Hong Kong

Ah, the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. SUCH a fabulous city as it soars high in the sky...the architecture having a complete personality of its own. Victoria and I ventured out to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong to the Jade Market to do a little shopping and also to accomplish some business-oriented tasks. I seem to find something jewelry-oriented to do wherever I go. In the picture below, I am sorting through beads for a woman who is stringing some bracelets for me. All the heavy challenges of picking through pearls and gemstones worked up our appetite so we headed to a traditional Chinese lunch of "Dim-Sum." As we sat down, I had a sudden revelation. I realized that about 15 years ago, it was with Victoria's father, Fred that I had my first Dim-Sum experience. He took our college group to a restaurant in Manhattan's Chinatown for Dim-Sum lunch. And now, I'm here in Hong Kong with Victoria enjoying her first foray into the craziness that IS typical chinese Dim-Sum. My dad said there was a wonderful sense of symmetry about that. Indeed.


We continued to explore the Kowloon side a bit and soon headed back to Hong Kong Island or "Central" as the locals call it. One of the beauties of Hong Kong is the MTR train system. It is a fast, efficient way to move in between the two sides of Hong Kong and to get around both the Kowloon and Central sides. I have only stayed on the island side and seem to gravitate to that side, it being the business center and foundation for some of the best architecture I've seen. One of the easiest MTR stops for me is the IFC. (the International Finance Center). It is a central point for business people as well as locals who just like good shopping. Less busy than hectic Causeway Bay, I tend to gravitate to IFC. There is a great little movie theater, a "City Super" (the most amazing grocery store in the world) as well as a Valentino store (my mother ship).

Victoria "indulged" me by letting me drag her through some of the amazing buildings that dot the skyline. One of my personal favorites is the Bank of China building. An I.M.Pei icon, the triangular plan springs from the foundation, rises in famed I.M. Pei style creating a myriad of lines and surfaces against the futuristic Hong Kong backdrop. We also hit the Norman Foster building - the main Hong Kong bank building, home of the famous bronze Hong Kong Lion. (which also graces the Hong Kong Twenty Dollar Note).




We continued to explore the city in our last few days in Hong Kong. Heading up "the Peak," we hoped to catch some beautiful views of the city. Sadly, the fog had set in (something we San Franciscan's are quite familiar with) so we couldn't get a full view of the beauty that is Hong Kong from that height. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our time, made the best of our trip atop the peak and continued to amuse ourselves and laugh whenever possible.

Macau

We decided to take a flight out of Bangkok to Macau which is not far from Hong Kong by ferry (Hong Kong being our ultimate destination). Macau is a tiny once-Portugese colony which still retains some of its European flair. Its interesting how many churches exist here. Additionally, the old colonial style architecture is quite beautiful. The photo above is one of the famous churches in Macau...this one in particular, St. Pauls, now stands in ruins with only the facade intact.


Wandering down through the city from the high point of St. Pauls, we discovered more churches and cathedrals, as well as little spots of Chinese culture which continue to crop up over the decades and entertwine with the lovely European architecture. Victoria and I found this charming little traditional Chinese garden right in the middle of the bustling city. It was a great little enclave of quiet amidst the hustle and bustle of busy Macau.



We ended up at the Macau tower for dinner which is a restaurant not too different from Seattle's Space Needle. It rotates to offer 360 views of Macau which lights up quite colorfully at night. Victoria and I paced ourselves at the delectable buffet and limited our intake since we caught a glimpse of a huge chocolate fountain on the way in. I have to say, of all the amazing choices offered... scrumptuous Indian, live river prawns, a gourmet cheese bar, and even Singaporean cuisine, our favorite was a simple piece of pineapple run under the chocolate fountain. Just pure flavor. We were "serenaded" by a sweet little trio. As they continued around the perimiter of the restaurant taking requests, we took in our own little concert. My song request was "Let it Be" (one of my favorites) which I think they did a fairly good job on. Its a hard song!! I especially like the little guitar rift in the middle. Its fairly hard to get all the audio, but hopefully you can get a glimpse of how cute the little trio was.

Southern Thai Islands

So of COURSE, Victoria and I had to head south to one of my favorite places ...Koh Phi Phi. She gets to hear me talk about it all the time so I figured I would let her see what all the fuss was about. We flew into Phuket and got up early and took a speed boat over to Koh Phi Phi. After stopping first at Maya Bay for some walking around in the "jungle," we headed around to the back of the island for some snorkeling. Koh Phi Phi is comprised of two islands...Koh Phi Phi Lei and Koh Phi Phi Don. (Don being the bigger one). Phi Phi Lei offered us some great snorkeling. Victoria was a natural. I didn't even really have to teach her anything. She was totally cool and very much at ease in the water and breathing. She was able to see a variety of marine life ...Parrotfish, Moorish Idols, various wrasses, Damselfish and even a triggerfish. (a little one). As we headed back to our boat, we noticed a boat named "J. Mansion" which made both of us think immediately of Victoria's brother John Mark whose awesome podcast is entitled "J.Mix." Victoria did her own little rendition of the podcast intro here on the video. For those of you who have heard John Mark's podcast intro, this will be hilarious. For the others who haven't, thank you for indulging us.






We headed on to Phi Phi Don with a little stop at Monkey Beach to see the monkeys. I was fairly suprised at how they weren't afraid to come aboard in hopes of a banana tossed their way. They are brave little creatures. Heading on to Phi Phi Don for lunch, we swiftly scarfed down a little meal since we were limited with our time in Tonsai Bay (the main little village of Phi Phi Don). I wanted Victoria to see the Tsunami damage so we ventured to the back side of Lo Do Lum Bay. The backside hasn't really improved much since my last visit a year ago. The main area of town however is looking good and a little better developed.





