Made it.

Well, friends and family, I have made it to Yogyakarta. The flight from Jakarta was uneventful, thankfully. I’m always a fan of short flights with nothing to report on.

So I said I’d share a bit about my thoughts on Jakarta and the things I did while I was there. I have had a bit more sleep so hopefully these next few blog entries make a bit more sense. Jakarta is an interesting city. Very crowded, very busy, very loud, very polluted. It definitely had a different vibe from Yogyakarta or Salatiga. I didn’t dislike it. However, I knew after landing in Yogyakarta and driving through the city that this will always be my Indonesia. Central Java. I just adore it. But back to Jakarta…

Kota Tua di Jakarta

One of my favorite puppets from the museum.

Jakarta is hot. Very hot. Sweat dripping down your face in a matter of minutes hot. So I don’t know if the wayang museum had a lot of patrons because they were interested in wayang or because it was air conditioned. Either way there were a lot of people in the museum. A lot of young people too. So that was at least good to see. What wasn’t good to see was the condition the puppets were in. While air conditioned it was definitely not temperature controlled and the cases were not air tight either. There were dead bugs and a lot of dust in the display cases. The puppets weren’t in great condition either. I’m not sure if they were obtained in poor condition or because of the conditions they are kept in they have deteriorated. I am used to American/British museums so I also wished the puppets had more information on their id cards. I was hoping for approximate date created, date acquired, where they were from, etc. Pak Will said it has improved over the past few years so hopefully it keeps improving and more and more puppets are added to the collection. There was a dalang performing at the end of the museum. Which was nice to see. Pak Will said it was the first performance he has seen at the museum in a long time. So good things are happening.

We then took a short drive to look at the shipyard and after to a very old beautiful house where there was an art auction happening. We just stopped in to see it. They were auctioning off some ming vases for around $200 USD. So… anyone want a ming vase? Then I went home and then off to Starbucks with Anna as I mentioned before. We picked up food after Starbucks and headed back to the hotel. Where I downed a lot of the food and then hit the hay hard. I was feeling a bit off. I don’t think my sinuses or my head were very fond of the pollution in Jakarta. If I was staying there long I would have to really invest in some top notch allergy pills. Salatiga and Yogyakarta never seemed to bother me so we will see how it goes this time around.

Entrance to the Phoenix

I’m now sitting in my hotel room in Yogya relaxing. I thought about going out tonight and doing a bunch of stuff but I’m not sure. Even though I’m supposed to be keeping gluten out of my diet since it irritates my fibromyalgia I really do think some Nanamia is in my future. HELLO PIZZA REUNION. It is just so good. I can taste the joy already. Plus I have a meeting set up for tomorrow so I don’t want to get too tired since I’m already a bit worn down from the past week. So some pizza, some relaxing, and some HBO maybe? My LOGOTV app was working in Jakarta but now it wont let me load the new episode of Drag Race. GRR! I do love my RuPaul and I’d like my fix please. Which means I’m not caught up… so NO spoilers, everyone!

Well, I guess now you want to see how great the hotel is? I am still incredibly pleased with the deal I found on Orbitz. I am getting a steal of a deal for my two days here. Kind of pricey for here. Cheap cheap cheap for the US aka $40 a night. Compare that to $16-30ish (which includes breakfast) a night for the hotel that is attached to my new apartment. You could also compare that to the regular price of this hotel which is $95ish a night from the hotel website and $79 is the cheapest rate on TripAdvisor right now. So win for me.

Here ya go. Picture time.

My room with my balcony.

The fancy shower.

The staircase up to my room. I could take the elevator but why?

The stunning courtyard.

 

Ta-ta for now.

Jakarta

Sorry for the delayed posting. The wifi in my hotel room here in Jakarta isn’t the best. It will allow me to check mail and facebook, which are both rather important, however it wont allow me to load photos to facebook or instagram and the wordpress site also seems to be too much for it. So that’s that. I’m now sitting with Anna in the Starbucks at the Grand Jakarta mall. We are getting work done and avoiding nap time with coffee. Who is Anna? Oh Anna is the wonderful and amazingly sweet wife of Brad. Brad is a Fulbright-Hays recipient who, funny enough, was on my flight from Narita to Jakarta. All of the Fulbright students/scholars are put up in the Cemara Hotel while they are doing paperwork so we ran into each other Friday morning during breakfast at the hotel. Let’s start from there-ish.
So my flight from Narita to Tokyo was uneventful. I landed, got my luggage, grabbed a taxi I felt was safe (even though I couldn’t find the Blue Bird stand *gasp*), and got to the hotel very late. 1:30am late. I checked in, got a packet of information from Fulbright/AMINEF, unpacked just enough so I wouldn’t be groggy and trying to find things in the morning, and then hit the hay and hit it hard. Luckily my meeting Friday morning was moved from 8:30am to 10am. Thank the new and old gods for that. So I woke up at 8ish and jumped in the shower of evil. If you turn on the hot water even a smidgen it reaches 1000 degrees F instantly. So you move the hot tab 1/2 a centimeter and the cold water tab all the way over to have a really warm shower. This is what I get for worrying about hot water in Indonesia. Then I headed down to the free breakfast to grab some nasi goreng (Indonesian style fried rice) and fried sausage. In the middle of breakfast a nice gentleman (white, so the odds were good he was not from Indonesia. Just stating facts here, no one get upset) came up and introduced himself to me and asked if I was also a Fulbright student. I guess he had seen both our info packets at the front desk when he checked in. I’m incredibly glad that he did, by the way. This gentleman’s name is Brad and his wife’s name is Anna. They are amazingly sweet and have made my time in Jakarta so much better. They also have an adorable daughter who is just so darn cute and who I remember from the plane because she wanted her Minnie Mouse before the plane took off. After a few short introductions I realized a nice gentleman was looking at me strangely in the lobby. I then realized this was probably Rizqi because it was close to 9:30 and we should probably get on our way to AMINEF.

