(From topless teens to poetry.  Where is this blog going?)

As you may know, April is National Poetry Month in the United States.  Several Xangans to whom I subscribe frequently write poetry.  Generally speaking, I greatly enjoy their poems.  But I must confess that at a certain level I am deeply intimidated by poetry.  The same is true for opera and ballet, but I won’t address those anxieties in this entry.

Like opera and ballet, I realize that poetry is supposed to be a beautiful art form.  And many, many times I can experience a poem and recognize that it is indeed something very beautiful.  But then I get a bit frustrated that I don’t understand it.  Or, at least, I don’t understand what I’m supposed to understand.  Or, maybe, I have this understanding that I’m supposed to understand the poem’s meaning.

This isn’t to say that I’m completely unappreciative of poetry.  Indeed, there are several poets whose work I greatly enjoy.

As a child, I read the books by Shel Silverstein such as The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, and Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Who could not be moved by playfully subversive verse like “How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes”?

If you have to dry the dishes
(Such an awful boring chore)
If you have to dry the dishes
(‘Stead of going to the store)
If you have to dry the dishes
And you drop one on the floor
Maybe they won’t let you
Dry the dishes anymore

(Did you know, by the way, that Shel Silverstein was one of the leading cartoonists in Playboy magazine in the late 50s?  And he was able to publish successful children’s books, too.  Would that ever happen these days?)

As a teenager, I discovered T.S. Eliot by way of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical Cats.  Eliot was a Nobel prize winning poet but it was his book of light verse titled Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (which Lloyd Webber turned into the musical).  I found these poems to be very accessible, if for no other reason than that I knew the music with which they went, so I could hear the lyrical nature of the poems when reading them.

There’s a whisper down the line at 11.39
When the Night Mail’s ready to depart,
Saying `Skimble where is Skimble has he gone to hunt the thimble?
We must find him or the train can’t start.’
All the guards and all the porters and the stationmaster’s daughters
They are searching high and low,
Saying `Skimble where is Skimble for unless he’s very nimble
Then the Night Mail just can’t go.’

Taken from “Skimbleshanks” from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats

Of course, who was I to know that this opening verse was in fact a parody of a Rudyard Kipling poem?  That level of comprehension would have been much beyond me.

In university, I discovered (and had the chance to meet) Dr. Maya Angelou.  Her books first attracted me, as the theme of exploring identity which runs through them resonated with my own journey at that time in my life.  I did not read her poetry extensively, but when I attended a talk she gave at my school and heard her give voice to her poems, they came to life for me.  It was her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning“, which she read at the 1993 inauguration of President Clinton, that seemed to speak widely to Americans, myself included.

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes upon
This day breaking for you.

Give birth again
To the dream.

From “On the Pulse of Morning”

So you see, it wasn’t as if I had no exposure to poetry.  But somehow I still feel intimidated by it.  Despite the best efforts of Bob Dickerson, my junior college English professor and the first person (by virtue of his Tennessee accent) whom I ever heard pronounce poem as “po-em” instead of “pome”, I look at a lot of poetry and just don’t know what I’m supposed to make of it.

So this week when I listed to a podcast of NPR’s Talk of the Nation from earlier this month, it was if I had heard from my messiah of poetry.  Billy Collins, the US Poet Laureate from 2001-2003, values approachability over pretention.  The article summarizing his 30-minute interview summed up his position nicely:

[Collins] thinks former students have “lingering anxieties” about poetry. Teaching of poetry, bound as it is to the teaching of critical analysis, is the culprit. In what he admits is a cynical interpretation, he believes that to some extent, teachers “teach difficult poetry because it ensures their usefulness as people standing between the reader and the poem” who help with interpretation.

In the classroom, “every time you hear a poem in a classroom, you know questions will follow,” he says. “This sequence — hear a poem, then get interrogated over it,” says Collins, can create an anxious relationship between readers and poetry.

There it was.  Suddenly my anxiety about poetry had found a voice.  Someone had put into words the reason that I felt inadequate when reading poems.  Every time I read a poem, I feel like I have to understand it well enough to answer questions about it.

One of the projects that Collins has worked on in conjunction with the Library of Congress is called Poetry 180.  It is designed to make poetry accessible to students by presenting a poem each day for the 180 schools days each year.  (Only 180?!  That’s why American students are so far behind their global peers.) 

The selection of poems is geared specifically to high school students.  In Collins’ words, “Hearing a poem every day, especially well-written, contemporary poems that students do not have to analyze, might convince students that poetry can be an understandable, painless and even eye-opening part of their everyday experience.”

Let me share the first poem in the collection of Poetry 180.  It is titled “Introduction to Poetry” and is written by Billy Collins.  It sums up pretty much how I feel:

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

from The Apple that Astonished Paris

Now that I’ve found a poet – a Poet Laureate, nonetheless! – who has put into words exactly the trepidation about poetry I feel, it is as if I have had a catharsis.  The boil has been lanced, and I can face poetry with a fresh start and now expectations.

I am just at the very beginning of my journey to learn to appreciate poetry, but I realize now that poetry is something I can learn to enjoy without having to worry about understanding it.

Happy National Poetry Month.

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year’s festival, a three-day holiday held each April at the height of the hot season.  The meaning of Songkran has been subject to much debate and over the past many years it has evolved into something much different than it originally was.  This year, however, Bangkok was caught up in a great Songkran scandal that, according to several local pundits, revealed the hypocrisy with which we choose to view “culture” and what is “appropriate”.

At its roots, Songkran is something of a harvest festival, a time of cleaning up after one year and getting ready for the next rice-planting season, which will begin when the rainy season arrives shortly after the peak of hot season.  Water has always played an important part in the Songkran celebration, and traditionally the holiday was celebrated by performing the “rot naam” (pouring of water) ceremony. 

In this picture I took three years ago, school children dressed in traditional Thai outfits pour water over the hands of their elders.  This is a way of showing respect and blessing them. 

In fact, this same ceremony is performed when a couple is married, as in this example from my Thai teacher’s wedding this past December.

In addition to pouring water on the hands of elders, there is a religious aspect to the Songkran celebrations, where you pour water on the hands of monks and also over Buddha images, washing and blessing them.

So those are the traditional celebrations of Songkran.  Given that Thailand is a hot, tropical country it is no surprise that along the way some amount of splashing about with the water also happened.  So Songkran started to get a reputation as being “the water festival” and was thus stylized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.  A little bit of playful, good natured splashing for the youngsters to engage in, if you will.

Somewhere along the way, though, it evolved into something more: a water war with roving mercenaries with pump-action water guns.  This picture above is typical – families or young people fill up large tubs in the back of a pickup truck with water (usually with some blocks of ice in them) then drive around the city looking for revelers in other trucks or playing by the side of the road.  An impromptu water fight ensues.

Often, though, it isn’t just the revelers who are involved.  Anyone on the street – including those who are not interested in playing – are targeted with ice cold water.  A favorite target is passing motorcycle drivers and as you might imagine, there are any number of accidents in which motorcyclists lose control and crash after being splashed unexpectedly.

In some sections of the city the celebrations turn into chaos, the streets shut down with people splashing each other with water and smearing each other with talcum powder.  Needless to say, the partying is fueled by substantial quantities of alcohol.

Which leads us to this year’s scandal.  Let me start by making clear that, while I don’t particularly enjoy the mess that Songkran has become, I also don’t have a bone to pick with it.  I either get out of town during the holidays or stay indoors to avoid unwanted splashing.

The scandal began when video clips appeared showing a trio of young women – reportedly ages 13, 14, and 16 – dancing topless on a vehicle along Silom Road.  Worth noting is that Silom Road is adjacent to one of the more famous red light districts in Bangkok where you can find things much more racy than this.

As you might imagine, there was a big fuss over this nudity and there were no shortage of pundits and officials tripping over themselves to proclaim what an insult to Thailand and Thai culture this was.  In a statement, Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said, “the clip has negatively affected the image of Thai culture and that all parties involved with such behaviour should be punished, while asking police to give importance to this issue, for it destroys the country’s reputation.” (emphasis mine)

The girls surrendered to the police, were made to publicly apologize, and were fined 500 baht (about US$16) each, and released.

As for the hypocrisy that was pointed out by several observers?  Well, that comes in two parts.  The first is the “oh, that’s too damn funny” part.  Reportedly, at the time of this whole scandal, if you went to the website for the Thailand Ministry of Culture, the following art was displayed on the page banner:

The picture shows some young Thai girls dancing topless in what looks like a water festival, right?  This was quickly picked up on by the denizens of the internet who hooted and hollered, posting and tweeting about how the Ministry of Culture was both promoting and punishing topless Thai teens at the same time.

In no time at all – as one observer pointed out, on a Sunday, nonetheless! – the nubile nipples were replaced with this classical Thai picture which, if you look closely, also has some bare breasts displayed in it.

Several other commentators pointed out that the impromptu redecorating of the Ministry of Culture’s website wasn’t the real hypocrisy, though.  They explained that the real hypocrisy is that Thai society has long treated women and girls poorly.  The sex industry here, the vast majority of which serves Thai men, not tourists, is founded on the treatment of women as sex objects.  Young women and girls are sold into sexual slavery and rape is often not reported or, when reported, the women are treated as the guilty party for bringing shame on their family by not keeping quiet.

Now, I want to make clear that I’m not singling out Thai culture for its hypocritical treatment of women.  I’m just reporting on the controversy that erupted here.  Plus, hypocritcal treatment of women is something that is too common almost everywhere in the world.  But as a number of cooler-headed commentators pointed out about this event, the trio of topless girls aren’t the cause of the problem.  They are the symptom of larger societal attitudes that need to be discussed and addressed.  I wonder if this event will provide a catalyst for that discussion to begin?

As I promised, my “Great Eats in Bangkok” series is in fact becomming a series and not just a single video.  Using my new wireless microphone that plugs into a Kodak Zi8, the audio quality is a bit better than the first time I shot the footage for this episode.  I’ll have to keep playing around with the equipment in order to learn to master it, but hopefully each successive volume of the series will get better.

