Happy Halloween

We hope you all have a great Halloween with your family, friends and wee ones.

The Ballet Is In Town

Today I tried to snap a few photos of Ingrid in her costume at Hong Kong Park.

Ingrid's 1st Pumpkin

Trick or treat...we may be 40 floors high but we have a jack-o-lantern and candy. Any kid who actually makes it to our door deserves more than one piece of candy.

Ready For Halloween

Well, it's no Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Patch but the Halloween display down at the local supermarket will have to do for this one year old. I (Lizzie) have been searching for some Halloween magic here in Hong Kong but the locals haven't really caught the enthusiasm of the holiday. Our apartment building on the other hand is doing its best to cater to its many western occupants by decorating the lobby with scarecrows, jack o'lanterns, huge spiderwebs and scary what not. The building is holding a Halloween bash and Ingrid is getting in the spirit by readying her costume. The party is to be held on the ground floor roundabout where taxi's are usually busily shuttling people to and fro.

Happy Valley

Hong Kongers are absolutely barking mad about thoroughbred racing, and the Happy Valley racecourse is the epicenter of their passion. Get this, between Happy Valley and its sister racecourse in Sha Tin, the yearly turnover on gambling is nearly $15 Billion! Big, big business, and its no wonder because the facility is absolutely massive. But the Hong Kong Jockey Club is a non-profit organization (an oxymoron for HK) that is also HK's largest taxpayer, funding much of the city's infrastructure and social services.



It was a blast, and a must for all of you who come to visit us. The races are exciting, there is plenty of beer and food, and there are all sorts of diversionary games to grab your attention. One booth has a game of skill where the quickest person to saw through a 2x2 wins a stack of drink coupons. Drunken people with saws! Beer courage prompted Lizzie to give it a shot, thinking her family's construction lineage would lead her to victory. She did a great job, and earned some drink tickets for her sheer grit.

Fun night. And we actually won thanks to Wonderful Blessing's victory in the 8th race. With our net worth dwindling away in the stock market we've found the racetrack is clearly the safer way to fund Ingrid's college education!

Jumbo Restaurant

Against our better culinary judgment we rolled the dice and decided to take in the lunch buffet at Hong Kong's venerable 'Jumbo Floating Restaurant' sitting in Aberdeen Harbor. Its name describes it perfectly so there is no need for further description. When you step off the ferry and enter the main lobby you see the photo's on the wall boasting Queen Elizabeth, John Wayne and even Tom Cruise as happy diners. I was actually surprised not to see Bill Clinton missing from the wall -- no man has more foreign country restaurant photos than he.

The food was nothing to write about but we really had a good time with the whole experience. Very campy, very fun.

Tokyo Tsukiji Fish Market

I was just in Tokyo for a brief business trip but did manage to check out the Tsukiji Fish Market. Its the largest wholesale fish market in the world moving more than $6B in fish every year and employing over 60,000 people! It really felt like they all showed up to work the morning I was there as the place was a hive of activity with forklifts and motorized buggies shuttling product to and fro. I get the feeling that the locals see it as sport to run over tourist toes so you've really got to watch yourself.



The action centers around the live tuna auction and in order to get there I had to leave my hotel at 4:30am. The tuna hall had 200 or so huge frozen specimens spread out on the floor. Wholesalers walk the floor, poking and prodding the fish to determine freshness like an old lady squeezing avocados in a grocery store. Probing to determine muscle tone and skeletal girth, I guess. I was still sleepy but was quickly awakened as the auctioneer stepped to his pedestal, rang his bell and began taking orders. The process is a low tech open outcry auction, surprising given the high prices these babies trade for (the record price for a single bluefin tuna is $180,000). With those prices you'd expect there to be guys in suits and flat screen trading monitors instead of smelly guys in rubber boots carrying clipboards.

When the auction is over the tuna are dragged off to the individual market stalls where they are sliced into slabs and distributed throughout the western hemisphere where it ultimately lands on your sashimi platter.