AMINEF front desk

I met Rizqi, who is just as cute as a button and very helpful, and we headed off to the AMINEF office for my meeting with Pak Will and Bu Astrid. Pak Will is the interim head of the program for the next 6 months and is a very kind individual. We spoke a little bit about my research in the meeting and about some things Fulbright did well and if there were anything I thought they could improve on since they are continuously trying to better themselves. Which is always fantastic to hear. There will always be some issues that can’t be immediately fixed with visas and working with the governments of two countries, of course, but it is reassuring to know that Pak Will seems honestly invested in always striving towards efficiency.
After the meeting I met up with Rizqi again to head off to several agencies to hand in paperwork, fill out a few forms, etc. etc. However, we did get caught in infamous Jakarta traffic (Think Honolulu or LA x 5) and ended up having to take our lunch before the first stop because the office would be shut down for Friday prayer. I got some great chicken soup. Which started outa bit bland so like an idiot I poured in some green sambal. Which, thankfully, was just the right amount to make my eyes water just a little bit. So perfect basically. If I had added in another spoonful like I wanted initially it would have been far too hot. Welcome to Indonesia, Kristina. We then continued on to several offices where I was told things went VERY fast. I was reassured later by other people that it did indeed go surprisingly fast. I made it to all three stops Friday even with bad traffic.

Downpour!

The traffic was especially bad because of the massive downpour we had right after police headquarters. I mean it created rivers of water in only a few minutes. Which, as anyone who drives knows, created even worse traffic on the way home. So bad that Risqi asked if it was ok if he was dropped off at the AMINEF office because it might closed before he gets back and all his belongings were in the office. I of course said yes and he apologized many times (which was unneeded but very polite) and he hopped out at AMINEF and gave me some rupiah for the taxi and I hurried my way to the hotel. I was soaking wet from waiting for a taxi outside police headquarters and still dripping when I got back to the hotel so the very first thing I did was take a scary hot shower. This time, however, the heat was a very good thing. After I dried off I decided it might be alright to take a nap. I did not take a nap. I passed out. I, being the over prepared person I am, set an alarm for an hour after I fell asleep and for 9am. Thank goodness because while I woke up at the first alarm I sure did turn it off with out really realizing it.

Mini river after the downpour

So at 9am on Saturday I popped out of bed and jumped into the scary shower of heat. The paper in my room said breakfast was served till 11 so I figured I had plenty of time to get ready and head down there. Even with the early bed time I figured I had earned sleeping in after my first two days of travel and such. However, when I made my way down to breakfast I noticed they were clearing everything away at 10:30. What I also noticed was Anna, Brad, and the little one sitting in the hotel lobby. Apparently Brad had missed breakfast too and they were planning on heading down to Starbucks, which is right down the street, for some coffee and a bit of a snack. They were also planning on getting their phones set up at a mall they knew and invited me to come along. Bless them. So we walked over to Starbucks and grabbed some goodies and then took a taxi over to the mall with tons of little phone stalls.
My first attempt at buying a phone didn’t go swimmingly. I wanted a used phone because it was a bit cheaper and I simply don’t mind having a second hand phone. My only real concern was having a phone with a real keyboard because texting is huge here and last time I got sick of the non-keyboard style of phone texting. It drove me nuts. However, the blackberry (rather popular here) I chose apparently had massive amounts of stuff on it and it was taking forever to clear off. Why they don’t do it before hand I don’t know, but that really isn’t important. So eventually they said they would just give me a deal on a new phone but it would have to be pink or red. Which means I am now in possession of a new, very pink blackberry. I already appreciate the keyboard by the by. I am a fan of the keyboard. Then after the phone I went back to the hotel to charge it and set it up. I then started to feel really not well. I think everything caught up with me. So I decided to grab some snacks from the Circle K across the way and stay in for dinner. Another early bed time and some nyquil were in my future.

My new very pink phone.

Sunday began with actually making breakfast and eating a whole bunch of some “smoked beef” which tasted like beef bacon. After breakfast I just stayed in the hotel and read since I had plans at noon to meet up with Pak Will and go to the Wayang Museum. It was so nice of him to offer to take me. Mostly because it allowed me some time to talk more about my grant and to have someone who has lived in Jakarta for 20 or so years show me around. He pointed out landmarks and government buildings and talked about the city in general. Some other perks were the air-conditioned car with driver and the trips to the ship yard and art auction. I’m still trying to compile my thoughts about the Wayang Museum, the Dutch area of Jakarta, etc. So those will be shared with you on another date. Also maybe pictures next time. When I got back from the day out I texted Anna as I mentioned and headed out shortly after that. So I did not have time to load any photos from today. So you all must wait till tomorrow or possibly Tuesday when I am in Jogjakarta.
Now I am going to finish my tea, head out to pick up food, and head back to the hotel. The little one may sick so Anna may be bringing home food and I might follow suit. I’m exhausted. Happy to be here but very exhausted. The travel, the in and out of offices, the up down of stairs, the heat, and the pollution will really get to a girl.

Bye Bye!

