Andrea Travels: My Amazing Race

Yes, it's me again....

Didn't I warn you there was loads of news?

So, to continue....

Monday 10th:

Of course, this was our last morning in HK, and we were quickly running out of time to see all we wanted to see. Yes, we knew that 2 1/2 days in HK was not going to be enough time to see everything, but at least we could get a tongue-tip taste. Now we both definitely want to return to both HK and Macau sometime to do it full justice!

So, we decided to split up for the morning so we could each do what we individually wanted to. Gyo Lim went to the history museum etc while I went to OCEAN PARK! Now we all saw what the Chinese accomplished with the Beijing Olympics (opening/closing ceremonies, etc). I now have an appreciation for the way the Chinese do some things. When they put on a show, they really go all out. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Ocean Park is an amusement/zoo park. It's built on a hill/mountain, over 2 levels. The lower level houses the giant pandas, giant goldfish, exotic birds, red pandas, giant Chinese salamanders, Chinese alligators, otters and children's amusement park rides. To get to the upper level, one has to take a long cable car ride (about 15-20min) to the top of the mountain. The scenery along the way is stunning, of course, as one climbs higher and higher with an awesome aerial view of the bay and boats down below. At the top are the sharks, rays, dolphins, seals, reef animals (including various varieties of sea horses, Richard!) etc. How on earth they managed to get all these huge marine animals to the top of a mountain, I guess only the Chinese can answer. What a feat! And the further extension and constant construction continues.

I've seen dolphin shows in SA, but, yet again, the Chinese trump everything I've seen. They put on a fabulous show, telling a story with narration in Cantonese/Mandarin and English, about how it IS possible for man and animal to live together harmoniously. Human divers and dolphins performed exquisitely, dancing together, perfectly timed choreography in the water. They even included a little demonstration of how a dolphin can save a drowning human. (Trained dolphins, of course, but effective nonetheless.) Then a seal show where they get the seals to interact with random members of the audience. Adorable.

Thereafter, I just about had time for a quick browse through the coral reef section. Giant stingrays, prowling sharks, my kind of heaven!

I spent 3 1/2 hrs at Ocean Park but still didn't get to see everything. It's so interesting, that one needs to spend an entire day there. I definitely have to go back to HK, even if it's just to visit Ocean Park!

Then, it was immediately off to the airport again, and on to Bangkok!

So...Bangkok! I loved it! Absolutely loved it! What an amazing vibe! The first thing to strike you as you enter Thailand (and I remember Bradley telling me this...) is that you feel like you have arrived in the country of the Coloured people! Everyone looks like home! What an amazing feeling after living in Korea for almost 5 months now. I felt like I had come home! There were people from all around the world, of course, but mostly Indians and Africans, with a few Germans and English thrown in for good measure. So, Cape Town. The traffic is a BITCH! Hence, subway and skytrain are the way to get around. We had booked into a nice big upmarket hotel in central Bangkok where the traffic was the worst. Gyo Lim had prebooked a dinner/theatre show for our first night in Bangkok. But thanks to horrendous traffic, by the time we had checked into our hotel room, not even showered or changed, and managed to navigate our way via skytrain and subway, to the theatre, we had missed dinner but had arrived just in time for the show. And what a spectacular show it was! SIAM NIRAMIT tells the story of Thai history, (when the country was still called Siam). Stunning costumes and stage effects! Unlike anything I've ever seen accomplished on a stage. The musical, Showboat, at Artscape, only had a section of a boat constructed for the stage show. Siam Nirimvit had an entire boat, and not just one! They even constructed a river on stage, that flowed constantly, one of the actors could actually dive into it and swim. Other actors could row small boats on this river across the forestage. Audience members were invited to float flower garlands on this river. They had 2 live elephants on stage, as well as some goats and chickens! At one stage, the elephants came into the house, among the audience. AWESOME STUFF!

Meet-and-greet with actors...

... and elephants!

And after the show, there was a meet and greet session outside with some actors and elephants. Some patrons were paying the elephant handler to get the elephant to pick them up with its trunk.

Tuesday 11th:

Tuesday morning, we went on a private temple and city tour. Apparently there are 400+ Buddhist temples in the city of Bangkok alone. The Thai people take their religion VERY seriously. We went to about 3-4 temples, I think, I eventually lost track after seeing so many various statues of Buddha. But of course, the most impressive one has to be the reclining Buddha. What you see is real gold, everything that looks gold IS gold.

The Reclining Buddha

Buddha's feet inlaid with mother-of-pearl

Next, was a canal tour via longtail boat. How absolutely exciting! We were taken through many small water canals through residential areas on the outskirts of the city. This is where we could see how traditional Thai people live. Homes (poor and rich) built on the water's edge. Kids learning to swim, using coconuts as floaters, kimodo dragons sunning themselves at the water's edge, mango, banana and coconut trees growing in people's backyards, fruit dangling over the water...... At one point, was a bread shop. The set-up is amazing.... You stop your boat, and using a pulley system, pay the shopkeeper by placing your money in a bucket which he hauls in and returns a bucket to you that is filled with loaves of soft bread. (Actually, we didn't pay, I assume it was the driver or the tour guide who handled that but I never saw money exchange hands, or buckets, that is!). The special thing about this place is that if you feed the bread to the catfish, it's supposed to bring you luck. The sign above the hut says LUCKY FISH! Well, it was the first time in my life that I got baptised by fish! As we threw bits of bread in the water, hundreds of giant catfish appeared. We were instructed to hold a chunk of bread in the water for the fish (the boat was so low that we could easily put our hands in the water). Of course, the greedy fish swarmed for our fingers, amidst much thrashing of tails. So, that is how I got baptised by lucky fish...churning water in the face, a number of times. They were right up against the boat, so it was easy for me to stroke them...no scales, big toothless mouths, smooth sleek skin. Amazing experience! Amazing Thailand!

Sight-seeing via long-tail boat

Water baptism by catfish!

Next, was a stop at a jewellery factory, where I bought a nice-sized Thai ruby set in white-gold ring. (Apparently, Thailand's famous for rubies and sapphires, but they import the gold from SA! So, they were very happy to meet a South African! And, of course, I had to buy an original Thai ruby as a nice souvenir for myself.)

Later that evening, we went on a dinner cruise down the Chao Praya River. Stunning, stunning, stunning! Buildings and bridges and temples were all lit up. We met 2 middle-aged Chinese-Malaysian guys, 3 nice guys from Myanmar who live and work in Singapore (one of them is MD of an architectural company, ooh la la...); also met a friendly guy from Iran. What an enjoyable evening...buffet dinner, good company, lots of male attention, live jazz music, excellent live entertainment, lots of dancing, fantastic international atmosphere, Hebrew music, Iranian music, Western music, those Iranians know how to dance! WOW! It felt great! Lekker party boat!