2010 Scream for Charity

Posted on 5 November 2010 by christao408

Since 2003, a Bangkok-based company and member of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) called English Solutions has sponsored an annual Halloween party for underprivileged children at the Mercy Center in Khlong Toei. This was the first year I heard about it and my friend Ken and I went to volunteer.

Held the day before Halloween, the “Scream for Charity” gives hundreds of underprivileged children an opportunity to experience a fun day and a chance to get a taste of this very American of holidays. Halloween isn’t celebrated in Thailand although in the past few years it has taken on a little life of its own, especially at nightclubs. Thais love ghosts and all things spooky so Halloween is finding fertile soil in which to spread its roots.

Hundreds of children wait for the final event of the day – trick or treating.

The Khlong Toei area of Bangkok is the city’s largest slum. While I had previously been in some of the edges of the area, I had never before been into the heart of it and I was shocked. While the neighborhood is full of life, it is also teeming with poverty. One of the largest organizations helping the community is Mercy Center, a shelter for street kids, four orphanages, a hospice, a home for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS, a 400-pupil kindergarten, a community meeting place, and a serene haven in the slums with small gardens and playgrounds.

The Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on a shelf that usually holds a Buddha statue.

Father Joe Maier, a Catholic priest who has served in Thailand since 1967, founded Mercy Center along with Sister Mary Chantavaradom. Father Joe has become something of an institution in Bangkok, speaking truth to power and shining the spotlight on the plight of the city’s poor even when the elite class would rather they be out of sight and out of mind. His columns regularly appear in the Bangkok Post, an English language daily, telling the stories of the young people who have come through Mercy Center. Sometimes their stories end in triumph. All too often, though, they end in sorrow.

The Scream for Charity was a lot of fun. We had more than 100 volunteers, both expats and Thais, and probably 400 children. Ken and I were assigned to the trick or treat bag decorating station. Working with eight or so children at a time, we helped them decorate their bags with pictures of jack-o-lanterns, bats, and ghosts.

Everyone, even if they weren’t showing it, was eager to get their face painted.

I didn’t have a chance to get a lot of pictures, both because we were busy working and also because the organizers asked that we hold off from taking pictures because it could become a bit of a circus. Interacting with the children was fun. Some were painfully shy, others were fairly outgoing. Some still had that childhood innocence, others had been affected by their circumstances and were already jaded. But for a few hours at least, they had fun, played games, visited the haunted house, ate food, and went home with bags of rice, candy, school supplies, and other things that are much in need.

Khlong Toei is in the port area and containers are stacked high behind many buildings.

Afterwards, Ken and I walked the couple of miles out of Khlong Toei and back up to the convention center area to catch the subway. Along the way, we remarked that it has been almost two years since our volunteer English teaching in Samut Songkhram province came to an end. It seems that it has been too long since there has been any regular volunteering in my life. Living in Thailand gives me a great appreciation for how blessed I am and how much I have that so many others don’t. I try to always be appreciative of those blessings and not take them for granted.

I’ll leave you with this trio of pictures from 2009’s Scream for Charity, courtesy of Fredrik Divall. These capture the sense of the event very nicely.

Adorable Baby Picture

Posted on 4 November 2010 by christao408

My cousins’ son just turned one and to celebrate, they held a “smash the cake” party along with one of their friend’s son who was alos turning one. Another friend who is a photographer came along and offered to shoot the party since she doesn’t have a lot of experience with this type of event.

Now, I’m probably doing the wrong thing by posting a picture of my cousins’ friend’s son rather than my own cousins’ son, but I thought this picture was especially adorable.

The whole cake-smashing party seems strange to me, though. I don’t remember my first birthday but I hadn’t previously heard of making the cake-smashing the point of the party. Everything is set up on a washable tablecloth and the baby is encouraged to smash the cake. Did I do that when I was one?

Unexplained Landscaping

Posted on 3 November 2010 by christao408

Sukhumvit Soi 53 (“soi” is Thai for an alley or small street) is one of the nicer sois in Bangkok. There are generally walkable footpaths on both sides of the soi and several trees provide shade. So it was a surprise when, in a flurry of unexplained activity, green Bangkok Metropolitan Authority trucks descended upon our soi, removed footpath pavers, and planted hedge rows and new trees the entire length of the soi.

Not that I mind the extra attention and new landscaping, although it is rare to see government landscaping that is actually set into the soil – potted plants seem to be the norm. But this landscaping project doesn’t seem to be happening anywhere else, just on our already better-than-average soi. That seems suspicious.

