Top 12 of 2012!

So for me, 2012 was quite the year of traveling - I spent almost 4 months abroad, visited 9 new countries, and took what appears to be hundreds--if not thousands--of pictures (enough that they've slowed down my computer's iPhoto application to a virtual standstill).  On the off chance that anyone's still subscribing to this blog (and so I can look back on this 30 years from now when iPhoto has, in fact, lost all my photos), I decided to put together a top 12 travel moments/experiences of 2012, in chronological order.  Thanks so much to all the people that made these moments possible this year!

1. Visiting the Harpoon Brewery (Boston, MA)

So yes, this was not technically MY travel experience, but when Chris and Steph came to visit Boston in the spring, we went with Alistair on the Harpoon Brewery tour, which was absolutely fantastic and maybe one of the more fun hours and a half of my year.  This visit also led to the infamous "Wobble" experience at our TPP Memorial Day barbecue.

2. Juice Breaks in Bali (Ubud, Bali, Indonesia) 

While in some travel locations it's imperative to stop for afternoon tea (or even a strategic pint) while exploring, in Bali we always stopped for fresh squeezed juice, which usually cost on the order of $2-3 USD.  At this little restaurant we met a local flying a kite with his son over the rice paddies at the back. He let both Chris and I try it out, and we had fun wandering around the paddies trying to take artsy photos of ourselves.

3. Meeting Tiger Cubs in Thailand (Tiger Temple, Kanchanaburi, Thailand)

On our second day in Bangkok, Lexi, Chris, and I took an excursion to ride elephants and pet tigers in western Thailand.  While we thought that the elephant rides would be the highlight of the day, the Tiger Temple was actually amazing - the three of us got to pet this little guy in addition to a lot of full-grown (and very scary) tigers.

4. Swimming in the Marina Bay Sands Infinity Pool (Singapore, Singapore)

One of our last weeks in Singapore, a few of us decided to split a room at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel to gain access to the rooftop infinity pool (pictured above).  We spent our stay hanging out by the pool, swimming, and at the hotel's casino...perhaps one of the most luxurious 20 hours of my life.  Definitely something I won't be forgetting any time soon!

5. My First Flight in a Prop Plane (Tioman Island, Malaysia)

For our journey back from Malaysia, Chris, Melanie, and I traveled via Berjaya Air, which runs exactly two flights per day out of Tioman Island, Malaysia (one to Kuala Lumpur and one to Singapore).  I had never flown in that small a plane before and am notoriously afraid of heights, so it was a slightly stressful experience (to say the least).  After only forty minutes, however, we landed in Singapore safe and sound--it was way easier than the bus/ferry combination we had taken to get to the island, for sure!

6. Walking Fish (Outside of Ko Panyi, Thailand)

An entirely inconsequential part of our trip, these walking fish were by far the coolest little bugs I've ever seen in my life.  While on a kayaking tour around a bay off the coast of Phuket, our guide showed us these little guys, who swim during high tide and then wander around using their fins as legs during low tide.  They're also really aggressive and fight all the time--the big one with his mouth open in the photo above is actually yelling at the smaller one!

7. Staying at the Kelebek Cave Hotel (Goreme, Turkey)

Between delayed flights, airline changes, long customs lines, and an overnight bus ride, Alice and I had a LOT of trouble getting to Goreme, but the Kelebek Hotel was worth the wait!  This gorgeous boutique hotel overlooked all of Goreme, and the breakfast buffet (a sample of which is pictured above) was to die for.  We also treated ourselves to a spa night at the hamam (Turkish bath), which was located in the basement of one of the cave pillars.  I've stayed in some pretty cool places, not gonna lie, but this one has to take the cake!

8. The Istanbul Spice Market (Istanbul, Turkey)

I adored pretty much our whole visit to Turkey, but the Spice Market was definitely one of the cooler experiences we had.  For a while Alice and I just strolled around taking everything in, then we both made some amazing purchases that I'm still using in my kitchen today.  Weird to say, but also one of the best-smelling places I've ever been....

