Malay Penninsula

I'd like to give a shout-out to my residency program for having the best vacation schedule a residency could have - two separate 2-week blocks. Having spent one block in Florida with the family, I'll use the second one to visit a few places that I've always wanted to see.

I will fly from NYC to Hong Kong and then to Singapore. Once there I will take the train north through Malaysia and into Thailand, stopping along the way as I so please. Right now the plan is to fly out of Bangkok two weeks later, routing again through Hong Kong before proceeding back to NYC. The current itinerary looks something like this:

I settled on this trip over a few other options. I thought about backpacking from Hanoi to Saigon, but I decided to pass - I'd prefer to do Vietnam with someone familiar with the local language or custom. Japan I considered strongly, but the weather has been crazy there lately and they've been having some major power issues with the nuclear disaster (cost in Japan is more of an issue too). South America is high on my list, but there will be a lot of hiking on the Inca Trail which would be more fun to do with someone else than solo (same goes for climbing Kilimanjaro in Tanzania).

The good thing about this trip is that I won't suffer through the language barrier as much; Singapore's official language is English, Malaysia used to be a British colony, and Thailand has a lot of English speakers come through anyway. Traveling by train is a plus; maximum flexibility, perfect for a solo traveler who has no plans other than to "wing it" each step of the way.

Additionally, the itinerary could change at the last minute. The only constant is that I need to make it back to Hong Kong by March 10th or so when I fly back to NYC. There are lots of cities in the area that I'd really like to see, so a detour could be possible if I can secure a flight back to Hong Kong:

Of these possibilities, Saigon is most likely. I had already applied for a Vietnam visa because I thought I might be going there, so routing through Ho Chi Minh City at the end could be cool if I have an extra 2-3 days.

General trip update

On Wednesday we did some awesome mountain biking on these trails near Moab (Bar-M trails). Our bikes were definitely a hindrance. My gears constantly slip, and Pat had shifting troubles with his. Our skills were rusty, too. That being said it was loads of fun, great quad workout, and we didn't get hurt.

We spent Thursday at Zion National Park, as can be seen from the pictures. We sort of threw this in at the very last second, because we had heard positive reviews from a lot of people. We spent the day doing a little hiking, a lot of biking on the road and trails, some museums, etc. We wanted to camp out in the park but every spot was booked. We could have camped outside of the park but we thought that was weak. Were planning to head to Vegas on Friday anyways, and we had a place to stay on Thursday, so we figured we might as well head out.

Once it got dark at Zion we left for a 2.5 hour drive to Vegas. Checked in, went out, played craps for a couple hours. Had six great drinks, and was only down 9 bucks at the end of the night, so I'd say I was a winner. We are going to be here tonight (Friday) and Saturday night, then on Sunday we are driving to Salt Lake City so that I can catch my flight home.

On an aside, I don't get how a national park can EVER run out of camping spots. We don't need a fire pit or running water, we don't need a designated area, and we don't need restrooms. We need a 20 x 20 patch of dirt to put our stuff on, and as it turns out, there is a LOT of land in these national parks. It is extremely annoying to me that they won't just let people set up wherever so long as they are experienced, respectful, and don't leave a trace. The essence of camping is to live among nature without nature knowing you are there. I'm resentful that I don't get to camp where I want because (I assume) some jackasses have left messes or caused problems in years past.

Here is what they should do. If you want to camp freely, you get a GPS tracker when you enter the park. The GPS tracker then establishes where your main campsite was. If you leave a mess, the park rangers figure out who did it and then you get a hefty ticket in the mail. I think I'm going to write a letter to the national park service and propose this solution.

Zion 3

Zion 2

Zion 1

Biking near Moab, UT

There is a mountain biker's mecca near Moab called Slick Rock.  There are a bunch of trails in the area, between Arches and Canyonlands Nat Parks.  The intermediate trails are tough.  It's generous to refer to the expert trails as trails at all.  They're more like poorly marked paths through rocks. 

Anyhow, both of our bikes are pretty sub par for these sorts of trails but I'd say we did pretty well all things considered.  Biked for four hours, held a good pace, not one serious fall from either of us. 

I actually had put my belt in my backpack before heading out b/c I figured I could use it to make a splint or tourniquet w/ it if necessary.

Arches 5

Today (Wednesday?) will be mountain biking.

Arches 4

Arches 3

Arches 2