tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-124010452024-03-16T23:10:58.277-07:00Mike Jutan's World3D computer animation, travel, film, photography, technology, health, life, inspiration... and a few extra helpings of enthusiasm. ;)Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.comBlogger2441125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-561795894594149732023-02-20T12:12:00.003-08:002023-02-20T12:12:28.961-08:00ILM StageCraft wins a Technical Emmy Award!<p>Wow, sure has been a long time since I've made a blog post -- the ongoing shareability of small articles or videos on Facebook plus the extreme businesses of having young children means I don't get to blogging much anymore! Wanted to share here though some recent (ish!) news from last November. Our team at ILM, the ILM StageCraft R&D Team, has recently been awarded an Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Award for our work in virtual production. Check it out!<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X-UsEj_Eq3k" width="320" youtube-src-id="X-UsEj_Eq3k"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>ILM StageCraft is an end-to-end virtual production tool suite that bridges the gap between practical physical production methodologies and traditional digital post-production visual effects by providing the ability to design, scout and light environments in advance of the shoot and then capture that vision in camera during principal photography. StageCraft brings together a real-time engine, a real-time renderer, high-quality color management, physical camera equipment, LED displays, motion-capture technologies, synchronization methodologies and tailored on-set user interfaces to digitally create the illusion of 3D backgrounds for live-action sets. <br /></p>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-44044094765037427492021-04-02T00:09:00.003-07:002021-04-02T00:09:32.293-07:00Our work on the Mandalorian Season 2<p>Today ILM released a fantastic behind-the-scenes video showcasing a bunch of the project I've had the joy of being a part of over the last several years at ILM. There's some awesome pieces here, and I'll let the video speak for itself!</p><p>Unbelievably, the headline at <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-mandalorian-season-2-was-made-with-the-most-powerfu-1846599244">Gizmodo</a> about our work is... well... unbelievable! "The Mandalorian Season 2 Was Made With the Most Powerful Filmmaking Tool ILM Has Ever Created"... that's quite a statement indeed. I am so proud of my colleagues and all of the hardworking folks behind the scenes on this. It is such a pleasure and a highlight of my career to get to work on this technology.<br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="503" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-gX4N5rDYeQ" width="606" youtube-src-id="-gX4N5rDYeQ"></iframe></div><br /><br /><p></p>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-89273051035005671732020-09-30T02:28:00.005-07:002020-09-30T02:29:40.976-07:00Mark Rober’s epic birthday celebration for a young cancer survivor<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Mark Rober’s science YouTube channel is pure awesome, but this time he REALLY knocks it out of the park to give a surprise birthday party to a young cancer survivor. What a legend.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youtu.be/BHiWygziyso">https://youtu.be/BHiWygziyso</a></span></div><p></p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BHiWygziyso" width="320" youtube-src-id="BHiWygziyso"></iframe></p>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-74642526961407277492020-02-29T11:08:00.002-08:002020-02-29T11:08:56.611-08:00TechCrunch: "How ‘The Mandalorian’ and ILM invisibly reinvented film and TV production"Another quick post to share one my of favourite articles about StageCraft that went out last week. TechCrunch does a fabulous breakdown on what tech we made, how it works, and what the benefits are to the Film and TV industries.<br />
<br />
Super solid article here and worth the quick read!<br />
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/20/how-the-mandalorian-and-ilm-invisibly-reinvented-film-and-tv-production/">https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/20/how-the-mandalorian-and-ilm-invisibly-reinvented-film-and-tv-production/</a><br />
<br />
The awesome Ian Failes also posted a great summary article as well, with a really fun headine:<br />
"You are going to flip when you see this video of how 'The Mandalorian' was made" :)<br />
<a href="https://beforesandafters.com/2020/02/21/you-are-going-to-flip-when-you-see-this-video-of-how-the-mandalorian-was-made/">https://beforesandafters.com/2020/02/21/you-are-going-to-flip-when-you-see-this-video-of-how-the-mandalorian-was-made/</a> Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-71742216684364238572020-02-20T11:32:00.002-08:002020-02-20T11:33:05.665-08:00The Virtual Production of The Mandalorian, Season OneGuess what?? The Mandalorian was [mostly] filmed indoors... there is NO on-location work done for this show. *mind-blowing sounds ensue*<br />
<br />
This is the crazy new way of making movies and TV that I've been working on here at ILM as part of the StageCraft Virtual Production Engineering team for the past 5 years!! The talent and inventiveness and sheer badassery of everyone who touched this project is yet another reason why working at ILM rocks so much.<br />
<br />
Check it out!!!!!!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gUnxzVOs3rk" width="560"></iframe>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-80001079061053257892018-11-15T12:57:00.003-08:002018-11-15T12:57:41.439-08:00‘Batkid’ cancer free five years after saving San FranciscoOne of the absolute best days of my life was volunteering for Make-A-Wish for the magnificent Batkid wish. (Blog post about all the fun we had here: <b><i>The day Batkid defeated me, and rekindled hope in humankindness</i></b>: <a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-day-batkid-defeated-me-and.html">https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-day-batkid-defeated-me-and.html</a>)<br />
<br />
Today is the 5th Anniversary of that magnificent day in San Francisco, and here's an update from Make-A-Wish on how the real Batkid, Miles, is happy, healthy, and a true superhero.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Batkid-cancer-free-five-years-since-saving-13393219.php">https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Batkid-cancer-free-five-years-since-saving-13393219.php</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ktvu.com/news/-batkid-turns-10-the-california-boy-is-cancer-free">http://www.ktvu.com/news/-batkid-turns-10-the-california-boy-is-cancer-free</a></li>
</ul>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-23810146144213058292018-08-31T15:25:00.001-07:002018-08-31T15:25:05.454-07:00Drag and Drop from a QTreeWidget to another QTreeWidget<div>
<div>
Sweet mercy of mercies. I've been trying for *much* too long to figure out how the (hell!) to drag-and-drop simple MIME data from one Qt (in this case, PyQt) QTreeWidget to another QTreeWidget. After what felt like about 1000 pages of StackOverflow that I read through, I finally found a super-helpful example from someone demonstrating custom MIME types.</div>
<div>
<br />I just wanted a simple example of drag-and-drop from one QAbstractItemView to another, and so while that example was fantastic, I was able to simplify it much more to demonstrate just a simple-as-heck/dumb-as-anything/silly-old drag-and-drop. The documentation is shockingly bad about Drag-And-Drop in general in Qt, and I feel like it's so overly complicated when you just want to do something simple... I figured I'd repost this demo code here for the possibly-millions of other folks with the exact same question as I had: "How do I just.. like... drag and drop a SIMPLE thing from on QTreeWidget to another?!?!"</div>
<div>
<br />My friends, the answer is annoyingly simple, and there's nothing special here. You don't need to set a bazillion obscure flags on your QTreeWidgetItems or the other 1000 things I tried before landing on the simple way to do it. Here you are (and to my future self who is trying to remember this example... you're welcome) :)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
from PyQt4 import QtCore</div>
<div>
from PyQt4 import QtGui</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
class DragDropTreeWidget(QtGui.QTreeWidget):</div>
<div>
def __init__(self):</div>
<div>
super(DragDropTreeWidget, self).__init__() </div>
<div>
self.setRootIsDecorated(False) # I'm using the QTreeWidget like a QTableWidget here.</div>
<div>
self.setSelectionMode(QtGui.QAbstractItemView.SingleSelection)</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
def mimeTypes(self):</div>
<div>
mimetypes = QtGui.QTreeWidget.mimeTypes(self)</div>
<div>
mimetypes.append("text/plain")</div>
<div>
return mimetypes</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
def startDrag(self, allowableActions):</div>
<div>
drag = QtGui.QDrag(self)</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
# only one item is selectable at once so self.selectedItems() should have a length of 1 only</div>
<div>
selectedItems = self.selectedItems()</div>
<div>
if len(selectedItems) < 1:</div>
<div>
return</div>
<div>
# else use the first item</div>
<div>
selectedTreeWidgetItem = selectedItems[0]<br /><br /><div>
# for this to work, just note that you need to add your own extension to the QTreeWidgetItem</div>
</div>
<div>
# so you can implement this simple data getter method.</div>
<div>
dragAndDropName = selectedTreeWidgetItem.dragAndDropName()</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
mimedata = QtCore.QMimeData()</div>
<div>
mimedata.setText(dragAndDropName) </div>
<div>
drag.setMimeData(mimedata)</div>
<div>
drag.exec_(allowableActions)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
def dropEvent(self, event):</div>
<div>
if event.mimeData().hasFormat("text/plain"):</div>
<div>
passedData = event.mimeData().text()</div>
<div>
event.acceptProposedAction()</div>
<div>
print "passedData", passedData</div>
<div>
# TODO handle drop event (prob emit a signal to be caught somewhere else)</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Magnificent! So that's it... amazingly. Nothing else is required. See... drag and drop in PyQt IS simple... right??! Anyone?!?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Note that to instantiate this demo you should do something like so, twice. Make two of these tree widgets and add them to your MainWindow and then you can test drag and drop between them.</div>
<div>
<div>
=============</div>
<div>
<div>
treeWidget = DragDropTreeWidget() </div>
<div>
header = QtGui.QTreeWidgetItem(["Header Name"])</div>
<div>
treeWidget.setHeaderItem(header)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
# Note this item should actually be a custom extension of QTreeWidgetItem if you want to implement the "dragAndDropName" method mentioned above.</div>
<div>
root = QtGui.QTreeWidgetItem("Item in tree") </div>
<div>
treeWidget.addTopLevelItem(root)</div>
<div>
treeWidget.setDragEnabled(True)</div>
</div>
<div>
==============</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Happy drag-and-dropping, friends!</div>
</div>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-64463138944833318582018-08-07T08:59:00.000-07:002018-08-07T08:59:17.204-07:00Industrial Light & Magic Brings Award-Winning Innovation to Marvel Studios’ ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp‘Here's a fun article from The Walt Disney Company, discussing how our BlockParty rigging software was used on the recent Marvel Studios film "Ant-Man and The Wasp"! Wahoo!<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/industrial-light-magic-brings-award-winning-innovation-to-marvel-studios-ant-man-and-the-wasp/">https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/industrial-light-magic-brings-award-winning-innovation-to-marvel-studios-ant-man-and-the-wasp/</a>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-76957518303539742722018-05-29T14:46:00.000-07:002018-05-29T14:47:34.430-07:00Check out all the Star Wars and Pixar toys on "My Disney Desk" at ILM!Disney D23 just posted this fun video we shot a few weeks ago of me at "My Disney Desk" -- talking about some of the work I do here at ILM, and sharing some of my favourite Pixar and Star Wars toys that adorn my office here at ILM's San Francisco office. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KcoQ4AF6n8M" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you love all things Pixar, you need to check out the desk of Industrial Light & Magic’s Mike Jutan, one of the award-winning creators of the BlockParty software, which has been used to create special effects in some of your favorite films, such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story. When he’s not making movie magic, Jutan maintains an amazing Pixar collection, including an impressive selection of characters from Cars. He’s working his dream job—and he’s got a dream desk to match!</span></blockquote>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-52654468114459625882018-02-14T16:06:00.004-08:002018-02-14T16:09:58.791-08:00Academy Sci-Tech Awards acceptance speech posted!Wow, that was quick! The official Oscars YouTube channel posted our acceptance speech from the Academy Scientific & Technical Awards Ceremony the morning after we gave it! The ceremony was absolutely incredible -- it was held at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, February 10, 2018. This is a lifelong dream come true for all of us, and the ILM BlockParty team is incredibly grateful for this honour. Please also see my previous blog post for the "long version" of my thank-you list :)<br />
<br />
Check out our acceptance speech here (along with Sir Patrick Stewart's opening and introduction!), along with some recently posted articles from the Canadian news media and a CBC Radio interview I gave last month about the award.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZPUDmVZTZDU" width="640"></iframe><br />
<br />
<b><i>CBC Radio (Interview)</i></b><br />
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-to-receive-technical-oscar-1.4479050" rel="external" target="_blank">London man to receive technical Oscar next month</a><br />
<br />
<b><i>The Canadian Press (Multiple Outlets)</i></b><br />
Metro News: <a href="http://www.metronews.ca/entertainment/2018/02/08/several-canadians-to-get-sci-tech-oscars-for-work-on-films-including-star-wars.html" rel="external" target="_blank">Several Canadians to get sci-tech Oscars for work on films including 'Star Wars'</a><br />
CBC: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/sci-tech-oscars-canada-1.4526184?cmp=rss" rel="external" target="_blank">Several Canadians to get sci-tech Oscars 'for technology that's changed the industry'</a><br />
National Post: <a href="http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/several-canadians-to-get-sci-tech-oscars-for-work-on-films-including-star-wars" rel="external" target="_blank">Several Canadians to get sci-tech Oscars for work on films including 'Star Wars'</a><br />
etalk: <a href="https://www.etalk.ca/Movies/February2018/Canadian-engineer-Mike-Jutan-among-homegrown-talen" rel="external" target="_blank">Canadian engineer Mike Jutan among 'math geeks' grabbing Oscar honours</a><br />
CP24: <a href="https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/several-canadians-to-get-sci-tech-oscars-for-work-on-films-including-star-wars-1.3794560" rel="external" target="_blank">Several Canadians to get sci-tech Oscars for work on films including 'Star Wars'</a>Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-24318564282577101872018-01-04T11:07:00.002-08:002018-01-04T11:07:49.142-08:00We WON a Technical ACADEMY AWARD!!!!!!!!!!!Today is the culmination of a lifelong dream... we WON a Technical ACADEMY AWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are being presented with this unbelievable honour from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for our BlockParty Procedural Rigging System at ILM, a project that we have put many, many, many years of effort, love, hope, dreams, and grit into.<br /><br />Congratulations to my fellow honourees: the illustrious and magnificently brilliant Dr. Rachel Heck Rose, and the supremely innovative VFX legends Jason Smith and Jeff White for challenging what rigging can be and deeply questioning how it could be achieved.<br /><br />Industrial Light & Magic is a magical place, a mix of art and science geniuses, and so many more people contributed to this effort and made it possible. Most notably, the vision and dedication of John Doublestein is how we were able to make such a groundbreaking solution. To Jacob Buck and Abs Jahromi for pushing us to make this work for this most insane of rigs (read: "Transformers"), to Brian Paik and Chris Havreberg and Chase Cooper and many others for making sure we solved soft-body creatures in absurdly scalable way (read: "Warcraft"). To Darby Johnston, Erik Dillinger, Kent Oberheu for your support, ingenuity, and incredible efforts as we launched full-force into this. To Eric Feng and Yuting Ye for your undying work and engineering mastery. To Scott Jones for making sure we were reaching all artist-level audiences appropriately. There are so many more to thank, but know this: if you helped in any way... we truly and deeply appreciate your incredible support to help lead us to this stage.<br /><br />I've often referred to this as the "Gold Medal of Computer Graphics". This is a lifelong dream come true. This is an achievement I've dreamed of since I was a 10 year old kid, watching ILM's unbelievable work in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and dreaming of one day, being one of the people who helps make beautiful imagery possible through a blend of art and science. Thank you to many supporting characters in this goal, throughout the years -- my parents Arthur Jutan and Cheryll Rose Jutan for your unbelievable encouragement and dedication to your son's dreams, to my sister Norma Hall for letting me always use the computer, at all hours of the night, even when she had school work to do, to my best buddies Matthew Lausch and Alex Finlayson for sharing our drive and commitment to Computer Science with each other, to my wife Michal Jutan for her infinite love, support, encouragement, hand-holding, de-nervousing, and a list of about 10000 other things she does to keep me on track and at my best.<br /><br />And finally, to the many professional supporters in my life, people who took a chance on this little energetic kid from London, Ontario, who was so desperate to use Computer Science to help making movies "even more awesome": Josh Cameron for being the best damn mentor and MEL teacher I could have ever asked for, to Kevin Tate for giving me a chance in my initial interview for Alias|Wavefront, to John Gross and Shai Hinitz for their mentoring, support, encouragement, and reference letters that made my parents prouder than almost anything else I've ever done, to Kevin Tureski for looking out for me and finding amazing opportunities (TEDx!) to help me spread my wings, to Marc Sondheimer and Guido Quaroni for an opportunity of a lifetime at Pixar and to Jacob Brooks, Franklin Chance, Matthew Atabet Parrott and Kurt Phillips for being the best of buddies to a nervous Canadian dude trying his damnedest to make a good impression in California. And finally, to my family at ILM: the wise, gracious, and brilliant Cary Phillips for being a guiding light for my career, to Rachel Heck Rose for being the perfect teammate, friend, and leader over the last 10 years, and for all others who helped support my career, my goals, and find wild and wonderful opportunities for me to jump into and do my best work.<br /><br />Thank you all (and the many more I'm sure I missed) for all your help in getting us to this momentous moment.<br />
<br />
Here is the official press release from The Academy:<br />
<br />
<strong><u>TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (ACADEMY CERTIFICATES)</u></strong><br />
<br />
To <strong>Jason Smith</strong> and J<strong>eff White</strong> for the original design, and to<strong> Rachel Rose </strong>and <strong>Mike Jutan</strong> for the architecture and engineering, of the BlockParty procedural rigging system at Industrial Light & Magic.<br />
<em>BlockParty streamlines the rigging process through a
comprehensive connection framework, a novel graphical user interface,
and volumetric rig transfer, which has enabled ILM to build richly
detailed and unique creatures while greatly improving artist
productivity.</em><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.oscars.org/news/10-scientific-and-technical-achievements-be-honored-academy-awards">https://www.oscars.org/news/10-scientific-and-technical-achievements-be-honored-academy-awards</a></li>
</ul>
and a great article from The Wrap explaining a bit more:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.thewrap.com/oscars-sci-tech-awards-go-animation-rigging-crane-systems/">https://www.thewrap.com/oscars-sci-tech-awards-go-animation-rigging-crane-systems/</a></li>
</ul>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-50901733091600119702017-12-02T17:09:00.003-08:002017-12-02T17:10:45.640-08:00Honeymoon Journal post: Links to all blog postsThat's the end of another Trip blog! Here are links to each post from our epic round-the-world trip. Thanks for
reading :)<b></b><br />
<b><br /></b><b><b>Honeymoon Trip Dec 30, 2016 - Jan 25, 2017</b> Journal</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-loop-around-world.html">Honeymoon: A loop around the world</a></li>
</ul>
<b>Switzerland</b> <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-1-united-polaris-global.html">Day 1: United Polaris Global First?!?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-2-silvesterzauber-new.html">Day 2: Silvesterzauber (New Years Eve) in Zürich</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-3-quiet-zurich-new-years.html">Day 3: A quiet Zurich New Years Day</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-4-goldenpass-panoramic.html">Day 4: Goldenpass Panoramic Train to Montreux</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-5-day-in-vevey-at-nestle.html">Day 5: A day in Vevey at the Nestle nest museum</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/08/honeymoon-day-6-swiss-chocolate-truffle.html">Day 6: Swiss Chocolate truffle making class at Cailler</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/09/honeymoon-day-7-exploring-montreux.html">Day 7: Exploring Montreux</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/09/honeymoon-day-8-swiss-alps-morgins.html">Day 8: The Swiss Alps: Morgins</a></li>
</ul>
<b>Paris, France</b> <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/09/honeymoon-day-9-geneva-to-paris.html">Day 9: Geneva to Paris</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/09/honeymoon-day-10-pastries-in-paris.html">Day 10: Pastries in Paris</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/09/honeymoon-day-11-swimming-star-wars.html">Day 11: Swimming, Star Wars underpants, and Blue Tea</a></li>
</ul>
<b>The Seychelles</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-12-magnificent-islands-of.html">Day 12: The magnificent islands of The Seychelles</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-13-anse-lazio-beach-and.html">Day 13: Anse Lazio beach and Seychellois Creole BBQ</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-14-torrential-downpour.html">Day 14: Torrential downpour and bright sunny beach in La Digue</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-15-pool-time-at-raffles.html">Day 15: Pool time at the Raffles Praslin</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-16-valle-de-mai-national.html">Day 16: Valle de Mai national park, Indian Ocean Rum and Indian Food</a></li>
</ul>
<b>South Africa</b> <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/10/honeymoon-day-17-seeing-my-90-year-old.html">Day 17: Seeing my 90-year old Grandmother in South Africa</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-18-baboon-break-in-and.html">Day 18: Baboon Break-in and Safari in Sabi Sands</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-19-sabi-sands-wildlife.html">Day 19: Sabi Sands Wildlife</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-20-sabi-sands-to.html">Day 20: Sabi Sands to Timbavati Safari</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-21-baby-lions-and.html">Day 21: Baby Lions and Elephants on Safari in Timbavati</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-22-last-day-on-safari.html">Day 22: Last day on Safari, back to Johannesburg</a></li>
</ul>
<b>Hong Kong</b> <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-23-across-world-in.html">Day 23: Across the world in Singapore Airlines Business Class!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-24-hong-kong-nightlife.html">Day 24: Hong Kong Nightlife</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-25-dragons-back-trail.html">Day 25: Dragon's Back Trail, Michelin-Star Pizza, and Din Tai Fung</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/11/honeymoon-day-26-hong-kong-disneyland.html">Day 26: Hong Kong Disneyland and Cafe Grey Deluxe</a></li>
<li><a href="https://jutanclan.blogspot.com/2017/12/honeymoon-day-27-tea-museum-hong-kong.html">Day 27: Tea Museum, Hong Kong Peak and Flight Home</a></li>
</ul>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-40804218805259363392017-12-02T16:50:00.001-08:002017-12-02T16:55:11.718-08:00Honeymoon Day 27: Tea Museum, Hong Kong Peak and Flight Home<b>1/25/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 27: Tea Museum, Hong Kong Peak and Flight Home<br />
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And so begins the final day of our crazy, round-the-world, honeymoon trip. But, as you can see from the style of the rest of these posts -- we maximized the heck outta the day with a flight out at 11:40pm!! So a pretty epic and awesome final day to wrap up this crazy trip.<br />
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It started with packing up our stuff and getting ready to leave. We had to pack carefully (multiple glass bottles of Rum from The Seychelles!) and since we're insane we fit our entire 3.5 weeks of stuff into just one suitcase each. Packed to the max, but we succeeded. We had some more of our Singapore Airlines honeymoon cake (!!) that was in the fridge over the past few days, and then checked out and had the hotel hold all our stuff for the day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All packed and ready to go!</td></tr>
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We headed out and wandered to the fancy mall near the hotel. First stop was the famed Hong Kong Tea Shop called Fook Ming Tong, which Matt had brought me some awesome Oolong tea from a year or so before when he went to Hong Kong. It was a super fancy spot and we tried a couple different teas in a little mini tea ceremony/tea tasting area. I got some Taiwanese Oolong to take home... mmm...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fook Ming Tong tea shop</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny Godiva "Year of the Rooster" chocolates!</td></tr>
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Next up: MUJI!!! That store is awesome, and we got a pen set for Michal and a nice ballpoint pen for me. Michal loves their pens for writing thank-you cards. I also got some funny laser-cut cat-shaped post-it-notes for Mom. :) Fun place.<br />
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We enjoyed the mall for a bit and then headed on the subway to Wan Chai (wait, or was it Chai Wan?!) En-route to Eric Kayser bakery to get some lunch, we walked through a more "local" market rather than the more tourist-focused markets we'd seen thusfar. There was lots of Rooster stuff for the New Year which was cool to see. They also had those AWESOME Lion-Head backpacks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I looove those things. I was laughing at them as well as the sign the dude had up next to them. The dude at the stall saw me and smiled, "They are backpacks!" hahaha. So, so, sooo funny and so awesome. I should have bought one. :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"We Bite, Don't Touch!" haha</td></tr>
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Next, to Eric Kayser!! We had been in Paris about 2-3 weeks before by now... and were already sorely missing their legendary baguettes. It was soooo gooooood. We got a nice and tasty "croque" as well as an almond croissant to eat there, and then took a baguette with us to the supermarket to go find some cheese to go with it,<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun times</td></tr>
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The supermarket was fun to look around and see what types of products were there. Interestingly, this supermarket had a lot of imported stuff (most of the cheese we found was imported). But, amazingly, they had an L&P can there, my absolute favourite soda in the world, generally never available outside of New Zealand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man!! So that was NUTS and I got a can to go with lunch later. Not a ton of local stuff at the grocery store but fun to see anyway.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LOTS of kinds of Soy Milk</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of juices too</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So many mochis</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Longevity Bun</td></tr>
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We walked with our baguette and cheese over to the Hong Kong Park, a man-made park in the middle of big office towers. It felt a little bit like the Presidio! They had a waterfall and a lake smack-dab in the middle of the bustling city... it was a small oasis! We sat on a bench there and had our bread, cheese and L&P while people-watching a bit. The security lady there was very fierce -- a kid was trying to throw a leaf into the lake... and she said very sternly, "No no no!!" as she walked at a hurried pace over to the kid and shook her head and finger. It was quite funny how much security there was at the park to keep people from over-staying their welcome, being loud, or making a mess or not throwing out their garbage promptly. Other than worrying about being scolded by the security lady, we had a good and relaxing time there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking pretty thin after this 27 day trip of eating?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hong Kong Park</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L&P!!!!!!!!!</td></tr>