9. A Beach Day on the Aegean (Outside of Thessaloniki, Greece)

As a special treat, Katerina, our guide/hostess in Thessaloniki, brought Vivek, Megan, and I to her favorite beach outside of Thessaloniki for a wonderful break during our trip.  We swam, drank frappes, and had the most amazing lunch with a view of the Aegean.  Like any good grad student, I brought some light reading to pass the time (pictured above).

10. Dinner Overlooking Volos (Mount Pelion, Greece)

I tried hard to limit the number of meals included in this list (not a bad effort, eh?), but this dinner was too wonderful to overlook--we had warm feta with honey and sesame seeds, rabbit stew, wine, and many other things we were too busy eating to remember to photograph.  Like most greek restaurants do, our waitress brought us a dessert on the house at the end of the meal, after which we returned full and happy to our small hotel in the next village.

11. Day Trip to Colonia (Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay)

After the conclusion of our conference, Katerina and I decided to take a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, a small city in Uruguay about an hour by ferry from Buenos Aires.  Although we were only there for a few hours, the city was beautiful and we had a fantastic time--we met lots of wonderful people, bought some souvenirs, and ate a fantastic lunch.  Although Buenos Aires was also fabulous, I really loved the small-town feel of Colonia and how friendly all the locals were.

12. Visiting Iguazu Falls (Iguazu, Argentina)

Thanks to the recommendation of my Uncle Mark, I made the trek from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, Argentina, a city on the border with Brazil home to one of the world's greatest waterfalls.  I spent about a day here exploring the national park that surrounds the falls, and it really was one of the more beautiful and amazing places I've ever been.

Well, that's it, folks!  2012 really was an amazing year for my travel, and although I don't expect that 2013 will reach the same level (how could it?) I'm sure I'll have more to update this blog with in the future.  To all of you that have patiently read this thing for the last six months, thank you so much...and have a happy and healthy new year!

Lots of love,

Dara

SEFI 2012: It's all Greek (and Swiss) to Me!

So as you may or may not have noticed, I never actually got around to blogging about Alice and my adventures in Istanbul, although they were promised in a previous blog post.  Despite this social media gaffe on my part (oops), photos have been posted from that part of our Turkey trip, and they can be found on my Facebook here.

The reason I'm back to this sporadically-updated blog is that I'm just finishing a 10-day trip to Zurich and Thessaloniki, Greece, and it's time to provide some more updates and (hopefully) pretty photos from my wanderings.

Last Saturday morning, I landed in Zurich at about 10 AM after a not-so-satisfying nap on my Swiss Air flight from Boston.  After freshening up at the airport, I took a train to Zuirch's central train station, which is right at the end of the Bahnhofstrasse, a main tourist/shopping area running through the middle of the city.  After exploring that area (in the rain) for a bit, I snapped a few photos at Lake Zurich, grabbed a delicious lunch (sausage with onions, "Zurich style"), and then headed to the Kunsthaus Museum, which had a great collection (I especially loved the contemporary art).  After a quick hot chocolate at a cafe off of the Bahnhofstrasse (the Swiss sit outside at cafes even if it's cold and pouring), I took a train back to the airport, where I promptly fell asleep on a couch at the Starbucks until it was time to head through security (which, for the record, includes all-automated ticket and ID checking).  Overall, it was a nice mini-trip, although I've learned that (a) Switzerland is VERY expensive and (b) I do not function well on four hours of sleep.  Oh well.

Look, Mom, I really went to Switzerland!  The view of the Bahnhofstrasse.

Of course you have to get hot chocolate.

The first few days after arriving in Greece were a whirlwind of food, conference activities, and living in my first-ever AirBnB home stay, a lovely studio apartment in Kalamaria, to the east of downtown Thessaloniki.  The conference (for the Society of European Engineering Education, or "SEFI") itself was a good experience - my presentation went extremely well, and one audience member came up after to thank me for putting together such a clear and well-explained talk (YES!).  I received lots of good questions, and it seemed like everyone in the room thought what I was doing with SUTD was pretty awesome (I think it is too).  Despite the craziness of the conference schedule, within the first few days here we also found some time to go to the beach, where we ate amazing seafood and drank frappés, the unofficial drink of Thessaloniki.  Although we don't know exactly what they are, it appears to be a blended, chilled coffee drink, whipped until there is foam on top and generally served with milk and copious amounts of sugar.  Yum.

