Easing into Asia: Hong Kong

Now that February's almost through, it must be time to close out January! Before we arrived in crazy Hanoi, we made our first stop in Asia, Hong Kong, which we went to both because it was pretty much our only choice from South Africa, and because our friends Elissa & Shafi Imran moved there this past Fall with their 2 kids so we wanted to catch up with them and see what life in HK was like. (You can read Elissa's account of our visit here.) 

We spent 3 nights at the Imrans, and their daughter Leah (aged nearly 3) was gracious enough to sleep in her little brother Will's room for our stay.  We were treated to 2 tasty dinners cooked by Nilda, their friendly live-in helper, and Nilda also took care of our laundry which was much in need of a good wash after Africa. We were certainly spoiled by the comforts of expats in Hong Kong!  It's a different world and although I found it a little strange at first, I can see how it would be easy to get used to having round-the-clock help.

As for the city itself, we were surprised to find it less intense than we had expected, arriving with an image of Tokyo or the like in our heads.  The traffic (both vehicle and foot) was not nearly as dense as we imagined it would be. We were able to navigate easily, and we spent a couple days walking around, checking out temples...

Tin Hau Temple, Causeway Bay

Incense burning in Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road

... parks ...

Jason exercising at a park in Stanley, near the Imrans' house

Attempting to walk the therapeutic stone path, Victoria Park (ouch!)

 ... and markets.  

Delicacies at Wan Chai Market

Preparing for the Chinese New Year at the Flower Market

Checking out dried seafood & birds nests

As evidenced by the above picture, Leah took a fast liking to Jason and insisted on holding his hand whenever we were all out together - very cute.

We also had some good clean Asia-style fun, amusing ourselves with signpostings...

Please don't cause a nuisance

Please!

... and posing for funny pictures.

I hope everyone likes this picture half as much as I do!

We capped off our visit with a dinner out with Elissa & Shafi and 2 other college friends, Jen & Jason Beerman, who also moved to HK in 2010.  Jason B. managed to find us a great authentic Chinese dinner and thankfully written instructions on what to order, given we were the only white people around and it would have been very difficult otherwise!

Go Penn!

We were so well cared for by the Imrans it was difficult to leave; a much-needed respite after navigating our first few weeks on the road, and a comfortable place to recharge before entering the hustle & bustle of Vietnam.  A link to more pictures is at right; it's a small album and there are some other funny pix in there too!

On the road in Laos

We arrived in Laos over a week ago and we're slowly making our way South to North with a few detours in between.  We have so much to catch up on here (not to mention Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Cambodia), but we thought we'd share one particular moment of hilarity from today. 

Look carefully... there's a lot going on here!

No goat (or duck) left behind

This broke some of the tension when, 28km (17.5mi) into our 129km (80mi) trip today from Savannakhet to Tha Khek, our minibus irritatingly stopped for about 45 minutes, for no apparent reason.  At least we parked long enough to enjoy seeing this group pass by!  Easily the high point of our 3h 30min ride...

Off the grid

Yesterday (Feb 15) we arrived in Pakse, Laos.  If you want to know where that is, click here.

We are working on planning out the next couple of weeks, but one thing that is apparent is we won't be as readily connected as we have been.  To illustrate, yesterday we saw a sign at an internet cafe boasting: "High speed internet! 256 Kbps!"

So... if you don't hear from us for a little while, it's because we're off the grid.  Wish us luck!

Remembering Safari

Way back when, at the very beginning of our trip, we went on safari in Tanzania.  We've done so much since then that it feels like months ago, but really it was about 5 or 6 weeks.

We used a company called Good Earth Tours, and booked in a 5 day / 4 night camping safari.  We figured, let's start the 'adventure' off right - and as neither of us has much if any camping experience, we figured it could be fun to give that a try (the alternative is to stay in lodges).  We were hooked up with a pair of Canadians, Michael & Melanie, who turned out to be not only well-seasoned travelers to extremely remote spots (much thanks to their jobs in geophysics (him) and environmental science (her)), but also avid outdoors people - the kind of hard core that thinks canoeing & camping in below-freezing weather is a 'good time'.

As I mentioned before, we felt very fortunate to have these two as our companions - given we spent 5 days in a jeep and taking all our meals together, a bad pairing would have been disatrous!  They were laid-back, had interesting stories to tell, and were easy to chat with.  And if there had been any question in the matter, they earned full admiration points when, on a serene, meditative drive entering the Serengeti, Melanie broke the silence by whipping out her iPod and travel speakers and playing us some Toto for a collective Moment of Zen.  I think (hope!) they found us to be good safari partners too, although I think they found us looking a little 'keen' for our trip, all decked out in new clothing & gear (I can promise that by this point we don't look too sparkly!).

As for the safari itself, we visited 3 parks.  The first and least impressive was Lake Manyara, but given it was our first game drive, we were pretty much excited for everything - and especially enjoyed the monkeys.  On the second day, we drove into the Serengeti, where we spent the middle two nights.  Here, we saw lots of animals, including the usual suspects like zebra, giraffe, elephants, a few lions (though at a distance), hippos, buffalo, and antelope - and a wide variety of birds too, turning Jason overnight from normal guy to avid birdspotter.  We did see one chase (cheetah v. antelope), but no kills or really any action to speak of. I was most amazed by the vastness of it all - endless plains and skies - trying to make myself understand that this was the animals' real home, not something manufactured for our entertainment. 

