Narration by: Brian C. Lovern
HONG KONG
After much time spent planning, preparing, and anxiously waiting, the day in which we would begin our Asian expedition finally arrived on September 16, 2005. Our bags were packed. The rental car was secured. And off we went to New York City. Things didn’t get off to a great start, as we almost got lost in the New York City area (not hard to do, since they try to make everything confusing there), but we found our way after a brief delay. Our flight departed just after 3:00 pm local time. It was quite a lengthy journey… around 17 hours worth, in fact. They sure don’t provide much room on these flights, but thankfully they serve you all the wine and beer you want, because you need it to help you fall asleep!
At long last, we arrived in our first destination, Hong Kong, at 8:00 pm local time. We were tired, but still very eager to look around the city. We took a combination of the train and a taxi to reach our hotel, which was a nice place, and reasonably priced too. Since it was late, we called it a night so we could get rested for our next busy day. We had breakfast the next morning at a very familiar place down the street - the McDonald’s! We then took the train to a nearby section of the city. Once there, you can take a tram (kinda like a thin bus) around the city for just 2 Hong Kong dollars, which is just over 25 cents in U.S. money.
The Tram
It’s really fascinating how modern everything is there, and it’s a clean city as well. If you like cell phones, this is your place. There are seemingly countless shops where you can purchase them on every block. After looking around the city a bit, we boarded the tram once again to return to our starting point, but thanks to me we boarded the wrong one heh heh. But we quickly fixed that minor problem. Next up was the granddaddy of the trams… the Peak Tram. This one takes you straight up a mountainside where there is quite the breathtaking view of the city below. It’s a great photo opportunity, and a must see for anyone who travels to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it rained some while we were up there, but we still managed to get some good pictures.
Daylight was growing short, so we decided to head back so we could catch the Symphony of Lights show from Victoria Harbor that evening. We left enough time to take a brief ferry ride across the river which dropped us off near the Clock Tower and the famed
aboard a ferry
Avenue of Stars, which is like their version of Hollywood with the names of celebrities in stars along the walkway. Although we, naturally, had never heard of them, it was still neat.
We dodged more raindrops as we awaited the light show, which was set to begin at 7:30 in the evening.
It wasn’t quite as fancy as we thought it might be, but it was still a cool show. We then went to a local restaurant and ordered some local food (tried to eat like the Hongkongers!) but it made us sick. Zim couldn’t stand the smell of the food so we just went to a convenient store and bought some familiar snacks haha. Next up… shop till you drop! They had this thing called the Ladies’ Market just down the road from our hotel where you could buy all kinds of stuff, and not just ladies’ stuff hehe. We spent quite a bit of time here, as shopping is Zim’s favorite way to pass the time (except for being with me of course!).
Shoppers occupying the streets. Roads closed for vehicles.
After that, it was time to pack up again and begin the next leg of our journey, which took us to Tokyo.
TOKYO, JAPAN
Upon arriving in Japan, we had to take an hour and a half train ride to get to the part of the city where our hotel was located. This gave us some much needed nap time, which was good, since after the ride, we had to walk a few blocks in a pouring rain to reach our hotel. It’s not easy to navigate your way around there. Most people do not speak much English, and as a result, the signs are not much help either. We finally found someone who spoke enough English to give us an idea where to go, and proceeded to find our hotel. It wasn’t quite as nice as our place in Hong Kong, but it had the most awesome toilet! You can press a button and it will wash your butt for you hehe.
Japan’s Western (hi-tech!) Toilet Japan’s Traditional Toilet
And they gave us free kimonos to sleep in.
pwede na??
Our dinner on this night consisted of KFC chicken. By the way, if you ever travel there, be prepared to buy simple things, as you just have to point to pictures of what you want. They will try to talk to you in Japanese anyway, even though it’s obvious that you are not one of them. We wanted to try some Japanese food though, and found a good restaurant the following day inside a shopping center. I don’t know exactly what it was that we ate, but it was good.
Next we went to a Toyota place where I found me a racecar. They wouldn’t let me test it though hahaha.