The view from our lunch at the beach - not bad!

The frappé generally comes with free food.  Which is awesome.

After conference activities ended, we had one day in Thessaloniki before taking our side trip to Mount Pelion (more on that below).  This also turned out to be a strike day in Greece, when many of the major unions (including many public workers and, terrifyingly, air traffic controllers) got together to protest EU austerity measures.  Despite the chaos downtown, we managed to take a self-guided walking tour of the older parts of the city in the morning, with one unexpected turn: we saw a few young people graffiti-ing the Old City in broad daylight!  There's tons of graffiti everywhere here, but it was definitely a surprise to see a group just walk up to a wall with some spray paint at 11 o'clock in the morning.  The rest of the day was a bit less exciting, although we ended with an absolutely delicious dinner at a restaurant with a really unique blend of tastes - it was influenced by the Turkish-Greek cuisine that existed in the northeast of the country before the population exchanges.  Highlights included retsina, a special Greek white wine infused with sap, and a feta mousse (yes, this exists, and yes, it is amazing).

Not the graffiti we saw being done, but a good example of what many Thessaloniki walls look like.

Protesters march through the city center.

The next day, Vivek and Megan picked me up in a rental car to begin our drive to Mount Pelion, a mountain situated on a peninsula in the Aegean Sea about halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki and the mythological home of the centaurs (I kid you not).  Portaria, the village in which we stayed, was about a 3-hour drive from Thessaloniki, although we made a bunch of scenic stops along the way (including a few beaches, a castle, a beautiful gorge, and the actual Mount Olympus).  After arriving in Portaria and settling our schedule with the proprietor of our inn, the three of us drove to a neighboring village called Makrinista to watch the sunset and have dinner at a small restaurant off the main square.  This may have been our most incredible meal in Greece so far; we had "small goat," grilled feta with sesame seeds and honey, stuffed zucchini, bean soup, and the customary free dessert that we've received almost everywhere we've eaten.  The view was also fantastic, and it was just a really lovely meal overall.

The sunset view on Mount Pelion.

The next day, Katerina had suggested that we drive to the "back" of the mountain to go to the beach at one of the remote swimming areas along the shore.  What I had no idea was that this entailed an hour and a half of the curviest, smallest, least-guard-railed roads I've ever encountered, as well as the fact that we needed to drive up and over the mountain to reach our destination.  Given my fear of heights this was slightly petrifying, but we eventually made it and the beach was totally worth it!  We spent a few hours there, had a small lunch (or small by this trip's standards, anyway), then drove back to the hotel and worked a bit before another lovely dinner at a small tavern in Makrinista.

The beach!  Not bad for September, eh?

Yesterday, we drove back to Thessaloniki, and it's been a really relaxing last couple of days in the city. Vivek, Megan, and Katerina all left this morning, so I've been spending some time catching up on my work and seeing a few last sights in the city.  Today I climbed the White Tower (as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the White Tower is to Thessaloniki) and also went to the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki, which was a lovely (albeit very small) tribute to the historic Jewish population here.  It's an incredibly sad story - the Sephardic Jewish population of Thessaloniki topped 100,000 at points (specifically during the Spanish Inquisition), but all 50,000 that remained here during the 1940s were transported to Auschwitz, where 96% died before the end of the war.  Despite the sad content, it was a well-presented museum and I'd recommended it to anyone happening to visit Thessaloniki in the future!

View from Thessaloniki's White Tower.

Tonight is my last night in town (I'm planning on a delicious last meal at Greek dinner time, which is about 9:00), and I'll be flying back to Boston tomorrow afternoon for 13 days of work before my next conference, the World Engineering Education Forum, in Buenos Aires.  Wish me luck with getting everything done, as well as safe travels back to the good 'ole US of A!

Dara

Cappadocia: The most magical place on Earth?

Hello from Istanbul!

So clearly, Alice and I made it safely to Turkey and through the first leg of our trip, and although we've already been here for 5 days, I'm just now getting some time to sit down and put together some thoughts on our travels thus far.

