The Land of Temples & Elephants

China & Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong Sunday night via a direct flight from Dallas. Exhausted (16 hours on a plane and a 13 hour time difference will do that to you) we were pleasantly surprised how fast and easy customs was; we waited longer for our bag than in line with the immigration officer! With our luggage in tow, K's colleague -- who spoke Chinese -- led us to our waiting taxi. Half way through the drive to Shenzhen, China we stopped at the border and went through customs a second time (even though Hong Kong's sovereignty is under the People's Republic of China, the city has enough autonomy to retain its border crossing). Again, it was quick and easy! Once at the hotel, we ordered dinner via room service; hungry and even more tired, we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.

The next two days, while K met with customers, I struggled with the time change; Monday I only left the hotel room to eat. The second day, I was feeling a little braver and headed out to "Window of the World," a theme park with rides and replicas of some of the world's most iconic structures (thus our view of the Eiffel tower from our hotel balcony; the replica of Columbus’s Santa Maria, however, was courtesy of our Spanish themed hotel). Unfortunately, the park only accepted cash, and I did not have enough. So, after a mile of walking and standing in line at the ticket counter, I turned around and went back to the hotel. There I wandered the garden and koi pond before showering and indulging in more Netflix, reading The Girl on the Train, and napping.

Wednesday, I was more awake and more confident to explore on my own. After our daily breakfast buffet at the hotel, K went to his conference to give his presentation and I journeyed to the Metro station across the street to begin the 2.5 hour trek to Hong Kong. The metro stations on either side of Shenzhen & Hong Kong also serve as customs & immigration, but unlike the airport and the drive across the border, walking between the two cities was slow and confusing; the lines were long & hectic, and the fluorescent bulbs & scuffed tile floors did not make the experience any better.
Once in Hong Kong, I took the metro to Lantau Island and took a cable car to Ngong Ping village. There, I wandered around the Po Lin Monastery and up the 268 steps to Tian Tan Buddha, aka Big Buddha. From Lantau Island, I ventured across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island where I roamed the business center of the city. The Northern part of the island is filled with tall high rise buildings that look as if they've been squeezed together and the sidewalks are barely wide enough for a single person. With the hilly terrain, the city streets are steep and narrow -- enough so that the Central and Western districts are linked by the Central–Mid-Level escalator system to ease the commute of pedestrians. Located down an unmarked street (Hong Kong has a habit of forgetting to post street signs), I stopped for lunch at Ding Dim 1968 for dim sum. My FIRST time having dim sum was a meal to remember; I feasted on BBQ pork bun (my favorite!), pork & vegetables in tofu, & Chinese yams in rice paper with a mango-papaya juice to drink. Stuffed, I walked to Man Mo Temple where I roamed under the cloud of burning incense before starting the 2.5 hours commute back to the hotel.

Thailand
Chiang Mai
Thursday morning we left early for the airport to fly to Thailand. In Chiang Mai we checked in at our AirBnB apartment, but not without a bit of confusion. Unfortunately, the building sign is hidden from the main road and difficult to spot, but luckily K has international data & calling and we were able to be retrieved by the owner. After cooling off a bit, we explored the neighborhood where we stopped at an authentic Thai restaurant (an open air garage set up with picnic tables and kitchen stove for the chef) for a late lunch: stir fry noodles and chicken over rice with two Cokes, all for a whopping 84 baht -- or $2.40 USD! From there, we walked around the block and snacked on fresh watermelon and Thai ice cream (sticky rice topped with vanilla ice cream and sweetened condensed milk) before heading back to the apartment for the night.

