On the flight from Bahrain to Hong Kong, a 4-year old kid in the seat behind me didn’t stop crying despite all failed attempts by his mother and the flight attendants to calm him down. It was amazing how this kid could keep crying that long! I mean, I think its more of a sport to him, like a marathon. Thank goodness for headphones!!

Hong Kong

A hustling and bustling beehive of a city. An essentially Chinese culture coated with British colonialist influences.

I go out to try some local food. Feeling adventerous, I go to traditional restaurants and just randomly point at something in the chinese menu, then wait and see what I’d get. 9 out of 10 times its noodels, with variations: with vegetables, sea food or other UEOs (Unidentified Edible Objects), then I make a fool of myself trying to eat with chopsticks, the locals watching me and giggling. A local guy I met at the convention center recommened the roast duck, he even wrote down the name of the dish in chinese on a piece of paper and gave it to me so that “I will not have problems with communication” at the local food joints. I pick a local restaurant in Causeway Bay for dinner, and hand the waiter the piece of paper. He smiles, nods, disappears for 10 minutes and comes back with my food. There was this…thing…in the plate, I don’t know what it was but I am quiet positive it wasn’t duck. All I know is that it was fried and it was served with vegetables. Did I chicken out and not eat it? Hell no. Did I call the waiter to ask what it was and risk embarassing myself when it turns out to be fried duck afterall? No way. It wasn’t bad though, I just don’t think I want to know what it actually was.

Bangkok

Flying from Hong Kong to Bangkok, the weather was so bad that the pilot aborted two landing approaches, then decided to land in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, were we stayed for 3 hours until the skies cleared up.
...and I thought traffic in Cairo was bad! It took me a little more than one hour in a taxi to get to a place that I later knew was just 15 minutes away on foot For the rest of my stay in Bangkok I either walked or took the tuk tuk, which is basically a cross between a motorcycle and a 3-wheeled cart.

Glad I visited Bangkok before it is swallowed by the sea. Its reportedly sinking at a rate of 30 cm per year!