Tai Po, and the Red Pork Posse.

So today, we ventured out to Tai Po, a fishing town about 25 minutes or so via busride from Hong Kong. This is apparently where my cousin Arthur goes for his job as a news caster. We hop on a nice double decker and cart are butts out, passing some quaint little houses and apartments, till we get to the central part of the town. It pretty much looked just like an extension of Hong Kong, but the people actually made eye contact with the white man in the orange polo shirt (as opposed to Hong Kong, where I am just another Gui Loh, which means "white devil" in Chinese I believe).

We get off the bus, and walk to the local shopping market district to spot our future eating spot. Wow, dim sum everywhere!! More so than HK, incredible. So we decide to postpone eating till a later time, so off we go to some lovely fishing spot outside of the town, in a little village. Here is a sparsely populated location, with a nice barbecuing spot and some benches to watch water evaporate off the beautiful, mountainous coastline of China.

Things to do here: Fish, bbq, and wind sail. It was so funny, there were wind surfers all over the place, and there was barely any wind to be caught. It was almost laughable. But, I wont laugh.

I got some nice pictures of flowers, while we walked the coastline a little to wet our appetites.

We head back into town, and pick a spot to eat that happens to have been a restaurant that Anthony Bourdain dined in for his show, No Reservations. Its funny, but apparently it is known that his choices in dining locations are rarely the cream of the crop of any Asian city he frequents, but nevertheless, this spot was for the history books. We order us some red pork, Chinese duck, and some other kind of prepaired pork, and commence the feasting fiasco.

We probably set a record for consumption, as we breezed through the meal like it was a competition. Amazing food, to say the least. Red pork is the definition of Hong Kong to us, aside from the dim sum of course.

Unfortunately, the picture I took of the place was out of focus, so you will just have to use your imagination.

The rest of the day was spent shopping. Nothing spectacular, other than I found one of Hong Kong's premier urban clothing shops, Mr. SK. Sneaker selection was mediocre, but I am told that the majority of transactions are of consignment, online. The guy who owned the place tried to sell me my own liver, but was nice over all. I bought a rather pricey designer t-shirt. Smack forehead.

Angkor, Gimme Some More!!

So today is the big day, where we visit all the temples located in the central hub that the town of Siem Reap is built around. We decide that our first stop must be the renowned Angkor Wat, which I believe is one of the 7 Wonders of the World. It is known as the world’s largest religious monument, still standing. The layout of the entire structure is built in a giant rectangular sort of island, surrounded by a moat carved out of the Earth. Our Narid tells us that there are giant fish in the moat, yikes.

We get out of the car, and I start firing away with the Black Brick. Already, the heat is heavy, and its only 8:30 in the morning. The tourists are sparse, but present, still managing to poke their obnoxious bodies into my wonderful photographic compositions. Oh, I have to mention that up to this point, we haven’t witnessed a drop of rain,

and presently we are in the middle of a rainy season. We go over the beautiful bridge, to enter through a giant walled gate to the inner courtyard. A brief history of the complex, it was designed as a city of sorts as the functional reason, but spiritually, it represents “a completely realized microcosm of the Hindu universe..” as sited from the book Ancient Angkor, written by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques.

Ok, so the inner courtyard is peppered with smaller temples, with the massive center complex containing various sizes of towers. All the walls are engraved with historic battles of the Hindu gods. Unfortunately for us, the steps leading up the giant pyramid in the center were blockaded, as a massive restoration is in progress. Lots of looting has contributed to the corrosion of this beautiful place, but fortunately there is still a lot that has been left untouched. Within the main courtyard of the inner structure, my mother and I climb through the labyrinth, and idle occasionally to absorb the grandeur. At one point we witness a monkey overturning garbage baskets, and snapping at various passers by.

Leaving the main grounds, we walk along the perimeter that has been designated for shop vendors. We proceed to solicit these shops in force, buying up the goods from a shop keeper made familiar by my mother, in past visits.

Angkor Wat took us about 2 hours to knock out, and we decided that we should go home and regenerate. We head to an infamous restaurant called the Red Piano, which kind of sucked, and had Angelina Jolie all over the walls, as if she was the next Hindu Goddess.

