Tokyo - Day 1

Our flight left early morning from HK and got into Tokyo about 3 pm. We took a airport express train into what we thought was Shinjuku where we would then have a simple 2 stop subway to take to get to where we were staying in Akabonibashi. We stopped in Tokyo station to drop off passengers and about half the train got off. The other half of the train was full of people going further down the line. We sat there for 5 minutes when the conductor walked through and informed us that for some reason we had to get off as the train would not be continuing onward. So we had to figure out how to get from Tokyo station to Shinjuku which is half way across the city. The Tokyo subway is fairly easy to navigate once you get the hang of it…however, one thing that makes it slightly confusing is that the subway system is privatized so there are about 5 companies that own sections of the subway system which all overlap with each other. Since the subway companies are for profit, they don’t like to advertise the other company’s subway lines…so it was hard at first to figure out which subways connect where because you had to take multiple subway maps and layer them on top of each other like a puzzle. In certain instances connections had to be made by walking outside and down the block in order to get to another subway station. We also realized that some of the older stations don’t have English posted on the walls indicating which direction the train was going. We spent about half an hour going in the wrong direction on one train before we got off and switched trains in the opposite direction. After finally spending 2 hours navigating the extremely crowded subways with our heavy luggage we finally arrive exhausted at the hostel where we walked around, grabbed some sushi, got money from an ATM, and collapsed from our exhausting day of traveling.

Pictures from Tokyo Day 1 -

Japan - Day 1

Hong Kong - Second Day

So for our second day in Hong Kong we were a little jet lagged, woke up early, and walked around in the “Central” area where there are a number of sights to see. We went to the high end IFC mall in the financial district right by the ferry and the wharf. There are a lot of banks and expats in that area. We walked around an open market, through the Soho district (an upscale area of restaurants and shops), to the Man Mo Temple (which is one of the first traditional style temples built during the colonial era), and through the Dr. Sun Yet Sun Museum. Then we rode up the mid level escalator which is the longest escalator in the world up to the top. There are a lot of expensive old money houses in the mid level section and a lot of expats live here. At the top we walked about half a mile down to a botanical garden where we saw some interesting primates. Then we met up with my cousin and went to the roof top of the IFC mall where there is spectacular view of the Kowloon side. We rode a ferry across to the Kowloon side and then had dinner with my uncle and cousins. We finished off the night with some traditional Chinese deserts of almond jelly and milk pudding.


Pictures of HK - Day 2

Hong Kong - Day 2

The flight and first day in Hong Kong

Wow so we've had a pretty hectic last couple days with the traveling and touring. Getting accustomed to the time zone difference has also been fun. Sights are rather bland at 5 am in the morning when there isn't anybody there and the lights are still out...but I digress...back to the HK blog...

So we had a rather uneventful flight from JFK to HK. Everything went smoothly as planned unlike my last trip to Bangkok. On that trip I decided to wait until I got to JFK which is about a 45 min taxi ride from my apartment to remember that my passport was at home in my desk. We had about 1.5 hours until boarding time and I needed to get back into the city and get my passport. I've never been more scared for my life as the cabbie drove on the medians and ran red lights. I made it back a little past the take off time and had to sprint through the airport. Luckily they held the plane and I made it to Thailand in one piece.

There were not any catastrophes of that magnitude on this flight so after 5 movies (Rambo and Bucket list were rather entertaining) and some crappy airline food, my brother and I landed in HK; greeted by tons of banners and reminders that the Olympics is being held in China, with the equestrian heats being held in HK.

We bought tickets for the high speed train from the airport into HK which only took about 30 minutes. We were staying on the HK side of the island and took the subway from the Central stop to the Fortress Hills stop. The HK subway system is very easy to navigate as the signs and maps are clearly marked in Chinese and English. We also noticed a decent amount of foreigners around and almost everyone that we talked to when asking for directions or ordering food could speak or at least understand English. We arrived at our lodging around 8 PM local time, checked in, grabbed food, and walked around.

I had curry and rice and my brother had some roast pork on rice. After having our dinner we walked around and stopped a McDonald’s near the local grocery store to explore the local offerings. It’s always interesting to see how an international entity whether it is a company, restaurant, theme, marketing program, etc., is altered to fit the local culture and tastes. Any easy indicator to see how local customs are different is to frequent fast food restaurants, as they are easily accessible and have a standardized American menu with often a couple tweaks for the indigenous people. So even though we had just eaten, my brother requests a short pit stop to get a snack. On this trip, we noticed that McDonald’s had chicken wings in addition to the usual chicken McNuggets. The wings were excellent and even though we were there 5 minutes before they closed the wings came out in under 1 minute and were piping hot. The breading was light and crisp without being overly greasy and the wing was meaty, juicy, flavorful and well seasoned. It came with a Thai sweat and spicy sauce which was a bit sweat and not spicy for my liking. All in all, this was an excellent item on the menu and I wondered why McDonald’s doesn’t have this item in the US menu. I’m debating modifying the title of my blog from “…in search of the perfect dumpling” to the “…in search of the weirdest fast food” as we came across some other interesting items in our journeys and I’m sure that more will sprout up…but more on that later…

Pictures from HK Day 1 -

Hong Kong - Day 1

Lets get plannin' and packin'

Hi everyone!

This is my first of hopefully many posts in my exploration of the food, sights, peoples, and culture of Asia. For those of you who may not know, I'll be taking the opportunity of a lifetime to travel around Asia for the next nine months or so, experience the magnificent cultures, and eat the exquisite cuisine. I decided to use a blog so that I can give my limited short term memory a rest but also to provide you, the reader, some insight into my travels and an escape from the realities of work :).

I'm spending my last week in the states before my trek around the world getting immunization shots (6 at a time!), lining up a sublet, a property manager, packing and moving, and tons of other things that I haven't even thought of yet. The magnitude of my travels hasn't quite hit me until recently when I started to formulate the itinerary for my trip.

Thai-bodi-pore will be broken up into three segments:

Segment 1 - 3 weeks
My brother Dan and I plan on seeing Hong Kong, Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto), Indonesia (Jakarta, Kuta, Seminyak, Ubud), and the Philippines (Manila) in a three week period. So needless to say that this will be the whirlwind section of the trip.

Segment 2 - 2 months
I plan on visiting Hong Kong, Thailand (Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Ko Samui, Phuket, Karbi), Laos (Vietntiane), Cambodia (Siam Reap, Phenom Phen, Sinhoukville) Vietnam (Hanoi, Saigon), Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and maybe India.

Segment 3 - 6 months
I plan on living in Shanghai and traveling to Tibet, Nepal, and other locals in China while teaching English and brushing up on my Mandarin.

Thats all for now...look for more posts to come once we hit the road on May 12th. Cheers!