Day 30: Dinner at Kikunoi (Saturday, July 26)

We changed our flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo to Saturday morning (from the afternoon) so that we would a) be able to take the bus directly to our hotel (Grand Hyatt in Roppongi Hills) and b) be able to eat at Kikunoi. Kikunoi has its roots in Kyoto, as does all great Kaiseki, but Chef Yoshihiro Murata recently opened this outpost here in Tokyo, which is great since we aren't going to Kyoto on this trip. For those of you that are unfamiliar with kaiseki, it is a very traditional cuisine from Kyoto, based on the freshness of each season with a fairly scripted sequence of courses (in terms of style, not ingredients). Here's what we had with our meal on Saturday. For some of our dishes, it was easy to tell which traditional kaiseki course it was... but for others not so much. If we know, then I'll describe the course a bit (all descriptions come from Chef Murata's book, Kaiseki).

1 - Sakizuke

This course is also called tsukidashi or otoshi and is the equivalent of an amuse-geule in French cuisine. For our Sakizuke course, we had a fantastic fig that had been poached with white miso and then had shaved bonito on top. The recipe in the book also indicates that there is a small amount of mustard in the dish, as well.

2 - Hassun

Traditionally, the second course is used to set the seasonal theme and consists of several small dishes. Ours was true to this - we had one spoon containing sea urchin roe and a quail egg, and then three flower pods, each containing a different vegetable dish.

3 - Mukozuke

This course is typically a sliced dish of seasonal sashimi. Our sashimi was some type of sea bream with small pieces of tomato gelee and steamed eggplant, as well.

Our next three courses all contained Hamo (pike eel or conger) in various forms. It's not clear to us exactly which kaiseki courses these dishes match, so I'll just describe them.

4 - Hamo two ways - this preparation consisted of two different pieces of hamo, topped with shiso buds.

5 - Hamo and Sticky Rice

This time, our Hamo was broiled and covered with a sauce (not sure what it was) and then placed on top of sticky rice formed like a piece of nigiri sushi. The hamo was quite good in this form, but Matt didn't care much for the sticky rice

6 - Hamo and Tofu Soup

This was one of the best courses of the night. Tofu and hamo in a clear broth soup with some peppers and other vegetables too. It was just perfect.

7 - Our palate cleanser for the evening was a sorbet. There were a few ingredients, we think, but all we remember is the overwhelming celery flavor. Not very pleasant, but effective at clearing the palate.
8 - Our yakimono course was also outstanding - Abalone and uni cooked in a salt dome. The abalone is steamed and then combined with uni on a bed of wakame (seaweed) and then topped with more wakame. Then a dome of salt is created over the dish and it's baked. Once you take away the salt dome and the top layer of wakame, here's what you get... delicious abalone.

9 - The next course was very simple noodles - made from arrowroot, or something like that - served in a giant block of ice.

10 - Our tenth course was just simple simmered vegetables (and a couple pieces of octapus) served in a ginger pudding. The flavors were incredibly clean and straightforward.

11 - Then it was time for one more small course of sashimi.

12 - Our final food course - rice. They took the grilled fish seen in the first picture and then chopped it up right into the rice. It was served with a bowl of red pepper soup (delicious). We were pretty stuffed at this point, so we didn't make much progress on our rice. They packaged it up for us, though, and we took it back to the hotel to have for breakfast the next morning.

13 - Dessert came with a choice, so we opted for one of each. Viv's dessert was the peaches with mint ice cream, and Matt took the black sesame pudding with black sugar ice cream. Both were fantastic.

Day 29: Hong Kong (Friday, July 25)

This side of the trip we are actually spending an entire day in Hong Kong... but because of a variety of issues, we didn't actually get going until lunch time. Oh well. We had a good dim sum lunch in the Elements (the mall in which we were staying), and then spent the first part of the afternoon shopping. Requisite purchases made, we tried to make it to the Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition which shows plans for the future development of the city. It closed at 6pm, though, and by the time we got over to the island we didn't have enough time to spend at the exhibit. Instead, we made our way to the travelator (a series of moving sidewalks and escalators) to get up to the mid-levels for dinner. It was time for more Mexican food, and we found !Caramba! to be just the right place. Though the restaurant was completely empty (6p is a little early for HK), and would remain empty for the duration of our meal, we were requested to sit in a tight two-top wedged in a corner. Oh well, because we were early it was happy hour, so we got two margaritas for the price of one and a free chips and salsa. Jackpot. Everything was tasty, including the enchiladas and tacos that we ordered as entrees. Things were just picking up when we left the place, a little after 7p.

