Bangkok and Hong Kong - once more

  Hong Kong, China
Monday, July 16, 2007

Flew Luang Prabang (happy we to have gone to this great town) to Bangkok on Wednesday. My camera running out of power and can't find charger.
 
A month ago someone we know was cheated out of several hundred baht by the official Bangkok taxi stand (or what appears to be official or at least the airport franchise) for a 220 baht taxi ride to Sukhumvit Road. They cheated him by telling him the standard fare was 400 baht + airport fee + toll road, so we were on alert when we got to "Taxi Meter" at BK airport. They tried to scam us and Leslie caught them out. They wanted to charge us for two taxis (which they planned on us discovering only after we arrived at our destination) because we were three people with 6 bags. When Leslie tried to question the dispatch guy about what they were planning for us he would babble nonsense at her and then say, "Okay?" - as if he spoke just a few words of English - oh sure. She would say, "No, what are you saying?" The guy would gesture incredulously at our bags like they would make the taxi more expensive to operate or something. I would say, "No, no problem - Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck?" Of course he didn't know the exact meaning of my words; but he did understand that I wasn't buying his theatrics. Then the guy walked away from us (oh, they are sooo friendly in the LOS), so I stood right between the two sitting down dispatch guys at their table - impossible to ignore - saying, "What's the plan? What's the plan? Three people, one taxi." Oh gosh, hope I wasn't being, you know, culturally offensive by standing too close to the lying cheaters. Finally we got what we wanted. Of course we spent another 70 baht for the toll road (more about that in a minute) and a 50 baht airport theft - excuse me, airport fee.
 
The toll road is necessary or maybe not. The next day when we left we caught a taxi from Sukhumvit back to the airport. The taxi driver missed the turn and gestured apologetically to let us know he missed it. I said, "No problem, mai pen rai." In the end we got back to the airport in about an hour - same, same and the same as it took to get from the airport - except it cost 176 baht (we gave him 200). 
 
Back to the arrival in BK. We stayed with Jean Francois, a friend of a friend. Gracious host, very nice apartment, excellent aircon.
 
We went to dinner at the all-time great food court downstairs at Siam Paragon Center. We all got the rice with two things for 50 baht. My two things were tom kha and red curry. But the man behind the counter said, "Sorry, out of red curry." I said, "Okay, what's that?" pointing at a platter of what turned out to be pork (fatback, as we say in Texas) with chili and red curry paste. Then the man gave me a bowl of the last of the red curry gravy with just a little meat (I would rather have the gravy than the meat, anyway). So I ended up with rice and three things + cukes and prik nam pla for 50 baht ($1.50USD!!!). It was our last night in BK (maybe ever), so I dashed over to the grocery store and got 100 gm "Chiang Mai sausage." What a feast! They wanted 100 baht for sticky rice with mango. We'd been paying 20-40 baht, so didn't get any, which was fine because we were really full.
 
Here's a good thing about the crappiest airport I've ever been in (shoddy construction; poor security; institutionalized thievery; incredible waits at security; hot, crappy departure area - and if you're early, an even worse waiting area; incomprehensible signage, and a design based on making you walk past endless shops selling luxury garbage, lower-class "luxury items than, say Hong Kong airport - Bangkok is what you get with hog-wild corruption). But here's the good part: a floor below departure area there are some restaurants and at the end of the row, there is a mini-food court called the Miracle Court. They have okay (as good as anything else in the airport) rice with pork and chillis and a cold fried egg on top (you have to be an Asia traveler to appreciate the cold fried egg part) and all the prik nam pla, etc. you can eat for 30 baht. AND, you can get decent sticky rice with mango for 50 baht. There is other stuff, too, like passable espresso and Americano for 30 baht - so I had sticky rice and mango for breakfast - happy me.
 
Cathay Pacific flight BK to HK was typical Cathay Pacific: comfortable, decent food, nice staff.

02 on the bus

 
Took bus to Mongkok MTR station, walked the 3 blocks to Sincere House where the Dragon Hostel is. They were holding the usual tiny HK GH room for us - $260 HKD/night ($29USD). It's hot here - 95F. We hung a t-shirt over the part of the window where sun was coming through, stuffed a towel between the top of the aircon to hold a sheet of paper to direct air downward, and hung a sarong over the tiny entrance area at the door to keep the aircon part of the room even smaller. Camera completely out of power. 
 
Leslie just said, "Oh my, Charlie, we're really old to be doing this this way. We haven't changed much (in how we travel) since we were young. We just aren't taking the buses in Bangkok anymore."
 
We have some bad TV channels in this room. I'm surfing through and see advt for Bondi-Enema. Heavy-set middle aged man walks out of the bathroom rubbing his belly and saying, "Ahhhh" - Bondi, that's my enema.
 
The first clue I had about refugees was when I was 13 or 14 years old and stumbled across a book, From the Land of Silent People by Robert St. John. It amazes me that I never had a clue that great things were possible, like creating and writing that book. I never caught a dream, it never was sent my way, I never made it up on my own until so much later, until a war later, until a war's aftermath later, until Leslie.
 
