Thailand on the weekend (Special Edition Post)

A few weeks ago we had a three-day weekend here in China. This was for the special Chinese holiday, Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day. Now, there’s a holiday. Unfortunately I find myself very allergic to the dust of the dead so I decided to make tracks for somewhere with less airborne allergens.

The only two people left from the US were myself and my friend, Long. Three day weekends doing come around often. We had to do something special. Seriously, they have to shut the whole county down while they rev their crypt-cleaner vacuums and go to town. We figured, the billion people here couldn’t be doing that often or the country would collapse. So we opted to make the best of it and go.

But to where? Well, where do we like the food and the climate, and where do they have one of the top rated dive sites in the world? Thailand.

Long and I used our frequent flyer miles to buy our flights. United was going to have us use 30,000 redemption miles to buy our ticket round trip from Hong Kong to Phuket. However, when we went to cash in our miles, they informed us that all the flights were booked. This wasn’t good news for us. It was starting to look like we were going to be grounded…or stuck in Thailand...We needed to be back for work on Monday, so that didn’t sound like a good idea. But we called a representative of the Star Aliance, the group of airlines that are partners with United in airline travels. We were able to manage a flight on Thai Air to Phuket. AND they were able to get us back by Monday, but only if we made a ridiculous connection…and then another. We would have to fly back from Phuket, connect in Bangkok, then fly to Singapore and connect to a United flight that went to Hong Kong. It was a lot of flights with dangerously close layovers. But with our fingers crossed we booked the flight there and the circuitous trip home. We were a little nervous, as we didn’t want to miss any of the flights but we were quickly comforted by the luxury of Thai Air. Not only is the economy seating significantly nicer than United’s offerings, they were flying us business class for the same 30,000 mile redemption. As we stored our small carry on bags, the Thai Air attendants brought us each a glass of champagne and we toasted to journey we were embarking. To life, to a good trip, and to making it back on time!

Flying in

Thai Airlines’ slogan is “as smooth as silk.” However, the landing was more like…hmm…I don’t know, about as smooth as a Boeing 747 dropping about 10 feet to the runway. The captain came on the loud speaker laughing. “After that beautiful landing, please enjoy your stay in Thailand.”

Luckily the trip was smoother than the landing.

We were surprised by a lack of official taxi cab as we left the airport. We had to barter with tons of gypsy cabs. Eventually we got stuffed into a van with about 8 other travelers from around the world. The driver took all of our addresses and sped off. First impressions of Thailand are two fold. One, the country is very green. The landscape has wonderful hills and valleys as we sped along in the van passing rich green jungle, forest, and hills. Secondly, everyone is trying to rip you off. Be ready to bargain. No, be ready to bargain hard. And be ultra aware. People were constantly telling us prices that had been significantly inflated because we were Americans. And, I’m a little used to that from spending time in china. But they would try giving you the wrong change back. And then smile and laugh when you caught them. “Oh, haha…you caught me…you’re so smart.” Keep your wits. They’re always nice and helpful but they're quick to try to trick you and take your money.

Cool Statue

We arrived at our hotel. We didn’t really know what we were getting. Especially after some of the Philippine’s hotels were such hole-in-the-wall places. We were delightfully surprised that our US dollars got us even farther here than they do in China. The Baumanburry hotel was very nice. Probably nicer than we needed, but it was a pleasant change from the previous Philippine hostels.

View from our room

Our Thai hostess was beautiful, but not very good at getting us the room we had reserved. It took them three tries to get us to the right room. The first one had one bed. I wasn’t ready to make that type of commitment with Long yet. The second two looked almost identical…but the third was the “correct one.” Apparently we had reserved the deluxe room and the difference was a flat screen TV on the wall. Whatever. We weren’t there to watch TV.

We changed into our beachwear and headed toward the beach. This beach was similar to Boracay in the Philippines. It was bars, shops and restaurants one side that followed the water on the other side. The beach wasn’t quite as nice as Boracay though. What I loved about Borracay was all the shops were right on the sand. There was a street in between the beach and the shops in Thailand.

We walked around from dive shop to dive shop in attempt to get one additional dive in before the end of that day. But to no avail. No place could help us out on such short notice, so late in the day. It was about 4:00. The game of “musical rooms” we played earlier had cost us some time and all the dive boats had taken off for their last run of the day.

No worries. We moseyed around and found some authentic Thai food. And enjoyed the last of the warmth of the day. We walked the beach and settled into our little home for the next day and a half.

Saturday was the big day for us. We grabbed what we needed and head to the gate of the hotel. It was 6 in the morning. A small van screeched to a halt in front of the hotel marked with South Siam Divers. This was our van. We jumped in to the tune of really loud Thai techno and bumped off, very quickly. The driver picked up a van-full of people and drove the 2 hours to the boat dock. We shuffled to a speedboat and took a ride out to our reason for coming, The Similan Islands.

