Hong Kong

Sitting here writing this blog, we contemplated our reasoning for visiting Hong Kong during our trip of SE Asia. We had already visited China during the 2008 Olympics, so we had already explored Chinese culture, food, fashion, history, architecture and society.  We didn't need to catch a flight and there are no must see attractions (actually there are very few tourist attractions).  The best reason we can conjure is because when the opportunity arises "you just have to visit Hong Kong" and thankfully we did.

We won't beguile you with the facts about the city or the long history of how Hong Kong became a British port and now Chinese Special Administrative Region. You can use the Google Machine for all those, but what we will tell you is this city is striking. 

There is  something about the constant movement of people, the efficient mass transportation, the combination of iconic skyscrapers interspersed with low scale historic buildings and the sprawling well manicured parks that just makes you feel comfortable in the most dense urban city in the world.

Hong Kong is also one of the most expensive cities in the world and being on a budget, we felt it especially, when trying to find reasonable accommodations.  Unless you want to stay at the infamous Chungking Mansion, known for being a fire trap death sentence, rittled with illegal immigrants, scammers, thieves, drugs and prostitution, you have very few options. We were not interested in that kind of adventure so we chose to stay a few miles outside the city center in the brand new, government run, Y-Loft Youth Square and visit Chungking Mansion instead (pictured below).

 

We really enjoyed taking in the Hong Kong skyline, which due to it's small amount of land, 425 sq miles (roughly half the size of Rhode Island) filled with 7 million people, they learned to build vertically.  Hong Kong now contains more sky scrapers than any other city in the world and includes iconic towers like the International Commerce Center (third tallest in the world), Two International Finance Center Tower, Central Plaza ...

I.M. Pei's Bank of China Tower,

the brutualistic HSBC Building

The island has a mountain in the middle and the entire city moves down it's slope to the harbor.  We were afforded a bird's eye view of the sweeping city skyline by taking the Peak Tram from Central station to the top of Victoria Peak. 

After exploring the top of the city, we yearned for a closer inspection, which we were afforded by the famous Star Ferry service that crosses Victoria Harbor and provides scenic views.  It was from the harbor that we got a closer inspection of the ongoing harbor reclamation work.  Since there is no room to for sprawl they are constantly growing into the harbor by reclaiming land and building on it.

During the day, we spent our time visiting museums and getting lost in the city, but once the sun went down, the real action started.  One of our favorite parts was the local's ability to picnic everywhere. Due to the small amount of personal living space, friends and family build little forts in all the available covered public spaces to talk, eat, drink, play cards before heading home.

Then every evening at 8:00pm, the skyline lights up in unison for the Symphony of Lights.  For fifteen minutes, the harbor and skyline is filled with an array of colored lights, laser beams and searchlights dancing to synchronized music emitting from the city. Our favorite part was the juxtaposition of the poor fisherman, alone in the harbor. Here we are in one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced cities in the world captivated by some shiny lights, while he is  trying to catch dinner to feed his family.

 

 

Our favorite restaurant was Tim Ho Wan, the cheapest Michelin star rated restaurant in the world.  The chef was previously at the Hong Kong's Four Seasons Hotel before he got burned out and turned his attention to his true passion, amazingly cheap dim sum.  People stand outside for hours, take constant abuse from the dictatorial hostesses, and sit on top of each other in the crowded shoebox sized space just for a taste of his famous BBQ Pork Buns.  But its so worth it.  Just imagine taking a melt in your mouth southern corn biscuit and filling it with BBQ beans and pork belly and top it off with a little caramelized brown sugar.  Awesome! Plus, while waiting outside, you get to peruse the local store fronts filled with imitation military BB guns while drinking 7-11 bought beer.

