Monky business

Naga: mythical beast motif along stairway

After a while on the beaches of Koh Tao, and also unfortunately feeling a little under the weather, we decided to separate and do some different things for a while. Lisa went off to the island of Koh Lanta to work with roguish but lovable dogs and cats. While in the throes of recuperation, I booked a place in a Buddhist monastery for a 10 day meditation course. I'd been thinking about such a retreat for a while, even while in the UK and thought it would help me through this period of quite radical change.

 I set out from Koh Tao - ferry then bus to Bangkok- this totaled about 8 hours. This was followed by the sleeper train to Chiang Mai, on the north of Thailand. This should have been a fifteen hour journey but was mysteriously elongated to 18 hours. Maybe a test of patience by the monks? So, arriving late, my most pressing task was to buy some white underwear. This may sound unusual but during the meditation course, for students, every item of clothing must be white. Every item. The rest would be supplied by the monastery but they drew the line (and frankly so would I) at second hand white underwear.

This accomplished I managed to have my first proper meal in a week, my evil bacteria having been defeated, and had a brief conversation with Lisa, which would be my last until the end of the course. Then it was a talkative taxi ride to the monastery.

Thanks to Thai National Railways I was the last to arrive and the other students were already dressed and being coached by the 'Foreign Meditator Monk'. As the taxi pulled up he bustled out and handed me a form to fill in. Being sweaty and with a large rucksack, I was happy to sit down and answer some easy questions. The monk, who's name was Fra Chaibodin I think, then quickly recapped the important items of what was expected: students were not to gossip or ask another student about their meditation, which in practice meant no students talked at all. Practicing mindful behaviour also meant walking slowly, no rushing, with downcast eyes. This last factor reinforced the silence between students. I was then shown what would be my room for the next ten days. Spartan furnishing, with a nonexistent mattress, but with a private toilet and shower. Not too bad.

I returned, enrobed in white, well more like pyjamaed really, in time for all of us to go to the opening ceremony. This is where we ask the abbot for the gift of being mentored. We had to present gifts of white flowers, yellow candles and sticks of incense. Then we spoke after the 'Monk Translator' (an important fellow who is on hand to deputise and translate for the abbot) in Thai, asking for teaching and praising Buddha, the dharma and those on the road to enlightenment. After 30 minutes or so on our knees doing this we were ushered out and returned to Fra Chaibodin's office for 30 minutes meditation practice: 15 minutes walking meditation and 15 minutes sitting. Then to bed!

A monk photographing Alex

Main temple at monastery

The regular day at Wat Ram Poeng monastery begins at 4am, with a sonorous bell that sets all the dogs to howling, so there's no need for an alarm clock. From then the students are expected to do sets of meditation (walking, sitting, walking ...) until breakfast at 6.30am. Another bell sounds and most people (apart from monks who choose to eat in their quarters) gather in the main dining room. As well as students and resident monks, this can also include large groups of Thais who are attending a one-day or more course. One fond memory is the 'contemplation of food'. This was written down on sheets, spelled phonetically, for us foreigners. Everyone joined in before touching any food. And this was often preceded by the prayers of the monks themselves, delivered in a deep chant. The food was quite good and there was only one occasion when breakfast was too spicy to finish.

As soon as breakfast was finished we washed our own plates and cutlery, then it was back to our quarters. The place we lived in was like a small enclosed block of flats, two stories tall. There are many plants, water features and trees within the monastery, to assist contemplation I suppose, but the downside is the amount of leaves that carpet the ground daily. As such, I learned that an after-breakfast task for us was sweeping. This felt a little weird at first as you could be sweeping next to a fellow student but often you wouldn't meet their eye or speak, as you should be focusing on yourself and your own meditative efforts. So, a little socially awkward but this is what we signed up for, right?

We are then expected to meditate until lunch, which is at 10.30. The meal is pretty much a repeat of breakfast but with a little more food. After this? You guessed it. More meditation, until 2pm, when we went to the abbot to 'report'. These reporting sessions are a central part of the vipassana meditation technique. After a day's meditation this is your opportunity to tell the abbot what you have done or experienced, ask questions and receive mentoring from him. Importantly, it was also pretty much the only time you talk to anyone, which added an extra emotional dimension to the session.

After reporting it was expected that, as the course went on we would meditate for a longer time, up to and beyond the 'recommended' bed time of 10pm. In fact, I was told that I should use the hour between 10pm and 11pm for meditation. Five hours sleep a night did not make me a happier meditator.

The meditation practice consisted of a period of slow, 'mindful' walking where you focus on the mechanical act of walking, followed by a period of sitting where you get rid of conscious thought by focusing on the breathing. It's amazing how much random, 'white noise' thoughts zoomed around in my head during these sessions: memories, regrets, songs, films clips, lists of things to do ... . The idea was to focus on the present moment and realise that these other thoughts were not necessary, distracting and potentially harmful.

While I only scratched the surface of this, despite one marathon day of 12 hours meditating, it made me feel less scattered and brought home to me the amount of energy I frittered away in thinking about things that I couldn't change. There was a point on day three that I even became a little weepy, as during the long silence I more fully realised the friends I was leaving in the UK - not forever but you know what I mean. So, a useful technique and an emotional enema all in one? Maybe so.

'Foreign Meditator Monk'

One other memorable event was being there for a 'Buddha Day' ceremony. There was no reporting on this day and we all attended a ceremony in the evening. One particular monk (not the abbot himself) gave the equivalent of a sermon but he seemed very engaging. Even the non-Thai speakers could appreciate his style as his words frequently caused the audience to laugh out loud! Afterwards, we all took our individual offerings of flowers and incense and went outside. The whole gathering then walked silently around the stupa, which was illuminated by our little flames and a host of fairy lights, trailing clouds of incense. Having that many people moving in relative silence was quite powerful.

Stupa at monastery

Stupa on Buddha Day

The evening before we left, a group of us who had started at the same time figured that our practice was effectively over for now. We stood around and, for the first time, we spoke to each other, asked names, all of that social stuff that you would normally do when you first meet a person, not ten days later! Talking after al this time in silence felt illicit and we couldn't stop chatting and laughing. It felt like a teenage sleep-over, where we didn't want to stop and go to bed!

We also took the opportunity to wander around and photograph some of the more beautiful and weird parts of the monastery. The architecture was really colourful and included lots of wood and decorative detailing along roofs and gable ends. One prominent feature of the decorations were the Nagas, mythical dragon/serpents that appear as handrails. Lots of the designs also incorporated coloured glass so that in sun/candle light they glittered and shimmered!

