Q: What do you do with a stationary stationery store?

A: Write on it!

This post is dedicated to Dr. Ed Trayes, maestro of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund residency at Temple University and generally all-around quality gentleman. His stylebook quizzes haunt the wiliest of editors and his lessons inspire in ways that are too cheesy to describe here. If you’ve been there, you know.

Here’s a shoutout to the Temple 2004 crew — I hope this brings you as much joy as it’s brought me.

My new neighborhood also has a McDonald’s, a French delicatessen, Thai restaurant, fresh vegetable stand, wet market, three grocery stores (in a two-block span of my street), and I’m a block away from Hollywood Road Park. Not bad, eh?

Also in March…a trip to one of the last remaining maker of hand-made wooden chopping blocks! Kevin and I walked there after my Sunday morning soccer match. Here’s some proof!

Exhibit B: Frozen berries and oats

Numnumnum. Let the eating challenge begin! How many of these healthy bites are you enjoying regularly? And can Kevin convince me that oily fish can be delicious?

Here’s the list: baked beans, green tea, parsley, apples, grapefruit, tomatoes, pomegranate, new potatoes, oats, poached (or boiled) eggs, frozen peas, prunes, dark chocolate, frozen berries, olives, almonds, chillies, wholewheat pasta, tumeric

Bon appetit!

As I haven’t any photos from the trip*, I will attempt to paint you a word picture of some highlights and impressions of the trip. We arrived New Year’s Eve with reservations for dinner at the Lonely-Planet-recommended Temple Club restaurant. The meal started with wine and a sampling of salad rolls, spring rolls, fish sauce and peanut sauce. Keep it coming, waiter! Next up we ordered the steamed shrimp in coconut and a second dish I recall only by its mystery ingredient, later to be identified as a banana flower, or young banana. My first bite contained a couple of the little devils, and my mouth promptly went dry. I didn’t think I was allergic to any foods, but for a moment I paid a lot of attention to whether I was still breathing. Yes, yes I was. A moment after Kevin took a bite of the white-ish plant and had the same reaction, my fears of dying of allergic reaction to delicious food my first night in Saigon were allayed. Phew! More food, please!

Indeed, it was a food-filled adventure. We dined on street food prepared on rolling carts, we dined in quaint restaurants tucked away in alleys or in loft-style buildings. One restaurant, Huong Lai (38D Ly Tu Trong), employs children from disadvantaged families or former street children. They receive hospitality training, education and a place to stay. It was at Huong Lai that Kevin fell in love with the taro-potato soup. Fantastic purple, salty and a little sweet, with potato bits. Slurp! Lonely Planet has a dish-by-dish list of Saigon’s greatest (food) hits. We made our way through most of it. Though I think we disagree on the best pho (rice-noodle soup, pronounced like “fir”). Our hotel, Saigon Mini Hotel, served amazing pho beef for breakfast. We slurped down a bowl every morning. Pho 24, the guide’s top pho, wasn’t bad for what feels like a fast-food chain. Indeed, they are soon expanding to Hong Kong.

How could I forget Fanny ice cream? I couldn’t stop myself from ordering what was called something like Bliss or Genius or OMG That’s Amazing. Sort of a chocolate fondue with fresh fruits and 14 mini scoops of ice cream and sorbet. We had young coconut, pistachio, chocolate, dark chocolate, lime, vanilla, peanut, coffee, mocha, banana, sweet rice (?) and more. Not sure I can remember them all correctly, but you get the idea. Yu-um.

We had banh mi sandwiches on the street. Vietnam is home to the best bread in Asia, surely a leftover from the French occupation. But I sure heard more about the American invasion. During our visit to the War Remnants Museum and our tour to the Cu Chi (pronounced koo chee) tunnels, my jaw got sore from being tense and my stomach turned in circles as our tunnel guide let the propaganda fly like the wind. War is evil, yes, but it has more than one side. Enough of that, eh?

