Saturday, October 26, 2013

Hong Kong

October 21 - 24

We made a short 3-day stop in Hong Kong to wrap up our travels in Asia.  One of our buddies travels to mainland China frequently for work, close to Hong Kong, and he just so happened to be there during our visit.  We met up with him during the days we were there and we had a blast!

We blew 80 Hilton points per night to stay at the Conrad Hong Kong which was easily the nicest hotel Gene and I have ever stayed in.  Since we are Diamond status with Hilton (thanks to years of business travel), we really got the royal treatment.  We got upgraded to a suit on the Executive floor which was a beautiful corner room with 2 bathrooms, separate living room, and the most stunning views of the Hong Kong skyline through panoramic windows in every room.  We seriously think this place was bigger than our condo.  The bedroom alone is practically the size of our kitchen, living room, and dining room combined!  The other perk with having crazy status at Hilton is the access to the Executive Lounge where they have a dedicated chef making incredible (and free) meals, snacks, and drinks throughout the day.  

This was our living room in the suite

We walked around the waterfront area of Tsim Sha Tsui watching the Star ferries travel around Victoria harbour.



Junk boat in Victoria harbour

Walking along Avenue of the Starts, we recognize a couple of the stars :)
 


Mid morning window washing on the 60th floor!  
This is the view of the neighbor hotel, Shangri La, from our living room.  I'm guessing they are not afraid of heights.

We went to the horse races at Happy Valley on Wednesday night and they had a German band performing to celebrate Oktoberfest.

Here's Gene, Baker, and Sang at the horse race.

Here's a glimpse into how packed it was at the race.  It was literally hard to move, the crowd was insane.

One of the horse races

We went to a karaoke bar after the race.  You can't go to China and not experience a karaoke bar!  They take their karaoke very seriously over there.  This song must have been in English since Gene's singing.

This is the view looking out the window from the Executive Lounge at the Conrad.

 


Bangkok - Our Last Day in Thailand

October 20

We spent the last day of our Thailand adventure in Bangkok which was perfect since we got to meet up with our awesome friend, Dawn, that we met during the Everest Base Camp trek.  She's from Texas but has been teaching English in Bangkok for the past two years and is loving Thailand (no plans to move back to the US any time soon)!  Dawn and her boyfriend, Donovan, met up with us at the Chatuchak market where we spent the day checking out the shops and having some of the amazing local food.  Chatuchak is one of the biggest markets in the world with so many stores selling everything you can imagine.  It would seriously take days to see everything there!

Just one of the many delicious vendors at Chatuchak

There's a pet store section of the market with lots of puppies, kittens, and some interesting pets for sale.

Yes, that is a squirrel for sale, and he has a collar around his neck!


There's also rows and rows of vendors selling pet clothing / outfits.  I wish I had some pictures to show, the outfits are seriously ridiculous and it seems like there are more pet clothes than human clothes if that's even possible in the market this size!

These little guys were so tiny, they almost look unreal.  So cute!


This store was pretty funny, in the art section.  They were selling life-sized monks for your home.  Kind of creepy when you walk by for the first time because they look real!


Afterwards, we went to happy hour at the Doubletree Hilton.  This is the view from our bedroom window.  Haven't been in a city this big in over a year, so we're experiencing some culture shock.

 And of course, this is the beautiful pool at the Doubletree which unfortunately we didn't get to use.  The hotel just opened a few months ago, so all the amenities are sparkling new and barely touched. 


Koh Samet, Thailand

October 17 - 19

We were craving some beach time like crazy, so we decided to spend a few days on the island of Koh Samet when we returned to Thailand after our time in Angkor Wat.  Unfortunately, we had some really bad weather for half of our time there due to the typhoon that hit India a few days earlier.  We did get to enjoy one full day of amazing Thai weather and reacquaint ourselves with the island lifestyle.

To get to the island of Koh Samet, you must take a local ferry which takes about 30 minutes.  The ferry was crammed with people, and the weather was very rainy when we left the dock, but the seas weren't too bad (by our standards at least).  All of the luggage was thrown on the bow of the boat and covered by a light tarp to prevent everything from getting wet from the rain.  At about 10 minutes into the ferry ride, the waves began to build and the rain turned from a slight drizzle into a torrential downpour.  All the passengers on the boat around us started screaming, and grabbing the life jackets above our heads.  Gene and I were sitting in the back row and just laughing our asses off over the commotion going on and the desperation of the passengers to get a life jacket on.  If this is considered bad seas and requiring a life jacket, we've been in some ridiculously life-threatening rough weather this past year!

Here are a group of guys from Sweden, life jackets on and ready.

Once we got to the island, we waited for a ride to our hotel.  The taxis are all just trucks with benches in the back for the passengers.  Doesn't work too well when it's pouring down rain.

This poor guy has to make his daily food delivery to the hotels on this tuk tuk in the torrential rain.  The look on his face is priceless - not having fun!

Little river we cross via a foot bridge to get to our hotel.