Tokyo Warning

I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo where I saw this warning sign plastered on the inside of an elevator. Now I don't read Kanji, but this sign translates to "Don't let the elevator doors close with your dog on one side and you holding the leash on the other...." Click on image to get an enlarged view.

Don't Count Them Out!

UPDATE: Bummer, they lost.
7-0 with 7 outs to go, but Ingrid never lost faith. Things were looking bleak but she still wore her little Red Sox shirt, the one Da Da purchased for her in Boston last November. She's hoping for Sox World Series victory #2 in her sports-spoiled 13 month life, not knowing that generations of Sox fans have perished in crushing frustration under the Babe's curse. Living overseas, she isn't able to get the games live on TV so she's a prisoner to MLB Gamecast on the Internet where she must frantically refresh her browser to see the game's progress. She was going wild with each refresh as the Red Sox made their run at the Devil Rays.....not quite as wild as she did last year when at age 1-month she refreshed the browser and e-experienced Stanford pull off the greatest college football upset ever in knocking off USC.....but she was going wild. Go Beckett Go in Game 6!

Absentee Vote Already In!

Cracks forming in HK housing

Hong Kong's real estate market has been en fuego over the past several years, but major cracks are now forming. Witness the slashed prices in the window advertisements of these rental agencies -- as recently as 3 months ago the market was still white hot. How quickly things turn, chalk it up to the global financial meltdown. Can't say I'm playing the violin the local landlords who've been holding would-be renters hostage for far too long. Their turn to bleed.

Creepy

She's sleeping...

Bangkok

We spent the final day of our holiday in bustling Bangkok, a far cry from quaint Chiang Mai. It has an advertised population of over 8 million people but many believe the actual figure is double that amount. It is big and congested and smoggy and ugly and nasty to the eye, but at the street level there is an electricity and buzz to the city that is unmatched in much of Asia. There is something for everyone, for better or worse (mostly worse), and you want to go back but you can't quite put your finger on the reason why.



Some advanced scouting led us to score an awesome room at a cheap hotel with a big deck overlooking the Chao Phraya River with a direct shot view of the magnificent Wat Arun. The setting was like something out of a Bourne movie, a place where I'd be trying to meld into the scenery only to have my handler at the CIA ring my cell phone asking me to do just one more job. "How did you find me here? I thought I told you I was retired," I'd say.



It rained most of the time we were in town which worked out perfectly because we had a nice deck from which to observe the weather while tipping back a few Singha beers. The clouds did break long enough for us to take a private twilight buzz in one of the many chartered long boats that run up and down the river. We hit the docks and brokered a smokin' deal for a 30 minute ride along the river. The rain had clearly double pumped our boat captain who'd used the weather as an opportunity to start his night of boozing, abundantly clear as he ambled down the pier with puffy face and beer in hand to shuttle us away. We lived.


Bangkok traffic is among the world's worst, so much so that all traffic officer's are trained in midwifery and deliver hundred of traffic jam babies each year. So with a mid-morning flight we made certain to get up and out early, yet we were still stuck in terrible traffic and frequently detoured at odd points. Our driver seemed agitated. Looking out the window Lizzie and I both noticed a heavy police presence. And there were yellow shirted Thai youths all over the place. It wasn't until we'd returned to Hong Kong that we realized that Bangkok was in full scale anti-government pro-democracy riots that had claimed the lives of several people. Wild times on our trip to Thailand!

IngConvenient Truth

I plugged in Ingrid's lifestyle information thru an online carbon footprint calculator and it spit out a rather startling figure. Her footprint amounts to 16 tons of Co2 emitted each year, double the hard to believe national average of 7.5. This is all due to air travel. By the time she visits family back in the US this coming Christmas she'll have logged nearly 100K air miles in her short lifetime. Again, child services....But I'd claim that as a lap child her footprint is far smaller since she doesn't occupy a seat, yet the airlines still charge me a 10% fare and full fuel surcharge to propel her tiny 25lb body to its end destination. The charge is a carbon offset of sorts, though the evil airlines keep the fee.