Toyota AMLUX Autosalon
After that we went to a place called the Sunshine 60. It’s a really tall building that, for a small fee, you can go to the top of and see the entire world! Okay, not really, but you can see all of Tokyo, and on a clear day, even to Mount Fuji, although Japan rarely gets such clear days.
After that, it was time to… you guessed it… shop!
After spending a bunch of yens, we went back to the hotel to pack yet again for our next departure.
Narita Airport
BANGKOK, THAILAND
Bangkok was next on our list. We arrived there very late at night, and had to take a taxi to our hotel. And wow! What a hotel it was! We could have just stayed there the whole time and enjoyed ourselves, as it had its own restaurant, bar, gift shops, and swimming pools.
We got kind of embarrassed because they had bellboys that help you carry your luggage to your room, and you’re supposed to tip them, but we had no idea how much so we just gave him what change we had. It must have been enough since he didn’t come hunt us down later hehehe. Actually most of the people there are quite friendly, but watch out for those few that are out to scam you and put a dent in your wallet!
The first thing I noticed about this city when we left the hotel the following day was the stifling heat and pollution.
I never thought I’d ever hear Zim complain about the heat, but this place did it. Despite the heat, we set out on a quest to examine the Buddhist faith, which first required us to take a ride down a river in a small boat to get to another part of the city. The place where we boarded this boat was kind of dumpy, and we weren’t sure at first if we had the right place, since there were no tourists around, but hey, we came to be travelers, not tourists! There are many temples in Bangkok that you are free to visit, but only with bare feet and long pants.
Grand Palace
Ancient canons
The Buddhas in the temples come in many shapes and sizes, and are neat to see, but for the most part, the temples all looked fairly similar.
The gold plated reclining Buddha, 46 m long and 15 m high with feet and eyes engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration
After gazing at temples for a couple of hours, it was time to make our way back via a larger boat and then the train.
By this time, I had already built up an impressive sunburn which would plague me for a couple of days. I just considered it a short term souvenir. We found a really cool place to eat in a mall near our hotel that evening. They served foods from many different countries, and not just Asia, but many western foods as well. After filling our tummies, it was time to do a little more shopping before time to pack up and ship out to Singapore.
SINGAPORE
Our trip to Singapore got off to a great start, as we had our seats upgraded to business class for free on the flight from Bangkok. That was one of the highlights of the trip. Seriously! Where else can you get treated like royalty with exotic foods and all the champagne you can drink, free of charge? Okay, so there are other places, but it was nice to live like rich people for a couple of hours hehehe.
bottomless champagne…
nice, comfortable seats with wide leg room..
appetizer
main course
and of course…
yummy dessert!
plus…
unblocked, breathtaking view…
what more can u ask for??? :D
By the time we checked into our hotel and rested a bit, the evening was upon us, and it was time to go out and tame some wild animals on the famous Night Safari! This too is something that you must do if you ever go to Singapore. It’s like a big zoo, but only better, since the animals are not caged and can operate in their own environments.
There are animals from all over the world here… from wild birds to tigers and even a deer pig. We weren’t able to get many pictures from here because, well, it’s night, and there wasn’t a lot of light. And the animals don’t like flashes. If you use flashes on your camera, you just might become the next meal for the tigers!
the tiger up-close
We didn’t get back to our hotel until well after 1:00 am, so we went to sleep to rest up for another big day. The island resort of Sentosa was next on our list of things to see. To get there, we took a cable car across the water.
cable cars
There is a bridge you can cross, but this way was more fun (unless you are afraid of heights!) and provided quite the view. In fact, you can see islands of Indonesia and Malaysia off in the distance. Sentosa is a very beautiful place.
the musical fountain
the Merlion - national emblem of Singapore
some of the tamed animals on the island
We could have spent an entire week on this island alone and been quite content. There are many things to see, including large statues, musical fountains, and yes, beaches, although it actually took as a while to figure out how to get down to the beaches, as they were at the bottom of a large hill. You can get down there one of two ways… either by taking a cable swing (similar to a ski lift), or by riding down a paved surface on a luge. Obviously the latter is the more fun way to do it, but hang on tight! Once at the bottom, you are free to enjoy the beauty of the beaches up close and personal.
