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...

Leaving town (Nov. 24-26)

The trip back to Vancouver from the Andaman Coast of Thailand was a blur of making-the-most-of-the-time. It goes a bit like this:

-partied a little in Phuket and awoke early to fly to Bangkok
-dinner and drinks out with a friend in Bangkok, awaking early the next day to fly to Dubai
-cab gets lost and then stuck in traffic in Dubai
-last dinner out in Dubai, sleep in art hotel (see photo right) and awoke early the next day to fly to Vancouver
-crash into bed.

Post-script: OK I have added some pics now!

Liveaboard (Nov. 18-23)

The Similan Islands were so cool! I saw so much!! Numerous rare fishes, a wreck, a leopard shark and an octopus to name just a few. Made it to the reknowed Richelieu Rock -basically it's a pinnacle in the Andaman Sea with little else around it -the Captain had to negotiate some tricky weather conditions to get us there.

The tour operator came highly recommended and did not disappoint -there was a very high level of environmental care, fastidious attention to safety, enthusiasm for diving, and really good food.

Met a lot of cool people and am arranging to meet up with two British fellows this evening.

Bangkok (Nov. 14-17)

There really is nothing like flying into Bangkok, jumping a bus to Sukhumvit Road and checking into a clean, comfy room near the SkyTrain! Having flown from Jordan to Abu Dhabi to Bahrain to Bangkok over nearly 24 hours, I took a nap and then a lovely swim. Met a cool German guy on his way to Bhutan, so I took him to one of my favourite restairants nearby.

The next day I spent nearly four hours at Central World shopping centre. Normally I am not a fan of shopping malls, but the ones in Siam Square are extraordinary. Street-friendly, architecturally-interesting, bright, spacious and well-stocked, they make Canadian malls look pale. Bangkok malls are the antithesis of Bangkok's streets: clean, cool, roomy, and prices are firm!

Then flew to Phuket to board my Similan Island liveaboard trip. So no blogging for 4 days. See you Nov. 22!

PS: in case you are wondering: "What about India?", I changed my flight to allow some dive time. Pics soon!