Photo courtesy yang1815

In this volume we explore one of my favorite Thai desserts, something called khanom krug.  ”Khanom” is the broad term used for snacks and nibbly type of desserts and “krug” refers to the half-sphere shape in which these tasty treats are made.  You can loosely describe khanom krug as “rice flour and coconut milk pancakes”, although that description fails to capture what makes them so special and worth seeking out.

Here’s the 3-minute video.

Photo courtesy yang1815

The interesting thing about khanom krug is how it is composed of two batters, both made with rice flour and coconut milk.  One batter is a little saltier and the other is a little sweeter.  The sweet batter is poured into the indentations in the pan, filling them about 2/3 of the way.  Then a few seconds later the saltier batter is added.  Savory fillings such as corn, taro, or free onions can be added (but just as often, are not) and then the whole thing is covered and allowed to bake and steam for several minutes.

Once the khanom are fairly firm, but still a little molten in the middle, the halves are scooped out and paired together for serving.  You have to be careful of a few things when eating them: first, they will be incredibly hot and the interior will decimate your tastebuds like lava flowing through a forest.  Second, don’t let the vendor put the container of them in a bag.  Steam is the enemy of these khanom and they will lose their crisp exterior very quickly.  Third, solve that problem by eating them right away!

I hope you enjoyed the video.  A third one is being edited now and the first volume, focusing on rice noodles called guaytiaw, is here.

The final leg of our Hawai’i trip was a two-day stop in Hong Kong.  A former residence of mine, it is one of my favorite cities in the world and a place I always enjoy returning to.  Thankfully, we still have many friends there are were hosted by a former university classmate and her husband.

This couple has three adorable children and two days wasn’t enough time to properly visit with them.  The older two were keen on showing off for the camera, seeing what funny faces and poses they could make!  Next time we’ll be sure to leave extra time so we can do some exploring of the city with them.

One of our stops was breakfast at Lan Fong Yuen along the Central Escalator.  I wrote about this place almost exactly a year ago.  The full entry (with loads of food porn) is here.

It was mighty crowded and we were placed at a table shared with two other couples in the back corner of the restaurant.  Ordering is always a bit of a challenge because the level of English spoken isn’t as much as it used to be, and our Cantonese is basically nonexistent.  Nonetheless we were able to work it out and were rewarded with some comfort food.

Drawing on the memories of so many school children throughout East Asia: instant noodles and broth with chicken on top.

And toasted buns with sweetened condensed milk on top, to accompany the milk tea that is just at the edge of the frame.  Nothing fancy here but certainly a tasty way to start your day.

Most of the two days was spent wandering around, with Tawn doing some shopping and me chilling out in cafes, reading magazines.  Above is a small street in Lan Kwai Fong with some pretty flowers.  We passed by on our way to dim sum with a friend I had not seen since the day Tawn and I met in January 2000.  By coincidence, I ran into this friend and her mother in Hong Kong Airport that same day, as they were on their way to India and I was on my way to a fateful meeting with destiny.

Lots of galleries in the Hollywood Road area.  This work is called Imperial Pig and it is by Chinese artist Huang Cheng.  It shows a pig receiving a traditional Chinese medicinal treatment known as fire cupping.  When I lived here, I actually had my own not so good experience being on the receiving end of one of these treatments, which left me bruised for months after!

One of the coffee shops where I spent some time: Holly Brown Coffee, located on Stanley Street.  Fantastic coffee and ambience.  Their gelato is supposed to be pretty good, too.  I like the graphics on their cup.

Walking around Central, I noticed this store.  I think the metal screens on the facade of Harvey Nichols are beautiful.  There is so much interesting architecture and design in Hong Kong.

We also had the opportunity to meet up with some Xangans.  By sheer coincidence, Jason and his husband Daniel, exiled from Tokyo for the moment, were in town for the weekend.  While they had visited Bangkok just a few months ago, we were excited for the chance to spend some time with them again.

Photos borrowed from Jason’s facebook page (without permission – yikes!).  On the left, Tawn, Jason, and Daniel.  On the right, me, Jason, and Tawn.  You should check out Jason’s blog.  He isn’t posting as often these days but has some of the spectacular music he has written and performed.

Following a tip from Gary’s blog, the four of us sought out this retro Starbucks.  Located on Duddell Street, which dead-ends off Queen’s Road in Central, it is designed as an old bing sutt, literally an “ice house”.  The exterior doesn’t give anything away…

But once you’re inside, you feel you have been magically transported back to the 1950s and 60s.  A bing sutt was the coffeehouse of the old days, where people could take a bread, enjoy a beverage or trendy Western treats such as soda pop and ice cream.  The design was a fusion of East and West even back in those days.  It feels even more fusion seeing a recreation in the context of the modern day.

This particular project was a collaboration between Starbucks and the Hong Kong brand G.O.D. (Goods of Desire) and the location was chosen because it is very close to the city’s arts community.

While we were there, some photographers started a fashion shoot.  My lighting isn’t that good but the model’s cheongsam fits the interior of the bing sutt perfectly.  Feels very much like the Wong Kar Wai film, In the Mood for Love.

New shopping area at the tip of Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon called 1881 Heritage.  The developers took the former Marine Police Headquarters (which closed in 1996) and restored it, creating an interesting mixture of history and commerce.  Worth a visit, more for the sights rather than the shops.

A ride on the Star Ferry remains one of my favorite ways to see the city, and one of the least expensive, too.

The other Xangan we met with was Angel.  He splits his time between Hong Kong and Vancouver, so we’ve been able to meet before.  Didn’t get a picture as we met in a crowded coffee shop.  You should stop by his blog, too, as he recently wrote about a stay at the new W Hotel in Taipei, which is beautiful.

We did a lot more with our two days, but those were the highlights.  On Sunday evening we headed to the airport and flew back to Bangkok, arriving just before midnight.  Of course, all this happened two and a half weeks ago.  I’m so far behind in my blogging!  So now I’ll get back on course and catch you up with what’s happening here in Bangkok.

After six days in Hawai’i, I had attended my cousin’s beautiful beach wedding, I had tasted the holy grail of desserts – macadamia nut cream pie, I had eaten poke and ordered loco moco, and I had bumped along an unpaved road to reach the place where Hawaiians believe the spirits of their dead depart for the next world.  After accomplishing all that, it was time to begin the journey back home.

While the trip was quite similar to the one into Hawai’i, I though I would share some more pictures of the trip for those of you who enjoy them.  Check out the video of our takeoff from Honolulu – the reef just off the runway is gorgeous.

The check-in area of Honolulu International Airport reminds me a bit of LAX.  In fact, it looks more “LA” than LA does.

The interior, though, is still in that 1970s time warp that seems to be pervasive in Honolulu.  It seems that an expansion and remodel is planned so we’ll see if that brings the airport into the 21st century.

Oddly, this video monitor shows the date as November 30.  Only off by a few months.

Another beautiful outdoor garden you can access from the gate area.  While the airport is in need of a remodel, I give it high marks for having lots of open air spaces and also for offering a lot of visibility of the airplanes.  A lot of airports make it hard for you to appreciate the view of the planes, which I think is a part of the romance of air travel.  Here is a selection of the planes I saw while waiting for our flight:

A Delta Boeing 767-300 heading to Los Angeles.

Two Continental jets.  The nearer one is a Boeing 737-700 headed to John Wayne International in Santa Ana, CA.  The further one is a Boeing 737-800 in the new United livery, headed to Los Angeles.

This Boeing 757-200ER belongs to Omni Air International, a charter operation based in Tulsa, OK.

An American Airlines Boeing 757-200 with winglets, bound to Los Angeles.  (Lots of flights to LAX, no?)

Alaska Airlines also flies to Honolulu.  This flight is going to Portland, OR.  This Boeing 737-800 is part of their Hawaiian subfleet – notice the lei of flowers around the Eskimo’s neck.

Hawaiian B767-300 without winglets

Hawaiian Boeing 767-300 with winglets.  These winglets help reduce drag, resulting in an improved fuel economy of about 3-4%.  One of Hawaiian’s new Airbus A330s is in the background.

Japan Airlines Boeing 767-300 in “Oneworld” alliance colors.  This plane is bound for Osaka.

Another Japan Airlines plane, this one a Boeing 777-200, destined for Tokyo.

The other major Japanese carrier, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Boeing 767-300.  This is operated by ANA subsidiary Air Japan, which operates charter flights to popular vacation destinations.

A United Airlines B777-200 scheduled for Chicago O’Hare.  A Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717 departs for another island in the background.

Our ride to Guam: A Continental (but in the new United livery) Boeing 767-400.

The gate area was particularly crowded.  In fact, the flight was oversold and they were asking for volunteers but $300 in travel vouchers was incentive enough, since I’d have to use the vouchers on another Continental flight!

The interior of our plane during the boarding process.

A video of our takeoff from the Reef Runway in Honolulu and landing in Guam.

The lunch service was a choice between cheese tortellini and some chicken dish.  I overheard the flight attendant tell another passenger that the pasta was the better of the two options, so that’s what I went with.  It was actually pretty tasty, better than the food we had been served on the inbound flight.

Mid-flight the flight attendants served ice cream – cups instead of sandwiches – and then about an hour before landing in Guam, they served these turkey ham sandwiches.  All in all, I think the flight from Honolulu to Guam and onto Hawaii was better than when we had traveled to Hawaii, probably because it was a daytime flight and we weren’t utterly exhausted.

We didn’t have that much connection time in Guam.  Here’s a picture of a Chinese tour group taking a picture moments before boarding.  While they were seated further back in the plane and thus were to board earlier, we sneaked ahead and the gate agent, seeing the unruly crowd coming towards the boarding gate, let us board ahead of them.

Our flight to Hong Kong, a Boeing 737-800.

Once again, we had the option of buying extra leg room by sitting in the exit row.  It was worth it and just like on the flight from Hong Kong to Guam, we had an empty middle seat between us.  Interestingly, this flight was operated exactly a week after we had left Hong Kong and one of the flight attendants from the flight out of Hong Kong was working our flight back to Hong Kong.  I don’t think he recognized us.

