Laurel's SE Asia Trip Summary

It wouldn’t be a Dettering family trip without me writing a blog post. Let’s get to it.

First stop: Osaka. What a cute place. Japanese culture is so great. We hopped off the plane and were immediately greeted with Security Dog, a cartoon dog with eyebrows who is a recurring character on Japanese customs signs. He’s small, round, and very Hello Kitty-esque, and Bryce and I were infatuated instantly. The hotel was not so great, but it wasn’t bad. I had a near-death experience with a massage chair that has probably traumatized me from ever going in one of those things again. Each hotel room had a black leather massage chair in them, and it was built for somebody under 5’0. Of course, I didn’t know that when I first got in this terrifying contraption. While the shoulder massage rods would have comfortably rested on a shorter person’s shoulders, they clamped down onto mine and would not let me out of said massage chair. There was also calf clamps that prevented your legs from moving, and what would a massage chair be without that function that’s probably supposed to be patting you but feels like being punched by a garden gnome.

Anyway, I digress. Our second city was Hong Kong. It was like a hot, humid San Francisco, which I was grateful for, because for the entire trip I was a homesick disaster. The coffee was on point, both very strong and sweet, and all the food we had was also amazing. It was a pretty relaxing place and the hotel was nice. I didn’t almost get violently slaughtered by a massage chair so there’s not really much more to say. Moving on.

Our third location was the crowded city of Hanoi, Vietnam, where we met up with our group. I was happy to have some girls on our trip this time, as teenage boys can be quite overwhelming sometimes. The hotel was nice, and the shampoo left my hair feeling silkier than ever so I made sure to take the hotel tube with me. Mom and I treated ourselves to a spa day, which was awesome and quite relaxing. A Vietnamese custom is giving tourists cold face towels, and in the humid 100º weather, this was the best thing anyone could ask for. There is no experience quite like breathing in the scent of a cold towel just before you put it on your neck.

In all honestly, our trip through Vietnam is pretty much a blur to me. This is not to say that it was not interesting, in fact, everything was so interesting that nothing really stands out to me as the most interesting. We visited the following places: Hanoi. Hue, Hoi An, and Ho Chi Minh City. Wow, all the names start with H! Vietnam, you should probably cool it on the H city names.

Of course I remember some things from Vietnam! I didn’t tune out entirely. The best part was a 3-day cruise through Ha Long Bay. It wasn’t really what I expected a cruise to be - we weren’t allowed to swim in the water because of killer jellyfish, and the ship was “only” three floors. It was still amazing because of the beautiful islands that looked like they could fall into the sea at any moment, and that I got to spend a lot of time with my new friends. Bryce was addicted to this BMX iPhone game, so he didn’t spend much time outside of the room, but I sure did! My crew would play Uno, Mafia, BS, and other card games late into the night. There was an unspoken rule that nobody under 13 could join us, and the smaller kids respected this rule, which I am so grateful for. We covered a lot of mature topics in conversation, as teenagers are wont to do, and thankfully every time a boner joke came up the children were pretty far away. The last trip with this crew we had the 9 year olds mixing with the 16 year olds, and I can safely say that some of my youthful innocence was spoiled in Africa.

After Vietnam came 4 days in Siem Reap. This was second coolest to Ha Long Bay. I did lots of shopping and eating, which are both good things, and our hotel was beautiful. The reason it’s second is we toured Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, which probably would have been cool if we spent an hour there, but our tour guide WOULD NOT stop talking. And he didn’t walk and talk, he would stand in the same spot for hours talking about the same thing. Whenever I’m doing a boring thing, I like to eat frequently in between / while doing so, so that I don’t lose energy, but only when I was about ready to pass out did we arrive at a pretty bad Thai restaurant. It wouldn’t be a trip if my parents didn’t drag me around to temples, and they always tell me that I’m learning stuff, but really I never am. I just tune out pretty much everything until we get out.

And speaking of temples! The next 5 days were spent in Bangkok. Bangkok was also pretty great, and they had lots of shopping centers and great food so I got to spend some time doing that, but of course we had to visit a few Buddha temples. Now, religion is great! I’m not judging if you’re religious! I just find religious artifacts not interesting in the least and I don’t enjoy being forced to look at nothing of importance to me. We spent what felt like days at the temple of the Buddha lying down, and that’s probably not it’s official name but I can’t be bothered to remember it. Although, I did get to see Now You See Me 2 in theaters, which was a great movie and awesome experience. Before the movie started, they played the Thai national anthem and you had to stand up to pay respects to the king. NYSM2 is a fantastic movie and, while not even comparable to NYSM in greatness, it does elaborate a lot on the backstories of the characters, especially Dylan Rhodes.

