Summer in SE Asia ::: Part I

Day 1 (7/1/05) ::: I left Chelsea, NYC (thanks Zac!!) around noon and walked my first 8 blocks with my overstuffed backpack to Penn Station...damn, if its this hot in New York......... Decided to hit McDonald's for the second time that day.... ahhh the egg and cheese biscuit cures all hangovers and the food at the Cathay Pacific terminal at JFK is terrible. Oh well, I'm sure I won't see another McDonald's for the rest of the trip (-; The 16-hr flight went fairly well thanks to some Ambien and my lovely neck pillow. The most frightening part had to be waking up around 5am and being handed what appeared to be a normal bun. Oh no, welcome to Asia....land of the pork-filled pastries. The other white meat surprise had me awake in a hurry and so I decided to watch "Hitch" with Will Smith and then pass-out the rest of the way.

Day 2 ::: Landed in Hong Kong (HK) and met my old buddy Kim (from the NBA) at the train station. After our loving embrace we headed to her boyfriend Vincent's apartment in Happy Valley to unpack, shower and grab a quick bite to eat at Tasty Congee @ Noodle Wanton Shop downstairs. My first introduction to true Chinese food and of course it was filled with mysterious meats which I decided I would only view from afar. Veggies and noodles... here I come! Hopped a cab to Lan Kwai Fong, the part of HK with crazy kids, tourist and ex-pats. Walked from there to Soho to meet a friend of Kim's from the NBA HK office and hit a lounge called Linq for a few drinks with the owner, a model who kept bringing us shots. We left Linq and headed straight for CEO, an enormous Karaoke bar in Causeway Bay. Believe me, I've seen some Karaoke in my day including a trip to the Malalis' basement in Edison, NJ, but this was no joke. Four floors of private rooms (with bathrooms!!) and bottle service. Many hours, cocktails, and Britney songs later... we were absolutely shit-faced and ready for a late night stop in Wan Chai for chicken tikka kabobs at Ebeneezer's. First night... out till 5am... bring it on HK!!!

Day 3 ::: We finally rolled out of bed around 11:30am and headed out for a lovely Dim Sum lunch at Victoria City Seafood in the Citric Tower overlooking Victoria Harbour. After lunch I went on a hike with Vincent and his friend Bernard (Kim was too hungover to join us -wimp!) around Wong Nai Chung Resevior, part of which overlooked Repulse Bay. I was told that hiking in HK is about as common as it is in NYC so this was a special treat. After heading home, watching some old Tour de France videos and passing out, we grabbed a delicious Indian dinner in Kowloon. The Star Ferry ride across the river was amazing... HK's skyline at night is simply stunning. From there we headed to the train station to meet up with Hilary who had just arrived from NYC. SE Asia...watch out!!! Crazy Hilary is in the building!!

Day 4 ::: Neither Hilary nor I could get much sleep so we were up and out early to grab breakfast at Pacific Coffee (free internet!!!). We checked out some of the major buildings in Central and then took the tram up the steep part of HK to Victoria Peak which overlooks the entire north side of the island. We explored Central and Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) that afternoon and enjoyed the first of many "interesting" Chinese meals but the highlight had to be our first time using a"squatter" toilet. We've officially arrived. We walked along the TST promenade and later had dinner in Wan Chai at American Restaurant - don't laugh - it wasn't American food, it was Peking and was actually one of our best meals to date! After dinner we met up with a friend with a friend at a spot called Fong but didn't last too long... sorry Felix....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Day 5 ::: We were up early again and decided we already needed to lighten our load... let's send some of this shit home! Why in God's name did we pack jeans!?!?! It's 90+ degrees and 100% humidity! We explored things a bit by bus and visited the Man Mo Temple - it was pretty damn cool to watch them unravel HUGE coils of incense and hang them up for burning. A few more hours of walking earned us our first foot reflexology session at Health Creative Gallery in Happy Valley. Hilary was clenching her fists while I was drooling on myself. Our lunch after was no less eventful as we feasted on Dim Sum at a restaurant touting their "tit-bits" (that's not a typo) - LOL. Our lovely guests rented "The Killing Fields" for us so we spent the afternoon schooling ourselves on Cambodian history and enjoying some well-deserved time in the air-conditioned apartment. Dinner was another yummy Indian meal, this time at Jo-Jo in Causeway Bay.

