Saturday 25 October 2014

These shoes were made for walking

The uneven pavements and walkways of Hong Kong are infamous for the insidious deterioration of footwear. The fact that I find it very difficult to walk around Hong Kong, Soho in particular without accidentally clipping, skidding or scuffing my shoes is a testament to my lack of coordination or the lack of uniformity in Hong Kong surfaces. That coupled with the tremendous humidity and the constant carousing and it should come as no surprise that shoes of Hong Kong stand little to no chance of preservation. Well, at least my shoes stand little to no chance of preservation. 

Take for example my work shoes - Purchased in 2011, size 42, black leather regular work footwear, having weathered T8s, black rain days and LKF on tilt, look a lot older than three years old.

As I look at the  mouldy insoles, supination on the outer heels, terribly warped leather, broken laces and obviously glaring hole in the sole (which explains why my socks never survive puddles) it makes me wonder and what point in time I stopped caring? Not so much that I stopped caring, just that they're so damn comfortable, they feel like I'm wearing socks, so perfectly moulded to my feet, like little clouds. After much workplace ridicule I've decided to throw these shoes out. They say you can tell a lot by the shoes that a man wears. I suspect I've been telling people that I'm a homeless vagrant for a while now... 





Sunday 5 October 2014

King Kyall's Bucks

I still remember the first time I met the groom - it was his Birthday in East Village, London. I had hugged his now fiancée mistaking it for somebody else. That embarrassment aside he was a key figure in my London chapter where we traveled around Europe, hung out at his apartment, and just got up to a lot of mischief, particularly involving protein tubs and my basement. So it was fitting that his final trip as a bachelor would be celebrated in Bangkok.
 
The lack of detail is deliberate. I remember the food was nice. I haven't slept for 48 hours ...

Friday 3 October 2014

Koh Samed

Two day, mid-week, long weekend in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy students have clashed with the Hong Kong Authorities with anti-Chinese sentiment continuing to bubble away. Major networks show the same sensationalised footage on repeat: the same tear gas canisters, the same umbrellas and the same students. I'm at Hong Kong airport sitting in the lounge waiting for a flight to Bangkok.

The trip began with a delayed flight; not tragic, definitely not ideal. Three insouciance travellers with no objective other than to hire a car, drive to an island and be back in Bangkok in three days time for a bachelor party. We, (well I) had arranged airport car hire with SIXT only to be told that there were no more GPS available, this was annoying to say the least particularly since we had specifically asked for a GPS. The attendant suggested we use a map, we suggested him to suggest something else. After much argument we conceded defeat and canceled the hire car and opted to hire a taxi to Dameon Saduak.


Armed with a hot pink Toyota we headed westward towards our hotel some 120 kilometres away. Not surprisingly our taxi driver got lost - After countless stops, calling people, asking random civilians/vagrants for directions we eventually turned on GPS (why didn't we do this earlier?) and guided him to our hotel, arriving just after 2:30 am. The taxi driver then asked for a tip, we laughed and shook our heads.

We woke 5 hours later to start our adventure. First stop, Dameon Saduak Floating Markets, the hotel had a private boat service into the market which worked out well given how tired  and apathetic we were towards dealing with tour guides and packages. By the time we had arrived at the markets majority of the vendors and tourists were already doing business. The markets were alive and despite the tag that this was the most "touristy" of the Thai floating markets we still managed to grab some food and pick up the odd souvenir.


Unbeknownst to us we agreed to pay a taxi driver 2800 THB to drive us to Banh Phe. Funnily enough, we slept most of the 3 hour journey only rousing during a traffic jam so it turned out to be a better option. After further haggling with the boat people we finally managed to arrange the public ferry to Koh Samet. Koh Samet could be best summed up with one word, chill. Eat, nap, beach, eat, and so forth. A final taxi ride and we were soon checking into our hotel in Bangkok.