That was an adventure…

Well. I sure can’t say that today wasn’t interesting. So here we go with the story. Due to some confusion on my part which resulted in delays on my end and some delays on FedEx’s part my passport with my year long visa was scheduled to reach me on Tuesday. ONE DAY before my flight left. Talk about cutting it close… except that it did not make it on the flight to arrive Tuesday. So I got to plan the fun adventure of picking it up at the sort facility by the airport on my way to check in for my flight. When I first called about this the lady who spoke to me was great. She was helpful, pleasant, knowledgable, and even a bit cheeky. All the good things you need. However, she couldn’t do anything to help me until the next scan happened on my FedEx envelope. So she told me what to do when I called back. That is where the trouble began. I then called back as instructed I spoke to a gentleman who had, to put it nicely, zero idea what he was doing. Just no clue. So I asked to speak to someone else. The woman who answered, Isabel, sounded like she knew what was going on and was attempting to be helpful and offered to call me even when my passport landed in Hawaii so I knew right when I could go pick it up. HOWEVER, I don’t know what this lady was looking at but when she called me at 4am to tell me my passport didn’t make it on the plane and I should reschedule my flights I was shaking I was so upset. I started to freak out and email my reps in Indonesia to see what my options were. A cooler head eventually prevailed and I decided I needed to call FedEx back and speak to someone different. Again. Which I did. The woman (If you’ve lost count that’s the 3rd person now) she assessed the situation and sent me over to #4 at the customer advocate center. #4, who is also called Victoria, was super helpful. Located my package and told me it did indeed make it on the plane and I would be able to pick it up on the way to the airport. She even set it up so I could pick it up 30 minutes before the facility opened to make sure I wasn’t late for my check in. By this time it was 6:30am. Victoria was great. Worth being woken up at 4am and being told to reschedule my flights? Hell no, but still she was great. I then scooped up my passport, dropped off my rental car (my car, RuPaul, is in storage), and headed to HNL so I could get on my flight to Narita. It was an ok flight. The first flight I’ve been on in a very long time that didn’t have personal TV sets. Throwback. My section was almost empty so I got to spread out a bit which was nice and I was also apparently sitting in the “we are flying to Jakarta” section. So I talked to the guy from Brazil next to me about Indonesia and surfing for a while. Then I watched Psych and Sherlock, had a nap, and studied up on some language skills. I now sit in the fancy Untied Lounge at the Narita airport. Bless you, free one time pass to the lounge. Hello free wifi and food! I know I shouldn’t have gluten… but I already hurt from the stress this morning so I said “eh, I’m already in it” and had a tiny green tea cake. Worth it. I’ll be here for another 3 1/2 hours and then onto Jakarta. I’ll land at 11:30pm, grab my luggage, hop in a cab, and hopefully fall right asleep when I get in my hotel room. I have to be up and ready by 8am for meetings tomorrow. That’ll be interesting. Guess it’s hit the ground running time. But for now? Now it is free sushi time.

Me in the Narita United Lounge. I look sleepy.

Bye!

Last Full Day of Macau

So this morning was presentation day! Yining and I were on the same panel which was nice because we were sure to hear each others presentation. We were on a panel at 11:00 in room 1302. We decided to skip the 9:00 panels and work on our presentations and make sure we were ready. So we got up at 7:30 and showered, got all pretty, and worked on our papers. We walked over to The Venetian and found our room. We sat through the last few minutes of the panel before us and then set up our room. At 11:08 we were worried. At 11:22 we were pretty sure no one was showing up. Our third panel member didn’t even show up. However, people did eventually show up at about 11:28. So we did end up giving our presentations and I got several questions about my research and was told it was interesting. Hooray. I also met a woman from Sydney who will be near me (in Semarang) while I am living in Indonesia and we exchanged information. That was very nice.
Then ICAS 8 was over for us. Both sad and happy really. Sad because I did learn some things, meet some lovely people, and have had a lovely time in China and will miss it. Happy because I am beat! So much so that Yining and I had another sort of relaxing day today. After the presentations we walked back to our hotel room and changed into shorts and t-shirts. It was too hot to be dressed up in our presentation outfits on the walk to lunch. We decided to make our way over to the City of Dreams which is located next to our hotel room for lunch.

Hey look! Blue skies!

We ended up having lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Macau. Why? Because it was tasty, that’s why. Also because they had a pretty good lunch set deal that included a salad, french dip sandwich and chips for me and half a huge chicken and chips for Yining, and a soda. My sandwich had super bread. Made me happy and filled me up. Yining’s chicken was seriously HUGE. I had a bite and it was nice as well. I also added a green tea panna cotta for 20 MOP or $2.50 US. It was very yummy. Incredibly smooth. Also the restaurant was just fun and it made me think of my dad who got me a Hard Rock t-shirt from the middle east which I love. We were then going to go to the giant panda park but it was closed for some reason today. BOO. So we went back to the Sheraton and I got some gifts for people. We then sat around in the hotel and watched a British dance show. Not very active or exciting but it was so wonderful just to rest a bit after a stressful morning. Also being in the room prevented us from spending anymore money. Which is always good.

Happy in Antonio’s

Especially since we had a last special dinner plan. We decided to bookend our trip with fabulous Portuguese food. This time we went to Antonio’s in Old Taipa. Antonio’s is a Portuguese restaurant and Antonio, the chef, has a michelin star under his belt. It was very good. Anthony Bourdain recommends it. I ate the same food as Anthony Bourdain. This fact makes me very, very happy. I ordered the tenderloin in a Portuguese style fried with garlic and white wine served with Portuguese smoked ham, a fried egg, potatoes and pickles. It was amazing. The sauce was so good I could have licked it off the plate. However this was a rather fancy place. They spoke excellent English and our waitress kept calling us “madame”. They even had their own brand of bottled water. So I did not lick the plate. Probably would have been rude. It was very good and I really enjoyed it… however, I liked A Lorcha so much more. The vibe was better and much more relaxed. The bread they gave us before the meal was miles above the bread at Antonio’s and my food was actually cheaper and superior at A Lorcha. If you’d like some Portuguese food in Macau my official recommendation is for A Lorcha. Make a reservation and enjoy some glorious bread and some wonderful food.

