Can I Help?

Today, we planned to head to Kowloon. I slept a bit better, but Gill managed to say goodnight to the kids and was feeling manic about her loss of sleep. I headed down to the gym again, and it was fairly deserted, so perhaps the New Year is approaching. We ate in the other restaurant, and this one had a big buffet.  

We started with dim sum. All the little steamer baskets were piled on top of one another and each one you opened had something different in it. It was a fun game, opening and closing them until you had the baskets that you wanted. Not sure this was appropriate etiquette, but it is what we did: open - ooh - ahh - close. Back at the table, we trade for different dumplings.  

We easily could have stopped at this point, but instead, I went and had a ham and cheese omelet with bacon, some arugula, a bit of hash brown and an English muffin. My omelet as perfect - firm on the outside and squishy on the inside. Gill also had an omelet, but she had some noodles first. I finished off my breakfast with some fruit and homemade whipped yogurt. They had a honeycomb balanced at the toast table and I scooped off a spoonful to plop in the middle of the yogurt. It was all heaven.  

We knew we needed this sustenance because yesterday we walked 10 miles and today would probably be the same (turned out to be 9 - what slackers!). We started our day by heading out to the metro station. We were going to go to one as I thought we were equally between two, but a nice businessman getting out of taxi with his suitcase stopped and asked if he could help and gave us very good directions to a very close stop. The metro had everything in English and we were soon on a train. All the cars are connected and we were the only ones on this 9 car train - it was strange.  

It whisked us under the harbor and up to Mong Kok market. This is where several traditional markets are including the flower market and goldfish market. The stations are confusing but all have good maps that tell you what exit to take depending on where you want to go. Our book had a walk outlined and that was our plan, but this was completely abandoned when we got outside and saw a sign pointing to the flower market, so we just followed those; this lead us to a park, which was a bit like a carnival, but it hadn't opened yet.  

We were about to retrace our steps when a nice lady said, can I help you and then gave us very good directions to the flower market. She then followed us to make sure we got there. We wandered up and down the stalls, it was two streets of nothing but flower shops and they had displays out front. Everyone was making big purchases - I assume to decorate their house or to take to someone.  

As we were about to consult the map for the goldfish market, I heard a tiny voice next to me say, can I help you and there beside me was a little boy with his dad standing beside him with a big grin. We told him where we wanted to go and he gave us very good directions; he also said the bird market was good too, and we shouldn't miss it; we did miss it, but this was because I had recently read this really traumatic Vietnamese short story that involved a bird market.

The cool thing about Kowloon is that you can tell real people live here. There were lots of high rise buildings, but all the windows opened and everyone had their laundry hanging. People were doing actual shopping and standing around having a chat. In Hong Kong central, where we are staying, everything is very clean and crisp, but it doesn't look 'real.'

We walked up and down a regular market where they were mostly selling clothing and then we went down the goldfish market, which sold a lot more than goldfish and was really fish, and plants, and turtles and frogs. I really liked this street, and maybe could have stayed there all day.

We hopped back on the metro and went to harbor area, where we got horribly lost in this awful mall. All the malls are connected - much like they were in Bangkok - and finding something specific was very difficult. We went to a directory and our staring at the floorplan seemed to be bothering the lady minding the floorplan, and she pushed a button, which we thought might list the stores, but resulted in an actual lady coming up on the screen and saying, can I help? We really didn't know what we wanted, so no she couldn't help and this caused her and the minder some distress - so we left.

Gill found some great shoes, I got some great clips and we managed to find the bank, and I was happy to see that USAA unlocked my account. We wandered along the walk of stars and saw all the areas set up for the parade and watching the fireworks. There were lots of crowd control barriers and lots of signs saying - don't panic!

We hopped the metro for the last time and ended up on our side of Hong Kong. We hit the Chinese Arts and crafts shop and I was once again amazed at the cost of a jade bangle - for your information, diamonds are cheaper.

Back at the hotel, we read through our information on the hotel events for the new year, and we did some googling on dinner. In the end, we chose good and close, which turned out to be an Italian place - best in Hong Kong. We had a salad to start, Gill had seafood soup and I had 36 month aged ham. For dinner, Gill had a lamb bolognese, and I had homemade pasta with baby roasted artichokes. We also had a gorgeous bottle of crisp white wine. It was heaven.

