Day 97: Dec. 10th. Island Fever

We found a cute tiny cafe playing Alicia Keys this morning and were both happy. They made a pretty good breakfast and didn't mind that Karla had her own banana.

We took the tram to Central and the ferry to Kowloon to see the Museum of Art (free on Wednesdays). The contemporary exhibit on Antionio Mak included his own works as well as those made by others in response to his work. Mak's work consisted of very impressive and very expressive bronze sculptures. Karla really liked a piece made out of branches, masking tape and brown wrapping paper. Another accumulation artist who uses found objects and likes to wrap them. Turns out that there are more crazies out there! Alicia liked a small bronze figure of a man folding into pieces like and accordion. We both liked Mak's love of big cats. There was even a room with four giant screens showing a tiger really close up.

The other exhibits of antiquities, traditional flower paintings, horse painting and ceramics were very interesting and provided a few hours of entertainment. Anything that keeps us off the streets is a good thing.

We then grabbed a so-so sandwich to go and hopped on a ferry to get back to Central, where we took yet another ferry to the small island of Lamma. No cars are allowed on the island and they depend largely on fishing. We arrived at one port and walked an hour and a half to the next, stopping for a few minutes at the beach to cool our feet off in the pacific ocean. No big deal or anything.

We were accompanied by Mike from Denmark, a pilot of charter planes who we met on the ferry. It turns out that he was more lost than us (although we are quite good at navigating if I do say so myself). It was kind of random but that's how it always is when you meet people while traveling. He was good company and had the great idea of having the most delicious seafood meal you could imagine. Unfortunately we didn't get to the fruit course with enough time as we had to grab the 5:30 ferry to get to Kowloon in time to see the sound and light show over Hong Kong island at 8pm. Before the show we realized that we needed to get money out, and so went on a wild goose chase to get some. Unfortunately it took too long and Mike was no where to be seen when we got back. Hopefully he didn't think we were trying to ditch him, but we figured that he just had to meet his friend for dinner earlier than he thought and had to go. That's how it is on this trip. One minute you meet someone and the next they are just a mere memory. It's sad when you think about all of the people who we have met who we will never see again.

After the show we took a ferry back across and then a tram to the hotel and then walked around to try to find where we were to catch the bus from to get to the airport. We liked the view on the way in and thought it was nicer to take the hour bus (it was also a quarter of the price of the airport metro). We ended the night by packing for Beijing tomorrow and listened to the Blackberry belt out Christmas tunes.
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Day 96: Dec 9th: Over the hills and through the woods...

Our hearty breakfast this morning still seemed like a luxury, and we didn't want to cut it short! Although the restaurant owners did look at K funny when she started chopping a banana that she'd brought into her oatmeal - excuse me, 'porridge' - in the end they decided it was amusing. Maybe tomorrow we'll bring our own coffee too (they seem to like over roasting their beans here)!

We took the ferry to Lantau Island, which is the bigger of the two islands that we were told we must see. Although there are many sights here, the first thing we did after regaining our land-legs was make the short walk to the beach. It was a perfect day, around 73 degrees (Farenheight of course. I'm still not sure I'm able to translate that into Celcius!), and we rejoiced in actually having made it to the other side of the world, and took photos touching the Pacific Ocean to celebrate!

We tore ourselves away from the bright blue ocean and boarded a bus to the top peak of the island, called Ngong Ping. Here we found the biggest bronze sitting Buddha in the world (we've seen bigger, but not in bronze). The statue was impressive in the hills and a postcard we saw proved how cool an areal shot would look.

Lunch was at a restaurant that looks like it would be right in town according to the way it was advertised. Clearly they didn't translate "only a twenty minute walk" into english.

Next on the list was to catch a bus to Tai O, a small fishing village on the other side of the island. It was gorgeous out and so we just walked around the back streets along the water. It was quaint but clean and very beautiful.

We lost track of time, and ended up running back through the village to catch the last bus back to Ngong Ping. Luckily Karla is still young and spry enough to run...Alicia had to resign herself to speed walking because of her bum hip. We took the bus back up to the top of the island at 5pm to take a sunset cable car ride to the other side of the hills where you can easily take a metro back to Hong Kong island. It was both cheaper and much faster. It was also dark already and so we werent missing any great views underground.

Dinner was at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Karla finally ate a meal with actual meat pieces and we even got a serving of steamed lettuce with the rice. What a complete meal! Although Alicia wasn't quite satisfied this time...we can't win here!

Back at the hotel, we watched TV and waited for Natasha to call after her law school exam. She was an '04 Wes grad and friends with Jake, who you may remember from Turkey!