My lovely tenderloin from Antonio’s

And a note about Macau, I’ve found a lot of the cab drivers don’t know the Portuguese names for streets. Having the characters written down in a notebook has been wonderful for us. It made getting to and from A Lorcha and Antonio’s much simpler. Although after realizing how close the walk from Antonio’s was (much shorter than the way there) we probably could have walked back. Oh well. We did walk around Old Taipa a little bit before hoping in a cab. We went in and out of several bakeries and a super cute little shop. It sold items with the most adorable pandas. The father panda always looked so mad and I could not stop laughing at him. I almost got an adorable shirt with the angry panda and his wife panda holding a tray of egg tarts. They were also standing in front of St. Paul’s. It was adorable. A bit pricey though so I settled for a magnet with the angry panda in a bubble bath with a little ducky. It is wonderful. Silly angry panda. I’m still laughing.

Soda Pandas! Angry Laundry!

And that concludes our time in Macau. Right now we are in the hotel room watching Bunheads and packing. Well ok I’m on the computer but I was packing. Tomorrow we will get up, check out, head to the ferry terminal, and get our tickets to the Hong Kong airport. Our flights leave at the same time, around 14:00. Yining is going on to Shanghai and I will be heading back to Honolulu by way of Korea. Back to life, back to reality.

A Day Out in Macau

Tuesday was a wonderful day. Yining and I started the day out with early morning panels. We actually decided to go to the same panels for the 9:00 session and found ourselves in an early morning discussion on food in Asia. It was very interesting. The first paper was about the changes in temple food in southern India in terms of modern adaptations. For example the use of plastic take-out containers for blessed dishes instead of the traditional banana leaves. It was one of the more interesting presentations I’ve heard so far at the panel due to the fact it didn’t take itself so seriously. There were light hearted moments and I greatly appreciated them. The next presentation was about Taiwanese food culture. We did not stay for the last presentations because while we wanted to hear more about food in Asia (who wouldn’t?) we also wanted to hear our new friend, Harlan, talk. He was discussing a Taiwanese author named Li Ang. This author is a bit of a trouble maker and seems like an incredibly interesting read. Her book The Butcher’s Wife is available on Amazon and it may be one of my next for fun reads (Thanks Kristen and Brett for the Amazon gift card! It shall be put to good use).The book Harlan was actually discussing, Mi Yuan, is not yet on Amazon so I will have to wait to read it and discover if his feminist take on the novel is spot on or not. However, from what I’ve gathered about Mr. Harlan I trust he is correct. I also have learned about some interesting Indian novels that also have interesting feminist readings that I will have to check out: The Red Box, Anita and Me, The Namesake, and Brick Lane. You know… after I read the 100 books for my comprehensive exams.

Macau

The real fun of the day came at 13:00. We went on an excursion! The conference had set up free daily excursions to Old Town Macau and we signed up for it. It was a bit of a pain: started 20 minutes late, people were selfish and decided to sign up for the excursion even though they knew they had to be back early to catch the ferry and expected the excursion to end early for everyone because of it (rude!), and people kept interrupting the tour guide. However, the majority of the excursion was free time and Yining and I made the most of it.
We started the tour by getting off the bus near the old Portuguese fortress and walking down cobblestone streets filled with souvenir shops. The guide, Vincent, informed us the cobblestone had been brought all the way from Portugal. Which, to me, seems excessive but hey it was lovely. We made our way up to the Fortress and were give 15 minutes of free time to walk around. Cut a bit short by the fact we started late and we still had “more iconic” landmarks to see.

A canon overlooking Macau and across the river mainland China

After the fortress it was a very short walk to the ruins of St. Paul’s and Senado Square. They are very beautiful. The ruins of St. Paul’s  is Macau’s main landmark and has been standing as the facade of the church for nearly 400 years. The front of this church was made of stone but the rest was constructed out of wood. During a particularly strong typhoon season a candle was blown off the alter and burned down the back section of the church. The front, stone section was left as is ever since.

The Ruins of St. Paul’s

Cantonese Opera Advertisement

While at St. Paul’s Yining and I heard a wonderful thing. Gongs. Not just any gongs, the gongs of Chinese Opera. Oh yes. The temple next to St. Paul’s was hosting a performance of Cantonese Opera. Which was, as it usually is, stunningly beautiful. I love Chinese opera. Give me a good yueju or jingju or any kind of ju and I am a happy, happy girl. I am not sure on the particular story that was being performed since my knowledge of the Cantonese Opera canon is non-existant and I could not read the Cantonese. However, I did not need to know exactly what was going on to enjoy it. I just enjoyed it. Here are some more photos. Hooray for a photo heavy post. There are just so many beautiful ones. Thank you again to Laura for donating her old camera to me. I have obviously been using it on this trip. Love my little sister.

My favorite picture of the trip so far. Also I want this whole outfit. Headress to shoes.

More Cantonese Opera

Next we, sadly, left the performance because the group was moving on down the road to Senado Square. We actually missed the group moving on and were left behind with the Russian family I had met early. I scared the crap out of their son/grandson by asking him in Russian what game he was playing on his phone. The look on his face was PRICELESS. He was so confused that someone was speaking Russian to him in China. Made my day. I then introduced myself to his mom and grandma in Russian. We I guess missed the group leaving St. Paul’s by a minute or two. Damn beautiful Cantonese Opera. So I discussed a bit in Russian a bit in English with the Russians and in English with Yining and we made our way down the road because luckily Yining and I listen and knew Senado Square was next on the list. We did luckily find a couple Yining knew from an earlier panel discussion and they informed us we had till 4:30 for free time in the square. This is a beautiful Portuguese style square with colorful buildings, a bright yellow church, lots of shop, and beautiful cobblestone from Portugal. We walked up and down the square and then back to the bright yellow church at the end of the square. St. Dominic’s is beautiful and they have a, bless them, air conditioned museum of Portuguese and Chinese antiquities.