Some thirteen hours after leaving Honolulu we arrived in Hong Kong, at about 8:00 pm.  We headed into Ho Man Tin, a portion of Kowloon where friends of ours live.  More about our two days in Hong Kong – and two Xangans we ran into – tomorrow.

Since we missed our flight out of Lihue, we also missed the opportunity to have dinner with Michael.  But he sent a few suggestions of places we could catch a decent bite later in the evening.  The suggestion we took was Mac 24/7, a restaurant featuring modern American cooking, located in the Hilton Waikiki Beach Hotel, a few short blocks away from our less ritzy hotel.

After five days of eating mostly local fare, it was nice to order a cosmo and tuck into somewhat more conventional American food.

The interior was pretty much a modern take on the classic American diner, ESPN playing on the flat screen TVs and just a few customers scattered throughout the place.  Service was friendly and the kitchen had our food to us in about fifteen minutes.

Well, despite the more conventional menu, Tawn didn’t order too far off what we had enjoyed the past few days.  More seared ahi tuna served with kim chi fried rice.

I decided to go traditional and get a pork chop and mashed potatoes, which were very tasty.

We returned to the Aqua Waikiki Wave, which describes itself as a boutique hotel but which is nothing more than a standard tourist grade hotel.  In fact, Waikiki seems to be positively bursting with these three-star (or less) hotels.  The place was clean and looked like it had seen a remodel within the past few years, but it was still a pretty standard accommodation.

One thing I’ll give them credit for, though: the hotel is located right on the main boulevard where there is a lot of action well into the night, including a nightclub just outside the hotel’s entrance.  In the room was a pack of foam earplugs with a tactfully phrased note explaining that the hotel is located in “an energetic and vibrant neighborhood” and suggesting that “if you are a light sleeper, you may wish to make use of these complimentary earplugs” and helpfully explaining that more are available by calling room service.  These were the best earplugs I’ve ever used and they really did muffle the noise from outside.

Above, me horsing around on Waikiki Beach at sunrise.  We were up early and walked the block from the hotel to the beach, which had a surprising number of people who were also out to see the sunrise, catch the surf, or secure a primo lounge chair in front of their hotel.

Here’s a short video of the beach during sunrise.

We then stopped for coffee at the branch of Honolulu Coffee located on the ground floor of the Westin Hotel.  It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed a pot of French Press coffee before stopping to buy some boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts to bring back to Thailand.  Ignore, for a moment, the fact that macadamias are grown in Thailand.  It’s what people expect you to bring back from Hawaii, right?

While we had missed the opportunity to dine with Michael the night before, we had thankfully also been pencilled in for breakfast.  Braving the commute into town from the west end of the island, Michael then drove us through the tunnel to the east side of the island so we could visit a popular breakfast place called Boots & Kimo’s in Kailua.

Boots & Kimo’s is a kind of random place located in a small strip mall and decorated like a sporting goods store.  For whatever reason, it has gained notoriety with Japanese tourists and it seemed like a large portion of the diners were Japanese families.  As Michael explained it, it has kind of reached the point where locals don’t come as often because it is too crowded with tourists.  I felt a little guilty about contributing to the problem.

We had to wait about a half-hour to be seated, but once inside the service was quick and our food showed up in no time.  Tawn enjoyed the eggs benedict, which were done just like the textbook shows.  You can tell they poach the eggs in molds, though, and not free-form.

Here we are with our food.  That blue Hawaiian shirt got a lot of mileage this trip, didn’t it?

Michael and I ordered the same thing: beef short ribs which they hang above the grill in the kitchen so it picks up the smoky flavor as other orders are being prepared.  Then, when your order is placed the necessary ribs are cut off and finished on the flame.  These were really tasty with a nice beefy flavor.

The thing Boots & Kimo’s is known for, though, are their macadamia nut cream pancakes.  Per Michael’s suggestion, we ordered a stack to share.  Good call because while they are really yummy, eating an entire order by yourself would be overwhelming.  We discussed how they manage to get so much macadamia nut flavor into the cream sauce.  The thing with macadamias is, they don’t give off a lot of flavor once cooked, so the process of extracting the flavor into the sauce must be done with some sort of “low and slow” steeping of the nuts in the cream.  Anyhow, they were a really tasty end to our trip!

Finally, before heading out the door, we got a picture of the three of us.  Why it didn’t occur to me to have Michael take off his sunglasses, I don’t know.  Perhaps it is best he remains somewhat anonymous so as to lend to the air of mystery that surrounds this long-absent Xangan.  We’ll see if my subtle needling will be enough to get him to write again.

A gracious host, Michael drove us to the airport, dropping us off just the right amount of time before our flight back to Guam and Hong Kong.  Just enough ahead of time so we wouldn’t miss this flight!

A bit over two weeks after we left Kauai, I’m still trying to wrap up blog entries on the trip.  To make some progress, I’ll combine three eateries into a single entry: Puka Dog, home of the “Hawaiian style” hot dog; Yumi’s, a small cafe in Waimea; and Jo-Jo’s Anuenue, the “original” (kind of) Waimea shave ice shop.

First up was Puka Dog, the Kauai branch of this “Hawaiian style” hot dog shop featured in Anthony Bourdain’s show “No Reservations”.  (He visited the branch in Waikiki, on Oahu.)  The concept is staight-forward: polish sausages (or veggie dogs) served in a bun with secret sauce (mild, spicy, hot, or hot hot, none of which are particularly spicy) and topped with various tropical relishes (papaya, mango, coconut, banana, etc.).

“Puka” means “hole” in Hawaiian and so the buns, instead of being split along the side, are instead impaled on this medieval looking contraption above.  What is it?  A European style hot-dog bun roaster, of course.  That’s why it looks medieval!  The point (no pun intended) is that the interior of the bun is toasted.  Sauce and relish are pumped into the hole, serving as lubricant to help slide the sausage in.  Sorry, this blog entry may not be appropriate for all age groups. 

The puka dog is a bit hard to eat as when you bite it, the juices have nowhere to go but towards you.  As for the flavor, the relishes are all a bit sweet and so you get the salty, meaty sausage with very sweet relish, but there needs to be something to cut the flavor.  Maybe the spicy sauce is meant to do that but we ordered “hot hot” and it wasn’t spicy enough.  Maybe something like pickled hot peppers, fresh Maui onions, or else sauerkraut would have been enough?

After our puka dog we went next door to the ice cream parlor for some locally made Papalani gelato, available in all manner of tropical flavors.  This was pretty tasty.  I had a lichee sorbet and Tawn had a macadamia nut gelato.

. . .

Our final day in Kauai, the four of us drove to the extreme west of the island, going down several miles of an unpaved and badly rutted dirt road until we reached the beach at Polihale State Park.  Looking at the Google Map now, it appears there may have been a paved option that would have led us there, but the signage was not clear.  We bumped along for thirty minutes, driving v-e-r-y slowly, until we reached the beach.  It was clear that Tawn was not having a good time.

When we did reach the end of the road, though, we were rewarded with these spectacular views of the Na’Pali coast, the one section of Kauai’s coast that cannot be accessed by road.  The beach is very long, very wide, and almost completely deserted.  The cliffs loom over the water, the layers of lava laid down by subsequent eruptions clearly visible.

The face of a husband who was trying his best to maintain a sunny disposition after being bounced down the road like a rock tumbled in a clothes dryer.  He gets bonus points for patience.

On the way back to Poipu, we stopped at Yumi’s Restaurant, a small family run place located in the storefront of the art deco Waimea Theatre.

The place was deserted, thanks in part to the street construction that was going on directly in front of the shop.

This menu board gives you an idea of the range of local “grinds” – breakfast all day, plate lunches, and various sandwiches.

On special was futomaki, a catch-all term used to describe sushi rolled with seaweed wrappers on the outside, filled with various ingredients with complementary colors and flavors.  These had tuna, egg, green beans, and carrots – very basic.

Tawn ordered the chicken cutlet, which is basically katsu-style chicken (breaded with panko and fried) but instead of serving with a tonkatsu sauce, it was served with generic brown gravy.  This caused a bit of a disconnect between taste buds that were expecting the sweet flavors of tonkatsu sauce and the reality of a salty, savory gravy.

Longing for some breakfast, I had simple fried eggs, bacon (which was supposed to be Portuguese sausage, an oversight that was quickly corrected), and the ubiquitous rice.

My mother had a small portion of the “loco moco”, a typical Hawaiian breakfast dish with rice topped with hamburger patty, egg (scrambled in this case, usually fried, though), and gravy.  Definitely a heavy start to the day!

My father had a teriyaki beef burger that was pretty flat, both in terms of flavor as well as size.

One of Yumi’s specialties is apple turnover, so we ordered one of them to share.  The crust, made with lard, was flaky and flavorful.

All in all, given the prices, Yumi’s was a fair value.  The food, though, wasn’t very exciting and I don’t know that I would make it my highest priority to return.  There are some other places on the west side of the island, including Da Imu Hut Cafe in Hanapepe, which I’d like to try next time, based on positive recommendations from my cousins.

. . .

After lunch we walked across the street for some shave ice.  Waimea is famous for its rival shave ice shops: Jo-Jo’s Original Shave Ice and Jo-Jo’s Anuenue Shave Ice.  The story is a bit confusing, but my understanding of the story goes something like this:

In the ’90s, Aunty Jo-Jo sold her popular, seven-year old shave-ice shop on Kaumuali’i Highway in Waimea, called “Jo-Jo’s Clubhouse,” to another family, in order to finance her return to school.  The new owners didn’t do a very good job keeping up the reputation of the shop, possibly because Aunty Jo-Jo hadn’t given them all the recipes.  In 2007, Aunty Jo-Jo opened a new shop at a new location just around the corner under the name “Jo-Jo’s Anuenue Shave Ice.”  The owners of her original location were unable to produce the contract they claim contains a noncompete clause, so Aunty Jo-Jo has continued her business in the new location and the owners of the “original” Jo-Jo’s continue their business, too, under the name “Jo-Jo’s Original.”