Sunday afternoon, after packing up my things and watching some last-minute Olympics coverage, one of my students from the summer offered me a ride to the airport in Singapore, which was both incredibly nice and incredibly important (as he was the one who managed to successfully argue with the check-in desk when they tried to skimp me on my luggage allowance).  About 15 hours later, I landed at London Heathrow, where I spent 4.5 hours clearing immigration, collecting my luggage, changing terminals, checking into a new airline, passing through security, and eating a nice breakfast, all on one of the busiest days in Heathrow's history.  Everything went okay, however (snaps to the Brits!), and Alice and I managed to rendezvous just fine at the Istanbul airport, despite hellishly long lines for both visas and immigration clearance.

Using the Istanbul metro, the two of us (and all of our luggage!) made it to the Esenler Octogar, the main bus terminal in Istanbul.  Long-distance buses are a very normal mode of transport in Turkey, and we managed to find our bus to Goreme (a town in the central Cappadocia region) with the help of some friendly bus attendants (like flight attendants, but for buses!).  Twelve hours later, we got off the bus and made it to our hotel...for the record, at this point I had been traveling for about 42 hours straight.

Alice and I were both absolutely exhausted, but our hotel - called the Kelebek Hotel and Cave Pension - more than made up for the journey.  The staff members were welcoming and attentive, the breakfast and view from the terrace was amazing, and our room was in an actual cave (see below).  Even though we arrived at about 8 AM, the staff made sure we got into our room straight away, and even let us help ourselves to breakfast even though we weren't technically guests of the hotel as of yet.

Breakfast spread at our hotel - fresh cheeses, vegetables, honey straight from the comb, and LOTS of olives.

The view from Kelebek's breakfast terrace- the pointy things are called "fairy chimneys" and are the most famous type of rock formation in Cappadocia. 

Our room!  In a cave!

Understandably, our first day we were fairly exhausted, so after a long nap we headed into town to do some quick shopping and grab some snacks and cay (Turkish tea, which is pronounced "chai"), as well as smoothies made from fresh fruit, honey, and thick yogurt (what we would call "Greek" yogurt in the US).  In the evening, we returned to our hotel to visit the hamam (Turkish bath).  After the discomfort of our travels, Al and I decided to spring for the full experience - we checked out the sauna, got exfoliating treatments, received face masks, and finished with short massages.  That evening I definitely slept like a rock!

The hamam at our hotel.  For the exfoliating treatment, they make you lie on the heated marble in the center, do the exfoliating stuff, then they cover you in bubbles and throw bowls of water on you to remove everything.  It was definitely a unique experience!

The next day, we decided to take a guided tour through an agency associated with our hotel, which ended up being us and about 10 other people from Italy, the US, and Canada.  Our first stop was a town called Mustafapasa, a city in Cappadocia with several thousand years worth of history, which our tour guide ran through in about 10-15 minutes.  Most interestingly, Mustafapasa was a place where Greek Christians, Turkish Christians, and Turkish Muslims lived (relatively) peacefully together for hundreds of years, until the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923.  At this point, Greece and Turkey did a "population exchange" - essentially a forced relocation of Muslims in Greece to Turkey and Christians in Turkey to Greece.

The large building in front was originally a church (you can see the tiny tiny spire above the apex just to the right), but when Muslims conquered the area, it was converted into a mosque.

After Mustafapasa, we drove to the Keslik Monastery, a series of caves in 4 fairy chimneys that would have once held 200-400 priests and students (about 1000 years ago).  This is the first place we got to see paintings in caves used as churches (see below), which were really beautiful, although badly damaged by soot (hence the black layer on top) and various vandalism across the ages.  We also got to see the kitchen and dining area for members of the monastery, which was really cool!

Paintings in the church (covered in 17th and 18th century graffiti).

Alice sits in the dining room of the monastery - in front of her is a table carved into the stone of the cave, and on either side were long benches for the students to sit and eat.

After the monastery, we made a quick stop to an archaeological site excavating ruins left by the Romans during a campaign through central Turkey.  Although funding has been limited and therefore excavation has been slow, there were some incredible mosaics in near-perfect condition unearthed and on display (see below).

Mosaics!

