Hong Kong

Dragon boats in Sai Kung.  One of my fave
pics of the trip.

The next stop on (and main reason for) my Asia tour was Hong Kong and my Grandmaaaaa!  (And Cafe de Coral, red taxis, the travelator, and wet markets.)  Although this was something like my thirteenth trip to the island, it was my first visit to HK since my grandmother's move, and my first trip without either parent along for the ride.  It also marked the first visit to HK where I'd have as many nephews and nieces as cousins.  Geez, my cousins are old!  Hehe.  During my time in HK, I made sure to see some sights between Grandma naps.  She's been sleeping a lot between meals, so I try to sneak out during her naps.

Can you get fresher than this?
Sai Kung, floating merchants.

After arriving at the new place just in time to say goodnight to my grandma, I got traditional wonton noodles with beef tendon with my Aunt D.  She took me to a new noodle spot called Mak Siew Kei.  It's supposed to be Mak Yum Kei's newest competitor, but I wasn't entirely sold.  Good food, but atmosphere was way too clean and yuppified for my tastes.  Give me a dive any day.  The second day, I spent in Sai Kung with my other aunt and uncle.  Lots of dogs and good seafood.

Sai Kung is on the western side of Hong Kong (hence the name), and is accessible by minibus.  The bus we got onto was pretty full, so we had to find a seat in the back.  This probably wasn't the best decision I've ever made, as I was already suffering from interminable nausea and dizziness related to the jet lag/ sleep deprivation.  I made it all the way to the bus terminus before I started with the yak-coughs.  His head craned around like a hyper speed owl the second things started sounding dicey.  You will never see a bus driver move as fast as when he thinks a passenger is about to ralph.

Small Abalone

King (?) Crab

After I recovered, we people watched, cooed at the dogs, hawker gawked, and settled on a nice restaurant to have dinner.  Selecting your food is something that seems unique to Chinese seafood restaurants, but I'm never convinced that they don't skim off the top or switch out your pick once you are seated and the selection goes into the kitchen.  Call me a cynic.

Star of the show.  We ate two before
remembering to take a picture.  

We picked a restaurant with an upstairs veranda that gave us access to the ocean air and pretty panorama.  (Also, the breeze helped calm the lingering nausea.)  My uncle picked four seafood courses, and the waiter came up to ask how we wanted them prepared: snails, shrimp, crab, and clams.

Snails.  

The snails were subtle in flavor, so a good first course.  The second course, the shrimp, really knocked it out of the park.  It was salt-and-pepper shrimp, but I think I detected some paprika.  Surprisingly, the mud crab was a bit of a textural disappointment.  The taste was good, but the flesh was a bit.. mushy, bordering on slimy.  I guess I expected Aussie crab to be toned and buff...

Australian mud crab.  

The clams at the end were good, but I think we were all pretty full and tired.  No picture.  I took the leftovers home and ate them at 4 am when I woke up again.

View at the Gardens.

The third day, I met up with my mom's friend at the Hang Sang bank and we headed over to the Kowloon side again.  We planned on seeing the Lian Gardens, the Chi Lin Nunnery and Mong Kok Ladies' Market, but she had a few additional stops on the itinerary for us: the flower market, and a formerly-Michelin starred dim sum joint (oops).

Accidentally indecent at the nunnery.  Figures.

The Gardens were built in 2006, so they weren't even around the first time I visited the Chi Lin Nunnery with my Aunt when I was in high school.  Now that I think about it, I might have been through the Gardens with back in 2008.


What I love about the nunnery is how peaceful it is.  You really can't help but feel a sense of quiet and serenity there, accidental belly shirt notwithstanding.  In my defense, it was so hot, it might have been my body's attempt to thwart heat stroke...

After the Buddhist sites, we headed to the flower market.  Flowers, lots of flowers.

Tofu skin rolls.

Several dozen flower shops and stalls later, we stopped for some food.   Not just regular food, but formerly Michelin starred food.  Luckily, we got to the restaurant (name forgotten) between crowds. It was sort of like going to a restaurant that won a Best-Of award two years ago.  Riding high, decent food, but you spent much of the time trying to figure out why it lost its star.  I thought most of it was pretty good, but not enough so that I'd battle a line for it.  I was battling jet-lag related ailments, so I wasn't able to enjoy the food as much as I'd hoped, but the A/C helped a bit. 

Sticky rice with chicken.  One of my
 favorites.  Notice the line outside.

After the food, we MTR-ed it over to Ladies' Market, where I proceeded to bargain my way up and down four blocks until I left with five purses.  In my defense, the purses are large enough to carry a laptop, and two of the three came with interior bonus purses, and one of those two is reversible, which is awesome.  So it's really just three.  And I spent less than USD $35.  So there.  I do not have a "problem."

