We spent about 10 days total in Buenos Aires and still feel like we didn’t even come close to seeing the entire city. There are so many cool neighborhoods and places to see the city will definitely keep you busy. The first half of our visit was spent in the Recoleta neighborhood and the second half was in Palermo. We would definitely recommend the Palermo neighborhood over Recoleta because there are a lot more restaurants nearby and it seems like the happening place to be. Recoleta was nice because it was near some of the main sites and really close to a subway line.

At first we weren’t so sure about Buenos Aires because it seemed that too many things were going wrong. First Kristin’s checked bag was lost but was eventually delivered at 11:30pm that same night. Second we were majorly scammed for the first time on our trip. We needed to change money on a Sunday and had been reading that the street exchange rate is a lot better than the exchange rate that a bank will give you so we headed to Florida street where it was recommended by our host to exchange some USD to Argentinian pesos. As you are walking down Florida street you pass people offering you to change money. We ended up selecting a pair of seedy looking dudes to exchange money with. We then walked away from the main street and gave them $200 USD and we got our Argentinian pesos. After Dan and I walked away we had a bad feeling about the transaction and lo and behold when we tried to use the money the cashier took one look at it and new it was fake. We basically bought Xeroxed copies of pesos!! YEA! At first we thought about throwing the fake money away or maybe lighting it on fire but decided against it and will be bringing it home as a souvenir and maybe figuring out some way to use it.

After getting over the initial ass kicking that Buenos Aires provided we ended up having a pretty good time. Buenos Aires is famous for their Parrillas which are restaurants that serve all kinds of cuts of grilled beef, lamb, sausages, and chicken. They usually have an open kitchen where you can watch the meat being grilled. These places are everywhere so we ended up eating at a few different ones during our stay. You really can’t go wrong with some delicious grilled meat, salad, and a bottle of Malbec.

Our two favorites were the Parrilla Pena and Don Julio. Parrilla Pena was a really affordable option near our place in Recoleta. Don Julio was a little bit more expensive but so worth it. This was probably the best steak I have ever had and was perfectly cooked. I had the tenderloin and Dan got a ribeye. Dan also had a Morcilla which is a blood sausage that he said was out of this world.

Oh and I forgot to mention the grilled meat is always served with Chimichurri. I love Chimichurri. The Argentinian chimichurri is a lot different than what we are used to. Instead of fresh herbs it is usually made with dried herbs, is less garlicy, and sweeter from the addition of roasted peppers. Each parrilla had its own version so it was fun to try different types.

Buenos Aires is also famous for the Tango and a Tango show is a must see while in the city. We decided on Tango Porteno which was near Recoleto and was more modern than the traditional shows. We really enjoyed it.

A good way to see Recoleta is to participate in the free walking tour on the neighborhood. We did this one morning and got a good introduction to the city, some history, and overview of the great and differing architecture. Our guide was really fun and played the guitar/sang during different sections of the tour. During the tour we walked by a protest (we saw more than a few during our stay) and the guide proceeded to tell us that there is always a protest in BA and you never know what they are protesting about. The tour ended at the Cemetary Recoleta which is gorgeous to walk through and you can see Eva Perron’s grave (aka Evita).

Another neighborhood worth checking out is the San Telmo neighborhood. It is more hippie than Recoleta and Palermo. The streets are lined with cool antique shops and boutiques. We explored the neighborhood on Sunday when there was a huge outdoor market. People were selling antiques, handicrafts, art, and all kinds of random stuff. The market ended at the Plaza de Mayo where more protests are held and the famous Casa Rosada stands where Evita spoke from the balcony to the Argentinian citizens. Near the plaza is Café Tortoni probably the most famous café in BA. We stopped here to grab some churros and chocolate but they were out of churros!! We ended up settling for the more authentic coffee and medialunas (aka sweet croissants).

There was a cool Jazz bar, Notorious, that we stumbled upon while we were exploring the Recoleta neighborhood. We stopped by one night for dinner and a show. They musicians were paying a tribute to Miles Davis. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the neighborhood.

When we got back from Uruguay we stayed in the super hipster trendy neighborhood of Palermo. We fell in love with this neighborhood. There are tons of cafes, restaurants, bars, and shops that you can walk to and the sidewalks are full of locals milling about. We ended up finding a super cool coffee shop that was only a few blocks from our apartment and ended up heading here every day. It was so great to have a great light roast Aeropress or Chemex coffee (Yea I know. We are coffee snobs.) One day at the shop this guy on a bike showed up serving handmade New York bagels with cream cheese and lox. And he was a Jew from New York living in BA. It is amazing the people you meet while traveling.

