Travelers, Adventurers and Vagabonds We’ve Met in Thailand

July 25, 2014July 24, 2014 / Melanie / 4 Comments

One of the best things about traveling is meeting interesting people in interesting places. Because Thailand is such a popular vacation destination, we’ve met a lot of interesting travelers in our time here. From eternal drifters to grumpy people to awesome families, we feel like we’ve seen it all. Here are a few of our favorites.

The Eternal Japanese Drifter Guy Who Will Never Settle Down

I can’t remember this guy’s name, so I have dubbed him “Drifter”. For about a half hour, this 30-something-year-old guy from Japan sat and chain smoked at a cafe in Pai while he entertained us with stories from his nearly-a-decade-long backpacking trip around Southeast Asia. He was the classic beach-bum-backpacker type and the ultimate drifter, saying things like, “Yeah, man, you gotta follow your dreams, man…”. He was sporting the classic backpacker uniform of harem pants and a geometric print muscle tank top.

“Drifter” recommended we visit the Ijen Volcano on Java when we visit Indonesia, telling us it was the most beautiful volcano he has ever seen:

“Kawah Ijen -East Java -Indonesia-31July2009″ by Jean-Marie Hullot – originally posted to Flickr as Kawah Ijen.

When Kevin asked him the very best place he has ever visited, he picked Kashmir, India because of its stunningly beautiful surroundings:

“Nanga parbat, Pakistan by gul791″ by Atif Gulzar – http://www.sxc.hu/photo/341372.

“Drifter” told us that the bus ride to Kashmir is dangerous and terrifying. The mountain road is so narrow, that often times one of the bus’s four rear tires was actually hanging off the side of the road:

The Terrifying Road to Kashmir

We said our goodbyes as “Drifter” headed out on the long, windy road from Pai to Mae Hong Son on his rented motorbike. Keep traveling, Drifter!

The Negative Nancy Law Student Volunteers

Watch Out

We eat lunch six days a week at Pun Pun, which means we regularly run into the same people. You probably also know by now that Kevin and I spend about 23.5 hours per day together, which means that we sometimes eavesdrop on people at lunch to entertain ourselves when we just can’t talk about software projects anymore.

Fun Sucks

We often run into a group of girls who are law students from the USA, but are currently volunteering here in Chiang Mai. They never seem to stop complaining about how hard life is. I suppose living in the “Land of Smiles”, as Thailand is often called, can be pretty rough. I know it makes me pretty grumpy to be surrounded with such wonderful weather, the amazing culture, the incredibly affordable prices, and the warm and friendly Thai people. Life is so hard.

The Awesome German Family We Accidentally Stalked in Koh Chang

Most of my stalking nowadays is on the interwebs. That’s right, friends and family, I’m watching you, following your every electronic move, because I have time for that now. (Wow, that reads just as creepy as I thought it would.) Kevin and I accidentally did some real-life stalking on our recent trip to the Thai island of Koh Chang, and luckily it ended up with a warm invitation to visit some new friends at their home in Germany instead of ending in a restraining order and deportation from this country we’ve come to love.

Our new friends and their 1-year-old son were visiting Koh Chang for a week and happened to be staying at the same resort as us. We saw them our first day at the resort a handful of times, and accidentally set up camp at the pool next to them on our second day. I’m not sure you all know, but Kevin and I have a weird love of German people. We’ve just met a lot of really awesome German people on our travels, and in general they’ve been just incredibly friendly and warm. I’m also a quarter German, so I might be biased. And their beer is often served by the liter, the LITER, which scores major points with us. Anyway, Kevin saw that this guy had a book titled “Der Something” with him at the pool. We sprechen Deutsch just a little bit, enough to know that “Der” in German means “The”. I know, advanced stuff right there.

Evidence of our love for Germany, taken at Oktoberfest 2012 in Munchen

Conclusive evidence of our love for Germany and German people, taken at Oktoberfest 2012 in Munchen

Kevin struck up a conversation, and he and Alexander were soon having an animated chat about the varieties, prices, and qualities of beers across Germany. We bonded over booze, and over the course of the next 18 hours we ran into this family no less than eleven times. This is no small feat at a huge resort with four pools, FOUR. It started to get ridiculous, but apparently we didn’t scare them off. We ended up exchanging contact information and plan to visit them if we’re in their neck of the woods during our travels in the next year or two. Yay for travel friends!

The Bootstrappin’ Bros Obsessed with Pointy Triangles

We used to run into these guys at least three times a week at our favorite little coffee shop. They were here in Chiang Mai bootstrapping a new online business drop-shipping high-end travel gear, but have since moved on to Bali. If you combined the personalities of Steve Jobs and a SoCal Beach Bum, it would produce something similar to these two guys.

The Bros had three habits that made me die a little bit inside every time we ran into them:

They regularly played music from their laptops without using headhpones. If you want to get a taste of Melanie’s knuckle sandwich, follow their lead.
For a couple of bros starting a business together, they sure seemed to hate each other. The tension in the air was palpable, you could taste it, and it entertained me to no end.
For some reason, one of the bros was absolutely obsessed with the shape of the triangle graphics on their website. I’ll never forget the day where he spent hours staring at his Macbook Pro screen, hours! Finally, after a blissful morning of silence because of his complete focus, he turned to his buddy and said, “Hey bro, you know what’s making me crazy? The triangles on our site, they’re just so… pointy…”

Chiang Mai is quite the scene for expats looking for an inexpensive place to live while working on a startup, inspired largely by the popular Tropical MBA podcast that promotes location independent lifestyles. We’re a small part of that Digital Nomad scene, and have enjoyed meeting the wide variety of people that are part of that community – it’s funny how we’ve started to see the same people over and over again in Chiang Mai. We all seem to gravitate towards the coffees shops with really great air conditioning and the street vendors who speak enough English to help us pick out our dinners without accidentally eating pig entrails.

