On the front and tail of our adventure in Borneo, we spent time in Hong Kong, China. Arriving in China after a very long 15 hour flight from Los Angeles, we had about 8 hours to spend in the city before catching our final flight into Kota Kinabalu. Instead of wasting time in the airport, we headed into Hong Kong to see some sights. We took a train into the city and had a very sweet walk to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. It’s a tiny little zoo, with beautiful gardens. We took the nearby Peak Tram to see the city from the top of Victoria Peak. Although it was a foggy day, we could still see the massive skyline of HKG. We strolled the streets for a bit and stopped in for a quick lunch before journeying back to the airport for our flight into Borneo.
After two weeks, we landed back in Hong Kong to spend a final day exploring. We took another long train ride from our hotel near the airport to downtown Hong Kong. We walked through Times Square to see the city lit up at night. Derek always laughs at me but seeing places at night is one of my favorite travel things. I love lights. We stopped in at a local beer bar, Coedo. We were excited to be back in a land with craft beer and sipped from pints of beer from breweries in China and Japan.
Our final morning in Asia we arranged a cab to take us to the Tian Tan Buddha, otherwise known as Big Buddha. We could see the Buddha from various angles on the car ride there, but it’s nothing like being at the base of it. The Buddha is huge and it’s surrounding temple area is completely lovely. We walked the steps up to the Buddha and spent a lot of time admiring the large statue in front of us and the views of the mountains around us. After walking back down, we toured the temple and gazed at it’s colorful dragons adorning the outside walls. We stopped to buy a few local souvenirs to take home and boarded a train again to the Kowloon neighborhood. My sole purpose was to find dumplings. I was on a mission. I wanted authentic Chinese dumplings. I love dumplings so it only seemed right to indulge while in China. We eventually found a dumpling shop, luckily it wasn’t that hard, and they were as tasty as I imagined. We walked to Little Creatures Brewery nearby to taste some local brews and made one more stop at the Kowloon Taproom. We then sadly headed to the airport. We were there during the time of the Mid-Autumn festival and mooncakes were advertised everywhere. I was able to grab some mooncakes to snack on before boarding our flight and waving good-bye and ending our memorable time in Asia! 
After our boat ride, we strolled through the Tasek Lama Recreational Park complete with giant palm trees and a beautiful waterfall. We ended the day by watching the sunset at the uber fancy, Empire Hotel, and grabbed savory and sweet treats from the Gadong Night Market before returning to our Airbnb. That evening, our Airbnb host invited us to his home nearby for drinks and a chance to learn more about Brunei from a born and raised Bruneian.
Day two began with a walk through some other local markets and a quick peak at the Teng Yun temple. We then grabbed a cab to take in the Jame Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque. The grounds are stunning and absolutely took my breath away. We were unable to go inside due to prayer services happening at the time we were there, but the outside is well worth the stroll around. It is exquisite. This stop was by far my favorite in Brunei, it’s truly a beautiful place.
We spent the afternoon walking the city, but mid day brought an intense heat. We were incredibly hot and way too sweaty. So we decided to pop into a local mall where we could enjoy air conditioning for a while. We snacked on charcoal ice cream and, in an effort to continue to avoid the heat, caught a showing of Crazy Rich Asians. We dined on some Indian food that evening and then completed the day by renting a scooter and cruising the waterfront.
Our final morning in BSB we booked a mountain bike tour. We were picked up by the owners of the tour company, a foreign couple living in Brunei specifically to boost the mountain biking eco-tourism industry. He was Australian and she was Canadian. Throughout the tour we learned a lot about what it is like to live as foreigners in a vastly conservative country. The bike trails were through some jungle like areas and mostly made of sand. For me it was a tough ride, Derek was happy as a clam. I had a nasty flip at one point, but stuck with it and at the end of the ride was dripping with sweat and covered in sand, but happy to have done it. Our guides ended the adventure with a stop at a coconut stand where we got to sip sweet, cold milk straight from a fresh cut coconut which was amazingly refreshing in the intense humidity and watched a little monkey hop around the exterior of the stand. I would highly recommend Kingdom Rides if you ever happen to find yourself in Brunei. We were dropped off at our Airbnb for a quick shower before catching our plane back to Malaysia to finish out our last few days in Kota Kinabalu. Brunei is definitely a country off the beaten path. Not a place I ever imagined visiting, but glad I did. Its culture is rich, its people are charming; it’s small, but mighty. 
