Macau

Part of what I like so much about traveling- especially in foreign places is that you just never know what is going to happen, what you are going to see or do. Today was one of those great days of travel for me. I took a ferry to Macau which is a peninsula off of China that used to be a Portugese (colony?). So I got on the ferry and found my seat and noticed a bunch of fingernail clipping in my seat which was kinda nasty- at least put them on the floor for God’s sake. Naturally I didn’t want to touch them so I blew them onto the floor and took my seat. A couple of minutes later this couple sits down next to me and the guy is on my left. I took a breath and noticed a number of unpleasant odors. The first thing I smelled reminded me of how my hockey equipment smelled at the end of a season- which isn’t pleasant at all. Then I noticed more current body odor superimposed onto the stale hockey sweat stank- seats were assigned so I tried to ignore it for my one hour ferry ride. The ferry was incredibly fast- 45 knots or something like that.

Kuniko has a classmate from Grad school living in Macau and he was cool enough to pick me up and give me a grand tour and tell me all about Macau- prior to getting here I didn’t know anything about it. I had about 5 hours in Macau and Sean helped me to absolutely maximize that time. First we headed to the older section (name I don’t know) which was really cool- narrow streets with sort of an old European style that was a bit run down but still charming. I was a bit hungry so I ate 2 egg custards and had a bubble tea (more on the custards later). We checked out some famous church that burned down twice, however the façade remains. We then headed to the first casino build in Macau.

As of 2007 Macau exceeds Vegas in gambling revenue. Sean works for the Venetian so he knows a lot about this subject. Anyway I already forgot the name of the first casino- we had lunch there at this place that makes the noodles fresh,- really cool these guys have a big piece of dough and use some sort of small tool thingy to slice the noodles into hot water. It was really good.

We then headed to the Venetian, but stopped for more egg custards. Sean took me to the best place that apparently created the egg custard. So it is basically a ridiculously buttery pastry shell king of thing filled with sweet egg custard and is served warm- these things are amazing. Apparently the owner of this place died from a heart attack in his forties- that is how good they are.

Next we drove to the Venetian which is the 2nd largest building in the world (the first being Boeing’s plane hanger/factory in Seattle. It is also the largest casino in the world. Not only that but they are also building a whole bunch of other casinos to make a strip of them. It may actually be the largest construction sight in Asia right now. Apparently the Chinese absolutely love to gamble and the high rollers consist of Chinese factory owners who are making shitloads of money- think about that when you are shopping in walmart- you may be helping to support a wealthy Chinese factory owners trip to Macau. Apparently the hotel has 3000 rooms- all of which are suites. It really was mind-blowing. It has a huge shopping mall- I think 300 stores and an auditorium for concerts and a convention center- crazy.

We then headed back to the ferry and I returned to Hong Kong. Luckily no one sat next to me but there was someone eating something that smelled like old beef jerky and it was really an unpleasant odor but luckily only lasted a few minutes.

I then headed back to the tailor for a fitting/adjustments to the clothes I ordered. After that I headed to the Temple street night market which is basically a bunch of stalls of people selling cheap Chinese made stuff and cheap jade and such. I then managed to spend about 15 bucks on a face and palm reading that was ridiculous- I didn’t realize until after I gave the guy the money that he essentially knew 5 english words- but he had a picture of him with Jackie Chan and had a newspaper article about him in English so I went for it. What an absolute load of shit. First off the guy just kept pointing to my face and these lines on my hand and saying “beautiful” and “lucky.” He then would point to something on my hand or face and then refer to his notebook which had phrases handwritten in English. He told me I as going to make lots of money. He also told me I have a good wife and then later found out I was single and then told me I would get married when I was older (wow- that is pretty insightful!). He also told me I had 2 sons (does he know something I don’t know??). The other thing is he touched my face a bunch of times which I didn’t like one bit and couldn’t wait to get back to my hotel to wash my face. He also said if I started a business I would be successful. He didn’t say anything negative at all- apparently 2008 is supposed to be a good year for me. I am pretty much done with fortune tellers and palm readers- especially ones that don’t speak English and consult a notebook to tell people their fortunes.

Hong Kong

So I woke up at 4am this morning- wide awake- it was a shocker- love that jet lag. I am staying in Kowloon at the Eaton Hotel: http://hongkong.eatonhotels.com. I ponied up a little more money to stay in a hotel rather than a hostel and I am really glad I did so.