This is the river facing inland 
(previous picture is the river flowing out to sea)

We had dinner on the beach and noticed this little puppy asleep under our table, completely un-phased by the Friday night noisy crowd and music.

Massive tiger prawns!

Looking down the beach outside of Samed Villas where we stayed.  The motor boats come right up to the sand and pull their motor up.

We had some entertainment during dinner - fire dancers, probably about 10 years old.

Gene launching one of the sky lanterns from the beach




Leaving the island of Koh Samet.  
This was another ferry we passed heading towards the island with a view of the mainland int he background.

Fishing boats at he pier in Ban Phe

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Ancient Angkor, Cambodia

October 13 - 16


We arrived in Cambodia on Sunday, October 13th and checked into our hotel, Memoire d'Angkor.  

We left early in the morning the next day to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat is just one of the many temples in Ancient Angkor.  Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious monument, and the grandest of all the Khmer temples, dating back to early 12th century.  It's actually an ancient city all its own from the moat to the central towers and everything in between.  The moat represents the mythical oceans surrounding the earth and the towers represent the mountain ranges that surround the home of the gods.   

Some pictures from our Angkor Wat sunrise...

As you walk up the pathway to the temples, there are lakes on either side.  These are the famous lake reflection shots




Walking into the temples

This is where one of the scenes from Tomb Raider was filmed.  They shot a bunch of scenes at many of the temples of Angkor during the filming of the movie.

Inside the temple in the center of the 4 towers

These carvings in the side of the walls are called Asparas, celestial dancers who entertain the gods.

One of the many corridors within Angkor Wat.



One of the four stone basins in the "cruciform cloister" (Khmer architectural invention to connect galleries of the first and second levels).  The basins were made water-tight with a layer of clay.

 Another corridor with Asparas carved into the sides of the entrance

eFrom inside looking back towards the entrance gate.  During the 12 century, there was an entire city between the main towers and the gates, but it's believed that most of the other structures were made out of light materials. 

eThe "bas relief" carved into the stone.  Bas reliefs are one of the most famous creations of Khmer art, covering the exterior walls.  This one is depicting the battle of Kurukshetra.



Inside the entrance gates looking towards the ancient city and the towers.

This is the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat.

eAfter exploring Angkor Wat, we continued through the Ancient Angkor and toured some of the other temples. 

Angkor Thom was our next temple.  Angkor Thom is one of teh largest of all Khmer cities and believed to have been the capital until the 17th century.  It dates back to late 12th century.

We hired a tuk tuk to take us around for the day.  Here's our driver entering the gates of the Angkor Thom city.









Bayon, the State Temple of Jayavarman VII and his immediate successors.  It is one of the most powerful religious constructions of the world, having passed through different religious phases from Pantheon of the Gods, Hindu, and Buddhism.





Bapuon, enormous temple-mountain that was a state temple dating back to 11th century (1060).  It's a five-tiered pyramid with a long enclosure.  The steps leading to the top and entrance to the temple were so steep. 


Here's Gene walking up the steps to the temple.


Here's one of the police / guards with Gene.  He walked us around this temple.

Going down the stairs


The Elephant Terrace.  This was a long terrace at the center of Angkor Thom city, looking out over the Royal Square.  It was the foundation for royal reception pavilions.


We fell in love with this painting.  Here's the local artist with his painting just before we bought it.

Exiting the city of Angkor Thom.  Those are the gates after we rode through them. 

Phimeanakas & The Royal Palace

Our next stop was at Ta Prohm, a temple-monastery from the late 12th to 13th centuries.  It's one of the most complex structures with concentric galleries with corner towers and many other additional buildings and enclosures.  It's in a partly collapsed state so  they are in the process of preserving its structure.  The amazing part of the temple are the huge trees that are interlaced among the ruins.  This was one of the main filming areas for the movie Tomb Raider.

Walking through the entrance gates...

See the dinosaur carving in the column





This was a neat entrance covered in the roots of this large tree, one of the famous Angkor sights.





Here you can see the metal support beams holding up the roof of this part of the temple. 



After a long and very hot morning, we returned to our hotel to relax and swim in the pool.  Our hotel was awesome!  It's located on the main road in Siem Reap with a beautiful pool and boutique.  The staff was great and so friendly.  Gene ended up with a stomach bug for one day and they went out of their way to make sure he had everything he needed to feel better, sent him breakfast in the room and offered medicine and a solution to help ease his stomach.  What made the hotel even better was the free laundry and free mini bar that they stock up every day with beers and other drinks.  We were in desperate need to get our laundry done, so it was so great to have them take it in the morning and get it back to us that evening, and free of charge.

After swimming in the pool, we went back to the Angkor area for sunset.  We watched the sunset from Phnom Bakheng.  Phnom Bakheng was teh state temple of the first city at Angkor, dating back to late 9th / early 10th century.




View of Angkor Wat from the top of the temple



There was non-stop rain the next day from the typhoon that hit India a few days earlier.  The city of Siem Reap was already extremely flooded from the monsoon season, so this just added to their problems.  

Here's a shot of the surrounding country side from our plane.  You can see all the flooding.