Day 6 ::: What's a day without a Pacific Coffee breakfast and free internet? I don't know and I'm not going to find out. I certainly didn't want to eat congee (soupy rice with rando meat floating around) for breakfast anyway. Despite a somewhat shady stomach, we decided to take a trek to visit the Big Buddha on Lantau Island (one of the islands near HK). Little did we know we'd be on a rockin ferry boat for 30 minutes and a crazy bus ride for another hour after that. Seeing that GIGANTIC buddha in all his glory was well worth it. However, our first major moment of weakness on the trip... McDonald's for lunch. I know, I know, I know. I wanted to see if the Big Mac still tasted the same (-: Then, it was off to the airport to meet up with our third travel buddy, Jamie, and catch a flight to Bangkok, Thailand. Gotta love sitting at an airport bar in HK and looking up at the TV and seeing your friend on CNN talking about London winning the Olympics... I was dying!!! Way to go, JH, you superstar!! We arrived in Bangkok quite late and headed to our posh (at least for backpackers) hotel, the Viengtai, for at least one night in safe place.

Day 7 ::: Finally... a good night's sleep! And... and a free Thai/American breakfast buffet at the hotel. Gotta love seeing pancakes! The people of Thailand waste no time in welcoming you to their country. Well, attacking you for their transportation services is more like it. The "tuk-tuk" is the master of the road in Thailand (it's a motorbike with a cart) and before our first day was half through, we had already been attacked, swindled, lied to and god knows what else. We fought our way through it all and visited The Grand Palace and the Wat Phra Kaew (home to the Emerald Buddha) before going back to our hotel to SWIM IN OUR POOL and checkout. Gotta enjoy the amenities while they last! We wound up finding a great guesthouse for the next few days - United travelers Connection (UTC) - a favorite of the Israelis and a really cool place to sleep and spend some time. We spend the afternoon there drinking Coca-Cola and watching our first major rainstorm. After that we took in some more sites, grabbed some dinner and went to Ratchadamneon Stadium for Thai boxing matches. It's everything you would imagine - a steel cage, men beating the shit out of each other, more men betting on the other men beating the shit out of each other and 10-year olds selling beer. Sweet! Fun night out. If only that had been the end of our night...we spent 20 minutes outside the stadium fighting with tuk-tuk drivers who were either trying to scam us or refusing us service. It was a little hairy there for awhile, but we finally made it back to our guesthouse.

Day 8 ::: After breakfast on Khao San Road, we decided to set out on a tour of the city's canals by way of a long tail boat. It was me, Jamie, Hilary, two women from Holland and our driver. It was pretty eye-opening to see all of the people living along the canals, most of whom had no other means of transport other than the river. Throughout the tour we had vendors on kayaks coming up to us to sell us food and other items which was our first introduction to the floating markets. We jumped off our boat at Wat Arun (wat = temple) and were greeted by people manning the dock demanding money from us for landing... the Dutch quickly ran off and left us to pay. Nice. We crossed the river to visit Wat Po and enjoy 1-hour Thai massages ($6) at One Pho...oohhhhaahhhh! Thai massage is like a crazy ass yoga session...they beat you up and stretch you out... but we loved it. After that we accidentally crossed the river and while we were headed back across we took a picture at a wooden cutout before realizing that we were supposed to pay for it. Well, turns out we had VERY FEW baht (Thai money) left and basically had to run away without paying...whoops. Back on the other side we found a great riverside restaurant and made friends with the waitress Na Klin Kasorn who fed us sticky rice from her spoon, took pictures with us and kissed Jamie. She was awesome!!! We headed further down the river on the public boat (think subway at rush hour) and walked the streets of Silom and visited the Jim Thompson House. JT was an American (Princeton grad -woot!) who fell in love with Bangkok and decided to start a Thai silk company. He was extremely successful and seemingly well-liked by the Thai people. His home was amazing. We passed out for the rest of the night.

