Hong Kong Was a Trip: The Beginning

We arrived via plane and took the airport express train 5 minutes to the Asia World Expo, which was connected to the conference hotel.

The tiny part of Hong Kong known known as Asia World Expo is hermetically sealed from the rest of the city and sits on the same chunk of landfill that the airport is on, which has been annexed onto one of the outer islands known as Lantau. Poor E spent most of his week on this chunk of landfill as he was attending and presenting at a conference.

I fared slightly better. Most days I would wake up, go to the gym, shower, work for several hours, and then head out for some sightseeing.

The first day, I headed out with a goal of walking to the Bird Market.  My goal for the trip was at least a 5K a day.  I could do it walking, hiking, or running at the gym, but I wanted to hit the mark each day.  I did fairly well, and went much further on many days. However, this plan to walk from the Kowloon MTR station all the way to the Bird Market, was crazy, as I was later informed (and as I learned along the way). But, you never know you are a fool until you know, right?

So, here’s the thing about Hong Kong – all walkways end in malls. If you look up walking directions, they will likely be in some form of “Walk on the raised walkway to the ITR mall, then follow signs to the Grand Mall of Audaciousness, from there, go towards the mall that contains the next MTR station, exit on the east side and take the raised walkway towards Citic Center, exit on the ground floor and your destination will be on the right."

Oh, and there’s one other thing about Hong Kong – much of it is not designed to be walked at all. Many of the thoroughfares are only accessible to cars, motorcycles, and trucks.

And one other thing – there is construction everywhere.

Small construction projects with bamboo scaffolding are on every city block.  But there are also giant huge squares of construction for skyscrapers (no doubt with malls) that are too big to comprehend the scale until you find yourself walking around them.

With all of these obstacles, the reality of my mapped walk was twice as long, and included awed gaping by me at massive construction projects as well as several unexpected lost hours in malls.

When I was on the street or raised sidewalks and able to walk outdoors on Kowloon, I sincerely enjoyed the scenery:

In hindsight, my plan was a great way to spend the day getting to know the city. But, it was a terrible way to get to the Bird Market, and when I finally arrived, I was very disappointed to find it closed -- just an empty alley with a forlorn bird mural.

The Bird Garden was still open, but there weren't many people around and I wasn't feeling too safe going in there all alone in the dark, so I skipped it as well.

As I tried to shake off my frustration, I mistakenly paid for a MTR ticket at East Mong Kok station when I needed plain-old Mong Kok station.  The only way out was to put my ticket into the exit machine and eat the loss.  If you read the map below, my error will be clear (I was getting tired and hungry).
 

Finally, after a visit to yet another mall, I got on an MTR line that connected with another line that could get me to Kowloon station. E was at a party at the W hotel  (which, conveniently was attached to the mall for the station), so I figured I’d grab some dinner (in the mall, of course) and see if we could meet up for the train back to the Asia World Expo/hotel.

I picked the Chinese restaurant that looked the most interesting to me and enjoyed the best spicy beef noodle soup I’ve ever had.

Seriously.  I will be dreaming of this soup for a long time.  It was absolutely perfectly tasty and hot with great beef and wonderfully dense chewy noodles.  When I was done, I was too exhausted to wait for E's party to get out, so I went back to the landfill of Asia World Expo alone on the train, legs tired, lips burning, and extremely content.

Shanghaied For a Weekend

We went to Shanghai for a weekend before the workish portion of our China/HK trip.

We landed after the mag lev was closed on Saturday night and paid an exorbitant fee to "rent a car" (with driver) to our hotel. I was struck with the reality of expensive travel and how it compares to my younger dreams of luxury travel.  The so-called privilege of paying too much for an immediate car to your destination rather than waiting in the public taxi line or taking a bus doesn't feel like a privilege when the reason you're doing it is that you were too busy to do any research about transport and now it's late enough,  you're tired enough, and the thought of trying to navigate the unknown travel with your broken Mandarin is actually a little bit scary.  In my younger years, I would have been prepared to do what was necessary to save money.  Now, I just really needed to get to my hotel and go to sleep, and without any knowledge of how to do that, I was obviously just a sucker to be preyed upon.

The hotel was my favorite of the trip (E preferred the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, but I was grumpy enough about the lack of jogging track that it is dead to me).  Our room had awesome views of the Bund, although the first day views were a bit sad and dreary due to smog and fog.