After that, we headed to Tokyo for a 19 hour layover. That was also great. Of course, I needed to go to the Pokemon Center, and so we went. Bryce even got a stuffie. It was awesome. And I got a birthday crown from the pokemon company because it’s my birthday soon, so yippee! I wish we could have spent more time there, but alas, my dog was missing us and I was missing cold weather. So home we went, of course spotting Security Dog on the way out.

And now I’m home.

Layover in Tokyo

Leaving Bangkok, and returning to San Francisco, I had arranged for a 20 hour layover in Tokyo.  (It turns out that if you have a one-stop flight, you can take up to 24 hours in a layover without being charged extra.)  The kids were more excited about visiting Tokyo more than anything, so this was to give us a quick taste.

We arrived in the Shinjuku district at our hotel at around 11 PM.  Bryce and I were hungry and willing to explore a little at night, so we walked outside the hotel and immediately found a tasty Ramen stand.  Our noodles were good, but at $9 per bowl this was definitely NOT Thailand. We walked around a little afterwards and explored the neighborhood, and saw a few only-in-Japan cars driving on the street, much to Bryce's delight.

Late night ramen

The next morning, we had until 5 PM to catch our flight, so we ventured to find the Pokemon Center. Laurel is a huge Pokemon fan, and this shop is the HQ for all things Pokemon, especially being in Japan and all.  We were able to figure out the spaghetti-like Tokyo subway with a little help from a local, and eventually found our way to Sunshine City and the Pokemon store.  Laurel was thrilled.

On the way home, we figured out the subway on our own (in spite of almost everything being written in Japanese).  We exited at a slightly different place, but Google Maps came to the rescue and helped us get home.

Bangkok

We arrived for our longest leg of this trip: six nights in Bangkok.  I’ve heard great things about Bangkok, and was eager to explore.

Our lodging was the Riverside Apartments - a VRBO style high rise condo complex overlooking the Chao Praya, Bangkok’s primary river.  At first, the river seemed to cut us off from from the interesting parts of town, but we soon discovered our building had a private ferry boat that would take you across at specific times.  From the other side, you could hop on the BTS - Bangkok’s public transit Skytrain - and get to many other parts of the city quickly.  The BTS also linked to the MRT - Bangkok’s underground. We bought “rabbit passes” which conveniently gave us 15 rides without having to pay each time.

View from Riverside Apartments

Our private ferry

The other side of the river is Saphan Taksin, a.k.a.  the “central pier”, where other ferry boats take you upriver to see other sites.  And when the private ferry didn’t run, I discovered a public ferry that would do the crossing for ten cents. (The public pier also had a pet pig, which the kids loved,)  

The Pig on the Pier

The roads in Bangkok are notorious for crazy congested traffic, and we occasionally had to deal with it, but public transit was definitely the way to get around. After three days of experimenting and asking questions, we had transportation nailed.

Bangkok is also fun because of the street food culture.  During our stay, we ate at a few restaurants, but the best food was from street vendors.  Across the river from us is a little known night market, with clothing vendors and a smattering of food stalls.  I went a couple of times, and ate delicious bowls of noodle soup for $1.25, some grilled chicken and pork, and pandam crepe for dessert.  Apparently Bangkok has over 100,000 street vendors, and it’s such a part of the culture that the government has given up trying to curtail it.   For the most part, our meals were from either mall restaurants or street/market vendors, and I much preferred the street food.

Wednesday

We had heard about Wat Pho, the “reclining Buddha”, so this was the first thing we visited as a family.  There are tons of Buddhist temples in Bangkok, but this one is special, as it contains a huge gold-painted Buddha in an unusual pose of lying on its side.  The statue is probably 80 meters long.  This was an interesting cultural visit, and the surrounding temple was very ornate as well, with some 400 plus sitting Buddha statues lining two courtyards. It was interesting, and well worth a visit.