After a brief visit to some local shops (that proved to be unfruitful), we head to our hotel room for a quick nap, preparing us for the last leg of the temple adventures.

Next up, Bayon, otherwise called Angkor Thom. This one has become our favorite temple for the whole trip.

The towers are all carved with 4 faces, and there are about 30 or so towers in various states of dilapidation, built on a pyramid of carved stone.

Surrounding the circle of the complex are the rocks of collapsed towers, not yet restored by whatever power of modern man, who chooses to restore the breathtaking monument to Buddhism and Hinduism. I manage to climb to the top of the pyramid, and make my rounds around the main walkway with the Brick of Black working its magic. After we leave, there is some slight confusion as to where to meet our driver, so my mother and I manage to walk around the perimeter of the complex looking for his car. Eventually, we take a tuk tuk, which is basically a motorcycle pulling a carriage for two, to where we think the driver’s car is. Bingo, found him.

Eventually, we head back to our hotel room to order some room service, drink some surprisingly cheap Stella-in-a-can, and type up some awesome bloggage for the annals of history.

Banteay Srei, Oy Vey!

So, kicking things off at about 7 am, we shower up and head to our hotel’s breakfast buffet, which had absolutely everything. An American’s downfall. We meet our driver, Narid, and he sets off for our first temple. The temple, Banteay Srei, is the farthest from the central hub of temples. The name, meaning Citadel of the Woman, was built for a past King’s councelor, but the name has some religious implications that I am absolutely clueless in recalling the details for you here. It was built from this red sandstone brick that makes it stunning to see at the right time of the day. It was constructed in the 10^th century, which is actually pretty early on as far as these temple sites go, as most were built between the 10^th and 12^th centuries.

So in departing from the car, you immediately notice the mobs of tourists about to enter the temple with you. Ahh well. Our driver tells us “this is the slow season!” The temple carvings are so elaborate. We had no idea, but this temple’s carvings are perhaps the most detailed in comparison.

Oh yeah, another detail of note, throughout the whole trip one should expect to be repeatedly harassed by the locals to buy their goods at what they consider bargain prices. Pay them no mind, and be polite. That’s what we had to tell ourselves, at least.

After we leave, we head back towards the cluster of major sites, and I ask the driver what the difference is between Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre. A whole lot, apparently. I read that this temple is not often frequented by tourists, because it is pretty much off the beaten path. Luckily though, our guy is awesome. So, we head to this temple. This one is built a lot more compact, apparently due to many years of ‘updating’ from different kings in their respective times.

Nobody was here, awesome!

At this point, the sun is pretty much directly above us (12 noon), so we head back to town to recoup and eat our lunch. We head to the FCC, which stands for Foreign Correspondence Club, which is basically a social club found in various cities throughout the world. The food here we found to be so friggin great, that we’re considering making a second stop at some

point in the future. I ordered the fish and chips (awesome), and a mango smoothie (awesome), while my mom ordered pepperoni pizza (also awesome), and a watermelon & passionfruit shake (not so awesome).

Next stop was Pre Rup (pronounced PrEEEE RoOOOO). This one was built similar to the great Angkor Wat, with a pyramid type structure that one has to climb in order to absorb the grandeur of its size.

So of course, my momwaited at the bottom, while my sweaty slimy butt made it to the top to fire off some shots. The ants here, huge and terrifying. Tourist population, pretty minimal.

Srah Srong is this vast rectangular pool carved out of the forest, which was basically built as a former king’s ‘pool’. Lavish and huge. There are big steps all around the perimeter, and a central walkway made of stone for the king to sun himself.

Ta Prohm, made popular by Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, is this dilapidated temple built in the heart of the Cambodian jungle. Absolutely gorgeous, and crowded. There are giant trees growing in and out of the structure, with massive ancient roots. We believe that they don’t remove these trees, for fear that it will destroy the structure that they have ingrained themselves in to. We were absolutely exhausted at this point, but managed to push onward through the grounds of this temple, past many, many Japanese tourists. Left and right, we could here “sugoi!” (incredible in Japanese, I think), and the tour guides for them could speak fluent Japanese. Impressive. Oh, and we got lost. They had virtually no signs to follow, and the signs that were present pointed in opposite directions at the same time!

