Pho Heaven

We're walking through one of the countless markets one finds throughout SE Asia. To Western eyes (and noses), these are not places that appear sanitary or familiar. A thousand contrasting sights and smells confront your senses; sometimes drawing you in, sometimes repulsing you. There tends to be lots of produce and food stalls at places likes these, but it's always unclear what one would actually be served to you and if it would indeed be a wise decision to eat it. In fact, most health literature you find dissuades you from eating “street food.” But seriously folks, half the fun of travelling to places is getting to sample the local cuise and I'm willing to risk a bit in search of a culinary gem. Plus we were hungry.

I usually employ two stategies when trying to find a delicious food stall that won't make me sick:

1. Look for the places that are busy. If stuff has been sitting around it's more likely to be bad. Plus, if the locals aren't eating there, chances are I shouldn't either.

2. Order something that comes out hot and steaming. All the better to to kill the little nasty invisible things.

So, Peter and I employed these two strategies and sat ourselves down at a little soup stall in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The smiling lady there didn't speak any English, we didn't spead any Vietnamese, so we pointed.

We were rewareded with a big steaming bowl of soup. Next to our soup bowl she placed another big bowl with a variety of green, leafy vegetables. Some looked kind of like lettuce, one I'm pretty sure was mint. We stared to throw them in whole, but the nice lady chucked at us and showed us how to pull off the leaves and break the big stems into smaller portions. Also, (and this was key for me) there was an abundance of small, yellow, red and orange peppers I could put in my soup.

Fragrant steam pourning onto our foreheads, we dug in wholeheartedly. And oh man, it was SO good! The nice Vietnamese lady poured more hot broth onto our cornicopia of Goodess. I kept adding peppers. My nose was running and I was sweating like a madman and enjoying every minute of it. At one point, I was slurping a noodle with such abandon that it flung around and hit me right in the eyeball. Mind you, this was a hot and VERY spicy noodle that just wrapped itself around my eye. The Vietnamese lady saw all this, including me blinded groping for a napkin to wipe my sweaty, tearing up face. With some amusement, she kidly offered me a box of napkins.

P.S. We didn't get sick.

Motorbike Madness

The first morning in Saigon, Vietnam I step out from our hostel onto a small, quiet back alley. I walk 30 yards down to the main road and am bowled over by the (seemingly) utter chaos of the place. The street scene is a vibrant, pulsing, chaotic mixture of people, animals, carts, cars, busses and motorbikes. But most of all motorbikes.

It's hard to put into words the just how chaotic the scene is when it comes to motorbikes in Saigon. I'm trying to come up with something to compare it to, but it's hard to do.

Here's some craziness involving motorbikes:

- Live and squeeling pig, covered by cloth, strapped to back of motor bike.

- Hundreds of Vietnamese couples, sitting on back of motorbikes, hanging out/making out

-Whole families on motorbikes: mom dad and two kids

-Huge backups of motorbikes build as the traffic lights are red. And then, at the green light, they all pulse forward in something akin to a bike race but behaving more like a school of fish as they dodge pedestrians and wind around cars.

Motorbikes and a Night on the Boat

Our subsequent day on Cat Ba Ryan and I decided to rent some scooters and tour the island. It's not that big and for $5 we got ourselves some hogs to see the parts of the island we could. After a quick tutorial on the bikes by the renters we took off and headed for the route our hotel manager recommended for us. I would never ride these bikes in a city but on the island the only vehicles are other scooters and a couple minibus taxis.

The scooters were a great way to see the island and appreciate the parts of it less touched by the constant traffic of tourists. We went out to the north west corner of the island and along the way we rode the contours of the landscape. There were many beautiful valleys, beaches, and rocks waiting to be climbed by Dan Urban. Ryan and I kept a look out for potential rock climbs that Dan could have done where the rocks overhang the water. This was pretty much everywhere we looked, but Dan decided to stay home so we're going to torture him with stories and visions of what could have been.

Anyways, the scenery truly is undescribable so we'll post the pictures. I must say it was an amazing way to see the country side, but for my Mom's sake know that I was driving extremely carefully.