Remains of stupa, Chiang Mai

Hi-tech braking tool aka 'a stick'

Ready for anything

The next day I accompanied one of the meditators, Alex, to a hostel in the centre of Chiang Mai where I indulged in non-silence, Sang Som (Thai rum that's tasty without tasting much like rum) and an endorphin-releasing zip line experience. This last included lots of shouts of "whoo hoo' and some high tech braking equipment (see photo)!

Island-hopping...of a sort

(Lisa's foray into the islands in southwest Thailand)

On the night ferry, I'm next to a seasick girl from New Orleans (which does not bode well for our journey- it's a rough night) and a young woman from Clonakilty, Ireland.  We are both impressed by this, since "Clon" is the next town over from Timoleague where Chris' mom grew up and where many of his relatives still live.  She says she's usually lucky to find people who've even heard of Cork County!

After tossing & turning on the waves for several hours, I decide I've had enough of my tiny floor mat and head to the back deck of the boat to enjoy the dawn views.  We seem to be in a channel which has stilted houses dotted on both shores, ranging from simple shacks to extravagant mansions.  The accompanying vehicles (boats, of course) match the style of house- rowboats or rafts vs. luxurious speedboats!

We arrive without further ado, and are partitioned into groups according to our final destination. I am alone in a minivan for a short while, then transferred to a bus for the journey from Surat Thani to Krabi.  After a few hours (? I'm asleep!) we arrive at a "bus station" (a glorified term for a shack in the forest).  I go to the ticket desk and exchange my travel voucher for a sticker (I will "collect them all" by the end of today - I think this is my 3rd!) and a new voucher for my onward travel.  Those who are staying more locally but haven't arranged accommodation yet are pestered - with permission from the bus station, it seems - by a particular resort, who eventually wins them all over and herds them into some minivans for a transfer.  Now I'm the only one there, and the staff take the opportunity to have some breakfast.  I'm not feeling great after the choppy, sleepless boat trip so I breakfast on some crab & chili potato chips - the plainest flavour I can find!

Finally a vehicle shows up to take me into Krabi town proper.  It's not a long journey which is great because I'm wishing I had a portable toilet.  I am dropped at a tour office where I obtain yet another sticker for my journey to Ko Lanta on the car ferries (no pedestrian ferries at this time of year).  The guy tells me that I won't be travelling for at least 90 minutes, so I head out in search of internet & a better breakfast...oh, and a bathroom of course!

Unfortunately it's still only about 8am and Krabi doesn't seem to be an early-morning sort of town, but eventually I find a small hotel with a cafe and free internet.  The bathroom is a scary place, damp and with a huge resident cockroach, but at this point I can't be fussy - I'm starting to wonder if I've managed to catch Chris' bacterial baddie.  Thai squat toilets are not my favourite sight today.  I use my allotted 45 minutes of free internet time to update my Facebook page, check emails, and write a bit of blog; then force myself to eat some fruit & muesli in a bid to feel normal.  By now, it's time to head back to the tour office, where I wait for another 45 minutes or so until they finally decide to wedge me into a minivan with some other stray travellers.  I can't wait to get there, it feels like I've been travelling forever!

Time for Lime cabin - inside

Two car ferries later, we are on the south island of Ko Lanta and the minivan driver starts dropping people at their various accommodations.  Too bad he doesn't know where mine is (and neither do I!) so I'm the last one in the vehicle.  He tries to take me to the animal shelter, but I know enough to realise that my cabin resort is not nearby, so we stop into the tour company office to get some directions to the resort.  It's down a tiny access road to the beach, and the minivan promptly gets stuck in the mud (there was a huge storm on the island recently, so the ground is still boggy).  The driver very sweetly carries my bag the rest of the way to the resort and ensures that I'm settled in, before returning to resolve the issue of his trapped vehicle!

..and outside

I'm soooooo pleased to finally be at Time for Lime - by now, it's 3pm so I've been travelling for almost 19 hours and I'm still feeling lousy.  I have a nap in my cute cabin (a twin, which I've offered to share with another volunteer if necessary, but for now I'm on my own) and then head up to the beachside restaurant in search of food.  There's no way I'm up to eating spicy Thai tonight, so I have some plain rice and a Sprite while I chat to the British girl who took today's cooking class & a Swiss/Austrian couple sitting nearby.  Everyone's food looks amazing and I can't wait to feel better so I can enjoy it (the Austrian fellow does donate some pumpkin to me, since his dinner is too big  ;-)  )!  And the moon on the sea is gorgeous - I know I've made a great choice in coming here.

Mai, the resort & cooking school manager, tells me that Junie (the owner) has dropped in & is meeting with the other volunteers who are based at Time for Lime.  It's about time I met everyone, so I bid goodbye to my dinner companions and head back up the path to the cabins.  I find a small group sitting on one of the porches drinking beer - must be the other volunteers  ;-)  We have a quick chat about what needs to be done; my role is to be a "handyperson" along with Karl (from New Zealand), and Michelle (Shelley - from Tasmania) and Elo (from Brazil) will take care of our 9 dogs and 13 cats.  The main shelter has a lot more animals, but for now there are enough volunteers there, so we're going to try to get a few odd jobs done while there's an opportunity - better in the "green" (quiet) season when there are no guests in the cabins.  Instructions received, I head off to bed for an early night, hoping to feel more like myself when I wake up.

...welcoming committee...

Pixie

I called her "Lady Marmalade"

Ginger...who looks like Puss in Boots from Shrek!

An island interlude

Our southward journey is slow and plagued by mysterious delays.  And whoever said it was worth taking the daytime train so as to enjoy the view must really like to look at flat, wet farmland.  Ah well, for 300 baht each we can't expect much.  Including, apparently, for the train to be on time - our 10 hour journey stretches into almost 12 hours, and we arrive in Chumphon after midnight.  Along the way we are entertained by the ubiquitous food vendors, and one of our near neighbours who is travelling with a smallish dog.  This dog is the best traveller we've ever seen!  He shares a seat with his owner, is patient with other travellers who make a fuss out of him, and doesn't make one noise except a single woof which prompts his owner to take him to the bathroom!  He is treated to a tasty chicken dinner from one of the roaming vendors.

Dining a la locomotive

We meet a couple of South Africans in the train's dining car but work out quite quickly that our standards of accommodation are wildly different, so we decline their offer to share a taxi to their resort.  It's just a short stroll into the town and it's not hard to find a hotel (although we do wake up the staff when we enter the lobby!).  We get a really large room with air conditioning and happily settle in to watch the news before retiring for the night.