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Next up was the Teaware Museum. It was really really cool!!! And free!! It was a nice spot and interesting to see all the different types of teaware, both historical and also newly created. We couldn't find their apparent tea cafe there (though we already sortof had a tea ceremony at Fook Ming Tong earlier in the mall!) They had handmade pottery teapots there of all types. Particularly interesting was the competition, they had a school competition and all the winners. They described it as a "Prestigious yearly competition to promote the art of pottery"!! Wow!! Pretty awesome thing to be encouraged and nurtured in the next generation. This contest had inspired some super creative and interesting designs. It was a really cool exhibit and pairing the history of tea and teaware over many centuries, with this new influx of creative and throw-back designs from modern students and adults, was a really cool thing to experience. Especially for a tea nerd like myself!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fShihDhdk2E/WiMg24G19iI/AAAAAAAAwis/XLACRkz92rAo1IHERUQTA-iEl0pqyR37QCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2651.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fShihDhdk2E/WiMg24G19iI/AAAAAAAAwis/XLACRkz92rAo1IHERUQTA-iEl0pqyR37QCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2651.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Different types of tea</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jPi7F1Npbeo/WiMg29TjdoI/AAAAAAAAwis/QvZJ4B0fPY8Dvt5IRozYgs4LyEcnylowgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jPi7F1Npbeo/WiMg29TjdoI/AAAAAAAAwis/QvZJ4B0fPY8Dvt5IRozYgs4LyEcnylowgCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2660.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ming Dynasty</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yixing Clay Teapots</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iZpJaUMayhI/WiMg2-hlEtI/AAAAAAAAwis/Z0b5rYw-rCckcuAyRupm-s3GwXIKGlQUwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2663.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iZpJaUMayhI/WiMg2-hlEtI/AAAAAAAAwis/Z0b5rYw-rCckcuAyRupm-s3GwXIKGlQUwCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2663.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome gaiwan from the Qing dynasty</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sSQoTZKwkI/WiMg24gZtFI/AAAAAAAAwis/htPiKeqv3O05O3e7waswNbZ-7F2peAukQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sSQoTZKwkI/WiMg24gZtFI/AAAAAAAAwis/htPiKeqv3O05O3e7waswNbZ-7F2peAukQCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2667.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loved this one</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yo5-3PNOkBY/WiMg27XVwSI/AAAAAAAAwis/469cr6b2--wYmr9MsagolEIcy_kioGFZQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yo5-3PNOkBY/WiMg27XVwSI/AAAAAAAAwis/469cr6b2--wYmr9MsagolEIcy_kioGFZQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2668.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modern designs (from secondary schools and colleges)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aJ1EDAtWzR4/WiMg25d6SYI/AAAAAAAAwis/GWfwr0NQxoMfaFiu5kKp2gZJu59YGE5IACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2671.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aJ1EDAtWzR4/WiMg25d6SYI/AAAAAAAAwis/GWfwr0NQxoMfaFiu5kKp2gZJu59YGE5IACKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2671.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super creative designs</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This water-themed and ocean-themed teapot was INCREDIBLE</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny dolphin teapot -- the tea comes out of his mouth!</td></tr>
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So that was all totally awesome and we spent a good 45 min there checking out all the stuff. Great museum and fun that they promote teaware and pottery so passionately. That was great.<br />
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We walked from there to the tram for The Peak. It was a long 1hr wait in line to get up The Peak on the tram, but totally worth it. Though we were in line for a while, our timing, as always, was perfect. We ended up getting up the mountain RIGHT before sunset so we could enjoy the sunset from the viewing platform at the top of The Peak. Win.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Long lines</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up we go!</td></tr>
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We got off the tram and headed up the remaining few flights of escalators up to the Sky Terrace 428 view platform. It was packed up there, but so so cool. The crowds were all trying to get photos of the city at the same time, so it was a bit of an art to try not to get too many people in your photo of the skyline. After sunset, the crowds subsided a bit so I managed to quickly snap a few photos of the lit-up Hong Kong Skyline at night. Super awesome. Also funny was the marketing for couples up there. There was a funny exhibit called "I <span class="st">❤ U at The Peak"! In the advertisement for it was a video of a dude proposing to his girlfriend at The Peak. :) We wrote a "The Peak I </span><span class="st"><span class="st">❤ You" heart and attached it to the tree of other hearts on there. Cute.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Busy up here!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What a view!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun setting</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Managed to find a spot where there weren't too many other people standing :)<span class="st"></span></td></tr>
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The amazing daytime view turned even more impressive as the the sun went down. The nighttime view with the lit-up skyline was pretty darn epic. Also the crowds started to thin out a bit so we jumped at a chance to get a spot at the edge of the platform so we could take a few photos there. Good times!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of phone screens :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finally managed to get a good shot :)</td></tr>
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That was super awesome and a very Hong Kong way to wrap up the trip!! Loved the views up there. On our way back down the escalators, we noticed a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant right there, nearly empty, and with huge windows over the same view. Next time we should book a table there and get a burger at sunset :) We saw a few funny things at "The Peak Mall" which was attached to The Peak platform area. Great views and a super cool last-evening-of-the-trip activity for sure.<br />
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On the way back down it was unclear if we should cab or tram... the wait was so long to come up on the tram and time was ticking to get everything else done we wanted to cram into the evening before heading to the airport... but after much debate we decided to go for the tram back down. It ended up going a bit faster than expected on the way back down, and the views were great as well on the way back down of the city all lit up... a super fun and beautiful way to end the trip in Hong Kong. We got off the tram... and... let's roll!! A few more things to do before going to the airport. Now, how do we get back across the water (across the harbour) to see the nightly light show we hadn't seen yet?!? Not sure re: cab or subway... we made a split-second decision to take the subway to the Star Ferry and that was a huge win. A fast walk from the subway exit to the ferry terminal... and managed to get onto the ferry swiftly and across the water to the other side of the harbour so we could see the light show... we arrived on the other side of the water at precisely 7:59pm. Seriously. We are insane. Light show started at 8:00pm!! It was a bit silly as expected and not a super super necessity per-se, but we really wanted to see it and we're glad we did. The buildings across the water were participating in the light show but some more than others -- "Hey, that one is doing all the work!" haha. The lights on the buildings would light up in time with some sync'd music that was playing. There was an advertisement on a skyscraper for how to download and sync the music to your phone. :)<br />
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We stopped for about 5-10 min only and then figured "OK, check, got the experience..." now... let's roll!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tram on the way back down</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the Ferry Terminal</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epic harbour view!!!!!!!</td></tr>
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It was 8:10, and our original plan was to leave for the airport at 8:30... and remember we were not even back at our hotel yet! Hmm... 8:30... we'll still get there in time if we leave at 9:15, right?!?! We "Amazing Raced" to Tsim Sha Tsui station to take the subway to Jordan... cashed in our Octopus Cards... and then went to Temple St. Market again!! At like 8:30! We're nuts. Do ALL the things!<br />
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I was in search of a silly emoji face pillow for my Dad and the nodding Tororo that I didn't successfully purchase a couple nights prior, and a nice Herschel pink backpack for Michal. We were in a rush so we negotiated fast and quick for the backpack after Michal saw the one she liked. "It's 180. How much you want to pay?"... "80"... "100"... then we walked away... "Ok, 80!" Nice!!! So that was a win, about $10 US. A win for Michal's awesome bag. I didn't find the specific emoji pillow I was looking for (a silly tongue 'crazy' face that my Dad always sends me in texts -- I ended up finding it later when back in the US), and the nodding Totoro guy wasn't there. But a win on the backpack.<br />
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We raced back to the street with Michal's new bag and got in a taxi to the hotel. "We have an extra 5 min... so... Din Tai Fung again?!?!" we joked with each other. We taxi'd to the hotel and then grabbed our bags and headed back out immediately to go to the airport. An action-packed last evening of the trip!<br />
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We were a bit concerned about taking a taxi to the airport instead of an Uber, as friends had warned us that the taxi drivers were ripping them off on arrival to the airport and adding more charges. We asked the hotel and they specifically spoke with the driver... but he said it would be OK, and we should expect about 260 for the transfer. As we got to the airport the driver did press some buttons to add money onto the end of the fare but it totally made sense -- it was baggage/airport drop-off fees!! Of course. So I wonder if perhaps my friend's bad experiences were actually simply airport drop-off fees and a miscommunication. Made total sense to us what was happening, so no stress :) The taxi was also awesome, the driver was HAULING IT to the airport. Sweet!! He was really booking it, and we got there in 20-25 min. That was FAST. Super awesome.<br />
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Checkin was easy and good, and we still had time to wander the terminal a bit. They didn't have much kitchy stuff like I was looking for, it was too fancy. We need a market!! We were looking for some more fun take-homes like Green Tea Kit Kats, etc. Since it was pretty fancy, we decided to go with the flow and go to a Whisky tasting at one of the Duty Free shops. They gave me 4 Glenmorangies to try!! I really liked Glenmorangie Tarlogan, a new one made in New American Oak, making it a bit reminiscent of Glenmorangie Ealanta, my favourite-ever whisky. Loved it!! They also let me taste the Tayne, Duthac ("chocolatey" -- indeed!) and 18!! Crazy. Michal wanted to buy me a gift and I loved the Tarlogan, so we tried to buy it and the attendant said, "You're not on a USA flight are you?" "In fact we are"... "I'm so sorry, I can't sell it to you"?!?!?! Oh no!!!!!!! Apparently they did a final extra liquid check at the gate, and so I couldn't buy it. What a fail!!!!!!!!! Boo. I was sad about it but Michal said she'd find another way to get it for me (it's a travel retail exclusive) another time. Still a fun tasting anyway, and definitely liked that one specifically. (Update: just this past month I had a friend visit from our London office and he brought me a bottle of Tarlogan, yay!!!)<br />
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We found some Green Tea Kit Kats and then headed to the Singapore Airlines lounge. This being our final flight in the leg of three (THREE!!!!!!!) Singapore Airlines Business Class flights we had booked all with points, we got lounge access again which was awesome. We relaxed there for a bit and I had a few sesame balls before we headed to the plane.<br />
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And off we go to the plane... ohhh Singapore Biz... sweet glory. It was SUCH a nice ride. I tried lots and lots of the food and drinks again this time, of course. :) I didn't have the hot chocolate again this time (though it was super epic), but rather tried two different Chinese Teas. the first was served in a gongfu and the second in a regular coffee mug. I also had the amazing Singapore Sling again, as well as a "Bailey's White Russian" yupppp!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're baccck!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh man what an epic plane</td></tr>
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For dinner I had my "Book the Cook" pre-ordered option of "Grilled Fillet of Beef with Shallot Tarragon Sauce" which was one of the best-reviewed dinners of the Singapore Airlines Business Class offerings ;) Haha. I watched Big Hero 6 (love that movie) and enjoyed dinner and dessert.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fjPbPRefwk/WiM7FqhC5qI/AAAAAAAAwkA/I40i6kNLJNku8AGjwHV8-7las8DuhgS9gCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2883.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fjPbPRefwk/WiM7FqhC5qI/AAAAAAAAwkA/I40i6kNLJNku8AGjwHV8-7las8DuhgS9gCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2883.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Grilled fillet of beef with shallot tarragon sauce, French beans, roasted pumpkin and mashed potatoes"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dessert was a Strawberry Mousse Cake with strawberry coulis, as well as a cheese plate of Camembert Le Pere, Pont L'eveque, and Bleu D'Auvergne.</td></tr>
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This was our last event of the honeymoon and also the last of our epic flights, so I wanted to sit back, relax, and enjoy it, rather than catching up on my journal or reading and feeling like I had items I specifically wanted to accomplish. What an epic nice seat... oh man.... I loved it. Talk about traveling in style!! I converted my seat into a full bed and slept soundly for 4 or 5 hours. Ahh. It was magnificent.<br />
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I woke up in time to order something a la carte from the "Delectables" menu. I ordered the Vegetarian Noodles soup (with lettuce black mushrooms, and red chili), and it was so good I woke up Michal and ordered one for her too :) I enjoyed the awesome soup and watched the new Ghostbusters remake movie, which was all awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Late-night soup!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So good</td></tr>
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I napped for a bit longer after the soup and was again reminded how amazing Singapore Airlines is. An hour and a bit later, it was time for breakfast, but with our late-night soup snack we just had a light simple breakfast and a little bit of fruit. Once we were awake we were surprised with... wait for it... Honeymoon Cake #3!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing and hilarious that we got one on this last flight was well, and again it was different than the previous two. This one was even more amazing, it was a Mango Mousse!!! Incredible!!!! Man, they really treated us amazingly well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Honeymoon, again!</td></tr>
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After a wonderful and relaxing flight (how many times have I ever said that?!) we arrived back at SFO and it was nice to be home after this crazy 27 DAY trip. Wow. What an AMAZING trip it was. To make matters ever more awesome, the plane was super fast at SFO, the plane was in 1hr early. I made an order of grocery necessities on Amazon Prime Now at the airport, to be delivered soon after we got home (I love San Francisco) :)<br />
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It was a nice clear night (we had arrived in the evening local time). As usual, our timing is epic -- it had apparently been pouring rain for the past 3 weeks straight in San Francisco, the entire time of our honeymoon. Forecast for the next few days? 16C and Sunny. :) Haha. That'll do, that'll do :)<br />
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We arrived back to a super nice and timely text from Matt -- they had made a lasagna for dinner to share with us! That was a great surprise upon return and SUPER perfect. Matt came over to drop it off and a short chat and tea. GREAT lasagna and a really nice "welcome home" after an epic long trip.<br />
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And here are the obligatory "here's what we brought home" photos from after we unpacked:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w6VhG7psh2Y/WiNFP9xSvEI/AAAAAAAAwkk/GJxqNVh66t4O-qhwNHQ0B_EUx1QWjFW_QCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2906.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w6VhG7psh2Y/WiNFP9xSvEI/AAAAAAAAwkk/GJxqNVh66t4O-qhwNHQ0B_EUx1QWjFW_QCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2906.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy B.Duck x The Simpsons shirt from Hong Kong, MUJI pens, Ngala safari hat</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HOCezBMr124/WiNFP-INWlI/AAAAAAAAwkk/r0_JG0qSNwwUABYjVnXVLYFS7CO2bfJ8QCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HOCezBMr124/WiNFP-INWlI/AAAAAAAAwkk/r0_JG0qSNwwUABYjVnXVLYFS7CO2bfJ8QCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2907.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rum from The Seychelles</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SjJZhcAr-3Q/WiNFP8McRbI/AAAAAAAAwkk/mkLm_TwIK6kBtjeEULAX9xR53hvdjOFsACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2908.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SjJZhcAr-3Q/WiNFP8McRbI/AAAAAAAAwkk/mkLm_TwIK6kBtjeEULAX9xR53hvdjOFsACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2908.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea! Singapore Breakfast, TWG tea bags, South African Rooibos and Seychelles Black Tea</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qz5ckKIhHhk/WiNFPzm05jI/AAAAAAAAwkk/MU4UFwqtESAUcQ4amN-JmGGxM1q_sNNwgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2909.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qz5ckKIhHhk/WiNFPzm05jI/AAAAAAAAwkk/MU4UFwqtESAUcQ4amN-JmGGxM1q_sNNwgCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2909.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another close-up of the rum</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u02qRaypWXs/WiNFPwM755I/AAAAAAAAwkk/LWtltZ6VxyQOoSGRbaNLQFlQlNRR1DkQwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2910.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u02qRaypWXs/WiNFPwM755I/AAAAAAAAwkk/LWtltZ6VxyQOoSGRbaNLQFlQlNRR1DkQwCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2910.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kits from the airplanes</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing Cards from Singapore Airlines</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pillow covers from South Africa</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pfoSY7tz6BM/WiNFP6MUN1I/AAAAAAAAwkk/CpMQti05vm8UN7esYvt37sxMvaTfwHY8ACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2915.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pfoSY7tz6BM/WiNFP6MUN1I/AAAAAAAAwkk/CpMQti05vm8UN7esYvt37sxMvaTfwHY8ACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2915.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plush leopard from Safari, Black Cat metal sponge holder from Pylones in Paris</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monsters, Inc. phone case</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Da Kine "Gordon" toque from Switzerland</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mickey "Wedding Tea Set" from Hong Kong Disneyland</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puegot Salt and Pepper grinders from Paris, Raclette and Fondue spices from Switzerland</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bags and stickers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raffles Praslin beach bag from The Seychelles</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last-minute Hong Kong market score -- Herschel backpack</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Totoro carry bag and backpack from Hong Kong</td></tr>
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What a honeymoon it was!! It was an amazing and special experience to share together -- truly, and literally, an adventure across the globe! Michal said upon returning that the Safari was "one of the best travel experiences of my life." WOW! A truly epic honeymoon.<br />
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A stewardess on our final Singapore Airlines flight from Hong Kong to SFO asked us "where did you go?" We answered "Around the World", not wanting to show-off how lucky we were to have been able to pull off this kind of trip (thank you Airline Points and travel perks!) She pressed, "Which countries?"... "Switzerland, France, Seychelles, South Africa, and Hong Kong"... to which she replied, "Oh, wow. I've never heard of such a honeymoon". Me neither!<br />
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It was truly magnificent. We are so grateful and happy for this magical epic honeymoon time. :)<br />
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Best trip ever.<br />
-Mike Jutan<br />
San Francisco, CA 1/25/2017 (typed on 12/2/2017)Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-26049060631728146352017-11-24T11:49:00.002-08:002017-11-24T11:54:47.720-08:00Honeymoon Day 26: Hong Kong Disneyland and Cafe Grey Deluxe<b>1/24/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 26: Hong Kong Disneyland and Cafe Grey Deluxe<br />
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Back to Mong Kok for Pineapple Buns!! First up, we headed to go get those same legendary Pineapple Buns as we got the day prior. Good call. Rather than trying a million things this time, we went straight for the gold and just bought 3 pineapple buns only. Also: we're insane.<br />
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I also, quite terribly and with the most incomprehensible Chinese accent of all time, attempted to order a "Yuan Yuang?!" The lade then corrected me. I tried again, in earnest. "1 Yuan Yang"?! The lady was so annoyed with my mispronunciation. Finally, and begrudgingly, I said, "Coffee-Tea Mix". "Ohhhhhhhhhhh", she replied *pronouncing the name of the drink I was trying to order and it sounds completely different*. Haha, anyway, this "Yuenyeung" was quite nice! This is a hot beverage similar to the Hong Kong "stocking tea" I had ordered the day before, but it's also quite popular -- it's literally a Coffee-Tea combo/hybrid. I think they just make coffee and then mix it with the "stocking tea". Michal gave it a questioning look, "This drink is confused as to whether it is tea or coffee".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hmm...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird and good!</td></tr>
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I actually liked this Yuenyeung more that the straight Hong Kong milk tea I'd gotten the day before. It went down a bit smoother! I kept trying to pinpoint the flavour, yeah... it actually kinda tastes like both tea AND coffee... but at the SAME TIME?!?!? Super weird and good.<br />
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The plan for the day was to head to Hong Kong Disneyland and check out the Iron Man Experience Ride which had recently opened. Once over in the area where Disneyland is, I wanted to also go to the fishing village of Tai O -- but the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Cars were out of order for 6 months, making Tai O even more remote than it already was. That seemed awesome... and there were some cool Buddhist Temples to visit near there as well. But it was not easy to get to on this trip, so off to HK Disneyland we went!<br />
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To get there was SUPER simple and convenient. The subway was straightforward and at some point you switch onto Disneyland station cars... they are so fun and have Mickey windows and hand grips.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, we called this station "Lion King"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool Subway standing handles</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here we are!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny Mickey Chinese symbol</td></tr>
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Hong Kong Disneyland is very much like the Disneyland in LA! It gives the same initial vibe, but definitely has some clear Asian influence and vibe. There were some particularly fun and awesome things to see and experience right off the bat, as someone who knows the American Disneyland vibe pretty well. I loved the Mickey Chinese Character image on the way in. The characters in costume were quite Asian-influenced too, an Asian Goofy, Asian Mickey and Asian Minnie, wearing traditional Chinese clothing. I'm not sure, but I think some of this was particularly special due to the Chinese New Year being only a few days later, like that Mickey logo. Awesome.<br />
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Our first stop was, of course, the newly opened Iron Man Experience ride! This is an exclusive to Hong Kong Disneyland, so, like the Ratatouille ride in Paris, this is a must-do. This is also a ride with the effects done by some friends and colleagues at ILM, so I was suppper psyched to try it. It had just opened on January 11th, so it was so lucky that we had a chance to ride it! It was busy so we got a FastPass and continued on to Buzz Lightyear Blasters. I love that ride.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asian Goofy!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0tovY--gxRM/Whfw0WPTwDI/AAAAAAAAwV0/qy_kUeHZ75s0cZl7LPsCq-XlWE8QJgnfwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2243.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0tovY--gxRM/Whfw0WPTwDI/AAAAAAAAwV0/qy_kUeHZ75s0cZl7LPsCq-XlWE8QJgnfwCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2243.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asian Mickey and Minnie!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front of Iron Man Experience ride</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Let's DO THIS</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh no, Zurg!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t5BdQUABJH4/Whfw0VkSI6I/AAAAAAAAwV0/K8R5dRbKrF0od-AYk7gGRm7QMrj4BOfFACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t5BdQUABJH4/Whfw0VkSI6I/AAAAAAAAwV0/K8R5dRbKrF0od-AYk7gGRm7QMrj4BOfFACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2262.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My aim is only very slightly better than Michal's, and definitely much worse than the kid's in front of us</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MDlOQw4Bers/Whfw0Z5D83I/AAAAAAAAwV0/jNUgHQATcP4bIeY9TNyAyipPNrzuuE6dwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2265.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MDlOQw4Bers/Whfw0Z5D83I/AAAAAAAAwV0/jNUgHQATcP4bIeY9TNyAyipPNrzuuE6dwCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2265.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ahh, my wee little arms!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gYi-dBFK8mI/Whfw0ZX8XsI/AAAAAAAAwV0/yCh4-Qm3_jYBzffSq7o6mcpIKvPgLlyTgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2268.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gYi-dBFK8mI/Whfw0ZX8XsI/AAAAAAAAwV0/yCh4-Qm3_jYBzffSq7o6mcpIKvPgLlyTgCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2268.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWEEEEEEEET</td></tr>
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Next up was the Jedi Academy, this was similar looking to the one in California, but the speaking was of course in Chinese (and also some in English). It was SO cool to see this, and the kids were loving it. There was an awesome lightsaber swinging demonstration by the actors on stage, and that was super epic! I thought it was cool, interesting, and super awesome that they were incorporating Rogue One stuff already. One of the people performing in the show said the phrase, "I am one with the Force" (a line from Rogue One)!!!!!! So awesome.<br />
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Next up, it was time to go on the Iron Man Experience!! Yay!!! Inside they had tons of cool car/spaceship concepts, and some in Iron Man red & yellow colours!! The ride and ride-movie itself were great. Iron Man flies over Hong Kong in the video -- we'd only been here for a day and a bit and already we recognized places in the video. Super cool localization, that's for sure.<br />
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The beginning of the ride was similar to Star Tours, in that the room was a very similar setup and seating, and also just how the ride flow works. It was so cool and so fun to try it out... and funny to see Stark Tower in the midst of Hong Kong's downtown!! That was a really fun ride, and I also really liked all the pre-ride stuff like the models and videos playing.<br />
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After experiencing the fun Iron Man Experience, we headed over to the Adventureland area to check out the shops. It was pretty great -- there was a lot of Chinese-specific merchandise which was awesome and unique for people like us coming from the States. Certainly more so than in Paris, where there were the odd Ratatouille things, but not tons of localized stuff like here. Really neat, and even some local characters.<br />
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One such character was someone I had never heard of before (though maybe is in Disneyland California by now), Duffy the bear. There were also Chinese New Year sweets and cookie packs, super cool. The other hilarious character was a cat called "Gelatoni" which was taglined with "A new friend of Duffy's!" Haha. His origin story was hilarious -- Duffy is chillin' and eating a Gelato ice cream and enjoying it, and then accidentally drops his Ice Cream and is super sad. Gelatoni the cat says "Don't worry!" and paints a painting for Duffy, using his tail... and as far as I could tell... uses the spilled/melted ice cream AS THE PAINT?!?!?! Haha. It was so funny how they explained it in images and how they were introducing this new artistic cat. The epic merchandise continued, with some stuff I've never seen in California -- like an epic Zootopia backpack complete with bunny ears and a SMALLER BACKPACK attached to it (presumably, for your toy/plush to also have their own matching backpack). Epic.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interesting snack options</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Korean Squid and Coffee!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cute kids stuff</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">!!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special things for Chinese New Year. Love that Mickey-ified Chinese character!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also a Christmas Baymax</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NYvAiEoCAEM/WhhoR-bwgkI/AAAAAAAAwWc/tVs_FIIFHIA1yJ1N6ch9hp6_1eYfUfK5wCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NYvAiEoCAEM/WhhoR-bwgkI/AAAAAAAAwWc/tVs_FIIFHIA1yJ1N6ch9hp6_1eYfUfK5wCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2324.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Gelatoni purse</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YV4ECiYiEd4/WhhoR3c2yyI/AAAAAAAAwWc/KBRYSNvPv2ca0SKhu5P9MbGYDXDBX0bJACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YV4ECiYiEd4/WhhoR3c2yyI/AAAAAAAAwWc/KBRYSNvPv2ca0SKhu5P9MbGYDXDBX0bJACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2325.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy awesome Zootopia Backpack with ears</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rOWaJfBjoKI/WhhoR3-oZUI/AAAAAAAAwWc/I-muTxeR0IMcitOmvID7C0rgRCGUff4kQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rOWaJfBjoKI/WhhoR3-oZUI/AAAAAAAAwWc/I-muTxeR0IMcitOmvID7C0rgRCGUff4kQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2326.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...and an attached SMALLER BACKPACK, ALSO WITH EARS</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHMxak0JCcc/WhhoR_rmu_I/AAAAAAAAwWc/ou-TFCxM5aM1jbVN1KUacjTeWly40LsOQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2328.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AHMxak0JCcc/WhhoR_rmu_I/AAAAAAAAwWc/ou-TFCxM5aM1jbVN1KUacjTeWly40LsOQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2328.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More food options</td></tr>
