The saga with the airline continued this morning. We booked a one-way flight from HK to Shanghai online directly with China Eastern. But they had no way of specifying that Gabriel was travelling with us. We called from Canada without any luck (they either hang up or don't answer) and finally got through to someone here in HK. They acknowledged that their website couldn't be used to book infant passengers, and told us we had to come in person to their office to be able to add Gabriel as a passenger. Aargh. We made the trek to Admiralty MTR station, taking Exit C2 to Queensway Plaza, walked around to the United Centre, went up stairs to the elevator deck, then to the 31st floor. The ticket for Gabe cost $240HKD. But at least we were finally able to get this out of the way.
We headed over to Pacific Place to go get some custom shirts made. Our Lonely Planet guidebook recommended Pacific Custom Tailors so we paid them a visit. Celebrity photos in the store included several members of Air Supply, Jane Seymour, President Clinton, and "Pierce Brosanann". The fabrics were very good quality, the patterns decent, but not a huge selection in terms of colours. I ended up getting six shirts made for $2600HKD. I'm sure I could do better elsewhere, but I was here and the staff were great. One fitting to come back for in a few days, and then they'll be ready a few days later. The food hall in the basement, grEAT, was incredible: high-end chocolates, made-to-order lunch items, Serrano ham, Thai food... absolutely amazing. This is not your average North American food court.
Lunch was at the Paramount Banquet Hall near Causeway Bay. The food was alright, and the interior was over-the-top with chandeliers and purple accent lighting and beads, but the most, MOST awesome thing about this restaurant was the blinged out wedding golf cart they had right at the front entrance. With angel wings! I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even take a picture of it. This restaurant was the first dim sum place I've ever been to that had a large, assorted dim sum steamer: one big bamboo basket with five or six different items.
Heading back to Admiralty, we made our way to Hong Kong Park and strolled around the grounds. The aviary and ponds were quite nice, but the humid weather wasn't.
We finished up our day by going to my Mom's third cousin's place in Jardine's Lookout. It was a late night, and Gabe hasn't adjusted to the time change yet. We were all exhausted by the time we took the bus, MTR, etc. back to our hotel.
We started the day off by meeting my uncle in the lobby. He got us China Mobile SIM cards that have dual numbers: one while you're in Hong Kong and one while you're in Mainland China. It worked fine in my unlocked Nexus One. Breakfast was at a dim sum place just next to our hotel. It wasn't particularly memorable, but a great start to our first full day in Hong Kong.
Flick and I walked around a local park for a bit before deciding to go to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. There was a lot of pottery, calligraphy and paintings. In the evening, I got some takeout from the nearby Sino-Vegetarian Restaurant: fried rice with pork and basil, corn and seafood soup, and a fried bean curd skin sticks. Total cost: $142HKD. I appreciated how the dipping sauce containers actually had a hinge and closed completely.
Today's forecast: Cloudy with occasional rain. The maximum temperature will be about 27 degrees. Moderate to fresh easterly winds, strong offshore and on high ground at first.
We had a pretty decent sleep last night, going to bed around 20:00, waking once at 22:00 when Gabe woke, and again at 04:00 this morning. We were ready to head out around 06:30 before my parents got up. Flick and I decided to walk down Nathan Road from our hotel which is just north of Jordan Station. Our stroll took us past St. Andrew's Church outside of which we saw many banyan trees.
We made it all the way to the Avenue of Stars where we took in the infamous skyline shrouded in fog. On our way back, we took the underground tunnels to Tsim Sha Tsui station and subwayed it back. It's not even 10:00 and we feel we've done so much already!
We landed safe and sound in Hong Kong. Gabe was a trouper on the flight. Bringing the breast feeding pillow was the best idea because it gave Gabe a place to sit and play and sleep.... He was happy or sleeping for the vast majority of the trip. The person sitting next to us commented on what a great baby he was! (Incidentally, we made her life a little bit miserable anyway because she refused to trade the window for the aisle and so we were just up and down lots of the flight).
Best of all, because Gabe did so little sleeping on the way, we went to bed at 5:30 PM local time and woke up around 5 AM this morning. Gabe was in such a good mood he decided to grace us with his weekly poop. We are all now well rested, bathed, and ready to begin our eastern adventures.
Flick and I have talked about going on a longer trip with Gabe for a while now. We figure he's still pretty portable (i.e. still being breast-fed) and having my parents accompany us will give us an extra set of hands to help take care of him. Flick has never been to Asia, my Dad hasn't been back in a while, and none of us have ever been to Shanghai.