We woke super early due to jet lag and walked the Bund amongst the families.  It was relaxing and relatively quiet, not remotely as crowded or chaotic as I'd remembered Beijing being back in 1994.  On our walk back, we saw our first memorable Chinglish sign:

We walked to the People's Square and People's Park via Nanjing Road, and E was quick to point out that the most prominent features and clearly the most popular based on the crowds, were the Gap store opposite the Apple store.

After sightseeing for a while, we selected an authentic-looking sit-down restaurant.  I mean, how could you resist this menu advertisement?

Our personal dishes came in an autoclaved shrink-wrapped pile, which was new to me, but I suppose it did inspire some confidence (along with the A food-safety rating on the wall).  The food was delicious, the experience was interesting, and the people watching was superb.  It was a super-small crowded collection of tables, and often people would come in and share tables with strangers (we were given our own 2-top, no doubt the "foreigners' table").

After lunch we headed up to the bar in the Jin Mao Tower (middle tower in the picture below, the Grand Hyatt Bar on the 87th floor).  Unfortunately, due to the air quality issues, the views were not that great -- frankly, we were a bit depressed.

But, we headed to Xiantiandi for Din Tai Fung for dinner and everything was better (mmmm... xiaolongbao).  Din Tai Fung was one of my favorite parts of living in Bellevue and I was excited to be in Asia where I could get it in every city we were visiting.  I still do not understand why there isn't a branch in the bay area.  It would clean up.  Someone, please, do this.

It rained overnight and we woke the next morning to clear skies.  In fact, there were gorgeous kites flying high above the Bund, and a group of folks in all white or all black doing tai chi at the base of the Bund in front of the People's Heroes Monument (you can see both if you zoom in on the photo below).

E and I love tall buildings.  All big and impressive infrastructure, actually.  I mean, we once snuck across the Brazil border to go visit a hydroelectric dam. So, given that the views were better it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that we went back to the towers in Pudong, and this time headed up to the 91st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center Tower and enjoyed the views while gorging on an amazing buffet breakfast at the Park Hyatt Hotel's restaurant (note that we are looking down upon the tower we were in the day before -- pretty cool).

From there, we walked along the raised walkways until we found the entrance to the sightseeing tunnel under the Bund (near the base of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower).

The sightseeing tunnel was perhaps the most awesomely kitschy thing we did this trip.  Individualized cars go through the tunnel that is lit with neon and flashing lights with accompanying music, all with the goal of implying a trip to outerspace and back.  Definitely more interesting than the previous day's taxi cab back to the other side of the river.

From the exit of the sightseeing tunnel, we walked our way to an outpost of the famous Yang's Fry Dumplings. They were good, but it was best that we'd had breakfast first. I think I could have easily made myself sick if I tried to fill upon on these alone...

And then, sadly, our time in Shanghai was over.  Off to Hong Kong...

The 400m "Jogging Track" That Wasn't

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a huge Hyatt fan.  I generally structure my business and recreational travel around Hyatt hotels and very much enjoy the Hyatt Rewards program -- I'm kind of like an unpaid evangelist as I've convinced many of my friends to sign up.

However, I was *shocked* to see what passes for a 400m jogging track at your Hong Kong Grand Hyatt property.  You bill a 400m jogging track as one of the amenities on your website for this property, but truly, I encourage you to try to access it and evaluate whether that is the correct name for it.  I would assert that it is not.

In support of my assertion, I would point out that the staff doesn't know what you are talking about when you ask about the "jogging track" (and rightly so).  They point you to the fitness center -- at which point, if you insist that there is a "jogging track" you are guided to a stone/tiled path around the pool and 11th story outdoor shared facilities with elevation changes and right angles that goes through areas where other hotel patrons could be and should be enjoying the facilities.  Essentially, it would be idiotic to jog or run on this path.

I was severely disappointed.  I'd strongly recommend taking this amenity off the website as the only people who care about it, are likely people like me, who think you mean a true 400m track, or something fairly close to it.  People like me are likely to be excited at the prospect of what they think a 400m jogging track should be, and, well, it's just not that.  This is fine.  You have a lovely fitness center at the property.  Just don't over-promise and all will be well. 