Quick Announcement

Starting today, I’m cutting back to one blog post per week. I’m planning to start spending more time on personal development and software projects, and a little less time on blog posts. I’ll keep posting every Friday at 8pm Thailand time, which is 8am Central time and 6am Seattle time. If anyone objects, I will be happy to resume twice-a-week blogposts if you direct $200 per week into my Paypal Account. Har har har. Thank you for reading!

We Want to Hear From You!

Who are the most interesting people you’ve met while traveling? The on-the-run drug dealer? The eighty year old backpacker? A guy who travels with three cats? Leave us a comment and tell us your story!

Overcoming Your Fears Of Moving Abroad

July 22, 2014July 16, 2014 / Melanie / 3 Comments

The beautiful temple in our front yard: Wat Suan Dok. Paradise, right?

We moved to Southeast Asia, and you can too!

Since arriving in Thailand, Kevin and I have realized that we made a huge mistake in waiting so long to quit our jobs and move to Southeast Asia. We got so hung up on questions like “what will people think of us?” and “how can we consider moving abroad since we just bought a home?” and those things nearly made us miss out on what is going to be one of the greatest experiences of our lives. In hopes of helping out others who may be on the fence about making a similar change in their lives (or explaining this crazy change in our lives to friends, family and blog readers), we’ve put together this post to try to put some of your worries to rest. Here’s a list of some of the things we worried about before moving abroad, and how we feel about them now that we’re here.

Let’s bust those fears!

Our beloved home in Seattle

What if renters destroy our home? This was one of our biggest worries! We’ve done a lot of work on our house – we completely gutted and remodeled the bathroom, built a deck in our backyard, painted the exterior a fabulous purple color, worked tirelessly on the landscaping, and painted nearly every room inside the house. I can’t believe we almost decided not to spend time abroad because I was worried about whether or not tenants would clean our grout lines. I have news for you, folks, renting out your home will be good for you. It’s liberating to let go of the material possessions in your life and become more experience oriented! At the end of my life, I know for certain that I’d regret missing out on experiences much more than I’d regret a few scrapes some renters made in our hardwood floors.

Kevin’s working hard at a Cafe

What if we sink into bad work habits once we arrive? I have an addictive personality – when I loved the TV show “Friends” during sophomore year of college, I holed up and watched all 10 seasons in about 2 weeks. It’s true, ask my roommate Holly. Kevin and I were afraid we’d sink into terrible work habits once we arrived here, since we’re managing our own schedules and projects completely independently for the first time in our lives. Luckily, it’s quite motivating to work on projects you love, and this hasn’t been an issue. We use a few methods to keep us motivated and on track, which I detailed in my previous post about Maximizing Productivity with the Pomodoro Method.

Will friends, family, coworkers, and strangers think we’re crazy? When we started telling people we were moving to Southeast Asia, the resounding response was “Woo hoo! Awesome!” (Although our favorite response came from our friend Erik who blurted out, “You Assholes!” We loved that.) When I sent out my “farewell” email at work, the responses I received were along the lines of “I wish we had done that when we were young” and “you’ll never regret this”. We’ve also received a surprising amount of support from random Craigslist people we sold some things to when we were clearing out our house. Craigslist people can be oddly supportive! Not a single person has expressed doubts to us about this adventure, so don’t let that fear stop you. Thanks, family and friends, for being so supportive!

Spending 24-hours a day with your spouse: so far so good.

Will this be good for our marriage? Kevin and I spend every minute of every day together now, except for when we hit the gym separately or are in the bathroom. That’s a huge increase over the amount of time we used to spend together in Seattle when we both had jobs outside the home. After getting over my frustration that I’ll no longer be able to secretly eat a candy bar every now and then, we’ve settled into a good routine. The trick is to establish boundaries – one of our best is to not bother the other person if they’re wearing headphones. Because our marriage is in good shape, I don’t mind sharing that we’re also finally going through a book we bought before our wedding titled The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. I’m also doing my best not to talk to Kevin through the bathroom door when he’s in there – boundaries, Melanie!

Will this throw us behind in retirement savings? Yes, it will. But that’s ok, because we spent the last 5 years working hard to get a little bit ahead. If you want to do something like this down the road, max out your 401k plan with your employer right now! Open a Vanguard investment account and funnel as much money into it as possible! In the end, for us, we went into this adventure knowing that we’re probably pushing retirement out by a year or two. But that’s something we can accept – we want to travel now, before we’re too old to enjoy it. We’re just trading time later for time now!

Getting my Rails Learning on at a Starbucks in Singapore

Improving my Rails skills at a Starbucks in Singapore

Will we get bored? Sometimes, yes! A person can only visit so many Wats (Buddhist temples) in Thailand, castles in Europe, or beaches in Bali before they all start to look the same. This may sound like blasphemy, but traveling full-time is not awesome; we both had travel fatigue after spending just one week in Singapore. Our best advice is to slow your travel way down, try to spend at least a month in each of your destinations, and get into a routine. Become your own project manager. Make your time abroad a time of intensive learning and set some goals – this will combat boredom and give you a sense of purpose. My goal is to become a full stack web developer, so I’m currently working on my Ruby on Rails skills. Kevin and I are both improving our HTML/CSS skills. Kevin is kicking butt at several different projects in the iPhone app development world. We both have resolved to always be reading both a fiction and nonfiction book. We have very quickly figured out that if you place your focus on learning with travel as a secondary focus, you’ll never get bored.

