The Best Laid Plans…

Written by Aus aboard a flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Thailand on March 16, 2011



Well as the title suggests, we have been diverted from our planned route of travel.  We were hoping to see Japan before meeting my parents in China next week, but for obvious reasons we have opted to cancel our visit.  We sure hope that things improve for them soon, and that the country doesn't experience a nuclear meltdown as the news media likes to sensationalize.  We are of course sad that we won't get to see the country on this trip, but it sure feels selfish and small-minded to consider our inconvenience relative to the troubles most Japanese are experiencing.  So we are making the best of our situation, and hoping for improvement of their situation.

Anyhow, we were left without a plan.... and we had about 12 days to kill. We considered many different options, including southern China, Taiwan, and even South Korea, but in the end we decided to go back to Thailand.  I was definitely curious to see South Korea, but after spending a bunch of time in Hong Kong and Macau, we felt we were ready to get a break from big cities, so Seoul was less appealing.  Plus, we have been attracted since the time we left Thailand to get back there as we felt there were parts left undone, and to make our decision even easier, we learned as well that we would get to see our friends Tim, Terry, and Rachel who we spent time with on Koh Chang on our last visit to Thailand.  This time we are all bound for Koh Tao on the west side of the Gulf of Thailand, and we are quite excited.  Hopefully the weather is decent, as we have left it a bit late for visiting Thailand now and it is getting hot and approaching rainy season. 

If we had any idea that the earthquake and its resulting consequences were on the horizon, we likely would have decided to save Macau and Hong Kong for after China, and either extended our stay in the Maldives or perhaps arranged a visit to Sri Lanka, and likely would not have flown so far east as Hong Kong.  We are not psychics though, and we thought we were headed to Japan, so going to Hong Kong seemed like a smart idea geographically.  As it turns out, its not really all that big of a problem, as the extra time allowed us to extend our stay in Hong Kong and we enjoyed our time there, and now we're back to Thailand for more fun on the beach and hopefully in the water with our friends.  Koh Tao in Thai, apparently means 'turtle island', known for the abundance of sea turtles that enjoy the surrounding waters, so we are hoping maybe we can do some more diving, which we thought was over for this trip, so that’s a bonus.  Anyhow, for the moment I am chronicling our adventures in Macau and Hong Kong.

Macau is known as the gambling capital of Asia, and it lived up to its name for us.....reminding us of Vegas with all it's bright lights and towering casinos.  But there is much more to Macau that makes it a worthwhile visit.  It, like Hong Kong, is technically a Chinese territory, but is treated differently for political and tourism reasons, and is known as a 'Special Administrative Region', or SAR.  This means most importantly for us, that we did not require any visa to visit, and immigration was easy and straightforward.  Macau has a very heavy Portuguese influence, as it was a Portuguese colony dating back to the 16th century.  There are many churches and small cobblestone streets that are very much Mediterranean, all interspersed amongst modern-day Chinese society and contrasted with the Vegas-like casinos dominating the skyline.  It all makes for an interesting visit. 

Our time in Macau unfortunately was preceded by a marathon travel day from the Maldives that left us pretty exhausted.  We left our hotel in Maldives near noon, and then flew to Male, and then on to Colombo, and then on to Mumbai, and boarded our final flight for Hong Kong at 2AM, so we were already exhausted, and unfortunately did not sleep all that well on the plane.  When we arrived in Hong Kong we were absolutely zonked.  But we had to keep going as we were bound for Macau by ferry, which conveniently left directly from the Hong Kong airport.  The ferries here were amazingly fast and smooth, and we were in Macau before we knew it.  We met our hotel shuttle at the ferry terminal and proceeded to check-in to our room at the Royal Hotel and finally rest for a bit after the total of 22 hours in transit.  We were told upon check-in that we were on an 'executive floor' which included extra perks such as free cocktails and food in the lobby bar, so we were pleased with that feature, but for the moment we needed rest.

After getting a bit of rest and a feeling more human, we decided to hit the streets.  Before we left the room I noticed a small news story on the web about a quake in Japan.  I didn't take much notice of it though as I know they happen all the time there.  We decided to hit up the free food and drinks in the lobby before we went out, and while there we saw more news about the earthquake in Japan, of which they reported 19 fatalities, and now there was speculation of a tsunami to follow.  We began to get worried about our trip there, but still assumed we would be OK to proceed with our plans, as our route was mostly southwest of Tokyo, starting from Hiroshima.  As time went on though we began to realize that we may need to consider revising our plans.  We left the hotel hoping that things did not get any worse, and we set out to see the casinos, starting with one of the big ones, the Wynn.