Confused yet?

In all fairness, we didn’t take the time to go to both locations and do a proper comparison.  Instead, we just patronized Jo-Jo’s Anuenue Shave Ice, figuring that Aunty Jo-Jo is probably worth the visit.  The place is mighty modest inside and there’s no place to sit other than a bench and a few plastic chairs out front.  The young lady who was working (I told her she must be the single most photographed person on the island, to which she laughed) pulled together our orders with a practiced hand, mounding the ice high and pouring the neon syrups generously.

My parents, setting their inner children free as they get a chance to sample Jo-Jo’s Shave Ice.  After three shave ices during the trip, I have to say that this is a treat that can get overwhelming very quickly.  Something about half the size would be enough.  Maybe two people just need to share one, right?

. . .

We drove back to the condo and Tawn and I had an hour to pack before we headed to the airport and our flight to Honolulu, where we would spend one evening and have dinner with Xangan Michael.  Unfortunately, Tawn and I both managed to have a serious lapse in attention and missed our flight.  We left the condo about 4:00 for our 5:40 flight, arriving at the airport around 4:40 or so.  There was almost nobody at ticketing or security, so proceeded through those quickly. 

Once inside the terminal, I glanced up at a wall of clocks that showed all the time zones in the world.  Unable to find Hawaii, I noticed the minute hand showing ten minutes after the hour so in my mind I thought it must be 4:10.   Of course it was 5:10, not 4:10.  We went to Starbucks and sat down with some coffee to write post cards.  The shop is air conditioned and enclosed from the open air portion of the terminal, so we didn’t hear the “final call” announcements.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Hawaiian Airlines jet rolling down the runway and I thought, “That’s odd – the plane should be arriving about now, not taking off.”  And then I looked at my phone and realized that we had missed our flight.

Credit to Hawaiian Airlines for running a tight ship – that plane actually took off about two minutes before scheduled departure according to the time on my phone.   But we were late, missed the “be there ten minutes before departure” warning, and there’s no disputing that.  They were accommodating and put us on stand-by for the next flight, which left two hours later.  Unfortunately, that meant we had to miss dinner with Michael.

By about 9:00 we had finally made it to Waikiki and checked into our hotel for our final night in Hawai’i.  More about that in the next entry.

After our jaunt around the north coast of the island, we stopped for dinner in Lihue at a small hole-in-the-wall place that my parents stumbled upon their first night on the island when they stayed in a hotel nearby.  The restaurant is called Barbecue Inn, an institution opened by Masaichi and Hanayo Sasaki in 1940.

The storefront is located on Kress Street, a small alley named after what used to be a popular department store in town. 

Specializing in affordable family cuisine, Barbecue Inn serves American and Japanese food and everything – everything, they emphasize – is made from scratch.  The interior is clean but definitely a bit of a time warp.  Service is very friendly, though.

Tasty homemade bread

Miso soup

Teriyaki beef kabob with tempura.  My mother had this and it was tasty, although the sauce was a bit heavy.

Panko crusted mahimahi served with tartar sauce.  My father had this and while it was tasty, the breading obscured the fish inside.

My dinner, kalua pork and cabbage.  Kalua pork is traditionally cooked in an underground pit but these days refers generally to slow-cooked pork.  Really tasty with a smoky smell.  The only drawback was that there was a lot of the same (albeit tasty) flavor on the dish.  It would have benefitted from a smaller portion and something (maybe Japanese style pickles?) to contrast with the flavor.

The stand-out of the menu was Tawn’s order, mahimahi encrusted in a combination of macadamia nuts, panko crumbs, and sesame seeds, topped with coconut cream and spinach sauce.  This was amazing.

The real treat, though, was the macadamia nut cream pie.  I’ve made two attempts at making this pie and have encountered some problems.  So you can imagine how excited I was to find it here, perfectly fluffy and flavorful.  While they wouldn’t release the recipe, they did answer my question about what thickener they use: a combination of cornstarch and gelatine, which helps explain the chiffon-like texture.

I have to admit, though, that now that I’ve finally encountered that long-lost taste memory again, I feel less need to try and recreate it.  In short, the pie was very good but I realize that in my memory, I had built up how wonderful macadamia nut cream pie is, to a level that can never be achieved in real life.  Maybe.

After dinner we drove around the corner to see this small local motel my parents had stayed at their first night on the island.  It is well-maintained but is definitely straight out of the 50s or 60s!

On our second to last day on Kauai, we drove from Poipu, where we were staying on the south shore, to the north shore of the island.  While the entire island is very tropical and green, there is a notable difference between the south and north sides.  The north side is the windward side and you can tell that the level of precipitation is much higher.  There is one main highway that runs around the island and it took about an hour and a half to go from Poipu to Princeville.

The view from my aunt and uncle’s rental condo in Poipu, looking inland towards the mountains.

Our first major stop was Kilauea, a small plantation town that is home to this lighthouse situated on a dramatic bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  One item on our itinerary that we were not able to fit in was a stop to the Kauai Kunana Dairy, a small family-run goat farm and micro-dairy in Kilauea that makes fine goat cheeses.  They offer tours but only on Thursday.  A future visit will have to include a stop there.

My parents in front of the lighthouse.  I remember visiting here in the 80s as a family.

We continued our drive through Princeville, then stopped at a scenic overlook before descending into Hanalei Valley.  This is the view of the taro fields in Hanalei Valley.  Such pretty shades of green.

As we descended into the valley, we were able to get closer to the fields themselves.  Hanalei is a small beach town of surfer dudes and the hippie vibe has not faded.  The reasons for the reference to the town of Hanalei in the song ”Puff the Magic Dragon” are easy to understand. 

While in Hanalei we stopped at a small shopping center that featured shops selling local crafts and souvenirs.  This one had this pretty cat napping amongst the towels.  He looked too comfortable to disturb.

We worked our way along the highway, making a few stops here and there, until we came to a point that overlooks Wainiha Beach Park (pictured above) and Wainiha Bay (below).  You have to park at a cut-out on the road, being careful to give plenty of room to passing cars.  Then there is an easy climb just a few feet down a hillside to the lava rocks, which give a great view and put you just above the reach of the waves.

Looking back at the beach in Wainiha Bay.  Tranquil, isn’t it?

Tawn takes a picture as waves crash with Wainiha Beach Park in the background.

We continued all the way to the end of the road at Haena State Park.  Since we weren’t planning on doing any hiking on the Kalalau Trail along the Na’Pali Coast (and couldn’t find any parking in any case), we backtracked to Makua (Tunnels) Beach, a wide stretch of sand where we managed to run into my newlywedded cousin and her family.

At Makua Beach, I saw this man lying in the sun, Christ-like in pose, beard, and dress, looking like a sun-chasing hippie that might be fried in more ways than one.  Birds pecked around him and I can only assume that the lifeguards were aware of him and knew him to be alive.

Tawn practices writing his name in the sand.

And then sees his identity washed away by the waves.

The noth shore is very beautiful and while none of the four of us (me, Tawn, and my parents) are sun-worshipers, it was hard not to appreciate the beauty of the beaches.

Here’s a video I made that combines clips I shot from the north shore as well as other scenic sights on the island.  Not only is the footage beautiful, but the music, a contemporary Hawaiian song titled “Manauleo” by Keali’i Reichel, Uluwehi Guerrero, and Kekuhi Kanahele is well worth a listen.

The morning after Kari and Nathan’s wedding, we piled into our vehicles and drove to the east side of the island in order to kayak on the Wailua River, Kauai’s only navigable river.  I’ve never been kayaking before, although I’ve long thought it would be a fun way to explore the water.  This relatively easy half-day excursion proved to be every bit as enjoyable as I expected.

After a brief orientation, we were transferred to the launch site by van.  We paired up and started paddling upriver, the wind to our back.  The paddling itself takes only a minor amount of coordination.  The challenge is to ensure your paddling is complementary, if not perfectly matched to, the paddling of your partner.  We headed about 45 minutes upstream, approximately two miles.  From our perspective on the river, we were in the middle of the wild.  Looking at the area on a map afterward, I realized that roads and “civilization” was actually just out of sight beyond the ridge line.

After coming to shore in a small tributary of the larger river, we began a one-mile hike through the jungle.  Again, while it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, of course we were actually on a well-worn path.

Severe jungle… holy houseplants, Batman!

At one point, the path crosses a twist in the river and we have to use a guide rope to get across the water.  The water at this point is only knee-high and not running that rapidly.  One could easily imagine a scenario, though, where the crossing could be more difficult.  On our return, my uncle was filming us and trying to encourage one of us to fake a fall into the water for dramatic purposes.

Our group, all relatives of Kari and Nathan, posing by the river about half-way into our hike.

Our destination, after about a 45-minute hike, was Uluwehi Falls (“Secret Falls”), a 130-foot waterfall that has a very nice pool at its base.  We sat on the rocks around the falls and ate our lunch, which we had packed in.  Various other groups came and went and there were a few dozen people at the pool most of the time we were there.  It is a bit hard to see in the picture above, but see if you can make out the small bowl of flower set next to the rocks, near the bottom of the photo about one-third of the way from the lower right corner.

The Wailua River was/is considered a very sacred river and in this pool next to the falls there is a fresh arrangement of flowers that appears to be some sort of offering.

After lunch our group poses at the base of the falls.  Some members of the group went in for a swim, although I didn’t.

The wide, meandering river.  We were well ahead of the pack.  Of course this wasn’t a competition.  Right?  The trip back was more challenging because the wind blows off the coast and up the river.  When returning, we are paddling into the wind.  The guide pointed out that if we stayed to the far left (north) of the river, we were mostly sheltered from the wind and the going would be easier.

Kayaking relatives finally make it back to the launch point.  Since my cousin Kelly and I arrived first, I pulled my camera from the dry bag and took pictures of everyone else as they arrived.  The newlyweds were the last to make it back.