We actually saw couples being married there. They also have a large aquarium there, but we ran out of time to go see it. We barely got to the lift in time to get back up the hill before they shut it down for the evening. We still had a little time left once we got back to the main island, so of course that meant it was time to shop again hehe. We also visited the world’s largest fountain which was a few blocks away from our hotel. It would have been better if the fountain had not already been turned off for the night when we arrived though, but oh well. We can still say we were there!
Changi Airport (Singapore)
PHILIPPINES
The remainder of our vacation was spent in the Philippines visiting family and friends. Our final destination was Iligan City in Mindanao, but we had to stay one night in Manila first. Once we finally made to Iligan, our first priority was to… sleep! After a few hours of napping, we went to check out the bar scene and see what kind of trouble we could get into heh heh. We stopped first at a place called D-Zyr where there was live music and lots of beer.
zim with sister wynn and cousins
Next, it was on to Darren’s. At this point, the beer was getting the better of me (that’s what I get for not having a nice, big meal first!), so I can’t comment much on this, other than that it’s a cool place if you like dancing.
After recovering the next morning, it was time to get at it again the following night. Our first stop this night would be Tatay’s Grill where we would stuff our tummies full of yummy food.
After that, it was off to Darren’s yet again. They had live bands playing on this night, which was cool if you could stand all the smoke that was inside. In the end though, the smoke won out and we left early. Whether due to the smoke or not, the next few days would be spent with plenty of time in bed as both of us came down with a sickness. It was much worse for Zim though, as she had a 3 day long fever which was as high as 102 degrees Fahrenheit at times. Luckily, there was no bird flu involved (hey, if we were close enough to Indonesia to see one of their islands, we couldn’t help but have it in the back of our minds!). In any case, it temporarily put a stop to us going out as much, other than our every other day trips to Jollibee hehehe, and our trip across town to Zim’s Aunt’s place for Fiesta.
namista pod mi ila koykoy
We had lots of good food here, including lechon baboy (that’s roasted pig for you non-Filipinos), and most importantly, the karaoke machine!
Once we started to feel better, we took a trip to land far, far away, also know as the homeland of Zim’s parents. We went to a place called Raw-an first, where many on her father’s side still live, and this is where I met our new best friends… the water buffalos! (also known as carabaos).
brian and the beasts
The common practice here is working out in the vast rice fields. This was quite a humbling experience for me, as they live far from the city and any kind of advanced technology, and the work is quite hard.
expert brian examining the rice produce LOL
We ventured out into the fields ourselves for a bit on the narrow pathways, but had to be careful not to lose our balance and fall into the mud!
Now we know what it feels like to be a tightrope walker in the circus!
The following day we set out on another long journey, this time to the homeland of Zim’s mother’s side. Instead of tiptoeing through rice fields, the activity here was going for a swim in the sea.
The water is quite clear, and with a good pair of goggles, you can see many different types of fish swimming around. The clear water is also good so you can see the sharks coming at you before you get eaten. Hahaha, no, not really. There aren’t any sharks there. After our relaxing swim, it was time to wash the white sand from our feet and head for home.
Our last big activity was a combination of an anniversary and birthday party (Zim’s birthday was October 9, and we celebrated our anniversary that day too). It was a Sunday, and I first went out with Zim’s sister and her boyfriend to find a birthday gift. I ordered a flower arrangement that had to be picked up later, and bought her a little stuffed SpongeBob which we gave her upon returning home. The best part was that she had no idea about the flowers until we had them picked up later that evening. Boy was she surprised! As for the party, we had quite a house full of people, and lots of food, including another lechon baboy (do you non-Filipinos remember what that is? hehehe).
zim’s friends
And of course, there was lots of singing involved. Funny how drinking a couple of beers makes you feel like a top notch singer!
Well, that about sums up our Asian adventure for 2005. It will certainly not be our last, however, time and money permitting of course, since we both possess the desire to travel. I’d also add that we’d highly recommend all of these places to anyone who is interested in traveling, as they are all unique in their own way, and have quite a lot to offer.
Make the most of life while you can, and take advantage of all opportunities!!!
—Brian and Zim—
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