We walked together to a bar with peanuts everywhere and caught her up on life at Wesleyan University. We basically spent the whole time exchanging stories and reminiscing and it was a great night.

We all were very sleepy around midnight and headed home. She was just so friendly. And its always fun to meet other Wes grads. They have this way about them that makes them fun to be around.
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Day 95. December 8. At least we live on 'Fashion Walk'

Breakfast was another hearty meal today. We had porridge and an egg sandwich! I'm pretty sure that someone finally understands that you need a decent breakfast in the morning to function.

On the way to the pier to catch the ferry we tried to detour by a 7-story window nearby that the Lonely Planet suggested we see. We that thought such a big window wouldn't be that hard to find, and when we did get close to finding it, we found that it was undergoing construction. We do think we saw it from the outside when crossing to Kowloon and it pretty much looked like just an oversized window. Wow!

Whereas yesterday we had a view from above, today we had a wonderful view from below on the ferry. It was a short and smooth ride and luckily neither of us fell ill.

We were dropped a few steps from yet another spectacular view looking at Hong Kong. We looked in the book and saw that Hong Kong island has a nightly light show that we will have to see at some point. Next we walked down Nathan Rd. It was shopping central, but a little too nice for us.

We took a left and suddenly we were in Kowloon Park, with goldfish ponds and cute old couples. It was here that we decided to stretch it out. We always like a good dose of funny looks.

Lunch was terrible (for K) because she thought that sweet and sour pork would include some sort of meat. Not so. All she got was fried dough.

Next we walked north towards the jade market. Before we got there, we passed by an incense-filled temple much like the one yesterday. It's just amazing to see so many coils of incense hanging from the roof and slowly giving off smoke. It definitely succeeds in setting the right mood.

The jade market was mostly just an educational experience about what real jade doesn't look like. We ended up spending a good two hours here learning the prices and looking for the occasional real jade. We learned that there are three main classes of jade. A, B, and C. A is real, B is real but enhanced in color with resin, and C is just some stone injected with this bright neon-ish green color. You can spot it right away. The only things we bought were some beads we found in a bin of odds and ends. They look real and they were a good price. Unfortunately Alicia had to wait a bit for indecisive Karla to finish looking around. Her hip was having a bad day.

We took the metro home instead of the ferry, thus saving time and money. The views were much less interesting though .

Alicia walked down the street (it's actually called Fashion Walk-perfect for us who have been wearing the same 3 T-shirts for 3 months!) to the hotel and Karla ran next door to check out 'Computer World' in hopes of finding the new Skype phone. It turns out that she was the only female in the entire store and that Hong Kong did not in fact carry such a device.

We both sat around a little delaying the inevitable hunt for dinner before giving into our grumbling tummies. We zigzagged a bit but found a decent place. Karla had bad luck again but she really thinks her it will change tomorrow. We will see. We made up for it by buying a hefty tub of ice cream to chow on while watching bad TV at the hostel. We are living in luxury!
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Day 94: December 7. Hong Kong

Breakfast today was surprisingly good and filling...we were unsure of what to expect of Cantonese breakfasts after Thai breakfasts had proven to be just like lunch and dinner!

After stuffing our faces at breakfast - some more than others, guess which one! - we walked to the tram, which we took to the 'peak tram' which is really a funicular. The ride up was 'gravity-defying'...we were pretty much at 45 degree angle the whole way up. Good thing we didn't try standing!

The peak was stunning. Well not the peak itself, but the view below of Hong Kong is nothing short of spectacular. We walked all around the tower that the tram delivers you to, but we couldn't find our way out! They try to capture you here so that you buy stuff. Jerks.

When we finally did find our way out, we saw a crowd gathered on the patio of the Peak Tower. We craned our necks to see, and who was there? Well we didn't know, all we saw were a few vans filled with Chinese people. So Karla took a picture to document our brush with fame. We saw on the news later that night that they were the first Chinese astronauts to walk on the moon. We really were in the right place at the right time!

We walked up the road a bit to take in the view (and of course to snap some pictures!), then decided to brave the Tower again for the sake of quelling our hunger. We grabbed a bite at a little cafe, then found our way outside (much more easily this time!), and began our walk around the periphery of the peak. We got about a third of the way and were disappointed because we were in the woods, and didn't have a view of down below at all! But as soon as we started to doubt, we turned a corner and were greeted with a scenic overlook. From then on out, we had more view than we knew what to do with.

When we'd had our fill of the peak, we began our descent. Instead of taking the tram, we walked down Old Peak Rd, which was almost as steep as the tram ride in certain places! We walked down to the HK Botanical and Zoological Gardens, before realizing that neither of us really wanted to be there and walking toward the coast.