My cousin Kelly and me, first upriver and first back. The secret?  We were the only unmarried couple paddling!  Seriously, when we were going through the orientation, the guide warned us about the nickname for kayaks – “divorce boats” – because couples can get into all sorts of disagreements, usually caused by the wounded ego of the stronger paddler (usually the man) in the back.  Since Kelly and I aren’t married, there was no ego involved, nothing to prove, so we just focused on paddling.  I let her set the pace and tried to match her.  Since she’s in the Navy, I figure she should be the expert at something boat-related, right?

Afterward, we stopped in the nearby town of Kapa’a, a neat place that I wish I would have had more time to explore, for some shave ice at Ono Shave Ice.  Shave ice – not shaved ice – is this great treat that can also involve ice cream and various toppings in addition to the ice and syrups.  We had some very good shave ice while there but I can say that it is a dessert I don’t need to have all the time.  Quite sweet.

The main reason we were in Kaua’i was to attend the wedding of my cousin Kari to her fiancee Nathan.  They exchanged vows on Sunday in the late afternoon along a beautiful stretch of Shipwreck Beach near Poipu, which is on the south shore of the island.  There were about two dozen family members who had made it for the ceremony, probably a few more than Kari and Nathan had originally anticipated.  Needless to say, it was a beautiful ceremony.

Tawn comes prepared for the occasion with a nice hat.

My cousin Brad and his wife Silvia.  Brad is Kari’s younger brother.  The cliff in the background served as a focal point for the ceremony.

Tawn and I pose for a self-portrait.

My uncle Dick and aunt Sandy and their first grandchild Tommy.  Dick is the older brother of Kari’s mother.

Orchids are strewn along the beach, marking the path along which the bride walked.

As is probably increasingly the case these days, it seemed everyone (myself included) was trying to get pictures of the ceremony rather than just witnessing it!

We needn’t have worried, though, as the official photographer did a marvelous job and made these photos available on his website.  I will say that if you are ever looking for a great wedding photographer, for the Hawaiian islands or elsewhere, I would recommend Gelston Dwight.

The lighting of these photos was really spectacular.  They have a “Hollywood-esque” quality to them and capture the couple’s glamor as it looks in everyday life!

This is about half the group – just Kari’s side of the family.  From left to right, cousin Bill, his son Tommy, his wife Alex (also my cousin), Tawn, Me, my mother, my cousin Kelly (Kari’s sister), my father, Nathan, Kari, Kari’s mother Pat, father Carl, brother Brad, his wife Silvia, and my uncle Dick and aunt Sandy.  Probably more than you needed to know, right?

My cousin Alex designed the invitations, menus, and all the other printed materials.  She’s quite a talented designer and you can see more of her work at her website.  Fresh local pineapples made the perfect centerpieces.  The reception was held at the nearby Plantation Gardens Restaurant.

My contingent – father, mother, husband, and me.  That shirt my father is making?  My mother made that in 1980 for a trip to Hawai’i the family took.  In fact, she used matching fabric to make shirts for both my father and me and mumus for her and my sister.  Of the four of us, only my father still fits in his outfit!

Some concoction my cousin Silvia was drinking.

Appetizers – called “pupus”

Kailani farms arugula salad with local mango, papaya, cherry tomatoes, onion, avocado, and a lilikoi cider vinaigrette

Lobster bisque with garlic croutons

Grilled beef tenderloin with gorgonzola mashed potatoes, local green beans, sauteed mushrooms, and merlot reduction sauce.

Fresh local fish with mango and avocado salsa, pan fried green beans and black bean sauce.  Can’t remember what type of fish it was.

There was also a seafood lau lau – fish, shrimp, scallops, and vegetables steamed in taro and ti leaves.  The picture didn’t turn out, though.

When it came to the cutting of the cake, there was such an explosion of flashes that I ended up with several of these “ultra-exposed” shots.

A picture of the beautifully garnished cake.  This was a lilikoi wedding cake (lilikoi = passionfruit), a white vanilla cake brushed with passion fruit syrup and filled with passion fruit butter cream.  One of the tastiest wedding cakes I’ve had.

A brief break from writing about the Hawai’i trip.  There’s been lots of news about dogs in my life recently.  Here on Xanga, Val wrote a poem about her aging Australian Shepherd.  Tiara wrote an entry about five of her dogs being poisoned by thieves on Saturday night during an interrupted burglary.  And to top it off, Tawn’s father called him Friday morning to tell him that his Maltese, Benji, had died early that morning after three days of illness.

Pets can be a big part of the family and people become very attached to them, of that there is no doubt.  I’ve never had pets in my house, save a pet rat that my sister had for a year or two.  It is interesting because I get along very well with animals (and children, too!), but have never had a strong desire to have pets of my own.  Tawn has had lots of dogs for his entire life and even with Benji’s death there are still seven or eight dogs at his parents’ house.

I wonder if there will be a point in my life where I have a pet of my own.  It doesn’t seem that important to me, but maybe I’m missing out on the experience and once I had a pet, I would understand the connection that so many other people experience with their animal companions.

What about you?  Are you an animal person or, more precisely, do you have pets?

Looking back, I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point in my life my “what to see” list when traveling started to tip in favor of places to eat rather than sights and attractions to see.  While Kaua’i is a beautiful island with stunning beaches, mountains, canyons, and jungles, as I made my list of what I wanted to do, it pretty much read like a list of local types of food I wanted to try.  Along the way, I discovered Lonely Planet’s Kaua’i guide, a book that uses 296 pages to detail the island and does a lot of work to present it through a environmental/sustainable/locavore lens.  Excellent resource.

Our first afternoon in Poipu Beach we decided to start with the nearby town of Koloa, a five-minute drive from Poipu.  With its little town feel that would be right at home in an “old west” movie, our first stop was the highly recommended Koloa Fish Market.  Known for good local “grinds”, I was anticipating a chance to sit down and enjoy some great food.  We got the great food alright, but since there was no place to sit down we had to take the food back to the condo.

Everything’s on the chalk board inside this tiny market.  The friendly staff readily explained things that we later realized were written right in front of our face.  (Hey, it happens to the best of us!)  With four of us, two of whom are not large eaters, we decided the following would be enough:

This mixed seafood plate has seared ahi tuna encrusted in sesame, boiled shrimp served with dipping sauce, seaweed salad, and poke.  Poke (pronounced “poe-kay”, which means “to cut or slice” in Hawaiian) is a common side dish in the islands made from raw fish marinated in soy sauce and other ingredients.  We ate a lot of poke and every bit of it was fantastic.  Most often, it is made from ahi tuna, the quality of which is amazing.  We also had it made with octopus, crab meat, and salmon.

Now, I will say this about seafood in Hawai’i.  It is really wonderful and all, but I get really fresh, really inexpensive seafood in Thailand so there was a point where I was thinking that it was all fine and dandy, but not really that exciting.  This echoes a problem that Michael shared with us.  When he has guests from the mainland, there are a lot of very interesting types of food for them to experience because Hawai’i has a hodgepodge of Asian cultures that make up its heritage and a lot of the Asian food here is better than what the visitors may experience back at home.  When he has guests from Asia, though, they are more likely to think something like, “yeah, we’ve got this back at home.”

Of course, that didn’t stop us from trying as many different things as we could!

Another thing we tried is the plate lunch.  Well, the styrofoam box lunch.  Today’s offering was a mix of laulau (pork steamed in taro leaves and ti leaves), kalua pork (slow roasted, traditionally cooked in a fire pit), rice, lomilomi salmon (minced salted salmon with chopped tomatoes and green onions), and a little serving of poke.  Both types of pork were wonderfully tasty.  The lomilomi salmon was fine but it was hard to identify that there was any salmon in there.  We tried some a bit later in the week that had more noticeable amounts of salmon. 

For dessert we shared a piece of the fish market’s homemade sweet potato and haupia pie, a market specialty.  Haupia is a coconut milk dessert thickened with arrowroot or corn starch.  It is very similar to a Thai dessert and is lightly sweet and salty with a thick, gelatine-like consistency.  This version is served with a sweet potato base made from purple sweet potatoes, again something familiar to people in Thailand.  It is served on a cracker-crumb crust.  It was very nice, not overly sweet but pretty filling.

All in all, our first meal in Kaua’i was a thumbs up.  Relatively inexpensive, good food, simply prepared.

Unrelated to the lunch at the Koloa Fish Market was our search for malasadas, the fried dough that came here with Portuguese contract workers, thousands of whom came to Hawai’i in the late 1800s.  We were looking for for the one-woman stand known as Kaua’i Malasadas, located in from of the K-Mart at Kukui Grove Shopping Center in Lihue.  Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen, so we stopped at Kaua’i Bakery & Cinnamons in the same shopping center to try some of the different malasadas.

The options included plain, chocolate cream filled, vanilla cream filled, and filled with both chocolate and vanilla cream.  Lightly sprinkled with sugar and not too oily, I was nonetheless underwhelmed with these fried treats.  They are donuts without holes, something that I can’t get incredibly worked up about.

After our long journey to reach Kauai, we spent our first day relaxing.  Tawn was a little under the weather, so extra napping was called for.  We were renting a 2-bedroom condo with my parents in the Poipu Beach area on the south side of the island, and all of my cousins and aunts and uncles were in houses nearby, although at this point we didn’t all know where exactly everyone else was staying.

The beach was literally just around the corner from our condo, maybe a two-minute walk.  The nearest area was very rocky but a sandy area (Brennecke Beach) was another minute or two away.

The weather was extremely pleasant with a nice breeze, so I went walking down by the water, first with Tawn and then later with my mother.

A beautiful tree we saw.  I stopped by a nursery later in the trip to find out what type of tree it is.  It is called a “monkey pod”.  Looks like something out of The Lion King.

The sun starts to fall towards the horizon.  We saw some beautiful sunsets while on the island.  Interestingly, Kauai is twice the size of Singapore, but has about 80,000 residents compared to 5 million on Singapore.

One thing we saw plenty of on the island were these wild chickens.  Without any snakes, mongoose, or other natural predators, their population is pretty out of control.

