Just go: Bangkok, N-th time round

If you're an average upper/middle-class Hong Konger, I think it is safe to say that you've probably definitely been to Bangkok more than twice in your lifetime. There's something about Bangkok that keeps drawing you back. Perhaps it's because it's so close and so cheap. It's somewhere you just...GO. But on the other hand, you've done all the touristy stuff, the big night markets where they rip tourists off, the floating market aka tourist trap, the grand palace, the museum...what else is there to do?!

Well, who says you need to be a tourist to be on holiday? Indeed, lazing around on your precious annual leave days is a waste of time. But lazing around in a foreign country on your precious AL days is therapeutic. Here's how I spent my 10th-time-round Bangkok holiday.

(OK so it might be a bit different for me as I had family aka my dad living in Bangkok...but still)
Day one:After checking into dad's little boutique hotel, my dad, my gal pal and I jumped on a taxi to Jatujak Market. Before you scream "been there done that cliche tourist blah blah..!", let me remind you that this was a Monday, where the main part of Jatujak is closed, all except for the food market - cooked and fresh produce. We strolled along a massive covered, well-ventilated & well-sanitised complex, meandering through stalls with mountains of mangos and gigantic durians, as well as big pots of curries and grilled meat on sticks. We put our stuff down on a table at a foodcourt x "dai pai dong" type area, and went around ordering sticky rice, noodles, nutty dumplings and colourful fruit juices. We sat down and food shortly poured onto our table, whilst only very little money trickled out of our pockets. We could've carried on eating here for hours and hours, but the heat and the lack of sleep stifled our appetites.

The rest of the afternoon was your typical girly 'vacay' - shopping, bargaining, manicures, eating, tasting, getting lost...(all in the area of Siam Square/MBK/National Stadium etc) before heading back to Sukhumvit Road and gorging on hummus, chicken shawarma and moussaka at the Beirut Restaurant in Sukhumvit Plaza, opposite Sukhumvit Soi 1 (even the local Arabs go there - gotta be good). On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a random Thai massage place for some cheap foot massage.

Back at the hotel we polished off a good kilo of delicious mangosteens that we got from Jatujak earlier. DELISHAS.

Day two:

Slept in, had a healthy English breakfast (it's not an oxymoron when there's lots of fruit and vegetarian bacon), sat by the pool, swam, sunbathed, read books & emails... We then headed out down the street for some street-side fried rice & ice-milo, more fruit from the cart-pushing vendors, before jumping on a taxi to Bangkok International Dental Clinic (BIDC) to get our teeth cleaned. Half an hour later, with squeeky clean teeth and only 1000baht poorer (my dentist in HK can forget about seeing me ever again), we went for a bit more shopping and pedicures.

Day three:
Even though our flight was booked for tomorrow, my friend decided to leave BKK today because her family was worried about the floods in Thailand. After another chill morning by the pool, we headed back out to the streets, sat next to some friendly English-speaking locals who helped us order our last minute street-pad-thai and ice milk tea.

The rest of my holiday was spent mostly with "family" - helping them with camera shopping, having pizza with the kiddies, watching a movie that was out 4 weeks before coming out in HK cinemas, more big breakfasts and reading by the pool and massages. It was good mix of family- & relax-to-the-max time.

Bangkok is just...easy. And being a cosmopolitan Asian city, it's yummy, it's convenient, it's a little less rules-bound, but it's bound to be full of quirky cultural happenings around the city.

The new to come

Rather than thinking "did I make the right decision", I'm going to pray that

God will use me there
God will bless that place through me
God will challenge me with new things
God will challenge others through me
God will transform me by renewing my mind through the Holy Spirit
I will look to Him for fulfillment and satisfaction
I will trust Him to shape me and mould me into who I'm supposed to be


Amen

Tea ladies & Goliath

Giants are populating this tiny island, and we're pushing our own tiny tea ladies aside to make room for more giants.

After 25 years of teas and canapes, dimsum and scones, swinging salon doors and old Chinese waiters, the iconic China Tee Club is closing down to make room for a 4-storey Abercrombie & Fitch store in the old Pedder Building. It pains me to think about how A&F will strip out the charming tiled floors, slowly rotating ceiling fans, rustic brass taps and the rest of its colonial 19th-century Hong Kong ambiance. They're also kicking out another Hong Kong icon Shanghai Tang as well as On Pedder to make room for its fat (American) arse. One can just hope that rather than gutting out the place they'd work sympathetically around the old woodwork and classic interiors.

