With everyone heading home to their families for Thanksgiving long weekend, and with my own family half a world away, I was keen to escape California for a short vacation somewhere warm. I found a partner in crime in my Aussie friend Tanya, who I’ve known since undergrad and who just wrapped up her own MBA and now works as a consultant in LA. Together we searched for the ultimate destination “south of the border” and settled on Tulum, a beachside town a few hours south of Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula. Sun, surf, sand, palm trees and ice cold pina coladas sounded JUST the ticket!
After a relatively hassle-free trip down (minus the chaos of Mexico city airport!), Tanya and I rendezvous-ed at the airport, picked up our hire car, and raced down the highway towards the border with Belize. After a couple of hours we arrived at Tulum and checked into our hotel room, set back just behind the beach. And within 20 minutes we were already on the beach!
Most of our time was spent on or around the beach – not surprising, really! 🙂 Our hotel had a lovely stretch of beach with two rocky headlands at either end and some good surf, but our fave place was a short drive further south to another bungalow-style hotel which had a great restaurant and bar (complete with a night of salsa dancing!) under the palm trees.
Our small beach at sunset.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……………………..
One of Tulum’s highlights are the dramatically located Mayan ruins along the coast just north of the town, and we took a couple of hours to wander around the site and enjoy the incredible views from the cliffs overlooking the Caribbean.
We set aside one day and drove out to the great Mayan city of Chichen Itza. Having previously seen other amazing Mayan ruins at Tikal, Palenque and Copan, I was keen to see how this one measured up. It took us a couple of hours to drive north-east towards Valladolid in the interior of the peninsula, and Chichen Itza was another remote half an hour beyond that.
We were fortunate enough to arrive before the tour buses from Cancun got there, meaning we were able to enjoy the Gran Plaza (Great Plaza) in – relative – peace. In the centre of the plaza stood El Castillo (The Castle), a giant pyramid of outstanding symmetry and scale. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to climb it (one recent change since Chichen Itza made the “World’s Seven Wonders” list) but it was still an incredible sight.
El Castillo – wow!
Tanya and I spent a good few hours wandering around the complete site, including the Ball Court, Cenote Sagrado (Sacred Cenote), Grupo de las Mil Columnas (Group of the Thousand Columns) and El Caracol (The Snail, an unusually shaped building believed to be an ancient observatory). While I enjoyed Chichen Itza, I certainly felt it missed the remoteness and lush green tropical rainforest settings of Tikal and Palenque.
The enormous ball court.
(R) The circular observatory.
(R) Noughts won.
Another highlight of the Yucatan are the many cenotes (sinkholes). Some of these are open for swimming, snorkelling and diving in the crystal clear turquoise water, surrounded by stalactites and other limestone formations. Over a couple of days we hit up a few of the popular ones, Gran Cenote (Great Cenote) and Cenote Dos Ojos (Two Eyes Cenote).
(L) Gran Cenote. (R) Cenote Dos Ojos.
One of the great perks of working at Bain are its global training sessions, where trainees and trainers come together from all across the Bain network. The first of these is New Consultant Training (NCT) which is usually held in Miami, but this session was held in Montreal for the first time.
It was a great but busy week. My team (“Lucky Seven”) was a diverse mix of nationalities (Australia, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium) and backgrounds (new Consultants, promoted Associate Consultants, even a Manager that had just joined Bain from another firm). We had a lot of fun together and worked pretty well as a team, finishing solidly in the top five. The days were typically quite busy with lessons and exercises, but in typical Bain style we went out late every night. Montreal was an awesome location in that regard with a great nightlife – restaurants, bars, clubs etc.
After traveling to crappy Texas every week for work, I finally got rewarded when I was asked to travel to Asia to run a series of management interviews for my client. It was a last-minute decision and was a tight trip, squeezed between the Bain offsite in San Diego (I raced back from it, swapped over my bags, and went straight back to the airport), another week in Austin, and New Consultant Training in Montreal. On the plus side I was able to score a first class ticket on my fave airline, Singapore Airlines, which was a fantastic experience!
First class Singapore Airlines = awesome!!! Personal service, pyjamas, more legroom than you could ever need, and a bed complete with bedsheet and duvet!
After a stopover in Hong Kong I arrived in Singapore feeling quite refreshed. I checked into the hotel and met up with fellow Bainee Alex, who’d flown over on a different airline. We’d timed our flights so that we’d have Sunday to explore Singapore (and get over jetlag).
One of the more fascinating sights we saw was a Buddhist temple.
After Monday at the client site we met up with the other half of our team, went for a few drinks (typical!) and a great dinner out.
(L) Raffles by night. (R) Singapore Slings all round!
After just a couple of days in Singapore, Alex and I flew north up to the island of Penang off the coast of mainland Malaysia.
(L) Chinese theatre on the streets of Georgetown. (R) A very dodgy bar.
(L) Cramped taxi. (R) Sleepy consultants.
With all the work done for the week, and Alex jetting off to Ireland for the next leg of his trip, I had a free day on Penang to go sightseeing. I caught a taxi up to Georgetown, rented a motorbike (bit of tradition by now whenever I find myself on an island) and went off to experience some of the island’s sights, sounds and tastes.
The quaint colonial streets of Georgetown.
Incredible stone carvings within the temple…
(L) Ants on my rainforest hike. (R) A nice beach at the end of it.
Tropical fruits for sale. Mangosteens = yummy. Durian = stinky.
(L) Yet another temple. (R) Giant incense sticks!