Hawaii and Beyond

After our stress of actually making it to Cambodia ( see previous post ), our B&B had arranged for a pickup at the airport. Ever fly international and exit and airport to find a crowd of drivers standing with signs of tourist names? Our driver was nowhere to be found. We figured they forgot, so we hired a driver. We were staying at the Khmer Cuisine Bed & Breakfast , which the driver had never heard of. He didn't want to turn down a fare and how hard could it be to find? Halfway through our ride he pulled over and flagged down a Tuk-Tuk  driver for directions. Tuk-Tuk's are basically a motorcycle with a little trailer attached. In Siem Reap, they'll take you around wherever for $1 or $2. This type of transportation is used all over the world with varying names and setups. I definitely recommend as there easy to get around busy streets. Anyway, this Tuk-Tuk man seemed to know better directions so o...

We almost didn't make it to Cambodia. Our original plan to get to Cambodia was fly from Manila to Bangkok, stay there a few days, and take a bus or train to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Political protests and elections in Bangkok deterred us from visiting so we decided to just fly out of Bankok to Cambodia. Easier said than done. After getting off our Manila to Bangkok flight, we showed our Angkor Air tickets to some workers who pointed in the general direction we needed to go. We had two hours between flights which I felt comfortable. Janie felt uneasy and was rushing us around. I'm glad she did. After an hour of airport employees taking us on a wild goose chase to find the Angkor Air counters, we were destined to give up on our flight. No one knew where our ticketing counters were. Was this airline THAT small? I happened to try one more Info kiosk. She was able to give us an answer...one that we didn't want to hear. With One Hour left, we needed to exit out of the w...

  Our red eye flight was from Honolulu to Manila with Philippine Airlines with arrival at 5:00a. The airport pickup was seamless, got some currency, and a 20 minute ride to Hotel H2O. This place was right on the water at Bay of Manila, by ocean park and Rizal park. Days after our stay would be the Shell EcoMarathon, for cleaner fuel innovation. Ironic with the immense pollution from vehicles with little emission standards. Anyway, gotta start somewhere, and why not a heavily polluted place first.    View from our room Since we got to our hotel around 6:00 and still dark, we decided on a quick nap before venturing around on foot. We decided to check out Intramuros and Rizal Park . This is where things got a bit eye opening and our initial ass-kicking of you-are-now-in-a-developing -country. Descriptions don't do justice, but I can give it a try...families making fire along the road and cooking chicken feet over a tin...

My wife and I just got back from our whirlwind South East Asia trip that definitely didn't disappoint. I say whirlwind because we just visited 5 countries in 17 days. This included 12 flights, including transfers and flight cancellations. Yes, my wife whom picked the destinations is quite ambitious. I was up for the challenge of logistically planning the flight itinerary for our vacation. We visited the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. We also had stopovers in Thailand and Fiji.  I must admit that a ton of iPhone apps aided me in the ever confusing mess of destinations. We worked it out that we would be spending 2-3 days in each location. To add to the confusion was we had about 2 weeks to plan the trip since it was a now-or-never type of trip.   TripIt Map The 10 apps that I will go into detail below were used to plan, book, and use while we were traveling. Websites for each of the apps are linked to each title and photo. Planning our Tr...

I can't believe it's been 5 years since we visited Bali. Watching the video makes me want to go back and find more adventures. Bali is an awesome place with special people. This time I'll be bringing a better camera than one of those Sears $40 Handheld cameras. Hope you enjoy the shortened version.  Who else wants to go? 

   Having a wedding or interested in donating flowers from an event? Donating to a care home is a great way to brighten the day of care home residents. Our wedding took place at Laniakea Café Julia & YWCA in Honolulu on July 20th. It was a beautiful wedding that turned out great with dancing and good times. Our concern with the decorations was that we wanted to make sure our flower arrangements didn't got to waste. The flower arrangements were designed by Ivie Joy Floral Arts and Events , and we couldn't have asked for anything more beautiful. Her skills and services were out of our league and budget, but luckily Ivie Joy is a friend of my wife. Thank you Ivie! Our Donated Flowers in the back of an SUV The idea came to my wife when we decided to have our wedding on Oahu instead of The Big Island where we live. There wasn't much information online about donating in Hawaii which is strange since many people do destination wedd...

This was an impromptu dinner selection and was decided on the way home from work with my fiancé. We are lucky to live in Hawaii, but this day happened to have bumper-to-bumper traffic. After about 30 minutes we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and also a truck on the side of the road selling live Lobsters. We had to jump at the chance...Lobster Risotto it is! DISCLAIMER: I have to admit that I didn't create this recipe nor did I prepare it. I'm lucky to have a beautiful fiancé who is also an awesome cook and baker. I'll post up one of her special Pecan Pie recipes shortly. Here she is: Anyways.....Where were we? Oh yes, To the Recipe. Ingredients: Lobster Chopped Garlic Chopped Onions Arborio Rice Chicken Stock (or Lobster stock - instructions below) Mushrooms Parmesan Cheese (optional) Tomato Italian Parsley Lime Butter Recipe: Lobster Stock: Chop the lobster heads from the body and pla...