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Next up, we headed to Mystic Manor -- which was like the "Haunted Mansion" in California but presumably with the story modified to be "Magic" instead to be more Asian culture-friendly. I always find it so interesting to see how things are modified to blend in better in a different culture. Fascinating. Otherwise the ride was somewhat similar, but it was mostly about an Adventurer-type historian dude, kindof Indiana Jones-y, and they talked about the magic he discovered as things were lighting up and coming to life. The magic was unleashed by this little monkey, who upon arrival greeted us with a "Nee-how!". Funny also that things were spelled out explicitly, like a bunch of musical instruments on the wall were labelled as such "Musical Instruments"! The "Magic" on the walls was sparkly stuff flying around and this was causing the instruments to play themselves, not "haunted" like in USA Disneyland. Super interesting.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monkey: "Nee-how!"</td></tr>
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Next up!!! ahh!!! A Disney Tea Set!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I was super excited about this and also Disneyland red envelopes to give a gift of money to friends/family over the Chinese New Year. So epic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VJpuE6-OIsA/WhhqLrs9GhI/AAAAAAAAwWw/tx8Kw0pFTAsX9zzdIEkvGbmrfJ0MW7hWACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VJpuE6-OIsA/WhhqLrs9GhI/AAAAAAAAwWw/tx8Kw0pFTAsX9zzdIEkvGbmrfJ0MW7hWACKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2334.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mickey and Minnie Tea Set ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</td></tr>
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From there we headed to Toy Story Land which is always so awesome to see. They had some awesome looking rides, especially the Slinky Dog one!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey, I recognize that ball...</td></tr>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/---sAtd2XoXg/WhhrYhbd6SI/AAAAAAAAwW8/UhTaiNSS7wswCmyjIb-83sQKWmkSWAV4ACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/---sAtd2XoXg/WhhrYhbd6SI/AAAAAAAAwW8/UhTaiNSS7wswCmyjIb-83sQKWmkSWAV4ACKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2351.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The other thing that ROCKED about the Pixar area was that the store there had tons of Monsters, Inc stuff. YESSSS. Specifically, tons of Mike and Sulley stuff. It was totally awesome and a lot more than you'd see at Disneyland. I got a Hong Kong Disneyland Mike Wazowski name-badge pin that said "Mike" on it, which was pretty fun :) I also got this weird and wonderful Mike and Sulley-as-Ice-Cream-Scoops carry bag?!?! Odd, and awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weirdest and most awesome carry bag ever</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E9mCLDkLiII/WhhsDlr6sSI/AAAAAAAAwXE/0BSvBiE1ZDogG5hiZ6uSgv9nZAiVELuTQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2357.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E9mCLDkLiII/WhhsDlr6sSI/AAAAAAAAwXE/0BSvBiE1ZDogG5hiZ6uSgv9nZAiVELuTQCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2357.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sullleyyyyyyy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Iz1GvuZUzF4/WhhsDurNziI/AAAAAAAAwXE/KedfyKKClbY-RD6PbCMkaG7RzbY7eIr2wCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Iz1GvuZUzF4/WhhsDurNziI/AAAAAAAAwXE/KedfyKKClbY-RD6PbCMkaG7RzbY7eIr2wCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2360.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of phone cases too</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U-U1DSN66qQ/WhhsDspd9TI/AAAAAAAAwXE/mYQqivXbXa4a4v_ZpSHZPibjmG8dmFbEQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U-U1DSN66qQ/WhhsDspd9TI/AAAAAAAAwXE/mYQqivXbXa4a4v_ZpSHZPibjmG8dmFbEQCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_2361.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool Chinese versions of the Blu-Rays</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cH4Xr1dm6Uc/WhhsDhmmfzI/AAAAAAAAwXE/E7wJ3cV72_UF19DoDnxxivdT_Ycp6dAvACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2363.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cH4Xr1dm6Uc/WhhsDhmmfzI/AAAAAAAAwXE/E7wJ3cV72_UF19DoDnxxivdT_Ycp6dAvACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2363.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Well, howdy!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gelatoni's origin story</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweet hat</td></tr>
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We headed back to Main St and they had an "Old Fashioned Candy" shop... where (in Disneyland California) it is full of candy apples and a bunch of junk food. This spot looked the same and was in the same location... but had only souvenirs! This was just like in France -- there's no sugar here!!! The sweetest possible thing we found was something called a "Superhero Waffle"... shaped like Iron Man's head!!!!! That was super hilarious, so we tried it... it came with a tinnnny amount of Chocolate Sauce to dip into. :) It was very strikingly different to see the variance in sugar and candy here as compared to the American version of the park.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Piggy Pork Buns"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Happiest Place on Earth!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tsum Tsum chopsticks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Instead of super sweet pastries or candy, the sweetest thing we saw was this cheese tart</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Super Hero Waffle!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OK, that was awesome. We had to try it. Tasty!</td></tr>
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We got to a nice spot on Main St just in time for the parade, and after heading back into a shop near the front... we decided to buy the tea set and carefully take it home with us. It was even more epic as we went to get it, as it was called the "Mickey Wedding Tea Set"!!! Not sure why it was Wedding-specific (for a tea ceremony at a wedding, perhaps?!) but we were really psyched. It is awesome. Super glad we decided to go for it. It wasn't very expensive, and it was such an awesome souvenir of our time in Hong Kong.<br />
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Now, time for the Parade!! It was super fun. Again I was super interested to see how they modified the parade for the Chinese location and audience. There was some minor Asian-clothing Mickey, but sadly no Lion Dance. I was wondering if they might start it with a Lion Dance (or, if perhaps that wouldn't be appropriate for the setting). Also missing: no specific Dragon elements either. But you did see the Asian-clothing Mickey a few times, and signage was largely in Chinese.<br />
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The music was super fun and the dancing was pretty spectacular. There were some acrobatic things, people on crazy bouncing Tigger stilts, and a wide range of the characters from the park. The music in general seemed the same as the USA Park ("M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-EEEEEE!") along with some dirty beattts (funny when they hip-hop-ified the Mickey Mouse song!!) haha. Also the music changed from English to the Chinese version of the lyrics and then back. I loved it. Kids (and Adults alike) were going nuts. Same here. Fun times for sure!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These guys were epic</td></tr>
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Well, that was awesome!!! We figured this was a good time to wrap up at Disneyland and head out with our AMAZING Mickey Wedding Teaset :) Woo!<br />
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On the way out we visited the Artist area near the front of Disneyland (I knew where to look as it seemed like most things were in the same place as they are in Disneyland California!). This was particularly awesome, and I love this area since it was always so inspiring as a younger person, keen to work in this industry. The most awesome part of this specific exhibit is that there was a ton of Pixar-specific concept art and maquettes, no-doubt designed by some old colleagues. Super, super cool. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inspiring...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haha I love this old version of Donald Duck with a SUPER long bill/mouth. So funny.</td></tr>
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What an awesome day. By now, it was too late to head to Tai O Fishing Village (and a bit of a schlep)
so we headed instead to Apliu St. and Golden Computer Arcade. Lonely
Planet had implied that this was sortof like Akihabara St. in Tokyo...
it was kinda similar, definitely cool to see and a really fun spot, but
Tokyo is WAY bigger. This area would definitely be awesome if you were
building your own computer, for sure. They had light up keyboards, lots
of memory sticks, etc. We also wandered the electronics market, which
was cool and I got 2 iPhone Charging cables.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So many charging cables!</td></tr>
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That was fun. We had been going full-tilt all day and kindof forgot to eat. We really hadn't eaten all that much. It was about 5:30pm and we'd shared a corn on the cob, 3 pineapple buns, and a Super Hero Waffle all day. So... a quick return to Din Tai Fung Silverchord by our hotel for a Dinner #1 Takeaway!!! Smart move!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bridal truck?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Din Tai Fung dumpling mascot</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Din Tai Fung steam basket mascot</td></tr>
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We had done LOTS of walking again today so it was definitely necessary to stop and take a bit of a break. At Din Tai Fung we re-bought our 3 favourite things: Chicken Xiolongbao, Egg Fried Rice, and Veggie Dumplings. We ate our "Dinner #1" and relaxed and sat in our room for a short while to chill... and took a bit of a break from the excitement and schlepping. And then... we changed into nicer clothes and headed right back out.... for our final dinner of the honeymoon! I had pre-booked an epic spot that Lausch had recommended from his time in Hong Kong, the Michelin 2-starred Cafe Grey Deluxe. (You're noticing, I'm sure, that this is a trend -- there are TONS of Michelin-starred restaurants in Hong Kong, and unlike in California, many are very affordable. Like Din Tai Fung, for instance, was so epic that we went again tonight for Dinner #1!).<br />
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We headed back over on the Subway to the Central area, through the JW Marriott and up to the top floor of "The Upper House" to get to Cafe Grey Deluxe. OMG what an EPIC frickin' view!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG. So incredible. This place was so awesome. I snapped some nice pics of my sweet love (sweet honeymoon love!) and the incredible view we had up there. Wow, what a great spot.<br />
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We got pasta and soup to start. For main, we got the Risotto and Beef Short Rib. The flavours were truly magnificent, and the epic view really also added immensely to the experience. With the awesome view of all the Central district neon lights, you really felt like you were in Hong Kong and not just in a fancy restaurant in any random city. The short rib really "falls off the bone" and the waiter had described, and was really well made. It was amazingly tasty, soft, had great flavour and texture. Mmm!! What a huge win this place was. There was an interesting-sounding beer called Hitachino Nest White Ale on the menu, and I asked about it and it was from Japan and sounded awesome... it sure was!! I had never tried it before and I really really enjoyed it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What a view!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing bread and butter to start</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pasta appetiser</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soup appetiser</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epic spot!!!!!!!!</td></tr>
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What a great and special dinner to wrap up an AMAZING 3.5 week honeymoon trip. We truly traversed the world together... in the most incredible and unbelievable way. It was so awesome that we were able to pull this amazing trip off, and we chatted a lot over dinner about all of the fun things we did throughout the trip, and what some of our favourite things were.<br />
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Finally, we had dessert and great coffees, along with a Baked Alaska with Passion Fruit as dessert!! Yes!!!!!!!! The espresso and cappucino here was AMAZING. I couldn't believe it. A total slam dunk.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Honeymoon!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chocolates to wrap up the night</td></tr>
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Before we left the excellent and fabulous Cafe Grey Deluxe, I had to check out the bathroom. Lausch had mentioned to me that it was hilarious and ridiculous, you had the same exact insane awesome view but from the urinals!!! Hahahaha. So I checked, and... yep. I snapped a quick picture of the bathroom view while no one else was in there :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the hand-washing station in the bathroom!!</td></tr>
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Well, that sure was awesome! We walked around a bit and worked down our amazing dinner, eventually heading back to the Causeway Bay area to see if we could again find the cell phone cover location for Michal that we'd seen on arrival. That was unsuccessful, but what was quite successful is we finally had a chance to take one of the super tall Trams!! It took a really weird line of streets (I guess these routes existed way before the neighbourhoods were built up!) It was an odd route but it was so cheap $2.20 HKD (about 28 cents per ride). It was fun to try it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tram!</td></tr>
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After a great day out and an incredible dinner, we headed back to the hotel quite late, about Midnight. What an awesome wrap up to such a GREAT world trip. Hong Kong has also been an awesome place to wrap up and change gears back into city life before heading back to San Francisco. Tomorrow is our last day of the honeymoon! We went to bed, dreaming of tasty food and fun Disney hip-hop tracks. :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our hotel room</td></tr>
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Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-33787283362917097222017-11-22T02:27:00.002-08:002017-11-22T02:31:49.796-08:00Honeymoon Day 25: Dragon's Back Trail, Michelin-Star Pizza, and Din Tai Fung<b>1/23/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 25: Dragon's Back Trail, Michelin-Star Pizza, and Din Tai Fung<br />
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Our first major day in Hong Kong, we wanted to get rolling and out there and adventuring. We made a plan, had a Nespresso and an Asian Pear in the hotel room and headed off towards the Mong Kok area to go to Kam Wah Cafe, the famous award-winning pineapple bun shop. We got an assortment of buns: a custard tart, coconut bun, and the pineapple bun with a butter slab in it (the "famous one"). The pineapple bun was in fact quite glorious, it had a satisfying CRUNCH plus was super soft inside. Ahh!! It was so goooood. I ordered one of their Hong Kong-style milk "stocking" tea, which seemed to me to look very similar in style to the "Pulled Tea" from Singapore! It tasted quite a bit like that pulled tea from Singapore as well... that is to say, very good! It went very well with the many buns as well. This was a nice kick for breakfast and got us going and ready for a nice long hike.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying the Hong Kong-style milk "stocking" tea</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The famous Pineapple Bun</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm!!</td></tr>
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Soon after breakfast, the jet lag hit me a bit -- I was pretty tired and not feeling SO epic... but it went over after a bit and we kept going which was good. We had wandered the neighbourhood too far after getting our buns, so we walked to enter the Subway at Mong Kok East station instead, changing our direction plan on the subway but still taking 3 or so transfers to get to where we were going, to the start of the Dragon's Back hiking area. The subway maps were easy to understand so it was not hard to change plans on-the-fly like this.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mall attached to Mong Kok East station</td></tr>
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The subway dropped us reasonably close to the hike but it was still another fair bit of a drive. I wasn't feeling 100% (too much "stocking tea" perhaps?!) but we pushed on and decided to take a taxi the rest of the way instead of a bus/minibus after getting off the subway. I was probably about $10 for a 25 min ride to drop us near the village of Shek O, right on the side of the road at the starting point for the hike. Here we go!<br />
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The hike was clearly going to be awesome, and a few friends had highly recommended it. It was just like Portland or Seattle or San Francisco, in that you could take some public transit not too far out of the city and find an AMAZING hike with glorious views, right at your fingertips. Super awesome. Right off the bat, the views were awesome and the hike was great. "Wait, are we still in Hong Kong?!" It was very remote-feeling. A great change of pace from the hustle and bustle.<br />
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The hike is called "Dragon's Back" as there are many ridges on the trail and they look like spikes on the back of a Dragon's tail! Since it is a "ridge trail", it's quite high up with great and very wide-angle views on both sides of the mountain. There were some great panoramic beach shots, too. It was pretty quiet, some other folks hiking but never felt too cramped or overcrowded by any means. After a week of planes and sitting on the 4WD drive vehicle for most of the Safari portion of the trip, it was really great to be getting some solid exercise... and boy, was this sure exercise! It was a LONG hike!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Silly kiss</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ahh, there's a good one!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the top of the hike!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Dragon's Back"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice view of beaches</td></tr>
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I figured the total time would be maybe 1.5 hrs or so... maybe... and found myself saying a few
times, "This is a LEGIT hike!" It was prob about 2 hrs or so as we
wrapped up. I also thought it would drop us off at Shek O beach but instead we were back at the "Corrections Institute"... we wanted to head next to the beach-side town of Stanley... hmm... should we take a taxi or a bus... moments later (give our epic luck), a Mini-Bus to Stanley showed up. Great fortune, again! Awesome times.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wrapping up the trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanley Beach</td></tr>
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We had thought that the water was going to be warm and easily accessible, and there was absolutely no one in the water... um... I guess we're not going in, then! We had originally pictured heading into the water to chill post-hike but it wasn't really a beach day and we also couldn't figure out how to get down from the boardwalk area to the beach. Haha. So we punted on that and instead wandered the market and craft market. It was kinda meh, and the beach side stalls also kindof looked like a fail. Lonely Planet was not very encouraging, as they said Stanley had a few "passable restaurants"... yeah. We walked by more than one British Pub?!?! Seems unnecessary when in Hong Kong :) The food stands and "passable restaurants" looked only barely passable and possibly food-poison-y so we were in need of a reliable food option with international cooking standards. What could that be... McDonalds!!! As we gave up on trying to find something cool and local there, and walked in shamefully into McD's, we sighed and said "we are those jerks" [who go to McDonalds in a foreign country because they can't find anything to eat].<br />
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Anyway... McDonalds was actually totally awesome!! They had super fun and odd promotions for Chinese New Year and some funny-named food that was great. Even more amazing were the names of the small happy meal plush animals you could buy on behalf of the New Year celebrations. "Prosperity Chicken", "Abundance Chick"... everything had hilarious names. On that note, we shared a "Prosperity Sharing Box", with "Twisted Fries" and a Hot Coffee (man we were being really paranoid about tap water here!) This was all so silly and really fun to try.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stanley Market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AMAZING new years plush animals</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prosperity Sharing Box</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Learn the New Year Blessings" placemat at McDonalds</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loved seeing all the other localized things</td></tr>
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We walked through the International Montessori School area out to the bus terminal, finding that most busses drove back to Central, which is exactly where we wanted to go. We went up to the upper deck to get an epic view and there was a local man already in the front seat. He very kindly gave up his seat for us so we could enjoy the view... super nice. :)<br />
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The bus ride was quite long, probably about 45 minutes, and we got to see a bunch of different neighbourhoods and areas as we drove back downtown. It was fun to see the juxtaposition of very tight 2-lane roads with HUGE apartment towers and hotels. We drove through Repulse Bay, which has a hilarious name but is far from "Repulsive" -- it was SUPER fancy. We drove by the famous apartment building "The Repulse Bay" which has a hole in the middle of it. This is because of the Repulse Bay Dragon! The story is that he needs to be able to easily get back to the water when he wants to, so as to not get in his way, they built a big hole in the middle of the apartment complex for the dragon to fly though! Hehe definitely don't want to be getting in a dragon's way, that's for sure!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thin 2-lane roads</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Repulse Bay" apartment complex, with a hole in it for the neighbourhood dragon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On our way back into the city</td></tr>
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The views of the city were magnificent as we got back to the Wan Chai area (or, was it Chai Wan? That was very confusing on the subway -- yep, it was Wan Chai), near to Causeway Bay where we were the night before. We drove into the main shopping area and drove right by nothing other than an ERIC KAYSER Parisian bakery?!?! Here in Hong Kong?!?!? Well... guess we'll plan to go there later in the week! We also passed a Relais de L'Entrecote?! Crazy, just like Paris! You might recall earlier in this honeymoon journal that we went to both of those spots in Paris. Crazy to see them here! This must have been "Little Paris" here, there were so many fancy shops, purses, clothes, etc. It was very Parisian.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rogue One ad!</td></tr>
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We hadn't eaten much today and after a 2hr hike and walking all day, it was time for some food. One of the spots on our to-eat list was a 1-Michelin starred Italian restaurant called CIAK in the Kitchen. We walked into a fancy hotel and shopping arcade and asked "Where is the Pizza place?" looking very casual, kinda touristy, and as if we had been hiking all day and just come from a McDonalds. "Oh, the Michelin-star Italian restaurant?" was basically the response we got from the person at the information desk. Haha. And so, in true Bay Area style, we strolled into a Michelin-starred spot with shorts and workout clothes on and had a great time. Haha. Turns out, as expected, this was not actually a formal place, and other people were pretty casual in there too -- and at 5pm this was sortof just late lunch anyway. The pizza was super tasty, the crust is a special (fermented), and the sauce was super good. It was a great spot and we absolutely crushed a Pellegrino as well. Mmm.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">$3200 USD wine bottle?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pizza time!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tasty</td></tr>
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We walked through the fancy mall/hotel and saw some stores and then continued on towards the Central Piers. It was a long walk! There was a cool fair going on complete with a giant ferris wheel which looked awesome, but we wanted to get back to the other side of the water where our hotel was.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bikers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome homewares</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehlSYhCG4x0/WhVKPK2tJOI/AAAAAAAAwIY/1Ttd4eih42U6DRio3UUemvIY6TfMl5CsACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ehlSYhCG4x0/WhVKPK2tJOI/AAAAAAAAwIY/1Ttd4eih42U6DRio3UUemvIY6TfMl5CsACKgBGAs/s320/IMG_2128.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy macaron display holder</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Apple Store</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool fairgrounds and skyline</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This looked like fun, but it was time to head back to the hotel for a bit</td></tr>
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We jumped onto the famous Star Ferry and paid a mere $3.20 HKD (60 cents!) for an upper deck ride across the water at sunset. This was awesome -- people had said to skip the fancier nighttime cruises, and just take this commuter ferry across the water at sunset for 60 cents! It was awesome. The Ferry had GREAT views and what a deal!! That was super insanely fun and awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Epic views!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our ferry docking back at our side of the water</td></tr>
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After this very long day out, we headed back to the hotel to drop all our stuff and chill out for a bit. That was very necessary!<br />
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After a little while of relaxing, we headed back out to the "Ladies Market" and also to the Shoe Market. "Oh look, a Nike Store... wait.... why are they also selling New Balance and Adidas?!" Some of the shoes were pretty cool but not as crazy or unique as Japan. It was also unclear in these shoe stores/storefronts if you could actually bargain or not. The prices were also not specifically good. So that was cool to see but there was nothing super crazy or epic like Japan. There were some multi-buy signs (buy 2, get some discount) that were in many of the shops but we asked a few people to explain them and were even more confused after hearing their answers. So, this was all too confusing, so we had to give up and go to the Ladies Market instead.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now, what kind of Sale is this?!</td></tr>
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The Ladies Market was awesome! They had some super cool stuff there, and I scored a Totoro carry bag there for $15 HKD (about $2 USD). Also, they had a wiiicked Totoro Jansport backpack. I was eyeing it and the seller saw my interest. "How much?" "$180"... "Oh... too expensive.".. "OK then, how much do you want to pay?" I then proceeded to continue the market "dance" and hummed and hah'd for a bit. I did in fact feel like $180 HKD was overpriced for the bag (though this was the only place I'd seen such a cool Totoro bag), so I walked away with the correct confidence you needed. I have a terrible poker face so I truly thought I'd find the bag elsewhere, otherwise there was no way I would have pulled off the "walk away" so convincingly. She called out after us... "OK... $150!"... pause... "$120"... and as we were getting out of earshot... "OK, $100!"... "$80".... I allmost turned around... "OK, 50!!!" WOW!! (That's about $8 USD, so presumably still a healthy profit for the shopkeeper -- goes to show how much they overprice everything to start with). yeah! I was psyched as I did actually really want to buy this bag, and it worked out so well. That was such a win. I was surprised she was so keen to make a sale, maybe because it was the end of the day? That was surprising that she dropped her prices so much given that I didn't even negotiate or request it. So that was GREAT and I was so psyched about my fancy new Totoro bag!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweet bag!!</td></tr>
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Finally, time for some dinner, we headed back to the station to Tsim Sha Tsui, and then walked to Din Tai Fung Silverchord, a world-famous dumpling spot that is now in the San Francisco Bay Area as well, but we were keen to try it closer to its home turf (it originated in Taiwan). This Silverchord branch of Din Tai Fung was the first one in Hong Kong and has received a 1-Michelin Star in 2010 and again in 2013. Pretty crazy... McD's and then two super casual Michelin-star places in one day?! Hong Kong has some crazy amount of Michelin-starred places, making it definitely an epic foodie spot.<br />
