It's not lost on me that the two cities I visited initially are currently epicenters of political friction. Admittedly, Thailand has been quiet lately since the junta has oppressed the country into mostly silence, but not long ago there were large, loud, and violent protests all over Bangkok. And as I write this, Hong Kong is under siege by "Occupy Central" protesters looking to send a pro-democracy message to China by stalling business downtown. Luckily for me, the timing of my trip avoided all of this, so I was able to enjoy both places without any logistical headaches caused by political unrest.
That said, my introduction to September weather in Hong Kong was not a pleasant one. After emerging from the airport train at the IFC mall and grabbing the keys from my Airbnb host, I made my way to the doors when I felt a blast of heat and humidity that just didn't seem plausible, especially considering I had just spent nine months in Southeast Asia. Surely, I thought to myself, I'm in the vicinity of the exhaust heat from a really large aircon unit. I walked outside and, nope, it really was that miserable, even at 8:30 in the morning. I walked about 15 minutes to my Airbnb apartment, mostly uphill - the mid-levels escalators run downhill in the morning - with all of my stuff and way too many clothes on. The apartment was a fourth-floor (which would be the fifth floor in America) "walk-up", a cute way of saying "no fucking elevator".
By the time I made it inside, my clothes looked like I had just jumped into a pool and I had firmly decided that Hong Kong had been stricken from the list of places I'd consider living. I can deal with hot weather if I can wear shorts and tank tops and jump into an ocean or pool on demand, but if I have to dress professionally, I'm going to be a sweaty mess everywhere I go. Even though spending time in Southeast Asia has helped me acclimate to hot weather a bit, my genetics still dictate that I'm built for cool weather.
Since I had visited Hong Kong for nearly a week only a few months ago, most of the usual tourist activities had already been completed and were pretty fresh in my mind. I spent most of my long weekend exploring the city on foot, enjoying the atmosphere, taking photos from a couple skyscrapers (Bank of China and Central Plaza) that have high-numbered floors with public areas, spending time with friends, and meeting new ones.
Speaking of meeting new friends, I was heading back to my Airbnb one evening when I passed the corner bar on my street, which was filled with the usual assortment of professionals enjoying happy hour. As I glanced over, I caught sight of a familiar-looking man sitting by himself at the bar. I stopped on the sidewalk, looked at his profile for a few seconds, and decided to talk to him. The introductory conversation went something like this:
Speaking of LKF (Lan Kwai Fong, a popular nightlife area in the city), I ended up there again on Saturday night with a couple friends, which reminds me that this area deserves special recognition on this blog for being one of the shittiest shitshows I've ever seen. That's high praise considering I've been - multiples times - to Bourbon Street, Las Vegas, and Khao San Road. By 3:00 in the morning, multiple streets were covered in broken glass and I had seen at least half a dozen works of vomit art and four or five people - party-goers, not homeless folks - actually sleeping on the sidewalk. The whole scene was such a caricature of drunken partying that I was half-expecting Peter Griffin to stumble out of an alley and faceplant in front of me. My crude explanation for all of this: lots of early-to-mid-20s professionals with disposable income, a youthful exuberance for getting completely shitfaced, and, quite frankly, only an Asian tolerance to alcohol.
The rest of my weekend was quite mellow and I made a point of spending a solid chunk of my Sunday afternoon riding a ding ding across the island - one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong - and practicing videography with my new camera so I could put together a montage.
From Hong Kong, I flew to Bangkok, where I planned to kill a few days before heading to Phuket. This plan worked out nicely for me since I didn't spend much quality time in Bangkok the last time around; whatever time I had was mostly spent in clinics or on Khao San Road. This time, I made a point of doing some proper sightseeing and exploring some more authentic neighborhoods. This was made quite easy by the fact that my Airbnb was in Ratchathewi, a very "locals" part of the city, and close to a BTS (metro) station, so I could move around the city center easily.
