Sydney

Lately, there has been a proclivity to blame things on senescence; old age and noticing things that just quite aren't how they used to be. The latest faculty deterioration, although not completely new is my inability to sleep on planes. There used to be a time when I would be able to catch the overnight flight to Sydney: watch a movie, have a meal, fall asleep, wake up, eat breakfast and touchdown. That in essence, would be my typical flight, throw in the odd crying baby and TV series but most flights would play out with sleep featuring quite heavily. The last few times back to Sydney, this has not been the case, despite the self-induced torpor I have found it quite challenging trying to incorporate sleep into the routine. Alas, I still manage to reach the final destination, Sydney.

Sydney has slowly become the anti-Hong Kong (at least in my eyes). It's everything Hong Kong isn't: Good air quality, fresh produce, family, mortgages and an utterly dire transport system. Purpose of this month's trip is for my cousin Jennifer's wedding and of course mom's birthday. I'm not sure where my license has disappeared but not being able to drive in Sydney is kind of like being a Chinese in China that can't speak Chinese; super frustrating.

My itinerary for the following nine days: Saturday, drinks at the Glenmore with London folk. Sunday, fish markets with the family. Monday, renew my license, dad arrives, family dinner. Tuesday, dinner with the USYD group. Wednesday, Tea Ceremony. Thursday, hang out with High school group. Friday, drinks with after-work-crowd. Saturday, Wedding. Sunday, grocery shopping, mom's Birthday dinner and depart.

So my observations are as follows: Sydney is lovely, I miss this place. The Sydney Property market is KER-RAZY! I love Coles Broadway. Fresh donuts are still the best. I feel so unhealthy. Get me back to Hong Kong.

Stealth Taipei

It's weird celebrating 30th birthdays - In my case, this weirdness derives from the fact that I'm older than thirty and I represent a demographic known as "the old guy" of this particular group. The upside is that I still look relatively young and can inveigle most into thinking that I'm still in my "late twenties" (not sure if that's any consolation).

The birthday boy, who also happens to be leaving Hong Kong after seven glorious years proposed a sub-24-hour trip over to Taipei to celebrate his big 3-0. The script plays out like most other Taipei trips. Dragon Air flight booked on points, Corporate rate at The W, table service at some bar, 5 am room service, flight back to Hong Kong and sleep. It's like we never left...

In other news, all bars should have shots of mouth wash.

Singapore

First opportunity to travel with my current work to Singapore of all places. Now as I sit going through the receipts accumulated over the 4 day trip, I wonder if it was actually necessary to be eating 6 times a day. The breakdown of my expenses are as follows: Taxi, breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, taxi, dinner, supper and so forth. Not too sure what the Finance department will say when they see my 11 pm order of Nasi Goreng and a Milo Dinosaur.

Actually, the purpose of the trip other than to justify the new campus was to promote the brand of the separate departments. Highlights include, Client Management winning the trade fair, me being selected to stage a 'question' for the APAC CEO and the campus buffet.

GRE

Suggesting that I was completely prepared would have been an under statement. Forgot my passport. Fail.

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... 

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 ...

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.