Will this kill our careers? Hopefully not! Because we’ve both resolved to learn so much during our year abroad, we are hoping this year will be a selling point to employers when we return to the States and start looking for jobs. I mean, if you can pair program with your spouse, you can probably pair program with anyone, right? We’ll be sure to put up a follow-up post on this particular topic after moving back home.

Our Story

Not many people know that our idea of moving abroad actually hatched in the Summer of 2010, just a couple months after buying our home in Seattle, and before we even got married. It’s funny how doing something to anchor yourself in one location (like buying a house) can make you want to run away! When we came up with this crazy idea, I actually set a calendar reminder for May 2013 that was titled “Seriously consider moving to Thailand.” (The reason we waited 3 years is because we didn’t want to have to pay back the massive $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit we got when we bought our house!) In May 2013 when that calendar reminder popped up, we both sort of laughed it off as just another one of our crazy ideas from the past, and went on with our lives.

Obligatory Wedding Photo. What a happy day. :)

It turns out that the idea actually took root and began to grow, nourished in part by the ideas we read about in Tim Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek. So we planned a super secret 3-week reconnaissance vacation to Southeast Asia in November and December of 2013, and we visited cities in Vietnam and Thailand with a “could we live here?” mindset. We decided that Chiang Mai was a great spot to start our time abroad because of the low cost of living, the friendly Thai attitude, and the big expat community.

Visiting Baan Chang Elephant Park outside Chiang Mai during our Reconnaissance Vacation in 2013

After our vacation ended and we knew that we’d be able to handle living in Southeast Asia, we were faced with actually making the decision of whether or not to move overseas. We agonized over the decision, we made pro/con lists, we read books, we subscribed to expat podcasts, we talked about it nonstop with each other until we were blue in the face. Eventually, we set a deadline (New Year’s Day) and made our final decision to move overseas while we were walking around Greenlake. Now that we’re here, we’ve realized that a lot of the things we cared about were materialistic things that don’t really matter in the long run, and that we should’ve made the decision to move much earlier!

We want to hear from you!

We’re always looking for blog post suggestions! Leave us a comment with any topics you want to hear about, especially if you’re getting tired of all the food pictures I’ve been posting lately.

Singapore Wrap Up

July 18, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 5 Comments

I call this photo “Kevin Learns to Teleport in Singapore”

Time for a Singapore Wrap-Up! I already wrote about my love of Little India, about all the great things we ate in Singapore, and about what you can do there for free. Here’s a quick wrap-up of our thoughts on Singapore based on our 1-week trip there!

Is Singapore worth the trip?

If you’re already in Southeast Asia, we think Singapore is definitely worth the trip. However, it’s such an expensive place to visit that we’re not sure we’d make the trip across the ocean from the USA without having a few other Southeast Asia destinations lined up. We REALLY think it’s worth the trip if you’re being sent to Singapore for work. I would love to come back when a company is paying for my hotel – it would’ve been fun to avoid the cheap Airbnb room we booked with the prison eclectic decor… We made the trip to Singapore for the Red Dot Ruby Conference:

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How long should you stay in Singapore?

We were in Singapore for 7 nights. Two full days were dedicated to the conference, so we had four and a half days to explore the city. We thought that was too much! If you’re not going to go to Sentosa Island to visit Universal Studios, three full days of exploring is plenty! If you plan to hit Universal Studios (which we skipped because of the high price tag and because it’s so similar to what we have in the States), add an extra day.

How much walking did we do in Singapore?

Wear comfy shoes and get ready for lots of walking!

I get a kick out of tracking my daily steps and mileage with my Fitbit. Over the course of 7 days in Singapore, we racked up some fun statistics:

In total, we walked 154,577 steps, or 67 miles.
On average, we walked 22,082 steps, or 9.5 miles, per day.
On our biggest walking day, we walked 32,797 steps, or 14.1 miles, which is over a half marathon!

Bring comfy shoes, and come ready to walk! It’s the best way to see this city.

Things we loved about Singapore:

Sure, it’s the world’s most expensive city, but there are a LOT of things you can do for free. (See my previous post on freebies in Singapore.)
There is always toilet paper, and you can flush it. WIN WIN.
Singapore is SO walkable, with its huge, wide sidewalks, gorgeous river promenades, and awesome pedestrian bridges.
Singapore has the best public transit I’ve experienced in my life. It is spotless and DOES NOT SMELL. Far cry from some of the public transit systems we have in the States.
Green spaces are everywhere! Singaporeans are very proud of the green spaces all over the city – it definitely helps dull the feeling that you’re in a concrete jungle, and makes walking around much more pleasant!
Singapore is almost spotless – there was no dog poop to be had on any of the sidewalks.
Tap water is drinkable in Singapore! You’ll be hard pressed to find water fountains here (we only spotted 2 during our entire week here) but it’s perfectly fine to just fill your water bottle up in a bathroom faucet. We did this all week and we’re not dead.
Air conditioning is king in Singapore! Sure, it’s nearly on the equator and feels like an inferno outside much of the time, but that’s not a problem when the malls and shops are all cooled to arctic extremes!

Things we didn’t love about Singapore:

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The prices of coffee and booze. Way to spoil our fun, sin taxes! We saw beers that cost as much as S$20! Starbucks’ menu was unreal – to name a few prices, Hot Chocolate starts at S$6.50, Tea Lattes at S$6, Drip Coffee at S$4, and Mochas at S$6.80!
The internet at cafes and the library was actually SLOWER than what we’ve run into in Chiang Mai! Not what we expected from such a modern city.
Gum is illegal.
We obviously don’t travel with drugs on us, but that is especially important in Singapore. If you’re caught smuggling drugs into the country, you will be “hung by the neck until dead” on the next Friday. Fun times.