After a group lunch, we started a short hike through the Soganli Valley, where we got to see a few more churches and rock formations.  The one below was probably the coolest we saw - at the top there were two church rooms, one on top of the other, and below that (on the right side of the photo) was where families would live, cook, and raise their children.  It was amazing to me that this one big rock was an entire community, and some people may go their whole life without straying far from it.

A Cappadocian neighborhood.

Our final stop of the day was the Derinkuyu Underground city, the deepest of the 32 discovered underground cities in Turkey (the lowest level unearthed thus far is 70 meters below the surface!).  Used up until the 11th century, these cities were built to allow farming communities to hide from whatever invading army happened through the region, and they had areas designated for family quarters, cooking, worshipping, meeting, and even stables for the livestock.  Although archeologists don't really know how many people lived there at a given time, estimates range from 2,000-10,000 people, with maximum estimates of 60,000!

None of my pictures from the underground city really came out (clearly) - but as you can see it looks like...a cave.

On our final day, we visited the Goreme Open Air Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of dozens of Fairy Chimneys with housing and churches inside.  One of the churches, called the "Dark Church," had some of the more amazing frescoes we'd seen, and even included a rare depiction of Jesus in his teenage years!  The dates on the various paintings ranged from about the 6th to the 12th centuries, so we got to see a good mix of different styles and such throughout the tour.

After a delicious dinner of testi kebap (lamb stew cooked in a terra cotta pot which is cracked open at the table) and manti (little Turkish ravioli served in a yogurt sauce), Alice and I boarded another bus bound for Istanbul, where we arrived at about 7:30 on Friday morning.  I'll save all of our Istanbul adventures for another post, most likely after returning home to the States on Wednesday.

Wish us luck for our last few days here!

Dara

Happy National Day!

As many of you may not know, August 9 is Singapore's National Day, which commemorates Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965.  It's crazy to think that this country has only been around for 47 years - imagine if 4th of July celebrations were celebrating America's 47th birthday!

Most of my close friends have already left Singapore at this point, but I was lucky enough to spend the day with a native Singaporean - Marcus, an incoming TPP who will be starting at MIT in just a few weeks.  To begin the day, Marcus took me to High Tea at the Swisshotel Stamford, a very posh buffet on the 65th floor of one of Singapore's tallest buildings.  It was really nice to be in the AC (called "air con" here) and away from the crowds, and we could see everyone gathering at street level in preparation for the National Day Parade (NDP) from our table.

The view from high tea - crowds are starting to gather at the lower left to watch the parade.

After High Tea, we wandered out into the crowds, trying to place ourselves strategically to watch the festivities, especially the evening fireworks display.  We managed to cross the bridge in the above picture, eventually settling for a standing-room table at one of the bars on the Bay, which came at a steep cover charge (but with a "free" drink).  From our spot, we had a very clear view of the Bay and could roughly see what was happening at the Parade site.

Unlike what we consider to be a "parade" in the United States, the NDP is basically a big show which celebrates the history of Singapore, most notably its current armed forces (more on this later).  The venue in which it takes place only seats 10,000 people so it is extremely difficult to get tickets (especially for foreigners); most families watch the spectacle from home on TV.  The whole thing culminates in a large fireworks display from the center of the Bay, and many of the surrounding buildings participate in the light show as well (see below).

One of many sets of fireworks during the NDP.

As I mentioned, the Singaporean military is very present in these proceedings - we saw 3 flyovers, 6 parachute jumpers, a navy boat display, a 21-gun salute, and a massive flag flown by military helicopters in the course of a 3-hour show.  Like many other countries, Singapore has a mandatory national service requirement for all of its male citizens - interestingly enough, as Singapore was being formed in the late 1960s, the new government actually contacted the IDF in Israel so they could base their program off of Israel's system.  Singapore is located very strategically and has not always had the best political position in the region, and it really seemed as if the NDP festivities were the government flexing the muscles of its impressively large defense force.  Certainly interesting to an outside observer!

GIANT flag flown over the NDP coordinated to the President's entrance.

After National Day, I have three full days left in Singapore - today was spent at Sentosa (a resort island off the coast), tomorrow I'll be visiting the Botanic Gardens, and then Sunday I'll finally be making my way to the Jurong Bird Park.  It's crazy to think that I only have two nights left here, and that my next post will be written in Goreme, Turkey!