Elephant Riding

Chiang Mai is fairly spread out so we did hire a driver to take us to the various temple sites. We've found that throughout Southeast Asia every hired driver in town wants to bring you by tourist traps like the nearest Snake Farm or Silk Factory or Monkey Village and it is all you can do not to be roped into one. Most drivers have a well worn photo album tucked into the seatback containing pictures of all the tourist options, each one more trafficked than the next. Their strategy is understandable, the driver gets a cut of your spend at each of these sites and gets to take a nap in the car while you're visiting. Easy money.

We try to be travelers and not tourists, and under normal circumstances we wouldn't consider such a tourist spot, but we did buckle under to the pressure this time to visit an Elephant Camp. The camp bills itself as a refuge for elephants, a natural setting where they are protected from the dangers posed by modern society which has driven the Asian elephant population to near extinction. Truly a great mission, but I find it hard to believe that in 'The Wild' elephants play 2-on-2 soccer, throw a round of darts or gather in a circle for a harmonica jam session like they did in the prepared Elephant Show we witnessed, much to the delight of our fellow tourists.


Funny moment with Lizzie -- She cutely purchased two bunches of bananas thinking she'd be able to feed them one by one to the elephants. But the elephant had other ideas, snagging the entire bunch out of her hand and then moving in on the other bunch on the ground next to her. Its tough to reason with a hungry elephant!

The place was sort of a downer and I felt a bit bad for the talent, but then we got our chance to go on a 1-hour ride through the jungle and all was redeemed. At least that is how I felt after it was over and I was assured of our survival. 'Elephant ride' conjures images of childhood visits to Marine World/Africa USA where the carefully supervised elephant ride lasted 5 minutes around a circular and flat path with guardrails. Our elephant ride was more of an extreme sporting event, up and down steep muddy terrain along the ridge of a mountain. Lawyers and insurance premiums would never allow for such a ride in any civilized country. Hair raising most of the time, and downright scary at other moments.

We boarded the pachyderm atop an elevated platform, not unlike a gallows which concerned me at the outset. The guy working the platform took a look at my size and summoned their strongest elephant available. We named it Big Blue. It ambled over to the platform no doubt taking a look at me and wishing I had slept in that morning. But I could relate to Big Blue because being a big guy means a lot of people look at me to do the uncomfortable heavy lifting. As no English was spoken on the platform I had to pantomime that I am a huge person, point to the elephant and ask the internationally understood phrase "Ok?" The guy gave a thumbs up so we jumped onto a bench situated over the elephant's shoulders and buckled ourselves in for what would turn out to be a wild ride.

What kind of father perches his 1-year old daughter atop a 4-ton beast of burden as it lumbers up and down a muddy mountainside? In the States I'd have had child services waiting for me at the finish line, but this is Thailand. Assuring a our safety was the driver, a 100-pound Thai mahout siting right behind the elephant's ears and directing it verbally and occasionally giving it a jab with the business end of a small pick axe. Kind of like a bumpy airplane ride where you monitor your safety by the facial expressions of the cabin crew, I tried to read our mahout's comfort level at the moments where I felt our lives were in peril. He didn't seem to be concerned, so I felt mildly better. And at one point where the path was particularly treacherous, our elephant sidled up to a nearby tree and itched its rump against it, something I figured an elephant who was in fear of falling would not do.

I suppose I was overreacting because I was panicked while Lizzie seemed cool throughout and Ingrid just stared at the butterflies and tried to grab the elephant's ears as they flapped back toward her. They are both lucky that I didn't have to enact my contingency plan of throwing Ingrid off the elephant to the uphill side if the beast lost its footing and began to tumble down the mountainside.

When it was all said and done I had to concede that I'd had a mostly good time. One of those experiences that I enjoyed recollecting far more after it was over than while it was happening. I am sure Big Blue feels the same way.