Senado Square

St. Dominic’s Church

Our little rain haven

After the church we walked around a bit more taking in the beautiful architecture, people watching, looking in cute shops and expensive shops we couldn’t purchase anything in even if we combined our money, and becoming increasingly warm and covered in what I like to call the lovely humidity blanket of sweat. After walking around for a bit we decided to stop in a small cafe for a drink. It had been a while since we had anything to drink at all. So we stopped in an adorable cafe with pictures of Audrey Hepburn on the walls. We had milk tea, which I love, and they even gave us free water with lemon AND free refills of water. Which is just unheard of here and amazing. As we sat down, continuing our good weather luck on this trip, it started to pour. When we were done with our milk tea it had all stopped. Loving our weather timing this trip. It was then time to head back to meet the group and walk back to our bus.
Next on the agenda was the ICAS 8 Book Prize announcement where they give out prizes for top-notch publications and dissertations as well as the keynote address. Both were interesting but the real treat was the gala dinner following the keynote address. There was just tons of food. It was also a nice time to pick a random table and meet new and interesting people while everyone stuffs themselves till it is hard to get up and walk back to your hotel room. They had: sashimi, mushroom soup, lamb, prawns prepared two different ways, beef in a Chinese style, fried rice, baked cod, steamed and baked vegatables, cheesecakes, creme brule, chocolate cake, sweet dumplings, tapioca, mango pudding… just so many wonderful things. I had three helpings of meats and veggies, a bowl of mushroom soup, and a helping of sashimi. As well as two plates full of  desserts. Followed by a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. I was quite full by the end of the night. It was a good choice to go on our excursion that day because we built up an appetite so we could fill ourselves to the brim with gorgeous food.
We were then too full to really do anything after than and went back to our hotel. Back in the room I took a lovely bath in the huge soaker tub which was just amazing and then we chilled for a while because we were beat and full. It was really nice. We haven’t really stopped moving since Thursday so the time to just relax and watch strange TV shows we had no idea existed (ie: Suburgatory) was so nice.

More on interesting panels, hot pot buffets, and egg tarts later. For now here are some more photos.

Working her sleeves – More Cantonese Opera

A little moment at the Macau Fortress

Inside St. Dominic’s Church

Close up of St. Paul’s

A bell in St. Dominic’s

The Sheraton from The Venetian at night

Marvelous Macau

Macau from the Fortress

Macau is quite lovely. Hot and tremendously humid but lovely. It is like Vegas x 10. Ok, actually x 6. Really. They surpassed Vegas x 6 in the amount of money they make in the casinos. They spent something like 2. 1 billion Hong Kong Dollars to build The Venetian Hotel and they earned it back in NINE MONTHS. NINE! Crazy. So how did we get to this lovely place? I’m glad you asked.

On the Turbojet to Macau

We took the ferry. The ferry was interesting. It cost about $20 US to take the one hour trip from Hong Kong to Macau which involves going through customs on the Hong Kong side and the Macau side. So it takes quite a bit more than an hour to really get from A to B but I digress. So you purchase your ticket for the next ferry at the station, wait in some lines, and then hop in the “line” to get on the boat. I say “line” because it was more like an angry cluster of people trying to fight their way onto a boat that had assigned seats. It was a bit strange the urgency felt by everyone to get on this boat. Although the urgency to get off was much higher. About 40 minutes into the trip the seas were rough. They were rough to start because of the rain but they were very rough at this point. Yining was luckily asleep, because that woman can sleep anywhere, but I heard about five people vomit multiple times into the handy vomit bags. Fun. Thank goodness for my preventative anti-nausea medicine. That could have been me. It was not me though. Yining and I made it, vomit free, to Macau Ferry Terminal at about 3pm. We then proceeded to wait for what seemed like forever in another customs line. I dislike customs lines. Then walked over to the free Sheraton shuttle. Bless free shuttles. All the hotels here have them because all the hotels here have casinos and they want you here. They want you in their casinos. They will take you to and from for free because they know you will lose all your monies.

Our room at the largest Sheraton in the world.

So we arrived at the Sheraton and checked into our room. We are in the new Sky Tower which is amazing. This whole hotel is amazing. It is the biggest Sheraton in the entire world. It really is enormous. There is a mall, two casinos, many restaurants plus a food court, multiple fountains, kiosks, tons of people, and a large bridge to another giant hotel. Luckily that giant hotel connected to ours is The Venetian where the ICAS is being held. Makes for quick and dry travel to and from our hotel room. We took the elevator up to our floor and found our fantastic room. It is beautiful and huge. Bless you Booking.com for the superb deal on this hotel. Not only is it amazingly convenient but damn comfortable. I’m sitting in the room as I type in a terry cloth robe after taking a bath in a giant soaker tub. Insert contented sigh here. We didn’t spend much time in the room, just enough to unpack, and then we were off on another adventure!

A Lorcha restaurant

This time it was a food adventure, the best kind if you ask me. We decided to take a taxi over to the other island because we did not want to deal with the bus, a transfer, and another bus in the dark. Where were we going you ask? To a little bit of heaven. We were going to A Lorcha. An amazing Portuguese restaurant. It is quite wonderful. It is a small place, nicely decorated in the Portuguese colonial style, polite staff, quick food delivery, and it contains some of the most amazing food. Yining and I started with a half jug of sangria that was delightful. We then had an appetizer of clams in oil, garlic, and cilantio which I probably ate too fast but I could not get enough of them. Then we each got our entrees. Yining had the tenderloin with garlic and chips (fries) and I had the African chicken. Each were beyond amazing. I had read about the African chicken on many websites that recommended A Lorcha and they were all correct. It was spectacular. However, we couldn’t finish out meals because they did give us a lot of food. So we got take away and saved it for a later night. A quick taxi ride and we were back at the Sheraton ready for bed and the first day of the conference on Monday.

