probably want to pay attention to the following:
1. Taxis will definitely try to rip you off here! Not that in most places they don’t try, but it was especially frustrating in Bangkok.
Christina and I “roughed” it (comparatively speaking) at a local hotel called D’Ma Pavillion. which we were under the impression that it was close to a Sky Train and walking distance from our other co-workers at the Marriott – not the case. Our lovely hotel staff failed to mention that there is a phone # you can call and report your taxi if they try to charge you a flat fee and not use the meter as required by law. Our first night we were running late and ended up paying at least double the normal rate on a couple of occasions. We also went out Friday night after dinner and we had to pay 4x the meter rate as it was “after midnight” and all the taxis were trying to rip people off. As late as it was, we just paid the guy so we could get back and sleep. Taxis in Bangkok are extremely cheap, starting at $1 USD going to $7 USD by meter to get to the International Airport…This would have been nice to know in advance, but when you travel with other people, you tend to rely too much on the fact that others have done their homework…A lesson I’ve learned and won’t be doing again.
2. As fun and cheap as it is to ride in a Tuk Tuk, they too will rip you off. subtly, but also more dangerously.
They will provide you with cheap transportation but take you to a “factory outlet” or some other type of shopping store to buy jewelry or get tailor clothes, etc where you have a good chance of being talked into buying something at an overpriced rate. Obviously they get some kickbacks for this.
3. You will find a lot of con artists in Bangkok, especially in the tourist areas (Grand Palace is where we encountered many).
They will come up to you, nicely dressed, and tell you that the Palace or whatever place is closed for a certain amount of time. They are from Tourist Information and suggest that you go to see a few other places and some shopping stores where you can get things very cheap and it just happens that they’re only open this particular weekend (in our case – to celebrate the New Year). So many people approached us that I got pretty frustrated and almost lashed out at a few. It was pretty overwhelming and very annoying. When we finally made it into the Grand Palace, there were several signs that said “Do not listen to Strangers, especially if offered a Boat Ride, Tuk Tuk, or visit to the Lucky Buddha.”
It sounded like there’s a whole operation going on – like a Con Artists Union or something.
4. Bangkok is DIRRRRTTYYY…I mean, I can handle some smog here and there, but by the end of Saturday, I could feel the grains of dirt on my face and exposed skin…my feet were a different color and it wasn’t a tan that caused it!

Grand Palace - I wasn't covered enough so I had to borrow clothes

OK – so that’s all the complaining and warnings out of the way. I’m glad I came to experience the city, but I don’t plan on coming back for another visit.
We did use the Sky Train and River Ferry when possible since Taxis were just ridiculous with the whole meter/flat charge thing (more for principle than cost purposes), and we were able to see the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha and Reclining Buddha as well as the Weekend Market on Sunday.

@ the Reclining Buddha

We also went to a few nice restaurants recommended by Holly, my coworker who’s on the Thailand audit right now, and we did check out the night scene, which is pretty good. At least more exciting than KL’s. That being said – I’m excited to go back to KL.
Christina and I went to this place called Tapas in the Soi 4 area to meet up with an ex-Internal Auditor who lives in Bangkok now, Allexia. Really sweet Laos girl who speaks Thai and is a lot of fun! Tapas had some good music and definitely provided for some good people watching. I did notice a lot of non-Asian guys and Asian girls together. Apparently the guy to girl ratio is 3-to-5 (good for you guys!), but it makes the girls here extremely competitive for attention. They get pretty aggressive and are total jerks when it comes to another girl talking to “their” guy. I found it entertaining, but it also got old really quick.

All in all, that was my experience in Bangkok…The Grand Palace was AMAZING!!! See my pics below. But besides that, nothing else really going on…looking forward to next weekends beach trip to Langkawi! We’re staying in this hotel called the Andaman, which is supposed to be pretty nice. At least they provide free snorkeling, so that should be fun!

