Slowboat to Luang Prabang

Dinner with my family on the banks of the Mekong

I'm making another round of Laos with my family. When I was here by myself four months ago I didn't get around to riding the slowboat to Luang Prabang. This is supposed to be an unforgettable experience in Laos so we decided to do it.

Slowboats at the pier

It turned out to be such a disappointment. I imagined the slowboat to be full of local people with their stuff, the boat itself was supposed to have uncomfortable wooden benches and I somehow imagined that it would go slow.

Fancy seats inside the slowboat

It was nothing like it. There were about a dozen local people on the boat while the rest were all tourists. The seats looked like they came from an old bus and they were spaced so closely that the experience was like sitting in economy class in an airplane. The boat had a huge and loud motor that propelled it along the Mekong at a decent speed. There was a bar where we could buy drinks.

Children approach during one of the slowboat's stops

And thus we spent the better part of two days, crammed in those seats with very little legroom. Although the ride was tedious, we enjoyed the scenery along the way and had a nice time spending the night in a village where the boat stopped for the night.

View of the Mekong from the slowboat

I guess doing the slowboat is an experience not to be missed, not because it is so fantastic but simply because if I hadn't done it I would never have known that I didn't really have to do it at all.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year decoration

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the snake begins today.

It's impossible not to be aware of Chinese New Year while traveling in Asia. It's very much like our Christmas and New Year holiday season with the decorations, holiday music and shopping. In Thailand, they play popular Christmas songs so it feels like Christmas all over again. In one of the markets there was a huge decorated Christmas tree that was probably left there since Christmas and looks like it's recycled for Chinese New Year.

Mandarin oranges as tree decorations

The traditions for Chinese New Year are similar to Christmas traditions. Families come together to share festive meals and exchange gifts. Judging by what I've seen in all the shopping malls in various cities I've visited recently my guess is that the most popular gifts are sweets and among them Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Globalization goes all ways: Asian made clothing and shoes and electronics are available in Europe while European chocolates seem popular in Asia.

We were in Laos on the actual day of the Chinese New Year where the festive season wasn't so obvious. But I spotted some decorations and we definitely heard firecrackers and saw fireworks during the celebrations.

All roads lead to Bangkok

Welcome drink in Bangkok

After four months of traveling, I'm back where I started: in Bangkok. This is where all roads lead in southeast Asia. Bangkok is the travel hub where people come to get visas, make travel arrangements, take flights or trains or buses to their next destinations, and meet their families who come to visit! Yes, my family is here! I'm so happy to see them after four months! They came here on a vacation from the snow back home and we will be traveling together for a while.

Looking at Bangkok four months later, after I have been hardening off in Asia for four months, it's not as daunting as it was the previous time around. I've learned to choose street food and all the animal parts such as intestines or chicken heads that are displayed on many food stalls don't bother me as much any more.

Compared to Phnom Penh, Bangkok's traffic is tame and so easy to navigate. And compared to Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong, Bangkok quite measures up to the futuristic look and feel with skyscrapers, public transportation in the form of the skytrain and upscale shopping malls, escalators, walkways and pedestrian overpasses. Still, it has all the street stalls and exotic flavors of Asia. Out of all the Asian cities I've visited so far, Bangkok is the one that has it all.

Big Buddha from above

Big Buddha

Hong Kong not only boasts a few of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, they also have a giant Buddha statue, the Tian Tan Buddha, and are building an addition to the nearby Po Lin Monastery that will house the Grand Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas scheduled to be completed this year.

Statues around Big Buddha

View of Big Buddha from the slopes of Lantau Peak

My motivation for visiting the Big Buddha was primarily to do another hike, this time to the Lantau Peak. Just like the Dragon's Back trail on Hong Kong island, the path on the ridge near the summit of Lantau Peak opens up to magnificent views over Lantau island as well as a good look at Big Buddha from afar.

View from the ridge just below Lantau Peak

The trouble with Chinese food

Chinese food stall

I used to think I had a good understanding of Chinese food. In fact, I even used to think I like Chinese food. What a mistake! After traveling through Bangkok's Chinatown, the Chinese influenced Malaysian Borneo and Hong Kong, the verdict is in: I hate Chinese food!

As I sort of knew, Chinese food is not really what they serve in Chinese restaurants in Europe where one might be led to believe that it's all about spring rolls and stir-fried vegetables with nice pieces of meat, fish or tofu, served with rice and jasmine tea. That's very far from real Chinese food. Real Chinese food consists of the most awful pieces of meat you can imagine, such as intestines, stomachs, whole pieces of chicken or beef or pork that include everything from skin, bones, fat, sinew and maybe a little meat as well. I know I'm a very picky eater and I'm not much a fan of meat but what the Chinese use in their food is way over the top for me.