The public transportation here is fantastic- the subway is fast and runs frequently. I took the subway today to Hong Kong and did a ton of walking. The map that came with my lonely planet books isn't exactly detailed and that combined with the fact where I was is on a hill meant I pretty much didn't know where I was going. I spent about half an hour trying to find a dim sum place that lonely planet raved about. I was incredibly hungry and could not find it, despite asking for directions- both people nodded and pointed me in the wrong direction. I scrapped that plan and settled with a sandwich that was actually quite good. I then headed to the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building which is quite impressive and a funny thing happened with the ATM: first of all the ATM took my card very slowly and then nothing happened on the screen for literally 3-4 minutes- the bank guy was like "software updating" I was mildly concerned cause its a bank of Hawaii ATM card and attempting to get a replacement in Hong Kong would be a joke given the way Bank of Hawaii...oh ya and then the ATM informed me I would get a fee for using it- but didn't tell me how much the fee is- hmm hopefully not too much. I then headed on foot to Graham street market which was killer. It is basically an open air market with veggies, meat, fish, etc. I saw various animal body parts and still am not sure what all of them were. The stink at times was nearly enough to cause me to throw up my sandwich.













I then walked around the Soho area (south of Hollywood road) and stumbled upon the Man Mo Temple and I managed to inhale more incense smoke in 10 minutes than I have in my whole entire life- there is literally incense hanging from the ceiling in coils and hundreds or maybe thousands of incense sticks burning.


I then met up for a coffee with a friend of Kuniko's who is working here. After that I headed to the tailor for a fitting- the custom made clothes thing is really amazing- that is to have something made specifically for you and having it fit so well. After that I had some fantastic BBQ pork and veggies and tried not to think of the funky raw pork I saw a few hours earlier.

Asia Bound

I find myself in what I consider to be a very special time in life- between jobs. I am typing this on Japan airlines heading from Honolulu to Tokyo. I will have a 6 hour layover and will then fly to Hong Kong. My plan was hatched and executed pretty quickly. I am set to begin work in Boston in mid May and decided to use my time of wisely- traveling. I had such a great time in Japan earlier this year and so I decided to go there again. Also have wanted to go to Hong Kong so I made some calls and found out that I could fly pretty cheap to HK then back to Tokyo. Also found out that I could get a 2 week Japan railways pass for cheap so it was a no brainer. I will be spending 6 days in Hong Kong then fly back to Tokyo. Kuniko will be arriving in Tokyo on the same day I arrive and we will stay at her parent’s house. She will stay for 6 days and then head back to Honolulu. At that point I will start my 2 week railway pass- I haven’t planned my itinerary but want to go to Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima and probably back to Kyoto.

Flying on a Japanese carrier is infinitely better than an American. First off in Japan flight attendants still have some status in Japan so they actually take pride in their jobs and provide great service- none of that attitude that is so common on US carriers. Secondly the food is actually good- I had a pork curry dish with rice that was quite good.

Kurobuta pork tonkatsu! and fried fish private parts

It has been a Japanese food weekend...which naturally I love. On Friday we went to our local sushi restaurant (by local I mean 1 block away). In addition to some great sushi we had a tempura dish which Kuniko ordered. When it arrived it didn't look like other tempura I had tasted before. I asked what it was and was informed I could find out after I ate it (this is definately a good policy). It tasted good but the texture bordered on slimy- I would rate it as a B. I later found out it is "a reproductive organ, but I can't remember whether male or female." Who the hell would think to fry up fish reproductive organs? The Japanese of course.



Last night we went to Bairin (meaning plum forest in Japanese):

http://www.pj-world.com/bairin/

They also have another restaurant in Ginza in Tokyo. It specializes in Tonkatsu which is breaded/fried pork. This restaurant also has the option of getting Kurobata pork which is supposedly the Kobe beef of pork (if that makes sense). Basically what it means is it is very fatty and flavorful and when deep fried it is freaking amazing. In this restaurant they give a bowl of sesame seeds that you grind up and then put a sweet brown sauce (Tonkatsu sauce) and then dip the pork in that. Naturally it is quite expensive, however, is absolutely worth it. Also they had Sapporo reserve which I haven't seen before- it is excellent.

Bhutanese Art and pork buns

Today we headed to the Honolulu Academy of Arts for the opening of "The Dragon's Gift- the Sacred Arts of Bhutan." I actually didn't really know how much of a big deal it was- until I got there. First off it was for invite only- due to the nature of her work, Kuniko was invited- which meant I could tag along. Also invited were all the donors who helped make it possible- ie rich people who dress kind of funny and corporate sponsors. More importantly the princess of Bhutan was there as well as a bunch of monks and other high ranking religious people and such from Bhutan. I actually had no idea this was such a big deal, until I got there. It was like 3 years of planning to make this exposition a reality. Basically all kinds of Buddhist paintings and other pieces of art that have never been seen by pretty much any westerner were shipped over here for an exposition. In addition they allowed westerners to videotape Bhutanese dance. Today they did a traditional dance that pretty much no one except important people in Bhutan get to see. The exhibit was quite impressive and it made me want to go to Bhutan even more.