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Din Tai Fung did not disappoint. People had told me it was epic and man, was it epic. OMG the most exciting thing was that they, somehow, had a CHICKEN broth version of the famous Xiolongbao ("Soup Dumpling") which is typically only ever made with pork broth. I couldn't believe we could finally try the Xiolongbao!! It was such a great opportunity to try it, it is a little dumpling filled with some warm soup broth as well as a piece of chicken. You bite it and the warm soup pours out into your mouth. It was so good!! I think the Veggie Dumpling was ultimately my favourite thing. Again, like ChomChom the night before, Hong Kong dining is not cheap, but the quality is EXCELLENT. We prob spent about $75 at the end of the day at Din Tai Fung, and it was worth every penny.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Noodles</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Veggie Fried Rice</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RXyrGnvQuA8/WhVQB_xXkPI/AAAAAAAAwJI/81qmllC15ms_kgQBeHxpV7pP7Rw4cGNnwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RXyrGnvQuA8/WhVQB_xXkPI/AAAAAAAAwJI/81qmllC15ms_kgQBeHxpV7pP7Rw4cGNnwCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2196.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Veggie Dumplings</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hpyp-x0o4DY/WhVQB9CHaiI/AAAAAAAAwJI/QP4ChAc5V2AvBQQLaLJwGDU8V4lzfMeoQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hpyp-x0o4DY/WhVQB9CHaiI/AAAAAAAAwJI/QP4ChAc5V2AvBQQLaLJwGDU8V4lzfMeoQCKgBGAs/s640/IMG_2197.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicken Xiolongbao!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dipping!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Veggie Buns</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e2UiVaHNgH4/WhVQB-jwdOI/AAAAAAAAwJI/iZ8S0YztgyEDYmLMS01JEy_AIiRj8InZwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e2UiVaHNgH4/WhVQB-jwdOI/AAAAAAAAwJI/iZ8S0YztgyEDYmLMS01JEy_AIiRj8InZwCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2200.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going for it</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G9XVesniu_M/WhVQB7XplAI/AAAAAAAAwJI/YhTY1AZ2kX4WNGPOu7l71mlThBM0TqCugCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G9XVesniu_M/WhVQB7XplAI/AAAAAAAAwJI/YhTY1AZ2kX4WNGPOu7l71mlThBM0TqCugCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2202.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VERY pleased</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hnepaMoNWBg/WhVQB7ISw8I/AAAAAAAAwJI/ghpj2jPiqP4Gr1YV-zLnCG4kwwjWM5hswCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2204.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hnepaMoNWBg/WhVQB7ISw8I/AAAAAAAAwJI/ghpj2jPiqP4Gr1YV-zLnCG4kwwjWM5hswCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2204.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy purple yam-filled dessert baos</td></tr>
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This place was so super fun and also super tasty. The egg fried rice was also amazingly tasty. I loved this spot and we will definitely have to try the new San Francisco Bay Area one.<br />
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As we were wrapping up to leave, we got up and then Michal handed me my new Totoro backpack from the chair it was sitting on. One of the staff there was grinning at me, I think probably because my bag is definitely supposed to be a girl's bag. haha. Anyway I LOVE IT.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to head back to the hotel, finally!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nu5SRmjgNQY/WhVQ-8NQUCI/AAAAAAAAwJQ/w2avbvui0Fg4Y7oYqAC7r6YQy-cqcHvuACKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_2217.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nu5SRmjgNQY/WhVQ-8NQUCI/AAAAAAAAwJQ/w2avbvui0Fg4Y7oYqAC7r6YQy-cqcHvuACKgBGAs/s400/IMG_2217.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My new Totoro Backpack and Totoro Carrybag</td></tr>
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After such an action-packed and awesome day, we headed back to the hotel for a good sleep.Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-17196072736542510772017-11-21T01:51:00.003-08:002017-11-21T01:55:45.049-08:00Honeymoon Day 24: Hong Kong Nightlife<b>1/22/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 24: Hong Kong Nightlife<br />
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Our awesome Singapore Airlines flight from Johannesburg arrived in Singapore, and I saw the legendary Marina Bay Sands hotel from the window as we were landing. Super iconic. We were arriving early local time (about 6am) after our 12 hour overnight flight, and had a couple hours in the airport before continuing on our connecting flight to Hong Kong. The Singapore Airport was even more fancy than I remember it from about 7 years earlier. They have a butterfly garden?! Nice. We walked from our arrival gate to the lounge and my fave TWG Tea stand was RIGHT THERE!!! Amazing. Michal as always is insanely epic, and got me the delicious Green-Black Tea Blend called Singapore Breakfast as a gift :) So good.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arriving in Singapore</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">TWG Tea stand!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sooo tireeed!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking at my photos, I must have been so tired I didn't take any photos in the lounge, only this one!!</td></tr>
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We had access to the Singapore Airlines lounge due to our ticket, so we headed in there to see what was up. It was cool but mostly dim sum and other stuff that you wouldn't necessarily be up for after a 12 hr flight where you stayed up most of the flight to eat and try everything and watch all the movies. :) There was some special company giving away pressed juice which was good, and we got some fruit too which was a win. We wandered a little more in the airport and then headed to our next plane which was taking us 4 hrs from Singapore to Hong Kong.<br />
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Aside: a note about Singapore "Suites" Class, which we didn't fly on, but was actually available on this plane:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This was the huge double-decker A380 plane... and this is the one that has the INSANE Singapore Airlines "Suites Class". I had tried so many sneaky things to try to use airline points to book a combo Johannesburg->Singapore->Hong Kong->San Francisco flight, using points only, and have Business for all the other legs but swap out Business to First (or "Suites" on this specific flight) for only this short portion. I tried for several weeks in advance of our trip cause Suites is INSANE... but sadly there was no way to do it without trying to book First Class for ALL legs of the trip (and JoBurg->Singapore "only" had a Business Class, no First). We also definitely didn't have enough airline points to pull off First the whole way... so after much fiddling, it was not to-be. But...if you ever get the chance, you should definitely blow every single collected air mile you have on Singapore Suites class. It is a special class that is only on certain planes (the A380 Singapore->Hong Kong being one of the routes). It is First Class, but instead of being called First it's called "Suites" because you literally get a little apartment area with walls. It is absolutely insane. You get your own checkin area and your lounge is not in the Business Class Lounge... you continue THROUGH to the first class lounge to a special area called "The Private Room" where they have table cloths, waiter service, it's like a restaurant in the lounge. If you're gonna see Brad Pitt at the airport, you better believe he's gonna be in there! Insane.<br />
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The other coolest-damn-thing-ever about Singapore Suites Class is if you book the two middle seats on the A380... they fold down into a FULL DOUBLE BED... in your little APARTMENT THING on the AIRPLANE. SERIOUSLY. That is nuts.</blockquote>
So.......... all of this aside, we did not pull of the necessary finagling to use points to get Suites Class... but it sure looks cool! We walked by the suites entrance and dreamed... and, yes, then walked upstairs to the upper-level of the A380 for our incredible Business Class seats! So... seriously... this is truly epic. (Aside: Since Suites really does look that insane, it's also prob smarter to try to save up Singapore Airlines points and use them to get a "Saver Suites" discounted Suites ticket for a longer-haul flight than just 4 hrs like this one. Eg. LAX->Narita in Tokyo has an option for Suites Class, so it's definitely worth trying to score that if ever on that route).<br />
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Anyway. Suites is epic. Enough said. But so is Business... so off we went to go enjoy the heck outta that too (and sleep!) As I mentioned, we went UPSTAIRS (which is so cool!) and the plane was very empty, as expected. Such an early morning flight, and I had almost gotten Suites Saver on it (there are only 8 Suites seats, so it's kinda nuts even 1 was available at the half-price point amount.. just not 2 seats!) The Business Seats on the A380 were totally different than on our previous Singapore Airlines flight. They were HUGE! Super wide seats and straight, not angled. We got settled and were insanely excited despite the lack of sleep.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HUGE seats!!</td></tr>
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One of the reasons why I was so excited to try Suites is that they have some upgraded food items on the menu. It's particularly exciting during an evening flight because the Champagne and so on is crazily fancy. But on an 8am flight?? The Suites class has frickin' JAMAICAN BLUE MOUNTAIN coffee on their menu, but it's not on the Business Class menu. I took a hint from one of the many (many!) travel blogs I read, and courteously asked the staff if there was any chance they might be able to get me a cup of the Jamaican Blue Mountain. The stewardess was very polite but unsure and said, "Please let me check for you." She came back a few moments later with a BIG smile on her face and said, "It is no problem, I will bring one for you"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That ROCKED. I think maybe because the plane was so quiet, there was enough to go around (and someone in First/Suites wouldn't have gone without)... so that was incredible. It was so tasty. I was so so soooo psyched. Made my day :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee!! Delicious!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So jet lagged, but SO happy.</td></tr>
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I enjoyed my coffee immensely, and when I was done, the stewardess asked if I would like ANOTHER?!? I thought that was just too crazy and one was so special enough. So I asked instead for one of the items from their menu of Chinese Teas -- I ordered the Tie Guan Yin tea, and she seemed very pleased that I ordered a Chinese Tea rather than a standard British tea. She brought it out in a bowl/Gongfu... on the plane!!! So funny and so fancy.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea Time!</td></tr>
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Next up was the best question of the trip. "Mr. Jutan -- we've got your Lamb Chops for breakfast?" Hahaha. YEP! Singapore Airlines has this awesome service called "Book the Cook" where you actually pre-order your food in advance of the flight (actually, even some of the Economy levels have a version of this too now). I of course spent hours researching what people had said they liked the most on the different legs of the routes that they fly (since the food is different from every place). Given that this could be the only time we ever fly Singapore Business and was so super special, I wanted to make the absolute most of the experience. I had found that most people said that the Lamb Chops were the tastiest option coming from Singapore to Hong Kong... and so to heck with the fact that it was 8am and I'd been flying all night!!! Lamb Chops for breakfast it is!<br />
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Michal got a much more stereotypical breakfast option, the "Warm waffle with strawberry coulis, fresh berries and mascarpone cheese". I was very pleased with my "New Zealand lamb chops with mint jus, mesclun salad, and thyme-flavoured gratin potatoes" and it had a delicious mint sauce that was just perfect. I was worried there was no way I would feel like Lamb at 8am and that I would have felt like I should have just ordered the Waffles too... but I am so glad I stuck with it, even though it was crazy. :)<br />
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We turned our seats into beds after "breakfast" and we were both out like a light. I had a GREAT sleep and so did Michal after our super long journey thusfar. Short, but super comfortable and excellent sleep.<br />
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We woke up getting close to Hong Kong and the fabulous staff presented us with... guess what? A HONEYMOON CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!! I had wondered since the airlines added my on the reservation for "Honeymoon" to say "Special: Honeymoon Cake" on ALL THREE of the Singapore Airlines legs of the trip. So, on our connecting flight... we got a 2nd honeymoon cake. It was hilarious and crazy and Michal couldn't believe it. It was a totally different cake this time, a Chocolate Mousse, and this time we were allowed to take it with us to enjoy in Hong Kong. Woo!<br />
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We arrived in Hong Kong (HKG!) a short while later and again, so pleased with how amazing Singapore Airlines has been. <br />
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It was super easy to order an Uber, and it came in at approx $220 HKD (about $28 USD), a little cheaper than ordering a Taxi and also a little more straightforward for payment and so on. This worked out super well as I'd verified we could do this in advance from home, and it worked out a charm. The Uber ride to the hotel was quite long, maybe 45 min or so, and there were so many crazy bridges on the way. Particularly cool was all the shipping containers stacked higher than I'd ever seen. The buildings were huge and the mountains were huge. The initial feeling with coming into the city via a long bridge and seeing so many mountains and high-rises: "This is Vancouver, but multiplied by 100!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A real Vancouver-vibe!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tons of shipping containers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool designs on the money! I thought it was funny to see the money seemed to be branded with different bank logos, but all of them were valid! Funny. </td></tr>
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We arrived at our hotel for the next 3 nights, The Langham, in Tsim Sha Tsui. A beautiful rose smell hit you as you walked into the lobby... and then you saw a massive bouquet which was just glorious!!! What a nice welcome. The staff were dressed in Pink to match all the roses. Super nice spot. We got into our room and put our special Honeymoon Cake #2 into the fridge, washed our faces, and immediately took a nap for a couple of hours on the large and comfortable bed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Entrance to The Langham</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome bouquet</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feeling much more awake after a nap and a shower!</td></tr>
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After a great and very necessary power-nap, we got up and showered and felt much more ready to enjoy the late afternoon and evening. Jet Lag... psshhh. On we go! I went to the concierge and asked where to buy an "Oyster Card" (fail!) and he said... "Oh.. you mean the Octopus Card!" (Oyster Card is from London!) Amazingly, they had them at the hotel, so that was super straightforward. We got our cards and headed off through a clear walkway from our hotel to the Tsim Sha Tsui subway station. The Octopus Card was super easy to use and worked out perfectly. We got out a bit more cash and it was again so funny to see the HSBC logo on it!<br />
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We headed on the Subway to Causeway Bay to meet Nathan & Kerri Ann, one of Michal's old friends and colleagues for some drinks. The initial feeling being out in the evening in Hong Kong was less of Vancouver and more of Japan-- with the bright lights, the huge advertisements on the shops and buildings, the great subways, and the busy pace but not "frantic", it felt so much like Shibuya or Osaka. Hong Kong is so great, and was a really epic vibe right off the bat. I loved it and we'd hardly even been there a few hours! We got to the mall where we were meeting there for a bar, and walked by a super weird and awesome spot, a crazy B. Duck store?! What?! They had epic hoodies and crossovers with Mentos and Mario Bros. and so on.... seemed right up my alley... but time to meet Michal's friends so we'd check it out afterwards.<br />
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We headed up to the top floor and met our friends at the "Hooray Bar". Nathan had undersold it by saying it was "just a little patio to meet for drinks"... it had an epic skyline view of Hong Kong... and right at sunset?!?!?!?! What a score!!<br />
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The awesome wide skyline view was pretty incredible. After the sun went down... brr! It started to get a little chilly! We had a nice chat with Michal's friends (who were living there) about Hong Kong and the vibe of the place. It was not a super clear sky that night, so I asked "Is the smog bad?" Nathan said, "It's on the medium-to-bad range". It definitely felt quite a bit clearer than Shanghai was when we were there. A great chat about Hong Kong and they gave us lots of great advice and suggested we skip Macau as we only had 3 days to explore.<br />
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On the way back down the mall to the street-level, we went into the B. Duck store! I'm not sure what the deal is, but I instantly loved it. It was expensive, so I got a crazy 70% off B.Duck x The Simpsons crossover tank-top style shirt. It was insane. But I had to get it. Is is so bright and crazy... like if the show "Yo! MTV Raps" was a t-shirt and was still in the '90's where it belongs. Amazing. The girl at the cash register seemed to have some trepidation in recommending it to me (I think cause it's an insane shirt) and she made sure to warn me that I should "Check size, as final sale." haha. I bought the crap outta that shirt.<br />
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We wandered, and found some awesome phone covers for Michal. We should have bought them then and there, I figured we'd find lots more later so what was the rush?! Silly. We did however make a good decision to check out a Gap store we came across. Michal found me an amazing Year of the Rooster Gap shirt!!!! So cool!! And super special as it just so happened to be right around Chinese New Year and so this is the only time they'd have a shirt like that. Sooooo cool! Michal also found me an awesome hoodie (which was good, as it was starting to get kinda chilly outside!) It was $450 HKD -> $169 -> 30% + 10% off?! In the end it was like $8 USD!!! Awesome. I am always the shopper, it seems...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Insane B.Duck Mentos hoodie</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A plush Mjölnir</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hong Kong Apple Store!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nike Lab</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o0POH3q5CKY/WhPvbvvvAYI/AAAAAAAAv-k/I4tpnpuNIOwR067xYlYChGKIJkMHDNThQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1939.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o0POH3q5CKY/WhPvbvvvAYI/AAAAAAAAv-k/I4tpnpuNIOwR067xYlYChGKIJkMHDNThQCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_1939.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another fancy Abercrombie & Fitch!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wiiicked Year of the Rooster shirts!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweeeeeeeet</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3D5dKv0dRM/WhPvbkInRHI/AAAAAAAAv-k/nEqfIs5dr8k2guV5c8_KY0ed6VhDO8YSwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1942.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n3D5dKv0dRM/WhPvbkInRHI/AAAAAAAAv-k/nEqfIs5dr8k2guV5c8_KY0ed6VhDO8YSwCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_1942.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Haha, a hilarious "Nap" sleepwear shirt</td></tr>
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We continued on to the SoHo area of town to head out for dinner at one of the many spots I'd researched and received as recommendations from friends. We first headed to the Mid-Level Escalators, super cool and funny outside escalators. We could really use these in San Francisco!<br />
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We walked a little further and found Chôm Chôm (or ChomChom), a Vietnamese Fusion restaurant that came super highly recommended and was a favourite of visitors on Yelp. We were hungry, and it was awesome and so delicious. I started with a crazy Vietnamese Passionfruit Beer!! We started with the Beef Roll which was very tasty and not chewy (though it looked like it might be). We scarfed that down pretty quickly as we were pretty hungry. Next up, the chicken wings were excellent and just like an old favourite spot in San Francisco. Mmm... they were hot, but also crispy and sweet. A perfect balance. Delicious! Also very tasty was the corn with crackers, which was VERY spicy and also had a smoked flavour to them! That was even better with the lime wedge squeezed onto it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chôm Chôm</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pho Roll: Beef, Baby Garlic, Fresh Rice Noodle, Pickled Carrot, Thai Basil</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01Ct98deD8g/WhPy1tYbnLI/AAAAAAAAv-8/5nLu3p6OQ-YPHtpPALyQ9YhvA0GlyI0lQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-01Ct98deD8g/WhPy1tYbnLI/AAAAAAAAv-8/5nLu3p6OQ-YPHtpPALyQ9YhvA0GlyI0lQCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_1957.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vietnamese Fried Chicken Wings, Garlic, Coriander, Chillies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roasted smoked corn</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ginger Chicken: Marinated Chicken Thighs, Caramel Fish Sauce, Jasmine Rice
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Our main course was Ginger Chicken with rice and vermicelli noodles. This main dish was also great and a multitude of flavours, but was quite hefty -- we ordered just the right amount. Michal ordered a Ginger Ale... which they brought with a huge cup of ice. Michal pulled out the ice cubes and we folded the (many!) ice cubes into a pile of napkins :) We were being a little paranoid about food poisoning at certain times in this trip (eg. Seychelles actually rated as one of the worst places on our trip where you could get sick from tap water)... but Hong Kong was somewhat up there too, and it was a little silly but we wanted to go full-tilt for 3 days and end the trip on a high note, so being extra cautious about tap water/ice cubes was a wise choice. Anyhoo... what a tasty first meal in Hong Kong!! It is a pretty big "foodie" city here, and we were psyched. We had great recommendations from everyone and this place was a slam-dunk right off-the-bat. We walked happy and full back to the subway station.<br />
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On the way back, we saw our first Hong Kong McDonalds!! I love walking in to see what localization they have in different countries and Hong Kong did not disappoint! They had Red Bean Pie, "Prosperity Chicken" for the Chinese New Year, and Crayfish soup (cray!) That was awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hong Kong McD's!</td></tr>
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(Aside: as I'm writing this blog, I'm tired just thinking about how we possibly still had energy to explore at this point... a new city brings such an influx of energy, and Hong Kong truly is electric... that must have been it!)<br />
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Time to go back to the hotel and sleep? Not yet! To the Temple St. Night Market we go! We headed to see what the market was all about and what kind of stuff they had there. We saw lots of luggage tags, lots of backpacks... a restaurant on the side of the road next to the market in an alleyway selling Indian Food?! Looked dodgy. Noooope! It was a cool and crazy market. I tried to buy a cool Totoro "beckoning cat"-style nodding trinket -- I underbid the seller and he did the "dance" where he scoffed at my offer and I walked away... but I guess I offered too low as he didn't come chasing after me (as "the dance" is supposed to go!) D'oh.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temple St. Market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of electronics and phone accessories</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird signs</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This can't be properly licensed... "Star Plan", "Star Wnrs" and "Space Wars"?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karaoke Mics with built-in speaker and effects!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dodgy Avengers-y restaurant</td></tr>
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No successful purchases, but we enjoyed wandering around and decided to walk back to the hotel via Nathan Rd. We found a 7-11 near the hotel and got a couple fun things to try. I got a Pocari Sweat, one of my favourite weird drinks from Japan (it is like a Gatorade). Michal didn't feel up for trying something weird at this time of night and got an "Apple Juice"... which turned out to be chunky for some reason and was... despite all efforts... super weird!!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Envelopes for people to give money for good luck for the new year</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ooooh, 7D!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Weird Pringle flavours, Honey Butter and some sort of Prawn Cocktail</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our hotel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My awesome Gap shirt and B.Duck tank top!!!</td></tr>
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What a hugely successful first day in Hong Kong! We did lots of good walking too, especially after 16 hours on airplanes over the last day. We watched some silly late night local TV and then headed to bed. HK is awesome. :) We are really livin' it up!!! We celebrated an awesome first day in HK with some of our Singapore Airlines cake, and some tea. :)Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-76776721354465059602017-11-19T15:03:00.001-08:002017-11-19T15:06:38.755-08:00Honeymoon Day 23: Across the world in Singapore Airlines Business Class!<b>1/21/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 23: Across the world in Singapore Airlines Business Class!<br />
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And off we go on the final leg of our crazy world-adventure that is this honeymoon. Our big event of today was the trip from South Africa to Singapore, traveling on the world-renowned Singapore Airlines, and in their business class to-boot! This was part of our grand travel hacking plan and we were able to get all of these amazing flights with airline points only. We were so incredibly excited to be trying this for the first time -- both Singapore Airlines, as well as their Business Class. Yay!!<br />
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But first we had to, once again, make the swift trek from Sandton, Johannesburg back to the Johannesburg airport. We woke up at 5am again after "training" to get up that early over the past 4 days on Safari... D'oh! I tried to get a little more sleep and we got up at 7am, and re-packed our suitcases for the final Hong Kong portion of our trip. We carefully packed things that we'd collected as gifts over the past few weeks (and continents?!) and then headed down for breakfast. After a short breakfast, we headed over to Sandton City mall to look for some South African stuff, I was really psyched to check it out but there wasn't a ton of SA stuff to buy -- just a few touristy shops and many American brands! Woolworths, as always, was epic -- I loved seeing all the Rooibos tea and Biltong and fun snacks and spice mixes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun cheese and local jams at breakfast</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dried mango!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I ate like half this plate</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love Woolworths!! Very similar to Marks and Spencers in England.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Biltong at the register</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny stuff on the menu, like the "Boerie Breakfast Bun"</td></tr>
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Then, out of nowhere I started feeling a bit janked... ugh... Sprite for the win?! Not sure what was up with all of that, prob all the food and many early mornings catching up with me. Oof. Anyway I wasn't feeling so epic at the mall, but Michal was extra helpful and we headed back to the hotel a little earlier to get ready to roll and give me a moment to get back to normal. I pounded a few sparkling waters and that was a great help! Oy. A little nuts to not feel 100% on the way out, and I was SO psyched for our special flight, I really wanted it all to be OK... (this story all ended well) :) I was still a bit blergh as we headed to transfer to the Gautrain and then continued to drink a couple of sparkling waters on the Gautrain too. Glad we simplified the transportation so it was easy to get where we were going and so on. By the time we got to the airport I was starting to feel a little better, though still in waves was a little jacked. Bah!! Again, we took advantage of all the travel prep we'd done in advance and were able to use our travel credit card/Priority Pass to get us into an airport lounge for free -- where I continued to drink lots more liquids. That was awesome, and about 3 hours after the initial gross-feeling-ness it was finally dissipating. Sweet. Back in business. Just in time to shop!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the nice lounge thanks to our travel card, was good to sit in a cool area, relax, and have lots of liquids!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny pancake press/3D printer thing?! Looked fun but was too jacked to try it. Prob all for the best!</td></tr>