Cool rock structures

We did two great dives in the Similan Islands. I think I’ll let the pictures speak for them selves. It was great to be in the Similans because it’s a wildlife preserve and the government only opens it for a about 5 months per year. If you don’t go during the season you don’t go, period. It was an honor to be there.

Long taking the plunge

The two divers

Scorpion Fish, a master of camouflage

Clown fish take shelter in sea anemone

Schooling fish

Guarding his home?

This coral reminds me of a Bonsai Tree

Cowabunga! Long got his wish and saw a turtle

Drying off

King of the (smelly) fruits

Walking through the Carrefour (Chinese name Cha-la-fu) we followed our noses to something that smelled absolutely delightful. This was not a durian. Then we caught a whiff of something that would have put a pile of decaying rat feces to shame. We sniffed with caution and followed the trail to a pile indeed. But it was not a pile of rat feces, but durian stacked high in the fruit section. What is a durian you ask? Durian goes by many names. Some call it the ‘king of the fruits.’ Some call it lunch. Some call it disgusting. I’m one of the latter.

Apparently durian is a fruit. Yes a fruit. However, when I think of fruits I think of sweet tasting things that might grow on a tree, such as an apple or an orange…or a banana. Hell, I even think of tomatoes! All these fruits have varying shapes, sizes and demeanors, but none quite have the attitude of a durian. Firstly a durian looks like it should be on the end of a medieval weapon such as a mace or club. And it’s got some weight to it. And it’s pretty damn big; ‘bout the size of a coconut. Trust me; you don’t want to be on the business end of a durian when it falls from a tree. A durian would kick your honor student’s fruit’s ass.

Secondly, there’s the smell. Most fruits have a pleasant aroma. One you might want to bottle and sell at Bath and Body Works in an atomizing spray bottle. Or at the very least you would market it as 99proof and put it in an alcohol. Frankly none of these fragrances or tastes would ever work for a perfume or a liquor. Why because it smells terrible. We took bets on if the cab driver would even let us into the car with the thing in our hands. We decided it would be better to hide it and roll down the windows hoping for the best.

Actually, I’m getting ahead of myself. It was T’andrew’s idea to actually buy the durian, and see if we could palate the strong fruit.

So we made it to the hotel without being kicked out by the cabbie. Then we bargained with the hotel staff to let us take the durian outside to the pool deck to begin the challenge. I think the challenge is obvious at this point. Who can eat the durian? We figured the pool deck would offer an easy to clean surface for removing the smell later. We didn’t want to risk letting some durian juice spill in the carpet of one of our hotel rooms, forever tainting it and the rooms adjacent.

Tan was the only one with previous experience with this monster of a fruit. He is half Malaysian. Apparently his father enjoys the pungent produce. T’andrew opened it up with a bit of brute force and a thick towel by prying apart the bulbous areas. Upon opening, it bared it’s fruit…it looked like a liver. Like a cashew dipped in goo, that solidified on the outer surface. Andrew points, “that’s the part you eat.” We all react in disgust. Andrew breaks it open further, to find that only about 20% of the durian can be eaten. I was dumbfounded. Imagine your apple where the core was everything except for about 2 bites, then you’d get the idea.

Andrew, Shaun and myself all tentatively grabbed small handfuls of the gooey stringy fruit-product from within the protective core. It felt like flesh. It was terrible to smell and terrible to hold. Craig was our cameraman, he wanted nothing to do with the green fruit. And so after holding it, gathering our courage, Andrew tried to do what he couldn’t do in the past, swallow a bite of durian. Quickly, as if racing his gag reflex, he snapped up a bite of durian and chewed until it was acceptable to swallow, and right when he was about to gulp it down…gag! Out it came onto the pool deck…looking equally unappealing.

Then it was Shaun and my turn. We exchanged a glance and took a swig of pijou. We were going to need it. Then in unison we took a bite. Wow…the world of durian that we entered was even worse than the smell. I couldn’t take it an almost immediately gagged it out into one of the buckets we found near the pool. Shaun didn’t last much longer. Some how the durian had deposited it stringy, liver, fruit flesh on my lips and I continued to taste it. I agree with Andrew Zimmer of the food network, it has the taste and texture of rotting onions but I think I could also taste dirty sock. Wow. This was amazing. The kind of amazing you never ever want to experience. Quite frankly, I think the pictures tell the story from here. End result, no one got it down. And you know what, it’s probably for the best.

A very smelly pile

The king of the fruits looking very regal

You eat the ugly, fleshy looking part

Yummy?

Andrew's face says, no

It feels absolutely disgusting

Shaun's trying to keep it down

It's sooooo bad

Octo-Mars-Wang-Cliffhanger-Erea

China is a place of mystery and wonder. Here is another China Pic Dump to slowly unveil the subtle beauty a this ancient society and the simple pleasures it offers.

Hanging a sign with only the best safety equipment.

Care to play a game of Uncle Wang?