In the next entry, I’ll share a bit about the food we had.

Link to Part 1: Bangkok to Hong Kong
Link to Part 2: A Half Day in Hong Kong
Link to Part 3: Hong Kong to Guam to Honolulu

After some 29 hours traveling, we had safely made it to Honolulu and had just one more short hop to our destination: Lihue, Kauai.  To get there, we had to take a 20-minute flight about Hawaiian Airlines, which has a codeshare agreement with Continental. 

We exited our plane from Guan (pictured) above and walked downstairs where we had to claim our luggage and go through customs.  As you can imagine, since Hawaii is a bunch of islands they are particularly concerned about fruits, vegetables, uncooked meat, plants, and anything else entering the state that might harm local agriculture.  About forty minutes after landing we found ourselves outside in the fresh (and very pleasant) air, and made our way to the inter-island terminal.

The inter-island terminal is a ten-minute walk from the main terminal and is also connected by these buses called Wiki-wiki busses.  In Hawaiian, “wiki” means quick, so “wiki wiki” implies very quick.  In place since 1970, the buses really are anything but that.  Ostensibly a new moving sidewalk system has been opened but I didn’t see it.

Since our bags were checked through (we placed them on a belt outside customs so they could be connected for us), the walk was leisurely and we proceeded through security.  We realized, though, that we still had better than an hour before boarding time, so I walked around the inter-island terminal to get some pictures.

For the longest time, the state of Hawaii had two dominant airlines: Hawaiian and Aloha.  In March 2008, Aloha went out of business, at least in part because of predatory practices by Mesa Air Group (who operate many regional affiliates for major US airlines) who decided to open their own island carrier called “go!”  Hawaiian continues strong, though, and consistently ranks with the best on-time percentage and fewest mishandled bags of any US carrier.  Here is their fleet of Boeing 717s (a modernized version of the 1960s era Douglas DC-9) at Honolulu.

The airport has lots of open air areas, although since I was last there in 1994, they have enclosed and air conditioned the gates.  The walkway in the picture above is open air.  The garden below in the picture below is viewed from the left edge of this walkway.

One of several beautiful gardens in the airport which passengers can spend time in.  What a peaceful place to wait for a flight!

As the sun set, I caught this nice picture with the Hawaiian Airlines maintenance hangar in the background.

Throughout the terminal are wall-sized enlarged photos taken from different eras of Hawaiian Airlines’ history.  Talk about a walk through the past!

1960s – Hawaiian received their first Douglas DC-9 aircraft in 1966 and along with them, these funky flight attendant uniforms and hot boots!  Go, Nancy Sinatra, go!

In the 1970s, the carrier updated their look both in terms of livery and flight attendant uniforms.  I’m curious where they got the California surfer boy?  Must have flown in from the OC and been accosted on the ramp by the flight attendants!

This picture, probably from the 1980s, is very pretty, showing off both the beauty of the islands as well as of the airplane.

One reminder of Aloha Airlines is this mural from a route map they had published in the early 1960s, based on the aircraft shown, a Fairchild F-27.  Beautiful illustration, isn’t it?

Speaking of nice illustration, the toilet signs are appropriately decorated with aloha shirts for the men and muu-muus for the women.

As night fell and departure time neared, the gate area started to fill up.  Among our fellow passengers, a group of elementary school students and their parents, flying to Kauai for a weekend outing.  The flight attendants gave them a special shout-out when we landed.

Our aircraft, almost ready to board.  Watching their ground crew move, you can understand why they have such a good on-time record.  Despite the islands’ laid-back culture, they certainly hustle when there is work to be done.

The interiors are a bit old and dark, but for such a short flight it was fine.  Service was friendly, along the lines of Southwest Airlines.  For our 20-minute flight, the only “inflight service” was the handing out of containers of POG – passionfruit, orange, guava juice – and then quickly collecting them.  Seriously, we took off, leveled at about 5000 feet (versus 35,000 for a normal flight), and then were descending almost as soon as we had leveled off.

Finally, about 32 hours after leaving Bangkok, we landed smoothly on Kauai, retrieved our bags in the open-air bag claim, and waited for my parents to arrive and pick us up.  At last, we were there!

Link to Part 1: Bangkok to Hong Kong
Link to Part 2: A Half Day in Hong Kong

I’ve reached the age where I’m willing to spend a little more money so I can be comfortable when I travel, and being able to get a few hours of good sleep in the midst of a 30+ hour journey seemed like a good investment.  This was the logic behind paying $60 apiece to rent three hours in day rooms at the Plaza Premium Lounge, a public “arrival lounge” in Hong Kong Airport’s Terminal 2.

Unfortunately, a few things kept the investment from paying dividends.  This particular lounge is located below the train station.  While it has soundproofing, you can still hear the “whoosh” of the train arriving every twelve minutes.  If I had used earplugs, that might not have been a problem, but the coffee I had with my egg tarts earlier in the afternoon, or maybe just the rush of adrenaline brought on by travel, kept me from really relaxing and sleeping.

Nonetheless, I got more rest than I would have just wandering around the city or dozing in an airport chair, so I was thankful for that.  The lounge itself was nice and the facilities were in good shape.  The staff gave us a bit more than three hours before calling to wake us so the time to shower and change wasn’t held against the three hours we had paid for.  Maybe that’s because they weren’t busy that time of day or maybe that’s just how they do it in Hong Kong.

Whatever the case, a little before 8:30 pm we were showered, changed, and checked out.  We collected our bags from the locker facility nearby and did some rearranging with the packing.  On the Air Asia flight, we had to prepay for our luggage, so managing the weight distribution was critical.  At least for their international flights, Continental offers free luggage check-in, so we could move things out of our carry-on and into the luggage for the rest of the trip.

The check-in counters were deserted two hours before departure.  United does the check-in and ground handling for Continental, which operates only two flights a day (to Guam and Newark).  UA providing this services is a recent development, brought about by the merger of the two airlines.  It took a few minutes for the agent to finish our check-in as there was some confusion about the assignment of my frequent flyer number.  (Continental and Taiwan’s EVA Air have a reciprocal mileage program agreement and I was using my EVA mileage program number for these flights.)  The agents were friendly, though, and resolved the problem in short order.

After the confusion was cleared, our bags tagged, and boarding passes issued, we headed through security and immigration.  Unlike many international airports I’ve been to, Hong Kong places security before immigration, which makes more sense to me than at airports like Singapore where you don’t go through security until you are entering the gate.  Who’s protecting the immigration officers there?

Uncertain what food would be served aboard our four-hour redeye Continental flight to Guam, we stopped for a bite at the popular local eatery Tsui Wah, a branch of which is located in the airport.  I’ve noticed that many airports are moving from having just random restaurants or only fast food chains to having branches of popular local restaurants.  San Francisco Airport is a good example of this.  There you can eat the food from some of your favorite local restaurants inside the terminal.  Good idea, in my estimation.  At least you get something more interesting than Burger King and Starbucks, again and again, airport after bloody airport.

I think this photo says it all.  We ate at a full branch of Tsui Wah on our two days in Hong Kong while returning, too.

Tawn ordered this dish, which if I recall correctly is a Singapore style curried noodles.  I tried a bite and it was tasty and a bit spicy.

I ordered the baked pork chop smothered in tomato sauce and cheese, served over rice.  It took about ten minutes for them to prepare but was worth the wait!

Hong Kong International Airport remains one of my favorite airports.  While Singapore may offer free internet, some outdoor gardens, etc. I find HKIA a much more modern, user friendly, and well thought-out airport.  The interior also is bright and open, making the travel feel just that much more exciting.  It reminds me of a classic European train station, done up in a modern version.

Another benefit to HKIA: it is children friendly.  There’s this good sized play area near the main food court.  It features many segments of play airplanes, allowing children to burn off energy and learn more about aviation before getting on their flights.

The segment about the cabin, left, has all sorts of little details like the stickers on the “overhead bins” showing row numbers.  Parents could actually use these as a learning opportunity for their children, pointing out the stickers and practicing how they’ll look for the row numbers once they get on their real airplane.  It has all sorts of educational possibilities, not to mention just being fun!

The table in the cabin interior play area is covered with photos taken at the old Hong Kong airport, Kai Tak.  The Wikipedia entry for the airport describes it very aptly:

“With numerous skyscrapers and mountains located to the north and its only runway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, landings at the airport were dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world.”

This minute-long video beautifully illustrates just how crazy landings into Kai Tak were.  Take a look.

Departure time was 10:30 pm from gate 20, one of the closet gates to immigration.  HKIA is a very spread-out airport but unlike the design of Bangkok, there is a convenient train system that will shuttle you to the more distant gates in just a few minutes.  In Bangkok, nearly every gate requires a hike, most of which is through a shopping mall of duty free stores.

Boarding started about 20 minutes before departure for our nearly full flight.  Unlike many trans-Pacific flights, this one was served by a narrow body aircraft, a Boeing 737-800.  During the boarding process all passengers were put through additional security screening, which is normal for flights heading to the US thanks to our overzealous policies.  However, unlike most airports where this screening is done before you actually enter the gate, here in Hong Kong they have the screening in the ramp leading to the jetway.

The result?  Passengers had to surrender water bottles they had purchased or filled inside the secured area of the airport, without an opportunity to get more water before the flight.  This is extremely cruddy, resulting in passengers not being able to bring their own water onto the flight.  To top it off, the United customer service agents failed to mention this procedure either at check-in or in the boarding announcements, making it all the more inconvenient and, because it was unexpected, irritating.

On this segment of the flight we had been able to purchase exit row seats (an extra $89 per person) in order to have a little more legroom and get some rest on the overnight flight.  Again, our “book the window and aisle” strategy left us with an empty middle seat and some extra room.  Note those little “SUV back seat” screens hanging throughout the cabin.  More about those in a moment.

View of a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A310 next to us.  Beautiful design on the tail.  HKIA is a great place to see planes from all over the world, with the exception of Latin America which isn’t well-represented.