Tawn and I spoke to the workers in front of our condo, who didn’t know much other than they were following directions from their superiors. This shot captures both the full range of landscaping being added – tall hedge rows in the back, trees in the middle, and short hedge rows in the front – as well as the asinine lack of planning resulting in some areas in an entirely blocked footpath.

“What could be going on?” I wondered to myself.

In some stretches of the soi, such as this barren patch, the new landscaping was a welcome addition. You can see where pavers have been removed near the curb in order to add hedge rows. The irony is that a few weeks later, these trees and the hedge rows in front of this house have been inexplicably removed.

In other areas, trees and hedge rows were being planted right in front of properties that already have very lush foliage. This seems a bit wasteful to me. The tall trees you see in the distance of this photo, the ones on the left-hand side, are pine trees. Some of them have been cut down as part of this process.

While we were viewing the planting, a neighbor came up and shared some gossip with us. The landscaping has been done because a very important person is moving into the soi. So important that, because of Thailand strict lese majeste laws, I can’t tell you who.

It has been three weeks since the landscaping and I haven’t seen any signs of the pomp, circumstance, and police that one would associate with that sort of VIP. But it seems likely that this one-off landscaping which isn’t happening anywhere else in our neighborhood, must be the result of someone important.

We’ll see if the rumors come true. Perhaps more importantly, we’ll see if the landscaping lasts.

Flying Home

Posted on 1 November 2010 by christao408

Ignore for a moment that this entry is being posted a week and a day after I actually flew back from Hong Kong to Bangkok! One of the best things about visiting Hong Kong is the airport. It is one of the finest airports in the world, user friendly, beautifully designed, lots of light, easy to watch airplanes from around the globe, etc.

This view of the main concourse, taken from the second-floor food court area just beyond immigration and security, is such the antithesis of Bangkok’s dark, depressing terminal.

Interesting planes from all around. I can’t think of the last time I saw a Saudi Arabian Boeing 747.

My flight, an Air Asia Airbus A320, pulls into the gate. Surprisingly, the Bangkok-Hong Kong ticket on Air Asia was only 4100 baht (about US$130) all inclusive, round-trip. Normally, Hong Kong is one of their more expensive destinations.

Buy-on-board chicken satay. Compare what it looks like in real life with the image in the menu, below.

I’d like to complain to someone about the lack of truth in advertising!

Anyhow, I’m back in Bangkok now, the US midterm elections are today, my San Francisco Giants just won the Baseball World Series for the first time since 1954, and I’m finished writing about Hong Kong for the time being.

Food in Hong Kong: Modern China Restaurant

Posted on 31 October 2010 by christao408

In response to my early posts about this recent trip to Hong Kong, some commenters expressed concern that I wasn’t eating at any Chinese restaurants. Rest assured, I did eat a good amount of Chinese food while there. One of the best meals was my final dinner, enjoyed at a Shanghainese restaurant called Modern China.

Located in the Olympian City Mall in West Kowloon, right above the Olympic MTR station, Modern China blends in among all the other glass-fronted restaurant in a mall that, frankly, could be any other mall in Hong Kong.

The waiting queue is very modern, with numbers posted on an LED monitor along with a map of tables and their status. On a busy Sunday evening, Big Michael and I only waited ten minutes for a table.

The interior of the restaurant is clean and spacious, although tables are packed pretty close together. The wait staff was professional and attentive, although in typical Hong Kong style were not overly friendly. The menu is accessible, offering lots of pictures and clear English descriptions.

A small dish of sweet dried shrimp were served as a complimentary appetizer. Very flavorful, although when I lived here it took a while to get used to eating shrimp with the shell still on.

On the autumn special menu was an intriguing sounding dish: braised seafood in pumpkin.

Sure enough, a beautiful orange pumpkin arrived on our table and upon removing the lid, we discovered a medley of fresh seafood in a rich pumpkin broth. We also scraped the sides of the pumpkin to dislodge some of the cooked, but still firm flesh. Very tasty.

Can’t go to a Shanghainese restaurant without some Xiao Long Bao! Very tasty, too, with delicate wrappers. Really, though, will I ever like any XLB better than those at Din Tai Fung? On the menu, these are rather cutely described as “Mouthful Small Steamed Meat Buns”.

Braised noodles are always a favorite, especially these fried noodles with twice-cooked pork.

Our final dish were these fried pastries filled with chopped beef and preserved vegetables. They were kind of like turnovers, with a very flaky crust and a savory filling.

There was a lot of juice inside and trying to cut them open neatly proved to be a chore. But this will give you an idea, at least.