The day is over. We’re drenched in sweat, and exhausted to our bones. We decide that we want to take a swim in our hotel pool, which has a built in Jacuzzi, and uses salt water! Salt water seems to make your body more buoyant, but more importantly, feels delightful on one’s skin. My mom orders herself an Angkor beer (pretty damn good!), and I order myself a Mai Tai, to be ingested poolside. Our batteries feel recharged a bit at this point, so we head out to eat at a local restaurant, Abacus. Dimly lit, open aired, and decked out with tropical plants, this place is so vibey and wonderful. I order myself grilled chicken breast with mushroom sauce, garlic potatoes, and grilled eggplant (awesome), while my mom orders herself grilled pork chops with mustard sauce, ratatouille, potatoes gratin (awesome). Dessert was crème brulee (Jesus Christ).

Ok, end of the night for us, that food put our asses to sleep. No happy hour tonight.

Siem Reap; A Hotel Paradise.

A 2 hour flight from HKIA towards the jungle nation of Cambodia, will land you roughly in the vicinity of Siem Reap, the location of one of the greatest and oldest man made monuments in history, Angkor Wat.

Upon arrival to their beautiful airport (which sadly, I had neglected to fire off shots of), we moved easily through the various procedures of a tourist (customs, visas, etc), to be greeted by 2 men holding up a sign with my mother's name on it. Apparently, she had hired these guys to take us around to the various historic locations. These guys are brothers in law, and share the same friggin name, so that makes it kind of easy. Unfortunately, my forgetful ass has already forgotten their names. They start driving us towards our hotel, naming off the great price of $30 a day for their services. Incredible!

Along the route to the city of Siem Reap, are lined hotel after glamorous hotel, to take advantage of the tourists hopping off the plane. These hotels are absolutely stunning. They’re huge, well lit, and all architecturally individualistic and expressive conceptually. Each one feels like an oasis in the seemingly provincial small town that is Siem Reap. The tourist industry pretty much fuels the economy. A dude born in this town can either go to work at a hotel, buy a motorcycle and cart tourists around for $1, serve in a restaurant, or work at an internet café. Oh, and there are loads of internet cafes!

My mother and I get to our awesome hotel, the Prince D’ Angkor, swiftly hit our room to drop
our things off, and rush back out into the town to meet our much anticipated meeting with Happy Hour. Our first stop was the Raffles, a legendary Asian hotel sort of chain, for the Elephant Room bar & lounge. The whole thing is decked out in elephant décor, and the cocktails, strong and delicious. (I recommend the Singapore Sling, knocked me on my ass). This hotel is so old, and you can definitely swim in the vibe of its history by just walking through it.

Afterwards, we head to this Art Nouveau hotel called the Hotel de la Paix. Incredible art work throughout the whole joint. The hotel is built with an indoor courtyard, with a lone

tree in the center.

There are places to sit and dine or drink on the perimeter, and the

central bar/lounge area is where they show their premier artist’s pieces. We sit here, and order ourselves some lavish cocktails, therefore redlining our drunk meters.

One drink sat in a glass that ‘floated’ in a basin of ice.

Onward to dinner! After some deliberation, we chose to eat at an Indian restaurant that sits in the heart of Pub Street, which as you can imagine, is where all the major bars are located. The Indian restaurant was called Kamasutra, which seemed a bit inappropriate. Nevertheless, we got ourselves some awesome Tikka Masala. At this point though, I felt the alcohol a little too much, and so we headed straight back to our hotel room to prepare ourselves for the next day of tourism.

Holiday in Cambodia!

In about an hour, we head to the airport, eventually bound for Cambodia. Pol Pot here we come! All you Khmer Rouge, hold on to your nuts, I'mma comin.

Looks like the dnb gig is on, once I return from Cambodia. Big up the people that are gonna stay there with me till 4 AM. Someone get me a Juice to Go.

No Sleep Til Mongkok!

Saturday Morning. Lets hit the beach!

The island my Aunt's place is located on is called "Lantau Island". On one side of the island is a relatively popular beach, which can be accessible by bus. So, we wake up, and after some dilly dallying, my Aunt, Mom, and I head out for some eats before carting ourselves to the beach. We end up at this Vietnamese restaurant in this local mall. Let me just say that I've never ever, ever had Vietnamese food as good as this.