The four-hour flight to Guam was uneventful.  Cabin lights were on and off – mostly on – for the first two hours as we went through lengthy announcements and then a meal service that, for a red eye, seems should have been delivered immediately after takeoff.  The “meal” was half a turkey wrap, some fruit, and some almond cookies.  About as much as you would expect for an American airline, I think.

There was no individual inflight entertainment.  This plane is equipped with those “SUV back seat” style monitors throughout the cabin so we all watched the recent Harrison Ford movie “Morning Glory”.  Well, as much as we could see it on the tiny monitor four rows away.  Headsets were distributed for free and we were encouraged to keep them for use on other flights.

I managed to doze a bit on the flight but then it was time for descent into Guam.  We touched down some twenty minutes early and taxied to gate 10.  As we arrived, I was unsure what to expect, immigration-wise.  This was our first point of entry into the US, although Guam is a territory rather than a state.  As it turned out, we ended up having to go through immigration, but didn’t have to reclaim our baggage and go through customs. 

The process was like this: when you arrive in Guam the terminal has these flexible partitions down the middle of the hallway.  You are shunted into the “secure” side if your flight has arrived from an international destination.  Then you go into the immigration queue just like at any other international airport.  After clearing immigration you end up outside security in the ticketing and check-in lobby, so you re-clear security and head to your gate.

Back at our gate about fifteen minutes after clearing immigration, we spotted our plane for the 7.5-hour flight to Honolulu.  As you can see, from a visual branding perspective, the CO-UA merger is also a merger of identities: Continental color scheme with the United name.  That being the case, it has been much faster to update the legacy Continental planes than the legacy United ones.

Boarding was already underway when we reached the gate, but the procedure was very strange.  Between the gate area and the jetway there was another set of immigration booths, so we had to go through immigration a second time within forty-five minutes, essentially reentering the US.  I guess the implication of this second immigration check is that there must be passengers boarding locally in Guam who entered Guam without going through formal immigration procedures.  Very odd.

The view from my window seat.  The plane we arrived on from Hong Kong is the second plane back.  Interestingly, the Guam airport seems to be located on a graded hillside and I noticed that the arrangement of the aircraft parking areas is a bit like terraced rice paddies, albeit not at a very steep grade.  Look at the building just above the left side of the jetway.  Notice how it “steps up” about a meter?  It is hard to see in the picture but the ramp is level at the plane’s parking area but then slopes up to the next parking area.  You can see the slope where the yellow cargo pallet carts are parked just beyond the wing of our plane.

Anyhow, our flight pulled back just as the sun was rising, the same time (6:30 am locally) we had departed from Bangkok the day before, although 24 hours had not quite passed thanks to time zone changes.

On our way to runway 6-Right we passed this Continental Boeing 737 in the Star Alliance livery.  I wonder if some day all the Star Alliance airlines will merge (once foreign ownership laws change) and simply brand the airline as “Star Alliance”?

Our climb out of Guam on a cloudy Saturday morning.

Our plane, a Boeing 767-400, is a twin-aisle jet with a 2-3-2 arrangement of seats in economy class.  Unlike the plane from Hong Kong, this one was equipped with individual seatback monitors with a choice of something like nine channels of movies and TV shows playing on a 2.5-hour loop.  If you happen to tune in at a random time, you will find yourself in the middle of a movie and have to wait until the loop restarts. 

It is certainly better than squinting to watch the show on a screen half a cabin away, but given the recent advances in inflight entertainment technology (not to mention things like iPods and iPads!) the quality is still pretty low.  Interestingly, though, since this flight was technically a domestic flight (although nearly twice as long as our Hong Kong to Guam flight), you had to pay for a headset or else use your own.

The seats did have pillows and blankets provided, something rare for a domestic flight.  Seat pitch (the point on your seat to the same point on the seat in front of you) is about 32 inches, typical for economy on many airlines and if you empty out the seatback pocket of magazines and the person in front of you doesn’t recline all the way, it is reasonably comfortable.

Despite being a domestic flight, free meals were served and they weren’t that bad, either.  This was a breakfast flight and I had sausage and eggs served over fried rice.  You have to appreciate that Continental tries to appeal to the local customers with the fried rice, and it strikes me as a better choice than hash browns.

Tawn opted for the French Toast, which was just about basic as French Toast can get! 

About three hours into the flight, flight attendants passed out ice cream bars as a snack.  Thanks to the dry ice on which they had been stored, these ice cream sandwiches were as hard as a rock and I had to wait about ten minutes before I could manage to break off a bite without chipping a tooth!  One wonders what would happen if they offered a snack of, say, fruit or carrot sticks.  Nonetheless, I can only greet an ice cream sandwich with a smile.

About four hours into the flight, we crossed the International Date Line, suddenly gaining back 24 hours of our lives.  In fact, this flight was so funky because of the IDL that when I tried to book it on Continental’s website, it wouldn’t let me.  I had to go to their ticketing agent in Bangkok to get it done.  The reason?  We left Hong Kong on Friday evening, arrived Guam Saturday morning, departed Guam Saturday morning, arrived Honolulu Friday afternoon, then connected to a codeshare flight to Lihue on Friday evening.  That “back and forth” with the dates confused Continental’s computers, I guess.

About 70 minutes before landing the flight attendants passed out snack trays with turkey sandwiches every bit as dry as the ones I made for our Bangkok to Hong Kong flight!  Also included were a Twix bar and cheddar cheese flavored crackers.  Not the culinary highlight of the flight.

The skies were beautiful as we approached Honolulu.  Sadly, I should have been sitting on the left-hand side of the plane for the best views of the island.  However, I did film our takeoff and landing and will share it here if you’d like to view it:

Watching palm trees swaying in the breeze, we pulled into our gate next to an Air Canada jet (bet the crew is glad to be working that route!) and after about 29 hours had finally arrived in Hawai’i.  But we still had one more flight to reach our destination… stay tuned!

With exactly twelve hours to kill between landing in Hong Kong and that evening’s departure to Hawaii, we decided to head into the city for some lunch and a little window shopping.  Something I love about Hong Kong is how easy and convenient it is to get into (and around) the city from the airport.

Tawn in his travel outfit and clear tote bag, waiting at the Admiralty MTR station as we connect from the Airport Express line to the Island line on our way to Causeway Bay.

Something that amazes me about Hong Kong is the effectiveness of its transit.  Granted, this is partially a function of the relative density of the city, but I think a lot of credit goes to the design of the system.  With a population of 7 million residents, the MTR (the rail portion of the transit system) carries a daily average of about 4 million riders.  The main lines run with eight cars (the maximum) at all times and they seem to usually carry a crowd despite trains arriving every few minutes.  I can only hope that one day Bangkok manages to develop a transit infrastructure that is as integrated into residents’ daily use as Hong Kong’s is.

Our destination was Causeway Bay, the heavily built-up shopping district on the northern side of Hong Kong Island.  This wonderfully retro pedestrian flyover is built along Yee Wo Street right at Pennington Street.  With the Hong Kong trams running down the middle of the street, it is easy to feel caught in a bit of a time warp.  Notice the stairs on the opposite side of the picture.

When we passed by an hour later, there was a queue of people, mostly office workers, forming up the stairs.  We couldn’t confirm what they were queuing for, but Tawn thought it might be for a restaurant behind the scaffolding.  My suspicion is that it isn’t for a restaurant, as that would be a crazy amount of potential customers on a short lunch break.  I should have explored because if a place is attracting this much attention, it must be worth knowing about.

The first stop was at the Causeway Bay branch of Taipei’s favorite dumpling house, Din Tai Fung.  There are those who say that the branches outside of Taiwan don’t live up to the standards of those inside the country.  My experience in Singapore has been positive but I was curious to see how the food compares in Hong Kong.

I’ve written about Din Tai Fung on other occasions so won’t go into a lot of detail other than to say that with the exception of the Xiao Long Bao (upper right) and the spicy shrimp dumplings (lower left), the food was a bit bland.  We were actually considering sprinkling salt on everything.  Perhaps they’ve stopped using MSG, to the detriment of our taste buds!

After lunch, we went to do a little shopping.  Well, window shopping.  Reportedly, the rents in this shopping area of Causeway Bay, which feature global retailers such as this Sogo shop from Japan, are among the highest in the world, nearly equal that of New York’s Fifth Avenue and London’s Sloane Street.

Seeing the crowds, I’m reminded of Tokyo’s Shibuya district.  This is true even more true at night, when all the lights are on and the streets glow nearly as bright as day.

After some shopping we headed to the Excelsior Hotel for an afternoon treat.  On the way there we passed the World Trade Center mall, which has this odd quasi-pedestrian area outside.  It is open to traffic as a driveway but there aren’t many cars.  Because of that, it feels sort of like a set on some Hollywood (or in this case, Hong Kong) movie studio back lot.

The coffee shop at the Excelsior (which is a part of the Mandarin Oriental group) features Portuguese style egg tarts from Macau’s famous Lord Stow’s Bakery.  I found out about this when MIA Xangan Wangium posted some pictures on Facebook from his recent trip to Hong Kong.  Good to know both that Jason is still alive (although not posting very frequently here on Xanga – hint, hint) and that there is a convenient source for these tasty egg tarts.

The thing about Portuguese versus the Chinese style egg tarts is that the tops are lightly caramelized so they are a bit like eating creme brulee.  Very rich, but with a coffee or tea to cut through the richness, they are a wonderful afternoon treat and well worth a trip into town from the airport.

We did a little more shopping after the tarts.  This is at Lee Gardens, another shopping center in Causeway Bay.  I took a dozen shots of this scene and this is the only one that turned out.  A clerk, who seemed a bit self-conscious about the pictures I was taking, was wearing the same jacket that she was placing on the mannequin.  I kept trying to get a good shot of her arranging the jacket on the mannequin but those didn’t turn out.  Finally, as she finished she turned and shot me this look, almost like a mannequin come to life.

This is another shot that almost came out but didn’t quite.  I was shooting this nursery delivery truck when a bellboy at the hotel walked by pulling a trolley bag.  I missed the perfect shot by just a split second and his head is slightly cut off.  Nonetheless, I find the composition pleasing.