Although not planned, we got lucky and timed our visit to coincided with the annual Hong Kong Seven's Rugby Tournament.  Mostly Australians, Europeans and Kiwis, and even some players, would descend on the dedicated nightlife area, Lan Kwai Fong, to celebrate the day's win's and losses.  New Zealand ended up winning, but we felt like the real winners after getting to party with these Australians dressed up like Superman and Wonderwoman.

Plus, check out this couple fighting in the middle of street. We couldn't resist taking a photo of two fighting Panda's.  Man, was she pissed. We think he ate all the bamboo.

Our last accolade for Hong Kong is for the Airport. We had high expectations as it was billed as the best Airport in the world and unlike Thailand, it certainly lived up to it's reputation.  We were able to check-in our luggage at the downtown express train station and have it delivered right to the airport.

Also at the airport, we were able to get our final Japanese Ramen fix. As detailed in our Singapore post, after AB was introduced to true, melt-in-your-mouth, simmer-all-day salty pork bone Ramen, he made it his personal mission to get some in every city where it was offered.  We sampled some in Singapore, searched out a small shop in Saigon, almost got lost in Bangkok lusting after a location that promised 10 different ramen chefs, and finally, we got our last bowl of true Ramen in the Hong Kong Airport. Seriously, if anyone knows a truly great Ramen place in DC, drop AB a line. 

Chiang Mai - Great Expectations

Our adventure in Luang Prabang unfortunately came to an end.  Of all the places we visited on our trip, we were the most disappointed to leave LP and even extended our stay by two days.  After unsuccessfully trying to extend it even further, we gave in to the inevitability that would have to leave and headed to back to Thailand, begrudgingly.

When we decided to trek through SE East Asia for four months, Thailand was our muse. Visions of a beautiful tropical paradise with white sand beaches, friendly people - a notion supported by its nickname,  The Land of Smiles - and out of this world food.  Our original plan was to spend an entire month (out of four) exploring every inch of Thailand including Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the Gulf of Thailand, Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands.  Unfortunately, after our first two weeks in Thailand sampling both city and island life, we had this unwelcome feeling that Thailand wasn't living up to expectations - ML downright hated it.  However, every traveler to Thailand raved about Chiang Mai, so we withheld our final judgment til after we had explored Chiang Mai for ourselves.

We again risked life on a Lao airlines flight to Chiang Mai, but this time our nerves were calmed by a combination of knowing we would not be on a Chinese made plane, that the french recently supplied technical assistance and planes to Lao airlines and about 4 Beer Lao Darks each.

Chiang Mai is located in the northern mountain regions of Thailand and known for laid back atmosphere (compared to Bangkok), its cultural and famous night market. It was originally a walled city surrounded by a canal but all most all the wall has been torn down except for a few gates that were saved for posterity.  The canal still exists around the city and provides for a great walking excursion.

Inevitably, when looking up the ubiquitous "What to do" section in your guidebook for any SE Asia location, the highlights are always visiting temples and Wats.  After nursing our "Temple-itis" in LP, we decided we would hit the five biggest temples in Chiang Mai.  Overall, the one that really stood out for us was the Wat Chedi Luang.  Built in 1400 it's central element is a large chedi surrounded by a moat and huge elephant statues.  An earthquake toppled part of the dome in the 16th century and it was never rebuilt, providing a striking relief against the sky as the dome still looks as if it is crumbling. 

It was at one of the temples we visited in Chiang Mai that AB found a very intriguing practice.  Unlike all the temples in Bangkok that were immaculately adorned and well cared for, most of the Wat's in Chiang Mai are still in the process of being built.  One temple didn't have enough money to gold leaf it's bronze statues so locals and tourists are encouraged to purchase a small sheet of gold leaf and do it themselves.  It provides amazing texture and gives the statues a unique touch we hand not experienced anywhere else.  Plus, it was interesting to see which statues received more gold-leaf than others.

Also, we found the following two signs at temples we visited, the first speaks for itself and should actually be the unofficial welcome sign for Thailand and the second is a rough guide on appropriate dress for visiting temples.

