A taste of Hong Kong (and now I want more!)

Gabe and I snuck out of the Pan-Pacific Manila at probably 4 AM. Jesse was still tossing and turning, but definitely asleep. We decided not to wake him, as he had a two day layover in Tokyo he'd likely want to be rested for.

For the first time on my trip, I forgot to tell the taxi guy to turn on the meter. We had to endure an overpriced cab ride with a driver who was annoyed we decided not to get to the airport three hours early. Whatever man.

We knew about the airport tax at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, so we passed through security and customs with no problem. Gabe had been moved up to business class, so when we got to the gate, he tried to get me moved up. As it turned out, business class was full. Or so we were told.

As I handed in my ticket to board the plane, the gate worker took my boarding pass, and then wrote a new seat number on it. 9E? wow that sounds like...BUSINESS CLASS!!!!!

So yes, I had gotten moved up after all. I got to enjoy another super comfortable seat, warm towels, and unlimited juice in the short flight from Manila over to HK. Definitely helped to get a little more rest before going nonstop for a day. There was "only" 12 hours or so between the landing at HK and when we had to be back for Gabe to catch his flight to San Francisco (his 2nd layover). :)

But Gabe knows the city well, so once we got off the train in the city, we were all set to have dim sum. At the train station - a joint called Tim Ho Wan. Yes, a Michellin-starred dim sum restaurant, at the train station.

10 AM. Dim sum. GOGOGOGOGOGO!!!!!!!

We had a bunch of classics, and they lived up to my every expectation. Granted that the majority of my Canada/stateside dim sum expeditions have been with Gabe, or James (another dim sum connoisseur), I shouldn't be surprised that the renditions I have had on this side of the Pacific have been fantastic. But even so, I was still blown away. I was equally entertained by the fact that the people eating on either side of us were Chinese tourists from Vancouver.

From there, we walked through the city. Strangely enough, the streets were only kinda overrun by people - "dead" by Gabe's standards. It felt a little bit San Francisco-y to me, except for the fact that it was clearly Hong Kong. And I was actually THERE!

Our walk led us to the ferry across the water to Kowloon. After a nausea inducing jaunt across said water, we made our way into Kowloon. We didn't have enough time to see everything, so at Gabe's request, I made the decision that we would focus on food. Gabe knew of a famous wonton [soup] place in the middle of tourist town, so we made our way there, along the way getting lost in the bajillions of Indian dudes trying to sell me Rolexes and suits. If I had more time, I may have gotten a suit, since they can be cheap - maybe next time.

Somehow we found our way to the place, Chee Kee, and sat down to enjoy what turned out to be the best wontons I've had. The nomming continued.

Afterwards, we walked back to the subway, and returned to HK proper. Gabe was on a mission to find egg tarts. We stumbled upon a bakery after walking past Occupy: Hong Kong (a bunch of people asleep in tents). Gabe had the last egg tarts in hand, ready to pay, when a man came out from the back with a piping hot tray full of fresh ones. Audible! Audible! I went for an onion roll, which I had previously tried in the Convoy district of San Diego. It was amazing. I almost got a second one, but I wanted to save room for more food.

I tried the egg tart, though - amazing.

At this point we had to start thinking about making our way to the tram up the mountain. We had a planned 5:00 PM meetup with Sandy and Joe, who were in Hong Kong for a few days. At this point it was after three. We decided to take the double-decker trolley back towards the center of the city. I started to nod off, until I saw this bus, which made me smile.

And as I looked around after we passed the bus, Gabe pointed out a place that served xialongbao. Long story short, we made a detour, and stopped in for xialongbao, and more dumplings. Pretty much the last essential food could now be crossed off my list. Okay there were probably more foods, but this was essential. The restaurant, Din Tai Fung, also Michellin-starred, exists stateside, too, but according to dim sum master Gabe, it's actually reall, really good in HK. Consider me sold. I'd like to note now that there is plenty of food porn from my brief excursion to Hong Kong on my facebook album for this final stop of the trip.

xialongbao!