On the way back, we realized that we could get to our hotel without going outside as much of Hong Kong is connected with these covered elevated walkways so you can go from one building to the next without going down to the street.

We picked up dessert at the bakery. I had a disgusting green tea cake and Gill had a gorgeous mandarin coconut cake. At least I know what that one tastes like now, I just wish I could erase it from my memory.

Day 1 Hong Kong Central

Well we both woke up at 2 am, I fell back asleep, but Gill didn't and at 0430, I gave up and turned on the light. This was unfortunate, but had some benefits. One of the benefits was that Gill could call Alex and Sarah before they went to sleep and the other benefit was that we were bound to be really tired tonight - right?

After some tea, I went off to check out the gym and then we got ready for breakfast. We had decided the night before which restaurant to eat in because you always have to plan one meal ahead. We headed down to the cafe where we could order off of the menu. The gal at the desk tried to talk us out of it, but we said we really wanted to eat there and so she begrudgingly seated us.  

We both ordered the Chinese breakfast, which was huge and included tea, warm soy milk; congee, which is soupy rice with chicken and condiments of chili, croutons, fried peanuts, abalone (sea snail) and shredded ginger. We also had a mini basket of dim sum with two steamed buns (pork and egg custard), spinach dumpling, shrimp dumpling, and two combo dumplings with pork, shrimp and mushroom. The abalone looked like grey marbled jello and I hid this from view with my excess bowls. It was all very tasty and very filling.

After breakfast, we walked up to the base of Victoria Peak and took the funicular to the top.  The funicular is about a 1.5 kilometers long with 400 feet in elevation change. It is really steep in places. Once at the top, we walked a circuit around the top of the peak and enjoyed the views. Back at the funicular, we braved the crowds and went to the top where the people watching was just as good as the views.

We headed back down and were amazed at the huge crowd waiting to go up, we seemed to have timed it perfectly. We walked through Hong Kong park, which has a huge aviary and a pond filled with catfish and turtles, we dawdled through here as it was really pretty, but our goal was the tea museum.

We found this pretty easy, and it was free. It boasted that it was disinfected 6 times per day. It smelled like it was disinfected 6 times per day and it took me a while to get used to it and decide I could stand it. The museum showed the history of tea and had a very cool pottery collection from very old to very new. It was extremely quiet in there and we were on our best behavior, but toward the end I couldn't take it any more and started laughing like a hyena with tears running down my face. It was weird, not in a bad way, but in a weird way that seems incongruent with silence. There was a round white board at the end of the tour, which asked you to write your comments. Gill wrote 'clean' and I wrote 'tea makes me pee.' Gill made me leave at this point.

We headed back toward the center of town and stopped for a Starbucks and a pee - no tea. In the toilet, we encountered something we hadn't seen before and it was that the toilets and sinks were assigned to each establishment. So, Starbucks had one toilet and one sink and you were only to use those and no one else was supposed to - since we technically hadn't been anywhere yet, we used whatever was open and then I took a picture of this very strange situation, which completely freaked this gal out - I guess she doesn't think cameras belong in the toilet.  

Our next stop was Happy Feet Reflexology and we both got a 75 minute foot rub. Gill's therapist kept clucking and telling her to relax. Mine didn't speak English. It was heaven and dirt cheap; I suspect we will be back there. Relaxed and starved we went into the first place we could find and it turned out to be a 3 story diner of sorts, and we were the only white people in the joint. I ordered chicken and rice, Gill had beef and noodles and we shared Chinese kale. It came out at three separate times and they only gave us one set of chopsticks, but we still ate everything - you can't deter us when it comes to food.

Blog note: In all our travels, Gill and I have never been into selfies; however, over the last 3 days we have taken several every day. We ALWAYS find this very funny and I suspect they will continue. We were taking one on Victoria Peak when a guy asked me if I wanted him to take a picture, I said yes and he did and then he asked if I would take one of him and his male friend and I said of course. His friend said should we use your camera or ours and then they laughed and said, we are from Bollywood, we have to say that.

the final transport segment

At the Metropolitan, we had these cute twin beds that were pushed together so that they were separate, but not really. I turned the air on to high and was soon fast asleep. Gill said she slept well, but she was really clumsy in the bathroom and rocketed me out of bed when she dropped something on the floor. We had already pre-drooled over the breakfast menu, so once dressed we went down for Eggs Benedict and shared a zucchini rosti; vegetable are important, even for breakfast. 

