The First Post of the New Centennium

Well folks, another major milestone has slipped by without anyone really noticing. That's right, the Farang blog aired its 100th post with Tiara's picture of dehydrated ducks, making this officially post number 101. I'd like to say that our core readers were the most congratulatory, but the loving city of Hong Kong has outdone itself with its hospitality.

Just look at the fireworks show they ran for us, pretty darned impressive!

As part of the "Tiara and Ian's 100th post celebration" - curiously abbreviated "New Years 2009" by the city of Hong Kong - fireworks were launched from the rooftops of ten downtown buildings.

Here you can see some of the fireworks shooting off the side of the 2 IFC building (sorry about the streetlight). Note the use of red, green, and gold, the official Farang colors.

We had tried to watch the big show from the bridge out to the Star Ferry Pier, but police officers came through and ushered everyone off of the railing at ten minutes to midnight, ourselves included. Not the way I would treat my guests of honor, but it's important to understand that there are cultural differences here.

Fortunately for me, I had Tiara "eagle eye" Grayson along. Using her unrivaled visual acuity she spied a mostly empty parking garage roof a few blocks away. We made it up to the top floor at 11:59, just in time for our big show. Waves of our adoring fans shortly followed, captured in the picture below:

This crowd of revelers turned out to show their appreciation for the Farang blog. The blurry picture masks their tears of joy and appreciation.

And that, dear readers, is the story of our 101st post.

Happy New Year!

For Sale on the Dried Food Street

Something horrible has happened to these ducks.

A Charlie Cone Christmas

Hi everybody, it's me, charlie!

Happy christmas and kwanza and hannukah and veteran's day! I hope i didn't leave anyone out. I loooooove presents and candy and holidays and i went on a "special investigation" to see christmas in hong kong.

First i asked a nice reindeer to take me to santa so i could ask him holiday questions. (Charlie fact #1: reindeer have very sensitive noses and can smell santa from three miles away or even more if there is no wind).

This reindeer was lazy and didn't take me very far, but it was fun to ride!

I was nervous to see santa because the last time i saw santa it was also christmas except that it was really sad and i got lost. We were on the sleigh and i was wrapped in a box for a little boy named 'kasem shinawathra' and it was dark and noisy but i heard santa say that kasem "just gibbed a kitten with the mower" and wouldn't get any presents. So santa dropped me off in bangkok with barnaby, the "regional warehouse supervisor elf" and he loaded me into a big box with some other animals and we were fedex-ed to the north pole c/o krabin, the "toy redistribution elf". But something went wrong and instead of going back we ended up at the mall in krabi where they sold me for money to ian and tiara so i guess it was okay. Ian and tiara are neat!

Tiara helped me to see santa and also to not get stepped on by the kids that are bigger than me.

I said hi to santa but he didn't remember me and he smelled like moldy grapes and wanted to borrow $20. There were a lot of other kids that wanted to see santa so i couldn't ask him about making toys and how to grow a white beard and who his new favorite ice cream cone kid is since he doesn't like me any more. Santa if you are reading this then i say shame on you for pretendeding not to know charlie your favorite ice cream cone kid, and also to please pay me back the money on the first like you promised.

After we saw santa tiara and ian went to go buy christmas foods at the mall and i got to look around. I found santa again but i don't think he was feeling well (maybe all the moldy grapes!) and he wouldn't move or speak or give high-fives.

Santa was maybe in a comma or dead but i took my picture anyway

I gave up and went and rode up and down the escalator for an hour while tiara and ian finished shopping.

These are escalators, i don't know if you've played on them before but they're really fun and you can walk down the one that's going up but stay in the same place!

I was tired from all the excitement but tiara and ian wanted to look at the lights so we went on a ferry and looked at the lights and they were pretty and not as blurry as they look in the pictures i took.

Here's a hotel. It looked like it had falling snow but it wasn't real snow because it glowed yellow and didn't fall to the ground and it tasted like glass and burned my tongue when i tried to lick it.

Here's a tilty shot of what the buildings look like across the harbor.

I know that i am supposed to be a good reporter but i fell asleep on the ferry back because i was very tired from running up and down the escalator. But when i woke up in the morning there was a box for me from santa!

This is me opening presents. Charlie fact #2: I loooooooooove presents.

Santa gave me my favorite thing, chocolates! I guess he remembered his 'ol pal charlie cone after all :)

This chocolate says 'alexandre le grand' on it. I like to eat chocolates with people heads on them, i eat the noses first

Okay, that's the charlie report. Ian says i should end it with something like "happy holidays from everyone at the farang team," but yesterday he called santa "dirty" and "probably homeless" so i'm not going to.

Flower Signage: Long-Leaved Sterculia

Please Do Not Fall Off Cliffs

Pictorial representations on signs of forbidden actions can be much more dynamic here.

Free Hong Kong: Chrysanthemum Show

We are continuing to take advantage of all the free things Hong Kong has to offer. Earlier this week we went to the chrysanthemum show at the Yueng Yueng Institute in the New Territories. It was a pretty serious trek to get out there, necessitating three different modes of transportation (tram, metro, and minibus), but it was well worth it. Seeing all these flowers set among temples, incense, and lanterns made me feel like I was seeing a piece of China as I envisioned it when I was a kid. Here's the picture dump:

Pretty!

Chrysanthemum pheasants...or peacocks.

We loved this statue of a melty old man.

In addition to the beautiful flower displays, the neighboring monastery and temple were stunning. What these pictures sadly can't capture is the otherworldy chanting the monks were performing. Our new camera will have a better video function, so we can bring you sounds in addition to sights.

