Our Fabulous Trip to Puerto Vallarta!

Our fabulous trip began on September 6th when Leonard and I met Joe, Colleen, Ken, Anna, Alex, Mary and Vanessa at the Phoenix airport. It was so great to see everyone, especially after being away from them for the past 6 months! Upon arrival in Puerto Vallarta we were picked up and taken to the villa, stopping briefly to pick up Jessica, who had arrived a day earlier. The Wheelers and Parkers rode separately in a cab after a brief and somewhat unpleasant encounter with a rental car company. All worked out fine, as cabs and Ubers are not expensive in PV, and it's always nice to have someone else do the driving!

After arriving at Villa Mandarinas, we were greeted by our concierge Katia and the rest of our wonderful staff and shown around the villa. Wow! Talk about spectacular! The villa was lovely and the view was incredible! 

After viewing all the bedrooms, we picked which ones we wanted and then headed to the house for drinks and snacks. We all agreed that the guacamole was outstanding! Actually, all the meals and snacks were wonderful! We couldn't have asked for a better chef!

The rest of the day was spent swimming, hanging out in the hot tub, eating, drinking and catching up on everything that had happened since our departure from Denver in March. We soon discovered that our drinks of choice were frozen mango margaritas and Coronitas, with the occasional frozen strawberry somethings and gin and tonics. Micki and Javier were fabulous servers/bartenders who waited on us hand and foot! Such a treat!

Monday morning we skipped breakfast, as we had been instructed by the owner of the food tour company, and headed into town for our "Untouristed Food Tour." It did not disappoint! For the next three hours, our guide Abel took us to numerous small restaurants around PV, where we sampled all different kinds of tacos, including goat meat! Dessert consisted of wonderful gelato and two chocolate cupcakes in what would be the first of several birthday celebrations for me!

After thoroughly stuffing ourselves, we were taken to several art galleries that had opened just for us. Then we were off to the Malecon, or boardwalk, where we took a stroll and bought some souvenirs. When we were done, our driver for the week, Manuel, picked us up and took us back to the villa, but not before stopping for delicious chicken fat soaked potatoes for Mary (which the rest of us also managed to enjoy). A few hours later, our chef prepared a wonderful dinner, and the rest of the evening was spent swimming, soaking and talking. 

Tuesday morning the boys took off for a fishing trip, minus Leonard who stayed home with minor stomach issues. The girls got mani/pedis and did more swimming and soaking followed by a delicious lunch. The boys returned with fish which was made into ceviche, and we all had more guacamole!

Tuesday night we headed into town for dinner at the beach. The food was good, and we all were treated to lovely music and an incredible sunset! Alex saw "Nicki Minaj" (or rather, Nicki Massage, as he called her), and once again we celebrated my birthday with cake and song!

Wednesday Joe and Ken went golfing, and the rest of us went on a "Wild Dolphin Encounter." It was nice to get out on the water, but this was probably the low point of the trip for most of us, as the dolphins didn't come near us. The only person who didn't seem bothered by this was Anna, who was too busy throwing up to care! Poor Anna! We did get to see some dolphins from a distance, the weather was pleasant and the sandwiches were good, so it was still a nice trip. 

Wednesday night we celebrated my birthday once again (and the 10 year anniversary of my first date with Leonard)! The chef made lasagna and pizza, both of which were excellent, and we had German chocolate cake for dessert. The staff gifted us with a wonderful singer and guitar player. I cried when they played "our song" - A Thousand Years by Christina Perri.

Thursday we all headed into PV for a luxury yacht tour. We essentially had the yacht to ourselves, other than another "Nicki Massage," her husband, and a family of four from New Orleans, one of which was a lovely actress that I ended up having a wonderful conversation with about childbirth and the law of attraction! Unfortunately, this time Jessica was the one who was below deck with a migraine, but we knew she was with us in spirit! 

The yacht was spectacular and the weather was glorious! Fabulous food and drinks were served as we rode around the bay and headed to our snorkeling destination. Those of us who snorkeled saw a few pretty fish and then swam over to an island where we hung out on the beach, swam, and had some drinks. This time Anna didn't get sick, but since she doesn't swim, one of the men in the crew carried her from the boat to the beach! 