Seriously, where can I meet fire and mars?! The planet or the god, I'll take either.

This area is whererea?

Would you like a pile of baby octopi?

Yes'm, that's fried rice in a pineapple. Garnished with a fancy umbrella.

Philippines Adventure (Special Edition Post)

I know this is a little late. But this one is pretty good. This is a special edition of my life in China. I found out that over Chinese New Year, it is traditional for most folks to go and visit their family at home. Thus Shenzhen, being very much a young migrant town, almost emptied to vacancy. Tumbleweeds inhabited the roads, saloon doors slammed open and shut in the wind and I was able to take a vacation to the Philippines. And what a journey it was.

Long, my coworker and friend, accompanied myself on this journey. We flew Philippine’s Cebu Air the 2 hours over to Manila, from Hong Kong. Cebu doesn’t worry about in-flight movies or giving out headphones. They simply have their flight attendants stand at the front of the plane and play games with the passengers. I am now the proud owner of a neon green change purse because I was the fastest to put three things with the word “Cebu” into the air. Yeah.

Anyway, we landed in Manila and took a cab to our luxurious El Rico suites. I’m using luxurious sarcastically because it smelled of thick lacquer but I was later to find out this would be one of the nicest hotels we’d booked!

It’s worth it to mention that the warm Philippine air was a wonderful change from the uncharacteristically cold winter that China was having. It melted the hoodies away and did much to raise our spirits.

On the ride to the hotel we’d made friends with our cab driver, Gabriel, and he told us he would take us to Taal Mountain. Taal Mountain and the subsequent lake created are a sight to behold. Why? Because it’s one of the smallest active volcanoes in the world. We drive about 2 hours to lake Taal, and then hired a boat to take us across the lake to the island.

Once to the island we took horses up to the top of the volcano. Except I didn’t seem to have a horse. I think it was a mule, and quite frankly I don’t know if this was some kind of Philippino joke, but it wasn’t funny. My horse was definitely significantly smaller than the other.

So we took a ride to the top, lead by our two 12 year old guides. They sat on the hoarse right behind us. Can horses seat two? I guess so. That was a little strange.

The horses went 90 percent up the hill and we climbed the steepest part on foot. When we crested the top we saw why this was such an exciting place to go. We were met with the mouth of a giant, gaping up at the sky and filled with water. There it was, the crater, that could spew fire and set the city below ablaze. It was only about 20 some years ago that it did just that. They were still rebuilding from the eruption. It was curiosity that had brought us to the lip of this crater and it was awe of the power and beauty that kept us looking.

We could still see sulfuric gas pluming up from the ground on the near corner of the crater. We soaked in the last of the waning sun and decided it was time to trot on home. So we made our way back to our gallant steeds, and back down the mountain.

The next day we made flew Asian Spirit airlines to Boracay. Boracay is in the top 5 or 10 beaches of the world apparently. I wasn’t ready to believe some online review until I saw it for myself.

We took boat after the flight and the water was noticeably bluer. We soaked it in and arrived to find the “white beach” that was promised was much like we expected. It truly was white, and the sand barely got hot, as it reflected most of the light.

The beach was set up with bars right on the sand on one side, and clear blue water about 100 feet away. It was great. Everything was at our fingertips. During the day we ate traditional Philippine Chicken Adobo like it was our job and at night the restaurants turn to bars to provide an enjoyable nightlife. I would definitely put this beach in my top 5. Ok, I don’t have a top 5. Let’s just say it was excellent.

Our first day in Boracay we arranged with a dive shop to get certified for Scuba. It’s a course that requires studying, underwater testing and written testing. Once we got our feet wet I don’t think we could ever be the same. Scuba diving was an amazing experience. Long and I are now PADI Open Water Certified.

Begrudgingly we couldn’t stay in Borcay forever. The days did have to come to an end at some point. We made our way back to Manila, the capital city and did some more touristy stuff. We checked out Fort Santiago in the city of Intramuros. It has a long and sad history, being destroyed and rebuilt from earthquakes, and WWII. It was occupied by the British, Americans, and the Japanese, basically everyone but the Philippinos until about 50 years ago.

We could see the Manila skyline, from the top of the fort, although it leaves a little to be desired.

We then walked down the street and witnessed the end of a wedding at famed Manila Cathedral.

Overall it was an eye-opening view of yet another Asian country. Boracay was amazing, but Manila left a little to be desired and we could have done without it. Taal was great. We ate tons of delicious food and experienced the hospitality that Philippinos are famous for. We rode in tricycles that were constructed of bmx bikes with welded on sidecars. We also saw the Philippine Jeepneys, a mode of transportation that was a little to complicated to figure out. The high point of the trip was definitely the Scuba diving. It’s something I’ll never forget and something I intend to do many more times in the future. (Keep watching for the next posts. Don’t worry it will be soon, and I’ll give you a glimpse of what’s under the water in another Asian country. Which one? Wait and see.)