travel

Nem Cua Be

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Nem Cua Be frying

I discovered this delicious morsel of a snack while wondering the alleys of the Old Quarter in Hanoi earlier today. I had 1 hour to kill before the acclaimed Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre so I was just wondering around and stumbled upon this hole-in-the-wall eating establishment.

Nem Cua Be

I just wanted a beer but I saw they sell Nem Cua Be for 8,000 VND (about RM 1.20) and I asked what it was. It turns out to be beef and vegetables in a sort of spring roll. It’s deep fried before serving but that’s not that best thing.

Nem Cua Be dipping sauce

The dipping sauce (the ubiquitous fish sauce in Vietnam) is hot (as in warm) so it made the entire thing tastes really good. They had some meat floss action going in there too.

Nem Cua Be birds

Best enjoyed with a Bia Ha Noi. smirk

Posted: 12:26 am Hanoi time

Chao ban from Hanoi!

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hanoi

Chao ban! I’m in Hanoi right now, staying smack dab in the middle of the Old Quarter. Yes, that is what I see when I walk out of the reception.

chanh

Meet Chanh – she’s the receptionist over here, and she’s only 21 (!). Chanh is still in uni and doing this part time. She’s terribly friendly and she’s quite good looking too. Her personality – very bubbly.

Okay let me show you my dong before I go out. smirk

dong

Posted: 11:17 am Hanoi time

Krabs at Krabi

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crabs at krabi

Well it’s technically at Ao Nang before we took the ill fated longboat to Rai Leh. Heh! The miniature crabs comes in abundance and you can literally pick them up from the beach.

They have the Zerg Burrow research too – much like Brood Lords (or Guardians in the original Starcraft) – which also leads to the reason behind the lack of updates on the blog. I’ve been playing too much Starcraft II. >.<

Regular programming will resume REALLY soon – promise.

Rai Leh Rendezvous

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railey

How do I even begin to describe this epic adventure?

railey longboat

We just checked into our hotel in Ao Nang and decided to head down to Railey East at about 7 pm since I read that there’s algae there which glows brilliant blue in the night. The bioluminescence is supposed to surround your body in “a million tiny blue lights” so we headed down despite the longboat telling us that we HAD to get back at 8 pm coz that’s when the last boat departs.

railey travel

I reckon we could just pay any longboat operators hanging around to get us back at 12 am. We were going to Wing It ™ in the true spirit of ADVENTURE! =D

The trip to get into the longboat sounded the death toll for my Blackberry. To reach the longboats, you have to wade through waist high water and I wanted to Twitpic everything since I didn’t pay RM 38 for BIS international roaming for nothing. Unfortunately, everything got wet, including my friend’s bag and my Blackberry.

railey beach

That’s okay we’re still going to enjoy the glowing algae! By the time we got there it was nearly dark and we were starving so we ordered food at the incredibly over-commercialized island. There are bars right on the beach and food stalls which were predominantly dominated by Caucasians.

railey food

We jumped into the water after that and went for a swim towards the elusive bioluminecent algae.

It was nowhere to be found.

I don’t know if it’s coz of the rain (we were thoroughly soaked) or the rocky seas but the algae just wasn’t there.

We finally gave up trying and decided to create our own creature instead – The Beast With Two Backs ™.

beast with two backs

Trying to do that while in that weather is nigh impossible. The waves kept pushing us inland, the rocks lying under the beach kept cutting us, and I lost my fucking underwear.

* Watching this video is discouraged – you can’t see jackshit from the darkness

We finally gave up and just went back to the beach. No longboats in sight.

We walked to Railey East. Nope, no longboats either. We walked back to Railey West and a kind dude manning a tattoo place with dreadlocks said we could try taking the employee only longboat back – it departs at 10:30 pm.

railey smoke

* The soaked cigarette is still smokable, just a bit…watered down smirk

However, there was no guarantee that we can actually get on the boat and it doesn’t stop in Ao Nang so we’ll have to take ANOTHER taxi from there.

We walked back to Railey East to play Spot The Longboat Operator ™. I reckon the game would have been fun if we were not thoroughly drenched, with no cell phones (my friend left hers at our hotel in Ao Nang and my BB died a watery death).

rock

* The rock that thwarted our intimacy

I think we must have walked back and forth from Rai Leh East beach and Rai Leh West beach at least 7 times in vain before the same dread locked guy told us that it’ll probably would be easier just to stay here.

diamond cove resort

There are several problems though:

  • I don’t have a cell phone (my BB died in the rain and waist deep water while getting on the longboat)
  • We were both drenched with no towels and no change of clothes
  • I lost my fucking underwear to the tides of Rai Leh
  • My digicam (which is thankfully waterproof) is running very low on battery since it hasn’t been charged since I got here
  • We have to go to Phi Phi Islands the next day
  • I left my medication in Ao Nang FML max

