Our Perfect Day in Asia

---

Our Perfect Day in Asia

After six months in Asia, we’re moving on to Turkey and Europe. Jordan had the idea of imagining that we had a teleporter or teletransporter that we could use to instantaneously take us from one place to another - poof! We decided to each lay out how we would spend our perfect day in Asia, if we had such a teleporter.

Ella’s Perfect Day in Asia

I would wake up in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and sit on the couch in our apartment and have a cup of tea.

Then I would go to Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. I would get a book from the library and go sit at Tutmak Café, a nice open-air café right near the library. I would read my book and get breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, freshly cooked hashed browns, tomato, and toast).

Next I would go to Beijing, to a park that has a big frozen lake, and go ice scoobering. To ice scoober, you sit on a chair that has ice-skate runners, and you push the chair over the ice with poles. Ice scoobering was festive and special.

Then I would go to Hangzhou, China, and eat the Chinese dumplings (or jaozi). They were delicious and juicy and wonderful. It was my favorite food ever. I love it, I love it, I love it.

I would go rest at the Chiang Mai apartment.

Then I would go to Tioman Island, Malaysia, and swim in the ocean. The water is very clear, and there aren’t any waves, and I would get flippers and swim around.

I would watch the sunset at Tioman. We saw a sunset that was all orange and red and purple and blue and pink, and really pretty.

Then I would go to Singapore, and eat chicken rice for dinner. It’s just chicken and rice with sauce, but it’s really good chicken, and really good rice, and really good sauce, and they taste really good together. We eat chicken and rice at a hawker center, which is a group of 30 or 40 little stalls that serve different food. You eat it at picnic tables, outside.

Then I would take the subway down to Vivo City, my favorite mall, which is also in Singapore. It has lots of shops, but it feels more like a fun park on a weekend than a mall, because there are a lot of people who are all happy, and there’s a group of people that walk around drumming, and there’s a playground with lots of cute little kids, and there’s a rooftop courtyard that has a pool you can wade in.

Then I would go back to Chiang Mai and go to bed in our apartment.

Jordan's Perfect Day in Asia

Morning

I would wake up in our apartment in Chiang Mai. Ella and I would drink tea and watch Speedy Gonzales cartoons on the couch. Then I would make pancakes. I don't particularly like eating pancakes, but I enjoy flipping them around in the pan. Everyone would say “These pancakes are delicious, Jordan!” and “Wow, you are such a good cook!”

Then I would walk to my coffee place. It's a tidy wooden stall on the sidewalk that serves fresh-ground coffee and the most delicious lattes I have ever tasted for a little over a dollar.

Properly caffeined, I would head to the nearest teleportation center and zap over to Tioman for a mid-morning swim. Maybe I'd go snorkeling. Maybe I'd just float around and enjoy the clearness of the water and the greenness of the land. And the quiet. I have never been anywhere as quiet as Tioman.

Afternoon

By noon, I would have worked up an appetite. I'd head straight to Singapore. Singapore is probably the best place in the world to be hungry. My favorite meal there (and of the entire trip) is a South Indian vegetable thali in Little India. You get dollops of several different curries, steamed rice, and various sauces served up on a giant banana leaf. Part of the fun is eating with your hands. Indian people make this look easy, but I always end up looking like Cookie Monster. Another part of the fun is Free Refills. They bring you as much curry as you can eat. I can eat a lot of curry.

Assuming I haven't gone into cardiac arrest after stuffing myself with curry, I would stroll around Little India for a while. I love Little India. I love the smell of spices and soap and marigolds. I love the Bollywood music they blare in all the stores. I especially love the fact that it's in Singapore, which means that everything is squeaky clean and freshly painted. It lets me hold on to my romantic delusions about India a little longer.

From Singapore, I'd zap to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is my favorite place we've been on this trip. I am definitely biased, though, because it's also the site of my first independence. The month I spent here by myself was possibly the funnest month of my life. I'd walk the familiar streets, from one side of Hong Kong island to the other. I'd stop by all my favorite haunts: the bakery on King's Road, the fruit market, Victoria Park, and Central Library. This library has got to be the nicest in the world. I imagine heaven looking like this.

Evening

Realistically, if I ate a thali for lunch I would probably end up swearing off food for the next ten years. I definitely wouldn't want dinner. But this day doesn't have to be realistic. On my perfect day, I would want dinner around six. I would head back to Singapore and go to our favorite hawker center for a plate of rice and vegetables. It's the Singapore equivalent of a vegetable plate at J&S Cafeteria (except ten times better, of course, because it's Singapore): overcooked and flavorful and cheap. I usually get spicy eggplant, fish-flavored greens, and curried cabbage. So delicious.