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Shopping in the airport was super fancy and awesome, there was a Carrol Boyes store, a shop where a guest at our wedding had bought us some super nice salad forks! There was some really cool artwork and awesome african gifts there. We loved and picked out 2 pillow-case covers for the couch as a gift from my parents (they had given us some money to spend on the trip to pick out something special to bring home -- the pillow cases were awesome). We went to a few more fun african shops and there was way more cool South African stuff at the airport for gifts and to look at than at the mall -- so, glad I was finally feeling better!<br />
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We then headed to the airplane... the GLORIOUS AMAZING INSANELY AWESOME airplane!!!! OMG it was soooooo epic!!!!!!!!!! Biz-nass!!!!!! Man, our airline point-collecting effort REALLY paid off. This was so damn incredible and was going to be a total dream for the rest of the trip (we had collected so many points that we had managed to have the entire rest of the trip be on Singapore Business class -- this trip was Johannesburg to Hong Kong (via Singapore), and then the final leg from Hong Kong to San Francisco). This was just the beginning... and oh MAN we couldn't have possibly been MORE psyched. Just upon arrival and meeting the airline staff and seeing the layout... this was easily as fancy as United Polaris Global First (and this was Singapore Business, not Singapore First). It looked insane. Oh man oh man oh man.<br />
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I sat down in my HUGE awesome seat (that would later convert to a bed!) and the steward gave me a sparkling apple juice ginger thing (the "Royal Sparkle" - a sweet mix of apple juice with ginger ale and soda) which was awesome and sure did the trick. My good luck working in my fortune again, I started feeling completely better and truly back to normal really just as I sat down on the plane. It was awesome timing... I was able to FULLY enjoy everything and all the fun food and try everything and really enjoy the "activity" for today, which was the flight itself. (whew!) The food was crazy and looked amazing. I eventually tried a little 1/2 glass of champagne too... you gotta. :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Putting up the seat divider as a joke, "Hey!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All the buttons to play with!!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the life!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey, nice Wall-E screen cap -- those shelves in Wall-E's truck/home sure have some nice models on them... :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stop the damn presses... this flight HAS MULTIPLE TYPES OF TWG TEA ON IT FROM SINGAPORE AHHHHHHH</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pac-Man!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I am SO PSYCHED</td></tr>
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Holllly crap this plane. So awesome. The food was cray and the portions and pace were a lot better and at smarter intervals than the United Polaris flight we took out to Europe at the start of the trip (less rushed -- prob because this was literally the first month of the new Polaris service, and Singapore has been rockin' this Business Class thing for a LONNNG time). We had heard (and read on PointsGuy and other sites) about how incredible the service is on Singapore Airlines... and man, it sure was. The staff was amazing, attentive, but never "annoyingly so". This was a truly perfect experience. Of course, I spilled some satay sauce from the Singapore Chicken and Lamb Satay on my t-shirt almost immediately, about 20 min into a 12 hr flight. hahaha. Classic Jutan move.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here comes lunch!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy duck breast to start: "Smoked Duck Breast on Cabbage-Apple Remoulade"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Your choice of breads, ma'am"!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garlic bread</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Lf85yrRxr0/WhIF4RebNZI/AAAAAAAAv2o/3WIp_lPOYVk8KDcI-PYuCJfL-7wmMcjYwCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Lf85yrRxr0/WhIF4RebNZI/AAAAAAAAv2o/3WIp_lPOYVk8KDcI-PYuCJfL-7wmMcjYwCKgBGAs/s400/IMG_1829.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm... beef stir fry. I chose the "Stir-fried Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion, served with Chinese vegetable and steamed rice."</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome desserts - Raspberry Cheesecake, Mandarin orange tartlette and white chocolate coconut cake</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cheese and fruit plate</td></tr>
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This was an awesome lunch and also good food to take our malaria pill with -- we still needed to take those for a bit longer. This was absolutely fantastic.<br />
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A little while later, the staff came by to wish us a good honeymoon. Michal: "How did they know?!?" I had secretly told the airline booking agent that we were traveling on our honeymoon and they had added a special note to our reservation in advance (all three flights, in fact) that I had secretly not shown to Michal. After wishing us a happy honeymoon, they came back with an awesome presentation of a honeymoon cake they had made for us in advance!!! So crazy!!!! They had a funny bubbling display in a wine glass, champagne, Singapore Airlines playing cards, and a personal note with the date on it, signed by the Cabin Crew. Truly amazing!!! We weren't sure if the "bubbling glass thing" was a drink or not, so when looking it more closely the staff was concerned I might try to drink it... "Oh, that is for display, that is not for drinking!!!" haha.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our awesome cake!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That was SO special</td></tr>
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With our amazing cake, I ordered a TWG 1837 black tea with milk. "It's very fruity" said the stewardess, "Are you sure you would like milk?" What amazing service... seriously. I couldn't believe they know each individual tea that well to be able to recommend how to drink it. Insane. What a truly amazing addition this whole presentation was to our experience -- both on Singapore Airlines and for the entire honeymoon itself! Michal was just SO surprised. That rocked.<br />
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The seat-back entertainment TV system is awesome too and had tons of great movies on it. After a slice or two of our special cake, the staff helped Michal convert her seat into a bed and she took a nap. I watched a favourite, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" again... man just SO good. I love that movie. The plane ride was so relaxing. I pressed my seat recline button (!!) and sat back and enjoyed the movie and some variety of tea and sparkling drinks. After the movie I spent time catching up on my notes for this travel journal. This was such a great movie, and so perfect to be watching it on this crazy cross-world adventure. I love the quote/theme of the movie: "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life." The soundtrack is amazing too. Probably one of my favourite movies!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nap time!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cozy</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7_HqQbBQEc/WhILN7CZQII/AAAAAAAAv3I/6y9xdzET4S8zqbV8hfnFnm_rGo62NH9ygCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1854.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U7_HqQbBQEc/WhILN7CZQII/AAAAAAAAv3I/6y9xdzET4S8zqbV8hfnFnm_rGo62NH9ygCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_1854.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can also stretch out when your seat is in bed-format with the pillows, so you can relax and watch a movie as well</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writing this Travel Journal</td></tr>
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This was so amazinggg!! ahh!!! I wrote my notes and enjoyed a very tasty Singapore Sling while doing so :) As per the menu: "Enjoy this 1915 classic -- a concoction of dry gin, Dom Benedictine, orange liqueur, cherry brandy, shaken with lime and pineapple juice, a dash of Angostura bitters and Grenadine." Fancy! I also later got a glass of Highland Park Svein scotch!!! Man!<br />
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I was clearly feeling much better now as I was trying and excited to try as many things as possible on this extensive menu. I had an Apple Bliss: "a tantalizing refreshment of apple juice and bitter lemon, mixed with 7-Up" which was glorious, as well as their super special Hot Chocolate: "A comforting mix of smooth rich cocoa and milk that helps reduce stress." It sure did!! That was absolutely delicious. They also brought me a few mini chocolate truffles to have. I went totally nuts. Lots of tasty stuff on Singapore Airlines... I was obviously feeling much better by now... thank goodness! I enjoyed it all immensely. After many hours of journaling and movies and trying all the snacks, Michal woke up and peeked over the seat divider -- "You got the hot chocolate too?!" She was not-at-all surprised that I had tried everything while she was asleep. Soon it was time for a short nap. I folded down the seat the full amount to a flat bed and had a very good sleep. Oh what a ride this was.<br />
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I woke up a little while later in time for a small breakfast of "Warm French Toasts with apricot banana compote and strawberry" which was perfect.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"How many snacks did you try?!"</td></tr>
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Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-7091953404694102532017-11-18T21:10:00.000-08:002017-11-18T21:15:10.677-08:00Honeymoon Day 22: Last day on Safari, back to Johannesburg<b>1/20/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 22: Last day on Safari, back to Johannesburg<br />
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Our final Game Drive on Safari! We got up at 5am again and had some tea and rusks before hitting the "road". It was our final game drive, but a really great one. We saw a "Knob-nosed duck" that was weird looking and then Jenni's favourite bird again which was hilarious and walked like it was on a SWAT team mission. We nicknamed it the "covert bird". After seeing some Kudu at a watering hole and a wild buffalo, we continued on our search for the Wild Dog but didn't find them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Covert" bird</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Water Buck</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wild Buffalo</td></tr>
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After the wild buffalo we continued and took a break after a little while to have some tea and chat.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A cool leaf that looks like an elephant's ears</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time for a morning break</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Practicing our tracker and ranger look</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Hold up, I see something ahead!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenni showing us a giant bug</td></tr>
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We continued on, and started seeing some Hyenas coming out of the woods... eventually we saw 3 HUGE Hyenas and 40+ vultures!! It was crazy. The Vultures were huge and sound like a plane when they are landing. The Hyenas were trying to eat an animal and the Vultures were standing by and keen to get in for some food of their own -- the Hyenas kept chasing them away and fending them off so they could enjoy the food to themselves. Crazy jungle scenario!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vultures and the moon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hyena!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vultures, looking very Mr. Burns-like</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hyena fangs close-up</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hyenas with a kill</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keeping their eyes on all the vultures who are watching them</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the lookout</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Defending their food</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another closer photo of the vultures and the moon</td></tr>
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On the way back to the lodge we saw a single nice rhino with a little tiny bird on the end of his horn. Super funny, and the rhino made some funny facial expressions as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See the bird on his horn?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bird, just chillin'</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Funny facial expression</td></tr>
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On the way back to the lodge, we were driving along and turned a blind corner and there was a medium-sized elephant blocking/crossing the road right in front of us!! It was like the elephant was a pedestrian crossing the road (or another car/truck) and as we turned the corner it saw us (and we saw him) and Jenni responded quickly by braking fast on the 4WD... the elephant trumpeted at us and hurried itself across the road the rest of the roadway, as if to honk it's own horn at us "Watch where yer goin'! I'm a-walkin' herree!!!" Jenni maneuvered the car to a safer distance away from the herd of elephants, and we discovered it was actually 2 HUGE herds of elephants together! A giant group, and like we'd seen the day before, the youngster was in the middle of the herd, being protected by everyone else. Once the huge herd of elephants were no longer concerned about us driving into one of them and stopped staring us down so hard, they chilled out and started giving themselves "dust baths", throwing dust/sand onto themselves with their trunks. Another funny practice and interesting thing to see was that they were fanning their ears, just like you might see in Dumbo! This is because the day was too hot and they were doing that to cool themselves down. So awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dust bath, and notice smaller elephants are protected in the middle of the herd</td></tr>
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We said bye to our elephant friends and on the way back to the lodge, we saw an anti-poaching airplane circling overhead, keeping an eye on the area. We headed back to the lodge for brekkie: eggs, sausage, mushrooms and tomatoes. We had some Papaya as well which was soooo good. Back to the room we went, and we saw some monkeys playing on our back patio, crazy monkeys! Glad all the doors were locked :)<br />
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We packed up our "Safari Bag" from the last 4 days of travel, complete with the fresh laundry that the andBeyond staff washed, dried, and folded for us?!?!! That was an incredible service, and very helpful on a busy trip where we had pretty limited time to find a place to do laundry. Amazing! We checked out the fun little shop at the lodge and got a cute plush leopard, seemed fitting :) We also got Michal the only baseball hat she's ever wanted, an "Ngala Safari Lodge" hat!<br />
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We said farewell to the staff at Ngala, and got a road transfer pickup again to take us back to Hoedspruit Airport (where we flew in 4 days prior). Our driver was a lady who grew up on a reserve, and she had so many wild and crazy stories for us. She said she's been stung by a scorpion -- twice!! Her description of the experience: "It's like fire in your veins for 72 hours"... oh man. Doesn't sound fun. At one point when she was younger, she tripped/fell into a hole and her arm "brushed by" one of the electrified wire poacher fences. Her description of that experience: "I took a nap [blacked out], and woke up with a burn on my arm". OMG!!!! Absolutely crazy. Her epic and insane stories continued throughout our trip. She told us she gave her Mom a lot of grey hairs when she was younger... playing outside, bringing spiders home, being much too close to the animals at times! What a crazy, epic, and unusual childhood. She had some very interesting perspectives growing up in this area on a game reserve, and we chatted about the benefits of the private reserves opening up their borders to Kruger National Park -- she said this was a "win-win" for both the guests and the animals, giving both "more room to roam"! She also discussed how there was one remaining "Hunting Safari" (who knew there was such a thing?) and that she, and the rest of the people in the area, were <i>very</i> pleased that it was set to close soon. I can't even imagine that after seeing all the beautiful and incredible animals over the last few days, of someone coming all the way here to South Africa just to shoot an animal for sport and to take a piece of the animal back with them -- that whole idea is utterly ridiculous. It sounds like it's becoming so much more out of fashion/illegal that the whole concept is no longer being supported by the local people. I'm glad to hear that.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun plush Hyena in the lodge shop</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An elephant just on the side of the road, on our drive back to the airport!</td></tr>
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We soon arrived at Hoedspruit airport and thanked our excellent driver for her crazy and wild and super interesting stories of her childhood -- one of the best parts ever about traveling the world is to hear people's stories -- this was one of those great opportunities. We got a couple of postcards at the airport and headed back to Johannesburg, this time having a much smoother ride than previously. The trip was a quick hour and then we did the old familiar thing, headed through the airport, got to the Gautrain Station, and headed back to the same hotel as we were previously at, the InterContinental Sandton Towers, right beside the Gautrain Station.<br />
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We weren't sure how the shuttle/walk was going to go this time and if it was going to be as confusing to get to the hotel as it was 5 days prior... "How are we going to find the shuttle?"... "Oh, there is is." Oh... yep, that's it! The shuttle just happened to be at the station already which was amazing. I don't think it usually went there, it seems like the shuttle kindof takes people everywhere, so that was pretty lucky. The driver was the same dude who dropped us off at the station 4 days earlier... his favourite phrase was "Numba One!" (as in "That's the best" or "That's super cool"). When we had told him earlier we were going to Kruger he said, "Ohhh, I love Kruger... it is 'numba one'!" Such a funny and excited dude, he was awesome. I told him about a few of our experiences and how awesome the leopards were and he definitely said "numba one" a few times. haha. That dude rocked.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our new plush leopard and Michal's new hat!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The runway, keep a lookout for animals!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome landscape</td></tr>
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Back we went to the hotel and I had organized with the camera rental company (which was around the corner from the hotel) to meet me in the lobby upon arrival back from Safari to hand-off the camera and lenses. That worked out absolutely perfectly -- our plane and everything was totally on-time and we had maybe an hour or two before meeting Marcus for the evening, and my time estimate for us to arrive back at the hotel was spot-on. We got settled in our new room, and picked up our larger luggage that we had left at the hotel over the past 4 days. It was a normal room this time instead of the crazy "Executive Level" upgrade like last time, but still super nice and an epic view. We showered and changed and relaxed a little and then were picked up by my Mom's cousin Marcus for a family Shabbos dinner at their home in Johannesburg. What a special and awesome trip this has been! And this was so expertly planned (if we don't say so ourselves...) that we were ending up back in JoBurg for one night on a Fri night so we could spent Shabbos with family. Amazing.<br />
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It was so nice to see Marcus and we rode home with him for Shabbos dinner. We stopped on the way in a McDonald's Parking Lot (!) to see the crazy cloud formations and Marcus explained how this type of cloud formation you would only see in South Africa. It was an hour or two away from sundown, so we got a nice call from Dov (Marcus's son) on the phone as we were driving to wish us all a Shabbat Shalom. Super nice to hear from him as well. We arrived and sat and had snacks and drinks and a nice catchup with Ilana (Marcus's wife) and everyone. Marcus showed us some recent paintings he was working on, and told us about the art classes he had somewhat recently started to take more frequently. It was so interesting and fun and just such a warm welcome from everyone... so fun to catch up, as I'd met them in 2008 when I visited with my sister, so it was awesome to share and catch-up and all get re-acquainted with Ilana, Marcus, cousin Zelda and her partner and Marcus and Ilana's daughter Candice who is awesome and looks like my Mom when she was younger!<br />
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Their cat was also SO SWEET and so whiskery and purring on Michal's lap. Awesome cat. We took a nice group photo before Shabbos started and then all sat down to enjoy a really amazing homemade dinner together. It was an amazing dinner, and literally everthing was homemade, down to the mayo and the chili sauce (Marcus called it "rocketfuel"!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool clouds</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michal and the sweet cat!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Candice, Michal, Me, Ilana, Zelda, Marcus</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marcus and I sharing and discussing lots about whisky, and Marcus showing off the "Moose" stopper that I had presented from my Mom as a gift on our 2008 visit! So fun.</td></tr>
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Marcus regaled us with stories of his youth over dinner, and it was so cool to see all of Marcus's paintings -- hard to believe this was a new hobby and not something he'd been practicing for many years. He was intently trying to paint in different styles to learn more. <br />
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We spent some more time chatting with Candi as well and she was so lovely. She is so well accomplished and it was great to see her doing so well and working hard and kickin' butt at her work. What an awesome and warm dinner with everyone, and a real pleasure to have the chance for Michal to meet some of my Mom's side of the family too. It was too bad we couldn't stay longer and weren't going to Cape Town on this trip to catch up with Ryan too, he is also awesome. I love these people!! Such a great and welcoming family and such an awesome evening. Couldn't have possibly asked for more. We headed back to the hotel in good time to get some sleep before our flight to... Singapore and Hong Kong... the next morning!! The adventure continues.Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-13704289305781893642017-11-16T20:44:00.002-08:002017-11-16T20:51:47.367-08:00Honeymoon Day 21: Baby Lions and Elephants on Safari in Timbavati<b>1/19/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 21: Baby Lions and Elephants on Safari in Timbavati<br />
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Up early again for our full day at andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge in the Timbavati area of South Africa. We were up at 5am and met for a tea and rusk at 5:30. This was a bit of a better and clearer schedule than at Simbambili and so it worked super well as they gave us a bit more buffer time to get up and dressed. And off we went, immediately to an epic morning game drive. Today was especially awesome as we got to see some baby lions and also a baby elephant!<br />
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We started off by seeing Jenni's favourite bird, which she was super psyched about and pointed out to us. Next up were some elephants, in the middle of their breakfast, as they stripped the bark off of trees and branches with their trunks! It was very funny to watch and super cool to see how they accomplished this task without hands to use. One elephant was trying to wedge his head into the tree a bit because the branch/trunk itself was not stable, and he was pulling on the branch with his trunk, so he was trying to stabilize the tree and pull of the bark at the same time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenni's favourite bird</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elephant!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taking a stroll!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another funny bird</td></tr>
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We drove for a bit longer to an open area and were incredibly lucky to see SO many lions, inclduing so many lion cubs!!!! Lion cubs!!!!!!!!! They were soooo cute and really hilarious. Given our timing in January, there were both 4 month and 2 month-old cubs there, and they were playing together... soooo sweeet!!!! They were mostly playing in the long grass so it was tough but I snagged a few photos (a few in sharp focus, at least!) The cubs continued to play and at one point the 2 month "baby" and the 4 month "older brother" were playing with sticks in their mouths!!! Oh man... adorbs. At some point one of them was trying to nurse, Mom lion had her leg up and was surprisingly very unconcerned about our presence there in a big truck! The older one went over to Dad lion who was relaxing and tried to play with Dad, who gave him a playful bat with his paw "not now!" In total there were 9 cubs, as well as 1 adult male lion (eventually 2 adult males -- the other one came by just as we were leaving) and 4 adult females. The cubs were in the grass for 30+ minutes... and then decided to come out from the long grass literally AS we turned on the car and started to drive away. But I got a few photos as they got into the clearing!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some wider view photos first from my phone, we were super close to the huge pack of lions!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little guy!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Following closely to Mom Lion</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing with a stick!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little scratch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom watching carefully</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whisker!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad lion looking intense</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A playful bat</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Play fighting</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4 month old cub</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(mini) King of the Jungle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom and baby</td></tr>
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Here's a video of the lions and their cubs.<br />
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Graham, a ranger from another one of the andBeyond lodges, drove with us today. When we stopped for a break, he told us about the Marula fruit (which Amarula is made from). He peeled a pretty ripe one for us so we could taste it, it was very citrusy. It was still a bit sour as they are not super ripe until February. Still, very cool to try it!! We also had a MochaChocaRula while taking our morning break. We saw a cool little Owelette and a Fed Air plane leaving the runway right near the lodge, and then headed back to the lodge for breakfast.<br />
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Back to the lodge, we had a nice brekkie of eggs, sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes, as well as a nice yoghurt with macadamia nut and fruit mix. It was a little warmer today so it was super nice to nap in our cool room ahhh... and then we headed to the main pool area for a dip in the pool to cool off as well as to read some magazines. The staff at the lodge suggested it was perfect warm weather for a "nice G&T" (Gin and Tonic!) and so we abided as well as getting a Kola tonic and lemonade. Mmm... that was a super nice time as well as the little hop into the pool to cool off.<br />
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In what felt like a short time, it was time for lunch (food again?!) The lunch was similar to yesterday, but this time with a crazy epic vanilla baked cheesecake with crispy edges!! We just ate a light amount as it was quite hot in the middle of the day and we didn't want to overdo it. We enjoyed it all and then headed back to the room to do some journal catchup and some more relaxing.<br />
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Some monkeys were on our patio and I got a quick video.<br />
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Around 4pm it was time to meet everyone again at the "tea" spot, to get ready for the evening game drive. But first... tea time! We had a tea and a really nice eggy chocolate cake. Eating! Allen recommended I try taking a time lapse on my GoPro camera so I tried it (but it didn't really work) ;)<br />
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First up on the evening drive was a big herd of elephants with a baby elephant with them!! Jenni explained that in general the mother will stay between us and the baby (on our side of where the baby was standing) to protect it and block it from our view. I managed to snap a quick few photos while the baby elephant was in sight. We also saw a nice giraffe as well!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Elephant!</td></tr>
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I was of course super keen to see more Leopards if possible, so Jenni and Elvis took us on a search to see if we could find some Leopards. We did eventually find one... and again... she was up a tree!! They love doing that!!! haha. It was a bit tough to get a good angle for the photo as she was straddling the trees very hilariously and doing some sort of Leopard yoga. We sat under the leopard for about half and hour as I tried to get some good photos, and we enjoyed the sunset while we were there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another silly leopard up a tree!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Realllly funny how she was perched up in the tree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leopard yoga</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Africa!</td></tr>
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After watching the leopard for a long while and enjoying that, we headed to a nice open area to watch the remainder of the sunset and have another MochaChocaRula. Those are good. :)<br />