Overall, I give Modern China good marks for tasty, reasonably priced Shanghai style food served in a convenient location. Good enough to be added to my Google Map of Hong Kong. If you are looking for a break from the Cantonese food while in Hong Kong, head over to Olympian Mall.

Would you believe five years alreday?

Posted on 31 October 2010 by christao408

After more than a year of planning, my move to Bangkok occurred the morning of Sunday, October 30, 2005. I departed from New York, spending my final two nights in America there. As with most of my trips, visiting friends and eating food were the main pastimes. Saturday evening was a 5-course tasting menu at Blue Hill just off Washington Square. The fantastic menu and wine pairings were a perfect goodbye gift from the land of my birth.

Thankfully, Daylight Saving Time ended at 2:00 Sunday morning, giving me an extra hour’s sleep before having to head out to the airport. The friend with whom I was staying flagged a taxi while I pulled off a minor logistics miracle and got my three large/heavy suitcases, one heavy trolley bag, and fully-stuffed backpack down three flights of stairs and through the front entry doors.

A few hours later, I was situated in seat 44D aboard a THAI Airways A340-500 as we rolled down the runway for a more than seventeen hour flight to the capital of Thailand. Since the flight crossed the International Date Line, it arrived on October 31 at 4:20 pm. Exactly five years and fifteen minutes ago. My, how time flies when you’re having fun!

If you’re curious to read all the details of that flight, which has since been discontinued, check out my trip report here on airliners.net. An interesting bit of trivia, that picture above is of the actual flight I was on that day. Through sheer coincidence, a member of airliners.net was taking pictures at JFK airport that morning and shot my flight. After reading my trip report, he emailed the pictures to me.

Inform Yourself and Rock the Vote

Posted on 29 October 2010 by christao408

On Tuesday, November 2, Americans will head to the polls in an important mid-term election. The outcomes of elections have a real impact on us from the national level to the local level. The best electorate is an informed, involved one. Whatever your political leanings, I encourage you to take a look at the following tools to make sure you have the best possible information with which to make your voting decisions. These links come from OpenCongress, a non-profit and non-partisan public resource, independent from Congress and any political party.

To find who your current senators and representative are, use their zipcode look-up tool.

RaceTracker – See who the candidates are, learn about their positions, and get a snapshot of the fundraising race. This is a collaborative wiki project, so if you have information about a particular candidate, this is a great place to add your knowledge and share it on a fully-referenced, free and open-source platform.

AdTracker – In the wake of the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision allowing outside groups to spend unlimited money on campaign ads, it’s more important than ever that we have transparency in how these ads are affecting the election and exactly how they’re funded. AdTracker is a wiki project for tracking and watching all the ads in congressional races across the country and providing background info who’s sponsoring them. It provides a unique view into the advocacy work of low-profile independent political groups.

Voting Records – We typically find out about candidates’ voting records when they are being spun by their competitors, but on OpenCongress it is possible (and easy) to look at the actual vote data yourself. From your senators’ and representative’s profile pages, click the “Votes” tab and search for any topics you’re interested in. Looking at the actual data gives you a more accurate picture of how your lawmakers really voted on the issues that matter to you. To find more votes, check out our one-of-a-kind listing of Hot Bills by Issue Area.

Compare Votes – In this election more than in most, independence from party leadership is considered an especially important trait. Our head-to-head vote comparison tool gives you a view of party loyalty that you can’t get elsewhere. Compare the voting records of any two senators or representatives to see how often they vote with their colleagues and on what votes in particular they agree or disagree.

Bill sponsorship – In addition to vote records, it’s important to look at the bills your incumbent candidate has proposed. From senator and representative profile pages, click the “bills” tab to browse or search all sponsored and co-sponsored bills. Even more than votes, the bills lawmakers support are indicative of their overall vision and ideology.

Money – Last but not least, take a second to look at your candidates’ campaign funding sources. Time and again it’s been show that campaign finances are directly related to how members of Congress vote. Click the “Money Trail” tab on your senators’ and representative’s profile pages to see which industries and special-interest groups have donated to them. This is who they’ll likely owe favors to if elected to Congress in the next session.

If you need help finding out where to vote on Nov. 2nd, try this simple tool from Google and the New Organizing Institute. I sincerely hope the resources in this email help you make a satisfying decision at the voting booth.