Sincerely,
[BT]

Update:  The Grand Hyatt Hong Kong staff got back to me via three (3!) different staff members, thanked me for my feedback, explained that they completely understood why I was disappointed and that they had measured the path and found it to be exactly 400m, but hadn't considered that calling it a 400m jogging *track* would result in such confusion.  They assured me that they would consider updating the language and thanked me again.  THAT, my friends, is awesome customer service.  I feel much better knowing that someone like me may be saved the disappointment I experienced. 

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We're home for a brief stop.  Friends visiting from DC.  A surprise birthday party for an old friend.  Laundry and gardening, work, and general home-town life.  Also, it is fall.  It is cooler, the morning is dark when I wake, and the leaves have all fallen on our street.

Last week, despite a complete lack of effort to hit any mileage goal on my part, I managed to put 19.6 miles-ish on my feet (including 3.5 miles of biking and an hour of gardening, which I counted as 1 mile Running Equivalent).  Other than the track workout, there was nothing to write home about other than a Bikram class, which put me at 5/10 classes on this 10 class card.  If I try really hard, I *may* actually use all of the classes on this card before it expires... that would be a new experience.

I have no races on the calendar, but, thanks to laziness and the awesomeness that is Spanish food, quite a few pounds on the scale that need to disappear.  So, for the first time in a long time, I find myself actually being much more disciplined about my diet than my mileage.

In the 9 days since we've been state-side I've lost 6 pounds -- turns out, diet discipline is way more important than work-out discipline when it comes to managing weight.  I'm a natural born eater.  I can eat an extra 1,000 calories without blinking, *and* if you ask me to do a workout that burns 1,000 calories, you can guarantee I'd come home from it hungry and ready to replace the loss.

I'd love to say I'm just going to stay this disciplined food course 'til I hit the illusory goal I keep in the back of my brain as the "ideal to start training for a BQ" weight, but of course, that's crazy.  There's just life in general with all of its awesome food, plus the trip to China, where I plan to eat anything and everything delicious that crosses my path, plus all of the holiday travel and parties.  So, instead, I'll be honest with myself -- now that I'm back below my personal red line and within striking distance of reasonable, I'll probably trend back up towards the red line and will be resuming the disciplined approach in early January, along with the rest of the first world.

Today, I hit up the Bikram room again.  As always, it was a struggle and I desperately wanted to go outside for some cool fresh air for every single minute from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.  I am a heat wuss.  Bikram is such a mental workout for me.  Yes, it's a great physical workout.  But, truly, the mental struggle to stay in that hot room is a new and difficult battle I wage with myself in every class.  Today, it was close, but I stayed in the room.  Next time... who knows.

For much of this year, E and I have been spending one night a week in SF when we're in town.  His company has an office here he needs to make appearances at, and I have more clients here than down the peninsula these days.  The best part of these weekly visits is the date night dinners and the views from the hotels (see above and below).

Tonight, we got to take an old friend out for his birthday dinner at Fringale.  Oh, man.  This is a perfect example of why San Francisco's restaurant scene is so amazing.  It reminded me of so many bistros in France.  No reservations.  We showed up around 7 and were seated to enjoy a delicious 2.5 hour meal with amazing service and overly delicious food, wine, coffee, and cheese.  (As you can see, my meal discipline is not even strong enough to deal with SF, much less the true international temptations, although, in all honesty, French food is much easier to enjoy in moderation than many other options...)

Going forward, without a race on the calendar, I'm completely free to alternate Bikram, walking, hiking, running, biking, and any other activities that make sense for me.  For example, I'm running in SF along a street with many stoplights to a breakfast meeting tomorrow.  I'll give myself 45 minutes to go 3 miles.  I'll call it a fartlek or intervals and I'll push it on the non-trivial hills.  I love that I have the freedom to do this -- that I don't have an assigned workout -- that all I have to do tomorrow is transport myself between meetings and do my best to be disciplined and healthy.  At the end of the day, after running to breakfast and walking between my other meetings, I'll likely hit 5+ miles.  It will be a great day and I feel privileged to have it on my agenda.

It's good to be home.

Running Update

Last week, I managed 23 miles and a Bikram class while traveling.

Most of the mileage was walking in Barcelona.

But I did fit in a run to, through, and from Park Guell. Note to runners: the park is at the top of a big hill. Once you've ran up the hill through the old walled city, you will find that the top entrance to the park is actually at the top of a very large staircase that no one will be taking except you, crazy runner. Instead, all the tourists will ride the escalator in lieu of 100+ stairs and will stare as you oh-so-slowly pass them, one at a time.