The next day we began our trek up Mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Malaysia standing at 13,435 feet tall. We drove two hours to the base of the mountain and then after some information and pep talk from our guide, Roger, we began the climb. The ascent is required to be done in two days due to frequent afternoon thunderstorms, so we started around 11am and made it the 4 miles to the rest house, Laban Rata, a few house later. It is a tough climb. The trail is steep and most of it is made up of steps packed into the dirt or actual man made staircases built out of wood. When we got to Laban Rata, we enjoyed a beer, some great food, a beautiful sunset and by early evening we were out. We awoke at 2am to have an incredibly early breakfast and head for the summit. By 5 am we made it to the summit and then waited around for another hour (in the cold) to see the sunrise before heading back down. Again, tough climb, but completely worth it and views like I’ve never seen before. After finishing the descent we were taken to a delightful lunch with a great view of the mountain we had just conquered and then headed to Poring Hot Springs for a long deserved soak in the warm pools and a good night’s sleep.
The next day we soaked some more, hiked to a bat cave, saw a waterfall, walked around a jungle canopy and made our way back to KK City. When we got back we went to get my phone screen replaced as I accidentally destroyed it on our climb down from the mountain.
The morning brought a flight to Sandakan where we spent the day getting massages (they were so cheap!!) and floating in the pool of the Sabah Hotel. We ventured out briefly enough to see the Puu Jih Shih Buddhist temple full of dragons and colorful lanterns.
The next day began our animal extravaganza. We were transported to Turtle Island, a conservation area for sea turtles. We swam and snorkeled in the Sulu Sea and watched turtles come up on the beach and lay eggs late that night and then got to assist in releasing baby sea turtles into the ocean. That was so cool! The next morning we left the island and headed back to the mainland to see orangutans at the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. We saw all sorts of orangutans but seeing the big males come into the area for food was amazing and scary all at the same time. We also got to hop over to the Sun Bear Conservatory where we enjoyed seeing tiny sun bears move around, scratch there back on trees, and eat some trees. That evening we made our way deeper into the jungle along the Kinabatangan River. We took our first jungle river cruise and saw all sorts of monkeys (including orangutans) and other animals in the wild. We did a night hike through the jungle and spent the evening in our cozy jungle hut.
We went on two other river cruises the next day and did a longer jungle hike to Lake Oxbow with our guide, Ramzan, who was super knowledgeable about the jungle and all its animals. We spent one more night in the jungle and had one last river cruise before saying goodbye and heading back to Sandakan. On our way we stopped by the Gomantang Caves with Ramzan as our guide and ventured through a guano covered cave with more creepy crawly bugs, bats, and terrible odors than I’ve ever experienced. It was beautiful and disgusting. Strange combination. We hopped a flight back to Kota Kinabalu and made our way out to the various Pasar Malam (night markets) in the city. We had milk straight out of a coconut and the best lobster ever and enjoyed a tower of Tiger Beer at a place called Beer Factory.
The following morning we went sight seeing and saw the Masjid Bandaraya Mosque before taking the boat ride to Gaya Island to stay in an overwater bungalow for the night. This was a bucket list item for me. We enjoyed the ocean view from the balcony and went snorkeling. We had a fancy meal at one of the restaurants and relaxed to the sounds of ocean waves.
The next day we woke up with a traveler’s stomach bug. Neither of us know what from, my best guess is the market food. We were still able to enjoy some snorkeling and kayaking before leaving the island but spent the rest of the evening in our hotel room in Kota Kinabalu eating ramen and drinking tea.
Luckily whatever we had was a 24 hour thing and we felt fine the next day. We headed to Brunei which I’ll cover in another post so more on that later. After a couple days in Brunei we returned to Malaysia for our last day in KK City. We did a little souvenir shopping and went to a local muse before catching our flight back to Hong Kong and beginning our journey home.
So, if you were one of those people who had no idea where Borneo was prior to reading this post I highly encourage you to do some research and plan a trip. You’ll fall in love with it. Just as we did.
To rent a lookout you kind of have to be on the lookout (pun intended) or at least I had to. You have to rent the more popular lookouts through the National Forest Service several months in advance as they fill up quickly. Derek decided late last year that he wanted to stay in a lookout for his birthday which was in March, but the lookouts are closed then. So I booked our stay for this July last December. Up Up lookout is about two hours outside of Missoula in the Lolo National Forest. The Forest Service gives you a code to access a gate 3 miles from the tower and a lock that lets you in to the tower itself. We arrived at the tower after seeing a bear on the drive in and began making the trek 40 feet up over 3 flights of steep stairs multiple time to unload all our belongings and settle in for the weekend. There was a pulley system that helped.
