We decided to return to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore in May when the weather is a bit iffy here. Since we’ve been a number of times before, we don’t feel any obligation to tour temples and sites. Debra spent weeks finding cooking videos and foodie tours of the cities we were going to. I must admit we were both craving food in a big way by the time we arrived. We tracked down some off-the-beaten-path tiny places that YouTube reviewers recommended and had some fabulous meals. Many of these spots had no menu, so we just did a lot of pointing!

We’ve come to rely on video tours in advance of a trip to learn more about the local specialties—I highly recommend it!

I also love playing golf around the world. Of course, often the courses are “rustic,” but sometimes we hit a home run (or a hole-in-one, I guess). On this trip, we played three spectacular courses worth mentioning: Red Mountain in Phuket, Thailand; The Els Club in Datai, Malaysia; and the Serapong/Sentosa course in Singapore (which was WAY too difficult for me). We often say that the best courses we’ve ever seen are in New Zealand, but these three are definitely up there!