Click on this link to see more Bangkok pictures

I’ll write about Bali as soon as I get a chance, but that weekend was mostly relaxing at the Bali Hyatt resort in Sanur and checking out Monkey Forest Road in Ubud.

I hope all is well and please keep in touch/email! Getting a little homesick these days…

Bali - weekend of 1.11 - 1.13.08

Bali was awesome! Unfortunately 2 days is never enough, but if you click on the pictures below you can get an idea what we did.



A lot of time was spent just relaxing at our Bali Hyatt Resort in Sanur.

We also hung out with over 400 monkeys in Ubud at the Monkey Forest Sanctuary.

Exploring KL

Here are some pics from my day of exploring. Not a whole lot considering we had a late start (I was busy working on the previous 2 entries below!)

click on the picture below to see all...

Let’s start 2008 off right!! Jan 2 – Jan 6, 2008: Singapore, Singapore

Here are a couple pics of my cutie nieces that I finally got to see over the holidays!! I didn't have a productive vacation, but it was well worth it to see my family and spend some quality time with them...All this traveling has really made me appreciate the time I'm with them:

Before I get sidetracked with a million other things, here’s a little bit about my time in Singapore. I think my new phrase for the moment is “It’s all relative”. I find myself saying that a lot these days…let me explain why.

So I flew back to Chicago from Bama on January 1. My flight was slightly delayed, but not by much so it all worked out fine and I had most of the 1st to unpack, do laundry, re-pack, clean and run a few errands prior to leaving early January 2nd to fly to the other side of the world. Yes, it was a bit rushed, but as I’ve spent the last 8 months living out of suitcases and packing/unpacking almost every week – the packing part has gotten pretty easy these days. It also helps to have a checklist.

January 2nd, I ran a bit late but made my flight with enough time to spare. In and out of sleep while on the plane, I soon realized that after 3 hours we were still on the ground. Some mechanical issues with the air-con caused us to have to go back to the gate, but at the end of the day…no biggie. I’ve realized that a few hours of delays may get annoying, but “it’s all relative” and it’ll work out. The flight was long and slightly painful for a few reasons:
It was a full flight, so in order to get my normal “Economy Plus” seat – I had to sit in the middle.
The flight from Chicago to Singapore was approx. 20 hours, connecting in Hong Kong.
I forgot to charge my I-Pod prior to flying and realized that the battery was dead.
I’d seen all the movies that they were playing on our flight.

Lucky enough for me my co-worker Holly had some sleeping pills that knocked me out for most of the flight! Since the majority of our flight to Hong Kong had to catch the connection to Singapore, they held the flight for us and we made it in time…landing in Singapore only 1 hr late. So it all worked out ok! And, I have a really great friend who sacrificed his sleep to meet us at the airport at 1am.

Unfortunately my co-workers, Christina and Shannon did not have the same luck that I did. Long story short, they ended up in and out of airplanes and airports in Chicago and Hong Kong over the course of 3 days due to plane mechanical issues, delays, missed connections and the sheer ridiculousness of dealing with rescheduling flights with United Airlines. It took them almost an hour to tell me the whole story and I truly felt bad for them. They ended up completely missing a weekend in Singapore since they spent it in airports! Maybe it happened for a reason, so we need to look at it that way - better they were on the ground than in the air and have technical issues...but my small delays were nothing compared to their ordeal - "it's all relative".

Singapore was good, actually nicer than I expected. I’ve heard mixed things about it:
Some people loved it (shopping, food, cleanliness, safety, etc.)
Some people don’t like it (possible “Big Brother” conspiracies, too many rules, etc.)
Some people were a mixture of all of the above.

I actually really liked it. Granted, I didn’t see a whole lot in the 2 days I was there (thanks to jet-lag and the rain); but overall, I really liked the cleanliness, safety and the fact that it is actually a beautiful area – lots of trees and greenery around. The Singapore Zoo was awesome!!! Unfortunately we missed the Night Safari due to dinner plans one night and rain the next night. Sentosa Island was also very cool, but we only had time to ride the Luge a few rounds and walk up to the MerLion statue before the downpour hit us and we headed back to Raman’s place.