I ordered myself some Pho, which came out different than what I was used to, Stateside. Still, pretty awesome. No Sriracha, but I dropped in a number of chili peppers to heighten the experience. We did order some of these bangin spring roll things that you wrap in lettuce, and I believe I was able to see the form of God for a small duration of time, summoned by the powerful awesomeness of taste.

Ok, back to the beach. We load up on a bus, tummies gyrating, which carts us up and over some mountains to the shore on the other side. Immediately, you notice how friggin hot it is. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is the type of air that blows across the shore, or maybe being that its a beach, the Sun decides to kick up the intensity a bit. We find ourselves a spot under the cover of some trees, and set up camp.

2 hours pass in the somber, sun soaked vibe that a beach has to offer, and we realize that it was getting late. I needed to meet my cousin in Mongkok, so we had to rip it back home so I could doll up a bit.


We head to Mongkok via the MTR (subway system), and get a bit lost trying to meet Cuz. Eventually though, our mission was successful. Arthur and I evacuate our mothers' company with the quickness, to commence with Mongkok's most renowned pastime (and mine), shopping!!!!!1


Our first prioritized stop was this mini mall, which is packed with these cute little shops full of toys, dirty anime, and badass clothing. Specifically though, we made it a priority to hit this one of a kind clothing shop, run and owned by this dude to promote his designer friend's clothing. Last year, I had purchased the most badass original trucker hat, so I pretty much had to come back for more. Sadly though, the dude told me that the shop was to close down due to lack of business, in 1 week. So, as a result of his sob story, I proceed to buy out the whole store..lol. Something cute and funny, the dude's name was Ray, and the name of the store was X-ray.

Oh yeah, and I found myself some new kicks.





My cousin takes me to the Charlie Brown Cafe. Totally a diamond in the ruff. The place is decked out with Charlie Brown decore, and was filled to the brim with the hippest of the hip. I order me a decadent footlong hot dog, which upon its arrival, caused me to issue forth a "Holy Shit!". The local staff crack up at this, and whenever they passed my table they would giggle and say "Shit!" playfully. Amusing, to say the least.

So afterwards, we have to travel back to Central to meet up with my boy Rich, who is a local DNB promoter. We were to meet him at this club Twyst Mind, for this Raggae party. On the way, we pick up Art's friend Rachel, and we trudge to the club, ready to destroy. The club itself was great. Stella on draft, cheap prices, great crowd. The music starts off with some crackin oldschool Raggae. We were all lovin the hell out of it. Rachel buys me my first Vodka Apple Juice, and boy was it lovely. Perfect summertime drink, highly recommended by yours truly.

Eventually, the crowd thickens like strawberry Jello, everybody gettin down like they're supposed to. Me, I get myself lit up (again), and Rich and I start talkin business. He wants me to play with Shimon next week, but the timeslot would be a bit late, so I'm still torn. Cool note, some dnb heads at the party knew who I was, and were very friendly about it :).

At the end of the night, we stumble our way out of the club, and Art and I end up walking the length of Mongkok to find our bus home, hitting the McDicks for some late night grotty eats (that I regretted the next day, ew). We get home at about 5 AM, Art having to wake up at 9 for work. What a trooper..I love this guy. Day 2 knocked out with a home run, I think. Sorry, no pictures of the club (yet). Check the flickr page though for more pics over all.

Central, and Collapsing Chinese People.

(to set the mood for you folks, I am sitting here rockin' some Hall & Oates, with a brown Dachshund warming my feet.)

Alright, so to kick things off, I just have to say that from the moment we arrived from the airport to my Aunt Gina's crib at 5 in the morning local time, we've been on the go nonstop. I'm feeling a bit haggard, but overall fulfilled and eager. My mother and I were welcomed to the household by their 3 doggies, my sleepy eyed television reporter cousin Arthur, and their resident housekeeper, Nora. Deciding that sleep should be kept as an afterthought, and not a priority, we head to the local mall that is connected to the apartment complex, hitting this Indian restaurant to gorge ourselves on the buffet. Pretty amazing food. Tandoori Fish! Never even heard of the concept before. (I only had a bite, but it was pretty impressive) .
We proceeded onward to their beautiful pool, that can be seen from the stunning view of their balcony. This pool was designed to mimic a shoreline, so residents can essentially hit the pool without having to dodge any sharks. I did a total of maybe 6 laps through the length of the 'shoreline', which tuckered me out somethin' fierce. Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm a pale beast of a man? Yeah, I'm glad people wore their sunglasses. I managed not to burn though, which is a feat considering how powerful the Sun is in this town.