That's four trips to eat now, if you've been counting, and three of them were quite large. I'd also eaten some breakfast on the plane. But by the time we'd finished, we were clearly late to meet Sandy and Joe. We scrambled around trying to find a cab, and finally jumped in one, to race to the trolley station.

When we got there, the line was huge. Instinctively, we wondered if we'd even be able to find Sandy and Joe. Yet somehow, as soon as we get out of the cab, there they are, also having recently arrived. Sometimes you do find needles in a haystack - immediately.

We agreed it made most sense to just cab it up the mountain. It was foggy, but by the time we'd paid and maneuvered our way up to the viewpoint, I was not disappointed.

The view of Hong Kong from the mountain truly is one of the most incredible urban views on the planet. I had planned on the view being the last big event on my trip, to sort of put everything in perspective (amazing views have a way of doing precisely this, for me), and sure enough, I felt a wave of clarity come over me. Somehow, everything made sense, everything was real. I went through with this trip, and I felt like an ever so slightly mature person.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any really good pictures, so I'll leave you with my best effort. Ultimately, the memory was what I wanted, and it seems probable I will return to HK again, likely with a camera that isn't six years old. So I didn't feel all that bad leaving without pictures. Kowloon and the mainland were a bit obscured by fog, but the experience felt just as magical.

Yeah, that's Gabe's camera. Look at what mine came up with:

Regrettably, I couldn't stare out at the city forever, and we had to make our way to the airport. We thought about having more food, but honestly, our stomachs just couldn't take any more.

Soon it was time for Gabe and I to part ways - he to catch his flight, me to go wait three hours for mine. Once I was settled in my seat at the gate, the emotions started to overtake me. I was incredibly excited to return home - five weeks on your first trip is quite a lot! And one of my best friends, a different Jesse, was meeting me at SFO to visit for a few days. But at the same time, the trip was over. I was ready to go home, but I wasn't ready for the adventure to end. I actually made this happen. 6 countries, 4 travel buddies, and many new friends later - I had undoubtedly the best five weeks of my life.

As I finally finish this blog, months later (yeah yeah, I got lazy), the travel bug is eating away at me on the inside. I'm dying to eat, drink, and backpack my way through Europe. I'm itching to become absorbed in China and Japan. To make my way through Peru and Brazil. New Zealand. Vietnam. Hell, anywhere.

I want to get back out there as soon as I can. I want to travel with friends again, as I struggle to decide if I could really backpack on my own. I want to see more of the world. And now I know it's possible.

I don't know what's next, but it will be something. I appreciate from the bottom of my heart those who traveled with me, the people I met, and even the people following along from home, wishing me well. This trip was more than I ever could have imagined, and I wish it never had to end.

That's all I got. I'll try to blog my next trip, whenever that is. Thanks again for following along, and if you ever want to travel with me, do not hesitate to ask :)

Love always,

dacrON

The thought-provoking "city" of Manila

Yeah yeah, I know, I failed to finish the blog. Aarrghh. Well here - I'm going to finish it now. I'm only what, three months late? Not bad! :)

We had added Manila to the trip when we realized we could extend the trip with doable flights by a couple days. The Philippines wasn't the top place on my list to visit, but when I found out we could add it in, I was pumped. It was cool to not know what to expect about a city, at all. It was only two days, but I got a good feel for the city in that time.

So if you'll recall, I was getting rather sick. But I wasn't about to let that slow me down. We had barely checked into our hotel at the Pan Pacific in Malate before we were off to go explore the town (okay fine, we took a swim first). We were all exhausted after having spend the previous night on a train from Vientiane to Bangkok, but we wanted to at least get a little exploring done, to have some ideas for the next two days.

We wandered around for awhile, before stumbling upon a local bar. We ordered some beer and "satays". Now, we were accustomed to SE Asian satays. We were not expecting what we got. Actually the chicken intestine turned out to be pretty good. The other pieces? Not so good - no idea what it was even, cartilage?

But the sickness was catching up with me. Even Gabe was feeling sick. Not to mention we were all exhausted.

I'll leave out the details, but I didn't sleep well that night, and had to break out the azithromycin. Thanks to Matt Canik for entertaining me during those painful early morning hours.

I knew Gabe and Jesse were excited to see the city, so I decided to buckle down and enjoy everything as best I could, given the condition of my body.

There was a nearby mall, so we stopped in to get lunch before heading out to explore. Manila was beginning to make an impression on me. Gone were the crazy malls of Bangkok. Yep - this mall felt like it was straight out of the states. And the restaurants at the food court? Well let's just say my stomach was relieved to have Sbarro over chicken intestine. It's totally cool to see stuff like Jollibee everywhere.

Gabe fulfilled a Krispy Kreme craving, and we then took a cab to the Intramuros (I guess I'd describe it as the Spanish Quarter?), and walked around, with no general direction in mind.

It was some point during this morning that I realized that despite the similarity to the US, it was going to take time to get used to seeing so many people armed with firearms.

We stumbled across Fort Santiago, and decided to walk through it. In a truly busy city, Fort Santiago is an extremely peaceful escape in the middle of it all. While there was a lot of walking involved, I did get to sit down and rest some, and get some nice pictures (didn't say high quality).

When we next went to search for a cab to go to Makati to meet Jesse's new friend Roxy for dinner, the drivers laughed at us. "You want us to take you from the Intramuros to Makati at rush hour? Yeah, right!"

Finally, an older gentleman volunteered to take us. He was uneasy about it, but could tell we were frustrated. Sure enough, the traffic was like nothing I have ever seen. NYC rush hour has nothing on Metro Manila. It took us two hours to get from the Intramuros to Makati, almost an hour late for dinner - a drive that wasn't more than a few miles. Our driver looked crestfallen that he'd agreed to a price that would've been fair during off-peak hours. He didn't have to ask - we paid him double, and even THAT felt like highway robbery (so I think we tipped him on top of it). But during the ride, we did get to talk with him about what it's like being a cab driver in the metro city. He said that with gas prices and traffic, it's sometimes hard to justify even taking passengers to some locations. I personally didn't see how he could profit, but he assured us he was working incredibly long days to support his family. But his chin was up, and I give him props for that. I also had mad respect when he started taking side-street shortcuts - driver after my own heart.

Thank the lord I didn't have to pee this entire time...seriously so thankful.

Roxy just laughed when we finally found her. We sat down to catch our breath and have a beer before going in search of dinner. We settled at a place called Fely J's. Unfortunately, I was still sick, so I didn't eat nearly as much as I would have liked - especially as Filipino cuisine is really adventurous, which any other day of the year would be fantastic.

I did get to at least try everything, though, and it was good, but my stomach was more interested in being totally lame. It was cool to talk to Roxy about growing up in the Philippines, as well as our common interest of Ultimate (she and Jesse had met at a tournament in Manila just two weeks before). Jesse also turned into Santa.

After dinner we found a bar to grab some beers and relax. Jesse ended up with a Happy Horse beer (google it). My stomach was screaming at me to go to bed, but with the trip so close to ending, I wanted to savor every last minute. It soon became apparent though that shennanigans were about to go down. And soon enough, Roxy procured two balut eggs. Again, Wikipedia it. Jesse had tried it before, and I couldn't believe he tried it again. Gabe also went for one full force, and can now wear the title of "FEATHERS" proudly. I already am not a big egg fan, and was still feeling sick. I just had to wimp out here, and I don't regret it one bit. And then Roxy had to have some. Best facial expressions ever!

Eventually, we decided to call it a night, and parted ways - Gabe, Jesse, and I taking a cab through a notorious red light district, hehe.

I went to bed that night praying I'd feel better the next day - I wanted to be able to gorge!

And somehow, that next morning, I felt better! It was a Manila Miracle!

Lunch (we slept in) was at the Filipino institution of Max's Restaurant. Being not a fan of bone-in chicken (lame, right?), I had a beef stew, which was very tasty. The chicken looked great too. We split a dessert sampler, which had all sorts of goodies, including, unsurprisingly, delicious flan.

Then we went to Goldilock's to go polvoron shopping. Polvoron is a Filipino shortbread cookie which is a popular food given as a gift. We stocked up to bring back to our friends at home - undoubtedly some of the people reading this got to try it. I know my best friend, Noah, went through his box in about two days.