Dim sum

I can survive a piece of chicken with skin and bones: I pick out any edible meat and I'm fine, as long as the chicken is well cooked. But I really can't stomach pieces of pork that look like a whole pig was just chopped up and stuffed into dim sums. No, I can't. I willed myself not to throw up while eating the dim sums with the awful pieces of pork.

Adding to my recent aversion to Chinese food was the misfortune of having stomach problems after eating at a Chinese place in Malaysia. During my four months of traveling in Asia, this was the only time I became sick due to food. Who knows, maybe Chinese restaurants really are as dirty as they say or the cooking utensils haven't been cleaned or whatever that made the food bad.

Vegetarian meal

I was so thankful when I visited a Buddhist monastery in Hong Kong that offered vegetarian food. I could finally eat what I do like about Chinese food: stir fried vegetables and egg rolls over rice. The restaurant even carried the sign "no meat allowed". It's funny that they have to put a sign like that, did they expect people to bring in their own meat? I guess you never know with the Chinese. Since I witnessed them smuggling their own liquor into a halal restaurant it shouldn't be surprising that they might bring their own meat to a vegetarian restaurant.

One thing is for sure: unless it's vegetarian, I'll avoid Chinese food in the future.

Characterizing Hong Kong

Golden Bauhinia Square

Hong Kong was British until mid-1997 when it was handed over to the People's Republic of China. After 15 years there are still many signs of British colonialism, evident in old buildings that are interspersed among the skyscrapers, churches and cemeteries, street names and neighborhoods. The city doesn't emit a typical Asian vibe, at least in the sense of how I have learned to associate Asian cities with crazy traffic, street food and general chaos. Hong Kong is much more international, reminiscent of European or American cities in terms of cleanliness, orderliness and the availability of any world brands of whatever one might desire to eat, buy, or experience.

Flag raising ceremony

Each morning there is a flag raising ceremony at the Golden Bauhinia Square. The statue representing the bauhinia, Hong Kong's official flower, was gifted to Hong Kong by the Central Government at the time of handover from the British. The flags of Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China are raised side by side each morning. On the first day of the month they do a more elaborate ceremony, so a bagpipe band performed after the flags were raised. The band members were dressed in Scottish uniforms but I'm guessing there was no way the Chinese band members could be talked into wearing kilts.

Bagpipe performance

Ten years after Hong Kong was handed over to the People's Republic of China, another gift from the Central Government ensued. This time it was a pair of pandas that are housed at Hong Kong's Ocean park.

Panda at Ocean park

Hong Kong's many public parks are alive with recreation seeking locals which is another typical characteristic of the city. So many people, even very old ones, walk, stretch, run, play tennis, or practice tai chi.

Women practicing tai chi in a public park

Regardless of whether Hong Kong is more British or more Chinese, if it had to be described by only one word, it would be shopping. The entire city is almost like one endless shopping mall and local people seem to be shopping all the time. Even businessmen on their lunch breaks carry Armani shopping bags. Do they go out for lunch and then on their way back hop into one of the malls to pick up a new suit? I wonder how often they do that, as in how many Armani suits does a businessman in Hong Kong need anyway?

On the Dragon's Back

The highest point of the Dragon's Back trail

The one thing I really wanted to do in Hong Kong was to hike the Dragon's Back trail. I know. Who comes to a city like Hong Kong to go hiking? If I wanted hiking, I could have just stayed home in the Alps. However, considering that almost 70% of the total area of Hong Kong is green countryside, it's less surprising to discover that there are many hiking trails up and around the hills.

View from the trail: Kowloon in the distance

My guidebook says that it takes five hours to hike the entire Dragon's Back trail. I started early to be sure to have enough time to finish before dark. At the start of the trail there are warning signs that the trail is very strenuous and should be attempted only by very fit individuals. When I completed the trail – which didn't seem very strenuous to me – in just over two hours, I thought I might have missed the correct path or taken a shortcut by mistake. But when I reviewed all the landmarks and compared my photos with those in the guidebook, I'm sure I did the trail in full. I wonder who estimated the time at five hours, probably someone who took many long breaks.

View from the trail: Stanley

The trail goes along a ridge that opens up to breathtaking views. The weather was perfect: it was partly cloudy, the visibility was good and it wasn't too hot. It's probably much more difficult to hike in the summer when the sun beats down.

Tai Long Wan beach

The end of the trail is on a beach which is probably very crowded in the summer, but was quite deserted now, only a couple of surfers tried their luck in the waves.