Then several of us, including me, took a banana boat ride where we were towed around the bay behind a motor boat. When the captain asked if we wanted to go fast or slow, I said "slow" (which surprised no one). But when a young man sitting in front of me said, "Go as fast as you can!" the captain took off!! Less than a minute later, as we rounded the bend, four of us flew off including Leonard, Mary and me! We all laughed, no one was hurt and we were all glad to see that we weren't the only ones who had ended up in the water. Mary and Alex actually went for another ride, but Leonard and I decided we had had enough! Mary and Alex also went paddle boarding. The water on that beach was lovely, as there was a fresh water stream running through it, which meant that every so often we would swim through cool water.

Friday Joe and Leonard went golfing while the rest of us (minus Ken, who wasn't feeling well, and Anna) headed into town for shopping and massages. Colleen, Jessica and I loved our massages, but Alex and Mary weren't that happy with theirs. But we all enjoyed exploring the town. 

Friday night was another highlight of the trip, as Leonard hired a six-piece Mexican band to come to the villa! The band began playing during dinner and played for three hours. I had originally thought that would be too long, but it wasn't. The band was wonderful and we all had a great time singing and dancing! Once again, they played "our song," along with many Mexican classics, all of which Alex seemed to know (and sing), and a few American favorites (Sweet Caroline, Ring of Fire, and others). 

Saturday, Joe and Leonard decided they also wanted massages so we headed back into town. We stopped by an art gallery, walked around for a while and then had some drinks. Jessica and I decided that since Joe and Leonard were getting massages, we might as well get them, too! Then it was off to Si Senor for dinner. Once again, we were not disappointed! We were the only ones in the restaurant (other than the family that ran it and their bird Lola), and the food was wonderful!

Sunday it was time to say goodbye. After another wonderful breakfast (banana bread French toast, huevos rancheros, mangos, papayas, pineapple, blueberries and many other delicious fruits), we walked down to the water, relaxed around the pool and then headed to the airport. We were all so pleased with how the trip went! How blessed we are to have such wonderful friends. We will remember this trip forever.

Click here to see more photos.

Click here to see videos.

  

Saigon

When you've been traveling for as long as we have, sooner or later you're bound to have a conversation like this one. 

Lenny: Is this Wednesday or Thursday?
Me: It’s Wednesday.
Lenny: No, it’s Thursday.
Me: No, it’s Wednesday.
Lenny (looking at calendar): Oh, you’re right. It’s Wednesday. Where were we before we got here?
Me: Saigon.
Lenny: We’re IN Saigon!

Yes, traveling can scramble your brain, especially when things don’t go as planned. As I mentioned in my last posting, getting our Vietnam visas ended up to be a bit challenging. We had planned to fly to Saigon on Tuesday, Feb. 6th, so when we applied for our visas through what we thought was a reputable website the previous Thursday (with an assurance that they would be delivered within 24 hours), we assumed we had plenty of time.

But when Monday rolled around and we still hadn’t received them, we began to get a bit panicky. Thankfully, a wonderful concierge, Anh, at the hotel we were planning on staying in in Saigon, got our visas in a few hours. So the following day we headed to the Singapore airport where we encountered our next challenge.

Me and Anh

Vietnam visas are good for 30 days. Which means that 30 days after you arrive, the government wants you gone. And apparently they want proof you are going to leave prior to letting you in the country. We learned this fact when we tried to check in for our flight.

“I’ll need to see your outgoing flight,” said the man at the counter. Lenny explained that we were planning our trip as we went along, so we didn’t know where we were going after Vietnam or when we were leaving but we would be out in less than 30 days.

“I can let you board your flight but I have to warn you,” he said, “that when you get to Vietnam, they may not let you in the country.” He explained that we could sign a form stating that we understood this, and then take our chances. Lenny felt confident they would let us in (based on his internet research), so we signed the form and waited to board our flight. A few minutes later, however, we decided to buy some cheap tickets out of Vietnam to anywhere (we chose Cambodia) just to be on the safe side.

Flying into Saigon was a strange experience. As a child growing up in the 60’s, I never dreamed I would intentionally visit this faraway land that was the source of so much sadness and pain. Yet here I was. And as the plane landed, I couldn’t help but imagine the thousands of soldiers who had landed at this same airport 50 years earlier and never returned home.

As it turned out, we breezed through customs and immigration, and were never asked about when we were leaving. So a few hours later we canceled our flight to Cambodia. We did wonder if perhaps the government would somehow be alerted to this and come after us but this never happened!

As I mentioned before, Singapore was a beautiful, peaceful city and I always felt safe there. So I wasn’t prepared for what awaited us in Saigon. Upon exiting the airport we had to find a cab. We had been told that there were lots of fake cabs that would rip us off so to only trust two companies. Thankfully we found a cab from one of the companies pretty quickly and off we went.