African Chicken. Yum.

Monday was nice. We woke up early and walked over the bridge to The Venetian. We found our way through the maze of a hotel to the ICAS registration and got ourselves all signed in and signed up for the excursion around Macau on Tuesday afternoon. My first panel of the day was on the post-conflict/post-tsunami Aceh region of Indonesia. I think it went really well. It was very informative and the roundtable portion of the talk was lively. I think I may have not been clear on a point and sounded a bit rude… I hope that it not the case. The next two panels were ok. Just ok though. The best part of the day was the welcome reception where Yining and I got 1.) free drinks and 2.) to mingle and meet new people and fellow scholars. We did end up meeting some wonderful people and exhanging information and cards. All in all a good day.
Now it is late and I am very tired from walking all around a super humid Macau all day so it is time to hit the hay. I will write up more about Old Town Macau and beautiful Portuguese architecture tomorrow. For now I will say goodnight.

Oh Hong Kong. You’re Swell.

22 June 2013

Traveling is always an interesting thing. Our flights on Thursday/Friday (yay time travel) from Honolulu were very long. Not unpleasant, but being in a plane for 8 hours then in an airport for 2.5 and then on another plane for 3 hours takes it out of a girl. However, Korean Air is wonderful. Even if our flight from Korea to Hong Kong was delayed so they could fix something. The flight attendants really made it for me. They were so wonderful. Beyond pleasant. They went out of their way to help people. Just lovely. So when we landed in Hong Kong and had collected out luggage we were so beat we decided just to grab a taxi to our hotel instead of taking the train to Hong Kong island and then transferring to another train and then trying to walk to our hotel in the dark. Money well spent I think.

Cosmo Hotel Mongkok

The Cosmo hotel in Mongkok is just adorable. We had such a cute little room (and I do mean little: 18sq meters). It was just enough for our two nights. Two beds, a big window, wonderful shower that I wanted to take home, and a closet to hang our clothes. Even if my toes hung off the end of the bed I would still stay there again. Reasonably priced, close to Olympic Station, near a Watson’s (Long’s-y), and the staff was very nice. Yining and I got up to our room, unpacked a little, and then crashed. Hard.

On Saturday, our first morning in Hong Kong, we woke up to some decent rain fall. We thought for a moment about changing out plans for the day and Ta-Da the rain stopped! It was wonderful. So we walked our way to Olympic Station, figured out the train system, and popped down to Hong Kong island so we could make our way up to The Peak. The Peak is a high point in Hong Kong that you can see most of Hong Kong and damn near all of Kowloon. It is wonderous. The trolley you take up is a bit concerning. It is steep. Steep steep. Fun though. Once and the top Yining and I took several beautiful photos and made our way inside just as it started to pour. Again we had excellent rain timing. We enjoyed a vanilla latte each and the free wifi in the coffee place while the rain cooled off. It was then time to hop on the trolley back down (Backwards!) so we could get some lunch.

View from The Peak

We walked from The Peak about a mile to a restaurant that is famous for milk tea. Delicious, delicious milk tea. The pork cartilage spicy rice was pretty darn tasty as well. After lunch we took off about 1/2 a mile down the road to visit Man Mo Temple. It was beautiful. I felt a bit strange and out of place taking photos in this place of worship but no one seemed to mind. It is a famous temple so I bet they are used to the tourists walking about and are good at ignoring them. The giant coils of incense in the temple were the most striking. They smelled and looked wonderful.

Man Mo Temple

After saying goodbye to Man Mo Temple we walked back to a bakery we saw that sells egg tarts. Oh the joyous egg tarts. We each got a delicious little gem and went on our way to find a place to stuff our faces with tart. We walked through a cute vegtable and fruit market and found ourselves at one of the MANY malls in Hong Kong. We ended up at a Starbucks and got a small drink and plopped down to nosh on tart. They were a-may-zing, in case you were wondering. While in Starbucks, again taking advantage of free internet, we decided to check out information about the Chinese Opera Festival at the Culture Center on the Kowloon side. We found out tickets would be made available the day of and we had to pick them up at the theatre. So that was the next place we would go!

Victoria Harbor from Kowloon

Dragon Boats!

We made it all the way to the Culture Center and… wah, wah, wah… no tickets left. Very sad. However, we took our sad no Chinese opera lemons and made beautiful lemonade. The Culture Center is right on Victoria Harbor so we walked the promenade and took pictures of the view. We also walked right into the Dragon Boat Carnival! It was very cool. We sat in the bleachers and watched several races. They were quite exciting. Although I’m glad I wasn’t betting on them because I chose wrong every time. Damn you number 6! After a few races we decided to walk and find the San Miguel Beer Festival which was tied to the carnival. We found it. It was great. Yining and I sat down and drank our free beer and had a lovely time. I was also interviewed by many people who were doing projects for school or for the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Apparently I am a non-threatening foreigner. Yay?

We were a bit hungry after the beer so we got up and walked around a bit to find some food. We ended up at the iSquare mall and decided to check it out. It was fun. They had this store FrancFranc which may be the most adorable home store in the entire world and I want to find another one. It was amazing and not horribly priced. I want to go to there.

In the mall there was this one Italian restuarant that smelled amazing! Just heavenly. I know what you are thinking here… you go to China and eat Italian? What? Well, shush! We have had lots of Chinese and Korean food and you have no idea how good this place smelled. Also, it turned out really to be a great choice. My pasta in cream sauce with ham and mushrooms was exceptional. Really just so filling and hit the spot so perfectly. Yining’s pizza was good as well. She let me have a slice.