By about 4 pm we were getting tired, a combination of about four hours’ sleep the night before, a very early departure time, and the wear and tear of travel.  Instead of continuing our shopping or meeting up with friends for an early diner, we decided to head back to the airport.  We went to the Airport Express station, which has this beautiful check-in lobby, before boarding the train.

On the way to the airport, we were both nearly wiped out.  While Tawn will probably not like this picture because it doesn’t show him in as refreshed and smiling a way as he usually presents himself, I think it is a beautifully contemplative portrait, nicely composed, that really captures the sense of both stillness and motion that we were experiencing on our journey.

With a little more than five hours before our flight, we decided to get some rest.  Hong Kong Airport features a lounge in the public (pre-security) area of Terminal 2 where you can rent day rooms in three-hour increments.  Each room is a tiny, although well-appointed, single bed and bathroom.  The rate was a little steep – $60 for 3 hours – but knowing we wouldn’t get much opportunity for decent sleep for the next 20 hours or so, we figured it was worth it.

Continued in the next entry.

Well, I’m back and reasonably well recovered.  Recovered enough, at least, to start sharing the story of our trip to Kaua’i.  First part of the story, our flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong.  This may be a bit more detailed than you are interested in, but I’m going to cross-post it as a trip report on Airliners.net.  I hope you enjoy.

The alarm rang too early, but since the first leg of our four-flight trip from Bangkok to Lihue, Hawai’i departed at 6:30 am, perhaps that was inevitable.  A quick shower, a double check of critical documents and must-bring items, and a few minutes to whip up some sandwiches to eat onboard later, and Tawn and I were headed downstairs for the waiting taxi.

As we walked across the condominium driveway, a small toad hopped into the bushes, startled by our approach.  On the 25-minute ride to the airport, the taxi driver pandered to us, selecting English songs from his MP3 player.  “YMCA” by the Village People, “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer, and “Ice, Ice, Baby” by Vanilla Ice were among the selections.  “Do you really like these songs?” I asked the driver in Thai.  “Of course,” he responded with all seriousness.  “Don’t you?”

Air Asia’s ticket counter was its usual early morning chaos, although once we pushed through the masses of infrequent travelers, we found the online check-in queues had only a few people waiting in them.  After our bags were tagged and our travel documents checked, we headed for immigration. 

As of late, lots of letters to the editor of the English-language Bangkok Post newspaper have been inspired by complaints of the long queues at Suvarnabhumi Airport’s immigration counters.  However, at 4:50 this morning, lines were about ten people deep and it only took a few minutes to clear immigration.

Just beyond immigration is this epic sculpture taken from Hindu mythology of “The churning of the Ocean of Milk.”  More about that story here. 

After a latte and some duty free browsing, we headed to our gate.  The airport is laid out in the shape of a massive letter “H” and our gate was at the far end of the upper right leg.  We had checked in close to the near end of the main terminal in the center of the “H”, so it was a bit of a walk.

A lonely, dimly-lit pier stretched out ahead of us as we traversed one moving sidewalk after another.  The airport authority has made some attempts to warm the interior and make it more welcoming, especially in a well-publicized desire to rank as one of the top five airports in the world.  This jealousy of peer airports such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Seoul should be a good motivator, but unfortunately the airport authority is run by people who either know little about airports or else pay little attention when visiting the competition.  Compare the above photo with one later on from Hong Kong to see a night and day difference.

Boarding began about 6:00, an orderly affair.  We had purchased “hot seats” - designated as the first five rows and the two emergency exit rows – for an extra 250 baht (about US$ 8.50) per segment, per person.  This gets you priority boarding and, in the exit rows, a smidgen more leg room and a fixed (not reclinable) seat in front of you.

A look at the leg room in the exit row.  About 36 inches, which is 3-5 more inches than you get in most American economy class seats.  In a three-seat row, we reserved the window and aisle seats, betting correctly that few people would choose to upgrade to a middle “hot seat”, thus effectively getting us three seats for the price of two.  If someone did come along with that seat, we could always offer them the window or the aisle instead so we can still sit together.

This flight was operated by Thai Air Asia, one of four subsidiary companies that together make up “Air Asia”.  The fleet is completely made up of new Airbus A320 aircraft.  The interior was clean and the black leather seats look sharp.  Flight attendants are friendly and attentive and seem very capable.

As the sun rose over Suvarnabhumi, a final passenger count was done and the main cabin door was closed for an on-time departure.

After a quick safety demo in Thai and English, we taxied to runway 1-Left and since there was no other traffic at this early hour, we started our takeoff roll just ten minutes after scheduled departure time, climbing through the hazy skies of Central Thailand en route to Hong Kong.

Housing developments on the eastern edge of Bangkok, as seen on departure from the airport.  The main part of the city is in the haze on the horizon.

Above, a two-minute video of the takeoff from Bangkok and landing in Hong Kong, if you are interested.

The captain greeted us aboard the flight, informing us we were cruising at flight level 350 – 35,000 feet above sea level – at a speed of 815 km/h (506 mph).  The flight was smooth, crossing Laos, Vietnam, and the South China Sea on our way to Hong Kong.

Air Asia is a no-frills airline.  Other than buying a seat on the plane, everything else from baggage to seat assignments to food has a price tag.  While I get bummed when I see formerly full-service US airlines doing this, I have no qualms about Air Asia doing it because that has been the arrangement from the first day.  Plus, they provide genuinely friendly and caring service, something most US carriers seem to be missing.

One arrangement they offer is the ability to pre-book your meals from a selection of more than 20 dishes such as pad thai, nasi lemak, chicken rice, and basil fried rice with chicken.  Out of Bangkok the catering is done by local restaurant chain Seefah (“blue sky”).  Dishes are around 100 baht, about US$3.30, and are reasonably tasty for the price.

While they announce a “no outside food” policy, I’ve found if you keep your dining on the down-low, it seems to be no problem.  Before leaving home, I had used the last carefully-selected food items from the refrigerator to make two turkey and provolone cheese sandwiches, complete with homemade pesto-mayonnaise sauce.  All in all, I have to admit they were a little dry, but still a tasty way to start the day.

Needing some more caffeine, I ordered two “Old Town White Coffees”, which are the three-in-one coffee, creamer, sugar mixes from the Malaysian chain Old Town Coffee.  Maybe it is just all the sugar, but these are a surprisingly tasty treat.

Food and beverage service concluded, the flight attendants plied the aisle with duty free and souvenirs.  I can’t imagine why people flying would want to buy some of these things, but it appears they do. 

As much as I have had my qualms about Air Asia in the past, more recently I’ve come to respect them.  Their once abysmal on-time performance has significantly improved.  Their website, which would crash under the pressure of too much traffic, performs more reliably.  And they keep their fares low and frequencies high.  Kudos for that.

Interestingly, Air Asia is the official airline of the Oakland Raiders, despite Air Asia flying nowhere in North America.  The Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes has explained it as something of a preemptive move, building the brand in anticipation of an eventual service to the Bay Area.  Air Asia already flies to Paris and London through their Air Asia X long-haul subsidiary, so it would not be a surprise to see them begin flights to Oakland eventually.

Descent into Hong Kong seemed to begin quite quickly, less than two hours after takeoff.  I’m reminded that there was a time in my life when a 2-3 hour flight seemed long.  Now that I cross the Pacific several times a year, two hours passes in the blink of an eye.  We touched down on runway 7-Left about twenty minutes ahead of schedule under skies as hazy as they were in Bangkok.

The north satellite concourse (with gates numbered as 501-510!), which seems to serve carriers heading to and from Mainland China.  I like the design of the roof, which reminds me of a bird in flight. 

We parked at gate N28, just a short walk from the main terminal.  Next to us was this Qantas Boeing 747-400, which has a color scheme similar to Air Asia’s, I think.

Here is the transit check-in and duty free area just before immigration.  Earlier, I wrote about how Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok fails to reach the same level as other regional airports such as Hong Kong.  Compare the above picture with the fourth one from the top of this entry.  While the chairs in Bangkok might be more comfortable, the whole setting here in Hong Kong looks more attractive and warmer.  Maybe it is the use of – gasp! – carpeting.  In either case, Hong Kong remains one of my favorite airports and sets the bar which Bangkok will have to reach.

We exited customs and immigration with minimal delay and entered the spacious and well-organized arrivals area, another distinction between Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Since we had exactly twelve hours between our arrival and the departure of our next flight, we decided to check our bags into the lockers and head into the city for lunch.  An attractive atrium leads from Terminal 1 underneath the Airport Express train station and to Terminal 2, where the lockers are located.  We were able to store our two large check-in bags plus a trolley bag for 80 HKD (about US$ 11) for up to 12 hours, quite a reasonable price. 

Within an hour of touching down on the runway, we were boarding the Airport Express train for the 24-minute ride into the city.  I’ll write about our day in Hong Kong in the next entry.  Stay tuned!

Returned home from Hawaii and Hong Kong Sunday night about 10:30.  Unfortunately, I came down with a case of food poisoning and was sick on the flight and subsequently unable to keep anything down until Monday afternoon.  The only thing I ate this weekend that Tawn did not eat was some congee with fried dough sticks at a restaurant in the iSquare Mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. 

A trip to the doctor and the prescription of some meds seems to have helped.  I ate a bowl of (ironically) instant congee this afternoon and it is staying where it belongs.  Drinking lots of electrolyte beverages to rehydrate and will hopefully have the strength to start sharing pictures and stories from my trip tomorrow.

A few weeks back the Thai Red Cross held their annual Diplomatic Fair in which embassies and consulates in Bangkok sell items imported duty-free from their home countries, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross.  Most of my purchases were wines imported by the US embassy, offered at about a 30% discount of normal retail prices thanks to the absence of a duty.

I was especially tickled, though, when I found this wine for sale at the Hungary booth.  IKON wine.  This is funny because that’s the company I work for, IKON Office Solutions.  Who knew we had a namesake wine?  For the record, this was a very nice, medium-dry rose.