Day 9 ::: The most eventful day yet. Up at 6am to catch a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The bus didn't leave until 8am but it was a fancy double-decker with AC and a TV so we thought we'd be ok. Well, we were wrong. We stopped way too many times and the bus had various engine problems that kept us from leaving each place. We finally arrived at the Thai/Cambodia border around 2:30pm and as we would soon find out, the trip was only getting started. The border is CRAZY!!!!! Rickshaws, naked babies, beggars, police, tourists... all in chaos. Once we made it through and boarded our next bus on the Cambodian side, we were told there were no ATMs in Cambodia (which is true) and that we had to change to Cambodian money because they wouldn't take anything else (which is not true). In all of the confusion, we fell for it and exchanged many of our dollars... BIG mistake since we got a terrible exchange rate and later found out that dollars are ACTUALLY PREFERRED. I'd still be thinking about that had it not been for the 7-hour ride in a rickety-ass bus on unpaved roads that came after the border-crossing. Easily the worst roads I've ever seen. We were literally bouncing up and down for hour after hour... it was so rough that we really had to channel Buddha for calm. The rest of the day and night was spent on Road 6 trying to avoid whiplash and enormous potholes while watching out the window for our first true experience with the rural third world. The poverty is what you'd imagine only worse... but with one surprise... these people have TVs! I really couldn't believe it. We stopped for dinner around 7pm and watched a massive storm roll through. It was pretty intense but we waited it out and got back on the bus for 4 more hours in the darkness and rain. We arrived in Siem Reap at 11pm in good spirits, glad to be alive. You can breath again mom, I said we made it (-:

Day 10 ::: Our first breakfast in Siem Reap was at a true local spot so of course we barely ate. Hilary and Jamie ordered pate bread not really thinking it was pate but of course it was. Yum. Um, no. They scraped it off and ate the bread while I munched on a few noodles pushing aside the sketchy meat floating around my bowl. We met our driver, Chen Da, and drove off to see Cambodia's crown jewels, the temples. The first day we saw Angkor Thom, Preah Khan, Angkor Wat (the most famous of them all) and Phnom Bakneng (where we watched the sunset with most of Siem Reap). On the way back from the temples we stopped at the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital to listen to a cello and piano concert then showered and walked to "Pub Street" in downtown Siem Reap. We ate dinner at The Big Buddha restaurant and were harassed all night by tiny children, babies and other beggars. So incredibly sad and although there is not much funny about the beggars and the landmine victims we did have a somewhat funny moment when Jamie was literally chased down the street by a man with no arms. The man obviously had a habit of "messing" with tourists and scaring the shit out of them... Jamie will never be the same. We ended the night with a few laughs and some beers at the Angkor What? bar before heading home.

Day 11 ::: We spent half a day at the temples, seeing Prasat Kravan, Sras Srang, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm (where Tomb Raider was filmed) and Ta Keo and then enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at our guesthouse, the Golden Temple Villa. We had a late lunch on "Pub Street" at The Red Piano and then explored some of the markets. We couldn't resist stopping at Happy Herb Pizza for some "special" pizza and beer. The waiter asked us... "How happy do you want it?" LOL. I guess it was happy enough that we passed out the rest of the night at the guesthouse.

Day 12 ::: Off to Phnom Penh by bus, although this ride was much smoother than the last one! We checked into the Okay Guesthouse, a great little spot along the Bassac River and then headed straight to The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. That night was grabbed some food at the Mekong Rover restaurant - I had some great Khmer curry - and then checked out backpackers row near Boeung Kak Lake. It was actually pretty dead there but we found a great little music shop called The Boom Boom Room, which is run by a cool guy named Vin from SoCal. I guess he's making some good cash loading up ipods for people here. We chatted him up for a bit and then met another ex-pat named Niles who escorted us to a local joint, The Ginger Monkey, for a few beers. Pretty cool guy, a soph at a school in West Virginia here for the summer, who lived in Cambodia for five years while his mother worked at the embassy.