(click on the picture below to see my Singapore pictures!)

Friday night I met up with some family that lives in Singapore – cousins of my Dad. It’s always initially awkward to meet relatives that you’ve never met before, but Hemu and Shagun were really great! A pretty young couple with a very energetic 4-year old daughter and a gorgeous dog and cat (that I didn’t see due to allergies). Their apartment was beautiful and wonderfully decorated with all sorts of Asian items from around. It also happened that my Dad’s Aunt and her family were in Singapore on holiday, so they came to dinner as well. The reunion was really nice and dinner was yummmmmy J. I’m never one to say no to Indian food and I had LOTS of it that night! We stayed there pretty late, but I headed back to Raman’s with a second wind and ready to go check out the Singapore night-life!

Everyone was basically ready for bed when I got back, but I was able to talk Raman into taking me out so I could at least say that I’ve seen the scene ;-). We headed to Clark Quay – apparently where the tourists and ex-pats hang out…and it provided for some good people watching. Clark Quay was a little area on the Singapore River that was filled with streets of bars, restaurants, outdoor eating areas and patios and clubs. We walked around for a bit then proceeded to just hang out at one of the patios and catch up on things…probably one of my favorite things to do with my old friend.

Saturday was Sentosa since we went to the Zoo on Friday with Barun – a friend of Raman’s who was also in town for a few days on a hiatus from his trip to Nepal. He definitely preferred Nepal over Singapore, but I don’t think Barun is much of a shopper anyways. I’d heard a lot about Barun over the years and he had heard about me, so I already felt like I knew him so well…oddly enough, this was our first time actually hanging out together. (side note: Barun makes really great Chai which he so graciously made for us every morning!) It was a good relaxing day at the Zoo and we even got to watch them feed a polar bear – very cool by the way!

Saturday night, Raman had his “going away party” since this was his last weekend in Singapore. Sunday he headed out to South India for a week and then back to the States, Cincinnati and hopefully some rest! But the whole purpose of his party was to get rid of some alcohol that he inherited from a friend who moved from Singapore a few months ago as well as to see his friends here before leaving. Funny thing is that the first 5 people who arrived didn’t even want any alcohol!
As more people came, more people drank and finally took some of the bottles home with them. Since Holly didn’t make it out to Clark Quay on Friday, I took her there Saturday night while Raman entertained his other guests. We walked around a bit and then posted up at the patio outside of Attica so we could eat some Tapas and listen to the good dancing music. We spent the whole night just talking, so we didn’t even make it inside any of the bars or clubs! We arrived back at Raman’s around 1:30ish to find the party was winding down but not over. Oh, by “party”, I mean lots of people sitting around talking about work, news and politics mostly. A really good get-together, but definitely not like a party I would have had. It was actually a nice change of pace J. The people that I talked to were pretty interesting and everyone was really nice, so it’s nice to know that he had a good group of people out here…plus, Raman’s really good at getting me in touch with other friends when I travel, so now I’ve met a few people in advance!

After everyone left, I was nice enough to stay up all night with Barun since he had to leave at 6am Sunday morning to head back to Nepal for a bit before returning to the States. We played some games and watched a movie and before I knew it…it was morning! Needless to say, Sunday was exhausting and I crashed not long after eating an early dinner in my hotel room.

Speaking of hotel rooms – I checked into the Ritz Carlton here in KL, only to find that my suite is AMAZING!! Not like I’m not spoiled enough, but I have a little living area in my room, a great bathtub and shower in the bathroom, free ironing (great since I despise ironing!) AND my own personal butler!! I just call him when I want anything from tea to juice to a newspaper, reservations, snacks, information, etc. It’s pretty sweet, I have to admit. The Ritz is also in a really great area so Christina and I walked around a bit last night (Wednesday) to check it out. The humidity here is insane and reminded me of how hot Japan was, but I’ll take it any day to the 4-below, windy, snowy weather in Chicago!!

