emails from hong kong, macao and thailand, january 1999

EMAILS FROM HONG KONG, MACAU AND THAILAND

Subject: i am drinking a tall skim latte in HK
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 18:44:18 -0800 (PST)

Got into HK last night after a LONG flight. My friend Ashraf lives in
a neighbourhood called Mid-Levels... called that because it is halfway
up the hill. So you take the escalator down. Literally... there is an
incredibly long escalator that commuters take down in the morning and
then up for the rest of the day. Goes through several
neighbourhoods... takes maybe 20 minutes. So that's what I did this
morning... and got off in a maze of malls, walkways and ferry terminals
and now I am trying to find my way out. But I stopped for a coffee at
a Starbucks clone and they have free Internet. So here you are.

I like what I've seen so far... lots of tall buildings, lots of smaller
mildewing ones, lots of rushing about business people, lots of old
Chinese men sitting around in odd placesreading the paper.

So now I'm off... see if I can find my way around.

Subject: my cow? no, macau
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 21:01:24 -0800 (PST)

Went to Macau yesterday on the Turbocat ferry. It was so incredible
that I'm thinking of starting a fan club. Though I don't know if the
atmosphere will change next New Year's, when the Chinese take over and
the Portugese go home. It is definately a singular place. Well, HK is
as well... but Macau is good Mediterranean singular, as opposed to HK
strange corporate-blends-with-British singular. All blended with
Chinese. Though I do like HK...this place has views like no
other... the top of Victoria's Peak at night... the crossing on the Star
Ferry at day.... the promenade along Kowloon's waterfront....the lobby
bar at the Regent Hotel. I liked that one best cause you could sit in
a comfy chair and have a glass of Cab :). Floor to ceiling windows
looking out at the bay and the whole skyline of HK Island glimmering
by night. Cause all the views glimmer... in the smoggy mist at day or
the many lights past dark. And they are all of skyscrapers.

But Macau is piazze newly paved with mosaics and colonial architecture
all painted gold and pink and mint green and pedestrian walkways and
Portugese out door cafes. And everything Chinese as well... temples (a
woman was watching TV in one) and strange food stalls and funeral
shops with piles of paper money to be ritually burnt. And (on the
Protugese side) lots and lots of Catholic churches. Including the
ruins of Sao Paolo, which is just a gorgeous facade at the top of a
magnificent flight of stairs. And everything is beautifullly lit at
night. And the people are much friendlier and laid-back than in
HK... again, I would suppose the result of being colonized by the
Portugese, rather than the British. And also (perhaps even more) the
result of having casino gambling rather than high finance being the
foundation of your economy. Lots of casinos, though I spent more time
in church.

I might even go back to Macau tommorrow or Monday. I want to go to at
least one of HK's outlying islands, but today I'm taking a little
break from the sightseeing. I have, finally, gotten over the jetlag.
So now I'm off to take a walk around Ash's neighbourhood and have some
lunch and pretend I live here and see what that's like. LOVE, MARIA

Subject: bangkok
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 04:52:51 -0800 (PST)

Dear Everyone ---

I'm in Bangkok...got here on Tuesday, It is HOT! Not too bad in the
evening and in the mornings, but my tolerence is very low. I think it
is my curse that I love hot weather places and hate hot weather.

Thailand is really lovely...and the people live up to their
reputation...so friendly and easygoing. Even the people who are trying
to scam you don't seem to be trying very hard (especially compared to
my experiences in India). I'm staying near Khao San Road, which is a
big travelers' scene, but also cheap and very convienent. The boat
down the river to all the major sights is just around the corner and
by walking they're not very far either. The first day I got here I
just rode the boat back and forth (the temple spires peeking up on all
sides among the low level crush of buildings and the haze of smog) and
had dinner at a riverside restaurant. And then went and bought a cheap
dress on Khao San Rd. Then on Wednesday I went sightseeing...went to a
great museum...Jim Thompson's House. A crazy guy from Delaware stayed
on after WWII and rebuilt several traditional Thai houses he gathered
from around the country...and decorated them really, really well.
Amazing collection of Thai antigues and art. And beautifuly landscaped
grounds...very peaceful, away from the urban cacophony. Jim himself
disappeared mysteriously in the forests of Malaysia in the '60's.

Then wandered down the walk along the canal that Jim's house is on and
met some people who live along there...very friendly. It was a Muslim
section of Bangkok and the man I spoke to was Muslim, though he was
not dressed in traditional Muslim clothes (and neither was his wife,
who was busy cooking on her little roadside stall grill..."muslim
food" the man said). Several men in traditional clothing did pass by,
on their way back from the mosque. I wonder if they were from the
southern part of the Thai paninsula, where there is a strong
Malay-influenced Muslim community, and the man I meant was more native
to Bangkok. Ah, but then I theorize.....When I said I was from
Chicago, he said (immediately and of course and with a big grin )
"CHICAGO BULLS!" His son hailed a passing boat-bus for me and off I
went along with the commuters, passing all the little houses and shops
hanging over the water's edge.

Then toured some wats (Thai temple compunds which encompass schools
and community centres as well as places of worship and monks'
quarters) and climbed to the top of the Golden Mount ( a temple built
on a hill which gives you a great view of otherwise flat BKK). Then
walked home, stopping in a wat for a while a chatting with a monk and
some students. The monk had been to the US (Alaska, NY, LA and South
Dakota!) and said every day he dreams of America! So even monks aren't
exempt from USAfascination. He's returning in June to Seattle for the
opening of a temple. I ate Mister Donuts with the students and the
monk had a popsicle.