Blogging juice

The next morning we endeavour to buy ferry tickets to Ko Tao (ko = island).  Tourist information directs us to a private office on the main street, which we soon identify as "Fame Tour" near the hotel we stayed in the previous night.  A lovely woman sells us tickets for the overnight ferry & explains that it was good that our train was late last night, as the Sunday night ferry is apparently really tiny whereas the one that runs during the week is spacious & comfortable (at least by comparison).  The office even has a shelf where we can leave our bags during the day, and our ticket includes the transfer to the ferry pier outside of Chumphon - so we can relax over a delicious breakfast of their homemade Italian bread. We planned to have a look around town during the day, but persistent rain sets in so we end up spending most of the day updating the blog, photos and other important internet activities.

We do duck out for an hour or so to explore the "night market" of street food.  Disappointingly it's mostly deep-fried, or standard fare such as pad thai.  Chris isn't feeling too great so he chooses the most familiar item, which resembles a very small pasty, whereas Lisa tries some fish balls and we both enjoy some tiny pancake-like items topped with shredded coconut.  We steer clear of the Angry Birds skewers  ;-)  We head back to our "home" in Chumphon, Fame Tours, to round out our dinner with some pasta, and before long it's time to jump in the back of a truck for the ride to the pier.

The ferry ticket office is tiny and is showing the usual Thai soap opera on a large TV.  A German woman who works for one of the dive schools appears with some brochures, and tries to convince everyone (especially Chris) to book a dive course in exchange for free accommodation; but he's not sure if he wants to dive yet, so he declines.  There's a small group of young women and a pair of British brothers waiting with us - seems like the ferry will be mostly freight.  But somehow by the time it pulls out, the sleeping room (which is pretty comfy, with rows of bunk beds) is quite full.  There's not much to do except drop off to sleep - except for one passenger who is clearly playing Bejeweled Blitz in the otherwise silent, dark room!

The ferry arrives at Ko Tao at about 5:30am as scheduled, but we know that it doesn't travel onwards from here so we can sleep a bit longer.  We awake to find that we and our British friends are the only passengers left aboard (they are still sound asleep).  It's nearly hockey o'clock so we pry ourselves out of bed and pop out on deck to watch the crew unloading some huge pallets of concrete blocks on to a small truck.  It's delicate work as they just fit on the truck and the pallets are not really well packed, but in the end most of the blocks make it unscathed.

We disembark and head for the Safety Stop pub, on the advice of the German dive school woman.  It should open at 7am but at 6:50 there are no signs of life.  We park ourselves on the picnic table outside and eat some weird sugar toast that we bought in Chumphon (looks better than it tastes).  At about 7:15, staff start to appear and set to work sweeping the front entrance, opening up doors etc.  But when we try to go in about 30 minutes later, they signal that they're "not ready".  We wait a further 10 minutes but now they refuse to turn on the TV for the hockey - apparently it can't be switched on until the manager/owner arrives...at 9am!  We defect to a bakery up the hill and they kindly try to find the game for us, but their sports coverage is limited and we resign ourselves to following it on the online "highlights ticker" (since NHL charges for actually watching live games online!).  This is OK but not as dynamic or exciting as watching the actual match, so after the end of the 2nd period (and our breakfast), Lisa goes exploring and somehow convinces the town's other sports pub to open up especially for us!  We watch the 3rd period in the dark, quiet bar; it's bad news for New Jersey but they put up a good fight.

With a big thank-you to the owner, Johnny, we set out to find somewhere to sleep.  A fat brochure entitled "Ko Tao Info" (courtesy of Fame Tours, of course) leads us to the Jansom Bungalows just outside of Mae Haad Town (where the pier is located).  We get a seaside bungalow complete with large deck & hammock for the amazing price of 500 baht/night.  It's simple and not in tiptop condition, but it's so great to have our own private space and the view of our rocky, small bay is sublime.  Plus the Thai managers/owners seem very sweet (along with their 4 small white dogs who follow them around while they work!).  It's sad to see that there are no other guests - this is the low season but the fancy resorts on either side are moderately busy, so we wonder how this place keeps going.  It wouldn't surprise us to find out that in the near future, they've sold out to one resort or the other.

Drug stash

The next couple of days are spent wandering slowly around our neighbouring bays, admiring the view from our deck, and doing a bit of snorkeling (including a trip to Jansom Bay, which is a private beach for people staying at the resort there...and also people staying at our cheap bungalows, score!).  Unfortunately Chris doesn't take to the latter which leaves him a bit bored; and he's also getting progressively more ill, to the point where he doesn't want to eat anything.  This is exacerbated by the fact that pretty much everywhere smells of fish sauce which is a bit nauseating under normal circumstances!  Finally we go to a small clinic in Mae Haad, where an elderly Thai lady prescribes a host of remedies for about 450 baht in total.  It seems reasonable, and we understand all of the medications except a mysterious white liquid called "Flying Rabbit"!

During our wandering days we stumble across the stunning and secluded new Pinnacle Resort (for our friends who appreciate luxury & privacy, we'd totally recommend this!), and have dinner one night at our neighbouring resort.  Lisa tries laab, a spicy minced meat salad – the menu describes this as lime & mild spices ha ha, her mouth is on fire and she can't actually finish it!  We're fast discovering that Thai food in Thailand doesn't bear much resemblance to the stuff we've tried in the pubs in London (that shouldn't really come as a surprise, but a lot of other cuisines served in London seem to be reasonably authentic).


After his visit to the "medicine woman", Chris spends a day resting at home while Lisa takes a long hike around the south & east of the island.  She hits Ao Leuk Bay for some snorkelling; it's a quiet spot, probably due in part to the crazily steep, potholed access road!  A Dutch guy offers her a lift on his motorcycle but frankly walking looks like the safer option.

As Lisa walks around she wonders why everyone else is on scooters & motorcycles.  They are so easy to rent here (and bicycles, almost impossible to find) but it is such a small place that they seem out of place.  People are travelling too quickly to appreciate the beauty & quiet of the island, and the amount of pollution produced is quite disturbing also.

Aptly named Seaview Resort

She climbs some steep steps to reach the view (and the restaurant) at Seaview Resort, where she meets Paa, a Thai cook. They actually spotted each other earlier in the day - Lisa noticed Paa because of her long dreadlocks, and she noticed Lisa because she was on foot (and wearing her distinctive hat!).  It turns out that Paa was travelling around the island in search of a motorbike which was stolen while it had been on loan to one of the resort's guests.  She explains that she asked the local police to help, but they were unwilling to do anything without payment!  This isn't the first time we've heard about police corruption in our travels, but it's still hard to digest when you grow up in a culture where the police are there to help & be trusted.  