Finally, here is ML and AB practicing on the ceremonial gong used to announce the start of the temple festivities and a future Thai percussionist.

Beyond  taking in the cultural diversions, we spent the majority of our time trying to beat the extreme heat of the city by laying out poolside at our hotel, working on the blog, and trying all the local variations on our favorite Thai dishes like Koh Soi and Pad Thai. In the evenings we had the opportunity to see Eden and Mariclaire again, spend time shopping in the night market and dropping in on the the local college bars to experience Thai nightlife complete with live bands at an outdoor club.  In the club, they brought girls-going-to-the-bathroom-together to a whole new level by installing two toilets in each bathroom stall.

Interestingly enough, we also experienced an earthquake in Chiang Mai as a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Burma and tremors were felt all over Thailand, even as far south in Bangkok.  When we first felt the tremors we were in our hotel and had no idea what was going on, until ML remembered what it felt like when she experienced one in Guam and raced to grab passports, wallets, phones and chargers. For the next hour we sat outside bracing for possible aftershocks with other guests and waiting for hotel employees to give us any sort of report but in true Thai fashion, they pretended nothing happened and just kept smiling.  Luckily, there wasn't any damage in the immediate area and we were able to return safely to our room. Below is a photo of ML in her earthquake outfit i.e. anything that she could throw on in case we were stranded.  Oh, and of course a beer. When the building your in shakes and the only thought is " I could use a beer", you should probably ask yourself if you have a problem.

Overall, Chiang Mai was OK, but not the over-the-top amazing destination that would give us the shot in the arm we needed to continue exploring Thailand.  So, we said "fucket" to Phuket and scrapped our plans to head south and instead added a new destination to our itinerary, Greece.

Naturally one seeks to answer why it was such a let down. Was it us or was it Thailand?

There are a number of factors on each side of the equation.  In fairness to the accused we will start.  Yes, we probably had unrealistic expectations that had been systematically implanted in our brains by overzealous travel writers pumping up Thailand and her people as the idea of paradise lost.  Yes, we had grown weary from spending months on the road and we were suffering from a nearly deadly case of "temple-itis" that comes from being on the road for months. Yes, we had just left two third world countries, Cambodia & Laos, that completely blew away our expectations, over delivered in the hospitality department and left us actively re-arranging schedules not to leave. And yes, we had planned our trip to "Save the best for last" and had pretty much already done every activity Thailand offered, twice. 

Now for the accused.  Thailand, in our experience, ended up being a confused and beautiful place filled with people who are equally confused and (somewhat) beautiful.  Similar to the movie Beaches, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, it is full of dirty hippies, only there is no beautiful beach to make it all melt away into the background.  The drug, alcohol, and prostitution scene is never-ending, pervasive, and constantly in your face.  The locals do smile, but mostly while trying to get you to buy something. The beaches were once beautiful but are dirty and over-run with tourists.  In a short, Thailand, her people and their culture have been exploited.

As far as closing arguments go, it seems we were both complacent parties.  Sure, Bangkok was unlike any other place we have ever been, at times we did receive a warm welcome and friendly smile, and we enjoyed meals and diving we will probably never replicate. But as you often learn too late in life, expectations can get the the best of us, and unfortunately the Thailand we expected was already used up.

Shangri-La

Vientiane really surprised us. We entered Laos with very little expectations and found an amazing place.  Even though Vientiane was a great introduction to the Laotians, after a few days we were ready to move on and excited to discover, what some ancient explorers once believed was the fabled Shangri-La, the mountain town of Luang Prabang. After a bunch of beers to calm of nerves and a quick plane ride at 18k feet, which although not eventful was harrowing, considering the very poor safety record of Lao airlines - ML made them change our flight for free to avoid the Chinese made planes many websites and the US government suggest avoiding - we touched down at the small airport in LP.