Cafe de disappointment.
What happened?!

I did manage to make an obligatory stop at Cafe de Coral after our adventure ended.  For those not in the know, Cafe de Coral is about as ubiquitous as McDonald's in the US, except that McDonald's is spreading in HK.  Like poison ivy, but with better food than US McDonald's.  Mango sundaes for less than two US dollars?  Yup.  Maybe it's because Cafe is slipping.  I shold have gone to the nicer one, not the sad windowless one in the back of the office complex... Tres disappointment.  What happened to the salted eggs and ginger sauce?

Next stop on the Asia trip... Singapore!

San Francisco!

Morning in Golden Gate Park,
standing next to the human tower.

The last time I was in San Francisco, incidentally, was two years ago, during a 7 hour layover en route to Australia for my cousin's wedding.  It was also on my birthday, so I used the layover to take a trip out to Burlingame to cash in on a free birthday race at GoKart Racer, an indoor track a few miles outside of SF.  Afterwards, my mom and I ventured back into SF to visit Chinatown.  Sadly, we didn't have enough time to for a meal.  Clash of priorities, I know.

This trip to SF afforded me a few more hours, but was unfortunately much later in the day.  Keith and I planned on my arrival in SF around 8 pm, which would give us just enough time to visit PPQ (famous for their Dungeness crabs), and a bar or two before turning in.  In the morning, we planned on exploring Golden Gate Park (near his apartment) before I headed to the airport.

Alcatraz at night, maybe?

Well, as anything time sensitive usually goes, my flight out of EWR was delayed.  Sort of.  After we all settled into our seats and readied ourselves for takeoff, we were abruptly informed that our flight would be delayed by two hours and to deplane immediately.  Wind, sails, gone.  Yeah.  We all slogged off of our plane and prepared for two hours of thumb twiddling at the gate.  I called my parents with the sad news and messaged Keith to let him know that I'd be late.  Too late for dinner and pretty much anything else.  Not two minutes after I hit send on my message to Keith, a flight attendant informed us that the flight would be departing in half and hour and to replane immediately.  Yesss!

Con azucar!

I met the awesomest couple (Sally and David), owners of a camp in Freeport, ME (http://www.maineidyll.com) and we chatted away during the flight.  I was sad to say goodbye when we landed, but happy to get to SF, albeit about two hours later than expected.

 I am so very grateful for old friends and so happy to have been able to see my world-travelling friend.

But Keith!  Taller than I remembered, but same old Keith. :)  Since it was too late to get to PPQ, we stopped by an all-night burrito place for authentic Mission burritos and Mexican Coke.  (Real sugar.)

Birds tolerating my attempt at being artsy.

Afterwards, we cabbed back to Keith's place and headed out to a local bar called the Blackthorne and caught up on 13 years of stories.  The next day, we hit Golden Gate Park, which was a few blocks from Keith's place.  Science center, bike trails, birds and tai chi grannies all in one place!  Our morning of exploring ended way too soon.

However, before we had to head to the airport, I was able to experience everything that is a PSL.  Yes, grab your Uggs, I had a Pumpkin Spice Latte... and I did not like it.  So sad.

Dogs of (mostly) Thailand.. and begrudgingly, one cat

My soft spot for dogs knows no geographical boundaries...  I took lots of pictures and fed when I could.  As a kid on vacation, I would save my meals for any stray dogs I'd see, to my parents' chagrin.  It's a habit that I haven't kicked.

In Sai Kung, Hong Kong.  Pampered pooches need no leashes.

But apparently ones trained like circus animals do.
BTW, that menu is fabulous.

Puppy at Pattaya Beach.  He would turn out to be my favorite little buddy.

Tired and hungry stray at the "Floating Market" in Pattaya.

This little lady became my best friend after I fed her.
She stayed so close I couldn't get a good picture of her.
One thing I noticed: strays don't catch food mid-air.
They let it drop to see if it's edible first.

My little buddy's little bootie.  The tri-color dog on the right was pretty shy.
The one in the back left is either the Alpha Male (cute crinkly forehead) or the uber beta female.
I wish I got a better shot.  Both my little buddy and Alpha Male
were equal opportunity eaters.  The betas tended to eat only meat.  Curious.

Cutest little (fat) mutt in Bangkok near the street peddlers outside of Lumphini
Stadium (Muay Thai boxing).  Clearly well-fed and adorable proportions.

Central Wet Market.  A cat.  Not many stray anythings in Central Hong Kong.