Source of most of this content: OpenCongress.org

Hiking in Hong Kong

Posted on 28 October 2010 by christao408

Sunday afternoon my host Chris and I went for a hike up to Victoria Peak. It was a pretty good workout, two hours to cover more than seven kilometers and an elevation gain of, I think, about 300 meters (more than 900 feet). It was also a chance to get a different point of view on a city that many consider to be a veritable urban jungle.

This is how most people view Hong Kong – tremendously dense and tremendously vertical. But just a short distance from where I took this picture of an urban landscape, I also shot the picture below.

It could hardly be more different, right? This hike was a pleasant break from a few days of being surrounded by concrete. There were so many people hiking on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, enjoying the overcast weather and the temperature that dropped several degrees as we gained elevation.

A lovely waterfall on the back side of Victoria Peak, facing the south side of Hong Kong island. Amazing, too, how much cooler the weather gets just by getting away from the pavement and concrete. What a heat sink “civilization” is!

Here’s a map of the route we followed. If you don’t want to gain quite so much elevation, you can walk the approximately 2-km circuit starting and ending at the Peak visitor center. It is mostly flat and offers a view from several different angles.

All this hiking not only helped break in a new pair of cross-trainers, it also whetted my appetite for some Shanghainese food, which I’ll write about on Friday!

Dinner Party at Chris and Antony’s House

Posted on 27 October 2010 by christao408

While in Hong Kong, I stayed with a friend I first met some fifteen years ago, also named Chris. He and his partner Antony are dear people, just wonderful to visit with. They also live in a gorgeous flat in the western Mid-Levels. Trying to be the best guest I could, I let them know that I looked forward to spending time with them but also didn’t want them to feel obligated to bend their schedule around my visit. One thing Chris insisted I must be a part of was a dinner party they were hosting on Saturday night.

I’m glad I did as it was a lot of fun. I also got pulled in as sous chef since it was a public holiday and the maid had the day off. This is fine as I enjoy cooking and the opportunity to let someone else run the show is a good way for me to learn.

First, though, back to the topic of bamboo scaffolding.

Here’s a view from the guest bedroom. I noticed that some work was being done on a unit across the street, on about the twentieth story of the building.

Notice how the bamboo scaffolding seems rather… rickety? But it seems to be the safest way to get the exterior work done. I’m curious how it is actually attached to the walls, though.

Okay, back to food…

Chopping herbs, a combination of cilantro and Italian (wide leaf) parsley. The little roller device was kind of a mess and I think just using the chef’s knife would have been easier. Mix all that with a hefty amount of freshly-ground black pepper.

Slice really good quality tuna into batons about 1 inch (3 cm) square.

Coat the batons with the herb-pepper mixture.

Here Chris is doing the coating while I take pictures. Notice the huge library of cookbooks in the back.

Sear the tuna in a hot pan for exactly 30 seconds on each side.

The goal is to have the interior cooked like this, still pink. These were lovely.

I’m pressed into service slicing apples and cucumbers into matchsticks which are then soaked in a very lightly salted water bath. These were served as a light salad to cleanse the palate before the main course. Very nice idea, although I think it needs some color. That would add flavor, though, which isn’t the idea.

Dining room and living room ready for the guests to arrive. Beautiful, isn’t it? The antithesis of the style Tawn and I did our home in and I quite like it. Very modern but still with an Asian undertone.

Antony did the amuse-bouche, super easy but really complex in flavor. Toasted whole grain bread circles topped with goat cheese, shredded baked beet root, and a few toasted pine nuts. Bake in the oven for just a few minutes until the cheese gets soft and creamy.

The appetizer course. The tuna batons served with some pieces of fresh mango. So simple, so good.

The main course would have benefitted from some advance work as it took almost thirty minutes for the two Chrises to pull this together as the guests chatted. Slices of salmon with a egg white and soy sauce mixture brushed on the skin side, which is then crusted with toasted sesame seeds and then pan fried.

The salmon is then served over cold soba noodles with some citrus slices and a small rocket salad. Very nice and I’ve recreated this at home since returning. I think this needs to be something that you sear in advance and then maybe finish in a low oven, that way you don’t smell smoky while your guests are here. I’ll work on that.

For dessert, little molten chocolate cakes served with vanilla bean ice cream. A bit rushed as two of the guests had to head to the airport, but very nice nonetheless.

As we neared midnight, fueled by two bottles of champagne and several bottles of wine, the guests became more animated. One of them who has a history of performing in drag, decided to give us an impromptu runway show set to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”. Since his identity isn’t clear in the video, I guess it will be safe to share it with you here.

Notice the disco lights. Would you believe Chris and Antony had these built into their kitchen bar area? They are hidden under the seating area. Handy to have at such an event!

Seeing Hong Kong Through a Tourist’s Eyes

Posted on 25 October 2010 by christao408

Hong Kong is one of those cities that, when I visit it, I feel more like an insider than an outsider. That may be a bit presumptuous of me, but then who is to judge another person’s feelings about these matters? I lived in Hong Kong for just over three months in 1998-99 and I made it a point to get out and explore with every free moment I had. Since then, I’ve been back to Hong Kong a dozen times visiting friends and retracing my old stomping grounds.

On this visit, though, I had an opportunity to spend a day seeing the city once again through the eyes of a first-time visitor. Another American expat who lives in Bangkok timed his first visit to Hong Kong to coincide with mine, and I offered to play tour guide on Friday.

This is Vic. If you think he’s cute and would like to date him, let me know! (Ha ha…) We started our day at his hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui and walked along the harbour front to the Star Ferry terminal, taking the ferry across to Central. Of all the things you can do and see in Hong Kong, I think the Star Ferry is the best value. Eight minutes for less than US$1.00 to cross one of the most scenic harbours in the world.

From Central we took our time walking along the elevated pedestrian paths, taking in the significant infrastructure development going on near the waterfront. In a few years, the entire waterfront from Central to Causeway Bay will be open to pedestrians, a wonderful improvement. We then continued to the Mid-Levels for a late breakfast at Tsui Wah on Wellington Street.

Afterwards, we walked back downhill and caught a ride on one of the island trams. These trams are over 100 years old and in addition to providing transportation for nearly one-quarter of a million passengers each day, they are an inexpensive and very effective way to take in life in Hong Kong as you slowly make your way down major thoroughfares and into various neighborhoods. Some of the sights that caught my eye:

A serpentine staircase works its way up a steep hillside with the retaining wall painted an interesting checkerboard pattern.

Bamboo scaffolding, which is much stronger and more flexible than metal scaffolding, perfect for a city that is often buffeted by typhoons. In fact, one blew ashore a week after I departed. Despite knowing that the bamboo is much sturdier, I have a hard time reconciling that fact with the flimsy appearance of the structure.

A colorful side street. Most buildings in Hong Kong are very drab, painted once in their lifetime and rarely repainted. This small street, though, had a lot of color going on.

Our destination was North Point, a neighborhood in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island. Primarily a residential and retail area, the island tram terminates in the midst of a crowded market street. We walked around for a bit, taking in the sights and heading to the waterfront to see the view.

Among the interesting sights was a truck full of slaughtered pigs. While I was standing there, this bundle of guts fell to the floor of the truck. The man kicked them towards the door before picking them up and resecuing them.

After lunch at Pacific Place mall in Admiralty, we caught the #15 bus to Victoria Peak. Sure, you can take the Peak Tram to the summit but it is pricey and touristy. Better to take the inexpensive bus which spends an hour winding its way up the mountains, giving you fantastic views of Happy Valley and other parts of the city. I was tickled by this construction fence that was built to hide some work being done alongside the road. Located directly across the street from an international school, the fence has a vista painted on it that is incongruous with the view that lays beyond it. Just above the fence you can see the end of the Happy Valley Racecourse.

Atop the Peak we walked a short way away from the masses of tourists and schoolchildren and took some pictures. It was a hazy day (which are never in short supply here) but managed to get a few good pictures.

I’m tempted to use this one to replace my current profile photo. Thoughts?

After the Peak, I turned Vic loose on the city as I had an appointment with an old friend for dinner in Mongkok. Above, the chaos that is Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station at about 7pm on a Friday night. Madness, I tell you! I shot some video and may get it edited together to share with you.

After walking for a little bit, Edward decided on a Cantonese restaurant just off Nathan Road. I didn’t get the name and while the food was good, it wasn’t so good as to recommend you to visit it. Above, Edward, whom I met when I lived here in Hong Kong.

Braised eggplant with minced pork, served with bok choy.

Crispy roast chicken.

Steamed dumplings.

Baked rice.

The meal was fine but the company was definitely better than the food. Afterwards, we strolled around the neighborhood, remarking how much this part of Kowloon has changed in the past decade. When I lived here, this area had a lot of red light activity and was always featured in police and gangster movies. Nowadays, thanks to the clean-up effort brought about by the Langham Place Mall, it is much nicer and the illicit activity has moved a block or two to the west.

We wandered through the wholesale fruit market and over to Olympic MTR Station, another area that is radically different than a decade ago when it was the initial stages of landfill. This is a city that is always changing.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Category Archives: Uncategorized