Weekending in Guangzhou

Finally, something not boring Tarahumara training related!  2011 is full of weddings, including the union of J & T.  A few of us headed up to Guangzhou, China for the weekend to procure some wedding wear.

ING Running 20 - 10k Race Report

Fort Bonifacio Global City - Manila, Philippines

Time: 1:18:16

My cousin AB and I turned 30 this year and have gone a little loco with the running. We ran the whole race together and it felt GREAT.

The full story after the jump...

Things To Do in Indonesia

I was sent to Jakarta for work, and it happened to fall on a long weekend so I planned an extended stay in Indonesia and invited friends to keep me company. I've been to Jakarta once before for a weekend trip. It's a big city. Spread out. Not walkable. Last time we spent a lot of time in taxis. I live in a big city. I come from a big city. Sometimes you wanna get away from it all.

After I was done with my work in Jakarta, we headed to Ciater at the base of a volcano for some fresh air and outdoor fun. So here's my list of things to do when in Indonesia:

Order everything on the menu.

Make your way through a giant market.  And get several pairs of cheapy sunglasses.

Ride a horse through a tea plantation.

Take Jesus to a mosque.

Swim in a hot spring waterfall.

Soak in a hot tub time machine.

Late night soak in the hot spring waterfall.

 Enjoy the wildlife.

Zip lining!

Dip your feet in a pool of flesh eating fish!

Get some Robin Hood action

Shoot some guns.

Eat a banana covered in chocolate and cheese.

Get rained out and watch TLC in the bungalow of terror.

More late night hot spring soaks.

Find pretty mosques.

Get a rootbeer float before flight.

And some Dunkin Donuts too!

Sanya Homoliday

A little bit more about Sanya. Last weekend was a holiday weekend (Labor Day on Friday, Buddha's Birthday on Saturday) and most people (expats) leave HK on holiday weekends.

We left Hongkers Friday night and it was a quick one hour flight to the island of Hainan. We took a chance with the Crowne Plaza hotel, but it turned out to be really nice. So nice in fact, that we consolidated our two room spread into one room. That's right, we squeezed 5 girls into a king hotel room but it was actually quite comfortable.

We were thrilled with our accommodations. Freshened up, and then headed out for dinner. There are three beachy areas of Sanya - Sanya bay more to do there I guess but full of mainland chinese, Dadonghai - lots of Russians, and Yalong Bay where we ended up - the nicest beach out of the three, nicer hotels, but not really anything else. However, I don't think we were missing anything by not venturing out past the hotel scene.

Since we are from Hong Kong and walk everywhere, we figured a walk down the beach to find dinner would not be a problem. However, these hotels are massive compounds and we were got really tired from walking in the sand. The Marriott was much further than we anticipated.

We ended up at an Indochine restaurant that was pretty good. Then lounged in the lobby with a drink and called it a night.

The following day at the beach was prefect. It was cloudy and breezy and warm without being hot. It was no problem chilling in the lounger all day and reading. Cora and I wanted to infuse some kind of adventure into this vacay and wanted to go jet skiing. We then found out that all the jetski places required you to ride with an instructor. Totally lame. We ended up not doing it.


That night we decided to check out the nicest hotel on the strip - the Ritz. We showed up and managed to get a late reservation at the Italian restaurant there, so we had a couple of hours to kill. We walked over towards the beach and came across the most perfect place, a bar right on the sand with bean bag chairs! It was pure heaven to be sipping drinks with our toes in the sand.

Now, because these massive hotels don't yet have too many guests, there was no problem getting a seat here. Any other place we'd be fighting to get a table, and any other Ritz we wouldn't be able to afford to eat or drink. That's right. I believe this is the cheapest Ritz in the whole world. But still gorgeous.

Our beach bar experience was made more perfect by the super dope song stylings of the coverband that attended to all our requests. It was such a great experience we went back there on Sunday night too.

Asia World Tour: Sanya, China

A little bit about Sanya. It's considered the Hawaii of China, on the island of Hainan in between Hongkers and Vietnam. It has recently been developed as a getaway spot for Hongkies, mainland Chinese, and Russians. Yes, everything is in English, Russian, and Chinese!

It's still up and coming so there's really nothing there except massive and mostly empty hotels and the beach. And I did not know this place existed until I was booking my flight.

We ended up there because 1) it was a holiday weekend and we needed a break from the gray skies of Hongkie town, 2) we organized ourselves pretty late in the game so other destinations like Thailand were booked.

I got a lot of reading done and I have to say those cushy beach loungers made for the most comfy beach experience I ever had.

Memorial Day Weekend in Vietnam!

Saigon Hotel Chronicles: Chapter One, Meet the Bunsholes.



Two weeks ago I got an email from Powers. He was going to be in Vietnam for work and invite a handful of us to join him for a rock star weekend. I said, yes please.

My pals Cora, Daven, and Phil wanted to go too. So we booked our flights and spent the week sending each other awful/hilarious messages in an email chain that I may one day turn into a play called Saigon Hotel.


Friday after work, we booked it to the Hongkie airport where we shoved fast food in our faces. It's the only place in Hong Kong to get Popeyes!


Also had at the airport... the first sunset I've seen here. That's right, almost 6 months in Hongkie town with no sunsets! Although our plane was boarding, we figured we had enough time for at least one cocktail and a shot.


The super friendly dude checking us in informed us that we had been profiled as English speakers and were therefore sitting by the emergency exits. It was there that me and Daven witnessed some strange things, like a guy with a Jesus Freak shirt on, an Aussie redneck with a flat top mullet, and a super fierce male flight attendant who said something about about spraying his johnson... huh?

Up next, my debut in 'Nam. Hope you had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend.