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Stop.. So We Can Rob You

The title says it all.  For what it’s worth, the land route from Bangkok to Siem Reap (the home of Angkor Wat and other cambodian temple complexes) is one of the most unabashedly corrupt places on earth (as far as we’ve seen.) It is so corrupt that an entire web site (it took Hazel and I about 2 hours to read the whole thing) has come into existence with the sole goal of guiding helpless travellers through the gauntlet they will experience taking this trip.

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Our plan, once we took the bus and catamaran back to Bangkok, was to fly up to Hanoi and begin our exploration of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.  But a number of factors made us change our plans.  First, I got sick right when we arrived, and we agreed that we shouldn’t leave the city till I got better.  Nothing like having a case of food poisoning on a cramped plane!

The other thing was the typhoon looming over Vietnam.  It had just hit the Phillippines, causing widespread damage, and was predicted to make landfall just east of Hanoi.  We thought long and hard – should we cancel our flight?  Knowing the airlines, it would be a big hassle, and we’d end up a lot poorer and without any set plans.  Eventually we decided that yes, we don’t really want to fly into a hurricane, so we called Orbitz and asked to cancel.

Much to our delight, the carrier we’d booked with (Qatar Airways) allows cancellation for no fee!  That’s right, we got off scot free, paying only the Orbitz booking fee in the end.  This allowed us to give me a nice recovery break.  Eventually, we decided to take the land route over to Siem Reap, Cambodia where we’d get to see one of the amazing sights in South East Asia – Angkor Wat!  Another bonus came from delaying our trip to Vietnam: I got to experience my first coffee to go served in a plastic bag.  Interesting.

Brew In A Bag

Of course it’s hard work to get certified in anything!  Well, that’s what we told ourselves before embarking for a few days’ R&R on the other side of Koh Tao.  On the east coast there are several bays which have far less development than fancy Sairee Beach.  We chose one called Tanote Bay, renowned for its snorkeling and relatively low-key atmosphere.  We scored a bungalow on the beach (!) for only $12 per night.  Since we purchased our own masks and snorkels, this was all we needed to have a relaxing snorkeling rest.

Our Beach Bungalow

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Since southern Thailand’s islands are a must-see on any traveler’s list, we decided to go down south in search of some sun, beaches, and SCUBA diving.  After checking out the weather patterns for the time we’d be there (late September), there was pretty much only one place where the weather would be reasonable and the diving good – Koh Tao!

After checking out of our excellent hotel in Bangkok, Penpark Place, we scrambled onto a bus early in the morning.  This bus would end up being several hours and FREEZING COLD!  The people in Southeast Asia seem to like to show off their air conditioners, and turn them on full blast whenever there is one available.  This means that trains and buses in particular are freezing and nobody seems to mind one bit while the silly westerners are shivering and chattering their teeth.  For some reason (unrelated to bus safety records in Thailand) the bus was decorated like the inside of a coffin:

Coffin Bus

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While we were walking around town near our hotel, we came across a restaurant called May Kaidee’s Vegetarian which offered cooking classes at a pretty reasonable price.  We agreed to eat at the restaurant, and then to take the cooking class if we liked the food.  Needless to say, we loved the food!  We had super delicious Tom Kha, a coconut milk soup that is spicy, sweet and sour, and from that moment we knew we’d be learning how to cook there.

Cooking School

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In Hong Kong, there is lots to do outside, much to our surprise and delight.  The first thing that caught our attention was the really dramatic night-time skyline.  Each night at 7pm, there is a laser-light show with music that you can view from the shores of Kowloon.   It is really cool-looking:

Laser Show

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Since we had a full week in Hong Kong, we made sure to find the local swing scene and go to the dances.  There are two regular dances per week in Hong Kong, run by Hong Kong Swings, and we went to both.  The first was a Sunday dance at a BBQ restaurant and bar called “Blue Smoke” – interestingly, there is another version of Blue Smoke in NYC which I’ve eaten at while seeing a Maria Schneider concert.  This venue was quite small and only a handful of dancers showed up, but we managed to have a great time nevertheless.

Wednesday night was a much bigger venue, set at a bar called Grappa’s Cellar, which had a great vibe and a lot more space.  They essentially cleared the main dining portion of the restaurant to make room for the dance, and there were tables set aside for stuff and for people to sit at.  We really worked up a sweat at this venue.

Since we wanted to meet the HK Swings people off the dance floor as well, we went afterwards to an ice bar near Grappa’s.  There we had a number of hijinks including meeting American soldiers who worked at the US Embassy, having drinks with them, nearly getting into a fight with them as they got drunker.  Also interesting was the bartender’s ability to make 7-layer shots and play a game where 4 random bottles from the bar are selected and then the bartender makes a drink from them.

We had a lot of fun, and made it home safely despite being rather off our heads!

While we were in Hong Kong, I had a mission – eat as much delicious food as possible.  While in California I had developed a taste for Dim Sum and since this area is where it all started we mainly ate dim sum.

So the day after we arrived we decided to go to a Michelin Starred Dim Sum Restaurant: Tim Ho Wan.  While it all sounds very fancy, it is just a cheap dim sum shack in the middle of Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district.  The trick is, you have to go 2-3 hours early and get a number!  It is all very bizarre.  Anyway, we got there, got our number and were told that we had at least 2 hours so we left and decided to walk around for a while.

The Map

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We had arranged our flight so that we arrived in Hong Kong during the day – unfortunately the only such flight was a red-eye, arriving at 7:45 in the morning.  Since we knew we’d have to wait before the hotel that we’d booked would let us check in, we hung out at the airport for a while.  It turns out that HK airport is really useful!  There is fast internet there (we uploaded hundreds of photos), a post office (for sending our souvenirs and gifts home), food and air conditioning.  We ended up spending a few hours that morning just getting organized and relaxing.

View On The Bus

Afterwards, we took a city bus to downtown where we found our hotel with only a little trouble (imagine a small sign underneath construction scaffolding in an area with hundreds of small signs) and laid our bags down.  The hotel was just what we wanted – a room with air-con in a great location and relatively cheap.  What we hadn’t expected was the size!

Trying to fit in the bed

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The other main event in Sabi Sabi is the last animal of the Big Five that we had yet to see – leopards.  And what a show!  We saw a few different leopards on a few different days, including a fast-paced off-road chase of a leopard on the move.  We were amazed at how the guides were able to find the first cat – another car had seen it but it had moved a little since then.  They were right on and led us to it.  It took a while for me to see at all, and I knew where it was!  I’ll give you a sense of what a leopard laying in the grass looks like:

Can you see it?

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