Next it was time to go to the Imelda tour, at the Cultural Center, which we heard was supposed to be amazing. You can imagine how silly we felt holding 6 bags of polvoron throughout a two hour tour. Ah, well. Anyway, the tour turned out to be fantastic - the guide was engaging, intelligent on the subject matter, and hilarious. The subject matter is essentially the Marcos-era of the Philippines through the eyes of his wife Imelda Marcos (yeah, the lady with all the shoes). The take home message, said the tour guide, was to ask yourself if the Philippines really were better off without the dictatorship - with democracy instead. This question confirmed a lot of the feelings I had wrestled with over the past two days, and put a lot in perspective for me. Do I have an answer to this question? No - I don't know that much about the country, and would be trying to sum up an entire people through a two day excursion. That'd be wrong to do on so many levels, but that said, I do talk about some of my thoughts below.

But this tour was incredible - if you should find yourself in Manila, you must must must must sign up. I will remind you of this at the end of the entry.

Dinner that night was with Gabe's college buddy, Merrill. We left a bit more time on this evening, and didn't have too much trouble with traffic. We met at a mall in the seemingly wealthy Bonifacio Global City. The "mall" (it seemed never-ending) was extremely high end, like something out of Beverly Hills. The restaurant we ended up, Abe, at was a part of the same restaurant group as dinner the night before, coincidently.

Fortunately, I was ravenous this time. We gorged on dishes including the most DELICIOUS lengua (beef tongue) I have ever had. I think I had fifths, on it. Dessert included halo-halo, which is...uh, a conglomeration of tasty stuff (read: Wikipedia it - bottom left of dessert pr0n below). It's possibly the strangest dessert of the planet, but it sure is tasty! Not to mention more amazing flan...

After dinner, we had to catch a cab back to Malate as we all had to get up early the next morning for our flights - Gabe and I at 3:30 AM!

But there were a lot more people than there were cabs. We couldn't get a cab at the taxi stand, figuring we'd be able to hail one down more easily. 75 minutes later, we were half a mile from the mall, in a desserted, but clearly part of the same extremely wealthy neighborhood, on a street where a cab was a rare occurrence. We made irrational decision after irrational decision, but eventually got that cab. Should've stayed in the taxi stand - oops.

We settled in for the night, knowing the next day was going to be super long. One more day and one more city of the trip lay ahead.
___

Manila was the most thought-provoking part of my trip. I'd like to insist that I mean no offense by any of my following comments to my Filipino friends.

It felt to me that Manila (perhaps the entire country) is in the middle of an extended identity crisis. As Merrill explained to me, the population is somewhat segregated into 4 or so wealth classes. These classes are very distinctive - I was constantly being solicited by homeless people, yet dinner at the mall in felt like I was at Fashion Valley in SD, or third street in Santa Monica. There was no attempt to hide the disparity - it was undoubtedly there. It's not like this is a unique occurrence in the world, but it was my first experience dealing with it so blatantly.

Additionally, it was clear that the infrastructure was really old, and there were transportation issues that so clearly needed to be fixed. Also, reading about the corruption issues was telling. Not to mention the amount of armed security guards roaming the streets. And the hyper-capitalism everywhere.

This is the best way I can sum it up: Manila felt like the US without rules. On one hand, I'm not sure how safe I felt, but on the other hand, it was so much more lively and exciting than the states. Positives and negatives added together usually come out to a positive, and Manila is no exception. It was a whirlwind of an experience, and I have to say I'm really excited to see how the city develops as time goes on. I don't know if there is a city quite like it on this Earth, and I encourage anybody in the area to visit. If you don't leave feeling thoughtful, then you haven't had the Manila experience. And TAKE THE IMELDA TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best money I spent all trip.

Maybe I'll go back someday - Cebu Pacific Airlines offers cheap flights to and from Manila and many cities in Asia. I'm so glad I went, though. And if I did, I'd go beyond the city limits, even if the US government does tell me that's not such a good idea. C'mon, who doesn't want to go to Borracay?

P.S. is there a gene in Filipino people that enables them to make freaking amazing flan? Talk about a PhD thesis that needs to happen...