After enjoying the pool for the sum of 3 hours, my Tita ("aunt" in Filipino), my mother, and I head inside to clean up. We decide to meet my cousin Arthur after he gets off of work for some Thai food on Hong Kong Island, in the area known as "Central".

This is like, the baller part of the city, where all the businessmen and women go to play. Bars, expensive brand name shops, and incredible food. This area I find to be the most pleasing for picture taking. At night, everything is practically on fire with lights.

I make sure to bring the Black Brick if I know I'm going to be in Central for the day (or night). We end up eating at this hip Thai restaurant called Cafe Siam. The food was pretty good. My cousin and I decided to hit the night life afterwards, so after grabbing a drink at a local hole, we end up at one of the major clubs in Central called Cliq.

Turns out that that night we were to witness an electro house event called Pimpin' Ain't Easy .

The party was off the hook. At first, the opener was playing some raggaeton that I wasn't too fond of, but once the dirty shit kicked in, we started to have a blast. The drink prices were from another planet. Needless to say, I was extremely tired due to lack of sleep, at this point, so I started to dig into some hard hitting beverages to give myself a 2nd wind. Yup, I got a little drunk. Way to christen my first night! Art's friend Natalie showed up with some chums, which helped make the experience fun since she knew how to get down, HK style. At one point I remember wearing Arthur's suit jacket (since he had come straight from work) and doing some of my pop & lock routine, haha.

At one point, I was standing there alone, waiting for the others to get back from some sort of mission, and this Chinese girl next to me collapses amongst her circle of friends. The security rushes in and attempts to shake her awake, to no success. They start dragging her by me with blood coming out of her mouth (wtf?), and they bring her to the entrance of the place and start to perform CPR on the spot. I think they eventually got her out of there on her own two feet, but wow what an experience. Roofies and Vodka maybe?

So Art and I left this place, reverberating from the mega soundsystem from the club, and we stumble our way home for a measly few hours of sleep. Till the next adventure.

Finally here!

So..after a grueling experience with airports and confined seating of airplanes, I'm finally in Hong Kong. It sure feels like we were running away from the Sun. We left Dulles at 6 pm, arriving in LAX at around 9:30 local time, to meet our connecting flight at 12 AM. 15 long ass hours to Hong Kong International..jeez. So many babies crying for the duration of the flight, due to their lack of ability to yawn with the changes in air pressure. The only cool thing I can really say about Cathay Pacific is that the television monitors mounted in front of each seat had a plethora of television/movie programs that you could pick and choose from. So..I started off watching The Island, moving to Mars Attacks!, followed by some Ali G. At least I was able to start reading The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Definitely well written and intruiging. (The determining factor being how rapid sleep beckons)
The food was ok, but I expect to have an interesting post flight experience within the next 24 hours. I'm in my Aunt's condo, which is conveniently located 15 mins from the airport. After a cold shower and some hot coffee, I'm ready to face the day! Let's hope I don't crash while walking down the streets of Mongkok. There are three dachshunds here. So cute, but each eager to devour my sandals. Pictures to follow, as soon as my camera defogs from the humidity that is Hong Kong.

Nike Air Force 1 07 Low Premium - Max 90 Edition (white / neutral grey / black / infrared)

So..I know I should be saving money for the upcoming journey into the vastness of Asia, but I just couldn't help myself! I was out shopping for 'pasalubong' for my family (look it up), and I just foolishly happened to walk into a local clothing store called Commonwealth to kill some time. Of course, a half hour later..I walk out with these:






Unfortunately, I've already worn out the Nike heel insole logo, due to the sheer power of my foot smacking the ground. Nevertheless, I'm pleased with the extravagant expenditure. Critics can buy a first class ticket to Hell.