We walked through several markets in SoHo, ending up at the Western Market which was mostly closed. That didn't stop us from perusing the fabrics on the textile floor, and looking longingly at the wedding happening upstairs. It would have been so cool to peek in...unfortunately there was a woman guarding the entrance. And we did NOT blend in.

Dinner was next, followed by tea at a tea house. Although they put weird gelatanous balls at the bottom of our cups, we enjoyed the tea and the ambiance that we provided for ourselves by paying Christmas music on the Blackberry. It's quite Christmas-y feeling here...there are decorations everywhere, and of course it's cooler (and cleaner) here than in Thailand. Although the weather feels more like Halloween than Christmas. But it's a start!

We took the tram home, then relaxed and watched 'X-Men' on TV (don't judge our movie taste...there's only one English channel!) before passing out. The end.
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Day 93: Dec 6th. Without a glitch.

We got up a mere two-and-a-half hours after laying our heads on the pillow, and packed our things before hopping in the cab exactly at 7am. Unlike in our college days, we both felt the repercussions of not getting enough shut-eye. We're getting old!

We made one last stop at the 7-Eleven before dozing all the way to the airport. We arrived 4 hours before our flight (!) and everything went swimmingly. After all that, there was no flight delay, no moment of thinking we weren't going to be on the flight...the airport didn't even seem that crowded! Not that we're complaining. We were just surprised.

We spent our extra time taking 'showers' by testing out the perfume section of the duty-free shop, then spending our last baht on breakfast. The good news about being ridiculously early for our flight was that we could give into our fatigue and move slowly!

We napped outside the security check, and Karla watched the Animal Planet show on TV dedicated to elephants and how they are beloved in Asia and Africa. How appropriate! Luckily Karla had not yet fallen asleep when the final boarding call for our flight was announced 45 minutes before our scheduled take-off! We got on the plane and waited those 45 minutes. We figure they were tricking us because the plane was so big that they wanted everyone on well before take-off.

Alicia slept the whole flight, and Karla dozed until lunch-time. The food was surprisingly good for the airplane! We landed on time, and took a while to get out of the airport. Once we did, we took the airbus to our hotel in Causeway Bay. The Hong Kong skyline was just breathtaking. Even though Alicia has been here before (but she was only 5), neither of us expected it to be this beautiful. In fact we weren't expecting much more than just a big city overflowing with asians, farang, and muzungus. We crossed bridges and went under the harbor to get to our hostel. We got quite the deal (by HK standards) for the 5 nights we'll be here.

Once we settled our things, we went back out for dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant, and it was scrumptious. Then we bundled up and walked back. It's much cooler here than Thailand, but it's pleasantly tolerable with a sweatshirt and pants.

Before getting back to our hotel we made a grocery stop at a store in the basement of a skyscraper. At first it looked like a tiny store, but when we got inside, it kept going and going! We love exploring grocery stores to see what kind of weird things they sell that people actually buy! Trust me, we've seen everything (Thailand was a fan of gift baskets that included hilariously matched items -one had a disney princess puzzle, cereal, and a bottle of whiskey together). People are crazy.

We meant to get to bed early, but our hostel room has a working TV (what!?!?!) and 'Bad Boys' was on. So we obviously watched it before taking (hot!) showers and hitting the sack.
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Day 92: December 5th. Happy Birthday to the King! How old are you now...

Katie and her friends left for the beach before sunrise, and we stumbled out of bed to say goodbye to them. It was very sad to see Katie go - staying with her was definitely the silver lining to all of our travel issues. When we got up for real, we changed rooms (a process as usual), then headed out to breakfast.

We ate breakfast at a place called Crepes and Co. and guess what we had? The crepes were overpriced, but yummy. The only serious bad news about the restaurant was that it must have been built directly on a swamp because there were tons of mosquitos. At least we're used to being covered in bites (ug).

Breakfast was followed by quite a journey. We took a sky train to the river pier. From there we took an hour-long ferry boat to the northern most part of the city. It was a gorgeous day, and we really enjoyed watching the city skyline (on both sides of the river!) go by. We even got splashed. A true water ride indeed.

We reached the end of ferry route, but not the end of our journey. We still had a 30 minute-long boat ride to Ko Kret island to go, which we were able to share with some other Western tourists to cut the cost. Its always easy to spot the lost farang.

We arrived hungry, so our first task on the island was to find some lunch. We had some fantastic pad seou, and that mission accomplished, we were able to wander around and enjoy what the island had to offer.