Kim and I had been to the Wynn in Vegas when we stayed there in 2009 on a trip to California and Nevada, so we had fond memories of the Vegas Wynn, and decided to check out the one in Macau.  It was set up very similarly to the one in Vegas, in both architecture and design, but unfortunately also in the stakes of their table games, so we had to give it a pass, as their minimums were beyond our maximums.  We strolled around and enjoyed the atmosphere, but we did not play.  We did a similar tour of the MGM and cruised a few of the bigger casinos before finding one I wanted to gamble at.  We settled on a little one called the President, and I tried my hand at Blackjack.  I started out with a little hot streak and then when I started losing I decided to walk out while I was still ahead.  It only took about 5 minutes for me to get my thrill, and I had won 100 Patacas!  I suppose in the interests of disclosure I should tell you that that is only about 14 dollars, so I guess I get cheap thrills, as that was enough for me to not want to piss away gambling further.  It was fun, and I had enough money to be really classy and buy us both dinner at McDonald's.  Some photos....

Not in Macau, but en route via Colombo, Sri Lanka, where they are cricket crazy and hosting the Cricket World Cup…..

Now in Macau, cruising the streets riding high after winning such a large amount from the casino…

After all that excitement and roller coaster ride of fortunes won and lost, we headed back to the room to get a much anticipated night's sleep in a real bed again after missing out on our sleep the night before.  When we got back to the room we turned on the news and saw that things in Japan had indeed gotten worse, and that the US Government was advising their citizens against travel there until April.  That was the final nail in the coffin for us on making the decision to cancel our plans for Japan, and we hopped on the phone and cancelled flights and hotels.  It was now official, we were not going to Japan, and we would be without any plans again after our 2nd night in Macau.  We headed to bed unsure of what to do, and we let all the options swim around in our heads. 

We woke the next day after a nice long sleep-in and further pondered our options.  We decided we would likely take the time to explore Hong Kong for a few days, since it was right there, and we contemplated how best to use the rest of our time, but were again paralyzed by an abundance of choice, so we focused on enjoying the present and set out to explore old Macau.  Luckily, Macau is very easy to explore on foot, as its all quite a small area, and we were able to see quite a lot in just an afternoon of walking around.  We found some of the old Macau interspersed with the new, and we had a great day exploring.  Here are some photos. 

We found a little park that had all these exercise machines for public use…it was fun!

As I said, we had a good fun time exploring, and we took every opportunity to goof around, as I was doing here on this giant keyboard…

We found this robot that could solve a rubik’s cube in like 2 minutes, impressive!

After exploring Macau for the day, we again hit up the freebies in the lobby bar, and we tried to formulate a plan, but were again foiled by our indecisiveness, and left it to be decided while in Hong Kong.  We opted not to visit the casinos again, as even though it was only a small amount, I still like the satisfaction of walking away up on a place. 

The next morning we were bound for Hong Kong, and we spent the time in between trying to figure out our next move, but suffered our chronic indecisiveness that accompanies a world full of options.  That evening we briefly explored the area surrounding our South Pacific Hotel, and we found a big market and a general city atmosphere of eastern and western fusion that is very much Hong Kong.  Hong Kong is a huge city that sprawls out all over the place, and it is full of Skyscrapers, but also contrasted with lots of surrounding green space.  It seemed to be full of expats, and reminded us a lot of Kuala Lumpur due to being so multicultural, but Hong Kong seemed a bit more modern and wealthy.

We spent our next day exploring more of Hong Kong, and Kim enjoyed the chance to get some shopping done.  I spent my time walking around and found the botanical and zoological gardens, and some more city atmosphere surrounding Central Hong Kong.  That evening we went  up the Peak Tram to see the sunset over the city.  It was a nice view, but the seemingly constant haze over the city made it difficult to get any amazing photographs.  It was a nice day, but we both felt that we were not blown away by Hong Kong.  We enjoyed our time here, but we also felt that we had perhaps seen enough of cities, so we became less excited about a trip to Seoul.  Some photos from Hong Kong…

First thing, each part of the world we visit has new things to discover, and they are not always the ones you imagine.  Sometimes its things that are not ground-breakingly relevant, but they are weird and catch you off guard nonetheless.  Here is Kim being puzzled by a non-refrigerated chicken leg being sold at a convenience store….