I love this photo. Temples, silk, lanterns - so many cliched yet very beautiful images of China all in the same picture. Also, how great are those colors?

I got a little carried away taking photos of lanterns.

Cantonese hedges.

McPie a la McMode

As part of my effort to document our declining standards for 'Western food,' I've photographed one of my favorite deserts from this trip:

A McDonald's take on an American classic

It's morally-abhorrently delicious! Hey, that's not a half-bad slogan... Take note, McDonald's marketing department.

Flower Signage: Pond Spice

Another good sign from the peak:

Free Hong Kong: Hong Kong Park

Hong Kong has a surprising amount of dedicated parks and green spaces. Hong Kong Park, in the central district, is an extensive park with nice landscaping, fountains, and museums. Our two favorite free attractions here were the conservatory and the aviary. The conservatory, though small, had a nice collection of desert and tropical plants. The aviary was spectacular. You walk through the space on an elevated wooden walkway. We were fortunate in our timing - they'd just put out lots of fruit so the birds were all in full view, snacking away. The aviary had a large variety of birds, including parrots, pelicans, pheasants, kingfishers, and all sorts of things my bird-watching parents would get very excited about. Best of all, it was free, free, free!

Elevated walkways in the aviary.

Holiday art displays in the park.

Flower Signage: Long-Flowered Ehretia

The Peak

The Peak is the tallest point on Hong Kong Island. We took the bus up here for some city views that we were hoping would be spectacular, but which were actually pretty smoggy. The bus ride was really fun, though. The city buses here are all double-decker, and the prime seats are in the very front on the upper level. It was pretty exhilarating to experience the steep road and tight turns with nothing in front of us but the windshield.

There are some nice trails around the peak, and it was nice to get away from the city streets for awhile. We also enjoyed the informational signs about the different foliage we could see on the trail. The writer had a bit of a poetic, romantic streak. Stay tuned for more of these signs in the next few days.

View of Hong Kong's central district from the top.

In case you were wondering what mainland China looks like from Hong Kong, there it is! Smog, smog, smog.

Ian loves these trees.

Good flower signage. Click on the photo to read the text.

The Best Latte Of Our Trip

Those of you who were around me over the summer know that I developed what might be politely described as a "latte fixation." I attempted to break this habit at the start of the trip, as a latte in Thailand cost as much as two meals. Later, in Laos, the price of meals went up and lattes seemed comparatively reasonably priced, though in real dollar terms they were the same as in Thailand (~$1.50 USD). My latte habit was reborn, albeit without the organic, fair trade, bourgeois beans of California.

All of this set-up is to explain that I've been drinking mediocre, over-priced coffee for the last month or so. Until today. Today, I tried the cheapest latte I've seen offered in Hong Kong, and it was delicious, far surpassing the dregs I've been served elsewhere. Enough suspense, here's the coffee:

Mmmmmm, McLatte

Such is the price of addiction, dear readers. I've gone from high-principled consumption of shade-grown sustainable beans that empower indigenous peoples to the coffee of McDonalds, ecological disaster incarnate, pillager of the underclass, fattener of our children. How swiftly morals are abandoned to serve the almighty (Hong Kong) Dollar.

Here's a slightly blurry photo of the sumptuous McCafe:

A McBarista prepares a McLatte while the McCustomer (Susan McFong) waits for her McOrder

Free Hong Kong: Chinese Instrumental Concert

Hong Kong has a reputation for being expensive.  We're out to prove otherwise with our "Free Hong Kong" series.  We've found some directories of free events happening in the city in the next month, so we'll be getting as much free entertainment as we want.  Our first event was a Chinese instrumental concert held in a park downtown.  The music was lovely and it was a relief to hear the Chinese violin make sweet sounds, rather than those horrible high-pitched scratching noises generated by the Chinese violinist on the Berkeley campus.

Hair Salon Engrish

I think I'd prefer the Good Hair Salon or even, dare I say it, the Excellent Hair Salon.  However, this place is definitely a cut above the Half Bad Hair Salon.

First Days in Hong Kong

We love Hong Kong already. There's way more to see and do here than in Bangkok, and there was plenty to do in Bangkok! We've just about finished recuperating from our train trip, flight, and lingering colds, so we are starting to explore. There will be many, many more pictures where these came from, but here are some to whet your palate.

Our first impression of Hong Kong was what you see on TV: the hustle and bustle, the dense skyscrapers, and the futuristic architecture:

Double-decker tram cars. This is the most convenient mode of public transportation to our apartment, and definitely the most fun.

The controversial Bank of China building, designed by I.M. Pei. Apparently all its angles make for bad feng shui.

Hong Kong is the future!

Amazingly, in the midst of all that chaos, commerce, and construction, there are serene parks, incense-infused temples, intense Christmas lights, and, of course, the Chairman:

Flamingos!

We stayed at this temple (the Man Mo Temple) for approximately 30 seconds before our eyes started stinging and our throats burned from all the incense.

Mind Your Edibles Part 2: Sign Engrish

Here's the long awaited second half of the 'Mind Your Edibles' series, featuring signs from the food market at Chiang Rai. I did my best to make them readable, but I've also typed out some of the delectable food options.

These read like short, sometimes grammatically correct sentences.
Left: The Moustache is Tiny Squid Roasts, The Demon Moustache Squid Roasts, The Banana Squid/Egg Squid Roasts.
Right: The Shrimp Burns, The Meatball Fries Every The Wood, The Ark Shell Scalds/Burns

This stand also features the popular "The Demon Moustache Squid Roasts," but offers up more traditional fare, like "Hor Deuver." I particularly like the presentation of "Shrimp Burns," as it sounds more like a service than a dish.