Reclining Buddha

Since the weather can be hot and sticky, or rainy, a lot of effort has been out into building some amazing megamalls in Bangkok.  Tripadvisor had these as a good place to start, so we took the kids to the newly built, state of the art Siam Paragon and some related malls on the first day. Our teenagers are more interested in current culture versus historical and religious buildings, so we balanced out the day with a visit here.  We had heard about the Thai movie theaters being special, and we looked for an appropriate movie at a time that would work for all, but in spite of fifteen screens, there was a limited selection.  Cruising through the various Siam malls was interesting nonetheless.

Open layout of Siam Paragon

Thursday

Bangkok is very similar to Venice, as it is a trading center, with a port and a system of canals and waterways that penetrate into the city.  Instead of gondolas, you can hire a long tailed speedboat with a car engine and a single propeller that juts out 20 feet from the motor into the water.  The boat driver just moves the propeller to steer the boat, and they are quite fast. We hired a driver to take us on a Khlong Tour through the canals in inner Bangkok.  Not only was it cool to see how people lived on the canals, but we saw a lot of huge monitor lizards dotting the shores, and a few swimming as well. This thrilled the kids to no end.

Looking out the longboat

For me, I like to eat, so I dragged everyone to the Or Kor Tor Market.  This is a high quality covered outdoor food market, with many stalls for prepared food.  So not only can you get a delicious meal, but you know the food is good because the chefs have likely purchased their ingredients from one of the nearby high-end stalls.  I sampled an awesome Waygu beef noodle soup, an amazing curried fish dish wrapped in banana leaf, and a few other interesting things.  Dessert was fresh mango, with coconut ice cream, coconut milk, and sticky rice.  Sue is always a little more conservative with street food than I am, but even she broke down and had one of these delicious treats.

Fish thing in banana leaf - tasty!

No (stinky) Durian allowed on the metro

Waygu beef noodles - yum!

Afterwards, we completed our mission from the day before and found Now You See Me 2 playing at one of the mall cinemas.  Sue and I opted for a “sofa seat”, which was a lovely way to sit close during the show.  It was great. One weird thing about Thai movies is that there is a tribute to the king that plays before the main feature, and everybody is expected to stand through it.  We obliged.

Friday

Sue and I ducked out early to let the kids sleep in to go do another cultural adventure.  We went upriver to see the “Golden Buddha”.  This is a 5.5 ton solid gold Buddha statue (about 10 feet tall) in yet another temple.  Guiness says this status has the largest raw material value of any artifact in the world.  At one point, it was covered in plaster to hide it from invading forces, and it was rediscovered by accident a few hundred years later.

Under the Golden Buddha was a historical exhibit chronicling the relationship between the Chinese immigrants and the Thai people and government.  The temple was built by the Chinese, and it’s on the edge of Bangkok’s Chinatown.  What was striking is that during certain periods, immigration was tightened or relaxed, depending upon the needs of the Thai.  The Chinese migrants were instrumental in forming trading relationships with China, and they helped make Bangkok a rich trading capital.  But there was also concern that they were taking opportunities away from the Thai residents, so sometimes immigration was restricted.  This is an interesting parallel to the immigration debate in the USA today.

The Golden Buddah

For the afternoon, I took Bryce to the Jesada Teknik Car Museum, while the girls went for a spa day. (See Bryce's post on Jesada Teknik.)  The Jesada museum is an individual’s car collection, with about 400 unusual cars, as well as motorbikes, bicycles, tuktuks and more.  The cars aren’t all in pristine condition, but they did have some legendary autos, as well as a lot of weird three wheeled vehicles and more.  Bryce was totally in his element.

This is not a trick - actual size car

Bond Bugs - My Favorite

While we were there, a large group of middle-schoolers also came to visit, and it turns out the main attraction was… Bryce.  I guess the Thai people - particularly the girls - really like westerners, and he must have had 30 selfies taken with various kids, as well as a few handshakes, and a couple of hugs and a few girls calling out “I love you”.  He handled it well. It was really funny.

10 minutes of celebrity in Thailand

Driving back into town, we arranged to meet Sue and Laurel at Terminal 21, a travel themed mall. Each floor represents a particular famous city, so it was natural to meet in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge.  (They even had a Swensen’s ice cream shop). This mall was also tastefully done, and even the bathrooms in the Tokyo area were authentic, down to the butt washers.

