Starwood Preferred Guest Binders - Seminyak, Bali

Sorry for the laziness and lack of posts, I think it's been like 10 days or something. There are a myriad of excuses from sheer laziness, to poor Internet, being towards the end of the trip, and having too much fun to spend time on the iPad typing. Currently we are in Ubud, Bali with 6 days left to go, but thought I'd catch up on the pervious two stops in Bali: Seminyak and Nusa Lembongan...

After flying from Bangkok to Bali, we headed right to Seminyak, which is on the southwest coast of the island of Bali, which is in Indonesia. We were stoked to explore a totally new country and region, as a sort of vacation from our vacation. Plus, we were pretty stressed from our week on Koh Chang. While it is an awesome resort town, its mostly a vacation spot for Australians, and not necessarily a Mecca of Bali traditions. Unless drinking Bintang beer is a tradition. The main reason we went was to spend the remaining Starwood points I had left, which we did by redeeming 5 FREE nights at the W Retreat and Spa. If you haven't heard me say it before, WE LOVE STARWOOD.

Nothing beats a free room at a 5 star resort, especially after 6 weeks of traveling, and we made sure to take full advantage of it. Our days consisted of pool time (which consists of doing the doggy paddle from end to end and reading in a day bed), walking along the beach and into town for breakfast, walking down the beach for a $5 massage ($100 in the hotel), down the beach for a $5 lunch ($30 by the pool), and having a beer for awesome sunsets EVERY NIGHT while the DJ at the W busted some hip tunes. We did our best to take advantage of all these free amenities, while stretching our flashpacker budget to the max... Including me getting called out by pool security for smuggling in outside sammies. But don't worry, we still had some fantastic dinners while playing the Honeymoon card. Technically, that's still legit.

Trying to think of what else we did there, but getting into a state of total and utter relaxation is all that comes to mind. The "off the beaten track" and "culture" stuff would have to wait. After Seminyak, we headed to an island off of Bali called Nusa Lembongan.... more on that, maybe tomorrow...

The DJ dropping beats at Woo Bar

The multiple pools of the W, right on the beach

Nightly sunset

Bintangs and giant couch cushions at ICE bar, the mellow side of the hotel for sunsets

Scaring the kids in the pool

Woo Bar

There are temples everywhere in Bali, including the hotel pool

Day beds, switch between these and lounge chairs by the pool

Horizontal

Weird nest of egg pillows in the lobby.

 

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Beach Bum Binders - Koh Chang, Thailand

Bri: "So what do you want to do on Koh Chang?"

Binder: "Lay on the beach, stuff myself with cheap Pad Thai and coconut shakes, then leave tan, fat, and happy. And some SCUBA diving."

Mission accomplished. We chose the right place to relax, as Koh Chang is designed for chilling. About 5 hours and a ferry East of Bangkok, Koh Chang is the quintessential image of what you picture when you think of backpacking on an island in Thailand, paradise. Lonely Beach, where we stayed, is particularly suited for a someone looking for a $5 hut on the beach, and prefers to spend the money they saved on a bucket of vodka Red Bull. We chose to stay next to those huts, in a hotel with A/C and a pool. We're what's known as "flash packers", typically ex-backpackers who like the backpacker scene but dont carry backpacks and have more than a $10 budget.

Lonely Beach, at around 11 before anyone gets there

The streets of Lonely Beach.

Our hotel/resort. Pool, A/C, free wifi, and a nice big room with an ocean view.

Many meals and drinks on the deck at Warapura

Our routine consisted of waking up, having breakfast on the deck of our hotel on the water, walking 5 mins to Lonely Beach (which we had to ourselves since most people were too hungover to wake up before noon), renting umbrellas, having a $6 lunch of coconut shakes and awesome Thai noodles, walking back, jumping in the pool, having happy hour on the same deck, and walking into town for dinner. There were some really cool spots, such as the Magic Garden with a great playlist and swings to have a drink on, the "upscale" seafood joint where we stuffed ourselves with fresh seafood for $15, or even Barrio Bonito where we got our fix of Mexican. We repeated that everyday, except for 2 days where we went diving, and one night where we hit a party at the backpacker huts and listened to the worst DJ in the world. Bri gave diving a try, and despite doing great and being really brave to try it for her husband, decided its not for her. Brando still loves it and had 4 awesome dives in the bath-water temperature water.

Our walk to the beach

Over the shady bridge, and through the woods, off to Lonely Beach we go.

The Siam Huts, unreal location. If this were the states, there'd be a 5 Star resort there. But instead they have moldy huts.

Coconut Shakes at Nature Rocks. Everyday.

View from Nature Rocks.

Lay down, roll over, move to water.

Cooling off on the warm water

Pretty much sums it up

Diver Bri

In the pool with our instructor Patrick.

Old converted fishing boat for diving, not the fastest, but nice and sturdy.

Brando likes diving.

Logging serious hours on the deck

Everyday, same table.

Tomorrow, we head back to Bangkok to catch an early flight the following day to Bali! 5 days at the W in Seminyak for FREE on Starwood points, probably a few days in the Gili Islands, and 4 days in Ubud. Then 2 days in Bangkok and home, just about 2 weeks to go, but we are excited for a totally new place and look forward to seeing what Bali is all about.