Once stateside, I fit in an expected run with E's dad.  We chatted while doing a leisurely 3 mile loop, and on the run, he informed me it was his first run since July, so I felt happy to be part of the reason he got back in his shoes.

This week, home, and I'm trying to eat healthy to compensate for the face stuffing of Spain and to get in a good workout week.  Monday I did a nice easy 3.5 miles with another 0.5 walking cooldown.  Yesterday, I suffered through a brutal Bikram class.

To prove to myself that I was committed to getting back in shape, I sucked it up and bought a new Garmin.  Went for the 310XT this time.


Today, I was able to re-join my track group for the first time in a long time.  The workout was 6-8 X 800, so I picked a very easy pace of 8:45 and agreed to go, assuming I'd struggle through 6 and call it a good workout. 

But, as often happens with workout partners, my plans changed.  F was running 3:57 - 3:50 800s and D decided to do 400s, pacing her on the first lap and then recovering 'til F started the next 800.  I decided to come along with D for the fun, and what do you know? 1.75 miles @ approximately 8:00/mile pace, plus a 200 and 100 (starting and ending F's last 800) at a sub 7:00/mile pace.

Fast running!  It's been so long.  I'm so thankful for the track group.  There's no way I would have pushed myself this hard on my own.  6 miles including almost 2 miles of *hard* work.  I expect to be *very* sore tomorrow.

RNR Recovery and Amsterdam

I've been super lazy on the workout front ever since I bailed on the San Jose Rock 'n Roll Half.

How Lazy?  Well, let's just say I did Bikram the day after, and then didn't do a single workout until arriving in Amsterdam the AM of 10/12, whereupon I commenced my standard travel cross-training regimen of personal physical transit coupled with all the good local beer, wine, and food that my belly can handle.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city full of canals and bikes.  (Also, it is a direct flight from SFO and a good, fun weekend layover city if you're headed to Barcelona). 

It's such a bike-friendly city that our hotel had bikes for free use.  We took full advantage and it was awesome.  I did much walking, biking, and sight-seeing, but no running in Amsterdam.  So, despite several miles of non-running self-propelled transport, and some bikram, I completed my first run-free week in quite some time.  (Also, I was ridiculously relaxed.  I'm hoping these two facts are unrelated.)

Typical Intersection with bike and walk lights

Rijksmuseum

One of too many canals to name

Gorgeous street night view. 

Self-explanatory.

Night bike and canal view.

Royal Palace

One of many ridiculous red light district views.

Red light district part 2.

Transitioning out of the red light district...

A fashion alley to make @Arvay proud...

Barcelona: A Short Story

On our last full day in Barcelona, after an awesome Bikram Class, I went in search of delicious goodies to take with us on our next travel leg. Since it treated us so well last time, I originally planned to go to to the Boqueria, or Mercat St. Josep:

The Entrance to the Boqueria on La Rambla

One of the many awesome preserved meat vendors.

Fruits

Escargots (en Catalan) -- one of the examples of how Catalan sometimes makes more sense than Spanish to me.  I do *not* know the word for snail off the top of my head in Spanish, but I do in French, and it's pretty close to the Catalan.

So many delicious olives!

And while I love food markets in general, my real goal was to re-create the scene below, only with me doing the selection of meat instead of E.

Because we'd already seen the Boqueria, and there are so many markets in Barcelona, I decided to walk to one that was well-reviewed, less touristy, and closer to our hotel:  The Mercat de Sant Antoni.

It was a lovely walk.

Tortoise Sculpture Under Naked Children

Typical intersection -- love the trees, ironwork, architecture and pedestrian and bike-friendliness of this city.

Unfortunately, despite checking the website and concluding I should be able to get there during operating hours, my plan had a flaw:

Not what I wanted to see...

Looks like a gorgeous market that will be even better when the reconstruction is finished.

Even with the disappointment, this story has a happy ending.  The supermarket near our hotel had several displays like the one below, plus aisles upon aisles of preserved awesomeness and a bakery and a butcher ready to slice anything and everything I might desire.  Did I mention I love this country?  

In keeping with tradition, we will have amazing sandwiches on our travel leg out of Spain.

The End.