The hotel is also connected to this place called the Starhill Gallery which is a ridiculously expensive shopping mall with over 22 restaurants. The owner of the Ritz also owns this mall, so all the food from the restaurants can be billed to our hotel rooms. We had Lebanese food last night at this restaurant in the Gallery called Tarbush…SOOOO GOOD!!! I definitely want to go there again, but I think we’re going to try a different restaurant each day we’re here. They all have their own theme and look really nice, so I can’t wait to try them out! From Chinese to Japanese to American, Indian, Lebanese, Tapas, etc….you name it, they have it. I better keep up with my daily workouts or I could definitely put on some pounds out here!

Well, I’m off to explore, but I’ll post some KL pics later this week. Oh, and we’re heading to BALI this weekend!! I’ll be sure to write about it later as well…I’m definitely excited about hitting up the beach and getting a nice (but cheap) massage J.

Btw – thanks Raman for lending me your Lonely Planet book!! Definitely great for some initial research and planning.

Playing Catch-Up: Last weekend in Guatemala (Nov. 30 – Dec. 1, 2007)

For our last weekend in Guatemala, the girls and I went to Tikal to see some more Mayan ruins. This weekend was probably the best one I’d had while in Guatemala for the month. The Tikal Mayan ruins are in a rainforest and much more beautiful than Chichen Itza!! I had low expectations due to my disappointment in Chichen Itza, but I’m glad I was wrong.

First we stayed in a beautiful hotel – the Camino Real. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but right on the lake and would have been a very romantic resort if I wasn’t with my fellow co-workers. The best part about this hotel was sunset. It was really gorgeous! (you can check it out in my pictures)

(click on the picture below to see my Tikal, Guatemala pics!)

We went through a travel agency, so there was no hassle for anything! Our tour guide, Mario, spoke great English and was extremely informative. Overall, we had a really great tour of Tikal and walked all over the place!! I think about 6 miles in total. The link above has all my Tikal pictures to peruse as you see fit. We even got to see some monkeys, but my pictures didn’t turn out so great.

Turns out that our tour guide, Mario, who is also in Medical School, doubled as a bartender. Lucky us!! We were up to check out the night scene on Saturday night, so Mario came to pick us up from our hotel and took us to Flores. The nearby city (also where we flew in to). There’s a lot more going on in Flores – more hotels, restaurants, bars, etc., so if you’re not looking for resort/peace and quiet…Flores might be a better place to stay. We hung out at Mario’s place, Tropicana, for most of the night and had a blast! We were treated like royalty – they even “created” a table for us to sit down since there were no seats available. I’m not sure if it was because we were 4 girls or because we were with Mario – maybe both! We definitely got a lot of “looks”, but we didn’t care! We snacked on some nachos made from the kitchen, taught Mario and his friends how to play “flip cup” and the other girls enjoyed their Michiladas. I’m personally not a fan of them, but some people LOVE them. A michilada is like a Bloody Mary with tobasco, salt, limejuice and beer. So after a while, we wanted to go dancing and Mario took us to a “club” next door. Oh my – talk about crowded!! My claustrophobic-ness definitely kicked in and we didn’t stay more than 5 minutes. By this time we were tired and ready to head back to our little resort, so back we went!

Oh! One more thing – I forgot to mention that one of the Star Wars movies was filmed in Tikal…does this look familiar???

"You are looking at the locationof the secret rebel base from the original Star Wars(Episode 4), which could only be taken from Temple 4.The scenic vista appears at least three times in Star Wars, for only a few seconds, but it's Tikal for certain. "

http://www.geocities.com/intrepidberkeleyexplorer/Page17E.html