August 14 - 1 day of Japan

Today we're lucky to get to do one day in Japan.

We start the day with the hotel's breakfast buffet and then take a taxi to the Imperial Palace . Geoff's been there before and he has a plan. We'll taxi to a particular gate; walk a particular route on the palace grounds and end up over at the science museum. I suppose it's just OUR luck that on this freakishly HOT day that particular gate is closed and we'll have to walk a WAYS to get to an open gate. It's all a good time :o) I never thought I'd get to see where samurai stayed!




After exploring the palace grounds and the science museum, we have a mini happy hour at the hotel's Manhattan Lounge up at the top of the hotel. Nice views :o) While we're there Geoff gets a noodle restaurant recommendation. Now we know what we're doing for dinner.


Now a side note: Tokyo has the coolest taxi action ever! (Not that I've had tons of taxi experience) They drive the Toyota Crown which is LOTS more roomy than the Toyota Corollas of Thailand. (Actually, they also drove the Crowns in Singapore) The neat thing about the Crown is that it has an automatic door. The driver can remotely open/close the rear passenger side door. The taxi drivers in Tokyo are also very presentable. They wear WHITE GLOVES. If they weren't wearing a suit, they at least had on a vest over their button down and tie. Every taxi we rode had a GPS/navigation system. Just cool.

OK, now back to dinner... We'll go to Tsurutontang in Roppongi. The concierge helps us get a reservation and we catch a taxi out front with the help of the doorman/porter/taxi-guy. The taxi drops us off at the streetcorner and points toward the restaurant. Cool! Pay driver... climb out of taxi... okaaaaaay.... which restaurant was he pointing to? Geoff asks a random nice person which restaurant goes with the name on our restaurant-info-print-out provided by the concierge. Cool... we're good now. We're now IN the restaurant and OFF the street where the pimps are trying to drum up business for their "staff". (It really wasn't that bad, if Geoff hadn't pointed them out I don't know that I would've noticed) We enjoyed a deeeeeelicious dinner in our own private room.



Just needed to ring the bell for service :o)


This is not very "American"... it's raw horsemeat.


Yummy, yummy curry udon in my tummy!


After a wonderful meal we taxi over to Ginza and take a few photos among all the big lights.... It's closed by the time we get there. Just perfect... seriously! That way we aren't even tempted to spend the money we don't have :o)

August 3 - Victoria's Peak and more Good Eats

Today we eventually made it OUT of the hotel room to check out the views at Victoria Peak. We walk out of the hotel to the pier where the ferry would take us from the Kowloon shore to Hong Kong Island.



We walked from the pier on Hong Kong Island to the appropriate bus stop at the terminal. We rode the bus to the cable car that would haul us UP, UP, UP to the gift shop. We trekked through the tangle of souvenirs to the bottom of almost a dozen escalator rides up to the observation deck. We stop at escalator ride 5ish to have a Burger King lunch. After proceeding up escalator rides 6 and 7ish we get to the top and take in some pretty amazing views of Hong Kong.



We do everything in reverse(minus the Burger King stop and with the addition of souvenir purchases) and make it back to Kowloon for more deeeeeelicious eating. Once I dig out all the souvenir receipts and what not I hope I can include the names of more restaurants...




Tomorrow we'll make it more low key to gear up for Disneyland Hong Kong! The kids don't know we're going!(tee-hee) Actually T-boy knows... it's our secret. I've forgotten why he was so frumpy that I shared this secret, but hey it worked and he felt cheerier! Started taking steps bigger than 2 cm!

August 2 - Good Eats

OK... Before we EVER LEFT the States my Inay kept telling me to be careful not to lose the kids. That DEFINITELY applies to downtown Hong Kong.


Trying to move around with 4 small kids was tiring, challenging, and stressful. BUT! we still managed to make our way to a wonderful restaurant, Yung Kee on Wellington St. We heard about it from one of G's relatives, Julie, who live lives in Hong Kong. It was DEEEEEELICIOUS. The duck kicked butt! We also had our first taste of "1000 year old egg" AKA "100 year old egg" Century Egg Info. In this region it's typically eaten with a slice of pickled ginger. Geoff and I had to sit with it a minute and decide how adventurous we were going to be... T-boy on the other hand was ready to dive in to the egg adventure. We all loved it!






During a break at the hotel Geoff takes these pictures from our hotel room.



After having Happy Hour drinks and fries we took a night boat cruise and watched the Symphony of Lights. Turner wasn't too hot about getting on a boat but once the light and "laser"(said in the Austin Powers Dr. Evil voice) show started he got over his fears. He still wasn't brave enough to venture to the upper deck where there's a better view... but it turned out. R and Cambo had solid underwear surprises that I needed to clean up and we were the ONLY ones on the lower deck.



After that we have a light dinner where Cambo and R are sleeping on chairs while Flea, T, G, and I enjoy a more quiet meal. Afterwards we walk our way carrying the 2 younger ones to a designated Taxi stand and call it a night. We're going to need more caffeine tomorrow...

July 7 - An afternoon with Jack and Ying

Today Jack and his wife Ying treated us to some fun in Bangkok. He rented us a long tailed boat for a few hours. But before we head out we have another great Thai(with some Chinese influence) meal to fuel up for the afternoon. We also grab a couple bags of good fried stuff(banana, potato, etc) to bring on the boat :o)

First, we check out the Thonburi Snake Farm. We arrived in time to catch the show. I kept Felicia company waaaaay over on the other side of the show. She didn't care for it. There was also a small zoo. The kids enjoyed giving snacks to the monkey... until the food ran out and our hairy cousin was grabbing Turner by the shorts and Ronan by the hair.


Sadly, the snakes and other animals at the "zoo" did not appear well cared for (by American standards) or housed appropriately. It was certainly NOTHING compared to the Smithsonian National Zoo we're used to visiting and even difficult for the adults to stomach. It helps when you've got a neighborhood zoo with lots of money I suppose...

Next we head over to an orchid farm after making merit and feeding fish. The orchids are so beautiful. Too bad I can't take them back with me to the states. But then again... that's only a death sentence for any plant. Better not bring any plants to my house.


After we get back to land the kids and I have a ride-for-fun in a tuk-tuk. The kids love it! We're also catching lots of stares. Not sure if it's because the kids are screaming and waving in glee or that there's SO MANY kids screaming and waving in glee.


Finally Jack and Ying head to their football game(as in soccer) and the Howards head to dinner at Geoff's favorite restaurant. The drive to the restaurant reminds me of going to the Philippines in the 4th grade. We pass fish farms and houses on stilts surrounded by clay pot rain barrels. There's a storm a'brewin'... It's a wonderful dinner...


Jack has been a very thoughtful host who's spent LOTS of time with G. Whether it's working late or just getting us "taken care of" when we call him for help, Jack's sacrificed much of his personal time... Ying must be a very understanding wife :o)

July 1 - Suan Lum Night Bazaar and Puppets

Tonight we taxi to the Joe Louis theater in Bangkok to check out Hun Lakhon Lek, Thai traditional small puppet play. The theater is located at the Suan Lum Night Bazaar so we get there a little early to roam around the market and eat before the show.

We had dinner at the theater restaurant where they were having a "2 for 1" promotion on Singha beer. The waitstaff asked if they could take pictures because they needed to report back to Singha about the promotion... we had a little fun with it.

Finally we enjoyed a wonderful puppet theater show. It was MORE THEATER then it was puppet. The show was of the famous "Ramayana" epic, Ramakien in Thai. Live music performed on traditional Thai instruments. A vocalist performed with the musicians. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance but we got to visit with the puppets afterwards :o) The kids liked the show A LOT!