We had decided previously that this weekend would have no agenda. Although there was much to explore around us, we both wanted to get the most of our time in the tower. So the plan was to stay in. Which is rare of us, but was a nice change. The views were spectacular and the place itself is cozy, not a bad place to lock yourself away for weekend. The tower is equipped with a twin bed, a table, a lot of cabinet space, gas lamps, and map at the center. No stove, no water, and the toilet is 40 feet below at the base. We stocked up on food we could cook over a camp stove and a lot local beer to get us through the weekend. We passed the time looking for animals, playing cards, talking, napping, and just looking out the windows. We enjoyed summer rain storms and bright sunsets over the mountains. It was light until almost 11pm which gave us plenty of time to enjoy the day.
Sunday came too quickly and before we knew it we were packing up and saying good-bye to our peaceful mountain tower. I was sad to see the trip end, but we decided we would make it a yearly event and plan to be at Up Up next summer.
Sunday we took a day trip to Hood River after a quick stop at Stumptown Coffee. The scenery from Portland to Hood River is absolutely amazing. Although damage from a fire last year is notable, the views of the Colombia River, mountains, waterfalls, and trees are spectacular. We took a scenic drive near Mt. Hood, walked around the picturesque town, checked out Double Mountain and PFriem breweries, and stopped on the way back for a wine tasting. That evening we meandered around the downtown area and walked across one of the many bridges. It was then time for more beer, so we made our way to Breakside Brewing. We had late night pizza slices at Sizzle and browsed Powell’s before turning in for the night.
Our last morning, we had coffee at Tov, an Egyptian style coffee house located in a double decker bus. We walked around Hawthorne Boulevard while eating breakfast from local food trucks. We then drove more through Forrest Park and stopped at the Grotto before heading to Fire on the Mountain Brewing to meet up with my friend, Amanda, who I hadn’t seen in ages. It was the cherry on top of wonderful weekend to get to reconnect with an old friend. The three of us had one more beer at Culmination Brewing before Derek and I said our good-byes to Portland and flew back home to SLC. All in all a fantastic getaway to cap off the holidays and prepare for the 10 days of Sundance that followed!
I’m sure the number one thing to do in Curacao is go to the beach. The island has over 30 beaches with a wide variety of appeal. You can find any preference of beach. Beaches connected to resorts, beaches you hike to, beaches with locals, beaches with no one. Most of the beaches are prime spots for snorkeling and scuba diving and the Caribbean blue and turquoise waters never get old. The best beaches were Kleine Knip, Grote Knip, Directorsbaai, and Playa Grandi. There’s also Tugboat beach where you can snorkel a sunken tugboat. They fish are plentiful and don’t seem to be near as scared of people. On Sundays there is a small food market in the tiny town of Barber. People venture to the market to sample some local fare like stewed chicken or beef and home made lemonade or Tamarin soda and then head to Playa Grandi to watch the locals fish and swim with the sea turtles that come closer to shore to check out what’s going on.
My absolute favorite beach was Playa Gipy. It’s on the very northern tip of the island and takes a short hike to get to, but it’s beautiful and rarely filled with other people. We went twice and the second time we were there for about half a day and had the whole beach to ourselves. We swam, drank wine, and built sandcastles. It was amazing. We also went to the Blue Cave. It’s an underwater cave that you hike about a mile or so to from Santa Cruz beach. You jump in and time the waves right to dive under and get in to the cave. The light from the water makes the whole cave sparkle with a blue tint. Unfortunately, my underwater camera died before that day, but it is burned in my memory because it was so beautiful!
We spent part of a day in one of the two national parks on the island, Christoffelpark. We made it to the park in enough time to start the climb of Christoffel Peak, the tallest peak on the island (1,220 ft.). The park has a cut off time of 11am to start the hike due to the high heat, humidity, and the trail being exposed. Luckily, we hit the trail on a cloudy and overcast day which made it a bit cooler, but the humidity was still rough. You can see the whole island from the top of the peak. The trail is steep, but short and the views make it worth it. The island has a unique terrain of tropical jungle like trees and desert looking cacti intermixed everywhere you look and iguanas are easy to spot all over the island. 
I got to check off a bucket list item while on the island. I spent a morning snorkeling with dolphins at the Curacao Dolphin Academy. Getting to actually swim with dolphins and not just splash around a bit has always been a dream of mine. It was a surreal experience. To get to dive, swim, and play with 4 dolphins (two were babies!) was spectacular and the best part was I had the whole excursion to myself. No sharing!