Hong Kong at Night… blurry this camera apparently hates the night.

After the spectacular food we walked back to Victoria Harbor to take pictures of the night skyline and watch the Symphony Lights. Hong Kong holds this event every night. They play music and the lights of many of the buildings on the Hong Kong side dance to the music. It was neat. Following the classy lights we decided to continue our night time fun by visiting the Ladies Market in Mongkok. We took a train there and walked around the stalls for a while. I ended up getting one small gift and haggling like a pro to toot my own horn. It is fun to haggle. By this point we were getting very tired and chose to head back to the hotel. It didn’t look very far on the map so we decided to hoof it instead of paying for a taxi. Now i’ll admit I was a bit turned around and I think we were both a little confused by the streets. We did figure it out after a bit of confusion and made our way back to the hotel after a long walk. Longer than expected but we survived. Kind of… If you hadn’t noticed I used the word ‘walk’ a lot so far. We walked about 6-7 miles during the day and stood a whole bunch as well. My feet are BARKING. I have blisters on my heels and toes. My fault for breaking in my new shoes on the plane flight and then walking all day. Oh well, nothing bandages can’t handle. Also, my kate spade conference shoes are the ones I work 8 hours a day in and they are comfortable. So hooray for the next few days.

Dumpling!

Being back in the hotel was wonderful. I took a shower in the best shower I’ve ever showered in and then we sat in our beds and looked at our photos, talked, and got ready to sleep. Hooray sleep. It was good sleep too. We slept in till 8:45am because our only plans for Sunday were dim sum! The dim sum place didn’t open till 11:30 so why rush? We took a train down to Canton Road and to, surprise, another mall where the dim sum place Yining likes is located. There was a line at the place, Din Tai Fung, at 10:45 when we arrived. By the time the place opened there was a line long enough to fill the large restaurant and then some. It was really tasty. We ate so many dumplings. So many. I wish I had some right now they were so tasty. I love dumplings. I could eat them every day. We also had some vegetables and a red bean bun for dessert. Mainly, though, we ate dumplings! Which was the plan. So we succeeded in our Sunday plans. Huzzah.

When we left the mall is was pouring. So even though it is a bit pricey we took a cab back to the hotel instead of walking 10 minutes in the rain to take two trains back and walk 5 more minutes in the rain. We had already checked out before leaving for dim sum so we just had to pick up our bags, use the free wifi in the lobby to check ferry times, and then head out to the docks to grab a ferry to Macau. We left at 2pm and arrived in Macau at about 3pm. Which is where I am now. In a coffee shop in Macau and drinking a nice cup of tea before bed. More on the ferry and what we did on our first day in Macau tomorrow after the conference.

Here we go ICAS 8!

Aw Hey, Korea.

At ICN Airport

안녕하세요 family and friends! How are you? I am super tired. That is how I am. I did not sleep well last night because my baby, Sunshine, was acting rather sick. He was very lethargic. I had never seen him turn down playing with a hair tie and it kind of freaked me out. So I was up till 3am making sure my baby was ok and talking to the 24 hour vet on the phone. I think it was a poor reaction to the Frontline Plus. The internet seems to have turned up several people who have run into this problem too. Poor Sunshine. Ya gotta have your medicine though, kid. I’ll just talk to the vet and try a new one next time that will work better with you.
So that is how my night went. Then I got up at 7am, showered, checked my luggage, and Yining was there to pick me up so we could head to the airport! The airport was a breeze. We waited in a short line to check in, sat for a little bit, and then got on the plane. The plane trip was very nice. Although I would have liked to sleep at least it was a pleasant flight. Korean Air is wonderful. The flight attendants were so wonderful with us and with the family with two kids next to us. They were very attentive, kind, and absolutely gorgeous as well. Fun times had by all. Korean Air even has individual touch screen entertainment sytems. So I watched Friends, Sherlock, and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Oz was AWFUL. Just terrible all around. The acting, the CGI, the script… just everything. The other entertainment was great, the food was good, and there was no turbulence. So all in all a lovely trip.
Now Yining and I are sitting in the Incheon Airport in Korea. Hooray Korea. It is a very, very nice airport. The world’s best for 8 years according to one sign. I personally like the Singapore airport better, but that’s just me. This airport does have the best thing any airport could ever have though. Free Wifi. I mean it is 2013. Free airport internet should just be a given. Am I right? I’m right. Also, there is a kids section with slides. I will not lie. I am very tempted to slide. I will refrain though. Our flight leaves in an hour for Hong Kong and I can probably stay out of trouble for that short amount of time. Then we will be in Hong Kong at about 10:30. We will go through customs, grab a cab, and head to our hotel. Thank goodness for late check-in at hotels.

More pictures and updates to come tomorrow when I actually have things to show and stuff to say.

Hugs to you all!

Travel Time

So I leave Thursday at noon for Hong Kong and Macau. I am super excited. I really, really need this trip. It will be very nice to get away and not only do some fun touristy stuff but also get back into the academic world. Not taking classes I have felt a bit too separate from the academic world. So Yining and I will leave Thursday and land in Hong Kong at 10pm on Friday. We get to spend Saturday and most of Sunday in the beautiful Hong Kong. Beautiful and super hot Hong Kong. It’ll be raining and 90 degrees but that’s ok because there will be so many dumplings to eat. Hooray. So far that is our biggest plan in Hong Kong. To eat. Also look at some beautiful harbor views. However, mostly eating dumplings.