Later we did end up getting picked up for our night on the boat. So luckily and unfortunately at the same time we left Cat Ba island and headed for the boat. We enjoyed a tiny dinner on the boat and some great company with people from Norway, Sweden, France, Australia, Belgium, Canada, and Vietnam once again. We ended up sitting on the top of the boat telling the worst jokes we'd ever heard and just plain hanging out with new acquaintences. It was a nice night.

Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

We have now made it from ho Chi minh to Hue to halong Bay up in Hanoi. Hue was relatively uneventful as we ate at the same restaurant almost every meal and took an over night bus the day after we arrived in Hue for Hanoi. The one awesome thing we did was jump on the back of a motor bike and see the forbidden city and a couple tombs that dated back to around the American Civil War. I honestly thought things would be a bit more ancient than that but it was nonetheless amazing. We'll put up some photos in a bit.

But after our overnight trip to Hanoi we went striaght to a bus for Hanlong Bay. After another 3 and a half hour trip we arrived on our boat for what we planned on being a 3 day and two night adventure. We floated through the bay and the seemingly infinite rock island peaks rising straight out of the ocean to our first night's stay on Cat Ba Island. The island was awesome! We ate with our friends we met on the overnight bus ride and called it a day.

The next day started off here on Cat Ba Island in the Halong Bay of Vietnam with a “trek” up a mountain to get a view of the island itself and its seemingly endless expanse of steep peaks stretching far into the horizon. The hike took about 2 hours and we got some amazing video and panorama pictures from the two peaks we hiked to. This is one of those places that rival Yosemite for the sheer beauty of creation. It seems like this must have been one of God's special projects to amaze humanity with, and he pulled off a masterpiece. The funny thing is I never heard of Halong Bay until we researched the guide book on Vietnam, so I can't wait to see what the rest of SE Asia has on hold for us.

At the end of our hike a little puppy sat at our feet as we drank Fanta and talked about the hike with the other travelers. The dog was quite polite until I urged it to nibble on my finger, and after a couple minutes of playing with it like that, it wanted to chew on everything. It was fun for a little while, and then we couldn't stand it any more. I guess I should be a better influence on the maturing puppies on Vietnam, but it sure was fun watching it bite the Australian friend of ours. She shook a water bottle at it and tried to tell it “no” in English. Somehow I just don't think a Vietnamese dog speaks two languages: Vietnamese and English. The dog obvisouly kept chewing in disregard for the Australian's command; it was quite funny.

After we headed for a bite to eat at one of the local eateries and we enjoyed a “proper” breakfast as the English love to say. I spent a Vietnamese fortune for my 5 diffferent dishes, but in the US it was a steal at $5 or so. That's a serious plus about traveling to Vietnam- cheap.

Then we headed to Cat ba Beach 2, literally that was the name of the beach. I can't imagine Los Angeles naming their beaches that way, but on an island I guess there are few enough beaches just to number like this for a name. Once we got to the beach this trip instantly felt like a vacation for once instead of a busy city or constant travel. Not that I didn't like the previous week, but this beach was a place to really slow down and think about where we were. Holy crap! We're in the middle of Vietnam in a bay covered with rock spires everywhere you look. The beach was lined with palm tree palapas, hammocks, and a few bungalows for a night's stay for 16 USD without even beginning to bargain with the owners. It's a pretty good deal. We went there with our new travel group which now consisted of Ryan, myself, two Australian girls, and now two British guys. We swam around a bit and traded stories of our travels on the black rocks nestled in the sand on the beach. It was a pretty awesome way to spend the afternoon.

Around 2 pm we knew we had to get back into town to catch our bus for the boat that night, so we walked back into town to make sure we made the bus. Around 3:30, 30 minutes after our pick up time, we decided to have the hotel owner phone the travel company about our boat ride. Well, it turns out that they plain forgot to pick us up and that we were going to stay another night here. I can definitely think of worse places to be delivered that news. So we got a room for ten bucks and put our stuff down- that's only $5 a night for me by the way.

We sat down on our balcony overlooking the bay and noticed some local kids playing soccer in the concrete lot below us, so we decided to go join them. The kids were probably in high school so we joined in on their game, and they basically destroyed us. These guys were regular Pele's flying around the field. Now, Emilee and Jenna are good at soccer but I've never been so mesmerized and confused as I tried to figure out what these guys were going to do every time they got the ball. Their feet whirled around the ball as if they were going to go this way or that and there was no telling when they were actually going to go either way. So I basically tripped over myself trying to get the ball from them; othrewise they would have simply walked me backward into my own goal as I stared at their feet. Just so you know, even the Brits thought these guys were good. We sweated out a couple hours playing with them and then called it a night.