How much does a week in Singapore cost?

	Cost (Singapore Dollars)	Cost (USD)	Note
Airbnb Room	S$559	$449	7 nights in the cheapest place we could find
Flights	S$461	$370	Round Trip for 2 People with stopover in Bangkok DMK
Food	S$209	$168	Groceries + 11 restaurant or hawker centre meals (Chilli crab was almost half of this!)
Transportation	S$40	$32	Taxis and Subway rides
Miscellaneous	S$8	$6.40	Bought earplugs for our airbnb and did a little gambling at the casino
Coffees	S$29	$23
Booze	S$17	$13	The cost of just 2 beers in Singapore, during low hours when one beer is on discount!
Red Dot Ruby Conference Tickets	S$550	$360	Tickets for 2 people – note: conferences in the US can cost thousands of dollars. This was a bargain as far as conferences go!
Grand Total	S$1,873	$1,421	For a 7-day trip to Singapore for 2 people

We want to hear from you!

Where’s the most expensive place you’ve ever traveled?

Safe travels, friends!

Singapore on the Cheap: What you can do in Singapore for free!

July 15, 2014July 16, 2014 / Melanie / 2 Comments

View of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the Gardens by the Bay

View of the beautiful Marina Bay Sands Hotel from the Gardens by the Bay

Singapore was named the world’s most expensive city in 2014, but that doesn’t mean you can’t travel to Singapore on a budget! There are a lot of ways you can cut costs on a trip to Singapore. Here’s how we did Singapore on a tight budget:

Step 1: Skip the traditional hotel!

Hotel room prices in Singapore are insane, so seek out your lodging search using Airbnb or Roomorama. For solo travelers, hostels in Chinatown or Little India might be the cheapest option. We booked the cheapest room we could find on Airbnb, and one week still cost us more than a month’s rent here in Chiang Mai. It was a little rough around the edges, with a decor style I would describe as “prison eclectic”, but we had a hot shower every day and a bed to sleep on at night. Success.

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Step 2: Take advantage of Singapore freebies!

Freebie #1: Gardens by the Bay

This is our #1 freebie pick in Singapore! The Gardens by the Bay grounds are enormous, and full of beautiful botanical wonders. Nearly the entire complex is free, it only costs money to go into the indoor portions or up in the OCBC Skyway. We skipped the paid parts and it saved us over S$25 per person!

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We especially liked the OCBC Skyway Trees:

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Walk all the way out as far east as you can, and enjoy sitting on the green roof of the Barrage Visitor Center where families are picnicking and flying kites. We also saw a couple taking wedding photos!

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Freebie #2: Nightly OCBC Skyway Show at Gardens by the Bay 7:45 and 8:45pm nightly

Be sure to visit the Gardens by the Bay twice – once in the daytime to enjoy seeing the tropical plants, and again at night to see the OCBC Skyway Show. At 7:45 pm and 8:45 pm daily, there is a 15-minute light show in the Skyway trees coordinated to music. It’s awesome! We watched it one night right under the Skyway, and the next night from a viewpoint behind the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Here’s a short 8-second snippet of the show:

Freebie #3: Water and Laser Light Show at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Every night at 8pm and 9:30pm (and on Fridays and Saturdays at 11pm), the fountains in front of the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands light up and dance to a fun 15-minute musical program. Crowds start gathering as much as a half hour beforehand to stake out spots on the tiered wooden deck seating, so grab some snacks and arrive early!

It’s best to watch the water show from the east side of the marina, then the laser show from the west side. We caught the 8pm show in front of the Shoppes:

After the water show ended, we strolled around to the opposite side of the Bay to see the 9:30pm laser light show:

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Freebie #4: Marina Bay Sands Casino

Marina Bay Sands Casino!

For visitors to Singapore, it’s free to enter the Marina Bay Sands Casino! (It costs S$100 for Singaporeans to enter, and Cubans and North Koreans aren’t allowed entry. From what we can tell, you may even be barred entry even if you’ve got a Cuban stamp in your passport!) Once you’re inside, the gambling sure isn’t free, but soft drinks, coffee, tea, hot milo (like hot cocoa), and bottled water are free! To my dismay, they didn’t have games like “Pick a Number” and “Which Hand” like I was led to believe were part of Casino gaming by Uncle Eddie in National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation. Sigh, life will go on.

Admission Tips: A sign outside the casino claims that flip flops aren’t compliant with their dress code, but they let us in without question. You must show your passport for admittance. The entrance to the casino is inside the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Mall.

Freebie #5: Sample a Singapore Sling at Changi International Airport

Raffles Hotel, home of the S$27 Singapore Sling! Ouch!

The Singapore Sling is a disgusting drink, in my opinion – I would rather drink cough syrup. A Sling at the iconic Raffles Hotel, where this sickly sweet drink was invented, will cost you an outrageous S$27. Word on the interwebs is that they don’t even make each sling fresh at Raffles, instead opting to use a pre-mix! We decided not to buy a Sling in Singapore, but were delighted when we got to Changi airport and found out that the duty free liquor shoppes had free samples, made from top shelf liquors! They even let me mix it myself!