Happy August, and looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Dara

PS: For a completely absurd look at National Day (as well as some strangely-placed commentary on Singapore's population issues), check out this YouTube video courtesy of a friend from MIT.  I warn you, it's pretty weird...

Thailand 2.0: Our Weekend in Phuket

Howdy, everyone!

So this post comes a little late, but I thought it was still worth it to provide a quick rundown of Chris and my weekend in Phuket, a beach island off the southwestern coast of Thailand.

After arriving in Phuket and making our way through the VERY long line at immigration, Chris and I were picked up by a driver at the airport and brought to our hotel in Patong Beach, one of two main town/beach areas on the island.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by the owner of our hotel: a very tan, very eccentric Australian man named Lindsay who was super helpful throughout our stay.  After informing us of all the potential dangers befalling tourists in Phuket (including but not limited to reckless tuk-tuk driving, drink spiking, ATM hacking, and passport theft), he sent us on our merry way to grab some dinner and explore the town.

The main bar/entertainment area in Patong Beach was about a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel, and on the way we made lots of little pit stops, checking out fruit markets, juice vendors (who made their smoothies with condensed milk and tons of liquefied sugar, I was unhappy to learn later), and the one Thai boxing stadium in town.  When we finally got to the bar street, it was complete sensory overload - neon signs, music blaring from every club, and thousands of people jostling their way through the street.  After walking up and down the length of the street once, we stopped for a quick drink at one of the many bars, and a woman who worked there insisted on playing a few rounds of "Connect Four" with both of us!  It turns out that I am very bad at this game (especially when sleepy), but Chris actually held his own and won his best-of-three.

In Phuket, even the taxis are meant for parties!

After our excursion into town, Chris and I headed back to the hotel and stayed up to watch the opening ceremony of the London Olympics (well, as much as the opening ceremony as we could stay awake for, considering it started at 3 AM Phuket time).  I think my assessment was similar to everyone else's - long, a bit strange, but overall quite entertaining.  It was definitely cool to see a few Michigan athletes in the mix!

Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early to grab some breakfast and head down to the beach.  Strong currents are yet another peril of Phuket, and if you're not smart and don't follow what the lifeguards are saying, it can be really dangerous.  Chris and I only stayed a few hours, however, taking quick dips in the sea (I've now kind of swum in the Indian Ocean!) and reading under our umbrella, trying to keep our sunburns from Malaysia out of the line of fire.

Yet another beautiful day at the beach!

After finishing at the beach, we went back to our hotel to freshen up (and apply more aloe) before meeting another hired driver to take us to the Phuket Weekend Market.  Although definitely not as big as Bangkok's weekend market, we still had a really great time, and got a chance to shop at a leisurely pace and get some final souvenirs from the southeast Asia part of our trip.  Upon returning to Patong Beach, we dropped all our goodies off at the room, then went and got our final Thai massages of the trip (5 massages after 6 total days in Thailand this summer, folks).  After getting back to our hotel, Lindsay and his partner greeted us with some snacks they had picked up at the market, which was so nice of them and a really great way to end the evening.

Sunday morning, we were picked up at 8:00 for our day-long speedboat excursion to Phang Nga bay, an area between Phuket and the mainland of the Malay peninsula.  After about an hour in a minibus and a short transit to the ferry dock, we boarded our speedboat, which we shared for the rest of the day with about 30 other guests and two tour guides (one English-speaking and one Russian-speaking).

Excited to be on our speedboat!

After cruising past some cool islands with amazing limestone rock formations, we arrived at our first stop of the day: Khao Phing Kan, or "James Bond Island."  In 1974, this island was used as a location for The Man with the Golden Gun as the hideout of the movie's antagonist, Francisco Scaramanga, and ever since has been one of the largest tourist traps in the region.   Even if I don't have a particular appreciation for all things Bond, it was cool to see, and was a nice stop to get off the boat and walk around for a little bit.

In front of the infamous island...