We lingered through a couple mugs of tea and coffee and then we went for a brisk walk around then area. We stopped in a couple of shops, mainly for curiosity and not for real purpose.

Then we were off to the airport, first a taxi to Victoria Station, then a train to Gatwick. We somehow managed to get on the train without a ticket, and this made

Gill nervous so she went off to get us one. She had a difficult time explaining she needed someone to let her out so she could buy 2 tickets, but she finally managed. Check in was a piece of cake and then we went and found the lounge, which turned it to be lovely. Gill got a pedicure and I got a manicure.

Finally, we were off to Istanbul, this was about a 4 hour flight, and it went pretty quick. They had a lady dressed up as a chef working in business class and she and the other lady were very friendly. We had green beans and assorted Turkish appetizers, and Gill had meat patties with tomato bulgar wheat and I had artichokes with ravioli - both extremely tasty. For the rest of the flight, we read magazines, played games on our iPads or watched TV - that was me I watched 5 episodes of Raising Hope. One of the gals really wanted us to try Turkish wine 'because more people should drink it' and it turned out to be really nice.

Then we were in Istanbul, which required we go back through security. Now, it was

10 pm and the airport was packed - I mean packed. We wandered around looking at the shops and then headed to the lounge, which was nicer than the last one.  

There were several food stations. We had this long flat filled bread with meat, cheese or vegetable cut up into slices, salads, chicken and beef and a few dessert. Once it turned midnight, we watched them turn everything over for breakfast. I did wonder what happened to all of that great food.

Finally, it was time for us to board and we headed downstairs and onto a bus. Some poor guy was having a hard time and they were going to telling him he couldn't board and they also wouldn't let him talk to a supervisor. It's wonder how he'd come as far as he did.

We were on a nice 767 and we got everything all sorted into position and started to contemplate the next 9+ hours.  

Once we took off, I reclined my seat which took some doing because the motor kept stopping, but I eventually got it right, I put in my headphones and lowered my eye mask. Then I w...a....s asleeeeeeeeep. I woke about between 6 to 7 hours later and Gill was being busy, but she said she had some sleep and I believed her.

With my last hours, I talked to Gill, stared at the big plane moving painfully slow on the little earth and I ate scrambled eggs, cheese, fruits and olives with fresh bread for breakfast and then we were here; it was about 5pm the following day from when we had started.  

The airport was fairly efficient and our bags came right out. We hadn't made much of a plan, but in the end decided to take the fast train into town. The only difficulty here was the fact that USAA wouldn't let me get money out, but thankfully my British bank was not so fussy. They didn't even answer the phone when I called, which resulted in a heavy sigh.

The train took about 20 minutes and was extremely efficient - they even had free wifi that even worked when we were traveling under the bay. I used this great feature to tell USAA I was in Hong Kong, but I will have to see if that does the trick tomorrow. We did a bit of wandering around to decide which exit to take out, but then pretty much walked right to the hotel, who acted as if they had been waiting for us all day.

Unpacked and cleaned up, we headed to the 25th floor for a cocktail and a snack. While we were waiting for our food, they gave us snacks which were fried peanuts and marinated olives and peppers. The fried peanuts were delicious and were fried with chilies. There was this little round almost like a peppercorn things in there. The first one I ate was very astringent, but the second one made my whole mouth and throat go completely numb - like at the dentist. This was sort of alarming, so I stopped eating them; Gill had the same experience.  

We had grapefruit, pomegranate and mint drink concoctions with fish cakes, chicken satay and samosas with mint sauce. It was all good, but the samosas were incredible; I could have eaten like 10 more.

We made a rough plan for the next day and then we headed downstairs for a sleep. I tried to work on my blog, but noticed that I was just inserting question marks, so I decided to go to sleep.

we travelled south

Segment 2 involved returning to England using the same route I had taken to get there. The snow from the day before had cleared in Denver and I thought I had timed my return through Newark between storms and only mild polar vortex.  