Friday we woke up early -- thanks to the 14 hours of sleep the night before, I was finally feeling adjusted to the time zone-- and explored the streets for food vendors that would sell us breakfast. K opted for meat on a stick and rice. I ended up at a coffee house where I shared a Thai fried rice with sausage (basically a hot dog) with K before we went back to the apartment to be picked up for our elephant day! Getting picked up ended up being quite the ordeal; we ultimately had the building security guard give the van driver directions in Thai. It seems our airport taxi driver wasn't the only one who has trouble finding the building! We were grateful, nonetheless, for the van's third and final attempt to retrieve us and arrived at the Elephant Nature Preserve where we started the day feeding the elephants chopped watermelon and pineapple. Next, we walked around the park, where our guide told us the name of each elephant, where they were rescued from, and how long they'd been residents at ENP while we posed for photos and pet the elephants trusting enough of people. Back at the main building, we had a buffet style lunch before heading down to the river to bathe the elephants. Really, we waded into the river and threw buckets of water over them, but they were loving it! After a snack, we returned to the city where K and I had a much needed shower before grabbing dinner and falling into bed.
We started our last day in Chiang Mai by heading to the "old city" (the former capital of the Lan Na kingdom) to explore it's Buddhist Temples. On our walk we stopped for lunch -- another tasty Thai meal! To say we visited SO MANY TEMPLES would be an understatement; our pre-decided list of "must see" temples barely scratched the surfaces of the those that dotted the city streets. Periodically, we would step into a temple not on our list, only to pass 3 or 4 more on the way to the next. We finished exploring the city at its East side, where we exited the Thapae Gate before taking a songthaew (a red pick-up truck converted into a shared taxi) back to the apartment. After showering, resting, and cooling down from our Temple trek, we were picked up for a cooking class; and for once, there were no issues finding the apartment building!
At the Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School, we walked through the local market and the school's garden before starting our first dish: stir fry. K opted to make Pad See Ew and I chose Pad Thai. To be honest, I was really impressed with our final product! Next, we made spring rolls (K was one of two volunteers who made the filling in front of the rest of the class; he was so brave and composed at the wok!) and curry paste from scratch; we then used our curry paste to make a curry of choice -- K and I both chose the Panang Curry, aka baby curry, since it was the least spicy. We finished our meal with a dessert; bananas in coconut milk for me and mango & sticky rice for K. Such a delicious way to end our time in Northern Thailand!
Phuket
We arrived in Phuket (get your head out of the gutter, it's pronounced "poo-ket"... ok, maybe that's not 100% better) Sunday afternoon and drove down the island coast to our AirBnB. The room we rented turned out to be part of the Mustsea hotel, but somehow was privately owned by the manager of the neighboring Fin Hostel. The only non-apartment AirBnB that we've chosen since using the website during last year's Euro-trip, it was also the worst to date. That being said, it wasn't bad and having the owner located just downstairs was convenient. After settling in, we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner (it had become our vacation routine) at a restaurant down the block before taking a short walk to the beach where we splashed around in the Andaman Sea.

Monday morning we woke to the sound of our alarm clock encouraging us out of bed before the sun had come up. As the sun was rising, we headed to the Royal Marina on the East side of the island where we would start our island boat tour. The first stop on our excursion was Koh Phanak, where we explored a small cave before eating breakfast on our ride to Koh Hong for sea canoeing. Our next stop was Koh Phing Kan & Koh Tapu, aka James Bond Island (named for to its appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun), which has become the most famous spot in Phang Nga Bay. Just a few minutes from James Bond Island, our boat brought us to a hidden cove, where we swam, floated, and snacked before heading to Koh Yao Noi for lunch. We arrived at the dock of the Koh Yao Noi where two trucks were waiting to take us to lunch at Hook, a small open-air restaurant right on the beach. To the sound of the waves and rustling leaves, we dined on spring rolls, chicken coconut curry, chicken & vegetables, and Thai iced tea. With fully bellies, we rode back to the dock, past the rubber tree plantations, where we headed out for our last stop. The remainder of our afternoon was spent on a secluded island beach; K and I alternated our time between wading into the crystal water, snacking on tropical fruits, and laying in the shade of the seashore. After our return to Phuket, we spent the night at a local flea market, where we browsed various stalls for clothes, souvenirs, and dinner -- BBQ, Stir fry noodles, Somosas, Fruit, Kebabs, & rice.
Our last day in Phuket also happened to be the only day of rain during our vacation. In the morning, it was light and sporadic, so we opted for a visit to Tiger Kingdom. There, we spent 20 minutes with small (this is a misnomer, those small tigers were the size of a large dog) and big tigers. The small tigers were still young and playful; they seemed less interested in us -- unless we were rubbing their bellies -- and more interested in stalking and rolling around with each other. Our experience with the big tigers was less exciting, though; much like domestic house cats, the adults seemed bored with people. Overall, the experience at Tiger Kingdom was questionably ethical for both me and K. Although it was truly the experience of a lifetime, big cat tourism is based on breeding programs that are focused on producing cute baby tigers for tourists to spend time with. The big tigers, as shown in one of our encounters, are sometimes fearful of handlers (an obvious sign of some mistreatment) and are in less demand. So, it begs the question, what happens to these majestic cats when they grow from adorable kittens to giant predators? K and I left Tiger Kingdom feeling uneasy about our experience... even though spending time with tigers is something you don't get to do every day, it was not something we would do again, and not something we would ever recommend.
As we left Tiger Kingdom, the light rain became a downpour, and our first Thai monsoon experience flooded the streets during our drive back to the AirBnB. As a result of the weather, we spent our last afternoon holed-up inside watching movies. That night, we had dinner at a local restaurant before heading to the airport for the first leg on the journey home; our trip back to the States had two separate layovers -- the first in Bangkok and the second in Tokyo. We arrived in Bangkok at 11:30PM where we spent the night at Boxtel, a pop-up hotel hidden in the lower level of the airport. Surprisingly, it was the most comfortable bed of our entire trip! With only 5 hours of sleep, we checked out and headed to the gate for our 6:30AM flight to Tokyo. From Japan, we began our final haul to Dallas -- another 12 hours before finally returning home.