Our 2nd Annual Mega 5s Tournament

This weekend was the annual Mega 5s hockey tournament in Hong Kong. Sam arrived on Wednesday to coach his Bangkok Warriors team in the Youth Division and I landed on Friday to catch him play in the Adult division with a team called the Tokyo Canadians (picture several Japanese adult men, most of whom attended boarding school or exchange programs in the US/Canada and one half Japanese/half Russian man with lots of energy).

Have you ever noticed the beauty of stacked airport trolleys?

Looking up from my seat in the waiting area.

My flight ended up being quite delayed Friday night but I had a fine time at the airport with my $10USD courtesy coupon from the airline (hah!) and my camera. It doesn't take much to keep me entertained, I guess.

Tonkatsu sandwich:
so unhealthy and delicious.
Perfect airport food.

I ended up arriving at our hotel at 5am Saturday and caught a few hours of beauty rest before waking up for Sam's 9:30am game. Only then did I realize the extreme tininess of our hotel room. Even if I did have a picture, it wouldn't fully convey the unbelievably cramped but well-utilized space we had reserved for $60USD/night. Hong Kong has always impressed me with its efficient use of space and this room was a particularly excellent example. Picture a Hong Kong double bed (yes, it's its own size and smaller than a standard Ikea one) wedged into a perfectly carved nook on the left, a 10-inch aisle between the edge of the bed and the opposite wall to the bathroom and a tiny desk/refrigerator nook on the right side of the room at the head of the bed (just enough to make you feel like you had space while laying your head down for the night).

Typical HK buildings.

After drowsily shuffling around the room (one of us had to sit on the bed so the other could walk past), we took a few slices of stale bread from the breakfast buffet and made our way to the rink. Located on the 10th floor of the Mega Box mall on the Kowloon side (opposite side of harbour from Central downtown districts), this hockey rink has the most beautiful backdrop I've ever seen for the sport.

The mall parking lot turned into a hockey locker room.

Upper level view through the net.

Scoreboard before the game: Tokyo v Abu Dhabi.

There's my guy! Red jersey, blue shorts, yellow socks.

Lovely view of the harbour behind the bench.

I got to watch Sam score a beautiful goal in the Saturday morning game and we stayed afterward to drink beer, chat and people-watch. These international hockey tournaments in Asia attract a very interesting crowd, so it's endlessly enjoyable to just sit back and observe the happenings around the rink. Following a day of hockey and a much-needed nap, we went to meet Sam's Tokyo teammates around 9pm for a night out on the town.

The streets in the main bar area,
Lan Kwai Fong a.k.a. LKF. PACKED!

Remember the hills of HK?
My legs sure do!

Out with Toni, our friend and former roomie in HK,
and one of the Tokyo players behind.

A trip to Hong Kong wouldn't be complete without having some of my favorite foods. First up - Paisano's New York style pizza. We don't have any pizza by the slice places quite like this in Bangkok and it was such a treat to get a taste of this simple deliciousness. 

One of my favorite HK sights.

Speaking of delicious: xiao long bao (soupy pork dumplings) are also an important item for any itinerary in Hong Kong. We squeezed ours in at the airport on Sunday along with some chili oil wontons and soup. While I'm not the biggest fan of some traditional Hong Kong foods, there are some absolute standouts and these are at the top for me.

Xiao long bao - YUM.

Now that I'm finished drooling, here are some photos from my quick adventures around town.

Seen in Central, Hong Kong.

Sundays in HK:
domestic helpers take to public spaces to gather with friends.
On rainy days, they find what shelter is available.

My view from the double decker public bus.
My favorite way to get around.

Oddly comforting, homey feeling to see Chinese characters.

And of course, no trip to China is complete without taking note of the signs. First, baby formula. In case this news didn't make it across the globe, there is a serious issue in HK of people smuggling baby powder across the border into mainland China where consumers aren't confident in domestic formula brands.

Warning about baby formula quantities.

Now for a classic sign. Directed towards mainlanders who are generally accustomed to squat toilets, these signs are found in many tourist places throughout HK. This one brought to you by the mall that hosted the hockey tournament. Yes, malls are tourist destinations, especially in Asia.