On the way to pick up dinner to have in our room I went by the open-air corner vendor to buy two large washcloths I've wanted to get since last December and the place is gone - covered with metal shutters. What? Dinner was rice and duck and rice and pork from a different corner. Duck was good, pork not great. 

04 harbor, ferry

 
So after dinner I went to the Ladies Market on Tung Choi Street a block from our guesthouse. I found what I was looking for and something I wasn't looking for. In 2005 I got lost somewhere just south or barely into the New Territories and after wandering for awhile, stopped into a BBQ pork and duck place and had an excellent rice, pork, and duck plate - and took a couple of fun photos (I'm easily amused). It was a helpful stop in a long wander.
 
Tonight I was walking north along behind the vendors and saw an alley running off to the right and at the end of the alley, lights, and so I headed up the alley and when I got to the end (a street over), there was a nice vegetable market and then I saw that same BBQ place - a few doors off corner Soy & Sai Yee Streets. Alright! When I got back to our room I was telling Leslie about my excellent adventure (what an exciting life!) I realized that Cherikoff's Bakery (which I re-discovered in that 2005 ramble) may be somewhere near ...
 
Cherikoff's is one of the Russian businesses (started by people fleeing Russia after the communists took over in 1917) found here and there across Hong Kong. Cherikoff's used to be on Nathan Road about a block from the old Anglican church in the area where beautiful old trees (improbably) line the road. Leslie and I used to go there a lot for coffee, sandwiches, and pastries in the 1970s and 80s. Then it was gone, replaced by a McDonalds. We'll see tomorrow if we can find Cherikoff's - after the usual, much-loved time on the Peak on HK Island. 

10 Stanley, who runs the Dragon

 
This morning Leslie ran into one of the (wonderfully quiet) Chinese women in the room next to ours at the Dragon. Hello, how are you, etc. and when Leslie asked her where she was from the woman said, "Sveden."
 
We decided to have dim sum on our last full day in HK, so skipped our usual breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage, copy ham, and coffee at Mimi's Fun Ho café. We had some peanut butter and coffee in our room and took bus down Nathan Road to Star Ferry (stepping out of the bus you instantly catch the salt water smell of the harbor mixed with exhaust), magic ferry ride to Central, #15 bus up the Peak, bus back down, walk to Maxim's Palace City Hall for dim sum. Maxim's is the first place listed in Lonely Planet's "Top Five Dim Sum Restaurants" in HK - "the most raucous (and genuine) place for dim sum in Central." We had shrimp dumplings, fried taro/pork balls, shrimp rolls, sui mai and tea - and guess what?
 
In comparison to Arc en Ciel in Garland (Dallas suburb), at Maxim's the shrimp in the shrimp rolls were better (but not as good as what we've gotten on Lamma Island), the fried shrimp dumplings were equal in taste, the sui mai with crab roe was better, and the taro/pork balls were about the same, except smaller. So, really, one place about as good as the other. Of course the view of the HK harbor (you have to get to Maxim's early for a harbor view table) is a 1000x better than what you see outside Arc en Ciel (a sea of Toyota Camrys). Arc en Ciel is also cheaper.

And to continue the heresy, I have yet to find better roast or BBQ duck or pork anywhere in Asia than what is at 1st Chinese BBQ in Richardson (another suburb) - Toyotas, burbs, education ...

14 fish at Mongkok Market

 
We had a nice time at the dim sum place, walked to the bus stop by the "house of a 1000 orifices" (Jardine House) and caught the #15 to the top of the Peak. Everyone should ride the Peak Tram, no doubt. It's interesting and a good ride with good history, but the bus is much more scenic, cheaper, and gets you to the same place. On the Peak, we went to our favorite place, Pacific Coffee and enjoyed an unparalleled view, decent coffee, and internet with the coffee. Bus back down and found our way back to Tsim Chai Kee Noodle for king prawn wonton noodle soup, "green vegetable with oyster sauce," cream soda, and a glass of hot water (no idea what's the story on the hot water). Two soups and the rest was $39 HKD - about $5USD. Now that is better than anything you can get in Dallas at any price. Thanks, astroboy!
 
Nice walk through a humongous mall - there are many of these in HK - Star Ferry back across the harbor, bus to Mongkok (nice talk with young woman on the bus). Leslie went to shower and I went in search of Cherikoff's Bakery.
 
Alas, I never did find this bakery. Stopped in at another place (Taipan Bakery) and picked up some snacks and by 7-11 for milk from the Trappist Dairy - aahhh, cold, fresh milk. 

16 Hong Kong

 
Like many other guesthouses and hostels in HK, the Dragon Hostel has a number of disconnected sections, each comprised of a hallway with a small area for a fridge, water dispenser, etc., then a series of rooms off the hallway. Our current hallway has a large heart-shaped glass clock with a giant green speckled life-like (well, sort of life-like) plastic lobster on each side of the small clock face. A lobster clock - why didn't I think of that?