Ryan and I went back up to the balcony and enjoyed some music on the computer with a couple Vietnamese beers while talking about life and then we went down to meet eveyone for dinner. We met up with some more people from Australia and one from Sweden and we went for some seafood.

Along the way on the street we ended up walking into a group of people skipping rope and they invited us to try. So we all took our turns looking like fools trying to jump around. It was hilarious. I thought for some reason that it was going to be simple. At least that's how I remember it from PE in 4th grade, but I think I've grown a bit since then. Now I get in the way of the rope much more easily.

It took me three tries to get in there and jump more than 3 times, and being a professional athlete I was a bit bummed. But I got back in there the next time and totally dominated! I must have jumped ten times before screwing up but it was a huge victory for me over here in Vietnam. We all got in there and at one point 4 of us were jumping around with the Vietnamese people cheering for us. It was awesome. One of our realizations so far has been that ahletic activity is truly one of the only international languages left. You can go anywhere in the world and jump rope or play soccer and you do not need to verbally communicate at all to do so.

I guess there are a lot of similarities between sport and language if you think about it. Ryan pointed out that sports have no meaning except the ones we give them. Think about it; we create these sports out of nothing at some point or another and then they grown into world wide crazes, like the Soccer World Cup, but appart from people creating it and making all these rules, we'd just be kicking around a ball. But now with all the history and tradition it means so much more. In the same way the noises we make with our mouths mean nothing apart from the cultures than know which sounds correspond to actual objects or ideas. Both are created out of nothing by humanity and both have rich histories and traditions that give meaning to silly games or sounds from the mouth. And sports are universal. Everyone knows soccer but not everyone verbally speaks the same language. How amazing on sports! They're basically a hold over from before Babel we decided.

After our sweaty soccer match and a couple beers we went to eat and had some seafood hot pot stuff. It was really good as this island is known for its seafood, and it only cost me $4. What a deal! Then we grabbed a couple beers with our new found friends plus a couple. I talked to a people from Sweden, Norway, France, Belgium, Australia, England, Chile, and Canda all night. It was pretty cool. Ryan and I really enjoyed ourselves as we sat on the empty Vietnamese street side with our international friends talking about whatever popped up. We were enjoying each other's company and enjoying the drinks. It was decidedly different than a lot of the drinking that goes on in the USA where people drink to loose control of themselves so they can be someone else with no inhibitions for a night. Here we merely enjoyed some time together with other people from all over the world telling stories in Vietnam. Maybe people in the States could use a dose of this way of “going out” for a night.

Now we're going to sleep getting ready for a day at the beaches again and maybe a tour of the island before we hopefully get picked up for our next night on the boat.

Peace,
Peter

Earlt Morning Commute on The Star Ferry, Hong Kong

These ferries cost about 30 cents for a gorgeous 10 min ride between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. What a way to go to work!

Day 4 cont'd

Day 4 cont'd

lost Ryan's photos
broke my UV filter on camera lens
booked a flight for the wrong day, cut short planned mekong river trip
Finally got into city for great food
Ryan passed out
I ate food next to hotel

The rest of day four went something like this...

I tried to upload some of Ryan's photos for the blog and proceeded to delete them all from his memory card... whoops. I sure felt like an idiot, but after you delete photos they don't miraculously come back so I tried to forget that I just deleted many, many good memories and a whole bunch of Ryan's creative masterpeices. Water under the bridge I guess.

But karma caught up and evened things out when Ryan dropped my digital camera in the airport and when we later opened the camera case all we heard was broken glass. We were pretty dang sure that the SLR's lense was shattered. Luckily it turned out that only the UV filter and the lense was merely scratched. That's much better news than knowing you just busted a couple hundred dollar camera lens. So at this point, Ryan and I are even.