Back in SF? Not really...

Saturday

To get a better feel for Thailand, I had wanted to take a day trip outside of Bangkok.  We chose a tour that offered a variety of experiences.  First off, we got to tour a Thai food market about 60 minutes out of town, and learned what some of the various weird fruits and concoctions were.  We even got to sample a few things as well.  Next, we visited a farm, where we helped cook a Thai meal, and rode an ox cart around the property.  

Bryce doing some cooking

Riding the ox cart

Afterwards, we drove into a national park, and hiked to a beautiful waterfall, and saw some monkeys and a “barking deer” (which doesn’t really bark).  The featured attraction was last - an elephant ride!  All four of us got on, with Sue and the kids on a seat, and me holding on for dear life while riding bareback on the neck.  It was a little terrifying at first, but eventually I relaxed a little and enjoyed the feel of the elephant. I was saddle sore for several hours afterwards, but it was great fun.

Ele-fun

Sunday

I had read about the Chatuchak Weekend Market as a “not to be missed” experience, so on our last full day we paid a visit.  Unlike other markets, they don’t really specialize here.  It’s an endless array of everything: clothes, souvenirs, food, kitchen stuff, candles, bags, postcards, etc. It’s divided into sections, but there are still surprises on every turn.  We wound up spending four hours here, buying various unique knick-knacks for cheap. We broke for lunch at what turned out to be a really good restaurant on premise.  Dessert was from an ice cream vendor who served delicious ice cream in coconut shells, with a variety of toppings like sticky rice, coco jelly, peanuts and a few other things, We all had some and went home fully sated, with most of the market still unexplored.

Fried rice in a pineapple

Chatuchak shopping feast

Jesada Teknik Car Museum (by Bryce)

The Jesada Technik Museum is interesting. It’s not a museum made for profit, as there's no admission fee. It's not a museum meant solely for mass attraction either, as there are no cars that are polished, restored, or surrounded by velvet rope. So what is the Jesada Technik museum then? Unique. The very first car in the museum wasn't actually in the museum. And it wasn't a car either. The very first automobile in eyeshot happened to be a very old double decker London bus. Upon closer appearance it was clear this wasn't a pampered bus. The paint was chipping, the tires were flat, and oh lord was it dusty. But seeing this London bus in a condition like this didn't upset me. I felt like it made it more original, and boy it was. It had every original part still on it. Original seats, original signs, the original wiper fluid was probably still in there too. As I moved on and left my dad to sign the waivers the second car I noticed was a Peel Trident. For anyone who doesn't know what a Peel Trident is, it's one of the smallest two seaters i've ever seen (if you can fit two people in it, that is). I'd love to get technical and talk about every car in the technik museum but a) if I got technical you would fall into a coma, and b) If I mentioned every car in the museum my fingers would fall off from typing too much, so i’ll just keep it short and sweet for y’all by mentioning some of my favorites. After gawking at the Trident I noticed something very special. A Citroen CX. I believe the Citroen CX is one of the greatest cars ever made. It was very ahead of its time as it came with self leveling hydropneumatic suspension, which could raise and lower itself on demand. It also came with a self centering steering wheel, and the brake pedal was more button-like then pedal-like. The Citroen CX had even more tricks than a clever suspension and a self centering steering wheel too. The one I observed was diesel and came with a five speed stick. Did I mention that the Citroen has some of the most comfortable seats, maybe ever made? When my dad and I had finished meandering through the car's in section 1 we started walking over to section 2, and that is where the mayhem started. As we walked through section 2 we happened to be navigating through a massive school group. All the sudden they all started flocking around Dad and I. And then they started asking questions. And then all the sudden it wasn't just 3 kids flocking around me. It was a whole herd. They were pounding me with questions, asking me where I was from? How old was I? Did I go to school? One of them asked if I was nice, to which I responded “Oh boy I hope so”. They laughed at that. Then it wasn't just boys flocking around me, as the girls started asking questions too. And it wasn't just questions, god no it wasn't just questions. I was shaking hands with all the boys, saying hi to them, and whenever I shook hands with one of the girls the rest of them went into a high pitched scream of excitement. And then they whipped out their phones taking pictures of me, and taking selfies with me using satan's little poles of failed potential (selfie sticks). The instructor even took a selfie with me. One girl who I shook hands with didn't want to let go, so I just played along with it and held her hand for 30 seconds till she let go and shrieked out of excitement. This went on for quite a while and I actually got used to it. I even was having a little bit of fun. At the end some girls even went in for hugs. I even heard five or six say “I love you!” to me when leaving. After that um… experience, my dad and I checked out funny cars with unpronounceable names for a while longer and then promptly left, feeling ready for some air conditioning, a bed, and a refrigerated Reese’s.