Over the last few weeks, we've been researching and planning and booking. Some sites that have been helpful:
Agoda - Discount hotel booking, focused on Asia. Part of Priceline. Has some traveller reviews too, but not as many as TripAdvisor.
Expedia.ca - Allows you to build your own discounted travel package, e.g. flight + hotel
TripAdvisor - Huge list of traveller reviews from around the world. Good for verifying recommendations.
We've now got almost all the hotels and flights booked, so the countdown begins. While we're gone, we won't be updating our baby blog nor my baking one. Hopefully, we'll be able to get around the Golden Shield (aka Great Firewall of China) and post here or on my Flickr stream, either via a mail-to-blog service or tunnelling through a VPN.
Meanwhile, here are some links to pictures and stories from China:
On Sunday morning, we headed back to the Lower East Side for brunch at Little Giant. Although they don't normally do large groups (we were almost 20), the owner agreed to accommodate us. I quite enjoyed the selection of baked goods, especially the melt-in-your-mouth buttermilk biscuit (emphasis on the butter).
After our meal, we went on a walking tour of the Lower East Side, guided by a friend of Dr. S' family. As we listened to our guide describe the history of the area, we stopped outside the Tenement Museum and almost missed noticing that we were right outside a gelato shop. Not just a gelato shop, a gelato lab. Unfortunately, I was so stuffed from the morning that I couldn't even indulge in a sample. Another item for the next trip.
We made our way towards Seward Park, stopping in at Kossar's Bialys for a warm, oniony bread snack. Our guide described the history of The Forward, a Jewish-American newspaper as we stood outside the Forward Building, the former office of the publication. Walking in this part of the Lower East Side, you can't help but notice all of the Chinese stores and signs everywhere. It reminded me of an essay I read a while ago about New York Jews and Chinese food.
Our next stop was the Museum at Eldridge Street, a restored synagogue. We attended a special concert called The Mystical Trumpeter in the synagogue to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Four performers played from different parts of the sanctuary, sometimes together, often solo. The avant-garde and improvised pieces were largely atonal, often just breathy sounds and squeaks. We left after the first half and had drinks at Les Enfants Terribles, where most of the wait staff spoke French, and the menu had many interesting African-inspired selections.
We had a whirlwind of a weekend, packed with activities and it all went by so quickly. What impressed me most about New York City was the density of the buildings and stores, and the vibrancy of the people on the streets. I didn't plan to do or see anything in particular on this trip, but I would love to explore more of the neighbourhoods and eat more of the food next time I am here.
Dr. S and I went to New York City for a weekend trip to celebrate her father's birthday. Our afternoon flight on Air Canada landed late at LaGuardia, and we immediately hopped in a cab to go to Carmine's in the Theater District. This boisterous and crowded restaurant was in full swing by the time we got there at 20:00. Everything was served family-style, with massive platters of salad, eggplant parmesan and veal scallopine weighing down our table. Our dessert selection ended up being a gigantic banana split/cake/ice cream concoction shaped like a ship, fittingly named Titanic. Pretty tasty, great for a large group.
In the morning, we left our hotel and headed for the Union Square Greenmarket. With a bright sky overhead, we perused the stalls, many selling many local and organic items. I was impressed by the range, say, of lettuces or herbs or tomatoes. It's amazing that this market runs four days a week, 10 hours per day. We noshed on olive bread, cheeses and giant peaches... an unconventional but tasty breakfast!
Our next stop was at the Essex Street Market, an enclosed market building in the Lower East Side. We were told of a shop that sold chocolate-covered bacon by a New York friend at dinner and had to check it out. Roni-Sue's Chocolates is a tiny shop with barely enough room for a dozen people to stand inside. The display featured about 20 kinds of chocolates. Interestingly, I recognized a few pieces from the recipes in Peter Greweling's Chocolates and Confections. We learned that the bacon is purchased in the market, then deep-fried by another restaurant, then dipped in chocolate on the premises. And now, dear reader, is when you find out that your inexperienced traveller made a crucial error. He did not sample any of the bacon-chocolate, nor purchase any. I had thought we would be back the next day and didn't want it to melt on our walk. Oh well.
Later in the day, I decided to walk down Fifth Avenue towards Central Park. It's a fancy street, full of high-end fashion retailers and lots of tourists. Near the golden statue of Sherman at the edge of the park, I met up with Dr. S and spent some time watching a breakdancing show before heading into the park.
