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Published: November 12th 2007
I'm actually writing this post from home but wanted to wrap up the tales of our adventures in Asia, and rattle off some final thoughts (Springer style).
After our stay in Cambodia, we spent one night at the Novotel Airport Hotel in Bangkok before heading off to Hong Kong. The hotel was very nice and modern, especially for an "airport" hotel, but the dining options were somewhat lacking as I had to wait an hour and a half for a hamburger and Elise opted for the full buffet that decided to become a half buffet in the midst of our meal.... oh well.
So, the next morning we flew on to HONG KONG
Hong Kong
Elise orchestrated our flights home to go through HK so that we could spend a few days here as we've heard lots of good things and while on the other side of the globe you may as well visit as much as possible.
So we arrived in the afternoon and went to our hotel, the LANGHAM PLACE in an area called Mongkok which is on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The area was very bustling, as is much of what we saw of Hong Kong, and our hotel was one of the higher buildings in the neighborhood, but certainly not of the city, so we were afforded an excellent view of the skyline. Also attached to our building was what can only be described as a Mega-Mall - a mall that went up 15 levels of crazy modern escalators that spiraled around the entire building. The building felt as if it were designed by Spacely's Sprockets - we were waiting to bump into Elroy and Judy shopping for a flux capacitor for their Delorean.
Nearly everywhere we went Elise felt we had entered the future based on architecture and the efficiency of the infrastructure, transportation etc. She also described the city as a mix between New York (enormity, skyline, crowds) and Vancouver (waterfront, glass buildings, surrounding mountains). We also felt as if we were just somehow in a really really big Chinatown (which, i guess, we kind of were).
The other highlights we visited in Hong Kong:
- Nathan Street/Ladie's Market - Just more good ol' fashioned crap markets selling more of the usual knock-off merchandise. Elise became chummy with some vendors here who refused to let her leave until purchasing a fine item of theirs. Plus, some markets that sold fried fish, fried pork, fried shark, fried chicken feet, fried vegetables...
- Lon Kwai Fong - a labyrinth of international bars and restaurants that is sort of like Division Street (Chicago) meets Diagon Alley (J.K. Rowling's head), but populated with brit and aussie expats in suits. While here we enjoyed a traditional Chinese meal of tacos and enchiladas with margaritas and coronas to wash them down. The food was delicious - must be an ancient Chinese secret.
- Victoria's Peak - A high point (very literally) of the city that we took a practically vertical tram ride up a mountain and were able to see the entire city layout. We also tried out some world famous Hong Kong Dim Sum while up on the peak.
- Stanley Market - What we expected to be just another of the endless shlock markets we visited throughout Asia turned out to be a beautiful spectacle. An hour bus ride through the mountains with views of the city and of the outlying areas with beaches and ports etc. brought us to the Stanley Market that had its requisite stands full of crap merchandise, but also strips of restaurants and a beachfront affording some more spectacular views.
- Jaffe Road - While maybe not a guaranteed stopping point for most of you, we had to check out our eponymous street which housed some more upscale restaurants and bars that we were too exhausted to actually visit (and we'd eaten just a few hours prior).
So, that about wraps up our honeymoon - I'll leave you with a few thoughts in general from our trip.
-> There is a certain poetic justice to being a white person traveling through Asia and stopping to take pictures at a constant rate. I guess I have some insight into what it's like for the Japanese who visit here (except they do it in Asia as well).
-> When traveling, always be sure to subtly mention that it is your honeymoon - milk that for all the champagne, room upgrades and personalized cakes you can.
-> You can take away our bill of rights, constitution, baseball, amber waves of grain and any other such American thing you can think of, but while Asia is nice and we openly embrace the Buddhist philosophies, America is still the greatest place on Earth solely for the quality of our beef. God bless Grade A prime!
-> Despite the lack of quality meat, there is much to be desired about Asia (the parts we saw). There is an inherent kindness to the people, even if you walk into their shop, and tell them you don't want what they're selling, they still always thank you when you leave.
-> The mixture of ancient and modern was prevalent in every city we visited, both in architecture (ancient wat next door to an electronics store) and attitude (Monks on cell phones).
So, thanks once and for all for following our adventures and we now take you back to our regularly scheduled broadcast of Big Teeth Productions.
Signing off,
Gregg and Elise Jaffe (aka the Junior Jaffes according to my parents)
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mom
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing. Gregg, like I said, you write better then you speak. Maybe we should converse through mail. You seem to have so much more to say! This is just the beginning of your travels as a married couple. Just enjoy a wonderful life together and be happy. We love you.