Lisa & Paa have a long chat about Britain's Got Talent (which is showing on the restaurant's TV); Paa's French boyfriend; and the number of Laos natives who work on Ko Tao (Paa reckons 75%).  We exchange some language lessons - Paa learns how to say "I love you" in French and Lisa learns the Thai word for water (naam).  Apparently her Thai pronunciation is passable!


Finally she continues on her way, and thinks she spots the trail to the "Two View" viewpoint.  There's no signpost but she decides to take her chances, and scrambles up the steep gravel trail.  It evens out (sort of) at the top and is a pleasantly quiet, traffic-free walk across the forested hills in the middle of the island.  She doesn't see a soul for at least 2 hours, which seems like a miracle.  It's low season on the island but since most of the roads & development are along the relatively flat coastline, you're never alone!  It's particularly noticeable when the ferries arrive at Mae Haad and the local businesses scramble for custom.  

Tanote Bay

She never does find the viewpoint, and eventually follows the trail downwards to the island's reservoir (disturbingly almost empty).  Now it seems clear where she is on the trail map, so she looks for a small trail towards Mao Bay, which seems to be one of the few bays without a hotel or resort.  After scrambling through the undergrowth (reckoning that this is probably NOT the trail, but it does look like somewhere that people have walked before!), she slips on some loose gravel and tumbles into a small fissure in the rocks.  Now she remembers why you should never hike alone...


A quick survey of the damage shows that all parts are still attached, but her knee is a bit of a bloody mess.  Of course, the first aid kit is safely at home in the bungalow.  A splash of water and some anti-bacterial hand cleanser (OW!), then a hobble back up to the small road she'd branched off of.  The seclusion which was so welcome an hour before is now a cause for concern.  But it's not long before she spots some local guys working in the forest (she decides not to ask them for help, as it's unlikely they speak English and also that they have bandages!), and shortly afterwards she comes to the main road.  The first cafe she passes is also a "rescue center" - perfect!  It takes a few minutes to get the attention of the card-playing first aiders, but when they spot the blood they spring into action and she's soon clean and patched.  Everyone is impressed that she's made such a mess of her leg without the aid of a motorcycle or scooter.  She also discovers that she was nowhere near the trail she was looking for, and in fact has rejoined the main road about 1/2 kilometer from the Seaview Resort.  She decides to take the fall as a message telling her to turn back before she got too lost  ;-)

Cocktail therapy

It's time for a cheese sandwich and a text to Chris to make plans for where we will meet, since it's clearly time for Lisa to stop walking today!  We decide to meet on Sairee Beach as planned - it's the opposite side of the island but there is a road leading there, so it should be no trouble.  After a slow hobble across the island, Lisa finds Chris in the (alleged) rock bar on the beach.  This part of the island is where a lot of the nightlife is focussed and the beach is packed with bars.  We enjoy some cocktails as the sun goes down, and the bar next door starts up an impressive light show!

Gravel-related injury

The injury puts paid to any snorkelling plans that Lisa had for the next few days, and with Chris still recovering we start to get a bit bored.  Lisa starts making plans to head to Ko Lanta, on the west side of Thailand in the Andaman Sea.  This is where the best snorkelling should be, but it's the wrong season (windy & rainy).  However there is an animal rescue center there, and since it's the low season they're happy to have some extra help even if it's just for a couple of weeks.  We're finding that it's great to have some purpose to our days (at least occasionally!) so this sounds very appealing to Lisa, who always prefers places in the off-season  =)


Chris has decided that he'd like to move closer to town once he's on his own (he doesn't want to travel until he's recovered) so Lisa heads into town on Saturday morning to look for a cheap room.  She makes a short list of 3 - a tiny, cell-like room (very cheap and central); a slightly larger room with a TV for entertainment (next door to the first option); or a cute bungalow on a friendly resort (slightly further from the center, and uphill, but convenient for the intriguing Baby Rasta bar).  The latter is the only one with wi-fi so Chris opts for this one, despite Lisa's warning about a truly HUGE gecko that she spotted when she viewed the cabin... weirdly, no one else ever sees this reptile...

Cheapest beer in 7-Eleven - do NOT try it, ick!

We shift Chris' stuff to the new place after bidding good-bye to our hosts and their tiny dog pack.  Then we mosey into town to find some food & drink.  We try the delicious-looking coffee shop on the corner, but they don't have an "air-conditioned upstairs" as advertised and their service is strangely reticent, so we leave after our (admittedly tasty) breakfast.  We head over to the Safety Stop later that day to catch the rugby matches, along with a few other ex-pats (who all seem to work for dive schools). 
  
After the 2nd match, it's time for Lisa to catch her night ferry, so she bids good-bye to Chris (who is still not sure where he'll go after Ko Tao!) and lugs her bag to the pier...

Adventures in Bangkok (18+)

We arrive in Bangkok after a short and uneventful flight.  Well, we do actually have to give some credit to Cathay Pacific for squeezing dinner plus one & a half television programs into a brief schedule (Alcatraz - has some potential; Person of Interest - distinctly uninteresting).

We're already impressed when we discover that coffee costs less than GBP 1 at the airport - this bodes well for our cost-cutting plans!  We make a few stops, at 7-Eleven (ubiquitous in southeast Asia, it seems) for snacks - it's full of weird & wonderful things! - and at tourist information for maps.  We then find our way to the SkyTrain, but are not allowed on because we're drinking iced coffee  ;-)  Like Hong Kong, food & drink are forbidden on public transport...tidy but inconvenient!

Finally we are finished our coffee & cookies, and are allowed to board the 11pm train.  We're a bit worried that this will mess with our plan of connecting to the Metro (MTR) but there's not much we can do about that now...fingers crossed....

We get off at the interchange station only to find that it's not a very smooth interchange.  We hit the stifling wet heat of the Bangkok evening to find a roadway, lots of warning signs about illegal taxis, and an occasional sign pointing us towards the MTR station.  We run across a couple of busy roads and finally find the station...tightly shuttered up for the night.

So it's time to try a taxi - at least we are used to these from Kathmandu, as it's hardly our usual mode of travel.  We soon realise that Bangkok taxis come in a veritable rainbow of colours (more on that later) which makes for a very striking image at night, when you view a group of them stopped at a traffic light!  We choose a lovely pink taxi and are pleased to discover that he a) has a meter and b) is actually willing to use it!  It costs something hilarious (less than 100 baht - which is about GBP 2) for our 20-minute journey to Silom, one of the neighbourhoods in south Bangkok.

Unfortunately, much like in Nepal, the taxi drivers have no idea where things are in Bangkok.  And here they don't make the extra effort of asking random strangers for directions either!  We can't quite figure out why they are always dropping us off at random places (always on the correct street, but with no consideration of which part of it) since there are actually building numbers in Bangkok.  Ah well, it's a good chance to explore our new neighbourhood as we lug our packs up the road to our guest house (the Thai word for hostel  ;-)  ).  Lisa notices that it seems to be the jewelery area, which is good news in her quest for bead shops (stocking up for her future bracelet-making business in Canada), but of course at 12:30am everything is closed ;-)

We finally find the guest house tucked behind some shops, and take a little while to let the sweat dry while Lisa knocks back a Lemsip (still fighting the cold she picked up in Kathmandu).  We are staying in the 10-bed "fan only" dorm which we soon discover is not conducive to actually sleeping - it's very hot and everyone is restless, plus the door is propped open for air circulation.  One of the boys is up when we arrive, and tells us that the hoards of mosquitoes woke him!  Lisa takes this warning (and the risk of bedbugs) seriously - she douses herself in repellent and wraps herself in the mosquito net.  Still, she only manages about 5 hours of sleep and feels compelled (unusually!) to jump out of bed at 7am - leaving a peacefully sleeping Chris, she has a quick shower and heads for the breakfast buffet.  It's nothing exciting but for 160 baht (about GBP 3) she can eat as much as she likes, and she even manages to resist buying a "real" coffee in favour of the free instant coffee!

We really have no idea what we're going to do in Bangkok, Thailand or the rest of SE Asia for that matter, so when Chris arrives at breakfast we decide to start with the basics - we'll head out to the mall to pick up a map of SE Asia & a local SIM card.  We planned to start applying for visas right away, but it turns out to be a public holiday in Thailand so all the embassies are closed (it's Buddha's enlightenment day - we're 99% sure this is the same day that was celebrated about a month ago in Nepal!).  At least the travel desk at the guest house provides us with all the info we need about which countries require an advance visa, and where those embassies are located!

We have a quick chat with our lovely Thai friend Cherry, and another with our Nepali mate Suman (he is a student in Bangkok and returned here about a week before we arrived).  We set up some potential meet-ups for later that day with both of them, and then head for Siam to the shopping mall (like HK, there are a LOT of these in Bangkok!).  The mall, Siam Paragon, is having an amazing Orchid Festival (who knew there were so many types of orchids?).  The bookstore turns out to be a perfect stop, with a big section of travel maps, and we find a good one of Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos.  After a tasty waffle & brownie stop, we head into the orchids to await Cherry's arrival.

yes, orchids can grow this big!!

 Cherry takes us down to the food hall, which is comparable with Selfridges in London, and she buys a fresh fruit juice.  Chris spots a pastry shop and buys a small savoury pie.  Lisa's a bit overwhelmed by all the choices - department stores never were her thing! - and ends up with a ham & cheese toastie from the donut shop!  We also find out that each bank - and in fact, many things in Thailand - have a distinct colour so this is often how people refer to things...eg. the green bank/ATM, the blue taxi company...but unfortunately all banks seem to have the same 150 baht withdrawal fee, so we're unable to find a "favourite colour"!

We actually end up in some kind of food & drink overload with Cherry - we stop at a small & trendy-looking (but empty) place near the cinema upstairs for a cup of tea, and then move on to her sister's guest house (in the tourist area of Khao San Road) for dinner.  There is a huge spread including all the classics - pad thai and tom yum amongst them - and we eat until we are stuffed!  We find it all rather spicy, but worryingly these dishes were prepared for "farang" (foreigner) tastes, so the real Thai food is going to be a big challenge for us.  Anyways, it's great to spend the evening catching up with Cherry, and we part with a hug and return to our hostel (where we've upgraded to the air-conditioned dorm after realising that cheapest is not best, if you can't actually sleep!).

We do a bit of blogging and exchange some texts with Cherry, which result in us booking a room at her sister's guesthouse (Lamphu House) for the next 3 nights.  We really liked the garden area and we feel like it'll be easier to meet people in the tourist area around Khao San Road.  Our current location in Silom is great for peace & quiet, and observing local life, but we haven't really met anyone and we need some travel inspiration!

The next day we leave our backpacks in the hostel's "left luggage" and head for the Chinese embassy on the north side of the city.  We join a long line of people outside, and suddenly after about 20 minutes we are ALL ushered inside.  By now, we've filled in part of the required forms, and we manage to bag a small space on the floor of the crowded waiting room to finish them off.  Handily there are even some small pots of glue for sticking your passport photo to the form.

While we complete the forms, we observe a new queue growing in the middle of the room.  There's a young woman at the head of it who seems to be checking the forms.  Unsure if this is required, we ask some Americans in the queue - they say they've joined it because everyone else has, but actually only about 1/4 of the people in the room have joined.  Well, we're something like #206 and they're on #98...and moving along slowly...so we figure we might as well queue up in proper British fashion!  We meet a nice girl from the Netherlands whose travel plans are almost as vague as ours, and exchange concerns about the actual requirements for a Chinese visa application (there are several signs saying we need flight tickets & hotel bookings, which of course we don't have!).

Finally we reach the front of the queue -having just seen someone turned away because she was self-employed, but didn't have a business card to prove it- and the woman looks through our forms.  With a shake of the head, she explains that we definitely need to know our dates and route, as well as having a hotel arranged for the first couple of nights in China.  Finally, we need a copy of our bank account statement since we're unemployed.  She recommends that we apply in Vietnam or Laos.

At least now we can make an escape from the boring, stuffy embassy (to the hot, stifling outdoors!) along with our Dutch friend who's fared no better.  We walk back to the Metro station together and say our goodbyes at the shopping mall.  Lisa is feeling a bit sick so we stop for some salad and a drink, and then take a spin through the technology mall (soooo many phones & laptops!!) before heading back to the city center on the Metro.  Lisa reckons we have enough time to get to the Vietnam embassy and put in our visa applications there before it closes for the day...and she is right, it's so easy (and empty!) compared to the Chinese embassy!

By the time we get back to the hostel it's twilight, and there is a sudden storm so we share a bottle of beer while we wait it out.  Unfortunately this means that we miss the last ferry going upriver towards Khao San Road (they stop about 7pm apparently).  Some green & yellow striped taxis try to convince us to travel with them for 200 baht, but we know that they should be using their meters so we decline.  We find one of our favourite pink taxis and make the trip in no time!  The room is a twin with a fan, but it's not such a bad idea to have separate beds in this sweaty climate  ;-)  Lisa is still not feeling great, so she lies down for a while and Chris goes out to find some take-out - a sandwich and some pad thai, yum!

Democracy monument

The next day we do quite a lot of walking around our new neighbourhood.  We're keen to go to the Grand Palace but we find out from the Tourist Info office (very nice & helpful people!) that it closes at 3:30pm.  It's already after 1pm when we discover this, so we just keep walking and check out the many informational signs dotted around the city sights, and places like the Democracy Monument and old city walls/fortress.  With the help of a local fellow, we find the canal boat stop at Phanfah Leelas Bridge (the westernmost stop) and jump on board for a trip to the city center.  It's a great way to travel, seeing the backs of everyone's shops (where they clearly live, in tiny little spaces) and having the breeze whip your hair into a frenzy!  We admire the agility of the ticket collectors who traverse the outside edges of this fast-moving boat like little monkeys, and try to imagine what the job application process consists of.

Royal decorations?

Canal boat

We have read that it's the opening night of the Buddhist Film Festival, and Lisa wants to do some celeb-spotting.  So we hop off the boat near Siam and check out the Art & Culture Center.  Although they have lots of interesting stuff on, the film festival is not on their itinerary, so we're not sure where to look.  By now it is raining - not good wandering weather - so we just take in the sight of an outdoor boxing match across the road (a bit strange, part of the popular activity of watching farang fight each other, we think), and then start to make our way north to Cocowalk, where we're joining a Couchsurfing meetup.   It's really busy, probably 30+ people in the group, mostly ex-pats who are settled in Bangkok for a year or more.  We meet an American website designer and his Thai girlfriend, a publisher, a woman from New Orleans, several Canadians, lots of teachers (including a maths teacher from Gloucestershire and an newly arrived Texan English teacher), and a couple of other travellers.  We share some towers of beer and enjoy the Thai rock & roll singer.  Eventually, most people head off home and we're thinking of doing the same, when we are accosted by Casey, a Canadian who is keen to take American boy Trevor out to "Soi Cowboy" for his 18th birthday (today!).  After some effort, he convinces us (and the German fellow & Indian woman we are currently chatting to) to join them, and we bundle into a couple of taxis.

Soi Cowboy is notorious for strip clubs & prostitutes, so this probably isn't the best idea, but this is a major reason why many travellers come to Bangkok so we are more than a little curious.  Upon embarking from the taxi, we are immediately offered a "ping pong show" (which someone has to explain to us, but we will not explain here!).  When the group is reunited we stroll along looking for a likely club, and choose one based on it's advertisement of cheap beer.  Again we stress that this is NOT our usual idea of a night out!

It's a bit of a shock to enter the club and find a stage full of naked (yep, completely naked) gyrating Thai women.  Not so much a show as a market, it seems.  We order some beer (which is decidely NOT cheap) and hide ourselves in the back row behind an enthusiastic Casey and a rather freaked-out-looking Trevor.  They obtain a bucket of ping pong balls which they throw haphazardly towards the girls, but there doesn't actually seem to be a point to this (except that we're sure there was a cost associated with the balls), and chat to the suspiciously masculine-looking "lady" hostess.  Lisa glances around to find an interesting array of workers, some dressed in beautiful kimonos and others just roaming around naked, but not attempting to make any contact with the customers.  There are two American-looking guys across from us who seem to have paid for a girl for the evening, and she is enthusiastically dancing in front of them while they pretty much ignore her.

As we drink our beer, the line-up changes and a few more patrons enter - a group of young lads, and two older fellows with their Thai girlfriends in tow.  It's a really weird atmosphere!  Casey, Trevor and one of the other fellows in our group take a fancy to one of the girls (disappointingly, the far too skinny one with the fake breasts and nose job) and have a lap dance in a back room.  This escalates quickly into the girl sitting on Casey's lap in the main bar, and somehow both he and Trevor end up on stage stripping...?!  When the line-up changes again (even more strangely, to the same girls as when we entered, but now in lingerie - even the girl who seems to be "rented" by the American fellows has donned a bra and underpants), we step outside for a breather and witness Casey running off down the road with someone in tow (not sure it was the girl he fancied, perhaps her job is just to get the men excited enough to go off with anyone?).  He did seem ridiculously keen to come to Soi Cowboy and now we can see why.  Poor Trevor, although he does seem to be enjoying himself in a bewildered sort of way.

We decide we've had enough, as do many of the others, and find a taxi to take us home.  One of the Canadians (a journalist, I think) promises to take good care of Trevor and ensure his safe return.  We do hear from him via Couchsurfing the next day which is reassuring.  Possibly this will go down as the weirdest evening of our lives...

Temple of the Dawn

The next day, we still don't manage to get to the Grand Palace, or do much at all besides collect our passports from the Vietnamese embassy.  We take this as a sign that we ought to get out of Bangkok, as it seems to suck up time with very little effort!  We wander down to Silom to pick up some beads that Lisa ordered (including some specially made "Canadian" ones - half red, half white) in preparation for her future bracelet-making business.  This finally gives us the opportunity to take the river ferry, which affords us a wonderful view of many riverside temples.

Mai Kaidee meal

We have a delicious vegetarian dinner at Mai Kaidee (thanks to our veggie friend Hugh for his recommendation!).  Then we meet up with a few newly-arrived Couchsurfers to see if we can find someone to travel with, but they are all heading north to Chiang Mai and we've got our hearts set on visiting the islands in the south.  We plan to leave the next day (Saturday) on a night train to Ko Tao, but when Lisa gets to the train station on Saturday around lunchtime, she discovers that the only tickets left for the night trains are for air-conditioned sleepers (apparently quite chilly, and much more expensive) or for seats.  Neither of these appeals, so she buys tickets for the 13:05 train the next day.

This works out nicely as Chris is keen to watch the rugby matches (latest one is England vs South African at 21:45) and Lisa would quite like to see the NHL finals match (07:00 local time on Sunday morning).  We find that all the sports bars are in the center near Nana Skytrain station, so while Chris watches rugby, Lisa scopes out hotels in the area.  Most are over 1000 baht/night - compared to less than 500 which we paid at Lamphu House - although she does get some great room upgrade offers for this price, since none of the hotels are full.  One hotel recommends the Star Hotel as the cheapest in the area.  Indeed, they do have a 799 baht room and one is still available!  They are a bit worried that Lisa won't like the lack of windows - and she has a good giggle at the mirrored ceiling! - but it's clean and this is actually a really good price for an air-conditioned room in the city center, so she books it.  There is even a shiny new sports pub "The Game" next door which will be showing the late rugby match (but unfortunately hasn't yet achieved it's claim of 24-hour opening, so won't be open for the hockey).