More on street food: I think we were outside the Ben Thanh Market when we “mmm’d” and “wow’d” our way through a plate of fried egg in doughy pancakey dreams. Hooray for grease! About those New Year’s resolutions…

Quan An Ngon is a must-visit for street-style food in a restaurant setting. Sit outside or under high ceilings and wander the food stalls surrounding the dining area. Try the molded rice cakes with fish sauce. And the funky dessert cakes and drinks. And I haven’t even mentioned Vietnamese coffee.

You can have a cup at the Highland Coffee chain, or you can sit in the kiddie chairs of street stalls and get the real deal. I think my favorite one was at a cafe with yin-yang sign down an alley near Quan An Ngon. Mind the skeeters though, this place is set in and around an old house with a garden tastefully (though almost overgrown) plantified. Old trees, tiny buddha baby statues. There’s a woman constantly sweeping up the steadily falling leaves. Vietnamese coffee, served black or white, hot or cold, is made sweet with condensed milk. It’s thick, drip coffee sometimes served while it’s brewing. I think it could turn anyone into a coffee drinker.

Other stops along the way: Reunification Palace (I recommend touring this in 20 minutes or less), water puppet theatre (no translation required if you have a vivid imagination. Fun and silly!), old post office (neat building. Stamps and post cards sold here), Notre Dame Cathedral (note the odd opening hours). And there’s a list of other sights and day tours we decided to skip in order to see what we did and eat what we did and sleep when we did. We like sleep.

Another highlight: I had an ao dai (pronounced Ow Yah-ee) tailor made in an afternoon. Photos coming soon. It’s pretty!

I haven’t even mentioned the motorbike culture. Maybe later. To sum it up: there are many, and the only accident we saw happened very close to 0 mph. Amazing how they navigate traffic circles.

Weather? 30-plus, humid and sunny. Pleasant at night.

* A note for travelers, experienced and not: Always be aware of thieves. A motorbike cowboy swooped by and stole our camera one night in an alley around the corner from our hotel. No one was hurt, but it does make for an eerie feeling. The camera strap was wrapped around the wrist instead of around the neck or messenger-bag style against the body. There was a slight jostling and the sound of the lens cap clinking on the pavement. Can’t help but wonder how long they’d been watching, whether we could’ve stopped them, etc. Oh well, huh? The unfortunate event cast a negative cloud over my thoughts of the broad smiles I saw on local people the next day. It didn’t ruin the trip — far from it. But it wasn’t too delicious either.

For now, here’s the link to our team page. And we’re on facebook. Look on my profile for the page “The Team.” We spent a lot of time talking about team names and came up with the awesome name Team Team. Then on race day we came up with an even cooler name, but I’ve since forgotten it. It’ll come to me… wait for it…

Our fundraising total: HK$9200. Way to go, Team Team and friends!

There were probably 30 spot lights set up at eye level along the harbor in front of the convention center. They’re on swivel stands and send super bright rays across at Kowloon side. How unsafe is that? To make it even better, there were green lasers pointing across too. Kinda freaked me out. But I didn’t exactly stop walking in front of the pretty bright lights.

My wonderful dinner date and I took some photos…

That's me, bewildered.

Note the green lasers just above eye level.

Calling all iPhones!

Take only the water you’ll need.

Spandex is your friend.

If you need help, ask for it.

Go to Bali.

A 35-kilometer hike in the Vietnam heat can be harder than a 100-kilometer hike in the Hong Kong cold.

Take good care of your mother. She’s important.

Since I last wrote in August, I’ve had a few adventures. Shed some tears. Laughed with my whole belly. Made friends. Conquered challenges. Here are just a few shots of recent adventures. More soon, possibly…

Kids on the beach in Amed, Bali

I spent the good part of a week scootering around Bali, Indonesia in August. I spent three days in the SamaSama guesthouse in Amed, on the northeast side of the island. Then three days in Ubud. Think rice terraces, monkey forest, mountain biking. It was excellent. According to Indonesia immigration, I spent eight days, but it was literally less than seven. That cost me US$25, which was more than I paid for two nights in Sanya’s House in Ubud. Can’t complain.