After the James Bond stop, we moved on to a sea canoeing location, which was pretty cool (although we weren't allowed to paddle our own boats and our driver kept harassing us for extra cash).  For 40 minutes, we were canoed through caves and cool rock formations, so much so that at points we had to duck so we wouldn't hit our heads.  Perhaps the weirdest/most interesting part of the day were seeing "walking fish," which were little fish that scuttled around during low tide getting into fights and making weird noises at one another (it's worthwhile to note that we also saw schools of flying fish that day - a weird fish day, I guess!).

Aggressive walking fish yelling at one another!

After our canoeing stop, we got back on the speedboat and traveled to Ko Panyi, a village of 1,600 people built entirely on stilts in the middle of Phang Nga Bay.  This village was built by Muslim immigrants in the late 18th century because of restrictions on land ownership to only Thai nationals; today, most of the people living there are descendants of the two original fishing families from Indonesia.  It was a nice lunch stop and an interesting place to walk around - some highlights included Chris getting handed a monkey by a local woman and seeing the "floating stadium" where the youth team practices (for more info on the town and stadium, check out this cool YouTube video).

Chris makes friends so easily.  This was right before it grabbed his nose...

The floating stadium!

In front of the village.

After our lunch stop, we traveled to one final island - a small beach where we spent about two hours swimming and relaxing before heading back to Phuket on the speedboat.  After getting back to our hotel, we changed, went and grabbed some dinner, then wandered around a bit more before turning in early, as we had to leave our hotel at about 6:30 to get our flight back to Singapore.

During the flight, it was so surreal to write "London" as my next port on my arrival card - I can't believe that I'm almost done my time here in Singapore!  The summer has flown by overall, but I'm so SO excited to head back and see my family in the US and move back into my lovely apartment in Cambridge.  I'll probably provide one more update on Singapore before I leave, then it's off to a 9-day Turkish vacation extravaganza with Alice!

Hugs,

Dara

Living the High Life: Our Night at Marina Bay Sands!

Hi, everyone!

So this was a special week for us here in Singapore - a few of us decided to split a room at Marina Bay Sands, one of the most luxurious and well-known hotels in Singapore.  Developed by the Las Vegas Sands, this complex is known as the most expensive standalone hotel/casino complex in the world, and the hotel itself has over 2500 rooms!

The hotel is best known for a 150-meter infinity pool, which sits on its roof deck on the 57th floor.  After check-in, we immediately dashed upstairs, and spent the several hours until dinner relaxing and swimming with an amazing view of Singapore.  The only dampers on the afternoon were the massive sunburns Chris and I are still nursing from Malaysia - we spent much of the day applying and reapplying both sunscreen and aloe.

An afternoon swim in the infinity pool!

After dinner, we went straight back to the pool, which is open until about 11:00 every night.  The view of Singapore was even more beautiful after sundown, and we also got to watch the same light show as we did a few weeks ago from the much higher vantage point.  I took major advantage of the "Panorama" function on my camera, and got some pretty good results:

After the pool closed, we freshened up and headed down to the MBS Casino.  There are only two casinos in Singapore and their entry requirements are extremely interesting: they're completely free for foreigners (although you have to have your passport to enter), but incredibly expensive for Singaporeans or Permanent Residents at S$100 (about $80USD) for 24 hours.  After spending a bit of time there, I think I've figured out that casinos are not my thing, but it was definitely a fun experience and I managed not to lose any money!

Tonight Melanie and I will be going to a Hawker Center for dinner and then the newly-opened Gardens by the Bay (see below), then Chris and I will be heading to Phuket, Thailand for the weekend tomorrow.  More updates soon!

Nighttime view of the Gardens by the Bay from the top of the Sands.

Tioman Island, Malaysia: Two Days in Paradise!

Hi, everyone!

This past weekend, Chris, Melanie, and I had a two-day minibreak on Pulau Tioman, a small island off the eastern coast of Malaysia.  All three of us had a really great time, and it was definitely the most relaxing of our vacations so far!