Tuesday was my big historical and cultural sightseeing day, so I took one of the Chao Phraya boats up the river and visited the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (home of the Emerald Buddha, the most important Buddha statue in the country), Wat Pho (the massive reclining Buddha), and Wat Arun (the Angkor-style temple across the river).
That evening's outing to Sirocco sky bar was filled with a lot of promise, but ended up being kind of a buzzkill. Sure, it's the highest bar in the world and has a cool view of an endless expanse of twinkling lights, but all the couches on the patio face away from the view, there's no skyline to see in that direction, and drink prices are astronomical. I paid $25 for a whiskey (one of the cheapest scotches I could find) and a water, which is more than I would pay in America at a rooftop bar, and this is Thailand! To put that in perspective, my drink was as expensive as my lodging for the night, which was a nice one-bedroom apartment in a skyrise, not a dorm in a hostel. When's the last time one drink cost you the same as a night in a hotel? You can be damn sure I ate more than my fair share of pistachios and sweet olives while slowly, slowly nursing that drink.
Wednesday was very humid and rainy, so I spent most of the day strolling through a labyrinth of air-conditioned malls downtown. That evening's festivities turned out much better. First, I stumbled upon a much cooler rooftop bar: Skytrain Jazz Pub (by Victory Monument), accessed by the same kind of questionable-looking, graffiti-covered stairwell I've come to expect in Thailand. Later on, I sipped cocktails and listened to live jazz at the Sheraton Grande's Living Room lounge, courtesy of Randy Cannon, an American expat who's been playing jazz for decades.
Not surprisingly, given that it's September in Thailand, the skies opened up late in the evening and a torrential downpour rolled through, so I cut my night short, went home, and packed for my flight to Phuket the next day. I enjoyed my time in BKK a lot more than I thought I would (except the weather) and I know I haven't discovered all the facets of the city yet, so I'm sure I'll be back soon.
Full photo albums: Hong Kong, Bangkok
Hong Kong
That said, my introduction to September weather in Hong Kong was not a pleasant one. After emerging from the airport train at the IFC mall and grabbing the keys from my Airbnb host, I made my way to the doors when I felt a blast of heat and humidity that just didn't seem plausible, especially considering I had just spent nine months in Southeast Asia. Surely, I thought to myself, I'm in the vicinity of the exhaust heat from a really large aircon unit. I walked outside and, nope, it really was that miserable, even at 8:30 in the morning. I walked about 15 minutes to my Airbnb apartment, mostly uphill - the mid-levels escalators run downhill in the morning - with all of my stuff and way too many clothes on. The apartment was a fourth-floor (which would be the fifth floor in America) "walk-up", a cute way of saying "no fucking elevator".
By the time I made it inside, my clothes looked like I had just jumped into a pool and I had firmly decided that Hong Kong had been stricken from the list of places I'd consider living. I can deal with hot weather if I can wear shorts and tank tops and jump into an ocean or pool on demand, but if I have to dress professionally, I'm going to be a sweaty mess everywhere I go. Even though spending time in Southeast Asia has helped me acclimate to hot weather a bit, my genetics still dictate that I'm built for cool weather.
Since I had visited Hong Kong for nearly a week only a few months ago, most of the usual tourist activities had already been completed and were pretty fresh in my mind. I spent most of my long weekend exploring the city on foot, enjoying the atmosphere, taking photos from a couple skyscrapers (Bank of China and Central Plaza) that have high-numbered floors with public areas, spending time with friends, and meeting new ones.
Speaking of meeting new friends, I was heading back to my Airbnb one evening when I passed the corner bar on my street, which was filled with the usual assortment of professionals enjoying happy hour. As I glanced over, I caught sight of a familiar-looking man sitting by himself at the bar. I stopped on the sidewalk, looked at his profile for a few seconds, and decided to talk to him. The introductory conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hi, is your name Jess?"It turns out that, yes, this man was exactly who I thought it was: another former Riverbed employee, albeit one that worked in a very different department than me, so our previous interactions had been limited to faceless emails and pleasantries at company social outings. He had semi-recently quit Riverbed and was in town to attend a convention related to a new business venture. He invited me to join him for a beer, which led to another, which led to another, which led to me convincing my good Hong Kong friend Ka-Hing (another former Riverbedder) to join us, which led to barhopping, dinner, exploring the shitshow that is LKF, and ending up at a live music bar in Wan Chai until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. It was a really fun night, not least of which because a stranger-slash-former-corporate-acquaintance became a 9-hour drinking partner with a minimal amount of effort.