By that point, it would be getting dark. I would zap back to Hong Kong. This time, I would head to Kowloon. Kowloon is still part of Hong Kong, but it's across the harbor. It's busier and crazier and generally more fun. I would start at the waterfront and watch the lights come on in the Hong Kong skyline across the bay. Then I would walk up Nathan Road, which is the main thoroughfare on Kowloon. Most people find Nathan Road a pain in the butt because it's huge and crowded and commercial. But for all that, it's one of the most comforting places in the world to me. Nothing bad can happen there. Not when you're a face in the crowd of hundreds, under a canopy of flashing neon, listening to your headphones and eating M&Ms. I did this at least once a week during the month I spent here (minus the M&Ms part, usually), and I saw something new every time. I'd do it again on my perfect night. I'd eat the M&Ms.

Then I would take the subway back to my hostel on Hong Kong island. Out of all the beds I've slept in on this trip, that bed is definitely 'my bed'. Even more so, maybe, than my bed at home. I can't really explain this. Anyway, I would snuggle down in my bed and girl-talk with the other girls in my dorm (be they American, Australian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Icelandic, South African, Brazilian, Thai... you name it, I've girl-talked it). We'd stay up till the wee hours of the morning discussing boy drama and swapping funny travel stories. And then we'd go to sleep.

Paul’s Perfect Day in Asia

I would wake up at The Hive, our hostel in Singapore. Singapore is probably my favorite place, because of the food, the tropical greenery, and the diversity of people and cultures. Mostly because of the food. Also, if there really were such thing as a teleporter, Singapore's would be the nicest, fanciest, most efficient, most effective, most new-fangled teleporter in the world.

I would head for East Coast Park hawker center in Singapore, and have a laksa for breakfast. Laksa is spicy coconut milk soup with noodles, mussels, fishball slices, tofu, and shrimp. It’s fabulous. Hawker centers are these Singapore outdoor eating areas where 30 to 60 different small family-owned stalls serve delicious, inexpensive food.

Morning. I would start my morning by walking around Melacca, Malaysia. Melacca was my favorite historical place, because the Chinatown there is still in use in generally the same way that it has been for 200 years. History isn’t pickled and preserved here; it’s lived. Plus, Melacca is just a great town.

After walking around, I would be hot. I would teleport myself to the beach at Tioman Island, also in Malaysia. I would snorkel around and see the magnificent sealife, then rest for a while in the shade on the beach.

I would pop back to Melacca for lunch, at Pak Bara Tandoori Restaurant. This is an open-front restaurant serving North Indian tandoori chicken, naans (flatbread), and delicious North Indian curries. The food is outrageously good.

Afternoon. Since Malaysia and Singapore are both so brutally hot, I would be ready now for cooler weather. It turns out that there is a blizzard in Beijing. Perfect. I would head for the Forbidden City in the snow, and spend a couple of hours sliding around with the hooting and slip-sliding Chinese tourists. Big fun, and a memorable experience.

In the late afternoon I would spend a couple of hours at West Lake, in Hangzhou, also in China. I would get a few jaozi (Chinese dumplings) from a small jaozi restaurant not too far from the lake, then stroll around the lake a bit, then meet May for a coffee (with the crowds of Chinese coffee fanatics) at a gorgeous all-glass Starbucks right on the lake.

Evening. For dinner I would head back to Singapore, which is probably the food capital of the world (at least in my book). I would eat another Indian meal, this time a South Indian vegetarian rice meal at Komala Vilas in Little India (which Jordan already described). South Indian curries are quite different from North Indian curries - much less heavy and rich, spicier and more flavorful. We don’t have South Indian food in North Carolina; well, I’ve never seen it. I like it better than North Indian food, which I also like a lot.

After dinner I would head to Ubud, Bali, and see a Balinese dance at the Ubud Palace. These dance performances are totally for tourists, but they are still transcendent. Balinese dance makes me feel trembly and shaky inside.

Finally, I would head for Chiang Mai, Thailand. It happens to be one of the days of the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai. I would spend an hour or two pleasantly strolling through the exuberant madness of throngs of fun-loving Thai people, ever-more and ever-louder firecrackers, wildly unrecognizable street food, flower-decked floats being placed in the river, and fire balloons floating gracefully up into the air all over the city.