Not only all this, but later we went to schedule a tour up the Mekong River Delta and we planned on a two nighter. No problems there; it sounded like another Discovery Channel type of experience especially when the stewardess in our flight over to Hong Kong told us the Mekong was a “must see.” We were excited and decided to continue our trip planning by booking a flight from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City to Hue, Vietnam. So we went to the Vietnam Airlines counter and booked our flight for what we thought was the appropriate day. We paid for it and left the office to go eat. On our way to the restaurant we realized we had booked it for the wrong day, a day too early. It was going to be quite hard to fly out of Ho Chi Minh City when we were literally “up the creek,” but in this case the creek was the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam. So we cancelled one day on our river delta trip and washed our hands of this whole day of planning. We needed to eat.

Ryan had read about a highly recommended restaurant set up in the city where there were many different kitchens with independent local cooks who all served the same tables. You could basically pick from some of the best dishes in Saigon. After a disaster of a day like this one, the possibility of a great meal sounded amazing.

Of course things didn't go quite as smoothly as we planned. We followed Ryan's Lonely Planet guide book map to the finest detail, yet we still didn't find this Vietnamese food court. So we wandered around, double checked the map, and as chance would have it, wandered through a lawyer's office. You wouldn't know it was a lawyer's office, but apparently a hall way with desks to one side and a walk way on the other constitutes a law office in Vietnam. A friendly lawyer asked us if we needed help in some broken english and we weren't too proud to confess that we were completely lost. He pointed us somewhere that didn't make much sense to us, but we followed his hand gesture directions and walked out the office to our right. As we were leaving, he reassured us that he was a lawyer as if that automatically meant he always gave good directions and we walked out in faith that this man had translated our conversation into actual correct direction. And they were. Once we got in there the food was amazing. We had some of the best food I've ever eaten; either because the previous parts of the day were such a disaster or because the food was actually that good. I think it was the latter. We ate the fresh hand made and do it your self dishes until the plates were spotless and our bellies full to capacity. What an awesome way to redeem the day.

Then we went and played some basketball with the local kids, and I mean kids. Ryan and I, both 26 and 29, whooped up on some 12 or 13 year olds. We did lose one game, which probably means it was my fault, because Ryan played basketball in high school, but we won't talk about that. Ryan and I had a girl on our team and after we lost the first one decided we needed the girl to score against these boys who obviously didn't want the girl to score on them. So we rebounded the heck out of the game and kept passing the ball out to our teammate until she finally banked one in. We won on the next shot and the boys got scored on by a girl.

Then we went home and I started to log onto the computer when I found out that Ryan's pictures had not been lost. That was a relief. Now I suppose I'm up one point on Ryan since he didn't go on to discover that my UV lens had been miraculously unshattered. I'm still waiting for karma to kick in there.

Day 4

day 4

swim
workout
internet
vietnamese visa
plane ticket
ho chi minh city. We're here in a hostel and it's late

After my 13 hours of sleep I woke up and jumped in the pool- in the Speedo/TYR brief of course. It was about a 35 meter straight shot but it was narrow and the edges of the pool were curved. Plus, there were three other people swimming laps in the pool. I jumped in and swam at a liesurely pace, but seeing as how the others were very recreational swimmers I weaved my way around them at twice their speed. At one point one of them stopped me and said in broken English, “you're a good swimmer. I am mjust trying to stay behing you.” I just laughed and told him I did this sort of think a lot, and I mean a lot. Although a lot less as of late.

After the pool wake up, me and Ryan had to find a way to get to Vietnam since the Bangkok route had been shut down due to protests in the airport. The airport was completely shut down and so we bought tickets to Ho Chi Minh City and found a way to get a visa for the same day departure. We had to go to the Vietnamese Consul and pay $40 USD but it was worth it.

We hopped on our plane and are now in Ho Chi Minh city, also known as Saigon. We'll fill you in later on how the day goes.

It's been an epic trip so far.

Day 3

day 3

markets
Temple Fire
hostel to hotel
mmmm... grand hyatt for free
sleeping from 5pm to 6am

The next day we woke up and knew we had to get out of the hostel by noon. We showered quickly in the very economical bathroom/shower room. Basically there is one 4 foot by 6 foot room for taking a dump and for showering. You just close the toilet and turn on the faucet directly above the toilet to take advantage of the multi use facility as you get clean in the same place where some of the most dirty deeds are done. I guess that's some sort of ying and yang balance for you.