And another Hong Kong mystery, the computerized toilet

   

 

















The Hong Kong skyline…from the ground

The Hong Kong skyline…from the top of the peak…

When we got back to the room that night it was crunchtime to formulate a plan for the next day, but we found it difficult again to hatch a plan we were both excited about.  I don't know if its finally reaching a point of planning exhaustion, or the disappointment of losing out on our Japan plans, or just general travel fatigue, but we were very overwhelmed again by the choice of what to do with our 10 unplanned days.  Luckily, our decision was made easy for us when we learned that our friends would be in Bangkok, with plans to head further south and check out another island we had been curious about--Koh Tao.  So we easily decided that was as good a plan as any, and we set the wheels in motion to make it happen.  Trouble is, Kim I think was a bit overwhelmed and exhausted, and instead of booking a flight for the next day so we could rendezvous with our friends as planned, she booked a flight for 2 days away.  It was a bit of a tragedy at the time, but after a few minutes we were able to laugh at it, and we decided that in all likelihood that if we went to the airport the next morning ready to go and willing to pay a change fee, we would be able to get on the plane.  So we headed to bed after a good chuckle optimistically hoping that we would be able to fly the next day.
When we got to the airport the next day, Kim was left with the decision on strategy towards getting on the plane.  She opted to play dumb, and we lined up and tried to check in as if we were booked on that day’s flight.  Well I felt sorry for the clerk, because she was scrambling and trying to figure it out, but after a consultation with her supervisor, she came back with the bad news that we were a day early.  I tried to contain my mixture of amusement and disappointment, and we then headed towards the customer service and ticket counter.  Well this time my amusement quickly faded, as we were told straight away there were no changes allowed, and the only way we were getting on the plane was by buying a whole new ticket.  It was not a ridiculously expensive flight, but it was no small change either, so we did briefly consider the idea of just buying the ticket since we had already made the long journey from downtown lugging our bags on subways and many long walkways.  We could just not bring ourselves to shell out all that extra unnecessary money though, and we hoped that our friends would wait for us in Bangkok before departing for the south as they planned.  In the meantime, rather than going all the way backwards in our procession towards Bangkok and going back into Hong Kong Central, we opted for an airport hotel and planned to ride the cable car up the giant Buddha that afternoon.  Unfortunately though the weather did not cooperate and we had some massive rains and winds keeping us in our room.  No big deal though, we found a mall attached directly to our hotel, and we had an interesting meal of Teppanyaki for the first time.  It was good, but I think I still prefer a good old plateful instead of heaps of randomly grilled ingredients served on tinfoil.  We chilled out and took the time to get ourselves organized etc. and tried to make the most of our time indoors.  Kim tried not to feel too bad about herself as we wasted the day away knowing that our friends were laughing at our situation from Bangkok.

Contemplating life and travel, en route to Hong Kong airport

In the end, it was all fine, and it has the added bonus of being a good story to tellm and that I can tease Kim about for the rest of her life, which is always nice, and I’m sure she’ll appreciate that.  And we are now on our way back to the backpacker mecca of Bangkok, anxious for some more good times with friends.  We have had some great adventures since leaving Thailand last, and we have found ourselves in many places far from the established backpacker trail.  We did struggle a little bit with breaking from our trip’s theme of always going forward and exploring new places, but we will be seeing new parts of Thailand that we are excited about, so we are willing to sacrifice the extra badge of honour that comes with each new country visited.  What can I say?  We would have loved to have been seeing Japan right now, but at the same time we thank our lucky stars that our plans were still so flexible, and there is no financial penalty associated with our dropping Japan from our itinerary.   In fact, we stand to save a fair deal of money by missing Japan and sticking to cheaper territory in Thailand, so that will certainly be appreciated when we get back to Canada and have to deal with our new financial reality of relative poverty. 

As I type these last few words in preparation for hitting my publish button, I sit comfortably in a cozy little place in Bangkok’s Rambuttri neighbourhood near the famous Khao San Road.  We have indeed successfully rendezvoused with our friends, and are planning to head to Koh Tao tomorrow morning.  As we have recently learned though, sometimes the best laid plans just don’t work out… so we’re doing the Zen thing and are ready for anything that comes our way.  We are now at the point in our trip where it is almost an effort to ensure that you focus on enjoying and savouring every last moment, as the natural inclination is to become depressed that the trip is coming to an end.  We now have little room left for spontaneity, and we are taking everything that comes our way as an adventure and trying to be ‘in the moment’ as much as possible, as soon we will be out of moments.  The more we travel the more we realize how precious our time is, not just on this trip, but in life, and we are so proud of ourselves for making all this happen while we still can.  It’s funny, as when we started this whole trip we set out with a fairly well structured idea of our route, even if not precisely planned with regards to dates etc., and we have seen our plans altered by many unforeseeable circumstances, such as the unrest in the middle east and the recent natural disaster in Japan.  It just goes to show you that you can’t anticipate the future, as much as you try and plan for it, and if there’s things you want in life, you need to go out and go for it while the getting's good, as things can change on you fast.  That said, I think our plans for life and the medium term future are perhaps less certain than we expected, and we are now preparing ourselves to be flexible if our best laid plans don’t work out quite the way we expected. 

In closing, we hope all is well with our friends and family and other readership, and we look forward to seeing many of you increasingly soon.  All the best.

Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers