Chinese New Year KL

Gung Hay Fat Choy from Kuala Lumpur.

It's certainly celebrated here as 43% of the 1.6 million residents of this city are Chinese.

Welcome year of the Rabbit.

cap crazy in Chiang Mai

The big thing at the Walking Street Markets in Chiang Mai this year are knit or crochet caps.

And why not. When the temperature drops way down into the upper 70s, people need to keep warm. So if you have to wear a cap, why not a Strawberry or Panda one? For fear of being laughed off the street? No problem here. You'll find both tourists and locals wearing them.

Now these pointy Hilltribe hats are a different story. You'll never find Thais wearing them, unless they're trying to sell some hapless tourist one.

Allright, so the little animal ones are primarily for those of us who only recently started sprouting teeth.

Fishing around in Hanoi

Happy Birthday (a little late) Ed.
Thought of you when we spotted people fishing on Westlake here in Hanoi.

Not like fishing on a BASS BOAT in the Delta.

Bamboo poles and NO BAIT. Just hooks.

We saw plenty of people with fish, although I'm not sure if I'd knowingly eat fish from this particular lake. It's pretty polluted. Garbage seems to be a bit of a problem here and people seem to have no problem with just throwing things into the water.

We found a fishing supply store in town.

These are the types of fishing reels they use.

Then there are these vegetables, or are they fruit?

And finally, a dental office in town. At least we think it's a dental office.

Hello Halong

We spent the last couple of days cruising around Halong Bay in northern Vietnam.
The weather is finally turning warm here (low 80s) and we had a great time on the boat.
About twenty-five people on board, a couple of other Americans (who we talked with), a very nice woman traveling alone from Portugal (we invited her to have dinner with us), five women from Finland (some of them though I was part of the crew), and then the "French".
One very unsavory frenchman; what kind of person doesn't say good morning back when greeted with "bonjour"? Oh well, their karma, not ours.

As expected, a tiny room onboard, with an even smaller bathroom, but all very well appointed.

A very popular Unesco destination, there are around 25 tour operators offering cruises on the bay.

Merry Christmas Chiang Mai

Merry Christmas from Chiang Mai.

In a country that's 80% Buddhists, you'd think that Christmas would be as popular as Ramadan. However, Chiang Mai is a big tourist destination and most of them are on Christmas break.

Yes, the town is filling-up as evidenced by the increased number of accidents by foreign motorbike drivers. It does seem like the number of motorbikes has doubled since we were here last year, and they do zip along just about everywhere. When the traffic is bad, they'll even be on the sidewalks (not that there are that many sidewalks here).

It's Christmas Eve here and we have nothing special planned. We did see Avatar yesterday, and for the most part enjoyed it. There is no IMAX 3-D theater here, although there was a regular 3-D theater. We chose the standard non-3-D theater for a whopping $2.70 per person) and even though the place was packed, it was worth it.

Remember, Christmas is about giving. So give someone a smile.

Merry Christmas.

Not Slumming It, thanks to Sabrina

Sabrina made all the arrangements and accompanied us throughout our trip to China and Hong Kong. Admittedly, she is not a travel agent, or tour guide, but she put in a tremendous amount of time and work into planning our trip for us.

She arranged to get us special deals, including breakfast at all our hotels, checked out and set up specific transport companies and vehicles for our entire trip, sampled many of the restaurants she planned to take us to, and even helped to fill out many of our custom, health, and immigration forms.

There is no way we could thank her enough for her kindness and generosity.

Sabrina flanked by Dina and Bunny.

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Vienna Hotel - Shenzhen, China

The Vienna Hotel is conveniently located in the downtown area of sprawling Shenzhen.

Billed as a business class hotel, the rooms were good sized and comfortable.

There were some racy pictures on the wall.

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Tai Shan Country Garden Phoenix Hotel - Tai Shan

The lobby of the Country Garden Phoenix Hotel.

Another grand Italian themed hotel.

The rooms were large and very nicely appointed.
Beds were very comfortable. This was probably the most luxurious property we stayed at during our trip.

When you decide to go back to the village, stay at this hotel.

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Zhuhai Dehan Hotel - Zhuhai, China

We stayed in Zhuhai instead of Macau because the rooms were around a third to half of what you would pay for similar rooms in Macau.

Zhuhai is located just across from Macau and thousands make the border crossing daily.

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Regal Riverside Hotel - Shatin, Hong Kong

Sabrina got us a pretty good deal at the Regal Riverside, a stone's throw from her apartment in Hong Kong.

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Butterfly On Prat - Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

After we left the group, we moved into a small boutique hotel in the TST area of Kowloon called The Butterfly on Prat. The location is ideal if you want a place smack in the center of the busy TST area. It's a short walk to the MRT and Nathan Lane.

The rooms are pretty compact but very modern and chic. The staff are all young, professional, and attentive.

City Food -vs- Village Food

One thing we did very well on the trip was eat.
Outstanding meals are often a very memorable part of any trip and we have plenty of eating memories.
Traveling means most of our meals are taken in restaurants but since our trip involved visiting villages, we had some "sorta home cooked" memorable meals there.

Shenzhen: Dim Sum. Just like back home. We snuck in a few pictures, even though they didn't want us taking pictures. When they realized we were celebrating a birthday, they said OK, just a few. So we snapped away. I guess they were afraid we'd steal some of their secrets.

Shenzhen.
Appetizer: roast duck and barbecue pork.

Celery with mushrooms and Ginko nuts.

Free range chicken. A bit tough and scrawny if you're used to Foster Farms but very good anyway.
We had this dish almost every day throughout our trip in China.

Shenzhen:

Crab. If you're used to Dungeness Crabs, you'll be disappointed in China, and probably everywhere else outside of California.

Good though, but forget about finding anything under the crab shell.

Our meal at the Cultural Park in Shenzhen.

Dishes were a bit more "local" but still very good.

Bamboo sticky rice.

Shenzhen:

Roast Duck, or Goose, I couldn't tell after awhile. Just like back home, little meat, mostly skin, and served with pancakes instead of buns.

Steamed Sand Dab.

No fighting for the fish head. There's plenty to go around.
Actually quite meaty and tasty. Just try getting these at R & G Lounge.

Stewed Pork in clay pot.

Sai Fun.

Just about every dish was served with some kind of sauce. Don't know why. Didn't try most of them.

Grass Shrimp.
Another dish that was served at almost every dinner meal we had.

Veggies.

Then there was this dish served with cones. You just filled them up and ate.

It's a savory dish, although that green stuff on top was a bit on the sweet side. Mostly minced celery, bits of meat, and pine nuts.

Long table or round table. For 15 people, I think we all agreed that we preferred round.

And now to the the Village food.

This is the spread at the Lew Village.

We went to the Lew Village after checking into our hotel in Tai Shan. We had a big breakfast that morning in Shenzhen and did not stop for lunch before we arrived in the village shortly before 3 pm (an hour past our scheduled arrival time).

The food was all good. There were a few flies but that didn't keep us all from eating. At least I think we all ate.

The next day was the big celebration and feast at the Chin Village.

Giant Wok in the kitchen.

Roast Goose and Boiled Chicken laid out ready for serving.
There were around a thousand people to feed, most ate in the main room of the new building.

We sat upstairs, and were told that not everyone was even allowed to go upstairs.

The overflow sat around tables set up outside.

The big lunch at the Chin Village turned out to be more than we could eat. Or maybe not. We left for the Moy Village after we had our fill, and we did eat plenty. The food continued to come as we made our way out.

It was all very good and no flies in sight. Some of the food was prepared off-site but many dishes were cooked in the huge kitchen adjoining the new building and arrived piping hot (well, maybe very warm).

Particularly good was the stewed lamb dish.

Our last meal in the Village.
Even though it seemed like we had been eating all day, we returned from a visit to the Moy Village and shared one last meal with our relatives in the village. Pretty much the same dishes as lunch a few hours earlier.

We ate pretty good throughout our trip in China. It's generally hard not to with a group ordering a variety of dishes. I think my most enjoyable meal was the one at the big celebration in the Chin Village.