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Our snacks today were EPIIIIIC. This was perhaps the best biltong I have ever tasted. It was soft but not too damp. It was very fresh, and cut in larger chunks. Jenni said they got it from a butcher directly. It was fantastic, and I ate like 1/2 the container myself. Amazing. Our snacks were organized into cool little metal stacking containers, "bento box" style. Also they had some awesome granola cookie things called "crunchies" that were ALSO awesome. That biltong though.... that was insane.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snack time!</td></tr>
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So that was magical. We headed back to the lodge to change and get ready for dinner... a nice romantic honeymoon dinner... with Jenni!! Our other car-mate Vikram was not having dinner this evening, so our car group was just the three of us tonight. So that was funny. We had a lovely chat and learned how she decided to become a ranger which was super interesting. She told us more details about the super stringent process it takes to become a ranger -- you do an 8-day "Walkabout" in 42 degrees C?!?!? And this is on your own with only a radio for emergencies and you have to forage for your own food and some other super crazy survival stuff. It sounded like crazy amounts of training -- no wonder we are in such good hands here!<br />
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Driving back at night was pretty crazy with just the one big spotlight.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rhinos at night time as we drove back to the lodge</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner location!</td></tr>
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Dinner was a BBQ-style and was super interesting and awesome. Ostrich Kebabs! The chef was very proud of his sauce, as I got closer and he served me some meat, he said, "You want... 'Chakalakka Sauce'?!" He paused for a moment... "Chakka-lakka!" It was so funny and he was very psyched about the sauce. It was a super delicious BBQ tomato based salsa/sauce as well as having a hilarious name. For dessert was Malva Pudding (yesss). We were tired from a long and awesome day of driving, so it was bedtime, but first a nice bath in our fancy safari room by candlelight. An epic honeymoon location!!Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-35004610295874462792017-11-16T01:28:00.000-08:002017-11-16T01:50:38.648-08:00Honeymoon Day 20: Sabi Sands to Timbavati Safari<b>1/18/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 20: Sabi Sands to Timbavati Safari<br />
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Early up for our last game drive at Simbambili (Sabi Sands) before heading north to our 2nd Safari lodge in the afternoon. The sunrise was awesome and was quite a sight to see -- that was good, because the drive a little bit less eventful than the past 2 days. We had been so lucky in the first 3 drives, so it was OK that this ride was a little quieter between animal sightings (Note: as I am writing this blog up and looking at the photos compared to my notes... it looks like we still did see a TON of awesome animals on this last drive! Just maybe a little less than all the other insane days of constant animal sightings!)<br />
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And first up... a family of Hyenas!! They were crazy but... sortof cute? Kindof reminded me of the Tasmanian Devil from Australia. They are actually somewhere between a dog and a cat, suggested Sipps. The little ones were playing while the Mama tried to take a rest. The little ones were bounding around and the Mama mostly kept snoozing but once in a while looked back over her shoulder intently to see what they were up to and make sure no one was getting into too much trouble. It was all very hilarious.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Hyena</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chillin'</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giving Mama Hyena a lick behind the ear</td></tr>
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That was really fun to see them and a few different cubs playing with each other and bouncing around. Next up, we came across a whole tree of vultures, sitting there looking very "Mr. Burns"-like.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sun is out!</td></tr>
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After more searching for animals, we took a break and hung out with a new lizard friend, while we had some more snacks (round guava slices aka "Vegetarian Salami", and rusks, and oatmeal-fruit bars, with tea) and chatted. Nice good morning break.<br />
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Continuing on... we ran into our lion friends again!!!!!!! This time, truly looking like the Kings and Queens of the jungle that they are. They were laying quite regally amidst the green grass, relaxing and taking a well-earned break, no doubt. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen of the Jungle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King of the Jungle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is one of my favourite photos of the trip. A huge, ferocious lion... just relaxed and taking it easy on a warm morning in a soft patch of flowers and long grass.</td></tr>
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What a GREAT end to the visit in Sabi Sands it was to see the lions again right at the end of the last game drive! So awesome and we felt very lucky indeed to have seen so much. I was keen that we might see a Cheetah as well, but they are apparently very shy as well and very hard to spot. We were super lucky to have seen my awesome Leopard twice in Sabi Sands, and Lions several times. Pretty awesome stuff.<br />
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We headed back to Simbambili to pack up our stuff and have breakfast, and then to change and relax for a bit.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King and Queen of mid-day naps </td></tr>
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And with that, we bid farewell to our room/the site of our previous baboon break-in, to the unbelievably beautiful and animal-rich area of Sabi Sands, and to our amazing tour guide and tracker, Sipps and Service, who had really made the experience what it was... Sipps our expert driver/guide/ranger with his hilarious jokes and expert camera advice, and Service with his incredible ability to find and track anything. Together they made us able to see so many amazing animals over just 2 short days and 4 drives. What an awesome experience. And with that, we were off! We headed out, via road transfer, from Simbambili Game Lodge in Sabi Sands, to andBeyond Ngala Safari Lodge in the Timbavati region.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Service (to the right of me), and Sipps (to his right).</td></tr>
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The drive to Timbavati was long, about 2.5 hrs. Our previous driver from a couple days before said ideally we would take a shortcut (that only maybe some people know?) but that the long way was 2 or 2.5hrs... so too bad we didn't have our same epic driver this time. Still lovely to see the scenery and the drive was generally uneventful otherwise. I looked over my photos from the first 4 drives thusfar and was overjoyed at the Lion photo you see above and quite a few of the Leopard photos from the past 2 days.<br />
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We arrived to andBeyond with a super nice welcome from Allen and Kim. Upon arrival they welcomed us and presented us with a Passionfruit Lemonade Iced Tea Drink (yes please!!!) and a cool scented towel. Fancy. A beautiful welcome and such a fancy place. We headed to our room and checked it out.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A mini-bar fridge, with everything included!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some fun snacks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More snacks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy bathtub and outdoor shower area</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherry, I think?!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool patio area</td></tr>
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This was a different vibe that Simbambili, definitely quite a bit fancier of a setting with the free (included!) snacks and drinks and so on. The cool free minibar fridge was fun and the snacks in the room were great. The front doors had no locks on them -- just a monkey-proof latch and that was it -- nice vibe that you didn't need to think about locking your door. We dropped off our stuff and got settled after the long car ride. And then, time for lunch!<br />
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Lunch was awesome, we ate in a big communal area and had an incredibly warm welcome. "C'mon, give me a big hug -- I'm your African Mama!" said the absolutely wonderful and hospitable lady who ran the kitchen and cooking area. She was awesome. She introduced us to the Chef, and made us feel immediately welcome. The setup was pretty awesome, a giant open air place with a tall, thatched roof. The food was out on the tables buffet-style, and they encouraged us to help ourselves. I had some soup to start which was great. We had a beautifully prepared lunch with salads (beet with amazing sauce and a really good avocado salad), a sliced roast, some cheese, homemade bread, and some lemon meringue with fresh fruit for dessert (YES). That was all insanely good. The basic soft drinks were also included and so I ordered a Kola Tonic and we headed out after lunch to go explore and wander the lodge.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main walkway from the dining area</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy main pool area, super clean and looked great</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Definitely coming back here to cool off later!</td></tr>
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After a nice little wander to explore the grounds, we'd worked off a bit of our lunch and headed back to get changed and head out on our first game drive up here in Timbavati! We met our new ranger and tracker, Jenni (a fearless Australian) and our tracker Elvis (whom Jenni referred to as "Elvie"). We had just eaten lunch, but this lodge is cray about the food so they served us some tea (cake and iced coffee) while we sat together in our car group and discussed the route for the day.<br />
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And off we went! Similar to the morning at Simbambili, we had a bit of a quieter drive in terms of less animal sightings. We tried hard to find some animals called Wild Dogs, but no luck. There was a couple with us from Norway, and one of them was a vet. The vet was very interested in hippos and asked a lot of anatomical and body structure questions. It was cool to have a different set of people to explore with, as well as a new set of ranger/tracker partners to guide us through this great experience.<br />
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Our first sighting was of a warthog and babies, and we also saw a Gnu/Wildebeest standing off in the distance and staring at us. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baby Warthogs!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gnu/Wildebeest</td></tr>
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Now I thought Sipps and Service were crazy, parking the 4WD and having us get out and stand on the ground around of the car once per trip to have a snack break... first-up with Jenni and Elvis... we went on a damn bush walk!!! This was a 1hr walk or so ON FOOT through the grass, where, you know... all these WILD ANIMALS could be anywhere?!?!?!?!!! This seemed insane of course, but the rangers have extremely intense training and it was clear she wasn't going to put us in any danger. That said, it was definitely a bit of a crazy feeling to be just walking in "the bush", after seeing so many animals up close -- so... we're just getting out and TAKING A STROLL?!?!? To assuage our fears, Jenni talked about all the training the rangers go through. It is incredibly stringent, something nuts like 8+ days on your own with nothing but water, and you need to survive on your own, forage for food, etc. She also brought a rifle for safety/emergencies only. She said about the rifle, "We are trained to do everything possible so we don't end up ever needing to use this." We walked along an open area in single file. Jenni showed us some plants used by the locals for medicinal use and for soap, and also picked up a huge millipede and showed to to everyone.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jenni and her emergency rifle</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just taking a stroll!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A giant millipede</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flower used to create soap</td></tr>
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We continued on to a ridge where the hippos would be in the water. We saw a few in the water, with just their eyes and snout out of the water again, like crocodiles. We walked up to where Elvis had driven the car up to a ridge, and he had set up a "Sundowner" table for us, with Amarula and snacks. He had set it up on a nice fold-out table, complete with a table cloth... in the middle of the bush!! The sunset was glorious and the vibe was very chill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drinks and Snacks!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Romance</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hippos in the water</td></tr>
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Now THIS is romantic!! This setup was a different vibe than our previous lodge, and was definitely fancier (a TABLE CLOTH?!!). Michal felt like the other place we were "going towards the animals" vs. here she felt was more "natural", and that we were just "out in the middle of it all". It did feel a bit more "untapped" in a way out here. I think that is partially because at Sabi Sands many lodges radio each other to help track and find the animals and share their locations, so you do see a few other vans once in a while. (But the benefit is getting to see so many amazing animal sightings, which is the point of going on a safari) :) Out here it felt really vast and wide open. I think as well what could have contributed to this impression was that the landscape was quite different here -- there were a lot more trees and covered areas in Sabi Sands, it felt a bit more enclosed and we went back to similar areas where we had been successful previously, to track animals again in a similar spot... whereas here felt like a much larger untamed area, it took a while to get between game-viewing areas, and we were truly out in the middle of nowhere :) Timbavati also is connected to the borderless Kruger National Park, so animals roam freely back and forth between Timbavati area and Kruger Park itself.<br />
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On that note... THE STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG absolutely STUNNING.<br />
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As we drove back in the darkness to camp for dinner, guided by our bright spotlight on the side of the vehicle, we came upon a really open area. Jenni stopped the 4WD and pulled over, and turned off every single light. It took a small moment for your eyes to adjust and then... WOW WOW WOW WOW. It was breathtakingly stunning. The stars were so bright, and the sky was lit up in its enormous majesty. You've seen stars before when camping or when out in Algonquin Park and so on, but this was a different story altogether. The landscape was so wide and so vast that it felt like you were in a real-life 360 degree planetarium. Except it was REAL. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.<br />
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We saw Venus and Mars, and Orion's Belt (it's in the Southern Hemisphere too?!) Once our eyes had adjusted with all the car lights off, Jenni shone a bright green laser pointer into the sky, which worked exceptionally well to point out the constellations. This was all truly cinematic, just magnificent, and an insanely romantic perfect moment. Honeymoon, anyone?!?!? Why yes, I think we shall...<br />
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These photos don't do it justice, but I shot this handheld and it came out this clear because the night was just THAT clear.<br />
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After that incredible experience, we headed back to the lodge to change. On the way in to go to our room, someone at the front offered us a "Mocha-Choca-rula", an Amarula Hot Chocolate... why yes, I wouldn't mind!! That was absolutely delicious. We changed and then had an epic fancy dinner by candlelight. It was very tasty, and there was also a dessert cart!!! That rocked.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our dinner spot!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Halloumi Cheese with asparagus, wild rocket, and caper dressing</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lamb Rack served with lemon, thyme and honey sauce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Churro, Marshmallow, and Amarula Tiramisu</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dessert cart!!!</td></tr>
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That was all fantastic and it was so wild to be eating such a fancy dinner out in the middle of the bushveld. Really nuts. We enjoyed it all a lot and soon after headed back to our room to get ready for bed and an early night before the next morning's game drive. This hotel was super epic in terms of services -- they had free laundry service which was very helpful given our minimal clothes for this trip! We prepped our laundry to be picked up in the morning and then headed off to sleep, dreaming of the next day's adventure.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hilarious card with the laundry -- "Occasionally hyena and baboons raid the laundry yard"?!?!!!</td></tr>
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What a day!!Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-84622386663385780572017-11-12T11:15:00.001-08:002017-11-12T11:25:09.516-08:00Honeymoon Day 19: Sabi Sands Wildlife<b>1/17/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 19: Sabi Sands Wildlife<br />
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Wake up call was at 5:00am, as the goal on safari is to do one early morning drive before breakfast and one in the later afternoon before the sun goes down. So up and at 'em, we woke up and got dressed swiftly and headed for the common area for a tea and rusk before heading out on our morning game drive to find the animals. Brrr... it was chilly this morning... very windy! We had slept with the bug nets up around the bed but it wasn't necessary really, there were no mosquitoes and no spiders either.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Off we go!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun coming up and lighting up the morning sky</td></tr>
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Right off the bat we saw lots of Impala together this time, and also a really awesome running Wildebeest.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sipps said the other animals like to eat the Impala because they have little McDonald's logos on their butts.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Running Wildebeest</td></tr>
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Sipps, our driver, turned out to be incredibly proficient with SLR Cameras and all details. At first I thought he was sharing things he'd learned from talking with other passengers over the years, but nope, it was all him.... he just knew EVERYTHING! We had googled to see if we should do a "Photo Safari" somewhere, because I really wanted to spend significant time taking photos and doing my best to perfectly capture a few moments... turns out <i>this is basically a photo safari now</i> as Sipps was so knowledgeable and also super keen to share his expertise: he shared tips for lighting, focus, ISO, f-stop etc. for all kinds of situations. He'd check in with me: "hey, make sure to change your white balance now" or "I would switch to the 100-400 lens for the next set of animals". His advice was always sound and very helpful. It became quite clear that he wasn't just an enthusiast but clearly a very knowledgable photographer himself... it came out a bit later than he owns a Canon 1DX... ahh... so he's a ACTUAL pro :) So this was all super wicked and really helped me "focus" (ha!) on the task of capturing the best possible shots.<br />
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It was odd to see the Wildebeest and the Impalas together, but sure enough they are in fact "friends". Sipps explained that they warn each other when there are lions coming. We saw the nice sunrise and I had the 70-200 on for that time as is has a wider possible aperture (it's f/2.8). Once the sun was up I switched to the 100-400 lens instead. I was finding in general that I preferred the 100-400 for this trip and was finding it more useful. It has never been so dark that I needed the f/2.8, but I was glad to have both lenses on the trip. Using the 100mm-400mm lens I was worried that I would need a winder angle than 100mm to fit everything in the frame.. but it was working out very well and allowing me to get amazingly close framing on the animals' faces. So awesome. That said... our next stop involved an elephant walking DIRECTLY towards us!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting closer to the elephant</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Incredible!!!! Watching him eat the leaves by twisting the branches around his trunk was so cooool</td></tr>
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We drove for a little longer and then spotted a rhino and a baby rhino through the bushes! That was suuuper super cool and they looked amazing and giant. Even the baby was huge. The rhino had white scratches all along their back -- this is because of how they move through the brush and trees, they get scratched up a bit. As we stopped the car to watch the Rhinos for a while, a GIANT Hyena was hanging out behind our car... a little concerning??!? (Apparently not to our fearless ranger and tracker!) We also saw the Male Rhino lose track of the Female and Baby Rhino, and then walk in concentric circles to re-trace his steps to find them, that was interesting to see.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom and Baby Rhino</td></tr>
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Then we drove by and visited mt SWEET LEOPARD again!!!!!!!! Still up in her tree and chillin', and sooooo sweet, I managed to get some even more adorable photos of her this time. OH man what a sweet huge cat!! A few more interesting things this morning too -- she had 1/2 an Impala up there in the tree, saved to eat later. It was cool but a bit gross, and smart that she wasn't leaving that food on the ground for someone else to eat! I got some super fun photos of her all folded up on herself and sitting inside a "V" of a tree and sleeping. She was sleeping so funny, it almost looked like 2 leopards as her back and tail were folded around so flexibly.<br />
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We witnessed one of the other vehicles drive UNDER the leopard sitting in the tree to get a better viewing angle. I was shocked that this was safe. Sipps joked, "It's OK for another car to drive under her. If she jumps in, it's a very easy way to clear the car!" haha. That was a joke, but ultimately we did see her wake up eventually and pounce from one tree to another branch which was SO COOL. I was ready with my camera in burst mode and it was soooo cool. Just awesome. I messed up the super-complex Canon 5D Mark III focus mode, I needed multipoint AF + AI Servo mode to have the camera auto-track the leopard as she jumped from one tree to the other. I had forgotten to change one of the settings and so my "jumping" photos aren't as sharp focus as they could have been... darn. But super happy with the ones of her that I caught when she was sleeping in the "V" of the tree.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lazy Leopard!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see her back feet here, sitting all folded up like a cat, chillin' in a tree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Having a good scratch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting ready to pounce... jumping to another branch...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Go!!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And now, relaxing again</td></tr>
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What an epic leopard.<br />
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We continued driving a bit longer and saw some more fun animals, a cool blue bird, and then headed back for brekkie at the lodge.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This little dude was funny</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lizard</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakfast time!! Mangoes and Passion Fruit... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yd74xivcuww/WgiToaKptHI/AAAAAAAAvTQ/9irwzxgmIT0IfAOaBhG-QECl35F0_J_-wCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_1258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yd74xivcuww/WgiToaKptHI/AAAAAAAAvTQ/9irwzxgmIT0IfAOaBhG-QECl35F0_J_-wCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_1258.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had the most awesome lemon poppyseed muffin possibly ever</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Given the early-morning wake up, we spent the late morning and early afternoon relaxing. We went back to our room and did a very thorough baboon check this time before entering our place, and closed and locked the door VERY quickly this time!! We did see some baboons (3) walking near our front door again.... jerks!!!<br />
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After some relaxation, we headed back to the common area for lunch. I had Peri Peri Chicken which was HOT!! And something called "Self-Saucing Vanilla Pudding" which was delicious.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The common area deck</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The watering hole, viewable from our room or the common area</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun birds in the gift shop</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our room, this time baboon-free!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Damn monkeys" -- we saw a family of them walking on the area outside our back window</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Closeup of the monkeys</td></tr>
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After a great lunch and getting changed into our safari clothes again, we headed back out for the evening game drive. First up were the buffalo, as Sipps said, "with a funny haircut"!! Soon after we also saw a Kudu up close, which was super cool.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Hey, what are YOU lookin' at?"</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pTxJqQbtMxs/WgiVt1RvS5I/AAAAAAAAvTw/xCV2n63LgC0eGsFJoXFVTBh8C5FqXE2GQCKgBGAs/s1600/_I5A8385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pTxJqQbtMxs/WgiVt1RvS5I/AAAAAAAAvTw/xCV2n63LgC0eGsFJoXFVTBh8C5FqXE2GQCKgBGAs/s640/_I5A8385.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kudu</td></tr>
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Next up... we found Zebras... and TONS of them!! Sipps explained how they have unique triangle stripes ("like a fingerprint") and how their stripes go all the way up through their hair as well. Sooo coool. It was fun to see them hanging out together and they seemed pretty tame and calm animals compared to the other crazy stuff we've seen :) After the pack of Zebras, we saw a few small and interesting birds too.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See how the stripes go up to their hair on the back of their neck as well?! Crazy.</td></tr>
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We continued driving for a bit and then came across some more Rhinos. This was particularly crazy as we got SO CLOSE to them. I was wondering if it was so close that they would charge?!? Our ranger and tracker were so professional and so chill so we took our cues from them. Sipps even took out his own phone at some point to take a close up of the Rhino right on the side of the vehicle. Crazy :) At some point, they were like,... NOPE... too close, and we turned on the car and moved away a little, but otherwise we were sitting there basically right beside a few giant rhinos. It was nuts.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey, can we get a Selfie!?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Large and in charge</td></tr>
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We continued to drive after getting somewhat stuck in the bushes (as we were wedged between a few things to get a good look at the Rhinos from a safe distance)... haha good times. We came across some Impalas and Zebras together... it was a scene that felt very "Lion King"!! So very African right now! The Impalas were play-fighting and the Zebras were literally "horsing around". It was so fun to watch.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Horsing around" -- I love the smile on the one Zebra's face!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Play-fighting and practicing their dueling</td></tr>
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The sun started to set as we moved closer to a watering hole to see some Water Buck and some Hippos. The hippos were pretty crazy animals, they were shaking their tail while going to the bathroom to mark their territory (cool but gross). They also were doing what looked like yawning, but, as Sipps explained, was stretching their jaws or was showing aggression. They were really interesting to watch, you have this idea that hippos are this fat, jolly creature, but they are kinda crazy. They were in the water and you could see just their eyes and nostrils... just like alligators!! They have an incredibly thick hide, they need to be in water a lot to have their skin stay hydrated. Sipps explained how important it is never to get between a hippo and the water in the dark -- if they get spooked they will run back to the water they feel safe in, and they move at something insane like 30 km/h even though they are 2 TONNES IN WEIGHT. Totally nuts. You don't want to be in the way of that! Seriously, they can and would easily trample you, so you need to keep your distance.<br />
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We stopped for an evening break at the watering hole and took lots of photos of the hippos and the sunset. This time our snack was dried guava cut into circles, which Sipps referred to as "Vegetarian Salami" haha!!! We also had biltong which was, of course, awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sipps explaining that we can never get between the hippo and their water</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In our Safari gear :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool Water Bucks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Yawning"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charging into the water</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hungry Hungry Hippo!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With a smile on his face!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another vehicle in the sunset</td></tr>