Finally, we were so exhausted, wet and bearing cuts from our attempts to recreate the cocktail Sex On The Beach (or Sex In The Sea rather) that we just decided to stay on Railey. There’s a hotel called Diamond Cave Resort which goes from 2000-3000 baht (RM 200-300) per night but since is low season we managed to get a rate of 500 baht (RM 50) – a tip from the dread locked dude again.

railey strip

Thankfully we had a bottle of vodka with us or else I’ll have withdrawal symptoms from the lack of GABA agonists (clue to what meds I’m taking LEGITIMATELY) – no need for a degree in particle physics for that.

We were a bit concerned about missing the boat to Phi Phi Islands the next day but we woke up super early.

I had wrung my clothes and left them to dry at the balcony but it still wasn’t dry.

It was an adventure indeed – one we dub the Rai Leh Rendezvous.

railey hotel

One thing about hotels in Krabi though – they’re very big on animals as towels. smirk

Greetings from Aonang!

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elephants

Sawadeekap! I’m in Ao Nang right now, came here straight from Krabi.

hotel pool

This is our hotel room.

broken elephant

My friend killed the elephant. 🙁

chillin

Just chillin’ yo.

…with Cheers Beer! You remember the hilarious TVC?

Yes, not a lot of words, but according to my math that’s 3,000 words. Geddit? Pictures says a thousand words? 😉

I’m on vacation. w00t!

Posted: 4:23 pm Thailand (Krabi) time

Fraser’s Hill travel report

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frasers clock tower

It took me this long to finally write the full Fraser’s Hill trip report (not that kind of trip) but I swear to God, I’m going to get it done today! Fraser’s Hill has a very interesting history behind it. It was named after a Scotsman who had dealings with opium but after falling off the face of the Earth it was turned into a colonial hill resort.

ye olde smokehouse frasers hill

There are basically three hill resorts within reasonable driving distance in Klang Valley. The most popular one would be Genting Highlands, where fortunes are won or lost at a roll of a dice (as the saying goes). I got rather bored of the place, I can’t remember how often I’m been to the Amusement Park alone. Also, I’m still sore about the RM 35k loss. hmph

Cameron Highlands is more family friendly with it’s strawberry plucking and tea plantations but I’ve been there about a year or so back and found it crowded and over commercialized while I’ve never been to Fraser’s Hill.

(or so I thought)

charles suite

My dad told me that we went to Fraser’s Hill on one of our family vacations when I was a kid and even stayed at the same place – Ye Olde Smokehouse!

bed

I had doubts about Ye Old Smokehouse at Fraser’s Hill due to reports about noise (true), ants (didn’t see any) and general non-maintenance (not sure about this one). I found the place nice, rustic with an old English charm. The room we got is spacious, with a living room, a large bed and even a fake electric fireplace.

fireplace

Charming!

There is not much to do in Fraser’s Hill – it’s a chill out place for sure, but make sure you:

1. Visit the Fraser’s Hill Clock Tower
2. Take a dip in the freezing Jeriau Waterfalls
3. Have Devonshire tea

tea frasers

It’s primarily a destination for people into hiking and bird-watching. We managed to see several (old) Caucasian people with binoculars and books titled “Species of birds” at the resort we stayed at.

ye old smokehouse frasers hill

I went there primarily to chill and get some R&R. We went up quite late and Ye Old Smokehouse was kind enough to let us check out very late too (5 pm). You’ll need your own car and food is quite limited around Fraser’s Hill. We ate at Puncak Restaurant where the food courts are.

restauran puncak

The food is alright but nothing to write home about. Be careful of the puzzling entrance to the food courts!

frasers breakfast

Ye Olde Smokehouse serves a complimentary breakfast which is pretty good. However the best part of the trip for me is soaking in the tub for hours and hours until our skin shrivelled while talking, drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes with my friend.

manual censorship

I don’t think Dr M would approve though. smirk

suites

The reports about Ye Olde Smokehouse not having soundproofing is true. We woke up the second day hearing soft conversations and spoons being dropped in the dining room. Imagine how many families we kept awake with our excessively loud and raucous lovemaking at 3 am in the morning! FOL. smirk

frasers panoramic

Fraser’s Hill is awesome if you want a place that isn’t crowded or over commercialized – a cool, relaxing weekend break in an old English style hilltop resort. Go there if you want to get away from the stress in the city and take in the cool weather and slow pace of life.