We walked all the way back down to the ferry terminal and took the Star Ferry back across to Kowloon. Hong Kong is ready for the Olympics. There's even an Olympics Piazza, complete with the silly looking mascot characters. We resisted the invitation to go inside, and instead went to line up for the fancy light show that is put on every night by the buildings on the island. The Bank of China building did its best to make the show special, but it couldn't quite get it over the hump. After the first bit, it was all quite repetitive.

After the show, we walked around the Temple Street night market for a while, and made a few random purchases, before calling it a night. Early flight tomorrow morning to Tokyo! We won't have much time in Tokyo tomorrow, so we only have one plan - dinner at Kikunoi. Stay tuned.

Day 28: Saigon (Thursday, July 24)

Thursday was a day of travel for us. We departed Phu Quoc in the morning to fly back to Saigon. We missed it during our first stay in Saigon, so we went over to Quan An Ngon for lunch. This casual place across from the Reunification Palace is essentially street food brought indoors. The menu is all encompassing for Vietnamese street food; and there are people all around the edge of the restaurant that prepare the food. It was delicious and cheap.

We walked the streets of Saigon one last time to check out a few last stores, and then we retreived all of our luggage from the Sheraton to go to the airport and fly to Hong Kong. Rush hour traffic in Saigon was truly a sight to behold, and I think we had the greatest cab driver ever. He had an SUV, but it didn't stop him from driving like he was on a motorbike. It was actually very impressive, and he got us there in record time. Along the way, I snapped this picture of the road conditions.

Day 26-27: Phu Quoc (Tuesday, July 22 - Wednesday, July 23)

We spent our last two days in Vietnam hanging out on the up-and-coming beach island of Phu Quoc. Supposedly this is going to be the Phuket of Vietnam... they have a long way to go. To start, right now most of the island only has a dirt road (that varies between being one and two lanes). On our first day, we did pretty much nothing but lounge by the pool and catch up on some reading. The poolside food at our place was quite good (spicy squid salad), so we decided to stay in for dinner and try the restaurant. Big mistake... dinner was really quite bland. Here's a picture from the beach of our hotel at sunset, though - pretty nice, eh?

For Day 2, we joined a snorkeling tour and explored the coral around the archipelago just south of Phu Quoc. The coral was decent and there were lots of fish out. After a couple of snorkeling runs, we had lunch on the boat and then did some old school fishing (just a reel with bait and a weight... no rod). We had a really great seafood dinner that night (not our catch, though) at a hotel just up the street from ours.

Day 25: Siem Reap (Monday, July 21)

Only two temple stops on the itinerary today - Banteay Srei and Ta Prohm. We hastily considered adding Beng Melea, as well, but it was going to be a long drive and added expense (from the driver) so we decided not to do it and have some time to spend in town before weleave this evening to fly back to Saigon. If we ever make it back, though, then Beng Melea will probably be on the list. As of now, it is still pretty much uncovered (i.e., overrun by jungle) much the way all of the temples were when the French stumbled upon them. With the exception of Angkor Wat, they were all abandoned. The jungle has been mostly or entirely cut back at this point... so Beng Melea might give you that true taste of discovery. Of course, maybe there are a lot of snakes out there?! Matt K and Ashish wouldn't stop talking about all of the venomous snakes. Good times.

So we drove out to Banteay Srei - excellent temple selection. It's really different from the other Ankorian temples, so it's well worth the 40 minute drive. The sandstone here is different, and much more colorful. Also, it is harder, so the incredibly intricate relief carvings are in really good condition. Today was a beautiful day (read clear skies and insanely hot), so check out the blue sky in the photo. In yet another random Kellogg encounter, we ran into Brian and Kate Thome walking around the temple. And on the way out, Matt K demonstrated his amazing negotiating abilities by actually paying more than the agreed price for a souvenir. Solid.

On our way back through the main Angkor area, we stopped at Ta Prohm - the "Tombraider" temple... so named since it was made famous in the original Tombraider movie. Of the main temples, this has the most jungle growth remaining, with several giant trees growing through the buildings. This was another really fun temple to explore. There are a number of examples of trees that started on the roof of the temple (thanks to birds) and then thrust their roots down through the building in search of the ground. We didn't see Angeline Jolie, but it was still a blast.

That's it for our temple days... we set off to lunch (a pretty awful khmer food place, read tourist trap, that our guide took us to), and then walked around the old market in town. We ended up buying a few tshirts and some Cambodian pepper before returning to the hotel for one last swim in the pool before it was off to the airport and back to Vietnam. Thanks to Matt K, Amanda and Ashish for hanging out with us in Siem Reap!