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That was an awesome little stretch break, seeing the hippos and taking lots of photos, and then eating all the dried fruit and biltong. What an awesome trip :)<br />
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We drove back to the lodge and saw a few more fun animals on the way back as it was getting dark, including some more lions rolling in the grass. That was intense, I was parked with my camera and then the lion was rolling around and I got a snap just as he opened up one eye to look us over. Awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Keep moving..."</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elephant with shadow (from the spotlight on our 4WD vehicle).</td></tr>
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We headed back to the lodge and had a nice BBQ dinner, but inside instead of outside as it had become too windy to have an outdoor standard "Braai". As we drove back into the camp, Sipps excitedly (or excited-nervously?!) said something to the security guard... "...Ngala?!" (which means Lion)... ?!?! Apparently there were lions at the watering hole just directly across from our common area!! Crazy stuff! We didn't see them but that's probably all for the best. :) After a lovely dinner we headed to bed (and locked the door!!!!) early to bed and ready for another early wake-up for our last Simbambili game drive the next morning.<br />
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<br />Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-3489917528007966222017-11-06T21:17:00.002-08:002017-11-06T21:43:41.790-08:00Honeymoon Day 18: Baboon Break-in and Safari in Sabi Sands<b>1/16/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 18: Baboon Break-in and Safari in Sabi Sands<br />
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We started off with brekkie on the "Executive Floor" of the InterCon nice and early. This was an excellent plan to bookend our 4 days of Safari with a night in Johannesburg on either side of the trip. We dropped our bags at the front desk and took only the camera equipment and one soft travel bag with us. Super straightforward and ready to roll! This time there was a hotel transfer bus that took us to the Gautrain terminal which was way easier than the night before, so we didn't get lost. Gautrain was again fast and super efficient to get us swiftly to the airport (hey, this place looks familiar... weren't we<i> just</i> here?!) We checked in and didn't need to check our bags, which made things even easier. We made use of the Priority Pass lounge access to access a lounge, and they had a hilarious and very fitting WiFi Password: "Rooibos"!!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fancy area at the hotel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the Airport lounge, lots of Kosher signage!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kosher label on the milk... but with Yiddish on the tag instead of Hebrew "Milchik" as in "Milk Product"</td></tr>
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We got to the checkin gate and took a bus along the tarmac to the plane. The plane was nearly as tiny as our Seychelles plane! It was a little rocky on the way up, but not too bad. Lots of clouds. We arrived a short time later at Hoedspruit Airport -- I had pictured it as a bigger place but it was small and already in the middle of the bush!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here we are in Hoedspruit!</td></tr>
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We had decided that rather than driving all the way from JoBurg to Kruger Park, we would fly most of the way there and take a road transfer to get the rest of the way. Some of the game reserves had tiny airstrips you could fly directly to, but that was more costly and had very limited schedules, so flying on these smaller SAA flights and then pairing that with a 4WD pickup seemed to do the trick for our schedule.<br />
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Our driver, Steve, was waiting there to pick us up and was an awesome fellow. We turned the corner out of the airport and almost instantly saw a giraffe!!! What?!??!! He stopped for lots of animals we saw along the way, the drive to the park was almost like a mini-game-drive! The giraffe must have been less than 5 min away from the airport. We also saw our first Impala and also some Warthogs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giraffe!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warthogs</td></tr>
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We also saw at one point a female Kudu giving birth... our driver was ecstatic. "In 20 years... I've never seen that before". Wow!! A lucky drive in, that's for sure. We saw some cows on the road as we drove the 2+ hours from the airport to the lodge. He told us stories of his village and where he grew up (in this area). I asked him what kinds of work people do, and what he did before working in the tourism industry. He said that most people are farmers, but tend to farm "for themselves" rather than making more and selling it. As we passed by some cows on the road, he said "You're rich if you have cows". The cows are not to eat, they are specifically for pulling the manual plough for you. He told us about the crops, saying that most often it was "Millies" (Corn) which is what I would have expected, but also lots of peanuts and sweet potatoes! Didn't expect that given the national cuisine -- "Pap" is a very common cornmeal-based food, but I hadn't seen peanuts or sweet potatoes specifically come up in South African cuisine, so that was a bit of a surprise to me. One comment Steve made was very telling, "If the rain is good in a season, then you know you'll have enough food." Wow. This, of course, implies that when rain is not plentiful enough, people do not necessarily have enough food for their families. The contrasts in this beautiful country are quite clear and stark, as you drive through villages like Steve's, without paved roads, and with small corner shops with corrugated metal roofs. It's very eye-opening to see how South Africa exists in both 1st and 3rd world at the same time.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cows alongside the road</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supermarket in the largest town that we drove through</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trading Store and Supermarket</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liquor Tavern</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Right before the Kudu gave birth!</td></tr>
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He continued to tell us incredibly interesting stories on the long drive about when he would go to his parents to visit them. He would arrive and this join his brother and sister to help plough -- BY HAND -- upon arrival. He said it was always very hot and very hard work. Can you even imagine that? You go to your parents house and the first thing you do is help out to plough the land so you can bring in some food for dinner... these kinds of stories really put the simplicity of life in a 1st world country into their place. We talked about traditional South African food, and I told him I was excited for my wife to get to try some traditional food, and that since my parents are South African I've had Pap and Vors (Boerewors) many times. His eyes lit up... "Oh... Pap!! That's <i>lekker, man!</i>" (That's tasty). He continued, "I LOVE Pap. Once my boss [presumably, from the travel tourism company] took me to a fancy place and I ordered very 'weak' food. A Burger. I was hungry again in 2 hours." (haha, it was so funny to hear the words he chose, to refer to food as a "weak" or a "strong" food. He seemed to rate the food on how long it would keep you satiated). <br />
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"Another time", he continued, "I ordered enough Pap for (4?) or 8 people. I said to my boss, 'Don't worry, I won't leave any of it.'... I ate it ALL." He was so proud of his story, this was really endearing. "Pap is a very 'strong' food. It keeps you full for a long time."<br />
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He also joked about eating Pap with a knife and fork (it is traditionally eaten with the fingers, and dipped into a tomato/onion sauce). "I tried it [using a knife and fork to eat Pap] once at a restaurant, also with my boss. I tried it only for a moment... and then just went in with my hands -- we laughed and laughed." Hahaha. These stories were the best and so cool. What an awesome guy to share so many of his stories with us. It was a super informative and awesome ride, I felt like he really gave us an idea of what it was like growing up in this area that we were driving through. He pointed out where he used to live and where he lives now, and also his school that he went to. There were some more cars and trucks in the larger town, I asked him if there had been any work yet to try to automate some of the farming, any machinery, etc. The cow IS the automated version. That's the only thing separating you from purely manual work. Wow.<br />
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Feeling truly grateful for the amazing Safari experience we were about to have and lucky to be able to visit here, we bid farewell to our awesome driver and arrived at our first of two Safari Camps -- this was the Simbambili Game Lodge in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve at Kruger Park. We arrived, and dropped off our stuff in an amazing room with a huge and cool balcony.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main lodge deck, looking out into the wild!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cool bird</td></tr>
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The staff welcomed us and warned us to lock the door (showing us how to lock the back door), so Baboons don't come in. From there we headed for lunch.<br />
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Lunch was incredibly tasty. We had something called "Sticky Chicken" with a sweet sauce, and some Kudu (!!) There were also some carrots in an awesome olive oil dressing and some homemade bread. For dessert was an amazing meringue passion fruit dessert?!?!?!!! Talk about starting off with a bang!<br />
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After a stellar lunch we went to go relax and settle in back in our fancy and huge room. Super cool spot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michal VERY excited about the trip</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MiniBar and fridge area where we put some snacks that we had brought</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little crazy that your deck is right out here... there could be animals walking out there any time of day or night! Elephants apparently sometimes drink from the swimming pools?!?!!</td></tr>
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As we continued to get settled we were checking out the room behind the 4-poster bed and hanging mosquito nets. Suddenly, we heard a "creaaaaak..." and the large wooden front door swiveled open... I looked over from behind the large bed area towards the front door, and as Michal is notorious for leaving doors partially open I said to her, "Hey, did you leave the door open?"... she walked the other way from me around the bed and in the most calm but definitive way she said, "OMG. It's A TAIL. There's a TAIL. It's a BABOON." He had pushed the front door, and b-lined directly for the snack bar. Dude definitely knew what he was doing. He bounced his way in and launched right up onto the counter. Michal and I (one of each side of the bed, not on purpose) both noticed him and he noticed us at exactly the same time.... he presumably didn't think anyone was in there and saw people on either side and was probably concerned about being cornered... either way, he was not sticking around. He friggin' grabbed my dried mangoes and BOLTED out the door he had come in! Jerk!!!!<br />
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This brought back so many memories of my 1992 trip to South Africa as a 10-year-old. Back then we were staying in a hut inside of Kruger Park and the damn monkeys stole my cereal and oranges!!! Jerks!!!!!<br />
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We were both a bit shocked and Michal was sooo surprised. She made a swinging motion with her finger and pointed at the 4-poster bed. She was worried what could have happened if he really felt cornered or if we had closed the door behind him! "He could have swung from the bedframe!!" hahaha. Wow that was an insane "welcome".<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Replacement mangoes!</td></tr>
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We called the front desk and a ranger lady came to our place to check it out. Seems like she had seen this often. "Oh yes, it's an occupational hazard". She asked what the monkey had stolen and I was sad he took my dried mangoes that I'd brought all the way from JoBurg. "Oh, no problem, we will replace the Mangoes"!!! Score!! That was nice, they had some more in their supply so they could replenish the ones that were stolen by that damn monkey. She said we had done pretty well as there were plenty of stories of monkeys totally trashing other rooms. "This one time, they made a mess [presumably, monkey crap], smashed all the glasses, and emptied the mini-bar"!!!!!!!!! OMG. So we did just fine with them only knicking my dried mangoes! Crazy monkeys!! That definitely woke us up and got our blood pumping, I tell you what. We were glad to be safe and that it wasn't a more problematic encounter... but all's well that ends well, right?! We let them know that they should clarify to their guests that you need to manually lock the back AND THE FRONT DOOR of your hut room, not JUST the back door!! The front door does not lock on its own... that was NOT clear, evidently :)<br />
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After all that excitement, we headed out for our first game drive!! We would have 8 game drives total -- 4 at this lodge and 4 at the next lodge. Our driver was Sipps and our tracker was named Service. They were epic and we were really in for a treat. And we're off!<br />
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Right off the bat we saw some Impala. They almost drove right by them as they are kindof a "dime-a-dozen" out here. [Side note: many of these photos that are high quality and zoomed-in were taken with the SLR Camera I rented in JoBurg. The colours are not perfect in these posted photos -- I took the photos in both RAW and JPG format so I could later edit them. I'll plan to edit and tweak the best ones after I'm done writing up the whole blog. But for now, here are some of the jpgs directly without post work done on them].<br />
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We continued and pulled up to a pack of Female and Male lions, chillin' out and laying together on the grass. I was amazed that we were getting SO CLOSE to them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"How are we SO CLOSE to the lions?!"</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Ummm....."</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And... let the photo taking begin!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rarrrgh!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rolling around like a cat!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This guy seemed pretty proud!</td></tr>
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I asked our driver how we could get so close, especially in an open-top vehicle. I remember back in 1992 when I was in Kruger Park the last time, we were in a more standard closed-jeep vehicle, and you could only look through the windows. These were way larger, "stadium seating"-type 4WD vehicles with giant engines and were open to the wild. That was certainly a surprise. <br />
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Our driver explained that they see cars like this as one unit, not as a group of humans. This is why it's very important never to stand up in one of these open-top cars as then you will look like a human to the animals :) I couldn't believe how close we were. The "cat" stretching was hilarious and what an amazing start -- already seeing lions only 10 min into the 3 hr drive!!<br />
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We continued traversing, totally excited and bewildered by the beauty of the environment. We had also really lucked out with the weather. There was some wind, but we had completely missed the giant rain storm on the morning drive... we are SO lucky with timing! Our car-mates had went out in the morning and had been totally soaked and cold all day. The weather was much cooler and a lot less buggy than expected due to the wind. This was January in South Africa (Summer), so the heat could have potentially been 40 C.... it was not even 25C and a cold breeze to keep the bugs away. What a score.<br />
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Elephant Butt!!! So huge... <br />
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Watching the elephant eat from the trees and twist the branches and leaves around with its trunk was so cool to watch. Michal was PSYCHED to see the Elephants.<br />
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And then... we continued... and... you won't believe it.... my NICE LEOPARD!!!!!!!!! Already!!!! I was really reallllllly keen to see a Leopard and you never know what you're going to get on a trip in the wild, so it was truly insane to see such an awesome Leopard and right off-the-bat. Crazy. AHHH!! Amazing... OMG. This was so cool. He (I actually think it was a "She") was up IN A TREE which is what they often do. He looked so tired, aww.... and was so sweet and lazy. Our driver told us "They are shy" so it's often hard to find them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lazy cat!!!!!!</td></tr>
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This was SO UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME AHHHHHHH!!! Sipps explained that the Leopard is very agile, even more agile than monkeys. The lions don't climb the trees as they are too heavy... whereas Leopards can even jump between trees!! They are insane!!!! This epic leopard was sitting and lying lazily in the tree for a while as I snapped a bazillion photos and every possible bracketed camera setting :) [Again, I will eventually post-process and edit a couple of my very favourite shots and bring out the oranges and greens in these photos. I also think I shot these earlier ones with the wrong white balance setting, so I'll properly post-process them at some point. For now these are just the straight JPGs, so the lighting and colour will look much better in the final edits].<br />
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My Leopard then woke up a bit and started moving around which was also insane. He looked at us directly, scratched his head like a cat and licked his back to clean himself, it was absolutely nuts and awesome.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waking up</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking us out</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yawn!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gotta stay clean!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scratching</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ain't she pretty?!!!</td></tr>
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Eventually my epic leopard decided to jump down from the tree and brought an impala kill with her to eat. Crunch!!!!!! That was cool but a bit gross. A cat's gotta eat.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming down the tree!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner time! As you can see, by this time I figured out I had my white balance settings wrong and fixed it :) (Notice the greens and oranges are more vibrant).</td></tr>
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That leopard was so freakin' awesome. I couldn't have possibly been more pleased or psyched with our first game drive, this was insane, we were seeing everything!!<br />
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Next up, we continued driving and found some male lions with a buffalo kill. Our tracker knew where to find them as they had been there for a day or so already. If they have a kill like this, they stick around the same place for a bit. I wasn't sure what the buffalo was, and so I asked Sipps, "What is that?" He responded, "A German Tourist"!!! Haha he is hilarious.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yawn!</td></tr>
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I nicknamed the male lion "Scar" because he looked VERY much like the famous Lion King character, guarding his prey and staring us down.<br />
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Then it was time for a short break. Sipps and Service drove us to an open area and we parked the 4x4. He brought out some dried mango which he hilariously referred to as "Vegetarian Biltong". They also had some tasty Amarula for us to have as a "sundowner"! I couldn't believe we just got out of the vehicle, not so far away from all these lions and elephants we had seen. "We just get out here?!?!?"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Break time</td></tr>
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We had a nice little break and then got back into the car to head out and see some more stuff before it was totally dark. We saw some vultures, and then we got to see some lions stalking... AT NIGHT?!!! WOW. It was kinda scary but so cool. We were watching them on one side of the vehicle and then were a bit concerned... "Uh... there's one on the other side of the vehicle..." :) We saw some impalas running and also some lions play-fighting as well which was crazy and hilarious! We had a bright flashlight on the vehicle that Service would shine as we drove after the sun was down.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rawrrr!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Play-fighting!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sweet looking female lion!!</td></tr>
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Whew!!!!!! Well that sure was an AMAZING first game drive experience. We got back to Simbambili and invited one of our two new friends to dinner with us. We had a nice steak dinner and invited Ashley to join us, sadly her friend Greanne wasn't feeling very well and turned in early.<br />
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What an incredible start to our 4 days on Safari!! We finished an awesome dinner and then went to bed very early, about 9:30pm, ready for an early-morning start and game drive #2 tomorrow. OMG I can't believe we saw a Leopard the first day out.Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-88226985178673808052017-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:002017-10-22T13:48:01.888-07:00Honeymoon Day 17: Seeing my 90-year old Grandmother in South Africa<b>1/15/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 17: Seeing my 90-year old Grandmother in South Africa<br />
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An early 4:30am wakeup (oof!) to get to the Praslin airport and a hearty "Orevwar" to the magnificent and magical Seychelles. We had an early flight out of Praslin to Mahe, to make the 1-per-day Mahe to Johannesburg, South Africa flight. Though early, we were extremely lucky that planes were even leaving Praslin. Our Taxi driver said that planes couldn't land yesterday or the day before because of all of the rain and storms -- one plane went from Mahe to Praslin yesterday and couldn't land in Praslin so had to go back to Mahe... and then circled for an HOUR (this is a 10-15min flight) to find a safe and appropriate moment to land back at its origin. Whew. So that would have been nuts. Our crazy honeymoon trip is planned with very minuscule room for error, so we were incredibly lucky on this timing.<br />
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On the way to the airport some crazy tourist driver was tailgating the taxi driver, racing to get back to the airport I think. They kept tailgating till our driver pulled over and then the tourist immediately sped off in front of us on the dark and windy early-morning damp roads. His car then slipped or screeched due to the damp roads and he hit a curb! Jeez! That was crazy. Our driver slowed and could tell the driver was OK (he didn't hit a tree or anything, just rammed into a curb) -- and then called his buddy who owned the car rental company to tell him about it. That was insane.<br />
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Anyway! After that excitement we got to the airport fine, with our nice packed breakfast from the hotel. The airport was entirely closed on arrival but soon opened up and we sat in the nice Air Conditioned waiting area.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone (us included), just waking up. Waiting benches to check in outdoors!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Packed breakfast provided by our epic hotel! Yes that is a passionfruit to-go!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little gecko in the bathroom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jewelry shop</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coffee shop</td></tr>
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The Praslin waiting area was cute, just two shops -- a souvenir/coffee shop and a jewelry shop. It was so early and they were just opening up. The Coffee Shop guy made a coffee and walked it over to the Jewelry shop girl! Very fun and fitting hospitality for the small island of Praslin.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Off to Mahe!</td></tr>
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We headed to our plane and it was again a De Havilland plane labelled "Made in Canada"! Nice. The ride to Mahe was much smoother this time than the way to Praslin. We are so lucky we didn'y try to leave over the past 2 days! It was super smooth and we arrived and then checked into the Mahe International Terminal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Open cockpit again, you can see the pilots driving the plane!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Orevwar Praslin!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back in Mahe</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Baggage Claim" -- a metal window where the walk the bags over from the plane and push them through!</td></tr>
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The International Terminal departures section was quite a bit bigger than the arrivals we got into last week from Paris. It was also gloriously Air Conditioned which made for a nice relaxing couple hours as we waited for our plane to South Africa. We headed to Duty Free to use up our remaining Rupees and Euros... Takamaka Rum!!!!!!! We went nuts and got a few bottles, some small ones for gifts, and a regular sized one to take home and share with friends. I also got the Takamaka 8 year "St. Andre" aged rum to share with my buddy Frank at some point. We hung out in the store for a bit and got a few nice gifts and some SeyTe tea as well. We were tired from the early morning wakeup but quite relieved at the relative simplicity of this travel day compared to what we could have dealt with had we left a day or two earlier. And now... off to South Africa! What a trip!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Amarula Elephant greeting us on arrival!</td></tr>
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Arriving in SA was straightforward and customs was fast. Again, with quick turnarounds and tight schedules on this trip, we were pretty organized when it came to having a plan about transportation. We had arranged in advance to stay near the relatively-new "Gautrain" train system, something SA was still building during my previous trip there in 2008 and was completed for the World Cup Soccer match in 2010. It had tons of security, was super organized, and quite pricey as far as things tend to go in South Africa (something like $15 USD one-way). We headed through the terminal towards the Gautrain and then as we were getting closer saw that the next train left in 6 min... go go go!!! We swiftly bought our tickets and got onto the train just in time. I chatted with some fellow on the train who was also just coming back from a glorious trip to a fancy island -- he was coming back from Réunion Island. I told him about our plan for Kruger Park and where we were staying, "Oh, those private resorts are great!" he said as he was pretty familiar with the area up north. We are definitely in for a treat on this trip... Michal is even MORE excited for this part of the honeymoon. :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gautrain!</td></tr>
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The Gautrain was quick and on-time, and we arrived at Sandton Station near our hotel in 20 min or so. Of course, then we proceeded to get completely lost on the way to the hotel. We asked someone in the bus station how to get to the hotel (It is around the corner from the Gautrain station... should be a 5 min walk!). The attendant asked us "Are you OK to walk?" as if we were the first people to ever ask how to walk there (we only had 1 bag of luggage each!) We learned why as it was reasonably warm outside and we proceeded to get super lost on the way there. We went outside and wandered for much too long, and then asked some fellows at a hotel we ran into on the way how to get there. They pointed us back into the Mandela Square area, and then we headed into the indoor-mall. We asked a bunch of people in the mall where our giant well-known hotel was, and NO ONE knew where it was!! Haha that was an epic comedy of errors. The mall was literally ATTACHED to our hotel (InterContential Sandton Towers -- it's a business hotel attached to Nelson Mandela Square), but no one seemed to have ever heard of it. Haha, that was insane. I referenced one of my Dad's famous jokes, "Don't ask me, I just work here!" After much exploration in the mall, we found the walkway to get to the Conference Center/Hotel and checked in. Hooray!<br />
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Upon checkin we heard those magic words, "You've been Upgraded" (sweet!)... "to our Executive Level"... sweeeet. They gave us a nice juice at the front desk but then we continued up to some high floor checkin area and we got an upgraded juice at our 2nd checkin.... Appletiser and Grapetiser!!!!! These are my favourite sparkling apple and grape juices from South Africa and I was keen to make sure Michal got to try them... and we got them FREE at CHECKIN. YES!!!!!!! So this was crazy royal treatment and we headed to our room which was super high up in this giant tower. We arrived to find fruit and wine in our room on arrival. Truly a red-carpet welcome! I was concerned about getting some food in me as I needed to start my Malaria pills asap since we were headed up to Kruger Park the next day... but first, gotta go meet my camera dude!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Whoooa we are high up!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An amazing view of Johannesburg... this room was crazy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Totally insane upgraded room, this was amazing</td></tr>