Our last stop was in the Ngorongoro Crater (we spent a night camped near the rim), a beautiful self-contained park where almost all of the major animals live -- other than giraffe because there aren't enough trees for them to eat! The Crater is also home to 23 black rhinos - a critically endangered species which is often poached for its horn.  We managed to spot a couple, but only very far away.  That did complete our Big 5 viewing, though.

As for the camping, we think we fared pretty well, many thanks to some of our shiny new gear (namely my fancy-schmancy headlamp and Jason's too-cool-for-school safari hat, and of course our sleeping bags and inflatable pillows!).  Good Earth's camping equipment - they provided tents & mats - was pretty nice, too; the tents were the nicest & biggest of the ones we saw at the campgrounds (many tour companies set up camp at the same location, so we could check out the competition).

We were treated to two stunning sunrises - one in the Serengeti on our early morning (6am) game drive on Day 4, and the other at breakfast over the crater on our last day. Evidence of those special moments and the others (plus evidence of the safari hat) can of course be found on Picasa, but here are a few to whet the appetite:

Speak no evil in Lake Manyara

Dinnertime in the Serengeti

Showing off in the Hippo Pool

Hitching a ride across the plains

Soaking in the scenery at the Ngorongoro Crater Lake

Road Trip, South Africa

Before we get too far removed from our time in South Africa I thought I’d share a few highlights from our time driving around the Western Cape. As is typical we opted for the budget rental car, which in this case meant a light blue Chevy Spark Lite. While it’s unlikely we’ll make it our next car, it served us well and is a bit of a natural deterrent to auto theft as I can’t image anyone giving it a second look.

Not just a Spark... a Spark Lite.

After our three nights staying in Cape Town we drove south to explore Cape Peninsula. The drive was amazing, winding above the Atlantic ocean along the western coast, and we really enjoyed our drive and walk around the nature reserve at the bottom of the cape. While we didn’t make it to technical southern tip of Africa, we did at least reach the “The most Southwestern Point”…whatever that means.

Like everyone else, we stood by the language we understood.

We spent a night in Simon’s Town, after which we visited the penguins and then headed up and east to the wine region. We ended up staying in Franschhoek by accident as a couple places we looked in the more well-known town of Stellenbosch were booked, but it ended up working out great. While we weren’t blown away by the wines, the scenery around the entire area is unbelievable and Franschhoek has a great small town feel. Fit my vision of what a town in Napa or Sonoma might have been like 30 years ago, with an even more spectacular backdrop. 

Nice views from Glenwood Winery, Franschhoek

During our time in foodie Franschhoek, we had one dinner out at a fantastic little place with a menu that changes nightly, and opted another night to cook some ostrich bolognaise in the indoor/outdoor kitchen at our guesthouse.

Jess, cooking al fresco

Jason enjoys his ostrich spag bol

Next we headed east along the scenic route 62, which provided as stunning as advertised. While our stay in Oudtshoorn proved only moderately interesting, we can now say we’ve visited the Ostrich Capital of the World and we did get to take a dip in the pool, with the owner’s dog, at our guesthouse.

This guy found us pretty curious, too.

Weather foiled our attempt at driving the scenic Swartberg pass the next morning but we made our own scenic detour and took the Spark Lite for a little semi off-roading on our way back west.

Our last two nights were spent in Montagu – “Where drying fruit is a way of life” - where we stayed at a fantastic little guesthouse at the back of a Brewery/Restaurant. While calling the town sleepy is perhaps an understatement, we really enjoyed the downtime and what felt like home cooking from the transplanted German chef. I did a nice 12km hike on the second day (Jess wasn’t feeling well), which offered some great views of the town and surrounding area and continued the training for Machu Picchu.

The road less traveled

On our last day we managed to squeeze some brandy tasting, which proved an interesting contrast to the wine tastings, and a stop a nearby botanical garden.  

Brandies with a savoury pairing

Our final night was spent in the travel lodge at Cape Town airport in anticipation of our 6:30am flight to Johannesburg and connection to our 12 hour voyage to Hong Kong. All in all we really liked Cape Town and the surrounding area which proved to be much more scenic than anticipated (and often reminiscent of California) as well as a whole lot safer than expected.  Check out the rest of the pictures here – where you can also see some of the entertaining road signs we encountered on our journey!

It's Tết! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới!

Happy new year! Today marks the lunar new year, celebrated in China and in Vietnam (possibly other places as well...).  While China ushers in the Year of the Rabbit, Vietnam is ringing in the Year of the Cat.  This is the only sign in their zodiac that differs. According to a very informative article I read in Vietnam's English-language newspaper, Good Morning Vietnam, the reason for the difference is either because the Vietnamese thought the Rabbit too close to the Rat (both rodents) so substituted in the Cat, which also has the effect of balancing out the Dog; either that OR there was a translation error.  They're not sure.

Anyway, we listened to the fireworks from our hotel last night (we're generally pretty lame about New Year's Eve so why should this be different?).  But we have enjoyed watching the preparations the days leading up.  In Hong Kong the flower market was overflowing with ladies buying orange trees, pussy willow branches, and other floral delights. But what we got the biggest kick out of was, of course, the scooters in Hanoi - rushing around town with mandarin orange trees attached to the back.  I can only think of our perennial family event of strapping a Christmas tree on the roof of the car, and put a challenge to my dad to try this method next year!

Also notice the small child in the front right of the frame.

Another side effect of the new year is that the streets got eerily quiet... not silent by any means, but we had an easy ride to the airport (we're in Hue now) and have not needed to practice death-defying street crossing techniques in the past day or two... too bad - we were getting pretty good at that!