Chinatown in Singapore

A 3 hour flight from Thailand, I went to Singapore for a weekend. When people explain how clean Singapore is, they're not kidding. It's really, really, really clean. Every Chinatown that I've visited, I've found the streets to be dirty; but not in Singapore. It's spotless.

I headed over to the hawker stands in a quest to eat at Tian Tian. According to all the locals, they serve the best Hiananeese Chicken Rice. How good was it you may ask? After my first plate, I got another one. Tian Tian is located in the Maxwell food stalls in China Town.

Koh Samet

Aside from the scooter mishap, I had a blast in Koh Samet. A 3 hour drive from Bangkok to Rayon followed by a 45 minute boat ride to the island. It’s a small island filled with small beach front hotels and restaurants. The southern part of the island is more a resort area that is secluded from the public. On the north east side of the island - in between the villages of Hat Sai Kaew and Laem Yai - is where you’ll find the ocean front beach parties that begin at sundown. There’s a plethora of restaurants and bars that are lined up on that coast line. Relaxing during the day with tons of kids playing in the beach to a Raging Party scene at night.

Dodged a Bullet in Koh Samet

Posted for March 14, 2011
I took a weekend trip to Koh Samet. It's a small island located in the southern region of Thailand. I rented scooter and had a blast with the exception of one mishap. I fell off my scooter. So what happened:

On a steep downhill dirt road filled with boulders and deep crevices created from the rain (water run off) is where it didn't happen, but rather on a flat straight away, full throttled on a sandy dirt road. I made it down the hill fine. I treated my scooter like it was a mountain bike. My friends on the other hand, jumped off their scooters and watched their scooters roll down the hill.

When I made it down the hill, the dirt road smoothed out into a flat sandy straight away. At full throttle, I peered back to look for my friends. With none of them in sight, I hit brakes; but a little too hard. In doing so, the back of the scooter started to swing out towards the right. Wearing nothing but board shorts and slippers, the hamster in my brain began to spin with images of something real bad that was about to happen. Unable to control the scooter, I waited for the exact moment to ditch the scooter. As I let go, I hit the dirt road scrapping my toes, leg, shoulder, and face on the ground. I don't know how I was able to immediately pop up on my feet, but as I looked ahead, I watched my scooter tumble and slide further down the road. I looked beyond my scooter down the street and saw a bunch of people looking at me in shock and in amazement. I then realized I had just dodged bullet.