Macau Skyline

Then we are off to Macau for the conference Monday-Thursday. We are both presenting Thursday so we will do a mixture of listening to presentations, networking, sightseeing, and stuffing our faces Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then Friday I am off to the Hong Kong airport to fly home and Yining is off to Shanghai. I’ll post lots of pictures and things over the next few days. Our hotels have wifi so updates will come your way. Next time I write it’ll be from China. Hooray!

The Tree Travels Again!

I am so darn excited. This summer I will be traveling the world again with my friend Yining. Two summers ago I went to Japan with Nick, Matt, and Yining. Last summer I was in Indonesia. This summer Yining and I are heading to Hong Kong and Macau! I am so incredibly blessed. Yining and I booked our tickets today! We also booked the hotel rooms so it is set in stone now. I cannot even really express how excited I am to go to Hong Kong. I mean look at it:

Hong Kong Skyline

It is so stunningly beautiful and culturally diverse and historically amazing. I am just so thrilled. So, here is the plan. Yining and I are heading out from  Honolulu to Hong Kong on June 20th. We are taking the amazing Korean Air and I can’t wait for that either. Everything I hear about Korean Air is amazing. Even their commercials are nice. So hopefully even Korean Air coach will feel lovely. We will be leaving on the 20th and arriving in Seoul, South Korea on the 21st. We have a nice 2 hour wait and then head on to Hong Kong from Seoul. That counts are being in Korea right? Hanging out in the airport for two hours? Sure… ha. We get into Hong Kong late and will take the train into Hong Kong proper.

Cosmo Hotel

We are staying at a super posh little hotel. The Cosmo Hotel. It is a short walk from the train station and hopefully easy to find. Yining speaks Mandarin and lots of people speak English in Hong Kong so we should be good. Also I may have looked at the map of Hong Kong 100x already and will probably look at it 500 more times by the time we get there so I’ll have it memorized. We are only spending two days in Hong Kong (in the tiny 18 sq meter room) and we are looking to fit in a whole lot. I’d love to see the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and participate in the Cantonese Opera Class, Enjoy the Jingju festival in town, visit the giant Buddha statue on Lantau island, EAT my weight in dim sum, spend time taking in the beautiful harbor views of the Hong Kong skyline, visit the ladies night market, see some temples, and take a million photos. Sounds possible in two days right? We have the full day the 22nd and part of the 23rd. We can do it! On the 23rd we will check out of the Hong Kong hotel and taking the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. It will take about an hour and I am bringing my Dramamine and some ginger! Oh, and yes, I’m sure Yining and I will be reenacting the entire “I’m on a Boat” video. Don’t you worry. Then we will be in Macau! Yay Macau!

Macau!

Macau is the Las Vegas of Asia. Except better. Imagine Las Vegas in the middle of a beautifully cultural small Asian village with Portuguese influences. Wondrous. Yes, there is gambling and yes I will be participating in some of that. I have budgeted myself $20 US.  Hey maybe I’ll win a million dollars. Wouldn’t that be sweet? Once we land in the stunning Macau we will be taking the hotel shuttle to the amazing, new Sheraton Macau – Cotai Central. We had many options in Macau when it came to hotels. The hotel the conference is in is the Venetian Hotel. Even with the participant discount for the conference the hotel was MUCH MUCH MUCH too expensive. So we did some Kayak and Booking.com shopping. Our first option was the cheapo route and stay at the Best Western. However, when we factored in taxis every day back and forth… staying there wouldn’t end up being so cheap. So after doing some math (Yes dad, I did lots of math when booking this trip) we decided that staying across the street at the Sheraton was the better deal. Plus we will always be on time!

Sheraton Macau

The Sheraton is amazing. For one the room is 42 sq meters. More than twice the size of the Hong Kong hotel. We each get a double bed, not a twin. We have a bath… I don’t even have a bath in Honolulu. So I am super excited about the room. The hotel is also very fun. Dining, three pools, gambling, and more exciting stuff. Although we will be spending most of our time at the conference rubbing elbows with fellow scholars and learning… it is nice to  be staying somewhere that will feel completely relaxing once we hit the room at the end of a long day. We also have some ruins and temples to check out. Oh and there is a Panda park. Yes, Pandas! Also we will be having dinner at least once with my friend Rob who just moved to Macau to work on a wonderful show, The House of Dancing Water. I’m excited to see him! He is a wonderful person and I’m excited he is checking out some places in Macau so he can recommend things to us when we get there. He also lives and works just around the corner from our hotel. So a major plus. Hopefully we will even get a chance to see his show. Hooray! We have 5 days and 6 nights in Macau. Hopefully we can fit in a good amount of conference, some sightseeing, and even some relaxing. Also take a million more photos. I will be presenting on my early dissertation work at this conference: The International Conference of Asian Scholars. It is a large scale conference so I am hoping to make some connections as well. There will be 1,500 scholars from 56 countries with around 300 panels. Luckily Yining and I are presenting on different panels and at different times. So we can go support each other. We are on the last day (Thursday) which is nice. Leaves time to see plenty of panels and make tweaks to our own presentations to fit the style of this conference if we need. After we present we can see some more panels, sightsee, stuff our faces, or all of the above. Then Friday we check out and take the ferry back to Hong Kong. I will be heading back to Honolulu and Yining will be heading to Shanghai to meet her family. We will both be leaving from Hong Kong at about the same time though so that will be nice check out and take the ferry together.
Then I will be in Honolulu for all of July (maybe with a visit from the mommy) and work till the end of July to have some more funds coming in. Then I will be heading out to Indonesia in August. I am in the process of applying for my visa and then I can get the travel plans started with Fulbright. I got my new passport today so I can make copies and send them off to Indonesia and get all my ducks in a row. Let the tour of Asia begin! Honolulu – Hong Kong – Macau – Hong Kong – Honolulu – Jogjakarta! Hooray!

Prambanan in Yogyakarta