On one of our last days in BA we headed to the La Boca neighborhood which is totally worth the trip. The neighborhood is home to the Bocas Juniors soccer team stadium and Caminito a row of buildings painted bright colors where tons of artists hang out. We took a tour of the stadium and were impressed that they don’t let anyone in wearing another teams jersey. The stadium is pretty run down but you can tell that the locals love the Bocas Juniors because people are sporting their colors all over the city. Caminito was fun to tour around and look at what the locals are creating. There were also stands slinging fresh squeezed OJ!

 

 

Top 5 things to do in Buenos Aires:

1. Eat a perfectly cooked steak at Don Julio
2. See a tango show
3. Visit La Boca and wander Caminito
4. Sip a hipster coffee in Palermo
5. Take a walking tour of Recoleta and end with a café and medialuna at Café Tortoni

Ushuaia is as far south as south gets. The land of fire, tierra del fuego, is an large island at the tip of South America. The bottom of Patagonia, it’s a place where Antarctic winds blow daily and the weather changes in minutes. Ushuaia is a far as you can go before you reach Antarctica.

Leaving Hawaii, the easiest way to get to South America, is back through Auckland. Landing very late on Dec. 31^st, we actually got to celebrate the Worlds first New Years, in New Zealand.

 

After what was basically a long layover, we hopped on a flight to Buenos Aires, and then on to Ushuaia. Ushuaia is a strange place. An outpost, a link to the world beyond, for one of the most isolated regions in the world. Ushuaia is normally just a transit point for people boarding ships to Antarctica, but for us it was a destination.

Ushuaia is cool, similar to coastal Alaska. A place where steep mountains crash into the seas, massive glacier sculpted valleys inspire awe, and unique wildlife roam the bays. It’s also has a very interesting history. Settled by the British as a penal colony, it was a major port of call for everyone from Magellan to Darwin. It has since served the world as a whaling port, then a major fishing port and now as the jumping off point for Antarctica.

On one of our days in Ushuaia we hopped on a boat for a harbor cruise. Probably the best activity of our trip, out boat took us to see a colony of Imperial Cormorants, a group of once nearly extinct southern sea lions and a famous lighthouse that serves as a beautiful photo opportunity.

 

A male sea lion stands tall watching over his “honey babies”

The real attraction for the cruise is however to see a few of Antarctica’s most famous residents, 2 types of penguins. Magellanic and Gentoo penguins summer off Ushuaia.

We were only able to see this group of the smaller Magellanic penguins as the Gentoo proved to be more elusive.

Another great day for us was when we hiked Tierra del Fuego National Park.

Only 10 miles from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego is a beautiful and well maintained park.

Our hike along its incredibly windy coastline provided many beautiful photos. Being here, we’ve felt as small as anywhere we’ve been on our trip.

They love their “southern-ness.” After a long hike in the park, we enjoyed a pint of the world’s southern most beer. Brewed with Patagonian hops and barley.

Another day, we headed just outside of the city to hike to one of the many glaciers that overlook Ushuaia. The only chairlift for this “ski resort” was broken, so an hour hike it was up to see the snow. Living in an endless summer for the last year, seeing snow was a welcomed site for Dan who loves his winters.

As you know, we love our food and Ushuaia didn’t disappoint. Still a major fishing port, it one of the only places in the world where you can get fresh King Crab. After a few mediocre overpriced meals, we found Garibaldi’s Restaurant and we never looked back. We ate here 3 of our 5 nights in Ushuaia. Standout dishes were a mixed seafood stew, black risotto with shrimp and king crab and king crab ceviche.

This entire pile is king crab. Only in Ushuaia could you get this because ceviche requires uncooked crab.

Top 5 things to do in Ushuaia

1. Go to Antarctica, we didn’t cause it costs $10 – $15k a person for a 10 day cruise
2. Take a harbor ride to see the penguinos
3. Hike to coastline in Tierra del Fuego National Park
4. Visit Garibaldi’s and go nuts ordering king crab
5. Hike to the glacier for spectacular views of Ushuaia

A very big thank you to Chris, Dan’s dad, for surprising us with an offer to join him, Beth and Alex in Hawaii for Christmas. Initially we had booked to go from New Zealand to Argentina but after Chris offered tickets to Hawaii, we changed plans deciding to fly from Auckland to the Big Island.