Saturday morning, the three of us got up VERY early (especially considering we had been to see the Singapore Symphony Orchestra perform Dvorak's New World Symphony the night before) to catch a 6:30 AM bus to a ferry terminal in eastern Malaysia.  The most interesting part of this journey was definitely the process of exiting Singapore and entering Malaysia - the countries are separated by a small waterway, and it only took about ten minutes total (including two stops exiting our tour bus and proceeding through immigration) to cross the bridge between the two countries.  One of the more interesting parts of this passage is actually a giant tube that runs along the length of the bridge; Singapore imports about 1/3 of its drinking water from Malaysia through this pipe, as there is very little freshwater available on the island to be used for drinking.  (Fun fact courtesy of Melanie, whose research is on Singaporean water policy.)

After about 2.5 hours on a bus and 90 minutes on a ferry, we finally arrived at Tioman Island, which was absolutely stunning.  The water was crystal clear, and the island itself is a serious of jungle-covered mountains so large that it's actually impossible to cross the island by land - travel takes place by boats, which connect several ferry stops near the resorts across the island.  It's actually a fairly small place, and most of the industry comes from tourism...the total permanent population of the island is less than 500 total!  From Wikipedia, the legend of the island is as follows: "According to legend, Tioman Island is the resting place of a beautiful dragon princess. Whilst flying from China to visit her prince in Singapore, this beautiful maiden stopped to seek solace in the crystal-clear waters of the South China Sea. Enraptured by the charms of the place, she decided to discontinue her journey. By taking the form of an island, she pledged to offer shelter and comfort to passing travelers."

One of our first views of Tioman Island

From the ferry stop, we took an open air bus to our resort (the largest on the island), called Berjaya Tioman Resort.  It was absolutely beautiful, and we got really lucky - our room had a view of the beach and was right next to the pool and the main food area where all meals were served.  The rest of the day Saturday, the three of us went for swims, napped on the beach, and I continued the fresh fruit juice kick I began in Bali.  It's gotten pretty bad, folks...in fact, I may or may not be planning to invest in a fruit juicer when I get back to the States in August.

The view from my Saturday afternoon lounge chair.

After catching up on sleep Saturday night (12+ hours for me!) we woke up on Sunday in the late morning and headed straight to the beach after breakfast, which was delicious (for some reason I really love beans on toast, as it takes me back to my time at Oxford).  After a few more hours of reading, swimming, and napping, we decided to cash in our half hour of snorkeling included in our hotel package.  We picked up our gear and were dropped off at a tiny island off the coast called Renggis Island, which can be seen on the left side of the photo below.

The island where we snorkeled, Renggis, is off to the left.

After jumping in the water from the dock, we proceeded to swim all the way around the island for the next hour or so, looking at the most beautiful coral and fish through the crystal clear water of the South China sea.  It was spectacularly beautiful - fish of every color imaginable, plus massive coral reefs and even some sea urchins (about 2 feet in width) and sea cucumbers.  The fish were also super friendly; every once in a while I'd turn and realize I was in the middle of a school of at least a hundred!  It was hands-down the best part of the trip, although unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures due to the water issues inherent to, er...being underwater.

For the rest of the afternoon we relaxed some more, nursing our increasingly intense sunburns and dashing inside when it started to downpour just after sundown.  Although we didn't get to wander around much in the evening due to the rain, we did get some sweet pictures of the storm as it rolled in to the island (see below).

This morning, after eating breakfast (more beans on toast!) and checking out of our room, we took the hotel's shuttle to the Tioman Airport, perhaps the smallest airport I've ever seen in my life (including the Brookline, NH Air Force).  This airport is only served by one airline - Berjaya Air, same name as our resort - which only flies to two locations, one flight a day each to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.  The planes are absolutely tiny, each seating about 42 people, and the cruising altitude is only about 10,000 feet since the flights are so short (ours was about 35 minutes).  Not going to lie, I was absolutely petrified getting on, as (a) I had never been on a plane that small before and (b) the runway was a little short (with mountains at either end), making takeoff a bit of a stressful experience.  We made it through okay, though, and landed in Singapore with no events more serious than some turbulence on ascent.

Departure gate #1 (of 1), looking out onto the runway.

Getting ready to get on the plane!

So that's all for our weekend - another short week in Singapore, then we're off to Phuket, Thailand for our final weekend trip before leaving southeast Asia.  It's hard to believe, but I leave Singapore in less than three weeks, and I'll be home in Cambridge in officially less than a month (now that it's after midnight here).  Stay tuned for more updates!