We headed out to a Taoist Temple that morning and checked out the architecture and the main prayer room as we tried our best to keep the smoke out our eyes. I guess the thing to do here is somewhat like the candles that people light in Catholic churches. Except that in the Taoist Temple they light packs of wooden sticks and walk around with the smoke filling the air. It was kind of cool to see until your eyes started watering and your nose was full of smoke. This particular temple was in honor of a sheperd that had been known to heal people a long time ago. He died and when he came back he had healing powers that everyone pursued him for. Sounds like another story I know. Ryan and I wondered whether the people actually thought this sheperd historically existed or whether is was a tradition and less of a historical thing like Christians believe the historical Jesus did. We never found out for sure.

We came back to the hostel and packed our crap up and I got a quick skype call in to my family back in Atlanta. Then we jumped over to the benefits of Ryan's reward points and plopped ourselves down in the Grand Hyatt- holy smokes, no multi-use toilet showers here! It was probably the nicest hotel I've ever been in. The hostess showed us to our room and opened our curtains for us if that's any indication.

I basically went to sleep at that point because I was dead. It was around 5pm. Ryan went out to see the Peak view that I'd done earlier and when he came back he also crashed. I logged some serious hours as Kicker would say and woke up at 6 am the next day. I needed it.

Day 2 from Peter:

Our second day started with Ryan waking up around 5 am. He took off for the coffee shop and I continued my hibernation until later in the morning. He left a note saying where he went but it wasn't needed because I slept long enough for him to return (I told you I was tired). We found a place to eat and made our way to the famous Star Ferry where we went from one side of the harbor to the other in Hong Kong as we went in search of Hong Kong's famous Dim Sum for a late breakfast/early lunch.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

We were starving when we got to the City Hall where the guide book suggested we try some of the best Dim Sum. It didn't open until 11am so we took thirty minutes or so to read the books we had brought and check out the high school graduation that was going on in City Hall- lots of people dressed in dark robes, just like in the states.

Then we walked up the stairs into a large room with red carpet, red walls, and a huge golden dragon dancing on the far wall. We sat down directly under the A/C and waited for the metal carts of Chinese food to make their stops by our table. The way they served food was interesting: these carts of very good food were pushed around the room and they brought tables their stuff and you just chose what you wanted. The food was really good, but I don't think you'd find too much of what we ate there in the States. Basically we stuffed ourselves with pork dumplings, cuddle fish tentacles, shrimp things, desert dumplings, and other mystery food items- yum.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

From the Dim Sum and City Hall we made our way to some of the famous markets around Hong Kong and along the way we took the famous escalators in town. There is this large hill that runs through one of the oldest parts of town and since everyone in Hong Kong walks, the city put in a serious line of escalators to help people get up and down. It is actually the longest system of escalators in the world.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

Along what seemed miles of escalators we stopped and checked out a mosque which was interesting to say the least. I'd never been in one before so it was unique for sure. There were only men in the main part of the mosque that we could see, but we found out that the curtained off section of the room in the corner to our left was where the women went.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

Once we got to the markets, we realized we were in a much different place than the US. There were so many people that you regularly bumped into one another and occassionally a truck would make its way down the narrowest of roads that the market was situated on and people and marketeers had to stop what they were doing to get in a safe place. Then as soon as the truck went by, the people flooded in where the truck had vacated. Fish, eels, defeathered ducks, beef, shrimp, and many other dead animals were everywhere. Actually some were still alive in styrofoam containers filled with water, but most were hanging from meat hooks in the open air. It was a normal thing. I'd love to see the women in the US go from the polite and tidy Safeway to these markets.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

After enjoying the markets for a while and getting piece of fruit or two we made our way to the world renowned Hong Kong tailors to see about a custom tailored suit. Once again the hustlers were out and about trying to make sure this tourist money found its way into their stores, but we found our own and found ourselves talking with a very nice Indian man about shirts and suits that would make us look “smart.” I debated about a $250 suit made of cashmere and custom tailored but decided I just don't wear suits that often, so Ryan and I opted for $35 dress shirts cut to our specific deminsions. I got two and he got one to wear on the trip. And the best part is, this guy has our measurements so we can email him for new shirts anytime and he'll mail them to us. Although I don't wear too many of these in the line of swimming so two should do me for years to come.