I would end the day going to sleep in our Studio 99 apartment in Chiang Mai, resting on our bed looking out of a wall of windows at the fire balloons gliding across the night, thousands of speckles of light wafting slowly across the sky in the same direction at the same pace. It is a magical sight, literally.

May’s Perfect Day

I loved waking up in our king sized bed in Chiang Mai. I’d throw open the curtains and the sliding glass doors and let the cool morning air in. I’d wake up early and go on a walk, watching the monks collect alms and feeling cool. For breakfast, I’d head back to our Studio 99 apartment, and eat my bowl of brown rice flakes, skim milk, hot tea and pomelo slices, which is a grapefruit looking but more plum tasting tropical fruit.

After breakfast, I would jump to the Great Wall outside of Beijing in China. It would be a cool, clear day and hardly any tourists are there. I would walk and walk and walk and love the quiet and the feeling of history there. My peanut M&Ms in my pocket would be a tasty mid morning snack.

For lunch, I’d be in Ubud, Bali. I would find the Padang food restaurant, the one with all the bowls of food stacked in the window. The nice woman with the head scarf would scoop me out a delicious piece of rendang and a pile of rice. I’d get a cold bottle of Coke out of the cooler and drink it with a straw when my mouth got too spicy.

After lunch, I would head back into China to West Lake in Hangzhou. I’d stroll around the lake. I might pay to go up in the pagoda and see the views if it still was clear in the afternoon. Around 2pm, I’d stop in at the glass enclosed Starbucks that Paul mentioned and meet him for a cup of coffee and sit for a while in really comfy chairs and just enjoy people watching the rich, happy Chinese.

After that little pick me up, I’d head to Singapore. I’d probably go to the National Orchid Garden. I’ve been there twice already and could happily spend another hour strolling up and down these beautiful paths through all different colors and sizes of orchids. They’d droop down from arbors above me and curl towards me from either side of the path. I’d enjoy stepping into the cool house which simulates a mountainous tropical climate. It’s a nice break from the heat of the orchids outside.

Now it’s about supper time, and I’d head to the hawker center near our hostel in Singapore. I’d order vegetables and rice. I’d probably get the greens (taste like lightly stir fried collard greens with a hint of chili), curried cabbage and tofu, and spicy, purple eggplant. I’d get a iced lemon tea for drink. Yum.

After dinner, I’d stroll down towards Little India in Singapore and just enjoy the pleasantness of that city. So many different kinds of people all out in the cool night air.

Once it got dark, I’d head back to Chiang Mai and meet Paul again at Loy Krathong. I loved those floating lanterns. I’d find a place where monks were helping people get them aloft. I’d buy a lantern and with help send any bad energy up and away with the lantern (although I might not have any bad energy at the end of this perfect day). When I got tired, I’d head back to our very comfortable apartment in Chiang Mai and go to sleep looking out the window at the lanterns that look like fairy lights floating away in the sky.

---

Photos

Ella: Jaozi, Hangzhou, China
This is Ella's favorite food that she has ever eaten.

Ella, Jordan, Paul: Tioman Island, Malaysia
Too beautiful to believe, and not so crowded as many of the other beaches in Southeast Asia.

Jordan: Komala Vilas, Singapore
Jordan tucking in to her delicious and nutritious South Indian rice meal.

Jordan: Central Library, Hong Kong
This is surely the nicest library that any of us have ever seen - 12 floors of the best library setup imaginable.

Jordan: Neon Sign, Hong Kong
Hong Kong has to be the neon-sign capital of the world.

Paul: Laksa, Singapore
Paul says, frequently: "I used to love May; now I love laksa."

May: View from Pagoda, Hangzhou, China
This is looking out over West Lake in Hangzhou.

Jordan: View from the Peak, Hong Kong
There is a mountain above Hong Kong with viewing platforms. The view as the sun sets is surely the most beautiful cityscape in the world.

Comments

[Doris]

recaps
What wonderful recaps of your time in Asia....thanks for sharing.

[Louisa Goebel]

favorites
Overall it looks likes Singapore wins to me! Certainly have enjoyed all of the Asian experiences through your eyes and your thoughts! West Lake, the lanterns, people exercising together in parks, playing on the ice, all that food, Hong Kong excitement, McTyere School, and the pandas all sounded wonderful! Thanks for the memories! Looking forward to the next chapter! Love, Louisa and Paul