As one of the most famous landmarks in New York City, I only knew of it by name and didn't realize it was so big: 4.1 km from south to north, spanning 50 blocks. It has a pond, a zoo, horse-drawn carriage rides and spacious avenues. We only spent about 20 minutes walking around, but it's a charming green space in the middle of Manhattan.
For dinner, we went to Vong, a French-Thai restaurant. I didn't get any photos of the food (partly out of embarassment, partly due to poor lighting) but let me say that it was superb. Lobster-daikon rolls full of plump sweet flesh with zing from slivers of finger. Duck breast in a tangy tamarind sauce. Vegetarian pad thai. A piece of salmon perfectly cooked. And for dessert, warm Valrhona chocolate cake with coconut sorbet. Fantastic.
Our evening entertainment was a show at the Music Box Theatre called August: Osage County. The set was incredible, a three-story miniature house that let you see the characters go up and down and in and out. The story was dark but with lots of humour, an Oklahoman family drawn together after a death. I recognized Madeline Martin in the cast from her role in Showtime's Californication. IMDB tells me she is just 15, incredible! Dr. S and I walked home with the fading neon lights of Broadway behind us.
On our last morning, I woke up early to watch the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. From our vantage point on the balcony, we have a good view of the human activity that happens at daybreak: fishermen, garbage pickers, kitesurfers, joggers.
S and I spent the morning at the beach, climbing around the rocks that were exposed during low tide. As it was Easter Sunday, there were plenty of families and children out. For lunch at the Blue Mango, I tried a Durban specialty, bunny chow, a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with curry. The crust soaks up all the curry, yum.
We finished packing, said goodbye to C who doesn't leave for another week, and headed to the airport. S and I are on different flights to Jo'burg but the rest of the trips are the same. At the OR Tambo Airport, I found a postal outlet in the food court in the domestic terminal to buy an international stamp to send a postcard.
So, that's my trip, an incredible two weeks spent seeing a lot of different parts of South Africa. I was glad to be able to spend time with S, as she had been away since the start of February. The country is definitely in transition and it takes some time to wrap your mind around how things are done (or not done). I won't soon forget the crazy highways, the beauty of the mountains, the contrast between rich and poor, the charming local accent...
Complete set of South Africa pictures in my Flickr set.
P.S. When I got home, I noticed that Aeroplan had not credited my account with the DUR-JNB and JNB-FRA flights. Tip: hang on to your boarding passes, because the airlines are too lazy to look in their computers to confirm you actually went on their flights.
Another early start to our day, 08:15, as we piled into our safari vehicle. Chantal, one of the employees at the guest house, was to be our driver and guide as we went into the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve. As we passed the entrance gate (complete with electrified wires on the ground), we slowed down to a leisurely pace as Chantal kept one eye on the road and another on any wildlife lurking in the forest. Sightings were few and far in between; it had rained in the park yesterday, so most of the animals didn't need to come out to watering holes or the dry riverbeds. We passed many vehicles on the roads (they must have been up for 06:00!), and the drivers exchanged details of sightings and conditions.
We broke for lunch at a picnic site, a little disappointed that we had seen so little, but you never know what you'll see on safari. Our guide told us stories of elephants charging and snake bites and lion attacks that left us in awe.
The puttering of the engine, the monotony of staring at the landscape and gentle rocking over the potholes left a lot of people in the 4x4 sleepy. I was wide awake, keeping my eyes peeled for animals, but I was never able to spot any wildlife before our guide did.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we saw giraffes grazing on a hill. Then, we spotted a herd of giraffes. As we were all ooh-ing and aah-ing and snapping photos, all of them suddenly turned their heads to the right. We followed their gaze and saw a huge group of antelope accompanied by a wildebeest. There was some sort of commotion and the entire group began to move across the road, and up the hill:
Suddenly, we saw the reason they were skittish: a leopard walked right across the road in front of us! It jumped into the grasses and was gone in a minute. Chantal said that sightings of big cats often happen like this, unpredictable and fleeting. So, after spending an entire day riding in the safari vehicle, the most exciting part of the drive came right at the end.
S and I left for Durban soon after we got back to the guest house. We weren't able to get a table at our favourite Italian restaurant due to it being Easter weekend, so we settled for takeout and had our last meal on our balcony in Umdloti.
Complete set of South Africa pictures in my Flickr set.
Early in the morning, we drove south along the N2 to the Bushlands exit to DumaZulu for the 08:15 village tour and show. As we got out of our car, a man dressed in traditional costume came up to us and excitedly gestured and spoke to us in isiZulu. We exchanged greetings and watched as he drew a diagram in the dirt explaining the layout of the village we were about to see. He also taught us a few words to remember: yebo, unjani, siyaphila. As we approached the entrance of the village, which was surrounded with a high fence made of branches, two crossed branches signified that we had seek permission to enter. Our guide helped us call out a friendly greeting and we entered into the centre.