Everything went as planned, and the flight from Newark to Edinburgh was only 5.5 hours. According to my UP band, I slept 5 hours and 10 minutes, and I managed to do this by reclining my chair at wheels up and then sleeping until the guy next to me was forced to wake me up so we could land. He seemed a bit disgusted at having to wake me up - I thought this was funny.

I took a taxi to the train station and then a train to Oxenholme in the Lake District, which took about 2 hours. Gill was slightly detained, but that is her story. She picked me up and then we raced along - at the speed limit - to Seascale. We picked up the lovely and amazing Sarah and went and checked out Gill's new house - it's gorgeous, perfectly sized and decorated so that you know it is Gills, which means it is fun, thoughtful and welcoming.

We had a nice day with a trip to Whitehaven for supplies and gymnastics for Sarah. We ran into someone we used to work with, and I did giggle at his statement that, 'I tried to convince myself it wasn't you, but it is'. 

Gill made Thai turkey burgers with roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes for dinner. I did feel pretty worn out, but made it past 10 and had a great nights sleep.

The next day marked segment 3, which was made of 4 phases. Phase 1 we drove from Seascale to Chorley, again at the speed limit and with no incident. We needed gas, but Gill could only fill the tank halfway because the icy rain was pelting her in the face.  

We had a cup of tea between phase 1 and 2 at Gill's flat and then the taxi driver came to take us to Piccadilly station. Phase 2 was okay, but the taxi was disgusting with stains all over the seats and stinking of cigarettes and cleaning fluid. The traffic was bad so by the time we got there I felt sick and like I wanted to burn the clothes I was wearing.

Phase 3 was lovely. We got on the train - in first class - and spent 2.5 hours reading, chatting and generally getting in a holiday mood. Phase 4 was a taxi to our hotel - the Metropolitan, which Gill had got on a secret deals, which meant the train tickets and hotel were cheaper then a train on Monday - isn't she clever?!?

Gill had spent 2 hours deciding what we should do on Sunday night, but in the end, decided we would go to our favorite restaurant because the places she picked either were not open or we could not get reservations. Her first choice was Gordon Ramsey's place called Maze, which was French tapas. I tried a couple of times, but could get anything earlier that 2030, but my last try revealed a reservation at 1815. We grabbed our bags and were off.

Between 1800 and 1845, the restaurant had a special 4 course meal for £30. After 1845, you could get a 7 course meal with wine for £185. We both decided to order 4 savory courses and had everything the same, except the second course. To start, we had pumpkin velouté with lemon creme fresh and salt cod. You could taste each and every flavor and it was amazing.

For our second course, Gill had chicken thigh and I had smoked mackerel with shaved beets and horseradish. Both were very good. Gill's was also smoked and very rich. Mine was super light and everything worked very well together.

Our third course was black cod is a seaweed broth. When I say seaweed, I mean seaweed. You know all of those pictures I take with the pinky seaweed and the black seaweed buttons and the dark brown lacy seaweed - all in my dinner! It tasted so perfectly of the ocean, but it wasn't fish, and the fish of course was perfectly cooked.

The fourth course turned out to be my favorite and that is saying something. It was a pork steamed bun with a hot corn relish. It was so rich and so homey, it made me want to lick the plate.

We turned down dessert as everything was so perfect who could want anything else, but they gave us a little plate with chocolate truffles, passion fruits meringues and orange jellies. They left us for a while and when we asked for the check they brought us another tray of these same treats and we ate those too.

We wandered out into the night and found our hotel. After watching a favorite home improvement guy make his very own personal shed, we drifted off with very full bellies thinking about tomorrow's final segment...next stop Hong Kong through Turkey.

Losing Ones Marbles

I have embarked on a foolish, yet entertaining, two journeys that will have the most indirect path to Hong Kong. On a Friday, I flew to Edinburgh, stayed the night and then flew to Denver through Newark. When I landed, I saw this very familiar, very lovely lady that also happened gone my mother.