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Crucial tip – leave plenty of time to get to your gate! We thought if we arrived a few minutes after boarding began we’d be fine. We couldn’t have been more wrong! We went to a different terminal to sample the Sling, and by the time we got back to our Terminal the flight monitors said “Gate Closing” for our flight! We ended up sprinting through the terminal (wearing our duffel bags on our backs and our laptop bags on our fronts) and arrived just in the nick of time. Plan your time at Changi Airport better, or you’ll be an unhappy camper like I was:

After sprinting through the terminal to get to our gate, I was not a happy camper.

After sprinting through the terminal to get to our gate, I was one unhappy lady…

Step 3: Eat at Hawker Centers!

A wise group of Singaporeans once told us that you should never eat in a sit-down restaurant here. In the Hawker centres, the food is better AND cheaper! Win Win!! For more info on Hawker Centres, see my previous posts on Little India and on Eating in Singapore.

Step 4: Get yourself some of that free wifi!

Skip the coffee shops and visit the National Library in the Bugis neighborhood if you need somewhere to hunker down and work. Plus, the library has killer aircon and is 13 floors tall! Great views and cool temperatures? Sign me up. The best spot for studying is the 11th floor library. (Note: If you DO go to the library, it’s important to sign up for a 24-free-hour visitor’s Singtel wifi account before you go! Details here.)

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We loved the views from the top floors of the library! Added bonus, they have a glass elevator! Fun times:

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The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands Mall also has free wifi if you’re in a pinch, but there aren’t many great places to work. Best to log onto this network with just your smart phone. We sat outside by the koi pond enjoying a great view of downtown Singapore while using the free wifi:

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Important tip: Don’t forget to use a VPN like Cloak to protect your personal information if you’re doing anything sensitive while using a Public wifi network!

Step 5: Be prepared to walk a LOT

Bring your walking shoes! Prepare for a walk of Olympic proportions (see photo below – har har har). One day, we actually walked over a half marathon (over 14 miles in one day, as reported by my Fitbit pedometer)!

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It’s fun to walk the loop around the Marina – I loved the view from the Helix bridge at night time:

Awesome Views from The Helix Bridge!

Take the time to visit all of Singapore’s fun neighborhoods – we could (and did) spend days exploring Little India, Chinatown, and Arab Street.

We had a lot of fun exploring Chinatown:

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Be sure to visit the Sultan Mosque in the Arab Street neighborhood (another freebie):

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We also enjoyed walking through Fort Canning Park, just north of Chinatown. While it’s probably not worth the trip if you’re not already in the neighborhood, we enjoyed walking around there. We especially enjoyed the spice garden! I’ve never seen a vanilla tree before, or a nutmeg tree, or so many herb plants.

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We want to hear from you!

There’s nothing we love on a vacation more than walking around exploring new cities. Which cities do you recommend most for exploring on foot? For us, nothing beats exploring the awesome little towns in the Rhine River Valley area of Germany – the best!

Eating in Singapore

July 11, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 2 Comments

Singapore’s food scene is absolutely epic. There are food centers full of “Hawker Stalls” all over the city where you can try dishes from all over Asia. Not only is the food at Hawker Stalls more delicious, it’s also much cheaper than sit-down restaurants. Contrary to what you might think after reading my last post, we ate more than just Indian food while we were in Singapore. Here’s a summary at some of the tasty things we tried.

Maxwell Food Centre

The Maxwell Food Centre is in the Chinatown neighborhood of Singapore, just a few blocks from where we stayed during our weeklong trip. It was highly recommended by several Singaporeans we met at the Red Dot Ruby Conference, so we made sure to arrive hungry. Here’s a look at the Maxwell Food Center – it looks like madness, but it’s fun, delicious madness:

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First, we tried out Hainanese Curry Rice. We picked this place because of the long line at the stall:

Hainanese Curry Rice Hawker Stall

Check out all their tasty looking food:

Delicious Food at the Hainanese Curry Rice stall

The spoils – Hainanese Curry Rice with chicken, cabbage and a fried egg:

Curry Rice, Cabbage, Chicken and a Fried Egg for S$3.

We grabbed a fresh sugar cane juice – such a treat:

Fresh Sugar Cane Juice for S$1.50

Singapore is famous for their “Chicken Rice” dish, so we headed to the Hawker Stall recommended by total food badass, Anthony Bourdain. I think we were in the right spot – check out this line:

This is THE Hawker Stall to get Singapore’s famous Chicken Rice dish!

Still going…

Can you believe this line?

Still going…

Unbelievable line! The wait was about 20 minutes!

We were not deterred by this guy, who crawled up on Kevin’s foot. Fun Fact: cockroaches can fly! (Shudder…)

The flying cockroach that climbed Kevin’s leg.

We enjoyed the chicken rice, but thought it was overhyped and the line was too long:

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Next, we grabbed some dessert from the longest dessert stall line (noticing a theme here? This is rule number one – pick stalls with long lines!) The Tapioca cake stall:

Tapioca Cake Stall

Look at these tasty cakes! We got one of each, which ran us S$1.40:

Coconut Tapioca Cake Bakery

I like to run around pretending I’m a super artistic photographer. Here’s the result of those efforts:

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Hong Lim Hawker Stalls

We also tried some food at the Hong Lim Food Centre in the Chinatown neighborhood. We only got one dish there – Laksa, which is a coconut milk soup with noodles and in our case, chicken:

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Arab Street

We ventured up to the Arab Street neighborhood, a great spot to just wander around and look at all the fun fabric shops and the beautiful Sultan Mosque (photos of this to come in a later post). There were a bunch of street food tents set up for Ramadan, so we snagged ourselves some dinner.

We got the most disappointing chicken gyro ever. It looked so tasty when they were cutting meat off of the roasting gyro:

Tasty looking chicken gyro meat

But sadly, for S$5, this is all we got! Is this the saddest pita you’ve ever seen or what?