Flying to Hawaii from New Zealand time wise is the strangest flight in the world crossing just one time zone, the date line, flying to Hawaii means going back in time 23 hours.

Poppa Peterson, just completed his dream home over looking Kona harbor. We we’re so happy to be able to christen it with him and the rest of the family. Hawaii was a great breath of fresh air for us. Traveling, packing, moving. Changing languages, currencies, time zones. Waking up in a strange land every day, it’s amazing and we wouldn’t trade it for anything, but it’s also tiring. Hawaii was a great dose of the familiar.

This year for Christmas, we decided that instead of gifts, we would exchange experiences. So our time in Hawaii, was mostly punctuated by the adventures we had.

Beth, took the whole family on a helicopter tour of the volcanic side of the island. Kristin and I hadn’t ever been in a helicopter, so that we really cool. It was amazing to fly over miles of black volcanic lands seeing the changing landscape over time.

Chris bought us a whale watching expedition. Capt. Dave McSweeney is one of the worlds leading researchers of humpback whale vocalizations. It was awesome to get to learn about their research while searching for whales and dolphins. We saw humpbacks, bottlenose dolphins and Hawaiian spinner dolphins.

Kristin and Dan got everyone in the water for a nighttime scuba/snorkel adventure with Kona’s very famous manta rays. The manta night dive consistently ranks as one of the top scuba adventures in the world. This year landing at #7, you might remember #1 from earlier in the trip.

This dive takes place off the coast of Kona, near the airport in a “plankton corral”, where the ocean current forces the plankton up against a lava rock wall. The lights attract the plankton, and the mantas swoop in to collect an easy meal.

We put together a video of our whole NZ adventure. It’s pretty much chronological, if you haven’t seen it, it sums up the whole crazy roadie. Drive a few hours, get blown away by something awesome, sleep in van, repeat!

Top 5 New Zealand Adventures

1. Take the drive to Milford Sound
2. Visit a glowworm cave
3. Visit Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world
4. Spend the day cruising Marlborough wine country
5. Visit White Island, and hang with an active volcano

North Island Exploits

Exiting the Interislander in Wellington, we drive Rocket onto North Island soil. Thnka to a great tip we got way back in Myanmar,  its WAY cheaper to rent a campa in the South Island and drive it to Auckland. Even paying the ferry fee ~US$175, we saved a thousand bucks renting Rocket in Christchurch and dropping it in Auckland.

14 days in a van has it’s downside. Showering in communal showers at holiday parks just doesn’t get one clean. 3 – 5 hours a day driving cramps your body up. The cure? Natural hot springs. Waikite was awesome. Beautiful pools, and for US$40 you get a home for Rocket and entrance for both days to the pools. What a refreshing way to wake up.

Fueled up, we push on toward Waitomo and its famous glowworm caves. What’s a glowworm? It’s a creature that drops a spider web like net that glows in the dark. Bugs from the outside the cave fly towards the light inside and dinner is served.

This cave is a tourist trap, but very worth going to. It’s jaw dropping to experience the caves.

Back in the light of day, we head to Whakatane, and white island. Whakatane is famous in the native Maori culture for a story of a woman single handedly saving a boat full of women and children during a storm. This statue stands in her honor at the mouth of the harbor.

White Island is just off the coast, and is an active marine volcano.

For science nerds, its like going to Disney land. We got to, stand on the edge of the crater rim, see a lake that is -2 pH and taste pure sulpher. Plus, on the ride out, we saw dolphins!

Last day before heading to Auckland, we head to Hot Beach. Hot Beach is just that, a beautiful coastline beach where hot water seeps out via the sand. The process is simple, show up just before low tide, elbow out some space, dig a hole and relax in your own private jacuzzi. Only when we dig our pit and we scald ourselves. Turns out you got to be careful where you dig, some of the water is up to 140 degrees!

Packing up, it hits us our last day with Rocket has come. One more night in the woods and we’ll have to return him.

We make our last night count, camping in the bush and hiking to see a grove of massive Kauri trees before starting our drive to Auckland.

New Zealand has really well maintained hiking trails. Still, it doesn’t make the over 660 steps much easier.

Saying goodbye to Rocket, we check into our Airbnb for 3 days in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. It was really nice to get out of the van, sleep in a real bed, and shower in a non-communal bathroom. In Auckland we stayed near Ponsonby road, a really cool street filled with hipster shops and restaurants.