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I had arranged in advance to rent an SLR camera from a rental agency in Sandton that was just around the corner from our hotel. The dude showed up exactly on time and I headed downstairs to pick up all of the equipment. The plan was to leave the large bags here in the hotel the next day and take just a short-term bag with us on Safari, along with the heavy camera equipment. I rented from the stellar company A Lens For Hire (<a href="http://www.alensforhire.co.za/">http://www.alensforhire.co.za/</a>) and Peter treated me super well there. He helped advise on what types of lenses I might use and provided everything in pristine condition, 2 batteries, chargers, lenses, lens hoods, strap, camera case, camera lens cases... the whole thing. All I needed to bring and leave with was a 64Gb CF card :) Since we were on our honeymoon he extended an awesome deal and gave me a great discount on renting multiple lenses.<br />
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Here's the "kit" I decided on for the safari was this, after much research:<br />
<ul>
<li>Canon 5D Mark III body, battery, charger, etc</li>
<li>Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM Lens</li>
<li>Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens</li>
</ul>
Super epic stuff! My buddy Dave at work has the Mark 3 and so he let me borrow it in advance of heading to South Africa so I could familiarize a bit with the complicated focus modes and autofocus methods (which are kinda crazy complex). So all of this was perfect and we were ready to try to get some great animal photos on Safari!<br />
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And now it was time to eat something and take our malaria pills... how about... High Tea?! This epic "Executive Floor" had it's own included lounge area and a super sweet waiter too. The High Tea was available for many hours per day "as you like" and was super convenient as we needed some food swiftly to take our pills. The dude was super nice and there was a free cocktail hour thing later. We were going to be meeting up with James and Dané later and I was hoping they could get a chance to check this out too. I asked him "Would it be OK if we bring some family to the canape and cocktails later?" They weren't staying at the hotel and so I wasn't sure what the hotel's policy would be for guests. His response was hilariously unexpected. He said, starting off very seriously.... "You know... we don't have Apartheid anymore in South Africa..." and then his face turned to a huge jolly smile, "There's no discrimination! All are welcome!!" What an unexpected response and such a funny fellow, he continued to joke and make us feel very comfortable and brought us some awesome high tea food and teas. Malaria pills: check!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lounge Area</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"High Tea Menu"!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quite a spread!</td></tr>
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We had a quick shower and got ready to head to see Granny. This would be the first time Michal was going to meet my Grandmother and one of the key reasons for choosing to come to South Africa on the honeymoon so we were hopeful and nervous that the visit would work out smoothly. Thankfully, my awesome cousin James and his lovely wife Dané arrived and had expertly organized everything. I had only "met" Dané via Facebook thusfar as well so it was great to meet in-person as well: a super sweet and awesome newly-wed couple!<br />
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James drove us to Granny Leah's new place where she had moved to since my last visit in 2008. She had recently turned 90, on October 31st the year prior (2016). It was so, so, so lovely to see her. We arrived, parked and walked in to find her up and quite alert. She was at first a bit quiet, but was just "taking it all in", and was so happy to see me. My parents had been priming her about this visit during many Facetime calls every other week in advance for a few months, so as to prepare and remind her that our visit was happening. What an awesome opportunity for Michal to meet her. It was a very nice visit.<br />
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We chatted for a little bit and Granny had a bit of food that the nurses had left for her to have. We chatted and soon set up a Skype with Mom and Dad, and then with Norm and Glenn and baby Kayleigh. Granny's face lit up when she saw the baby!<br />
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This was a really meaningful visit, and we had such a nice chat. I showed her our wedding program that I had brought along with us, and read her some portions of it, including the dedication we made to her (that she was unable to travel to the USA for the wedding but that she was in our thoughts during our special day). I brought it up close so she could see the style of the writing and how the program was laid out. A few months before, James had played our wedding ceremony video for her on his iPad (I had uploaded it to YouTube as soon as we got it from the videographer, so that he could more easily access it in South Africa) -- so she was familiar with our ceremony and the event. My parents had also told her lots about our wedding over many Facetime and Skype chats.<br />
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James was such a mensch and so supportive. It was a tough visit for us to make but a really nice benefit (and one of the main reasons for) choosing South Africa as one of the stops on our trip. Her room location itself was much nicer, brighter, and cleaner than her old spot where I visited in 2008. Of course then she had her own unit and kitchen (and cat!) and could still do a lot of her own cooking which she enjoyed, but given that she needed significant more help now she was clearly in good hands. The staff was lovely. This place was bright and had lots more windows than her previous place.<br />
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Michal had a chance to chat with Granny as well and for Granny to get to know her a little. Granny said to my parents afterwards how sweet Michal is and how she is a "perfect match" for me. :) The end of the visit was of course very hard. I knew my visit was representing my Dad here in South Africa and in a way I was also acting as stand-in for him on this "goodbye" visit. We had such a nice chat and she was so happy to see us, and yet also I knew leaving was going to be hard. I sat down with her quietly at the end of the visit, held her hand, and wished her well, wished her relaxation and happiness, and how lucky I felt that Michal had this chance to meet her and that she could meet Michal. We had a few last hugs, kind words, and a little wave as I left, turning the corner and walking down the hallway with tears streaming down my face.<br />
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(Note upon typing up this blog post on 10/22/2017): <i>My special Granny Sarah Leah Bates (z”l) passed away only a few months after this January 15th visit. We didn't know at the time how much longer we would have to speak with her after this visit, and were hoping desperately that she would be well enough for this visit. My parents said that her energy and attitude were the best they had been in about 6 months at the time of our visit. Both while during the visit, and also in hindsight, we feel extremely lucky that we had this chance.</i><br />
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As if reading my mind, James had a plan for after the visit. He took us to a South African grocery store to look around and buy awesome sweets and snacks. Literally the most perfect thing we could do after such an emotional and tough visit. Such a well organized visit and I'm super grateful for James's foresight.<br />
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At the grocery store we got some Biltong (the legendary South African dried beef jerky), of course. We tried some weird "Cream Soda milk", some chocolates, and more Appletisers of course! We got some nice treats to try then and there (good comfort) and then headed back to the hotel to drop off the huge camera and go to the canape hour before heading to dinner in Nelson Mandela Square.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So much Biltong!</td></tr>
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The canape hour was great and our fun server was there again and happy to see us. He brought us some wine and some snacks to keep us going before dinner. That was fun to be able to have James and Dané there with us to enjoy it too.<br />
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We headed down after that through the maze of the mall that we had somewhat traversed earlier that morning, to go to a restaurant called The Butcher Shop that Joreg, the General Manager of the Raffles Praslin, had recommended. He used to work at this same hotel we were staying at, the InterContinental Sandton Towers and was there for many years! So when we told him we were off to JoBurg after Seychelles, he immediately recommended The Butcher Shop and said we had to go there. It was a solid recommendation as the meat in South Africa is still second-to-none with just about the entire rest of the world! I asked our server for a recommendation and he suggested the Sirloin on the bone. It had an amazing flavour, and was very soft and delicious.<br />
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Making sure to tick all of the necessary boxes for a new visitor to South Africa, we got some Boerewors (the best South African sausage) for an appetizer! The sauces were also fascinating and very different than anything I had tried before on previous visits. "Peri Peri" was a hot sauce, kindof like a BBQ sauce (and the name was familiar from the advertising for Nandos in London). We also tried the Black/Green Pepper sauce, which was very good and is more of a "standard" South African sauce type. We also tried a sauce called "Monkey Gland" which is a very unappetizing name for a very delicious sauce! It is a combination of Mrs. Ball's Chutney, Worcester Sauce, and a few other ingredients. It was tangy, sweet, and so good. A perfect combination with these incredible steaks. As per James's recommendation, we also got out steaks "basted" which I think means they added some more sauce to it as it was cooking.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boerewors for an appetizer!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sirloin on the bone with black pepper sauce</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michal got a "lady's cut" of the Filet Mignon with the crazy "Monkey Gland" sauce and a baked potato</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Verrrry exciting</td></tr>
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We had an awesome dinner together and had a super interesting chat about South Africa vs. the United States. I always truly enjoy those types of conversations with folks who have grown up in another country, as you get a totally different perspective on things you think are normal. We covered some pretty intense topics: healthcare, social issues... it's always so interesting to have these kinds of conversations with people who had a totally different history to you. This was all amazing and a great end to a pretty bustling day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Malva Pudding</td></tr>
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We finished off with a Malva Pudding (just to try it!) and said farewell to this nice couple before heading back to our room to get packed to head back to the airport the next morning. I called Mom and Dad to chat more about the visit with Granny while Michal napped. And then we packed up our "safari bags", ready for the upcoming adventure the next morning. Our plan in South Africa was mostly to spend time in the Kruger National Park, but since I have family in Johannesburg, we slotted in some well-orchestrated plans to see folks on either side of the Kruger trip. Since Kruger is very far from Johannesburg (some 6-8 hrs of driving or so), we decided to stay in JoBurg for 1 night on either side of the safari trip, and would leave the large majority of our clothing at the hotel the next morning... then head to Kruger for 4 nights... and then come back to the same hotel to stay for 1 more night before heading on to the final country of our honeymoon. This "buffering" was a great plan and made for a much more relaxed plan -- though as you can see we still crammed in 1000 awesome visits and adventures in this short time.<br />
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The staff at the hotel outdid themselves again, as we returned to find rose petals "Enjoy!" and some snacks and wine waiting for us, as well as a familiar chocolate on our pillow (memories of Switzerland!) to help encourage us to efficiently pack our safari "go bag" and all the camera stuff. Onwards! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some fruit, chocolates, carrot cake, plus dried fruit and dried mango! And of course, some Biltong!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sufficient snacks for the trip -- Appletiser, my favourite (and my Mom's childhood favourite) chocolate bar Cadbury's "Top Deck", some fruit sticks, and BBQ snacks, some Maynards gummies that I'd already opened at this point, a recommendation from James: Lunch Bar and Chocolate Log, and a South African Kit Kat, as well as the must-haves: Dried Mango, 2 packs of Biltong, and some Droëwors (kindof like a cross between Biltong and Boerewors)</td></tr>
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<br />Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-5578301354467188282017-10-16T00:28:00.000-07:002017-10-16T00:30:20.720-07:00How to help the NorCal Fire VictimsThe last week has been horrific here in the Bay Area, with the news on non-stop reporting terrible stories of people losing their homes, and even their loved ones, to the fast and far-spreading fires that have ripped through the Santa Rosa, Napa, Sonoma and Northern California region.<br />
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I've personally been keen to help in some way, but keep hearing reports that the shelters are already full and don't need any more clothing or food donations. Thankfully, support efforts are super organized and there are some great resources here to figure out what you can personally do to help. Yes, some organizations are full of clothing and supplies but still need monetary donations, some still need supplies, and some prefer Gift Cards they can distribute to evacuees. There is also info here on how and where your volunteer help would be well appreciated.<br />
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Lots of info here: <a href="http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/How-To-Help-North-Bay-Fire-Relief-Efforts-450142573.html">http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/How-To-Help-North-Bay-Fire-Relief-Efforts-450142573.html</a><br />
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A very organized and kept-up-to-date Google Doc from the Petaluma
Fire Dept here with info on which shelters need monetary donations, who
needs gift cards instead of clothing, etc.<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/14ZhXDNaL260p5OempaFbCrsYBe_5pvNvDqV7xcwn95s/preview"><span class="text_exposed_show">https://docs.google.com/document/d/14ZhXDNaL260p5OempaFbCrsYBe_5pvNvDqV7xcwn95s/preview</span></a><br />
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On there I learned some really cool stuff, like the well-known Food
Truck event organizer "Off the Grid" has a GoFundMe page where they've
already raised $30,000 and are feeding evacuees and first responders
with Food Trucks already. Awesome idea. <br />
<a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="async" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gofundme.com%2FHelpOTGFeedNoCal&h=ATM03zt89ya8wEFlTs_fNpzvt_cFSe7rVbgnqhKlJzgTYESuS_xW_fv8XolmOgwJ2EQhcarFQzb39DIyC8B-0iZKBgdvFXU9MRGZmiQU2ONzE6cZNJJb2BIoXGxwTJhLWz69WgbfubZ1_mhaf5lRT_A7XOCsD04zWJH4aiFlvso2zEA9Wptin5VvmaswEo7ar0hAI11qlVhUx9nTyBemzj9n_ldyCg-JZAfIDI5S6vSd11Xvl5t6YNmVddSVu135_8LvoBvDEfIWgVoll8g3qete4qpuIIPc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.gofundme.com/HelpOTGFeedNoCal</a><br />
<br />
More here: <a href="https://socofirerelief.com/">https://socofirerelief.com/</a><br />
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To all the evacuees and victims of this horrible natural disaster: may the kindness and compassion of your neighbours and strangers -- your fellow human beings -- bring you hope and peace in this madness.</div>
Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12401045.post-79581657952588851992017-10-12T01:56:00.001-07:002017-10-12T02:11:46.878-07:00Honeymoon Day 16: Valle de Mai national park, Indian Ocean Rum and Indian Food<b>1/14/2017</b> <br />
Honeymoon Day 16: Valle de Mai national park, Indian Ocean Rum and Indian Food<br />
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It was quite a rainy day yesterday so it was still a bit damp this morning but finally not pouring! Wahoo. Hopefully our plane will be able to leave tomorrow... anyhow, on we went to start our last day in the glorious Seychelles. We had the last Breakfast Buffet, and of course got our favourite noodles again! I tried some of the Oatmeal with Calamansi marmalade this time. They had HUGE passion fruits (yes!) and I had a bunch of other fruit again, of course.<br />
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That was great and gave me some good energy to get out on the water and do one last snorkel. The weather was nuts yesterday so it was a bit calmer today at least. It was still cloudy and harder to snorkel, but I found a good spot between the rocks and a nice group of big white fish. That was great and I only slammed my knee on a rock twice! This was one of the best Snorkeling days -- tons of fish today!<br />
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Here are some photos and video of the last day of snorkeling in the Seychelles.<br />
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We had spent some time sitting at the main pool at the hotel but hadn't really spent much time in it, and it is a fancy infinity pool so we wanted to give it a shot. I did a "godzilla" impression in the pool, walking like a monster in the pool while carrying Michal... haha. Maybe more like King Kong?!<br />
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We weren't sure if maybe we should just chill on our last day or if we should schlep a ways into the island to see the famous Valle de Mai national park. We asked our buddy at the pool, "Should we go to Valle de Mai?" "Absolutely, it's perfect!" "Ok!" So that was that! We got a drive there from the hotel to make sure we'd have enough time there and would figure out our way back afterwards.<br />
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It is a famous park and was a very lovely walk! It was less humid today due to the crazy rain yesterday. We started off the hike seeing the famous Coco de Mer Palm Tree "double nuts" which was pretty funny. <br />
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As you can see from the Coco de Mer "double nut" Seychelles continues to live up to its reputation of being the "Garden of Eden". The nut is shaped like a women's legs and hips (ok, it looks like a crotch) and this nut is from the female Coco de Mer. The male Coco de Mer palm has a long stamen-like piece hanging off of it. Yep. Funny and kinda crazy!<br />
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The Valle de Mai is also known for the rare Black Parrot, we briefly saw some flying and also heard their call a lot which was cool. It said the long-version of the walk was 1.5 hrs, and we powered through it in something more like 50 min? Probably due to less humidity today, it was easier and more enjoyable of a walk than it would be on other days.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giant trees!!!</td></tr>
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The walk was awesome and quite relaxing with a light wind blowing the trees and the Black Parrots calling. Very cool. We were lucky to get to do this walk out of the rain, but the trees were so giant and had such a huge canopy, I suspect we would have still been reasonably dry even if it was raining. On our way back to the front gate area, we saw some of the really crazy "Socket" root systems -- the trees have a set of roots that plugs into this sort of socket thing on the ground. It was cool, and again, kinda nuts!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crazy tree root socket</td></tr>
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So that was totally amazing and we were super glad to check out the national park. Rather than calling a hotel taxi or something like that to get back, we walked down the road and waited for the bus for a bit with an 8 or 10 person group of Italian tourists. It was quite funny to watch them trying to decide whether they should wait for the bus or give up, we didn't understand their language but they were clearly having the same debate that we were. Eventually they gave up and took a group cab when some dude drove by in a large mini-bus and offered to take them back for a somewhat exorbitant price. It was a Saturday so the buses were on some sort of weekend schedule, though you got the feeling that the "schedule" in the Seychelles was just an estimate at best.<br />
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We were sitting for about 20 or 30 min and finally decided after much debate that we'd give up and start walking to the main street where we could go to a shop or two and then wait for the bus there instead. Michal said she figured the bus was going to show up the second we left. Sure enough, just as we gave up to start to walk towards the shops... not 1 minute later... it started raining AND the bus showed up!!! We were no longer in the bus stop but I waved him down and thankfully he stopped. I was excited to take the bus again and practice my "Devant!" yell when we wanted the driver to pull over at the next stop.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from the bus</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A corner store we drove by</td></tr>
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Back we went to chill in the room for a while, write some postcards, and do some chillin'. We got a greek salad with passion fruit dressing! That was awesome. And one more jump into the plunge pool on the deck of our epic room, relaxing and enjoying our epic view for the last night there.<br />
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We got ready for dinner and first headed to the Danzil lounge again (the place that had the amazing Singapore Sling and Praslin Sling). Tonight I tried something new and very exciting on their menu, the "Vanilla Islands Rum Tasting"!!!!!! The bartender dude was SO psyched to show off all of their rums and to teach me all about them. It was so fun and such a great experience. He was really proud that they were offering this tasting now and took a good 30 minutes with us to explain in detail everything.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Here is some things to smell, this is not for eating" -- Vanilla Bean, Brown Sugar, Orange Peel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3 tastings and truffles to go with them!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exciting!</td></tr>
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First he explained to me "Rum" vs. "Rhum" -- one is made with molasses and the other with sugar cane. I had no idea there was even a difference, I thought one was just a different spelling! He explained to me the rating system: Unaged, VS, VSOP, XO ("Extremely Old"). There are no age-statements, but Rum is labelled similarly to Cognac (you see Cognac "XO" frequently).<br />
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It was so fun to try these, and to smell all the "smelling items" he provided first: orange peel, cinnamon bark, vanilla bean, coffee and brown sugar. He said these represented the flavours I would be able to smell and taste in the rum itself. Apparently, rum is also always Oak Barrel-Aged. As with Whisky, older is smoother. I had 3 tastes to start.<br />
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#1 was from The Seychelles, Takamaka 8 year St. Andre. It is the fancy aged version of the standard Takamaka Rum you get everywhere in The Seychelles. It had strong vanilla and cinnamon notes and was delicious. This was my favourite of the three tastings.<br />
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Next up was Savanna 7 year from Réunion Island. This one had a much stronger taste, and definitely had strong notes of coffee grounds. This one was quite intense! <br />
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The third tasting was Chamarel from Mauritius. It had more of a brown sugar flavour, a broader taste, and was less sweet.<br />
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Here's my epic setup with the bottles to look at as well. What fun! And Michal's cocktail on the side there. :)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Hmm... tasting notes of nuttiness..."</td></tr>
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Amazingly, our dude was super epic and loved my enthusiasm for this, and I also think he hadn't had the chance to present the rum tasting to too many people quite yet, so amazingly he poured me a small taste of the Chamarel XO, the old version of the Mauritius one!! Amazing.<br />
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So this was all amazing. He was psyched about my interest and after I was done the tasting, he brought out and showed me the fancy bottles they have of other interesting Rums from around the world. I have to imagine it's quite hard to import things or ship things to The Seychelles so he was quite proud of his collection here at the bar. I gotta say I was blown away by the variation of all of these different rums and also that it was possible to try so many things from tiny islands like Réunion! Once in a lifetime opportunity, indeed. As we were wrapping up, he had a funny pineapple-flavoured rum that he thought was very interesting and he brought a little for me to taste. So good!! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example of of of their other crazy fancy rums, Ron Zacapa XO from Guatemala</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our bartender buddy proud of his excellent rum selection!</td></tr>
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That was insanely fun. What an experience!<br />
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After that super enjoyable time, we headed to dinner by the pool... for Raffles Praslin's Tandoori Night!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! The setup was amazing, what an arrival, with the lanterns up and the tandoor cooking. It smelled like a friggin' dream.<br />
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The hospitality was again first-rate and a bit unbelievable in its epicness. We had just put our stuff down and were checking out the food and the pastry chef came up to us, "My friend told me you loved the Bananas Flambe at the Creole BBQ a few nights ago. I will make it for you when you like." OMG. It was definitely NOT on the menu or anywhere to be seen, he was definitely just going to whip it up specially for us. I was astounded. So, that's the vibe we're rollin' with! Amazing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"I heard you guys loved the Bananas Flambe..."</td></tr>
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But first, dinner! We headed over to the curry station and the selection was incredible. Salads, Pav bhaji, Tandoori fish and chicken, and made-for-you-on-the-spot Naan!!!!!! Oh man!! That was such a cool process, I've never seen it made so up-close. I knew it was made by sticking the dough to the side of a tandoor but SUPER cool to see it!! So fun to see how they "Garlic" a Naan to make it a "Garlic Naan" -- he asked me if I wanted Garlic and I said yes, and so he brushed it with butter and sprinkled some garlic on and then put it in the tandoor like the regular Naan. Voila, Garlic Naan!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salads</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pav bhaji -- bun and veggie curry</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Start off light, lots to eat tonight!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparing the Naan</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sticking the Naan to the side of the tandoor!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ohhh man that was good!</td></tr>
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For the 2nd round, I got their Butter Chicken (sortof like a sweet tomato sauce version of a Chicken Tikka Masala), as well as trying their Paneer curry. And more Garlic Naan, of course! This time I spoke with the chef at the Naan station more and I had lots of questions for this interesting process to create one of my favourite foods. "How does the Naan stick to the side?" He said a consistent temperature is needed to make the magic work. "Does it ever fall off?" Apparently, yes! And my most burning question, "How did you get these huge Copper Tandoor ovens to Praslin from India?!" The said they were able to ship it over, (I suppose Seychelles is in fact on the Indian Ocean...) and that the chef ordered it all specially from India to make sure he could create dishes in Seychelles the same way he made them at home in India. Totally epic.<br />
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That was super amazing. We ate like crazy and enjoyed it so, so much. The food was magnificent and truly perfect, but with all the Naan and curries we were starting to get FULL. But time for dessert! And we had to try some of the special things here. I tried these little doughnut things that you sometimes see in Indian restaurants... last time I tried them I recall they were too sweet but here they were way better than the previous ones I've ever tried! I asked the chef what the ingredients were in the stringy doughnut thing and, he said "Fried yeast, flour... and sugar", pausing after saying sugar, he said "Otherwise it has no taste". I also had a glorious Pistachio Saffron Profiterole.... seriously. This place is legendary. I also tried a bread pudding thing and a date "halva"?! Nice. There was also a melted ice cream-y drink thing with fruit in it! Whew! So I know we said we were full, but with small portions we managed to try a lot of the interesting desserts.<br />
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And finally, the piece-de-resistance...<br />
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The final touch....<br />
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The awesome pastry chef brought us our Banana Flambe dessert with vanilla ice cream. These local bananas are so sweet and so good, and the rum sauce is MAGIC. We were so full, satisfied beyond belief, and overwhelmed with joy at the kindness and dedication of the staff and chefs and everyone here. I couldn't believe they made us the dessert... and they made one for each of us, at that!!!!!!!! That was SO nice. <br />
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We headed back to our rooms, completely STUFFED and packed up our bags for our very early morning flight tomorrow. Amazed and astounded by the magic of Seychelles, we went off to bed and dreamed of garlic naan and fried bananas in rum sauce.<br />
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Mike Jutanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13692386796675585659noreply@blogger.com1