Saddest S$5 Pita, EVER.

Luckily, our next purchase redeemed Arab Street for us. We decided to try the “Roti Jack” with chicken, egg, mayo, cheese, mushrooms, and spices. It was greasy, salty, wonderful, delicious goodness and was super filling for just S$5. The folks at this food stall were super friendly too – after finding out we were from the USA, the Roti Jack Chef sang the Star Spangled banner to us. It was awesome.

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Coffees, Sweets, Pastries and Beers

We didn’t hit many coffee shops in Singapore, where a Latte can cost as much as S$13! But here’s a peek at a few of our indulgences.

We stopped at a Chinese Bakery for a S$1 Milo Bun, which was delicious. Milo is sort of like Rich, Chocolatey Ovaltine.

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We visited Starbucks twice. The first time, we shelled out S$9.20 for two French Press Coffees (yikes!) but got a Buy One Get One Free coupon we used on our second visit! Cheap traveling WIN.

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We also visited “The Book Cafe” to enjoy some drinks and free Wifi:

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Kevin has been PINING for an IPA since we left Seattle. So when we walked past Brewerkz in Singapore, we pretty much had no choice but to go inside and do some drinking!

Brewerkz!

Brewerkz has a complicated pricing scheme – beers are S$6 cheaper between noon and 3pm than they are after 7pm! Is that crazy or what?! So you can bet your bottom dollar that we did some day drinking. We had the IPA and the Black Pig (sort of a black IPA). With the 10% service charge and VAT (tax), this ran us S$16.50, ouch! But we did get free wifi and did some work in their bar area. Tip: Ask about the beer of the week – it’s S$2 off!

Black Pig and IPA at Brewerkz

Has anyone reading tried Durian? Haven’t heard of Durian? View the wikipedia article here. We had Durian in December in Vietnam, but were told by our new Singapore buddies that it was probably out of season and we should give it a second chance. Alright, we said, we’ll try it one more time, we said. We decided durian in the form of ice cream would be the safest bet – if Ice Cream + Durian = Gross, there’s no way we’ll enjoy the fruit itself. So we gave it a shot at a Chinatown Ice Cream vendor:

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The verdict? Even Durian in the form of Ice Cream is not for us. Also, a word of caution, even the Durian Ice Cream will give you Durian burps – there’s nothing quite like having garbage burps for a couple hours!

Restaurant Food

During our entire week in Singapore, we had TWO meals in actual sit-down restaurants. The first meal was a super extravagant splurge for Singapore’s most famous food, Chili Crab. This is a “do not miss” food in Singapore! We went to Jumbo Seafood, recommended to us by a handful of Singaporeans at the Ruby Conference:

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Jumbo Seafood took a jumbo bite out of our travel budget (har har har…). For a Chili Crab, a plate of asparagus, rice and steamed buns, we paid S$90! But it was delicious.

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Check out the mess we made. Why on earth they use white tablecloths is beyond me!

Sad the Chili Crab is gone! We did a number on the tablecloth.

Our second restaurant meal was at Ya Kun Kaya Toast:

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

Kaya Toast is another of Singapore’s unique foods, traditionally consisting of Kaya (coconut jam) on toast with butter. We stopped to try some traditional kaya and butter toast and also the peanut kaya toast:

Kaya Toast

It came with coffee and soft boiled eggs, which made me feel like I was eating snot. Fun times.

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Kaya Toast is served at almost any cafe in Singapore. We picked Ya Kun Kaya Toast because it had pretty good reviews, but in hindsight I would’ve rather gone to this other establishment solely because of their ridiculous name:

This Kaya Toast Cafe is called “Heavenly Wang”. I couldn’t make that up.

DIY Food for Budget Travelers

As you know, we’re unemployed, so we travel on a tight budget. Here’s a look at some of the less glamorous meals we’ve had to save money. We stayed at an Airbnb that didn’t provide breakfast and didn’t have a kitchen on this trip, but they did have a refrigerator! So we picked up some groceries for morning breakfasts. Each day we had a banana plus a plain piece of wheat bread (not toasted… we had no toaster…) with a couple slices of ham for protein:

Ridiculous “Breakfast Sandwiches”

We also craved fresh vegetables, so we bought some raw carrots:

Just two weirdos eating raw carrots in Chinatown…

We Want to Hear From You!

What’s the best meal you’ve had on your travels? Do you have a particular country where you enjoy food the most? For us, it’s a close race between Vietnam and Thailand.

Singapore’s Little India, A Love Story (or, a Food Story?)

July 8, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 4 Comments

I love Indian food SO MUCH. I love it more than cake, more than sweet corn, more than ice cream, even more than home baked wheat bread. So when we stumbled upon a neighborhood called Little India during our recent 1-week trip to Singapore, I became a little attached to it. We went out to eat for 11 meals during our recent weeklong trip to Singapore, and a whopping 6 of those meals (SIX! OVER HALF!) were in a little slice of Heaven called the Tekka Centre in Little India. It was like angels were dancing on my taste buds, for realsies, and I loved every minute of it.

Hawker Stalls in the Tekka Centre (Little India, Singapore)

In order to control the street food scene that is so much a part of Southeast Asia, Singapore has organized its food vendors into food centers more commonly known as “Hawker Stalls”. In my opinion, the Tekka Centre is the best – about half of it is Indian food, and the half of the stalls are more of the Chinese food persuasion. There is ONE RULE you need to follow when you dine at any of Singapore’s Hawker Stalls – go where the locals go. Never try an abandoned food stall – pick the longer lines and order what the locals order!