After the shirts, we made our way to meet up with Phillip's sister, Miriam, and her husband, Gary. We met at the subway with every other person in the city of Hong Kong and went for a little appetizer at her favorite fish ball and meat ball counter. Miriam ordered us our wooden skewers of four fish and four meat balls drenched in some sort of sauce that dripped all over the ground. Every time people came away from the counter the sea of people would part so as not to get dripped on. We tried these things and I decided that one or two was enough for me. Fish in the shape of balls just wasn't my thing, and the meat balls didn't look all that safe and didn't seem all that safe after my first one. Ryan thought differently and finished the remaining meat balls. Later at dinner his stomach didn't feel too good, but there were no problems to report- at least not yet. The place where we ate was amazing. It was one of the nicest Thai food restaraunts I've ever been to, and the food was very good. We started out with some sort of soup that I could have had a gallon of but I settled for the bowl and followed it up with roast duck, chicken, lettuce wraps, meat skewers, bok chuy, and a couple other dishes. It was a regular feast.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

After dinner we walked around a bit and Ryan checked out some iPods with our local knowledge in Miriam and Gary, and we found out that it really wasn't a very good deal to buy Mac stuff in Hong Kong. We continued to walk around in the mass of people out in the Christmas shopping crowds until Ryan and I were about to pass out from exhaustion and we parted ways with our news friends. Hopefully some day we will be able to repay them if they come to the States.

We hopped on the subway back home and crashed. It was a very full day to say the least.

Transit: How We Got to Hong Kong

747's. So BIG I still have a hard time believing they get off the ground!

Dim Sum Delights

It seems to me that few things in life are finer than discovering new foods that are delicious. Such was the case for Peter and I when we tried Dim Sum in Hong Kong. I'd had Dim Sum before- a long time ago I admit- and all I really remember is chicken feet. And chicken feet that tasted weird at that.

Nevertheless, Peter and I decided to give this thing a shot. And holy cow, I'm glad we did! It was an absolute revelation. However, like most good things in life, it took some work to find it. We were looking for a particular place called Maxim's. The guide book put us close, but failed to mention that this restaurant was INSIDE City Hall on the THIRD floor and didn't open until 11am. We managed to walk the entire way around the building before asking a security guard where it was. We then found our way inside and eventually figured out it was upstairs. Only then did we find out it didn't open for another half hour. At this point, I was so hungry that I was about ready to eat my own arm off and was ready to bail on this whole deal. However, Peter wisely suggested that we stay and at least check it out.

A half hour later we sit down and immediately ladies pushing carts piled full of small, piping hot bamboo boxes descend upon us. They open up the little boxes for us, revealing their mysterious and delectable contents. We point, not really knowing at what. She lifts a plate of pale, slimy looking noodle pockets with shrimp inside onto our table and pours two different dark sauces on them. We have nothing left to do but try them. After the first bite, Peter and I look at each other with excited, incredulous grins. This tastes AMAZING! More carts, more little dumplings, more delicious flavors. We even try some fried squid tentacles (which aren't too bad) and continue to stuff ourselves with little bits of Chinese goodness. Pork buns, shrimp pockets, stir fried pork, sesame-covered donuts filled with sweet red bean and tasty tea to wash it all down! And did I mention the views of Hong Kong harbor? Yeah, it was fun.

And the Journey Begins...

From SE Asia Pt 1

It started with the public transit in LA and has continued through to the epic subways and double decker buses in Hong Kong. This stuff happenned a couple days ago now, but we haven't gotten around to putting the memories down until now.

When I arrived here in Hong Kong, I was greeted by my backstroke training partner from Trojan Swim Club, Hoi Ping Lee or Phillip as we knew him in the US. He has two names, one for us silly Americans and the other, the one his parents gave him- obviously he's from Hong Kong. We had a quick cup of coffee and I videoed him so I would remember my first thing I did in Hong Kong. We then hopped on the subway and went straight in to the Kowloon district of Hong Kong. Unfortunately he had to take off for his accounting job he has going for him, and that was about all the time I had with my buddy from this last year of training.