Venturing onward to Kai Island, we had another snorkeling opportunity and pressed on with excitement. Upon reaching the site, we saw a number of pink jellyfish and moved forward with a little more trepidation. Our boat captain told us that some grey tipped reef sharks were over congregating by the southern tip of the little atoll and I of course, dragged Victoria over that direction... TOTALLY against her will. As we headed over, she saw a large one of them and I saw what I believed to be a baby shark. Right around that time, we both came up out of the water and said to each other . . "I have this unbearable stinging..." - Victoria on the neck and me on my lips and face. We started to head back and the stinging increased. Our boat captain said we probably got stung by a jelly that was somewhere around us that we simply didn't see. It was really painful. Venturing ashore onto Kai Island, one of the local girls rubbed some weird leaves on both of us. It supposedly stops the stinging . . .it didn't. PLUS we turned a weird shade of green. So we were not only in pain, but also ugly. It really didn't go away until the next day. All in all, I guess it was a blessing. It may have been worse had we ventured into baby shark territory. Mama sharks can be mean ... even if they ARE docile reef sharks.



We did not want to leave island life, but reluctantly headed to the airport all to find our flight delayed by an hour. To pass the time, we watched "Elizabethtown" on my portable DVR and were at least consoled by the sight of Orlando Bloom. The plane finally showed up to get us about two hours late, putting us into Bangkok about 2 in the morning. We were pretty delirious by that point so anything and everything sent us into total hyterics. Sometimes total fatigue can end up being quite fun.

Ayuthaya

Today, we headed to Ayuthaya which is an area of ruined temples dating from the 1300's. Somewhat similar to Angkor Wat and Sukothai, it was amazing to trek through ruins with such history. We really enjoyed exploring about and checking out the various Buddha statues and carvings. However, to say it was brutally hot would be kind. We couldn't drink enough fresh coconut water. (which naturally cools you down). I wish I had an endless supply. A camelback would be nice.




Elephants being a major element of Thai culture, they naturally would have them waiting to cart tourists around the various temple grounds. Victoria and I opted for doing it on foot so that we could crawl all over the ruins and explore, but we stopped off for a little fun in the middle of our day to play with the elephants. Feeding elephants is always fun and having done it in both Thailand and India, I knew she would enjoy it.





Our last temple of the day we both agreed was our favorite. It was the most picturesque and unique. We climed the main stairs into the little dark pinnacle tower and made an interesting discovery. As we walked inside the little temple up top, we heard a strange chirping sound. I was checking out the carvings when Victoria hestitantly told me to look up. There, hanging from the ceiling were about a hundred bats. Eeewww!! I did NOT know that bats chirp... but you learn something new every day. SO gross. This not being my first encounter with bats, I wasn't too freaked out. However, I didn't want to hang around or anything in there. I was really proud of Victoria. She thought it was pretty cool. Definitely NOT her mother's daughter in this case. ;-)








We headed back to Bangkok for some work things for me and ended up at the Oriental Hotel - one of the oldest hotels in Southeast Asia. Beautiful grounds and lush surroundings make it a fun place to explore. One of the cool things about hotels on the river are their own little "shuttle boat" services. We hopped on the Oriental shuttle and headed down the river for dessert - or a dessert buffet rather. (at the recommendation of our friend Catherine Kot). We had to cut ourselves off.

Finishing off the evening at Saum Lum Night Bazaar - night bazaars being another typical Thai event, we found ourselves utterly exhausted after such a long day and began dreaming of our beds as soon as our bodies entered the taxi. Ah, adventures !!

Victoria's first trip to Bangkok

Victoria and I made it ! No trouble or major challenges. The funniest part of the journey over was Victoria's observation of the inflight emergency video and "What to do in a water landing." She looked over at me during the life vest demonstration wide-eyed and said, "THAT guy is SMILING!!! WHAT on earth does he have to be so happy about. I would NOT be so chipper if I actually had to USE that life vest." I got a good laugh out of that one.

Our first day out we headed to Chatuchak Market because as anyone who has been here knows ...Thailand is much about the markets. This is the largest indoor market in the country and has everything imaginable. I've already written about it in an entry so I won't go into more details. Against the advice of my mom who has been here before, I let Victoria venture into the pet area where she immediately cooed over the many adorable puppies for sale. I can hear my mother now scolding me in disappointment. . . "OH, the DISEASES!!" Please, they are JUST puppies!! How harmful can they be. ... and MOM, they DON'T have BIRD FLU!!!! We had alot of fun exploring and seeing all the fun stuff. We needed our own little movie montage as we tried on dozens of pairs of sunglasses. We especially enjoyed these particular pairs as they gave us a great laugh at ourselves. Our new motto about ultra-oversized sunglasses ..."Just Say No."





After soaking in as much Chatuchak as possible, we headed to the new Paragon Center in Siam Square and saw a movie. Movies here are a bit different from the U.S. in that one has assigned seating. We opted for the V.I.P. section . . because . . why not?? Upon arriving, I was freezing and jokingly said to the usher, "got a blanket?" (not really thinking he understood me) and after escorting us to our plush loveseat sofa for two in a prime spot in the theater, he returned with a large pouch and handed it to me. I unzipped it to find a lovely silk blanket that Victoria and I immediately curled up in. If only we could take a few cues from these Thais about hospitality. Needless to say, watching "Inside Man" in style would be an understatement.