But, A&F are not the ones to blame. It is the real fuel behind giants like these, LV Gucci Coach etc (just throw in any brand name) - China money. It's a love-hate relationship, this one, between us here in former British-colonised Hong Kong, and those in the big country up north aka Mainland China. The number of cash-rich millionaires that flock to Hong Kong with their stacks of notes and eagerness to blindly sweep up branded goods like Chinese people at a buffet will only go up and up and up. Businesses in Hong Kong love their money. We NEED their money. But this rocket fuel for big international chains and oligopolies are wiping out what little remains of a colourful and interesting sino-colonial history that made this territory stand out from so many other big cities.

But then again perhaps mine is the last generation that will reminisce over something so 'old school'. When the we-don't-use-textbooks-anymore-we-use-ipads-generation takes over they won't even know what they're missing.

I will be still

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today...The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Exodus 14:13-14


All my fears that hold me back
Every worry on my mind
When I’m trapped and breaking down
Free me Lord

Every doubt that fills my life
I’m a prisoner of my own mind<
When I feel I can’t go on
Free me Lord

Let's not go into politics

But let's talk about human decency. Or the lack thereof.

One year on, still no apology, still no compensation, still no closure for the victims and families of the victims of the 8.23 manila hostage crisis.

"It is too much really to issue an apology," says Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

On top of that, apparently the government is not even "minded to do" that at this point.

"Too much"?! How is an apology "too much"?!! Yes, the actual murdering of those 8 innocent hostages was the act of one man, I agree. But what about the events surrounding the incident, what about the complete lack of professionalism on the part of the Philippines police? What about the fact that the chief of police went for lunch during the hostage crisis? What about the fact that they managed to let the media broadcast the whole thing live, when they knew that the gunman had a TV on the bus and that he knew exactly where the police were? And what about the half-hearted so called "inquiry" at the end of all this?

If they were half-decent there would've been a formal apology long before the 1 year anniversary of this tragedy. Long before all the families of the victims had to make, for them, what must be such a difficult journey back to Manila to demand compensation and justice to be served.

Com'on, Aquino. It really isn't too much at all to apologise. Nor is it too late. Salvage some decency while you still can.

Danger zone

1 month after I visit New York - 911.

7 months after I leave Japan - Tohoku Earthquake.

2 weeks after a wedding in Oslo - the shootings.

4 weeks after my London trip - violent riots.

1 week after being away from Hong Kong - stock markets plunge.

RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIVVVVVESSSSSSSSSSSSS

Cynical, in China

I'm not going to lie. I did for a split-second think that I might actually die, as the Shenzhen Airlines aircraft rattled through the thick cloud and fog as it made its descent to Yichang, Hubei.

There would, however, be more than the one cause of death-by-crash-landing.

I thought I would die of boredom.

Or that I would die of overworking.

Or that someone would eventually kill me for my lack of tolerance to certain cultural practices and behaviours in this country.

OK, perhaps to say that I'd die is a bit of an over-exaggeration.

But rational thought was running on the low side after
- being told I was going to China for a "2 to 3 week" business trip with less than 24 hours;
- frantically packing til 12am last night;
- getting up at 4:30am this morning;
- being driven over the border and straight to Shenzhen Airport,
- waiting behind a massive queue to check in while loud Chinese people push and shove and yell their way across the terminal;
- waiting behind yet another queue for security check
- waiting at more queues - queue to get to your gate, queue to get on the bus, queue to get off the bus, queue to get on the plane...
- waiting in the plane on the tarmac, delay unknown but typical

I was also served two boxes as a "snack" on the plane. The first box contained a strawberry-milk-flavoured drink, a small packet of pineapple short-cake, a wet tissue and a fork. I opened the second box, and found a slab of congealed thin-flat noodles which looked and tasted like plastic (it probably was...), with mince-meat-like bits and mixed-veg-bits swimming in (or rather, stuck in) this gooey dark brown "sauce" that seemed to ooze radioactivity and rat-diarrhea.

Call me cynical, but....well there really is no but. I am quite a cynical person, and being in China just brings out the worst (or best?) of that.