Jeriau Waterfalls @ Fraser’s Hill

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jeriau waterfalls

Jeriau Waterfalls is an incredible experience – imagine the cold hill resort temperature combined with the wind chill factor and a natural waterfall that isn’t heated (obviously). Intense. I couldn’t stop shivering. 🙂

jeriau waterfalls runoff

It’s on the GPS but don’t follow that – ask your resort concierge instead. I brought my Sony Cyber-shot TX-5 along coz it’s waterproof. It’s just a 15 minute drive from Ye Olde Smokehouse where we stayed and the GPS will attempt to take you down a road that you shouldn’t access. It’s a feeder road.

jeriau waterfall

Stop at the Jeriau Waterfalls gate (there are lots of cars parked so you won’t miss it) and it’s a 5 minute walk to the falls. Wikitravel says it’ a 15 minute walk but by my account it’s 5 minutes and we stopped to take interesting photos…

jeriau waterfalls house

…like this hut which has an ecosystem of itself on top of the roof. My travel companion spotted this one. Perhaps the company was good so it seemed shorter so YMMV (pun intended) but be careful coz some spots are slippery. >.<

jeriau waterfalls path

Jeriau Waterfalls is fucking cold. There is no other adjective to describe it. It’s as cold as a frigid bitch brimming with hatred, carrying enough emotional baggage that would cause even AirAsia to decline her wishes to pay 100 times the excess baggage fee.

Did I put you off? smirk

Don’t be, coz it’s worth the trip. Sure, the water isn’t clean. FML I swallowed a mouthful of water and I nearly puked. The spray from the waterfall, the wind chill and the mist at Fraser’s Hill – it’s unforgettable.

jeriau waterfalls frasers

It’s tonic for the soul!

jeriau waterfall me

Yup, I just had to do the traditional sixthseal.com pose. I can’t help myself, my psychiatrist says I need therapy. smirk

A lot of work…and a vacation!

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a lot of work

This is an MSN drawing that Michelle with her gifts of artistic talent (?) scribbled yesterday. Sorry for the lack of updates but there’ll be more travel posts soon coz…

I AM GOING TO MANILA!

Yup, I’m flying tonight and I’ll be there for 4D/3N. In true sixthseal.com style, I haven’t packed or made hotel reservations yet. I am a firm believer of flying by the seat of my pants.

Catch you on the flipside! I shall eat a lot of balut. smirk

Yangshuo beer fish

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yangshuo beer fish restaurant

Yangshuo is famous for beer fish – a local specialty that is cooked with lots of chillis, garlic, peppers and of course BEER! The fish is called Li River fish (another must-try if you go to Guilin) although I don’t know exactly what type of fish that is.

yangshuo view

I went to a rather touristy place to sample this awesome dish so I can’t vouch for the authenticity of it. The view is great though and we were each given a RMB 50 coupon to dine on. I was the only person traveling alone in that Li River cruise tour and this girl Kiko who was there with her mom and dad was kind enough to wave me over to share their table.

chinese menu

WHY DO THE MENUS ONLY HAVE CHINESE CHARACTERS?

yangshuo tofu

I left the ordering to them since I can’t read anything but I managed to order beer fish and beer to go along with it (it’s the perfect combo). It is obvious I didn’t do the ordering coz here you have tofu. REAL TOFU. As in the kind that comes without anything to somewhat mask the inherent tastelessness of tofu.

yangshuo shoots chicken

This is a vegetable dish cooked with chicken. It consists primarily of shoots and it’s not too bad but I’m not a huge fan of vegetables.

yangshuo local fern

Now this is an interesting one – it’s a local fern gathered in Yangshuo by the locals. It tasted bitter but I found it quite interesting and ate quite a bit of this. I think the fact that it’s indigenous to Yangshuo made me go against my vegetable principals.

kiko

This is Kiko. She’s with an MNC and was based in Malaysia for a bit.

yangshuo beer fish

I always leave the best for the last so here I present to you the famous Yangshuo Beer Fish!

yangshuo tea

You can actually taste the malt and hops from the beer fish and it surprisingly adds a lot to the taste of the tender and succulent Li River fish. The gravy was so good I drizzled it over my rice, which apparently is not compliant with the etiquette of Chinese dining, along with my propensity for sticking my chopsticks into the rice bowl. smirk

beer fish

I can’t remember how much the bill was but we had to top up about RMB 100 (about RM 50). I offered to pay since I was the only one who ordered beer (although Kiko and her dad drank it too) but they won’t have anything to do with that. I had to literally force my Yuan into the hands of the waitress, to the protests of the family and a lot of back and forth before I escorted the waitress away with my Yuan.

yangshuo beer fish end

That’s Chinese culture for you. Heh! Anyway, the family is not from around here too – they’re visiting from Guangzhou and their family was kind enough to ask me to visit anytime and they’ll be my tour guide (and a place to stay). w00t! I’ll be going after my Melbourne trip. 🙂

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