Ko Kret is inhabited by the Mon people, a group indigenous to the territory formerly known as Siam (present-day Thailand). They are known for their skills in creating pottery. As we looked around the crowded market, we noticed that as usual the craftsmen had lost their creativity in order to appeal to the tourists. All of the pottery at every stall looked the same! It was kind of sad, because it wasn't even the same traditional forms. The potters favored making clay mugs in the shape of Hello Kitty and other equally cheesy trademarked characters. People all over the market were drinking through straws out of these clay Hello Kitty mugs. It was bizarre. And a little creepy.

In between looking at different shops selling the same pottery, we saw some old wats (temples)with shrines where people put food. For example, one shrine had pizza and an open juice box laid out before the figure of the god. The one temple we went into was very simple, but in a way its simplicity made the figure of the Buddha inside much more striking than all the elaborate wats we've come across so far.

When we were shopped and watted out, we took a ferry across to mainland, with the help of an adorable Thai family. They made sure that we were on the right ferry, then negotiated transport to the bus for us, pat us on our heads, (even bargained for us,) and sent us off on our merry way. They clearly love farang.

We had a long ride to the center of Bangkok, and although we wanted to go to the Royal Gardens, the bus attendant assumed that we, as every farang in Thailand who looked slightly dirty and smelly, wanted to go to Khao San road (aka backpacker road). So we were dropped off there. And good thing! Because of the King's birthday, the whole road was a giant festival! We were handed candles (yellow - the King's color) and paper flags, and invited to watch the ceremony honoring His Highness on TV in the middle of the street. We did for a while, happily waving our Thai and Royal flags, then carried on down Khao San to see what else was going on.

There was a performance at the end of the road, so we grabbed some pad thai and sat down to watch. the performance consisted of several dance acts, and it was awful! None of the dancers knew which move came next and they were all looking at each other helplessly...I'm just glad the King wasn't there to see it! At least their outfits were super sparkley and hilarious.

While the fireworks went off over the road, Karla and I just took in the loving devotion of the Thai people to their King. Everyone had candles lit, and was singing along to the TV. It was quite the sight.

After dinner, we walked toward the Royal Gardens where we saw the Princess memorial last week. People were streaming away...I guess the main ceremony was over. But there were still 3 performances (or more) taking place simultaneously on big stages! The first was traditional dance, the second was Muay Tay (Thai boxing), and the third was a pop singer performance. There was no good dancing here either. Everything was lit up like crazy, the music was loud, and their outfits were hilarious.
We walked through the park on our way home and noticed that the whole huge monument erected 2 weeks before to honor the late Princess had been taken down! It was especially shocking, considering it had taken over five months to put up...

We grabbed a taxi to the metro, and took that to the skytrain to get back to our hostel. We've used almost every form of transportation imaginable today! We took a quick bathroom break, dropped our stuff off, and went out! We just had to check out the nightlife in Bangkok because we'd hear so much about it...and ended up staying out far too late and getting very little sleep. Thankfully we can (try to) sleep on the plane tomorrow!
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Day 91: Dec 4th. Logistics

We had a lot of things we wanted to do, but as Suphanburi isn't really a tourist destination, we didn't exactly find the elephant riding and meditation classes in English that we wanted. The plus side to being in a totally unfamiliar place is that doing anything takes nearly forever (which means we can never be bored) because you have to figure out how to do it. It's even harder when you don't really know what you are looking for.

We started by trying to get in touch with Cathay Pacific to make sure our flight was still going to happen. It was a lot harder than you'd think. We Skyped, called on a payphone, and surfed their website. We were confirmed, cancelled and back on another flight by lunchtime. A major headache but we were happy that we were leaving. It unfortunately stopped us from going to Chiang Mai, but what can you do when there's government protests that have taken over the airport and forced the prime minister to step down.

In between visiting wats searching for someone who spoke English, we found the Rice Farmer's Museum. Only half of the information in the museum was translated into English, but at least we learned a bit about the farms that we saw every time we took a bus!

Hungry after looking at all that rice, we stopped for lunch before heading back to Katie's to upload some pictures to our blog. (Check it out below!)

Around 4 we went to Sanguan Ying, the school where Katie works, to shadow her after-school class. It was so much fun! She's a wonderful teacher...enthusiastic, funny and energetic. It's was so cool to see one of our friends in a completely different context - at a job - and especially cool to see that she's great at her job!

The three of us walked back to Katie's and got our stuff together to go to Bangkok. The van ride was bumpy, but much funnier this time with 3 additional farang (non-Thais). Muzungu is still our favorite word though. Once in Bangkok, we took 2 cabs to the hotel, and did a quick turn-around for dinner and dessert of mango sticky rice! YUMM. A quick stop at seven eleven and then, to bed!
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