That brings me to the end of our trip, where Hong Kong Airlines didn't really redeem itself in the timely departure category (though they were only 2 hours late this time, instead of 3.5). They did, however, do us a wonderful favor of upgrading us to business class - without us even asking! Before we knew about the upgrade (given to us as we walked through the gate to the plane), I took some more airport photos to pass the time while reflecting on a whirlwind, fun trip back to one of my favorite cities in the world!

Glow from the setting sun hits the terminal.

A beautiful take-off over the hills.

Looking up.

What I've Been Told Lately

Here's an account of some notable things I've heard lately alongside some mostly non-related photos for your viewing pleasure and happy hearts (scroll down).

Walking into a massage shop to see if they are open, Sam and I are told that it is a 'gentleman only' spa. These spas are certainly not an uncommon thing here in Bangkok, but we usually don't walk into them!

The 1 time I brought my phone out on our island trip.

The principal comes into my classroom at 11am Friday May 1: 'Have you heard from Maddy?' No, I hadn't. She is one of our teachers who was due to be in school 2.5 hours ago. Turns out to have been a fairly common, runaway after payday (April 30) with literally ZERO communication to anyone at our school. We know she's safe though because she's uploading pictures of her current island vacation to Instagram.

My new TA, Miu (pronounced 'mew'), with our students.

While wearing my signature anti-sweat guard (a Rosie the Riveter inspired bandana), my student Liam points to me and says, "rabbit." Oh, children. So direct.

End-of-the-day hugs from my munchkins. 

Wara+Adam: Our First Thai Wedding!

I have long dreamed of attending a Thai wedding and am so thrilled that the first (and probably only one) was a celebration of our friends Adam and Wara. Sam and Adam have been playing ice hockey together and he was one of our first friends in Bangkok. He's a Canadian international school teacher who has previously worked in Korea and now Thailand. Wara is a super smart, charming woman from a Thai family whose business is to build temples. Apparently the company is widely known (they just built a temple in Boston) and this wedding was a key affair for the family's friends and business contacts alike.

The wedding invitation.

The wedding took place on the final Sunday of the New Year holiday and we were invited to the celebration at 6pm even though the Thai ceremonies began about 12 hours before that! Talk about a long day. I'm not sure of the exact sequence of events, but I know it included:

• A parade riding on elephants' backs through a village for which they hired extras. Yes, extras as if it were a movie set.
• An obstacle course that Adam had to get through in order to find Wara. His favorite? When Wara's friends made him yell, "Waraporn Boonmeerit, I love you!" at the top of his lungs.
• A ceremony in which the family blesses the newlyweds' bed and then everyone takes pictures of them laying in it.

Adam and Wara during the Thai ceremonies.

We ventured out to the reception venue by way of BTS (our public light-rail train) as far west as it goes. From there we took a taxi for about an hour through the suburban sprawl of Bangkok. We were speeding along through this much less densely populated area until we happened upon a bit of a traffic jam and policemen directing traffic. Yes. We had arrived at the wedding. Along with 1500 other people, about 15 of them being foreigners.

Our sole photo with the bride and groom.

After trying and failing to evade the MCs (there were two), we gave an interview for the whole audience to view on the live monitors dispersed throughout the venue and immediately took a strategic seat near the bar.  Here, we chatted with Adam's other teacher friends and Sport Corner bar owner, Tim, who sponsored the boys' hockey team for the past several seasons.

Our farang fan section.

We chowed down and enjoyed the neverending booze while watching the livefeed of Adam and Wara's whereabouts at the venue. This was interrupted with a montage of the day's events that had led up to this moment. Their AV crew must have been BUSY putting all the footage together and showing it on the same day. After that, we all watched some interview snippets from their engagement photo session where they talk about how they met, etc. The highlight? The music videos that Adam and Wara made to songs like "Just the Two of Us," "Call Me Maybe," and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" 

They stood here for about an hour while
guests came to take photos with them.

We were definitely the most rowdy guests there. While most people trickled out after the buffet ended, the foreigners hung around dancing like no one was watching (because they weren't) and eventually we took the hint, as staff put every single other piece of furniture away except our table and chairs, that we needed to move to the after party. Here, we had some lovely quality time with Adam and Wara in their Thai style residence at the reception venue. We definitely stayed out too late, but it was a celebration well worth the exhaustion the following day at work. What an experience!