After looking at very cool Buddhist paintings we headed to nearby Chinatown to get Manapua a Char Hun Sut. As much as I bash Hawaii for it's lack of sophisticated food- there are a few things here that are really amazing and this is one of them. Basically it is a bun filled with pork. Probably doesn't sound that exciting but trust me it is:

Maui Days 2 and 3

So on Sunday I forced Kuniko out of bed much earlier than she would normally get up and so we could get started on our (epic) hike of the trip. We stopped at Grandma's coffee house in Kula and bought some fantastic baked goods for my breakfast (Kuniko had some pasta salads which were good) and then we drove to Haleakala. The drive is really cool- very windy. We were upgraded from our economy car to a mid size which was good for this drive but not so good when I had to fill it up (gas was 3.85 per gallon for the cheap stuff). Anyway we got to the top which is 10,000 feet and began our hike called sliding sands trail. First off it is a really cool hike and very unique and I highly recomend it. It is 4 miles down into the crater of the extinct volcano. The pisser is you have to hike down first and then back up it (at an altitude of 10,000 feet). They also have horseback riding up and down it on the same trail. I didn't mind avoiding the horses so much, but I did mind avoiding horse shit and the occasional odor of horse shit and pee (it's actually kind of stinky). I have to give Kuniko public recognition for doing this hike with me- it is no small task and she was a trooper.










After the hike we grabbed a beer which my have been the coldest best tasting beer of my life and grabbed some pizza that was really good (which is nowhere to be found on Oahu).

Day 3. Again I woke Kuniko up pretty early and we headed out to do the rode to Hana. There was a fatal accident on the only road out of Kula so we got the chance to sit in our rental car for a while before sitting in it for even longer on the road to Hana. The road to Hana is cool but not as cool as hiking in my opinion. We didn't really stop too much and check stuff out. To be honest I think for most people it would be really amazing but we are spoiled living in Oahu. Then we went to Pa'ia and walked around and had more really good pizza. Pa'ia is pretty intersting- it may have the highest concentration of white people with dreadlocks in all of the US. There are some serious oddballs in that town. That being said there is a fantastic healthfood grocery store and a really nice cafe- which we don't have in Oahu so we really enjoyed that. We had an awesome trip to Maui and I highly recomend going there.

Maui! Day 1

This past weekend we headed to Maui for the long weekend. I didn't bring my laptop so I have to try to remember everything now. We flew in on Saturday and rented a car and were slated to do a whale watch at 11 am. Somehow we drove past Lahaina and ended up on this really beautiful road pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Needless to say we missed the boat, however, this proved to be a good thing. We were able to get on a later boat and there were tons of whales. Whales migrate from Alaska in the winter and stay in the warm waters of Maui. The tour started out pretty weak- the whales were far away and the boats aren't allowed to go to close to the whales. But then the whales started to come very close the boat...see below pictures and video. The (extremely annoying) guide (who pretty much didn't stop talking into her portable microphone) said that this was one of the best whale watches in a while. I was really tempted to tell her that Kuniko ate whale growing up (it's served as a school lunch in Japan) and then to ask her if she had ever eaten whale....but I opted to keep my mouth shut as I wouldn't want her to freak out and throw Kuniko overboard for having consumed her favorite animal.
After the whale watch we headed to John Paul's gourmet store in upcountry which was close to our where we stayed. I bought us cheese, bread, dried salami, and chocolate for our hike the next day. If you have never been to Maui- everything is freaking expensive. It cost in the neighborhood of 40 bucks. Frankly we didn't completely mind because they had really great stuff that we can't get on Oahu. I could write a huge rant on the lack of quality fresh food in Oahu, but I won't. OK so then we headed to our "cottage" in Kula. Kuniko found this place after finding out that pretty much everything in Kula was booked. This place was fantastic and I would definately recomend it. It's called Keli's:

http://kelismaui.com/


It is located in the mountains very close to Haleakala and is located on beautiful grounds with an absolutely stunning view.







For dinner we headed to Hali'imaile General Store which is a pretty well known pricey restaurant. The food was good. The dessert was amazing. It was a "rustic" apple tart that was made with a cornmeal crust- absolutely amazing.