Within 30 seconds I already knew this was going to be my least favorite destination on our trip (I have since changed my mind). There are 13 million people in Saigon, and 9 million registered motorbikes. This was immediately apparent as our driver wove through the streets of Saigon, honking his horn every few seconds. To me it seemed like pure chaos. I looked at Lenny and could tell he thought it was exciting!

“We’ll have to do one of those back of the bike tours where they take you to all sorts of interesting restaurants all over the city on the back of a motorbike,” he said, gleefully.

“No fucking way,” I responded.

Somehow we made it to our hotel, the Park Hyatt, which was built on the site of the Brinks car bombing. The hotel was lovely, but it seemed strange to see a marble plaque outside the building with the image of a car being blown up.

After unpacking our stuff, we headed out to dinner. We had decided to walk to the restaurant, which turned out to be our next challenge.

We soon discovered that many of the streets don’t have stop signs or traffic lights (some I believe are roundabouts but it’s hard to tell). They do have crosswalks but absolutely no one pays attention to them. So if you stand at the corner and wait for traffic to stop you will stand there forever. Essentially you just have to walk into the street and trust that the cars and motorbikes will stop. I was thankful when we got to a street with a traffic light. Until I discovered that most motorbikes don’t stop at red lights. And if the streets are too crowded, the motorbikes go up on the sidewalks! One way streets? Yes, there are plenty of them. But often the motorbikes go the wrong way!

My first couple days in Saigon I dreaded walking to our destinations. But I soon discovered that if you simply walk into the street with some sense of authority, they will stop. I have no doubt that accidents happen but we never saw one. Somehow they make this work. And when I read a review of the back of the bike tour where someone talked about “this ballet on wheels,” something clicked. I suddenly felt like I could ride on the back of the bike and not be afraid - despite the fact that I had never been on a motorbike and had only been on a motorcycle once, about 40 years ago. And so we signed up for the tour.

I have to say, this was one of the highlights of our trip. Motorbikes are surprisingly quiet, so I was able to talk to my driver the entire time. I learned all about her life and she learned all about mine. Interestingly enough, we had both read the book The Alchemist and both enjoyed it! As the book says, the universe conspires to bring you what you want. The woman (I never did understand how to pronounce her name), was 29 years old. She grew up in the Mekong Delta and longed to go back there. But the work was here and so she was stuck in Saigon, at least for now. She told me about yoga and how it can change your life. And how it wasn’t just the exercises, it was a way of life. And actually, she didn’t even do the exercises but somehow she was still fascinated by it. She also told me that while she grew up eating dogs, as many Vietnamese do, she no longer eats them.

Meanwhile, Lenny rode with a young man in his last year of college. He was bright-eyed, innocent and intelligent. When he finished school he wanted to go back and help his community. 

He and my driver were openly affectionate, as we discovered many Asians are. No, they were not a couple, they explained. He was like her little brother. They joked and laughed the entire night, as did we. We went to five or six restaurants, some of which were in alleys. Entire families sat in the alleys cooking for their families, neighbors and the occasional customer. 

The food was good but not exceptional to us. Still, the experience was priceless. And as we made our way back to the hotel at the end of the tour, I actually reveled in feeling the wind on my face as we wove through the now somewhat quieter city streets. It was an experience I will never forget.

In our week in Saigon, we took several more tours. We learned that there are 30,000 miles of tunnels under Vietnam. The Vietcong and their families lived in these tunnels during the Vietnam War. Babies were born there, many of which either did not survive or had problems from gestating and living in darkness. Families would take turns living in the tunnels, which offered some safety from the bombing, but many of them died, either in the tunnels or in the surrounding jungle. It was quite a chore to try and remain hidden. Their motto was, “Cook without smoke, talk without sound, walk without marks.” They actually had shoes with soles that made it appear they were walking in the opposite direction.

Our tour guide through the tunnels cried at one point as she told stories of people who had lived through the war and sustained injuries. 

She also told us about Operation Babylift, where babies with Vietnamese mothers and American fathers were taken to America. Americans were told that these were orphans. But in reality, many of them were not. Their Vietnamese mothers were told that the children would be chastised for being mixed race and so it would be best to give them up for adoption. Years later some children returned in an attempt to find their mothers but in most cases records were not kept.