The capital city of Willemstad and it’s brightly colored neighborhoods are also highly worth exploring. The island hosts a port which separates two neighborhoods Punda and Otrabanda (literally “the other side”). The floating Queen Emma bridge connects both sides and when ships need to come in to the port the bridge moves and opens like a gate to let the ships in. If you time it correctly you can “take a ride” on the bridge and stay on it as it moves. Both sides of Willemstad have color splashed buildings and street art in various places. At night the city and the bridge light up with more beautiful colors everywhere. Curacao is certainly colorful in more ways than one!
We feasted on meals that often included plantains, rice, and beans. We tried lionfish at Seaside Terrace overlooking the ocean and Asian/Caribbean fusion at Ginger in the hip Pietermaai district, right next to Punda. The most memorable dining experience was stewed iguana from Jaanchies where there are no menus and the owner actually comes over, sits at your table, and goes over what they have until your ready to order. If you clean your plate you get a bowl of homemade peanut ice cream for dessert. We had Jamaican food at Cool Runnings, the portions were so large we ate on it for a couple of days. We also dined on goat burgers at Williwood, which mimics Hollywood with a similar sign across from the restaurant. We visited Curacao Brewery twice to sample locals brews and did a tour of Landhuis Chobolobo, which is home to the distillery that makes Blue Curacao (as well as Red, Orange, Green, Tamarin, and Coffee flavored). Curacao also has a decent food stand and food truck scene throughout the island. We made sure to stop at one and try some traditional Dutch food. And of course, Derek made his traditional McDonald’s stop. He eats McDonald’s in every foreign country we visit!
There are so many other wonderful sights to see! Like the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, which is the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas. It’s beautiful on the inside and the floor is covered in sand which makes it even more unique. Punda also hosts a floating market where vendors sell all sorts of fruits, veggies, and other local goodies. The cemeteries and churches are also worth stopping to visit. The multi-colored tombs and churches catch your eye all throughout the island. There’s also a flamingo park, an aloe vera plantation, an ostrich farm, and tons of art galleries. Something for everyone! I came home with a piece from local artist Nena Sanchez and also enjoyed seeing all of the Chichi’s (which is Papiamentu for big sister) at Serena’s Art Factory.
Curacao is a constituent country of the Netherlands and the Dutch influence is still very prominent on the island. Almost everyone on the island speaks at least four languages-Dutch, English, Spanish, and the local language of Papiamentu. In this language, the word Dushi is used very frequently and you’ll see it all over the island on t-shirts, souvenirs, and a big statue in one of the squares (see above). The word essentially means “sweet” or “good”. It’s the perfect word to describe Curacao!
The next morning, Mary Kate and I spent to day on Freedom Park exploring the MLK, Jr.’s home, museum, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This experience was profoundly moving more than I have time to describe here. We also went though the Jimmy Carter Presidential library. We feasted on pancakes and French toast at Thumbs Up Diner and then went back to Little Five Points and Decatur to explore more in the daytime and without carrying out bags everywhere. That evening we ventured to Three Taverns for some sour beers and Fat Matt’s for some delicious southern BBQ.
Saturday began with tea and breakfast at Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party which is just as magical and whimsical as it sounds. I felt like Alice in my own version of Wonderland with umbrellas on the ceiling and fanciful decor. It was straight lovely. We made our way to through Krog Street Market and through the Krog Street Tunnel. The tunnel is wall to wall street art and graffiti. Beautiful! We walked the Beltline to Ponce City Market (this is Atlanta’s version of the Highline and Chelsea Market in NYC). We ate food and shopped for a bit before stopping at Jackson Street bridge for views of the skyline and meandering through Piedmont Park. We bought food to make dinner from the Dekalb farmers market and had dessert downtown at Cafe Intermezzo.
Sunday we walked around downtown through the Centennial Olympic Park and saw the Capitol building. We ate delicious tacos with a Southern California feel at Bartaco and tasted ciders at Urban Tree Cidery. That evening we did a women in history tour of the Oakland cemetery with dinner afterwards at the aptly named Six Feet Under across the street.
Monday we said sad goodbyes as our weekend came to a close and parted ways. Erin went to work, Mary Kate made her way to the airport to return to NYC, and I stopped for coffee at Aurora Coffee and strolled through some picturesque neighborhoods in Atlanta before making my way to the airport for my own flight home.
I loved Atlanta! It is a fun city with a rich culture. It’s beautiful and gritty and full of history and modern all at the same time. There is still so much of the city I would like to see, it us definitely a place that I would happily return to.
As We Head West 