Luang Prabang is  located in Northern Laos at the confluence of the Nam Khan River and the Mekong River with a population around 100,000. The old city is comprised of four gorgeous streets located on a peninsula, and perched atop the cliffs that lead down to the rivers. The location makes for amazing scenery as you awake each morning to see villagers washing, fishing or playing in the river or crossing the rickety bamboo bridges erected during the dry season to cross the rivers.

The city was formerly the capital of the Luang Prabang Kingdom and until 1975, the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos.  Therefore, it has hundreds of temples and Wat's littered through the city. We explored them all and were really amazed at the intricate mosaics and captivating architecture. 

Our favorite temple was Wat Chom Si, which sits perched atop the largest hill in town, Phou Si, and provides fantastic vista's of the entire city and its environs.

LP is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which in addition to bringing much needed tourists to help the economy, has helped it preserve the quaint village feel with idyllic street scape of French provincial style houses.

With its wealth of Buddhist temples and monasteries, LP has a thriving population of monks.  In order to feed themselves, every morning since the 14th century, hundreds of monks draped in their traditional deep orange robes, walk the streets collecting alms (typically sticky rice and fruit) from the local villagers.

The ceremony was meant to be very peaceful, quiet and solemn. The monks prostrating themselves before the community to be fed, depending on their generosity for sustenance.  However, like everything pure in this world, it is being heavily exploited as a tourist draw.  Poorly dressed tourists with cameras kept getting to close, using flashes, village children kept hassling tourists to get "donations" and the Asian tourists just wouldn't keep quite. 

In addition to the natural and historical sites in the city, we took some field trips to visit the fantastic Kuang Si Falls and the Elephant Village.  The Falls were beautiful, set amongst the lush jungle with its own Black Bear Rescue center. The water was deep blue and the underneath the water falls there were many small swimming pools that make for a great escape from the sometimes oppressive mid-day heat.

After our Bali elephant safari, we were excited to spend some more time learning and interacting with some pachyderm, so we visited the Luang Prabang Elephant Village and Sanctuary, where we took a mahout (the elephant trainers) class, which taught us how to feed, bath, and steer our elephants - we use the term steer loosely as it's more like, suggest a direction and pray.

It was an awesome day!  ML who has ridden horses for the past 20 years thought she would be a natural (no joke, she semi joked about how she would be the best mahout they've ever seen), but it was AB who ended up as the star pupil spending the day coxing his elephant around the village while ML had a tough time just getting on the elephant.  The highlight was taking the elephants down to the Mekong river and given them a bath.  Apparently, AB's elephant was a hippo in a prior life. It loved the water so much it would dunk it's head and not come up for minutes at a time, repeatedly in the freezing water.

Similar to Vientiane, the food scene in Luang Prabang is awesome, especially the restaurant Tamarind.  We spent the entire time drinking Beerlao Dark, French wine and the local rice whiskey, Lao-Lao, and eating the local specialties which included anything with pumpkin (specifically the soup), buffalo sausage, Mekong river fish steamed in banana leaves, dried seaweed with chili sauce,and the national dish of Lao a cold chicken salad with banana flowers and purple sticky rice. 

Our favorite spot for both food and shopping was the daily night market food stands where you could get a whole grilled fish stuffed with lemongrass and grilled and a plate of food for $1.50.  Then for desert we would get these awesome bite sized coconut pancakes.  Once we were full we would peruse the night market stands for fun trinkets and local handicrafts.

Our favorite spot for drinks was an awesome bar called Utopia.  Set down a winding pathway through local houses, you come to the edge of the Nam Kha where you sit perched upon a large deck over the river, laying on mats, drinking beer, snacking on local specialties and avoiding the native insects till the sun goes down.

Overall, we loved Luang Prabang and similar to the advice we received before we arrived, we too could have stayed for weeks, "just doing nothing".  Hopefully, it will continue to stay a quaint little mountain village with friendly people and great hospitality, but given tourists ability to over-run "undiscovered" places, our bet is against it.