Our little area of the venue.

FOOD!

L to R: Sam, Michael (brother of the groom), Adam (groom),
Tim (Sport Corner owner),  Som (Tim's girlfriend)

Me writing in one of about 50 guestbooks.

Thai couples take wedding photos *before* the wedding
and display them at the reception.

Like this.

My favorite photo on display.

We were up close to the action and also had the live monitor!

Lots of wai-ing - bowing.

A Few Days in Paradise: Koh Ngai

After celebrating one day of the Thai New Year (Songkran) in the world's largest water fight, we went in the complete opposite direction of crowded chaos. We took a flight down to Krabi (one of my favorite places in Thailand due to its breathtaking limestone karst mountains and islands), spent the night and on the next day navigated our way even further south to the island of Koh Ngai.

Pit stop on the drive from Krabi to Trang.

From the initial conception of this trip, we realized something. We've already visited most of the places we had on our wish list in this region. We had to dig a lot deeper to find a place that interested us for this holiday. Of course there is an infinite amount of interesting places we have not yet traveled to, but keeping in mind travel time, cost, and tourist visa procedures, we settled on Koh Ngai: not too far, within country, Thai prices and no need for a visa. Added bonus - this place is QUIET.

Looking back from the pier in Trang.

Our resort was secluded from the other parts of the island except by some treks through the jungle which I wasn't suited for with my sprained ankle. We pretty fully experienced the private resort feeling except for the time a speedboat filled with Russian tourists came by for the afternoon.

Trang pier.

We took a longtail boat to a neighboring beach for a couple meals. This beach had several resorts/hotels and even a camping site. Still, the island probably had only a couple hundred tourists on it while we were there and it was delightful to be in such a relaxed environment without the crowds of Thailand's more famous islands that attract thousands upon thousands of us unruly foreigners.

On the ferry to Koh Ngai!

Highlights of the trip include an amazing steamed fish dinner, massage on the beach, snorkeling, finding a gorgeous viewpoint and sinking our kayak.

Just me, F. Scott Fitzgerald, a Leo beer and
some garbage for the boat ride.

Yes. We sunk our kayak while out for our snorkeling/viewpoint finding adventure that was two bays away and apparently too much for the boat to handle. Or we're just your average fat farang (foreigner in Thai). In any case, we were treated with some unexpected and lovely snorkeling (in retrospect) while swimming our kayak out to a Thai fishing boat. We then proceeded to very nearly flip said Thai fishing boat when they tried to bring our waterlogged kayak aboard. We ditched that idea and towed it behind instead. This was all fine and dandy until we got to our beach during the lowest tide and were met with a minefield of coral at the surface riddled with sea urchins. 

A sampling of sea urchins.

It was like a real life video game. How fun! No, that's not what I was thinking at the time. But after a 60-minute adventure through what should have taken 5 minutes, I was able to see a brighter side to things. That still didn't stop my panic attack while swimming next to our broken boat in the open sea from triggering an episode of hives which I have only now (2 weeks later) gotten over thanks to some drugs from my favorite Thai doctor.

Scenes from the Andaman Sea.

So, we survived the sinking kayak. We spent several days in paradise. We read tons of books. I experienced a self-imposed separation from my 3G network. At the end, I felt so far removed from our regular life in Bangkok and was ready to get back to the luxuries of 7-11 and quit worrying about whether the seas would be too rough for us to return to the mainland for our flight home. Yes, my anxiety found it's way into paradise, too. But thanks to yoga and a new meditation practice, it doesn't stick around for long.

The rough seas we arrived on made me nervous
about getting back in time for our flight.

But luckily we were treated with calm seas
for the rest of our stay and departure.

The neighboring beach with more resorts and restaurants.

Our beach.

We spent most days sitting here reading in the shade.

Lovely afternoon sun.

Low tide, children fishing. 

Coral at low tide.

Clams? I love these.

My favorite.

My foot is underwater - so clear!

Our digs.

Throwing bread to make the fish go nuts at our pier.
This is also what is was like when we were snorkeling.

Our return ferry to the mainland.

Cheesin'.

Handsome love, calm seas. Happy times!