Yesterday some heavy duty touristing... National Museum, the Grand
Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and Wat Po, which houses
a huge reclining gold Buddha as well as the School of Traditional
Massage. I got a one hour massage in a big open room filled with mats
on reaised platforms, the Thai massage students chatting, children
playing in the temple courtyard outside and traffic clunking by
outside the temple walls. Then I met 3 American guys there to take a
massage course...Sage, a professional skateboarder who was amusing the
crowd outside the school with his board, Aman, a Goth whose card
identified him as a Reverand Magus as well as a licensed massage
therapist, and Dicken, who didn't seem to have anything extraordinary
to identify him. They were all from the Northwest and so said "wow,
harsh" when I said I was from Philly. Sage ate fried locusts from a
street cart...deep-fried baby birds and bugs were also on hand. He
couldn't convince me to try it, though I have been loving the food
here. I think one of my favourite experiences has been wandering (both
yesterday and the day before) through the amulet market by Wat Maharat
and having lunch there. They have rows and rows of stalls selling
amulets of the Buddha, as well as the King and Queen, which the Thais
collect with a passion. And little resturants where I could point to
what I wanted (dished out like a cafeteria) and then eat with the
lunch hour crowd.

Tommorrow I leave in the morning for Ko Chang, where I will hopefully
find an island paradise (or hopefully, at least, a room... hordes of
travelers here).

BYE BYE! Love, MARIA

Subject: swim, dry, sleep , eat, swim, dry, sleep, eat....
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 07:47:51 -0800 (PST)

Dear Everyone ---

I woke up at 6 AM this morning so that I could see the sky go light my
last day on the island. It was splendid.

Ko Chang was really fantastic. It is getting built up, but still is
quite deserted. I stayed on the quieter, lass crowded, less raving
beach... a little palm hut two steps from the water. An amazing view
from my little front porch... the outlying islands, framed with trees
and facing west for the sunset. Great food, too, as has been the case
everywhere here. (I just came back from dinner on the street...tom yum
soup and a Singha beer at a roadside restaurant, followed by a chicken
satay from a satay cart that was so good I had to go back for one
more...and at 5 baht a stick, a bargain, given that it is 35 baht to
the dollar.)

But back to the castaway island... on my third day there I discovered
Lonely Beach. You have to hike 20 minutes through the jungle, up and
down hills to get there, but your reward is a pristine beach,
surrounded by a coconut palm farm and the mountains right behind.
Maybe 25 people scattered along the long beach, in various stages of
undress, the perfectly clear water stretching out in
front.......... and luckily for me, little palm shelters providing some
shade for very white skin. At the end of the beach was the Tree House
Lodge, run by a German couple...a total hippie place, but really
beautifully done, with gorgeous huts and a big open restaurant where
you could lie around on mats looking at the water and listening to
Hendrix for as long as you pleased. And, again, really great food.
Next time, that's the place to stay. (Greg --- it was like Kovalam
maybe twelve years, fifteen years ago, but with better water and
mountains. And no ladies with machetes.)

Later that night, I met two girls from the States who had just
finished two years in Russia with the Peace Corps, a Dutch couple, a
Yorkshire couple and crazy older French-Canadian-now-a-Californian
lady who were all hanging out together. I joined them and we had very
fun dinners, as well as a day snorkling on one of the outer islands. I
guess the snorkling wasn't too good---coral wasn't colouful and not
too many fish---but since this was my first successful snorkling
attempt (Martina, remember Mazatlan?) I was bowled over and had a
fantastic time.

Getting back to BKK is a shock, especially since I know that with
India coming up, any thing resembling the peace I experienced on Kai
Bae Beach won't be around for awhile. But I am completely relaxed now,
especially after the hour-long, lying-on-the-sand Thai massage I had
yesterday. I think the little massage lady rebuilt me muscle by muscle
and vertarae by vertabrae!

See you in that magical land known as...

LOVE, MARIA


Subject: one last bangkok word
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 06:11:45 -0800 (PST)

Frustrating and amazing day... after going to the post office to send
my dirty clothes back to my parents (isn't that sweet? They are
clothes I won't use in India, but unfortunately are quite
dirty... sorry, Mom.), I tried to get to the Weekend Market, a huge,
huge bazaar selling EVERYTHING you can imagine. But a combination of
bad directions and buses that you had to wait for for 1 hour meant it
took me three to get there. but when I did... WOW. Miles of tents with
booths upon booths. I kept ending up in the fish section... there were
a choice of them, however. Tropical fish, goldfish, bait fish and
flattened and dried fish. Needless to say, the flattened and dired
variety were the hardest to take. I also saw

*My first cockfight
*Very healithy live pigeons for sale (and not in the pet section)
*Lots of little gerbil/squirrel/chipmunk things on little leashes (in
the pet section)
*All of Bangkok punks. There seemed to be 5. One was a little boy
about age ten with an orange Mohawk. The neader of the group was
tattoed everywhere including his face and was shouting into a
microphone accompanied by the little boy on drums. They were selling
beads and things. There was lots of dried fish next to them.
*A lot of Hello Kitty stuff.
*A lot of fake fruit.
*A lot of real fruit.
*A lot of different satay stalls, including sausages on sticks, which,
I think, needs to be introduced into Chicago Thai restaurants.
*More fish.

It was very interesting. And, again, the Thai people are so great.
Ever so nice when you bother them... and they basically ignore you if
you don't. The only really disturbing thing, that I still really can't
stomach, are all the Western men with their bought-for-a-day Thai
girlfriends. There were quite a few of those on Ko Chang... take a
beach vacation and bring along an instant eighteen year old girlfriend
for the week. I find it especially disturbing when you see (and there
are quite a few) young, twentysomething guys, not bad-looking, doing
the tourist sights with one of the women. Really pathetic.

But otherwise......