Tekka Centre, Best Hawker Stalls in Singapore

To get to the Tekka Centre, just hop on Singapore’s phenomenal subway system called the MRT and get off at the Little India stop. Follow signs to the Tekka Centre from there, or a friendly local will point you in the right direction if you get lost. Tip: use the bathroom at the subway station! It costs money to use the one in the Tekka Centre!

Inside the Little India MRT Station

From what I gather on the interwebs, Indian food in the US tends to be more like Southern Indian cuisine, while in Singapore it tends to be more Northern Indian. (It’s entirely possible I made that up, but I really think I read that online somewhere…) In Chiang Mai, Indian Food tends to be overpriced and underflavoured – we tried a Shahi Korma at one spot last month that reminded me of melted Velveeta nacho cheese, and the Naan there was an absolute joke, so that was a bust. But we were not disappointed in Singapore, and enjoyed trying some North Indian dishes we’ve never seen on menus in Seattle. Here’s a peek at what we tried out:

Drinks

We tried something we’ve never seen before, a drink called “Special Chendol.” It’s a milky style drink, with lots of green jelly called “Chendol” in it. We didn’t really care for it – I felt like I was slurping up worms, but it was fun to try.

“Special Chendol” for S$1.20

We sucked down as much Masala Tea as possible at the Tekka Centre. We had at least one at every meal. I also really enjoyed the Teh Tarik, which is similar to Masala Tea but with a more chocolatey twist – I think they put Milo in it. Also, it was just S$0.80 for Teh Tarik – bargain city!

Chug Chug Chug! Delicious Masala Tea for S$1

Naans and Curries

We have a naan guy in Singapore now. That’s right, we cozied up with the guys at Pak Kashmiri Delights, the hawker stall that specializes in Naan and Curries, and I learned that the stall owner lived in Connecticut for 12 years! He doesn’t look very happy in the photo below, but he was actually very friendly in person.

Our Naan Guy in Singapore

We ate a lot of Naan in Little India. I really enjoyed how they made the naan – they have a wood-fired naan oven. They press out the dough, lay it on their thick round potholder, and press it on the inside oven wall. Once it’s cooked, they use metal prongs to pry it off and pull it out.

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The naan guys also made a mean curry. We had Butter Chicken with plain naan and garlic naan:

Left to right: Teh Tarik, Masala Tea, Garlic and Plain Naan, and Butter Chicken. Total S$6.80.

We tried Chana Masala (chickpea curry) with plain naan and garlic naan:

Chana Masala + Plain & Garlic Naan for S$4

And we tried their Aloo Ghobi (vegetable curry) with plain naan:

Aloo Ghobi and Plain Naan for S$4.

The Naan guys also had a pretty tasty Tandoori Chicken we enjoyed:

Tandoori Chicken

Pratas and Murtabaks

We also discovered Prata, which we’ve never seen before! The first guys we went to for Prata were at the Shariff Stall. We enjoyed their plain prata with their delicious tomato-gravy-curry dipping sauce so much that we got it two days in a row:

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We also tried a Mutton Murtabak from the Ar-rahman Royal Prata stall. Mutton Murtabak is egg, onion, ground seasoned mutton, and peppers inside an enormous prata dough, served with dipping curry. It also can be ordered with chicken, but we were trying to be adventurous:

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Our journey through Tekka Center wouldn’t be complete without one indulgent dessert. We ordered up a Banana and Chocolate Prata from Ar-rahman Royal Prata. Delicious, sinful, greasy goodness:

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Nasi Biryanis

We discovered a dish called Nasi Biryani at Tekka Centre and loved it so much we got it three times. According to the internets, it looks like this dish is heavily influenced by Malaysian food culture, but the spices and flavorings still made it taste like it should fall in the Indian Food category.

These are our Nasi Biryani guys – theirs is the BEST.

We ordered Nasi Biryani twice with chicken:

Chicken Nasi Biryani. All this food for S$5!

On the last day, we tried it with Mutton. Mutton Nasi Biryani was the best dish we had during our whole trip to Singapore!

Mutton Nasi Biryani, also S$5. If you’re in Singapore, do not miss this dish!

Gorengs

We enjoyed a couple other dishes that seem like an Indian twist on Malaysian food. First, we tried Nasi Goreng, which was sort of a Fried Rice dish with spices commonly found in Indian food. We both really enjoyed this dish – pretty light and delicious.

Chicken Nasi Goreng

The other “Goreng” dish we tried was Mee Goreng, which looked a lot to me like cut up spaghetti noodles. I was skeptical, but all the locals seemed to be ordering this dish so we gave it a try. It was really tasty, but we liked Nasi Goreng better!

Mee Goreng

We Want to Hear From You!

Where have you tasted your favorite Indian food? Have you been to India? Should we put it on our travel wish list?

Fourth of July in Thailand

July 4, 2014July 15, 2014 / Melanie / 4 Comments

In honor of the good ‘ol USA, we decided to have “America Day” here in Chiang Mai this Fourth of July Friday. We’re about a half a day ahead of everyone back home in the States, so most of you are just waking up as our day comes to a close. There aren’t a ton of festivities here in Chiang Mai for budget travelers like us who aren’t willing to pay $40 for an American-themed buffet, so we decided to make our own fun. Here’s how we celebrated our day:

Step 1: Dress in Red, White and Blue – check!

We are selfie challenged, this is the best we could do.

Step 2: Obtain a watermelon – check!

Fun fact, there’s no such thing as “seedless watermelon” in Thailand.

Our tiny, one dollar watermelon.