Lamphu House...

vs Star Hotel

The rugby match is a good one and there's a small crowd to cheer them on, although we are crowded out during the 2nd half by some Dutch & Danish football fans who squeeze in to watch a match.  We even meet a local American who recommends a place called "The Tavern" nearby to watch the hockey.  When we get back to the hotel around midnight, Chris has a catch-up with his family on Skype and then we catch a few winks before our early wake-up call.

The Tavern is indeed open at 7am, and there are lots of characters in attendance to watch various sports  such as an NBC basketball semi-final & a big boxing match.  But the owner manages to find a TV for us to watch the hockey, and in fact we all converse about the various sports on show, learning a little about each of them!  An old drunk fellow perches next to Lisa and has a whiskey (at 8am!!) and then proceeds to fall asleep, possibly in an effort to avoid his bill (he also keeps trying to pay by Visa but the girls explain that the bill is too small).  We choose the more sane option of cooked breakfast and bottomless coffee.  We also pick up some holders for our beer (stubby holders, to our Aussie friends) which are great in this climate, if only to stop the sweaty beer can/bottle from dripping all over you!  There is even enough time after the game to have a quick nap at the hotel before we head to the train station  =)

Metro sign.  There is also one forbidding the consumption of (smelly!) durian fruit.

Brief but busy - our days in Hong Kong

We breeze through immigration - permission to stay for 180 days, no questions asked.  We make a quick stop at "left luggage" to see if it's viable to leave our big packs at the airport during our 4 days in Hong Kong, but the pricing is per item and is prohibitively expensive!  So we head out into the already-sweaty morning and find the bus to the city.

$66 later (those are HK dollars, phew), we hop off outside Chung King Mansions in Kowloon, where we have booked a room in the Canadian Hostel.  After wandering around the maze of Indian food establishments on the ground floor of the building for a while, someone helpfully points us to the correct lift for Block E.  Only the right-hand lift goes to the even-numbered floors so we squeeze ourselves into it.

The nice folks at the hostel are probably woken up by our early arrival, but they don't show any resentment & get us quickly into our room.  By the way, there is nothing remotely Canadian about this hostel except it's name - like everything else in Chung King, it has a distinctly Indian air with a Hong Kong twist - ie. it's clean & quiet!  We wedge ourselves & our packs into the tiny room and pronounce it small but perfectly formed.  It's hard to do anything but sleep in there...so in fact that's just what we do, to recover from our too-short overnight flight.

We wake up around lunchtime and set out to explore the area.  The natural destination is the waterfront, where we gawk at the many skyscrapers and are lucky enough to see the Chinese junk boat with it's beautiful red sails.  Unfortunately our camera chose to eat all the photos we took on this first day, so you'll just have to Google some photos  ;-)

The Star Ferry terminal is not far away and we wander over to chat to the tourist information office.  The information officer whips out an iPad to show us the ferry schedules and other items of interest.  She also recommends some free/cheap tours & classes which are organised just for tourists by the Hong Kong Tourist Association.  Tea appreciation and cake-making classes sound particularly interesting!  We tell her that we'd like to visit a beach (Lisa is dying to see a body of water, after our stretch in land-locked Nepal!) and she recommends Lamma Island - with two beaches, a walking trail, and great seafood it sounds perfect.  So we head for the ferry from Kowloon to Central, where we can catch the inter-island ferries.

On the way, we pass a bakery which makes the famous Hong Kong egg tart - perfect for tea time - and we pick up a couple of these & some Chinese doughnuts.  Time to use your imagination again - the bakery has a HUGE model of an egg tart which Lisa poses next to for a (missing) photo...

Two ferries later, we are at Lamma, but we can see a big storm coming in so we decide to settle down for a while at a seafood restaurant near the pier.  They all have covered terraces so it looks like a great place for storm-watching; and at $218 for a seafood-themed Chinese meal for 2 with drinks, we can just about afford it.  The food is delicious and luckily the storm never reaches our island, so we roll out of the restaurant an hour later to make the walk to the beach.

Chris' ankle has been bothering him & he's using his walking stick, so locals recommend that we don't try to make the 2-hour, rather steep walk to the north side of the island.  This is good advice as he struggles a little with the 30-minute walk to the beach.  But it is beautiful, with exotic plants & huge butterflies everywhere we turn, and we're in no rush so we can really enjoy it.  When we reach the beach it is nearly 6pm and everyone is gone (bar the lifeguard and a couple of fishermen) so Lisa takes a quick dip in the lovely warm water. Aaaaahhhhh....

We make our way back to the south pier (Lisa takes a side trip up the hill for some views, and to check out the local Buddhist cemetery) and catch a series of ferries back home.  On the way we watch for the "Symphony of Lights" which should take place every evening at 8pm, but we don't really see anything of note - just the neon signs of the many many high-rises!

We stop in a shopping mall (HK has millions - a good way to escape the heat & humidity) and have some conveyor-belt sushi for dinner.  We're pleased to discover that the sushi we eat in London is really similar.  The true test will be in Japan, of course, but at least London seems to be closer to authenticity than Kiev was!  We also have a good giggle at the advertising campaign for a clothing store called Chocoolate, with big posters of Wallace & Gromit (who are apparently wearing Chocoolate in their upcoming film?).  And we're a bit puzzled by the prolific "Agnes b" shops (clothing, chocolate, luggage....) - which will actually continue into Thailand, we soon discover - is this being marketed as a popular European brand to unsuspecting Asian people, or have we missed some spike in popularity worldwide?

After a good night's sleep, we pack our bags and make our way to the New Territories (a huge area encompassing the north of Hong Kong) where we will be couchsurfing for a couple of nights with lovely Tiina, who is originally from Finland but now lives in HK with her fiance (a Canadian poet who has just gone on tour to promote his latest book!).  They live in a traditional "village house", which is very cute and surprisingly spacious by Hong Kong standards!  There are 2 bedrooms as well as a large L-shaped living area with a raised seating section (like a little loft).  The previous tenants were interior designers and have added lots of clever storage and cute detailing, such as the mini castle tower in one corner of the living room "loft".

We have a nice chat with Tiina over a cup of tea and a tasty vegetarian dish she's prepared.  She says it's pretty tough being veggie in HK - there are not many restaurants who understand that chicken & fish - including their stock - are NOT ok for veggies, so they mainly eat at home or at the Indian places in Chung King Mansions.