Day 13 ::: A pretty somber day as we toured Tuol Sleng (S21), the prison camp where many Cambodians were held before they were killed by the Khmer Rouge. We also visited The Choeungek Genocidal Center, the most visited killing field. Our tour guide was a survivor who described in great detail the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge. The most striking visual beyond the mass graves and bones that still remain was the small children playing around the fields, seemingly without any idea that thousands of their countrymen and women were buried beneath their feet. After hitting the sites, we grabbed lunch at a place called Friends which actually trains street kids to work at the restaurant as cooks, waiters, etc. We had a bunch of different tapas and every dish was amazing!!! A very cool spot. It was nearly 4:30pm by that time so we stopped into the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) for a few cocktails on their rooftop. Apparently most of the FCC locations around the world are only open to journalists but this one welcomes the public so we took in the view of the river and enjoyed a few western beverages. Back to the guesthouse to chill out and use the internet (the last two hours spent emailing and typing this!). Off to Vietnam in the morning!

Day 14 ::: After sending out my first email I watched Mr. and Mrs.Smith in the common room of the guesthouse we were staying in in Cambodia...gotta love piracy! Woke up the next morning, grabbed some breakfast and hit the road again...this time to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam aka Saigon. The first leg of the trip (to the Cambodia/Vietnam border) was a relatively smooth four hours. On the way we met a nice chap from Chicago who had been traveling since January. Remind me in my next life to shirk all responsibilities and travel much more often! We had a quick bit to eat on the Cambodian side and then started the process of exiting one country and entering another... let me just say, there is nothing quite like crossing a border by foot. It took us two hours to walk about an 1/8 of a mile and get our passports stamped. I had heard about the red tape in Vietnam but certainly didn't expect that five different people would have to see my passport before I was allowed in. And... to top it off, everyone who passed had to give one of the guys a dollar! It was so obvious that it was his f%#king lunch money. I mean, why else would you have to pay a dollar after already clearing everyone else!!?!!? Another bus finally grabbed us on the other side and after another 2 hours we were in HCMC. After a long day of bus travel most people would quickly grab a guesthouse and rest. However we decided that today was the day that we were finally going to haggle for the best price since we had been over paying for almost everything. So...with our packs strapped on and 95 degree heat pounding us, we traipsed around the city looking for the best possible deal. We saw a few shitty places and a few nice ones and after trying our hand at negotiation with the Vietnamese we got bull-headed and wouldn't give in! We even walked out of a nice place over $1. Did I mention that every place we saw was up at least 3 flights of stairs!!?!? About an hour later and a loss of 5lbs each in water weight, we decided to go back to one of the first places and give in on the dollar. We go back and right before our eyes the room is sold and we are shit out of luck and about to pass out. We took the next place we saw, which was the crappiest one we'd seen the whole trip ... three days in that dump...we're still laughing about it. We showered and took a quick nap and headed to The Rex Hotel to meet some American friends, also traveling before business school. Apparently the past few years have been a bit kinder to them as their hotel was swanky! We guzzled a few on their rooftop bar and then hit a fun local joint called Quan An Ngon for dinner. It was a Vietnamese culinary adventure for sure -everything from spicy squid and beef to seafood stew - the food just kept coming and coming. There were more than a few funny faces made during the meal but I think everyone left with smile on their face and a full belly. Oh and the entire dinner for six cost about US $30 including drinks. After that we packed all 6 of us and the driver into one cab and hit fun spots. Lost in Saigon and Apocalypse Now. Only bummer was that we had to call it quits at midnight - apparently the gov't mandated an early close time in the past few years because of drug use. Boo.

Day 15 ::: We slept in a bit after the mass quantities of food and alcohol the night before and then did an impromptu walking tour of HCMC including the Cho Lon market, City Hall, Central Post Office and the War Remnants Museum. The museum is mostly US Army and Air Force vehicles, photos from the war and a bunch of stuff meant to graphically illustrate the impact of Agent Orange on the people of Vietnam. It was pretty intense seeing disfigured babies in formaldehyde, among other things but I wasn't surprised by the content or the presentation. To get back to our guesthouse, Jamie jumped on the back of a moto and Hilary and I decided to take cyclos (basically a bicycle with a big basket on the front)... you should of seen us laughing our asses off as we crossed through hundreds of motos on these little cyclos! That night we had a traditional (but gourmet) Vietnamese dinner at a place called Lemongrass before hitting Q-Bar and Saigon Saigon which is on the roof of the Caravelle hotel. We stayed there enjoying the view, a few cocktails and a Vietnamese band covering American songs until some crazy, wasted dudes started smashing beer bottles right behind us. We also had a few laughs at the older white people trying to work it out on the dance floor. Oh boy.