Delicious, glorious watermelon:

Yum

Step 3: Listen to some good ‘ol patriotic music during breakfast – check!

Obviously, this is the first song we listened to this morning. Is it weird that Toby Keith’s music makes me a little homesick? “…We’ll put a boot in your ass it’s the American way…”

Step 4: Order the most American thing on the menu for lunch – check!

We got spaghetti with tomato sauce (and tofu and veggies…). Okay, I realize this is technically a Thai spin on Italian food, but it was the most American thing they had. I’ll take what I can get!

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce!

Step 5: Buy some American beers – check!

Rimping Supermarket is the best spot to find import foods and drinks. Last time we visited, they actually had Anderson Valley beers from the US, but this time they only had Budweiser! And you know what is terrible? The Budweiser actually tasted GOOD to us! That just goes to show you how bad beers are in Thailand. We also bought a Pale Ale from Australia (Kevin has really been jonesing for an IPA and that’s the closest thing they had) and a Leo beer, which is our go-to Thai beer now.

Leo beer from Thailand, Pale Ale from Australia, and Budweiser from the USA.

Kevin was pretty sad about having only Budweiser:

Budweiser. So sad.

We also caved and bought some of these:

GOLDFISH! LOVE.

Step 6: Make a mango pie in the rice cooker – check!

We don’t have an oven, or a pie plate for that matter. I also lack a rolling pin and measuring cups. But I know one thing for sure, 4th of July just isn’t right without some sort of fruit pie. Apples and cherries are pretty darn expensive here, so I decided to try my hand at a mango variety!

Fresh Mangos for the Mango Pie

I think the secret is to pre-cook the crust before adding the filling! I went with my mom’s standby pie crust recipe: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup water. No refrigeration required for that recipe like most butter crust recipes! I pressed the crust out on the counter since we don’t have a rolling pin:

Ghetto pie-making

Then I pressed the crust into the rice cooker pot, making it as thin as I dared to make it:

Press that crust into the rice cooker pot!

I pre-cooked the crust in my rice cooker on “Cake/Bread” mode for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, I tossed two chopped mangos with a couple dashes of cinnamon, two spoons of sugar, and about 1/2 cup flour to soak up those juices. I spooned the mangos into the pre-cooked crust, and garnished with some fun, holiday-appropriate shapes cut out of leftover pie dough:

Pre-cooked crust with Mangos and “USA”!

The pie took about 90 minutes more on “Cake/Bread” mode to finish (it’s about done once the filling really starts to bubble), and came out looking like this:

Mango pie, after 1.5 hours in my rice cooker

Turns out, it’s harder than I thought to get a pie out of a rice cooker:

Delicious but sad looking Mango Pie

It was SO DELICIOUS though, so I’m calling it a success:

Tasty slice of Mango Pie

Step 7: Gorge ourselves on pizza, beer, watermelon, and mango pie while watching “House of Cards” – check!

Again, I realize pizza is sort of an Italian food, but I also think that pizza screams “AMERICA!”. We’ve kind of adopted it as our own, right? I’ll take the little victories where I can get ‘em. Also, there’s really nothing more American than gorging yourself on pizza while watching a TV series about American Politics, right?!

Delicious, wonderful, pepperoni pizza!

Step 8: Enjoy unexpected fireworks show – check!

We didn’t realize there would be fireworks in Chiang Mai today! Luckily, we had a perfect view of the unexpected fireworks show from our top floor apartment, and we rushed outside to watch the pops from our balcony. It was great!

Fireworks in Chiang Mai over the Ping River

Step 9: Tell friends and family you miss them – check!

Nothing makes you miss your friends and family more than missing out on an iconic American holiday. We sure do miss all of you, and would like for this post to serve as a gentle reminder that visitors are always welcome here in Chiang Mai! We would make wonderful Chiang Mai tour guides – our English is excellent and we know a thing or two about where to find the tastiest foods for the best prices!

We want to hear from you!

What are you doing to celebrate this 4th of July holiday? What are you eating? Are you grilling? Are you going camping? Are you blowing things up?! Light a sparkler for us!!

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Quick Announcement

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We moved to Southeast Asia, and you can too!

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Our Story

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Is Singapore worth the trip?

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Step 1: Skip the traditional hotel!

Step 2: Take advantage of Singapore freebies!

Freebie #1: Gardens by the Bay

Freebie #2: Nightly OCBC Skyway Show at Gardens by the Bay 7:45 and 8:45pm nightly

Freebie #3: Water and Laser Light Show at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Freebie #4: Marina Bay Sands Casino

Freebie #5: Sample a Singapore Sling at Changi International Airport

Step 3: Eat at Hawker Centers!

Step 4: Get yourself some of that free wifi!

Step 5: Be prepared to walk a LOT

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Maxwell Food Centre

Hong Lim Hawker Stalls

Arab Street

Coffees, Sweets, Pastries and Beers

Restaurant Food

DIY Food for Budget Travelers

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Drinks

Naans and Curries

Pratas and Murtabaks

Nasi Biryanis

Gorengs

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Step 1: Dress in Red, White and Blue – check!

Step 2: Obtain a watermelon – check!

Step 3: Listen to some good ‘ol patriotic music during breakfast – check!

Step 4: Order the most American thing on the menu for lunch – check!

Step 5: Buy some American beers – check!

Step 6: Make a mango pie in the rice cooker – check!

Step 7: Gorge ourselves on pizza, beer, watermelon, and mango pie while watching “House of Cards” – check!

Step 8: Enjoy unexpected fireworks show – check!

Step 9: Tell friends and family you miss them – check!

We want to hear from you!

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