I was thrilled to see her and off we went to collect the rental car and then off to our hotel. I didn't have a map or GPS, but before we knew it, we were pulling into our hotel. We quite smartly decided to eat in the hotel and I had the most amazing bowl of crispy brussel sprouts. After a very good night sleep, we headed downstairs to wait for Crystal, our realtor; she arrived looking much as we have expected (well, perhaps she was a bit taller).

We proceeded to drive all over Denver seeing many interesting spaces. Mustard and red seem to be hot colors right now and we saw them often - together and separately. After 10 houses, she dropped us back at the hotel to head off to watch the Bronco game.  

We went off to Boulder and shopped along Pearl street. Pearl Street was much more successful then house shopping would be and I ended up buying a wonderful piece of art for the house I would not find.

Losing Ones Marbles: This is waiting in Barbara's house; now, I just need to find a house for it.

After art shopping, we met a good friend for Mediterranean tapas and then headed home. After sleeping, I established new criteria for the house shopping based on everything I saw - like it had to be a bit bigger, which meant my price had to go up. We spent the whole day seeing houses and saw another 15. They all had some nice features, but they all had some issue like across from a mental institution, in a busy street, no yard, tiny kitchen, funny smell, filthy with a dog bed filling the entire kitchen floor - seriously.

Once we were returned to the hotel, we got in the car and wandered around Cherry Creek and bought a few bits and bobs, then we had dinner at a place called North, which was Italian, but 'this is our take on Italian food.' It tasted like Italian food to me - it was good and I had spicy shrimp pasta.

The next day, mom headed back to San Antonio and I headed to work. I saw two more houses in the afternoon and was feeling over loaded. All the houses started to bleed together and I would look at the listings and think that house looks nice and then realize I had already seen it. Another day of work and thankfully no houses. My last full day in Denver, I headed to work and then took in my two final homes afterward with 4 inches of snow on the ground.

I was a bit disappointed by this whole process, but hey, it just wasn't right. 

Friday, I got up packed my things and initiated my next installment on this adventure.

Reflections

With 3 weeks between me and my return from Indochina, I thought it would be a good time for reflection. Everyone has asked me 'how was it,' 'what was your favorite part,' and those are really difficult questions to answer because it was wonderful, but not in a typical vacation sort of way.

These are the things I know for sure:

I am really glad I went and in fact, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity.

I learned a lot about a part of the world where I obviously knew nothing.

My group was a lot of fun. Would I do a group trip again? I am not sure because I think the likelihood that I would get a group like this again is very very small. This was confirmed by Sue, who said she'd never had a group like this. The kids were super fun and the adults were all very friendly and inclusive. They were all extremely well travelled, which is why I think there were no idiots. Many of them has done several trips to South America and I thought; I've never even been there...

Having someone with you all of the time to take care of the 'stuff' like airline tickets, baggage, tips, communication, transportation is really awesome. I wouldn't want to do that on every trip, because some of that is half the fun - even (especially) when it goes horribly wrong. Sue was incredible, always ready with a story to make you laugh, interesting insights, a bag of candy and toilet paper.

I didn't get any down time on the trip and at first, I found this difficult, but in the end I wouldn't have missed any of it, so I guess I will just have to schedule some weekends to stay in my pajamas - I think that's currently pencilled in for late February.

This part of the world is fairly magical and complicated. There is a strong sense of tradition, but it felt like they were always ready to bolt something new on. They are also firmly looking to the future, and in both Vietnam and Cambodia, you could feel them planning a way for forward for the next generation.

If I had to pick a favorite, I would guess I'd say Halong Bay. Even though I got no sleep on this part of the trip; the place was completely magical and unique. Every which way you looked was a different way of seeing the bay. It was always hazy on the trip, but at Halong bay this just added to the magic.

Da Nang was a strange stop in that we we're only there for a day and we really seemed to be filling time; however, it was a stark change from the north and I got a great story from my dad about stopping here at a deserted airbase and walking through a silent hanger to find a lady selling hot dogs. I could almost hear his footsteps going through the hanger while wondering what 'how did I get here?' (to be sang Talking Heads style).