Now it was time for me to do something with myself until Ryan got in later that night, so I looked at my list of things to do that I picked from Phillip's brain before he took off and I decided to check out a couple things: some hostels for the night to come and the Peak Tram for a view of the city. I took off for the closest Star Bucks and bummed a free 20 minutes on the wifi so I could see when Ryan got in from his flight and then I basically wasted the rest of the time on email and facebook- nothing new there. After that I made my way for the subways and tried my luck at finding the view of the city that Phillip told me about. All I knew was that I should get to this subway stop called Admiralty and then try to find some “mountian” to hike up. Phillip's English is funny sometimes, but it was spot on. There is a mountain that you can walk up or take a tram up for a hazy but scenic view of the Hong Kong skyline.


I got off the subway and unfortunately but entertainingly enough ran across my first street 'hawkers” of Hong Kong. This Indian fellow in a turban passed me in a covered walk way and said something to me that I couldn't quite understand. He seemed nice enough so I turned and asked him what he had just said. He then lauched into a fortune telling bit where he predicted my favorite color, told me love was in my life, that I was a generous person, that I was happy, and other stuff. I don't think too much is all that hard to predict for an American traveler with a huge backpack on his back. Either way at the end of his little act, he busted out the pad of paper from “people he had already talked to from America” and this paper had their names, where they were from and how much they'd given him for his fortune telling and his underpriviledged kids he works for in India. Supposedly these other Americans had given him $150 USD each! Since I was a generous person, as he predicted, I should probably give him some money- I guess his fortune telling skills are a bit challenged. I gave him 50 cents and went about my merry way.

From there I found my way to the Peak. I took a rail car up the side of the mountain because it was hot and I had about fourty pounds of crap I was toting along with me. Plus I'd been on a plane for about fifteen hours- so yes, I took the easy way out. Once you got up there, the city is amazing in the sense that I can hardly believe people built all those freakin' buildings! There are sky scrapers everywhere and they are filling in the harbor to make land for new buildings.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

The subways are better than driving cars; you never have to wait more than a minute, literally. But the air quality is less than perfect as you can tell from the multitude of people wearing the breathing masks. When I was on top of this viewing platform set up on the top of the mountain I could make out most of the skyline, but there was quite a bit that was hidden in the haze. It definitely rivaled LA for title of nastiest air in the world. The video will show that and the beautiful skyline with ships zipping all over the harbor. It's a unique city for sure.

Then I went back to the main part of town and checked out some hostels. Actually it was more like the hostels checked me out. I might as well have had a huge sign on my back that read, “I'm an American looking for a place to stay,” because the second I set foot on the hostel area turf, I was hounded by three different people at a time trying to get their hostels filled. One guy walked me back up a long hall way lined with shops to an elevator when another guy pulled me along with him because it was obviously his turn for the next customer. The hostels in this area must work together to some degree. Either way, I found a couple good ones to see if Ryan agreed, and I then decided to go and meet Ryan at the airport.

You see, in going to the airport I was surprising Ryan because we had originally decided to meet at this famous hotel in Hong Kong at 8pm, but I thought a surprise greeting after he got off the plane was a good idea. I paid my 12 bucks to take the shuttle to the airport and waited at the only place Ryan could exit the customs and sat there looking for him. After an hour of watching everyone exit, I decided somehow, don't know exactly how, but we'd missed each other. I just hoped he was at the hotel waiting. Luckily it turned out he was and we had a good laugh about that one.

After that we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, got some food at a local food market, and crashed for the night.

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

From SE Asia Pt 1

It had been a long day and I was exhausted. After walking a good ten plus miles with a fourty pound pack, I was ready to hibernate.

My Blue Shirt

I got a new shirt.

It's blue with short sleeves and it's custom cut to my exact specifications.
And it's too short. Too short (by just a bit) because I didn't want it to be too long so I told the nice gentleman measuring me to make it just a bit shorter than normal. Turns out he did. And it turns out he knew what he was talking about.

Peter and I are in Hong Kong and one of the things Hong Kong is famous for is the custom tailored shirts. Its fame for this is evidenced by the fact that as our two hulking 6 foot-plus, white boy frames walk down the streets of Hong Kong we are constantly bombarded by men coming up to us and asking "You want tailored suit? You want tailored suit? I make you nice suit." We usually ignore them or sometimes say "No thank you." But one time, we answered, "Sure, what the heck."

And now I have a blue shirt, custom cut to be too short.