Day 24: Siem Reap (Sunday, July 20)

Sunday was our big day of temple touring around the Angkor complex. We started early and went straight to Angkor Thom (literally, The Large City). After passing through the south gate, we kicked off at Bayon. Bayon is a magnificent structure, built by the prolific Jayavarman VII, contains some fifty towers, each topped with four faces. As you wind through the temple structure, the towers continue to unveil themselves creating a very dramatic setting. The space is tight, though, so it’s impossible to ever get a true feel for the scale of the entire temple. We also got a taste for the crowds… unlike yesterday when we had the temples to ourselves, at Bayon it was bus tour central!

Heading north out of Bayon, we walked quickly through Baphuon and then climbed up to the top of Phimeanakas (or at least Matt and Matt K did). It was pretty hot at the time, but once at the top there was a nice breeze – which made it almost all worth it. The sun was something fierce, so we were anxious to get back to the car and air conditioning. On the way, we made a quick tour around the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King. That was it for Angkor Thom; we all grabbed some much needed water and then drove out the North gate to see two more temples before lunch (we’re ambitious).

First was at Prah Khan. A sprawling temple complex with two long corridors intersecting in the middle (forming a plus sign essentially). There are some great relief carvings around the temple, and on the back side there are some trees growing through the temple (though, nothing compared Ta Prohm, which we're going to see tomorrow).

Our last stop before lunch was Neak Pean. This is a very different complex than the others we've toured - a central temple surrounded by a square pond with four more ponds, one on each side. Our guide told us that each pond had healing powers of some kind - so if you were ill, you would come here and drink from the appropriate pond. Today, since the ponds are all dry, he said people might just eat some of the vegetation from the pond instead.

We pushed our guide to take us to the Khmer Kitchen for lunch since Matt K had heard great things about it in his guide book. We were not disappointed. Between the five of us, we covered a good mix of Khmer food - curry, amok and lok lak. And it was all delicious - all for about $3 each. If you're in Siem Reap, definitely go to the Khmer Kitchen. After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest poolside.

Around 3pm we met up with our guide again and returned to Angkor Wat, this time to tour it properly. Having a guide isn't really necessary if you only want to experience the architecture and grandeur of the place, but it really allows you to explore the reliefs and understand how the temple evolved into what's there today. Our guide did a great job of telling us the stories in the reliefs around the sides of the temple. We were hoping to get the good sunset view of Angkor Wat today (Angkor Wat is the only temple that faces west, so it reflects the light from the setting sun), but the clouds moved in thick... just like yesterday. Since it looked like it was going to rain we just jumped back in the van and returned to the hotel.

For dinner tonight, we chose a modern twist on Khmer/Asian food - AHA. AHA is a tapas place in the Be hotel (crazy, only 3 rooms). Half of the menu was modern Khmer, while the rest was a broader Asian interpretation. We tried just about everything on the menu, and it was all very good. We walked around downtown Siem Reap for a bit, and swung by Angkor What? to grab a drink before returning to the hotel for the night. We felt a bit out of place sitting in the bar, watching the scene around Pub Street. I guess we're getting old.

Day 23: Siem Reap (Saturday, July 19)

Let the temple-ing begin! We're saving the big and famous temples for Sunday and Monday once Ashish, Amanda and Matt have arrived (they get in this afternoon). In the morning, we hired a guide and driver through our hotel, Le Meridien Angkor (bad idea, more on that later) to show us some of the smaller temples around the Angkor complex. The links here all point to A Guide to the Angkor Monuments - great resource.

Our first stop on the morning tour was Prasat Kravan. It doesn't look like much as you drive up - just a few crumbling towers with a tall one in the middle. This is one of the earlier temples in the Angkor area, though, dating back to the early 10th century. It is made of brick (vs. sandstone for later temples) and the central tower contains some amazing carvings that have been preserved well. The temple is small, so it's a quick visit - but definitely worth a stop. This carving is from the main tower, of Vishnou on Garuda.

Next up was another temple from the 10th century, Pre Rup. This temple is also built from brick, but is much more impressive than Kravan.Pre Rup consists of several towers, and though many of the towers look a little precarious, you can still climb up the steps to the top level. From the top, you can catch a glimpse of Angkor Wat in the distance.

Our next temple stop was at Banteay Kdei, one of the many temples built by Jayavarman VII in the 12th and 13th centuries. Unlike Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei is sprawling, and you walk in from one side and out the other. There is only one real level, but you wind through corridors. Our driver picked us up at the end and we continued. At this point, it was already starting to get quite warm outside, and it was only 9:30am!