Chiang Mai

Lizzie, Ingrid and I spent the past several days in beautiful Thailand, the Land of Smiles. We are not really 'beach people' so we took our pale bodies to the country's interior to the historic city of Chiang Mai. It is Thailand's second largest city but a far cry from the urban frenzy of Bangkok. As with most of our foreign travels, we tend to pass our days by just walking around and seeing what we stumble into, never sparing an opportunity to enjoy the local cuisine or beverage. Thailand is the perfect country for this travel strategy.

Thai food was a huge draw for our trip. In my mind, Thailand nudges out Singapore for the award of cheapest-best food of all the places I've been. From the street corner stall to the Four Seasons, you are assured of getting an incredible meal for a relatively cheap price. I had a $1 bowl of soup from a corner shop that was the culinary highlight of my trip, and I'll still be talking about it for months to come. It inspired me to try and get a gig on one of the many travel food shows on the Discovery Channel. I'll hold the boom mic if it allows me to travel for food.

Chiang Mai holds many charms. The city is nearly 1000 years old and is known as the City of Temples, because there are over 300 Buddhist temples, or 'wats' in town. They are absolutely beautiful, but I'll be the first to say that you need see only 2 and then extrapolate the experience 150x to get the idea.

In the driving rain we visited Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep atop a mountain overlooking the city. The location begs the question 'how did they get the materials up here to build this thing?' The answer lies in local lore that says an elephant was allowed to wander the countryside with a Buddha statue strapped to its back and wherever it finally collapsed would be the building spot. It was a beautiful temple and we were treated to a local youth music troupe who played Thai songs and were led by a cute little girl performing a traditional dance, a welcome diversion from the rain.

Lizzie and Ingrid said a prayer and made an offering by lighting a candle and offering a lotus flower. We have much cause to offer a prayer this year.

We traveled primarily by Tuk Tuk, the three wheeled buggies that swarm the streets. Wholly unsafe, particularly with Ingrid in tow, the tuk tuk really gives you the feeling that you are taking advantage of your Thailand experience. The only downfall is that they are so bumpy and rattly that its tough to take a non-blurry picture.


We wandered through a wonderful night market that had local crafts on display. Unlike the Hong Kong markets which sell counterfeit handbags and replica soccer jerseys, this market actually had items handcrafted with care. Lizzie bought some cool paper mache fish from an old man who'd made them personally, and they are to be slipped over Christmas lights before putting on the tree. Will make for a fun memory this year.

It was a great couple of days spent with no particular plan in mind other than to keep Ingrid free of mosquito bites, which we accomplished through vigilant attention and a bottle of herbal repellant. Lack of a plan frees you from disappointment of not keeping up with your guide book. And who needs guide books, they're too heavy to carry anyway. A guide book would never have pointed us to the pickup soccer game we saw played with a wicker ball or finding an awesome and out of place hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant/bar. Here's to wandering aimlessly.

Back in a few

We're off to Thailand, will be back next Wednesday.

HK Zoo

Today is a holiday in HK -- it's National Day, celebrating China's establishment -- so I've got a mid-week day off of work. We decided to spend it at HK's Zoo, really a 'mini zoo' by the standards of most cities. But most impressive is how close the zoo is to the heart of bustling downtown (a zoo itself) and to the building in which I work. To think that I've passed by this little gem so many times without visiting!

The zoo is very primate heavy, with everything from tiny macaques to big orangutans. The highlight of the day was a howl-off between two very large Sumatran Gibbons. I thought she would be scared by it, but Ingrid watched the showdown with rapt attention.

Ingrid is still too young to really know what is going on but she really enjoyed herself. It was funny to see her point at the various hairy primates and say 'Da Da!' Either she's directing my attention to the apes, or she is saying that I resemble what she's pointing at. And with a largely Chinese audience who liked to observe our every move, it seemed at times like we were the zoo animals.

Fun day. Here are a couple pictures. We also took some video but it is proving hard to post. Will try again later.