Siem Reap

After a couple of days among the craziness and pollution of Saigon, we were ready for a more laid back destination.  For the next four days, we settled in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the famous Angkor Wat temple.

Our first day was spent getting to know Siem Reap.  It’s still heavily motorbike centered, but not quite as much as Vietnam.  The one major difference is that the taxis are predominantly tuk-tuks, or motorcycle driven carriages.  We took tuk-tuks everywhere, and usually for just $3.  It seemed sketchy at first, but we quickly got used to being close to cars and other motorbikes while travelling around.  Tuk-tuks were actually rather pleasant.

Our first adventure was to go into Siem Reap, and explore the market.  It wasn’t nearly as high-pressure as the Saigon market - the vendors did a little bit of self-promotion, but had just the right amount of aggressiveness. We bought some clothes, including a couple of shirts, a scarf for Laurel, and some Cambodia pants.  Outside the market, we explored Pub street and it’s many well-populated alleys, and found La Creperie, a French crepe place run by a real frenchman.  The crepes were quite tasty. I actually got to use my French.

"Doctor Fish" in Siem Reap - They eat dead skin on your feet

After chilling at the hotel, I found George’s Rhumerie for dinner. This is also a French restaurant, with the twist that George also makes his own infused rums and jams.  We were offered a tasting of coconut rum to start the meal, which was delicious and interesting.  Rum cocktails followed, and the French-Cambodian food was terrific as well.  We bought a small bottle of rum and some homemade jams to take with us.

The next day was Angkor Wat. We arranged for a car and a guide from the hotel, and although we could have done it less expensively outside, this was worth spending the extra money for.  We spent a full day exploring the various temples, including the main Angkor Wat, and a few smaller sites.  The highlight for us was the “tree temple”, made famous by Tomb Raider, where 400 year old trees are growing on the sculptures of the temple.  Our guide was very good, and although the day was hot, the van had chilled towels and water for us when we returned.  The temples were quite a feat of engineering, and the detail work and sculptured murals were pretty amazing.

Angkor Wat

Warrior Queen

Faces of Angkor Thom

That night, Sue found the Phare Circus, a local troupe founded to give underprivileged youth a new way. I wasn't expecting much, but the show turned out to be really good. They had eight young performers who did some amazing acrobatic and balancing acts. The story revolved around the takeover of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, where millions of Cambodians were killed. As a part of the show, an artist would do live paintings to complement the story line. In one case, he drew a Buddah, and then covered it with black, and then bombs, to signify how the Khmer Rouge banned religion. Both Bryve and Laurel were moved to tears, but the story did have a happy ending, and everyone was fully entertained.

Our third day, while the girls did a spa day, Bryce and I rented ATVs and took a guided tour of the countryside.  Our two hour trip took us to a cool Buddhist temple, some ruins, a village, many houses on stilts, and some way-out backroads through rice paddies and cow pastures.  Occasionally, a cow resting in a puddle would have to move for us as we splashed through.  It was great fun driving ATVs, and we got to see parts of the countryside that would otherwise be inaccessible. Great fun.

After our adventure, Bryce and I had lunch at yet another good French restaurant, and then proceeded to walk home in a driving rainstorm.

Dinner that night was on Pub Street in town.  This is the center of Siem Reap, and it sports many bars and restaurants, with an international feel.  It would be paradise for 20-somethings, but we enjoyed it too.  Sue was keen on seeing some Cambodian Apsara dancers, and one of the bars has a nightly show, so we got drinks after dinner and enjoyed the dancers,  It was actually very India-like - both the dancing and the music.

On our final morning, Sue, Bryce and I took one last tuk-tuk ride to Angkor Wat, and re-enjoyed the temple and the murals in the morning.

There’s a lot to explore in Siem Reap, and it would be an interesting place to live as an ex-pat.  We really only scratched the surface, but someday we may return!