We spent a decent amount of time just chilling, catching up on work while in Auckland. Our highlight activity was our day trip to Waiheke, also known as Wine Island.

Only a 30 min ferry from downtown, Waiheke is a sweet day trip. A bus circuits the island and drops off at over 15 wineries. Good wines and a great day trip, like going to Sonoma valley, just easier to get to and tour.

We bought a case of wine to take with us, because next stop is Hawaii for X-mas. Thanks for taking our case of wine home Chris!

 

 

 

Taking off from Australia we touch down in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand. New Zealand is about the size of California, and roughly the opposite configuration (‘cause we’re south of the equator). The more crowded, warmer, subtropical North Island dominated by the biggest city Auckland, and the rainy, rough, rugged landscaped South Island.

Landing late in Christchurch, we caught a nights rest before meeting the third member of our NZ adventure, Red Rocket. Rocket, is a minivan, a right-hand drive 2002 Toyota Estima with 320,000km to be precise. He is what the Kiwi’s call a campa, a sleeper van for traveling the countryside.

Inside, the back seats of Red Rocket are taken out, and replaced with a platform and a double bed. Under the platform was a 50/50 split, with a mini fridge on one side and a open space for a camping stove and kitchen utensils on the other. Accessing from the back was a storage locker, perfect for our packs and all our clothes. We spent a day in Christchurch loading up on supplies and winter clothes, which we haven’t needed so far, and the next morning we were off for what was 20 days and nights in Red Rocket.

First up we drive to Lake Tekapo, a ethereal blue lake where we spent our first night. Still getting the hang of the van, we ended up sleeping with one of the doors partially open. Temperatures dropped to almost freezing and we spent the night huddled together trying to keep warm.

Leaving the lake, we visited the worlds southern most observatory for our first of many breath taking NZ views.

The next day we drove to the base of Aeoraki or Mt. Cook, Oceania’s tallest mountain.

Rambling on, we drove to the coast to see the Moeraki boulders. Massive geode like rocks found on a beach, very strange and a nice detour after hours in the car.

Just down the coast from the boulders, was a lighthouse that provided a home to the world’s rarest penguin. The yellow-eyed penguin only exists in a few places around the South Island. Our first time seeing wild penguins, pretty sweet!

After 3 nights roughing it out of the van, we needed to resupply and shower, so we headed to Dunedin to stock up and do some work. Dunedin nicknamed the Edinborough of the south, was settled by Scottish castoffs and is now a hip college town. Just outside of town, we stumbled upon this amazing looking beach. Too bad the water is like 50 degrees.

For the record we split our 20 nights in Rocket between “campsites” which are cheap like $10 a night with little to no amenities, and “holiday parks” running about $40 a night and feature kitchens, showers and power plugs. Two of the parks even had onsite natural hot springs!

After refueling in Dunedin, we headed off for Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound. New Zealand is known for its natural landscapes, so when its said Fiordland is the undisputed standout destination, that says a lot.

Driving through the park to Milford Sound, takes you through the park and a breathtaking landscape with literally thousands of waterfalls.

We spent 2 nights camping in the park, awesome to get to wake up in the wilderness. Not something we’ve gotten a ton of on this trip.

The cruise on the Milford Sound is epic. It’s one of the top things to do in New Zealand, and it’s totally deserved. Towering waterfalls plunge from misty peaks into the sound. Lush forests cling to solid rock faces, while seals and penguins hunt in the deep.

No roadie in New Zealand is complete without mentioning the sheep. Holy sheep, there are millions of them and you see them all the time. Luckily that means tons of awesome wool products. They even sell possum/wool blend goods that are made with fur from the invasive possum.

Cruising out of Fiordland National Park, we head for Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Queenstown is where they invented bungee jumping, since then they’ve grown to offer just about every adrenaline rush in the world.

We booked a hang-gliding trip but because of winds we couldn’t go on either of the days we were there. So instead Dan rented went mountain biking instead.

After a couple days in Queenstown, we packed up Rocket and cruised up the coast towards the Glacier district. Unfortunately this is as close as we could get to the Franz Joesph glacier cause the river was raging, but still cool to see.

Franz Joesph is also home to an endangered Rowi Kiwi breeding center. Kiwi’s are awesome, baby kiwi’s are ridiculously cute. The breeding center helps hatch over 100 chicks a year, raising them to about 1 year old before releasing them.