After spending some time uploading photos (and discovering that a group of them have been corrupted somehow argh), we head out to explore a local park that Tiina has recommended.  Enroute, we visit a market where we encounter the world's biggest cucumber!  (OK, we later discover that this was in fact a "winter melon" but it certainly looks like a cucumber  ;-)  )  We have promised to make breakfast on Sunday so we buy some eggs for French toast.  These come in a plastic bag like any other food item - ie. no additional packaging - so we carefully wrap them in a t-shirt and place them gently in the daypack, with fingers crossed that at least some of them survive our walk!

The park is beautiful, with lots of different areas of forest, flower gardens and fountains as well as sports pitches and a "kite-flying area".  Interestingly it's almost entirely non-smoking, despite being outdoors - there is a designated smoking area and it's forbidden everywhere else.  Can't imagine that going over well in many other countries!

Recycled plastic running track. Run in your socks to feel the most benefit...while maintaining hygiene!

Viewpoint

View (of skyscrapers of course)

That evening is a quiet one - Tiina makes some pasta for dinner and we share a bottle of red wine.  She's really interesting and has done a lot of travelling, so we find plenty to talk about!

The next day Tiina is supervising some exams at the school where she is teaching English, so we need to get an early start since she doesn't have a spare key.  We set out up the hill to a local country park & nature reserve.  It's a steep and steamy walk, even so early in the day, but we meet lots of locals who clearly take this route every morning.  At the top, we find a small family picking orange berries from a tree - they give us a small bag of them with clear instructions to wash before eating!  We decide to make our way down the other side of the hill but end up in a strange area of town, so we make our walk a bit longer than necessary and Chris' ankle is ready for a break.

We've made plans to meet another local couchsurfer, Carson, for a dim sum lunch.  We have a good time exploring the shopping mall while we wait for him - it seems to belong to some organisation that specialises in cute!  Carson brings along his current surfer, a French wine connoisseur who was in town for the Wine Expo and is currently living in Bangkok - small world!  We have a delicious lunch, surrounded by local families, and we love the customs - putting your hand up periodically to alert the waitress that you'd like to order more food; tapping with two fingers on the table to say thank you to someone for pouring your tea (more on that one here); and of course, sharing all the dishes amongst the table.  We finish with some fruity desserts and some tasty marshmallow-coconut bunnies!

On Carson's recommendation, our next stop is Sik Sik Yuen (Wong Tai Sin Temple).  It's a large Taoist temple complex with a waterfall & pond, and large statues of Chinese zodiac animals.  There is also a long row of fortune-tellers and tarot card readers, and an amazing-sounding underground temple (but we decide not to pay the entrance fee for the latter).  The principle aim of the temple is "to act benevolently and to teach benevolence" so they also have several free or reduced-price medical clinics on site.  There are plenty of people & stalls selling incense, as you should bring 9 sticks to the temple (3 for each of the 3 worship areas) to show your devotion.  Lisa likes the advice "be careful not to burn enormous amounts of incense, which may pollute the environment & nature", but it seems that many people didn't read this - it's hard to see the main altar through the cloud of incense!   There are also many elements of Confucianism & Buddhism.  A lot of it is over our heads, but we appreciate the beauty and peacefulness in the heart of the city.

Next we zip quickly through the famous Goldfish Market (very weird to see so many plastic bags of fish at once!) and the Ladies Market (handbags and hairclips - a bit boring).  Lisa manages to pick up a handbag for about 3 pounds - her current one is too small and not waterproof, which is a bad idea in this humid, stormy region!  Then we rush to meet our friends Shirish & Dipti from London, who conveniently are also passing through HK this weekend.  We quaff a beer in a sudden storm (pity we're at "Beer & Deck", as there's nowhere to hide from the rain & we get soaked!), and then find a Moroccan place which is veggie-friendly for Dipti (we did briefly consider calling Tiina for a recommendation!).  The boys enjoy the belly-dancer and the food & wine are delicious. It's always great to share a meal with friends but maybe even more so in an unexpected place!  Oh, and we did see a bit of the Symphony of Lights through the raindrops as well  =)

The rain has finally stopped so Lisa insists on walking home via the Night Market.  It's getting late so a lot of the stalls seem to be closing up, but there are still a few places & people to see including many small restaurants with tables lined up along the pavements, and of course more tarot readers, fortune tellers, and palm readers.  Apparently there is even a place where a bird chooses your tarot cards....

We are lucky enough to catch a train before they stop for the evening, but we get back to Tiina's very late and she is asleep.  We feel like guilty teenagers as we ring the doorbell, and for a while we think she's not going to wake up so we're staking out places to sleep on her front steps (we'll be in good company with all the local cats & kittens).  Luckily she does come to the door and we quietly slink off to bed, feeling like we got good use out of our Metro day passes.

Lisa wakes first on Sunday morning and thinks her Breo watch has gone haywire again when it tells her it's almost 10:30.  She pounces on Chris and he groggily confirms that this does seem to be the correct time.  So much for the alarm waking us at 8am!  We have a quick discussion, as we're meant to be attending the cake-making class at noon, but we decide we'd rather make breakfast for Tiina as promised. Happily we manage to change our class to the one at 3pm, which will be perfectly timed for our flight anyways, and we break out the Jordanian coffee and tasty brown sugar bread to whip up some sustenance.

We say our goodbyes and a massive thank you to Tiina and rush downtown to our class. It's only when we're enroute that Lisa realises she's left the booking reference, map and address at Tiina's house. We're already at risk of being late so we decide that the fastest solution is to ask someone on the Metro train to call the tourist office for us; Lisa has the number in her phone from when she unsuccessfully tried to call them on her UK cell that morning. A very nice woman agrees to make the call, and now that we are armed with directions we make it in the nick of time! We stuff our backpacks in the corner, wash our hands as instructed, and join the others to make "wife cakes". There are a few different legends as to how they got their name!  Here's a nice video of Chris folding the filling into the crust....

Wife cakes are the big ones

The filling is made from that giant cucumber - oops I mean winter melon  ;-)  They come out as a flaky, sweet, delicious layered cookie!

The teacher served us lots of different kinds of cookies as well as our own creations, with a cup of tea of course.  The weirdest was the pork cookie - better than it sounds, but still kind of odd...

We rounded off our adventures in Hong Kong by giggling at some signs in the bus windows (one of our favourites below - you could buy these at the night market with all kinds of different sayings!), visiting the Arts & Crafts market at the cultural center, and buying some Japanese sweets that we'd been coveting since our first day.  The latter were actually kind of doughy and weird, oh well!  We still had lots of cookie gifts from our class to enjoy while we waited for our flight!

Mochis - Japanese sweets