Temple number 4 = Ta Keo. Ta Keo is curiously lacking any carvings or decoration. The king abruptly stopped construction right as that process was beginning. The story told by the guides is that lightning struck the top of the temple, which the King perceived as bad luck, so construction was halted. This is another towering temple - with incredibly steep steps. I can't even imagine climbing up these things in the rain. No gym needed here - the temples are your very own stairmaster. Here's what they look like from the top - while Viv climbs.

After Ta Keo, we drove a bit and stopped at Thommanom and Chau Saytevoda. These smallish temples are on opposite sides of the road, just outside the Victory Gate of Angkor Thom. Chau Saytevoda, in particular, is in a pretty bad state of ruin - pieces everywhere. It's an amazing process to reconstruct and restore the temples. They figure out the layout, then figure out where every stone fits into the structure. The stones are then numbered so that they can be put in the proper place - a giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

Here's where it gets fun. We managed to get through these temples by about 10:35a or so, and we had contracted to have the guide and driver until 12p. There was one other temple that we thought would be a good one to see today before everyone else got here, but for a variety of reasons, it didn't happen. First, our guide told us that because we only booked the half day tour, the driver wasn't getting as much money, and because the next temple was a little farther away, he would not take us there. Eventually we got him to concede that we could ask the driver (amazing concept) and possibly pay him more money for the last visit - gas is expensive, after all. So we went back to the car and asked the driver if we could pay him a little more to take us out to see Neah Pean.

This time, we got a 'no' for a totally different reason. We could only see certain temples (there is a 'half-day tour' and 'full-day tour' described on the map... we took it as a suggested itinerary of sorts, but he made it sound like the hotel policy only allowed certain temples to be included in each. This makes some sense if you're traveling in groups and booking group tours. We really couldn't understand how hiring a driver and guide came with limitions on where you could go. Seriously.

Eventually, we got our guide to concede that this was silly, though he proclaimed it was hotel policy. At this point, he informed us that we no longer had time to go to the temple and still make it back to the hotel by noon. And if we showed up after noon, the hotel would charge us the full day rate. So instead, we made it back to the hotel at 11a. A solid hour before our paid for time was up. Needless to say, we were less than thrilled about that one. So we laid into the concierge manager for failing to disclose any of the so-called policies and restrictions to us and for generally being less than helpful. The conversation was somewhat painful, and I'm not sure if the problem was that he didn't understand us literally (because of language problems) or if he was just obtuse. It reminded me immensely of the minor problems we ran into in Vietnam - customer service folks in the hospitality business can serve up some truly lousy customer service. And I know that we're in SE Asia, and English is clearly not the main language. But if you're a western hotel chain operating a 5 star hotel, then I expect you to have a staff that speaks English. Sorry, that's just the way it is. After several minutes of attempting to explain the situation and or displeasure, we went to the pool to grab a snack and enjoy a good swim while we waited for our pals to get in.

Once everyone has arrived and settled in, we head into town to grab lunch at The Blue Pumpkin, a great cafe serving up both Western and Asian food, as well as smoothies, juices, and ice cream. We had some tasty treats and then we split up. Ashish and Amanda has a little trip planning to take care of for the next part of their journey, so they sought out an internet cafe, while Matt, Matt and Viv decided to get a tuk tuk and go check out Angkor Wat and get some pictures.

Angkor Wat is definitely impressive, but not immediately. I think this is because it is on such a large piece of land and the walls sort of go on forever. We were pretty excited when we pulled up, but like many of the temples the real appreciation comes once you have a sense for the scale and place of the entire compound - and this one is large. Check out the clouds, though. There wasn't really any sunset today, but we did avoid the rain.

We walked through and around the temple and got some good pictures. We also ran into a group of at least 30 monkeys hanging out in the back. Playful little dudes... one of them grabbed a tourist's hat and leapt up on the temple roof to deposit it.

For dinner, we cleaned up and went over to Meric in the Hôtel de la Paix. This place was super cool - great space, great decor, great vibe. The lounge was stunning, and the floating beds are a fantastic touch. The food is advertised (both in Luxe and around Siem Reap) as Modern Khmer, and we were excited to try it. Turns out, though, that the menu is basically high end hotel food, with a set menu option of Khmer food. None of us were feeling the the set menu, though, so we ended up with some very good international food. It was definitely good, but it was not what we were expecting so the meal disappointed a little.