Goboogo

After an exhausting day through the airports of Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Los Angeles; we finally arrived home in Dallas. We were greeted at the airport by our driver and confidant, Monsieur Lou (pictured below). He was dapper as always.

We spent our last day in Hong Kong shopping in the Kowloon area. We hit up the ladies market, temple street night market, jade market, and a bunch of malls. It was a great way to cap off the trip. We both realized how much we love Hong Kong. and can definitely see an extended stay there in the near future. Kristin and I are both open to suggestions for our next big trip, which will take place at some point in the first half of 2010. We are leaning towards a road trip and camping adventure through Australia, but anything is possible. Keep checking the blog, we are planning a couple of week long trips in the coming months (Montana and New England), and are going to update at least weekly with randomness. Tomorrow, I will post our final ratings for each locale.

It took me until the last day, but I finally found peanut butter toast

Busy Kowloon

Crossing the street

Around the Temple Street Night Market. lots of shirtless guys

This guy was trimming his beard with small scissors

A neon corner

Kristin's chicken fried rice

A Hong Kong park at night

The very cramped Ladies Market, which actually

sells more than just ladies stuff

Today we left behind the swath of wild that is Borneo to head to the ultra modern Singapore. Our flight to Singapore brought us through Kuching, Malaysia, where we were treated to an unexpected cultural treat. Apparently, the ruler of Sabah (Northern Borneo) was on our flight, and when we disembarked our flight, we were afforded a glimpse of the Malaysian royal treatment. There was a long red carpet spread out and beyond eyesight. Droves of men and women in traditional Kuching dress were there to greet the ruler with drums, flowers, and song. The ruler of Sabah was visiting Kuching for a summit between Malay leaders and royalty. It was the most cultural layover ever.

Our arrival in Singapore came without incident. The airport is very sterile and very large with the character of a sultan's shopping mall. We are so used to hitting the ground running that we dropped our bags off in our airport hotel, headed straight for the subway station, and then just sort of shrugged our shoulders and stared at the subway map without any idea of where to go. With no guide, we decided to go with our intuition. We chose to buy a ticket to a stop that was an intersection of lines, and one that sounded official. The "Raffles Place" stop became our destination, which just happened to be right in the middle of everything, with the sky grabbing buildings and a bunch of historical sites just steps away. Singapore on a Sunday is very quiet and, of course, very clean. Singapore has a reputation of being one of the cleanest cities in the world, with huge fines for littering, a ban on public gum chewing (and the selling of most types of gum), and other similar rules. We were determined to find a dirty street, and after some sleuthing, we did. I included a picture below of the horrific mess. Funny thing, about 30 seconds after we saw the litter and garbage, we saw a woman with a broom cleaning up the mess.

We ate lunch at an English pub on the waterfront called The Penny Black. They had a 2 for 1 lunch offer and, after realizing how expensive Singapore is, it was a welcome deal. We both purchased lunch, and then blindsided by disappointment when the bill came. We had to use a citibank card to receive the discount. A citibank card that we did not possess. We quietly bitched amongst ourselves and moved on. That is sort of how we feel about Singapore, the whole process of buying lunch and being screwed by the fine print is a perfect metaphor for Singapore. It is a very western, beautiful, and modern city, but you pay for it. I dislike Singapore for the same reason that I cannot stand London, and that is because its prices defy rational economics. Whenever I feel that a market price is far beyond what is necessary and reasonable for what a general basket of goods should cost, I feel that it incites unhealthy general economic reactions. I will actually just stop right now, because I am sure none of you want to hear about my opinions on what I call binge and purge economics. We were at a restaurant where a small bottle of Fiji water cost 14 Singapore dollars (about 10 US). That is so stupid that we could never logically like a city that produces such an environment.

After our lunch, we walked around Singapore. We took in a cricket game and watched rich old men playing what appeared to be a bocce ball type of arrangement. It was a relaxing Singaporean afternoon, and after felling a little parched, we stopped by Raffles Hotel. Raffles Hotel is an institution in Singapore. The Singapore Sling was invented there, and it a very famous and esteemed hotel that has had a lot of personalities come through its doors. We hit up the bar where the sling was invented, and ordered two. The long bar in the Raffles Hotel has a strange mix of old world pomp and what seemed like southern hospitality. It felt like Georgia or something. They supplied complimentary peanuts on each table and the floor was covered with discarded husks. It was definitely a welcome environment from a place that we were initially worried would be too upscale for our tattered clothing. We played "The Price is Right," trying to figure out how much the drinks would cost. I guessed 14 Singapore dollars. Kristin guessed 17. The Singapore Slings were 25 Singapore dollars apiece. I think that is like 18 USD. They were very tasty beverages, but not that good. Imagine buying a round for 8 people, yeah, not fun.

We were approached by a Buddhist asking for demanding donations. He slapped bracelets on our wrists, and a good luck prayer paper in my pocket. We figured we could get him off of our back for 1 dollar. I mean, we both want all gods to find us as generous as possible, but Singapore had already broken us financially. I gave him a dollar coin, and he asked for 50! He showed us his sheet of donations, filled with 50 and 100 dollar donations and signatures. Hilariously, they all appeared to be in the same writing, presumably filled in by him to dupe dumb rubes. We laughed and told him that we were poor. He let us keep our bracelets. But, something was still amiss. On his sheet, I was filling in what I wished for (in writing) on his sheet, my choices being happiness or peace. When he found out that we were a couple of brokes, he interrupted my writing, and sent us away. As we walked off, I realized that I had not wished for happiness or peace, but instead just "Hap." I have no idea what that means.