Saigon

Leaving Da Nang airport, we embarked upon the last two days with our group in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.  

Immediately upon arriving, we visited the Cu Chi tunnels, about 90 minutes bus ride away.  The tunnels were used by Viet Cong rebels to defend themselves against US troops in the Vietnam war.  The VC dug an intricate system of gopher-like holes, with many chambers and secret entrances to protect themselves.  The tunnels were deep enough to withstand bomb strikes, and so small that only rice-eating VC could fit inside them. Some chambers were decoys and booby trapped as well. We got to try crawling through one of the original tunnels, and I barely made it half way. It was not for the claustrophobic.

laurel descending into a hiding hole

Kids love tanks

The Cu Chi tunnels also had a display of the various booby traps employed by the VC. Different styles of trap doors would maim the unfortunate soldier who stepped on them, faling into a pit with  variety of metal or bamboo spike formations. Quite clever.

Also as a part of the tour was the opportunity to shoot Vietnam era weaponry.  I chose an AK47, and squeezed off 10 shots.  One of the teens in our group got to shoot a machine gun.  Being able to do this added to the overall atmosphere of re-enacting the wartime feeling, and  when not shooting, just hearing gunfire in the background was an eerie reminder of the area’s past.

That night, after a seemingly endless bus ride back into Saigon, we were prepared to go out and explore.  Saigon is the other large city in Vietnam besides Hanoi, yet it is more modern and congested.  Motorbikes still rule, and there are so many of them they literally take over everything.  Most irritating is the frequent rogue biker who insists on using the sidewalk as an extension of the roadway. We literally had to walk single file so as not to get hit on the sidewalk.  Crossing the street may be a little easier than Hanoi since there were numerous traffic lights, but it felt more dangerous since you had to be on the lookout for motorbikes every moment.

Motorbike armies everywhere

Bryce had a severe skin itching attack on the bus, so Sue stayed with him and Laurel and I went out with a group for our first dinner.  Didi chose Pizza 4P’s, not what one would pick for true authentic Vietnamese food, but it was an awesome foodie event nonetheless.  4P’s makes their own cheese, and creates Japanese inspired flavorings in many of their dishes.  We ordered several pizzas, including Prosciutto and Burrata, Duck with Gorgonzola and Apple, Camenbert with Ham and truffle oil, and a few more.  These were the most amazing pizzas ever, as the toppings and crusts were perfect and flavorful.  I don’t think having eaten a steady diet of Vietnamese food the few days before had anything to do with it - these were truly extraordinary pizzas.  We even had dessert pizzas, with fruit and Camembert ice cream on top. Awesome.

The next day was our only full day in Saigon, so we started with a tour of the War Remnant Museum. This had artifacts and photos from the Vietnam war, and retold the history with no holds barred.  In addition to the weaponry, a lot of photos showed the gruesome side of war, including the effects of Agent Orange.  What was remarkable is the amount of money and resources the USA plowed into this war. It was powerful, and moving.  

After the museum, we ventured to the Ben Thanh market, Saigon’s central market, where they have anything and everything.  Bargaining is expected, and we bought some clothes to extend our laundry for a couple of days.  We also experimented with some of the weird gelatinous smoothies.  The vibe was similar to a Mexican market, with equally odd, different stuff.  The only different was that the vendors were extremely aggressive, especially around the food stalls.  I probably would have eaten more, but didn’t want to deal with the pushy people.

Trying to decide

Laurel enjoying a weird milkshake

That night was our last group meal together, and I found the Barbeque Garden restaurant two blocks from our hotel.  It is a large outdoor patio, with gas grills in the middle of each table for you to cook your own food.  We ordered several plates of meat to try, as well as three “tiger towers” of beer.  All but three of our group were there, and it was a great celebratory way to end our trip together.

The kids table at BBQ Garden

Tiger tower

Finally, the teenagers went to see a late movie at the cinema in the hotel complex, and the adults ventured up to the hotel’s rooftop bar, where we had a few more beers and danced to the DJ.  We had the whole place to ourselves with the exception of a group of 20-something Australian girls. Charles was able to get them up to join us and we danced for a long time, high above the city, with a beautiful view and a DJ mostly to ourselves.  

Rocking the rooftop disco

It was a great last day together.