Each of the different displays was described in great detail by our guide. It was uncomfortable for the villagers to be sitting there, going through the motions, and uncomfortable for us to watch, knowing there were just performing. We learned a few interesting things: Zulu women go topless if they are not married, are partially clothed if they are engaged, and are fully clothed if they are married; two kinds of spears are named onomatopoeically for the sound they make when they fly through the air, and when they pierce a body; the central post in the huts is slapped by the men when they want the women to come over to their side. Perhaps the most interesting fact we learned is that this living museum is not owned by the villagers themselves; rather, it is managed by an anthropologist who pays them a token amount for their performances. Had we known this, we might have thought twice about attending.
Here are two videos taken at DumaZulu:
Around 10, we drove down the road to the Emdoneni Cat Rehabilitation Centre. Our host at the guest house called this a cheetah show which evoked visions of cats performing tricks, but it turned out to be a rescue for animals that have been orphaned, often by humans who thought they would make good pets. With a little hesitation, we followed our guide directly into the fenced pens of each of the cats, as she assured us it would be safe.
The servals turned out to be relatively harmless, hanging out in the tree or hiding in the grass. They didn't really pay much attention to us. However, the caracal (also known as a lynx) was very playful, chomping on a blade of grass that another visitor held, and cuddling with S. We weren't allowed to go inside the African wildcat's pen though; our guide said that's the only cat that's ever given her stitches.
There were two cheetahs at Emdoneni, a male and a female. They were in separate pens; otherwise, if they were allowed to play together, they would think they were siblings and refuse to mate! We cautiously approached the cheetahs, mindful that we were inside a pen. With cheetahs. During the afternoon tour when the cheetahs are fed, the guide holds the cheetah's head in a bucket that has blood in it. It is apparently safe to pet the cheetah at this point.
We made our way back to the other side of Hluhluwe to go to Ilala Weavers for some lunch. Tip: skip the milkshakes and try the fruit smoothies instead. The craft store had a wide range of items for sale, from beads to baskets to pottery to clothes.
We had to get moving to make our appointment at the Mkuze Game Reserve where we were booked for a wilderness hike. Unfortunately, we totally underestimated both the distance and the roads. After taking the Mkuze exit off the N2, we turned onto dirt roads full of holes that led us through many hills and small villages. There were few signs and we flagged down one of the few trucks we saw to give us directions. We entered through the west gate and find ourselves at one of the camps where we found out that Hluhluwe Guest House had booked us for the 06:00 hike! Since we missed both our scheduled 14:00 and another 15:00 hike, we pleaded with the staff to make arrangements for a guide.
He arrived, a deep-voiced, soft-spoken man who toted a rifle to scare off any potential animal attacks. We drove a short distance, parked, and then set out on foot into the field. The ground was covered in small rocks and very thorny bushes. Aside from the wind rustling the trees and our own footsteps, it was quiet. Every so often, our guide would point out old piles of rhino dung, or the footprints of an another animal. He spotted a group of giraffes in the distance and we slowly made our way towards them, but of course, the giraffes saw us first and lumbered away each time we got close. The realization that our actions caused them to react made quite an impression on me.
Over the hour and a half that we hiked, we came across some rhinos, saw a few zebras and antelope, a wildebeest skull and even a dung beetle. This was perhaps the best part of our trip so far. Sharing the same ground that these animals walked on made us feel like we were really immersed in the environment.
We decided to avoid the dirt roads leading back to the highway and exited the reserve via the east gate. This route took us to a dirt and gravel road but it became paved soon after. Unfortunately, a rainstorm began and S bravely drove us home in darkness as we passed cars with their highbeams on and villagers walking on the side of the road.
Complete set of South Africa pictures in my Flickr set.
Lunch was at the Paramount Banquet Hall near Causeway Bay. The food was alright, and the interior was over-the-top with chandeliers and purple accent lighting and beads, but the most, MOST awesome thing about this restaurant was the blinged out wedding golf cart they had right at the front entrance. With angel wings! I was so flabbergasted that I didn't even take a picture of it. This restaurant was the first dim sum place I've ever been to that had a large, assorted dim sum steamer: one big bamboo basket with five or six different items.
Heading back to Admiralty, we made our way to Hong Kong Park and strolled around the grounds. The aviary and ponds were quite nice, but the humid weather wasn't.
