Happy New Year, 2011

Back in a day, best wishes...

Merry Christmas, everyone

All's well...

Angus

December 23, 1996 - December 17, 2010

Sapa/Halong Bay (Dec. 5-9)

Ok, so I left off arriving in Sapa. It's a quaint place whose main attractions are the mountains and the local aboriginal groups ("ethnic minority" as one called herself). The Hmong people are noted for supporting the US during the American/Vietnam War. Obviously, that did not work out too well for them. But they appear to live relatively traditional lives (dress, housing, etc), with the main difference being that they now hawk their handicrafts to visiting tourists. I'm no expert on them so am hestitant to make comments.

I did some hikes and took in the stunning scenery before making my way back to Hanoi and out to Halong Bay. The attached pictures show it all!

Room for Rent!

Yes, my housemate Alex just announced he is leaving January 1st! Anyone know of someone who would like to rent a nice, furnished room (my downstairs bedroom) for $700/month? It comes with two awesome housemates (one human, one canine).

Hanoi, Dec. 3-4

"No, this is how it works

You peer inside yourself

You take the things you like

And try to love the things you took..."

-Regina Spektor

Landed in Hanoi to a very different Vietnam than I remembered from 2003. Of course last time was Saigon, and they say Hanoi is totally different. It was. Yes, there's the constant noise and activity, French colonial architecture, everything looking just a little bit broken. But the fashion! Even people's moto helmets sport flash plaid designs. And women in current dresses and bright, high-heeled stilletos prowl the streets on scooters, impassive looks plastered on their faces amidst the chaos. The stores are a mix of the utilitarian and the outright haute couture (not that I care, but I ventured into a store selling about 7 items. All Hugo Boss)

My favourite moment in Hanoi comes in the mid-evening, around 10 pm. The noise.... stops. The motos and Mercedes (yes, there are lots), must have vacated the streets as it is virtually impossible for a Vietnamese driver not to honk his/her horn every 15 seconds to alert everybody and nobody to his presence.

Food-wise, I do well. Thanks to Ben I had a phenominal bun cha (noodles, grilled meat, cucumbers in broth, mint in a do-it yourself Hanoi-only lunchtime meal). And thanks to CJ, I ate grilled fish in herbs with a little rice and a lovely local draught beer. Subtle yet resounding flavours.

Then to Sapa via overnight train. Being rocked to sleep, I am reminded how cibvilised train travel is. I wake up to a new place and a misty dawn. While I wait for my minibuis to fill up at the station, a woman came by to sell me a hot coffee. Perfect.

Bangkok, Oriental city... (Nov. 27 - Dec. 2)

"The sun dies until it's reborn,

There's no road that ain't a hard road to travel on..."

-Sam Roberts

It's always a happy occassion to arrive in Bangkok. This time moreso given that I did have to contend with the taxi drivers and the traffic. Bangkok now has SkyTrain to the airport! For an introductory price of $0.50 I got all the way into town in reliable, airconditioned goodness.

Of course Bankok has changed. Of course it's still the same. The same stench of sewage (but seemingly little more pungent), the same filth, the same chockablock mayhem that makes it both desperate and hopeful. It never ceases to surprise. Fewer particulate spewing tuktuks. I saw joggers on Sukhumvit Road. Joggers! That's like taking your liver medications with a shot a Jack Daniels...

I must make mention of my latest find, thanks to Ben Johnson. Health Land Massage. It makes the other places vying for attention look like brothels. Well, to be fair, some of them are brothels, but still, Health Land is an oasis of serene aesthetics and genuine concern for health care! Much appreciated after the flights.

Then off to Koh Samet, a lovly little spot of island a few hours from Bangkok. It still has the same crap road (possibly the worst I have seen in all my travels; as a testament to this I witnessed a moto accident withing 24 hours of arriving. No casualties, and the two helmetless, Thai guys seemed only slightly shaken by the spill. Nontheless, I re-vowed never to drive a moto in Thailand!). The island's accommodation is getting more upscale, but is still simple huts arranged around a beachside restaurant.

Beach life in Thailand, while womderful, can sometimes be accompanied by a number of unwanted guests: sand flies, mosquitoes, all night music from the disco down the way, drunken partiers. But Koh Samet had none of these this time! The stay was perfectly serene and restful. After 3 days I made my way back to Bangkok and finagled my way into a photograhy exhibition in the city's newest party district: Thong Lor (where, Wallpaper* Magazine writes, young Thais flock to spend their trust funds!). The show was decent, and the food/wine offerings were... very European. A great crowd of expats mixed with locals. Naturally, I met a guy who is from England, lives in Bangkok now, but used to live in Vancouver!

Bangkok, again!

"This thrills me more than a muddy old river or a reclining Buddha..."
-Murray Head

OK, back in the steaming, stinking heat of Bangkok that is teeming with life and hope and despair. Just wanted to let all know I am OK, and off to the beach for a few days. Will do a proper blog entry when I get back. Thor

Hong Kong, you rock!

That's right, Hong Kong is the... well, the Hong Kong of Asia! The rest of the cities can only aspire to the kind of place they have forged here. Some observations after 4 days in urban paradise:

Coming to a Metropolis Near You!

Some ideas that HK has nailed and are too good to stay put. Watch for them:

• fastidious restaurant service, facilitated by the servers wearing in-ear speakers to keep track of food.It arrives promptly and piping hot (sadly, the "no need to tip" policy here will not make its way to Canada!);


• impossibly delicious, simple menu items like perfectly braised gailan stems topped with parma ham, or crispy duck with a hoisin dipping sauce. To pull off a meal this simple, you have to be fresh and precise in the flavour balancing. HK, or course, does it!


• streets that teem with life, enticing signage (and yes, video signage), colour, noise, and variety. The roadbed is narrow and the sidewalks wide.


• a transit system that allows you to pay by tapping your card against a reader. (Compare this to Vancouver's system in which we insert a ticket inside a machine, wait 3 seconds to get it back while the queue grows longer!)


• audible pedestrian signals that do not sound like chirping birds! Enough said.



• laser/light show featuring... the whole city! 44 buildings participate nightly in a Chamber-of-Commerce-organised show of lasers, lights and music. A major attraction that highlights the city's extraordinary skyline to onlookers for free! Of course, the cocktail lounges still charge for the drinks...(see below)

No Need to Export

• $30 cocktails and $50 entrees. That's Canadian dollars. Ouch.


• Macau: what a hole. Ben Johnson warned me but I went anyway. It's as if someone designed a place to be exactly what I like least: auto-oriented, inward facing buildings, filled with luxury handbag shops and casinos. The best thing about the whole place was the famous egg tart. It was.... good. But I've had better in Vancouver from Keefer Bakery.


• Constant luxury shopping. Do people need a Rolex watch so badly that they must be made available for sale in every street and mall, including the one at the top of Victoria Peak?

On balance, though, HK delivers what any visitor could hope for: a lively, exciting destination that is easy to navigate. I will miss it,as usual.

Leaving Town

Soon...