The kids in the photo above were hawking their wares (necklaces, kites, good-luck boxes) and playing with the ball in the photo when I got home from an outing one day. I asked if they’d like to play Frisbee then fetched mine. We had a blast. Then I bought them Cokes and Fantas and suddenly there were twice as many kids, and they were all so thirsty. And, they figured, if I had enough money to buy them drinks, I surely had enough money to buy their trinkets. Lesson learned. I bought one necklace from the tallest fella in the photo. I don’t remember any of their names, but I remember the one standing at my right introduced himself as Barack Obama. Nice. I had a blast hanging out with them as the day wound down, sitting on the black sand beach outside my hotel.

Have banana, will climb.

After Amed I got a ride to Ubud, which was about 100 times more commercialized and civilization-like. And very cool. Have I mentioned the amazing food in Bali?

My trip after Bali was to Danang, Vietnam. This was supposed to be part of a three-day 100-kilometer adventure race through villages and remote areas near the border with Laos. However, a typhoon wiped out many of the bridges and roads and damaged villages where we were supposed to go. So we ended up in and around Danang. It was hot, and I don’t do well in the heat. But the race was great training for the one-day, 100-kilometer Oxfam Trailwalker I was signed up to do Nov. 20-21. That deserves it’s own post.

Here’s Danang:

I ran across those bridges pictured way below.

Here’s me finishing day 2 of the race. I decided to sit out day 3. My aching joints got a well-deserved rest.

It was so hot out there!!!

After Vietnam, I had a quick trip home to surprise Dad for his 60th birthday party. It was great — all six siblings were there, too, plus Mom and Non! A quick trip, but a great trip. On our way back to Hong Kong, Mom and I stopped in San Francisco to catch up with Annemarie (aka my very best friend) and the always-awesome Marilyn and Deb. Of course, I don’t think any of us took pictures (again).

That brings me to today, roughly. Yes, I’ve purposefully left out mention of the fishbone incident.

Yesterday Kevin took Mom and I on a tour of Macau. (flickr set begins here) Now I’ll be able to show people around there too (hint, hint, Anthony). We ate. Boy, did we eat. That really is ideal, to plan a daytrip around food. It helps when the food is fantastic.

Kevin and Emily at the old fort

No. 1

Building security guards. Today I speak of the men who man posts in my office building. After about 8 p.m., they rope off the Office Lift Lobby, directing traffic past a desk with “IN” and “OUT” card sensors. When I approach the desk from either direction, I’m half-heartedly greeted and directed by way of an extended arm to please scan my green building card. Then I’m thanked. If I forget my card, I have to show ID and they write down my information on a pad that’s kept covered at all times “to protect the identity of building occupants.”

There are always at least two men behind the desk, sometimes as many as five standing around. Greeting, directing, thanking. I don’t quite know which one to address so I try to make a quick sweep of all of them, greeting, swiping, thanking. I get a mixture of “hello, lei ho, thank you, mmgoi, ok, byebye.”

A handful of times I’ve rounded the corner after 2a.m. to find both of them asleep. Once I snuck by without waking them, but usually I swipe my card, it beeps and they jump. Revenge is mine!

I don’t mind the routine. Some people do. Sure, it’s a tad excessive. It’s a bit of a pain when I forget my ID (which happens a few times a month). I would prefer to leave the office and walk home without having to greet, swipe, thank two more people.

But, that’s Hong Kong.

Speaking of, I bet fish have it a lot worse than I do. Think about it — they’re swimming around in the world’s biggest toilet when a typhoon comes along and pulls the flusher. But the ocean can’t flush, can it? So it stirs. That’s gross.

Have a nice day.