At the end of the tour she said we would be watching a propaganda film about a woman soldier who had killed numerous Americans and was hailed as a hero. Vietnam is controlled enough that they are required to show the propaganda film at the end of the tour. But not so controlled that the tour guide couldn’t tell us that the film was propaganda.

“We feel we have freedom,” several Vietnamese told us, “But we know not to criticize the government.”

We also learned about some differences between North and South Vietnamese. In the North, the oldest son takes care of the aging parents. In the South, the youngest son does. In the North they hire people to cry at funerals. In the South they hire bands to play music, as it is considered a celebration of moving on to the next life.

In our week in Saigon (this is what most people call it even though it’s technically Ho Chi Minh City), we ate at lots of good restaurants, got a few massages (yes, massages are cheap in Vietnam, too), toured a factory where they made beautiful lacquered works of art, and took a boat ride down the Saigon River. All the boats have eyes to frighten the monsters that many Vietnamese believe live under the water.

I don’t know that I will ever go back to Saigon. It is a noisy, crowded city. But it touched me in unexpected ways and I am so glad I got to experience it.

To see photos and videos of our back of the bike tour click here.

To see photos and videos of our time in Saigon click here.

Singapore

Drinking a Singapore Sling in Singapore!

When you live in a city, vacationing in another city isn't quite as appealing as heading to a beach. But as my husband says, it can't all be sun and sand, and so on this trip we have tried to have a little bit of everything.

Still, I wasn't that excited about going to Singapore. While there were things I liked about Hong Kong, it had been my least favorite destination. Some of that may have been due to jet lag and adjusting to a drastically different time zone. But the noise, people and traffic got to me after a few days.

And so I was pleasantly surprised when I not only didn't dislike Singapore, I actually loved it! The first thing I noticed about Singapore was that it had a sort of surreal feeling to it, like Pleasantville or Willoughby, an ideal town from an old Twilight Zone episode. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, but eventually I realized that some of the surrealism is due to the fact that not only is the town eerily clean, but there aren't many cars on the road compared to most cities, and the cars they have are almost all fairly new.

I soon learned that this is because it costs a lot of money to have a car in Singapore - $50,000 for a permit which is good for 10 years, and charges for driving which get higher after 10:30 at night.

Of course it is a well-known fact that Singapore has very strict laws in regards to littering and graffiti. So that explains a lot of the cleanliness. And while I am not a fan of big government, there is something to be said for strict cleanliness laws. How hard is it to throw something in a trash can or not spray paint a wall? (Interestingly enough, they have an excellent street art exhibit at the Science and Art Museum which we toured one day.)

But it isn't just the cleanliness and lack of traffic that make Singapore a truly pleasant place to visit, it's the architecture. In Marina Bay, the area we stayed in, quaint old buildings sit amidst towering, beautifully designed skyscrapers.

Perhaps the most famous building is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which is actually three buildings connected by a boat-like structure at the top that contains the world's largest rooftop swimming pool. Lenny and I took the elevator to the roof where we enjoyed gorgeous views of the city.

The domes you see are the Cloud Forest and the Flower Dome, both of which we visited in our 6 days in Singapore.

We also took the hop on hop off bus, took a boat ride around the bay, enjoyed a fabulous complimentary tea (check out the photos on the photos page) at our hotel, ate at many fabulous restaurants and walked around the spectacular Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. This computerized screen that changes as children (and some adults) run and jump on it is one of several interesting features at the mall.

Once again, we stayed at two different hotels in the city, the Mandarin Oriental and the Fullerton Bay Hotel. Both were lovely. We started this several years ago when we were going to Paris. We couldn't decide which hotel to stay in and so we spent 3 nights in one hotel and 3 in another. It's a great way to experience different parts of a city, and allows us to make one less decision!

On our last night in Singapore we ate at Lau Pa Sat which is a hawker center. Hawker centers are essentially open air food courts with numerous stalls selling inexpensive cooked food. This one happened to be excellent. Our only regret was that we didn't discover it until our last night in Singapore! It truly was one of the few bargains in the city. After dinner we witnessed a spectacular (free!) music, light and water show called Spectra outside the  Marina Bay Sands Hotel. Watch the videos on the photos page to get a better feel for how wonderful it was! 

Our last two days in Singapore ended up to be a little challenging as we scrambled to get visas to go to Vietnam, our next destination. But it worked out fine, thanks to a helpful concierge named Anh who you'll read about in my next posting about Vietnam!

To see more photos and videos of our trip to Singapore click here.