Man: "Yes..."
Me: "Did you work for Riverbed?"
Man: "Yes."
Me: "Holy shit."
Speaking of LKF (Lan Kwai Fong, a popular nightlife area in the city), I ended up there again on Saturday night with a couple friends, which reminds me that this area deserves special recognition on this blog for being one of the shittiest shitshows I've ever seen. That's high praise considering I've been - multiples times - to Bourbon Street, Las Vegas, and Khao San Road. By 3:00 in the morning, multiple streets were covered in broken glass and I had seen at least half a dozen works of vomit art and four or five people - party-goers, not homeless folks - actually sleeping on the sidewalk. The whole scene was such a caricature of drunken partying that I was half-expecting Peter Griffin to stumble out of an alley and faceplant in front of me. My crude explanation for all of this: lots of early-to-mid-20s professionals with disposable income, a youthful exuberance for getting completely shitfaced, and, quite frankly, only an Asian tolerance to alcohol.
The rest of my weekend was quite mellow and I made a point of spending a solid chunk of my Sunday afternoon riding a ding ding across the island - one of my favorite things to do in Hong Kong - and practicing videography with my new camera so I could put together a montage.
Bangkok
From Hong Kong, I flew to Bangkok, where I planned to kill a few days before heading to Phuket. This plan worked out nicely for me since I didn't spend much quality time in Bangkok the last time around; whatever time I had was mostly spent in clinics or on Khao San Road. This time, I made a point of doing some proper sightseeing and exploring some more authentic neighborhoods. This was made quite easy by the fact that my Airbnb was in Ratchathewi, a very "locals" part of the city, and close to a BTS (metro) station, so I could move around the city center easily.
Tuesday was my big historical and cultural sightseeing day, so I took one of the Chao Phraya boats up the river and visited the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (home of the Emerald Buddha, the most important Buddha statue in the country), Wat Pho (the massive reclining Buddha), and Wat Arun (the Angkor-style temple across the river).
That evening's outing to Sirocco sky bar was filled with a lot of promise, but ended up being kind of a buzzkill. Sure, it's the highest bar in the world and has a cool view of an endless expanse of twinkling lights, but all the couches on the patio face away from the view, there's no skyline to see in that direction, and drink prices are astronomical. I paid $25 for a whiskey (one of the cheapest scotches I could find) and a water, which is more than I would pay in America at a rooftop bar, and this is Thailand! To put that in perspective, my drink was as expensive as my lodging for the night, which was a nice one-bedroom apartment in a skyrise, not a dorm in a hostel. When's the last time one drink cost you the same as a night in a hotel? You can be damn sure I ate more than my fair share of pistachios and sweet olives while slowly, slowly nursing that drink.
Wednesday was very humid and rainy, so I spent most of the day strolling through a labyrinth of air-conditioned malls downtown. That evening's festivities turned out much better. First, I stumbled upon a much cooler rooftop bar: Skytrain Jazz Pub (by Victory Monument), accessed by the same kind of questionable-looking, graffiti-covered stairwell I've come to expect in Thailand. Later on, I sipped cocktails and listened to live jazz at the Sheraton Grande's Living Room lounge, courtesy of Randy Cannon, an American expat who's been playing jazz for decades.
Not surprisingly, given that it's September in Thailand, the skies opened up late in the evening and a torrential downpour rolled through, so I cut my night short, went home, and packed for my flight to Phuket the next day. I enjoyed my time in BKK a lot more than I thought I would (except the weather) and I know I haven't discovered all the facets of the city yet, so I'm sure I'll be back soon.
Full photo albums: Hong Kong, Bangkok