Heading north we took New Zealand’s great ocean road towards Abel Tasman. A beautiful drive, but it was one of our longest days on the road at about 6 hours. We broke up the drive by taking a detour to see Hokitika Gorge. It was a bit cloudy, but we’ve heard the water sparkles turquoise blue here like no where else in the country.

Our long drive the day before was so that we could get to Motueka for an early morning boat ride into Abel Tasman National Park.

The park is on the top of the South Island and is home to the most popular of New Zealand’s great walks, multi-day hikes through breath taking wilderness. We didn’t have time to do a multiday tramp (yes, that’s the kiwi word for hike) but Dan talked Kristin into an 11.5 mile tramp. Really cool because you hire a boat to drive you into the park drop you off on a beach, and you walk back out.

The most famous spot in Abel Tasman is Cleopatra’s Pool. Even though it was overcast, Dan couldn’t resist a dip. Behind the rocks is a sweet natural water slide. The water was freezing, but all worth it.

Cruising east from Nelson, we headed into the heart of New Zealand wine country, Marlborough. Like a laid-back version of Sonoma, staying in town, you’re only a short drive (or ride) from 20 – 30 great wineries. Plus, there’s a couple breweries snuck in there. Moa makes beers and ciders you can sometimes find around Denver.

It was really a great day riding around learning about wine and tasting Marlborough wines. Kristin just had to get a pick with the mini ponies!

Known for Sauvignon Blanc, Cloudy Bay put Marlborough on the map. We stopped by to try their wines, and crush local oysters at their raw bar. Kristin took some time to kick back in their adult swings.

Next day, we put Rocket on the Interislander and cross the Cook Strait to the North Island.

Singapore is a crazy big, crazy busy, and crazy developed city-state in the middle of Southeast Asia. It is nothing like any of the other countries that surround it and feels like a big city straight out of the United States or some other developed English speaking country. We were lucky enough to have Dan’s relatives the Kilburn-Peterson family living in Singapore so we used their awesome condo as home base and then took 10-18 day trips around Southeast Asia. This allowed us to bring about half of our gear and come back to a developed country, hot showers, comfortable beds, and family every few weeks. It was also great having Singaporean “locals” show us around the city and take us to the best Hawker markets, sights, and restaurants.

Singapore has an awesome food scene from hawker markets to five star dining and a ton of Din Tai Fung’s aka DTF (Taiwanese Dumpling Joint)! Dan and I have been on a mission to go to Din Tai Fung if we have the opportunity because it is only in a select number of countries. So far we have been in Hong Kong, Los Angeles (two locations), Seattle, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. The other great thing about Singapore is the hawker markets because Singapore food quality standards are really high so you can eat their street food without worrying about what will happen in the next few hours or next day.  Singapore has large Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian populations so you can have the best of everything here! A few standout meals that we had (other than every time we went to DTF) were the night near the Merlion where we ate Black Pepper Crab, Dan’s bday dinner of Frog Leg Porridge, and Peking Duck and carrot cake (not the dessert) at dim sum. Really all the food was pretty amazing so it is hard to pick favorites.

Singapore has a lot of outdoor activities but most of the time we were there the haze from the Indonesian fires was keeping us inside. When we did get the opportunity to get out and see the sights we had to get to the Skytree’s and cloud forest. The Skytree’s are huge metal trees with a walkway across them that light up and night and the cloud forest is a cool indoor botanic gardens and waterfall. We also had to get to the world renowned Singapore Zoo and it was definitely worth it! Tons of orangutans and other monkeys in outdoor enclosures. Two awesome white tigers and we even got to see the Sumatran spitting black cobra that we encountered on our night walk in Malaysia.

One of the coolest experiences we had while in Singapore was the opportunity to see the F-1 car race followed by the Jon Bon Jovi concert! Thank you Chris and Linda!! The F-1 race track went right through the heart of the city and you got great views of the cars racing by. We also were able to witness one of the attendees jump onto the track during the race and nonchalantly walk against the F-1 traffic (not so smart). Fortunately he was pulled off of the track uninjured. After the race was over there was an included Jon Bon Jovi concert and Jon put on quite the show and played most of his old hits.

Another great experience was the night of Dan’s birthday after we had frog leg porridge. (I know you guys are thinking eww!! But it is actually really delicious!) We went to bar on the roof of the Marina Bay Sands which is this huge fancy hotel on the bay. The bar overlooks downtown Singapore and is so cool because you are having a tasty drink on the top of one of the tallest buildings in Singapore with a killer view.