 

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Old Town Binders - Hoi An, Vietnam

Our last stop in Vietnam, Hoi An, is widely regarded as "bursting with old town charm". Not sure what that means, but one thing is for sure, the Binders were pretty much bursting with Vietnamese food on our way back to Bangkok. Hoi An is a nice place, slightly bigger than Luang Prabang (3 streets instead of 1), and an old trading port - which explains the wide variety of influences from Japan and China throughout old town Hoi An. Another UNESCO World Heritage site, the streets, temples, meeting halls and buildings have have been mostly well preserved. We quickly realized that seeing incense burning in front of a dragon or some kind of statue inside of an Asian temple/house warrants probably 1-2 hours max, and the true "charm" of this town is the food, cruising the streets, and getting a custom made suit for the fraction of the cost at home. So that was our plan for the 3 days in Hoi An.

The streets of Old Town Hoi An

Our second favorite restaurant in Hoi An, Morning Glory, which makes Vietnamese street food in a Nice restaurant, still pretty cheap too

Ok, I'm about to go into a rant on food. If you don't like Binder rants, or food, you can skip to the next paragraph... But then again I am not sure why you are even reading this blog. Mark, our food guide in Hanoi, had recommended a place called Bale Well in Hoi An. Not even sure what it was, we blindly went there our first afternoon. And again on our last night, because it was pretty much the perfect Binder meal (not just Brando, Bri too). Basically, it's build your own spring roll wrap thing. The ingredients are grilled pork (thit nuong), spring rolls (ram cuon), crispy pancake (banh xeo, crispy omelette thing with bean sprouts and shrimp), some sort of kim chi with pineapple, various Vietnamese greens and herbs (which I have a new love for), all wrapped in simple rice paper. THEN, there was a not-your-average-peanut-sauce sauce that probably had some magic in it, which you could add a sweet chili sauce to, in order to increase/decrease the level of sweet/spicy/magic balance in your dipping sauce. Follow that up with a nice long pull of an ice cold beer. The ladies of Bale Well are super friendly and will show you how to make the first few. The thing that makes these so great, are not only the fresh and flavorful ingredients, but the variety of textures and flavor (crunchy, flaky, meaty, hot, cold, sweet, and spicy) all in one. If you've ever heard a Binder food rant, it almost always points out that the best foods have a variety of favors going on at the same time, and are well constructed to contain all those favors in each bite. And almost always include a sauce. These met the criteria, thus constituting the perfect Binder meal. Not to mention, we were stuffed and each had 2 beers for about $11.

The ingredients. The next series of photos will show you the assembly.

First you take the rice paper... Ignore the gecko on the wall behind me

Then you add your greens

.... Then your Kim chi stuff, don't forget a pineapple chunk

Insert spring roll (yes, it's a spring roll inside a spring roll)

Add grilled pork, there is a special technique to getting it off the stick

Preparing to roll, this took some practice, so I had to eat quite a few

Call me Bob Marley

Dip it!!!

Bite that thing!

Look at that combo of deliciousness!

Drink beer!

Good shot of the spread, notice the change of outfit and lighting as we went multiple times.

They not only will help you make a roll, they will even feed it to you free of charge!

The outdoor kitchen, where they make magic

We didn't JUST eat spring rolls in Hoi An, we did actually go see the sites, both walking and biking the entire town. In short, the sites are old relics of the last 500 years Hoi An has been around, like Assembly Halls where groups of Chinese and Japanese groups met, and an old Japanese bridge. Pretty cool I guess, hard to follow after the spring rolls, but the biking/wandering the town and stopping for Vietnamese Iced Coffees, beers, and more food more than kept us entertained for a fun couple days.

Free bikes from out hotel

Old Japanese Bridge

Chinese and/or Japanese stuff around town

Japanese bridge

Puppies!! Seen on a random corner

The sign says "Hoi An", because that's where we are

Beer break, and trying to make sense of the map

Note the two old ladies holding hands in the back, best buds 4 life

Hoi An from the river that made it popular

Morning Glory's take on Bun Cha, awesome but a notch below the stuff on the street

Banh Mi, finally!!

One last thing we were told is a must in Hoi An, is to get a custom suit made. Considering I have one suit that fits me, and it was the one I wore when I got married, we figured this was a great opportunity to spice up my wardrobe for when I return to society. Completely custom made to you, you can get suits made as cheap as $80, with a really expensive suit getting up to $350. I got a suit and a blazer, an experience made a bit more hilarious by the army of tiny Asian women surrounding "the big goon", which I'm pretty sure is what they were calling me to each other while laughing right in front of me. Either way, I got some sweet new custom threads stuffed in the bottom of my bag for the next few weeks, at a fraction of the price at home. Feel free to compliment me at the next wedding and/or business meeting.

Picking my fabric. Crazy they made a suit out of that in under 24 hours!

Getting measured

Really getting all the specs

Some final adjustments, note she is standing on the stairs.

Me, my gal, and the final product.

Well, that wrapped up our time in Vietnam, as we flew back to Bangkok, then took a shuttle/ferry about 5 hours to the Island of Koh Chang, Thailand where we are currently watching the sunset and chilling out for the next 6 days. We plan on doing some SCUBA diving, lots of lounging, reading, and working on our base tans for Bali. Bummed the A's are out of it, but it's giving me the ability to disconnect a lot more, and Koh Chang is just the place to do it! Trip is over half done, just 3 weeks to go!

 

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