The company I went with does a lot of tours this time of year and we saw several groups on the same adventure. There was a large family (20+) - the Cohens - where grandma had planned and bought the trip; many hadn't seen each other for over a year and they were always laughing. There was a couple on a private tour that was with us all the way. He has been a marine in Vietnam, and it was clearly a very special trip for him. They had decided against the group trip for all the reasons in your head for not going with a group, and I think they were a bit disappointed that they weren't with us all the time.

The trip was a funny time vortex in that it felt like we were there forever and like it went by in a blink. Overall, it was wonderful and very very very special.

Bye Bye Bangkok

After a long sleep, I has a great work out and a leisurely breakfast by the River. 

I love dim sum and they had great big, serve yourself steamer baskets. After some careful packing - where I seemed to have gained some room, I sent everything down for storage and I headed out into the big city. I did not have any specific plans, but I knew I needed to be at COMO Shambala at 3 pm for my Thai massage.  

I took the boat over the river and followed a lady that looked like she knew what she was doing and ended up at the skytrain. This was pretty easy to use with everything also being in English, so I decided to go to the middle of town. I wandered through some shops and strangely they all seemed to be connected. I am not sure how you would ever find something if you needed something specific.  

I enjoyed watching the people and realized that occasionally I was being watched. I hopped the skytrain again and chose another location and did roughly the same thing. I only made a purchase in one place called Labrador and I got some cute Eco things and even though the shop girl didn't speak English, we managed.

It was getting close to my appointment so I flagged down a taxi and was soon at the spa. I swam around the giant hot tub until I was pruny and then I went and got my massage. Thai massage is not like a normal massage - no oil and no naked. So you put on the pajamas and then climb onto this futon like bed with curtains around it - I heard at least two other people getting massages next to me.  

For the next hour and half, she applied direct pressure to a variety of ouchy place and then alternated this with stretching me. It was not relaxing, but I think it was therapeutic. When we were done, she said, something's not right there and I said what and she pointed between my shoulders and said, you've got a problem and I said I know that's why I came here and she smiled - I blame the elevator door incident in Iceland.

I now had about 2 hours before Sue was going to collect me at the hotel and my plan had been dinner, but after 35 minutes in dead stop traffic, I knew that was not going to happen. Having visions of me and Oka on the motorcycles racing toward the airport, I paid the cab and got out and walked, soon I was at the skytrain and I retraced my steps to the boat and the hotel. No time for dinner, but there was time for a last glass of wine.

Sue left me at the edges of the airport and her colleague negotiated check in and immigration in roughly 15 minutes. The airport is huge and I walked around making sure there wasn't anything I needed and then I went and waited in the lounge. Before I knew it, it was time to board and I was all settled in my seat with everything stored in my lockers.  

As the plane took off, I promptly fell asleep and didn't emerge for 9 hours when they turned on the lights for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and croissants.  

I had fast track through London, and it was my first time using my new visa, worked a treat. My suitcase arrived covered in slime - thick goupy slime. After 3 disinfectant wipes, I scraped it off with my ticket - gross!

I walked over to the bus terminal and bought a ticket to Gatwick airport, which is about an hour from Heathrow. I missed the first bus because I was standing in the wrong line. I went back and explained this to the ticket lady who told me to listen better. I explained this was not a listening problem it was a being an idiot problem, and she thought this was funny. I managed to make the next one and arrived about an hour later. I checked in and wrote some blog.

When it finally came time, the monitor said go to gate 113, so I did and it was a long ways away. When I got there, there were a hundred other people wonder why there wasn't a gate up. Finally, a guy from another airline came over and said there had been a mistake, we were not at gate 113, so he sent us back to the main terminal, which was difficult because the system is designed to be one way. Together, we all figured it out and arrived back in the main terminal to see we needed to be at gate 55, so we all went there in a mass.

When we got there, there was clearly lots of confusion and anyone that could not navigate stairs was sent another direction, those that could navigate stairs were eventually sent out on a bus and bussed over to gate 104, seriously. This caused a delay, but they made some of it up in the air. Arriving in Inverness, I found my friendly taxi driver, who loaded me up and drove me to Thurso.

We arrived exactly 24 hours after my plane had taken off from Bangkok and considering it had taken me 3 days to get to Ha Noi, I thought that was a fairly amazing result. It was good to be home, and my furry little friends seemed happy to see me, particularly Thatchy.