Last but not least we have to give a shout out to Maggie and Andrew, Dan’s niece and nephew, who kept us more than entertained and were great hosts while we stayed with them in Singapore. We had a great time relearning the card game Uno and getting tons of “feedback”, getting told many knock-knock jokes (have you heard the one about the interrupting cow?), and spending Sunday lunches at DTF. We miss you guys!!

Top 5 Things to Do in Singapore:

1. Eat at the many Hawker Markets
2. See the Orangutans at the Singapore Zoo
3. Get a fancy drink atop the Marina Bay Sands
4. Stuff your face with soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung
5. If you are lucky see the F-1 cars race through downtown Singapore

 

Melbourne – One of our favorites so far…

Arriving in Australia, Melbourne was a city we immediately fell in love with. The second city of Australia, Melbourne has it all. Great food, a sweet downtown, an awesome sports scene and a hip-chic apologize for nothing attitude. After Seattle, perhaps nowhere else has a stronger coffee culture than Melbourne. Awesome authentic Asian food is available on every corner, while the meaning of farm to table is reinvented throughout the many cafes that pride themselves on great ingredients.

On a walking tour of the city, we found this sweet bar built in the river that separates the city; it was beer-thirty so we had to have a drink.

We stayed a bit outside of the city in Northcote, just on the outskirts of the very trendy Fitzroy neighborhood. With a thriving and creative food truck scene, our Airbnb host recommended we checkout Welcome to Thornbury, a permanent bar that hosts 4 – 7 food trucks a night. A great spot for a dinner that included a kangaroo burger and Korean fried chicken.

On a recommendation from a local, we stopped by Boilermakers, a beer and whisky joint. The bar features over 600 whiskeys from around the world; they even stocked Colorado’s own Stranahans.

Our last night in town, we visited the famous Grand Victoria Market, which on Wednesdays host hundred of pop up restaurants and food vendors along side the normal artisans and craft shops. Kristin bought Dan a belated b-day present, a beautiful Kangaroo leather messenger bag.

We only spent 4 days in Melbourne, but we were sold. One of the few places we’ve been on our trip that would potentially pull us away from Denver if an opportunity comes along. Its unfortunate that the Chinese have run up in property values so much living in the city is unaffordable.

Sydney – Get in, get out

Okay, so honestly we sacrificed our Sydney trip for timing. We only spent a day and a half in Sydney. Basically we crushed a visit to the opera house, took a boat cruise to Manly beach, bought a didgeridoo and got out of town.

We know we’ll be back, so we’ll catch the rest of the city next time.

 

 

 

The island of Penang is just off the west coast of Malaysia, once a thriving trading port of the British Empire, it has reinvented itself as a technology hub and foodie paradise. As with Singapore and Hong Kong, the British influence runs deep, and you can find everything from high tea, to dim sum and spicy chicken tandoori. Georgetown, the largest city on Penang was declared a UNESCO world heritage site for its uniquely preserved shophouses and streets.

What is really special about the city though it how it has embraced art. Throughout the city, there are sweet rod iron installations and professional street art murals. A day in Penang, is one spent hunting down displays and snacking on wonderful food from all over Asia. The Boatman above is over 30 feet tall.

The iron work, tells stories of the past, or about history of a particular district or street.

On “love lane” mistresses were commonly kept, it’s now a backpacker’s haven.

The famous designer Jimmy Choo got his start in Penang.

The painted murals, often incorporate actual objects. In this display you can sit on the swing, while everything else you see is painted on the wall.

This is a real motorbike, with a wall painting behind it.

Some, are just sweet graffiti, like Bruce Lee kicking the sh*t out of this cat.

Nights in Penang are times to venture out to hawker markets. A hawker is a group of carts all specializing in one dish or another. Common items are char kway toew (stir-fried noodles), laksa (spicy coconut fish soup) and fresh stingray wing barbequed over charcoal. It’s like a food truck rally but way better and way cheaper. Most items are between $1 – $2.50

Another fun thing we did in Penang was visit the Blue Mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion) which was built by the “Rockefeller of Asia” and restored about 20 years ago. This is interesting to see because it is built in traditional Chinese Feng Shui and during the tour you get to learn about how to Feng Shui your own home!

Penang is a place that doesn’t deserve a ton of time, but is a great and unique place to visit as part of a trip to Southeast Asia. We spent two and a half days here and that was about perfect, just enough time to see everything, get fat and then get out of town. Next up a flight to untamed island of Borneo.