Midnight Noodles

We had another layover in Hong Kong on the way back to Bangkok. Although we had grand plans for the few days there - including visiting the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping Plateau and hiking in the hills and forest parks, Pinky and I were both hit by colds and terrible jet-lag, which really tried to ruin our visit.

a misty morning in Hong Kong

Instead of the big adventures that we had planned, we ended up mostly walking around Hong Kong and exploring a bit of the city. It really is a great city, one of my favorite! I like that it's big, busy, modern, and super developed, but yet you can still see where the traditional Chinese culture and centuries of British colonial influence converge.

looking down at the streets of the city

This time, we were staying on Hong Kong Island near the Central Business District. It was a really cool area to stay in, surrounded by the towering skyscrapers of the Bank of China Building, HSBC Tower, and other Asian financial powerhouses. The area is also the center of a lot of the old British colonial institutions.

the HSBC lion

We wandered around the city, mostly on foot. At one point, we stumbled upon St. Joseph's Catholic Church, just across the street from the American Consulate. While neighboring Macau was predominantly Catholic, Hong Kong has a much larger Anglican population (due, of course, to its British past). There are several really interesting Catholic churches in the city, however, and St. Joseph's is one. The church has a really cool modern building with a very stylish exterior. Even the sanctuary was designed in the 70's-looking neo-deco style! Really neat!

modern exterior of St. Joseph's Church

The problem was, both Pinky and I were struck by terrible jet-lag this time! We ended up waking up around 2:00am in Hong Kong. Bored and hungry, we went out searching for something to eat. Luckily, Hong Kong has a great diner culture, and we easily found a 24-hour diner where we could get a cup of hot milk tea and a bowl of filling noodles. Even though it was the middle of the night, the place was packed with local businessmen, couples out on dates, and foreign expats enjoying a midnight snack.

"breakfast" at a local diner, just past midnight

By the time the sun rose the next morning, we were already feeling sleepy. One thing that we just had to do in Hong Kong, though, was ride the "Ding Ding". This iconic trolley has been running across Hong Kong Island since 1904, and is one of the few double-decker street car trolleys still running! The far is just over $2 HKD, so it's a cheap and fast way to cross the city! Even though the trolley is narrow - barely wide enough for one person to stand (!), it's a super fun way to get around.

the Ding Ding

We also visited St. John's Cathedral. St. John's is one of the three Anglican cathedrals in Hong Kong. Even though it's a small city, there are three dioceses (the plural of diocese looks wrong, but I looked it up, and it's actually "dioceses"... weird) in Hong Kong!

Hong Kong is still very British, and there's still a massive Anglican influence. While the rest of the region is all a part of the (Anglican) Church of the Province of Southeast Asia (headquartered in Singapore), Hong Kong has its own regional province called the "Sheng Kung Hui".

St. John's Cathedral

Somehow we stumbled upon the (free!) Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden. This beautiful city park has a small collection of animals and a huge collection of beautiful exotic plants and flowers.

inside the botanical garden

This was a complete hidden gem for me! I mean, it's a free zoo with great exhibits and a huge collection of beautiful flowers. Pinky and I ended up spending a few hours wandering around the park. It was a weekday, so it wasn't so crowded.

This is something that I really appreciate about Hong Kong. It's a huge, crowded city. In fact, it's one of the densest places in the world. However, the city still puts emphasis on public places where everyone can come to be surrounded by some green. There are lots of public parks, hiking trails, and natural areas in Hong Kong, a fact that really surprised me the first time I visited.

in the greenhouse

And, even though Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, it still retains a piece of its proud British heritage. This magnificent statue of King George VI (father of QE2) surveys the garden, and he's not the only one! Hong Kong Park boasts an impressive statue of Queen Victoria (although I wasn't able to get a photograph of her this time).

King George VI

So now I'm back in Bangkok!

It's been an amazing winter in the US, and I'm already planning my next visit. It won't be a surprise for my family this time, but I'm already looking forward to going back.

It's nice to be home in Bangkok, though. I've already had to do my first visa run of the year, and I'll be sharing my trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia with you in the following days.

I'm working really hard on catching up on my blog. I love sharing my adventures with my family and friends back home. Thanks for reading! It really means a lot to me. Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving Square

My brother wrote an amazing post for Roadrunner America about visiting Thanksgiving Square! You can check it out here:

http://www.roadrunneramerica.com/2018/12/thanksgiving-square-in-dallas-tx.html

It was a chilly morning, and we were very glad to have a cup of hot coffee before the train departed.

During the last week before leaving Texas, my brother took Pinky and me on a day trip to downtown Dallas. Even though I've lived in north Texas all my life (before moving to Thailand), I have only been to Dallas a handful of times. I'm more of a Fort Worth kind of guy, I guess! It was Pinky's first time to Dallas, and my first visit in years, so we were both very excited as we boarded the TRE on that cold, rainy Texas winter morning.

Thanksgiving Chapel in downtown Dallas

After visiting the John F. Kennedy memorial at the amazing 6th floor museum, and walking around downtown for a while (visiting the museum and the cathedral), we ended up at Thanksgiving Square, a beautiful and tranquil spiritual site right in the heart of downtown.

the Ring of Thanks

Thanksgiving Chapel, a spiral of white concrete that points up towards Heaven was designed after the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. Thanksgiving Square is a non-denominational and multi-faith public square and garden that is dedicated to the American values of Thanksgiving. It was constructed and dedicated in 1976.

Thanksgiving Bell Tower

There are several structures in the garden although the Chapel of Thanksgiving is the most famous. The bell tower at the square has three bells, each modeled after the Liberty Bell. Just behind the bell tower is the "Ring of Thanks", a huge golden ring that symbolizes unity and love.

The Court of All Nations

A mosaic depicting Norma Rockwell's Golden Rule depicts people from a variety of cultures and faiths praying and giving thanks. This area, the Court of All Nations at Thanksgiving Square, hosts many different cultural festivals and exhibitions throughout the year.

inspirational quotes at the central grove

It was a very cold, windy morning, and had been drizzling icy rain on and off. Because of this (also because it was a work day), nobody else was out at Thanksgiving Square that morning. We had the whole place to ourselves!

inside the Ring of Thanks

The main feature at Thanksgiving Square is the Chapel of Thanksgiving. From the outside, it might look a little plain, but the interior took my breath away. The ceiling was an incredible spiral of colorful stained glass.

incredible stained glass spiral ceiling at Thanksgiving Square

The stained glass ceiling is called the "Glory Window", and it is made up of 73 unique panels, the colors of the glass becoming warmer as the spiral reaches the apex. This is the largest horizontal stained-glass feature in the world.

the Chapel of Thanks has some of the most beautiful stained glass

White Sands Missile Range

On the drive back to Las Cruces after spending most of the day at White Sands National Monument, a sign caught my eye, and I made an unplanned turn off of the highway towards White Sands Missile Range. This US Military Base was the site of the world's first atomic weapons tests, and is home to the White Sands Missile Range Museum, a free and very informative museum located within the base.

The museum is located within the White Sands military base, so we had to check in with the guards before driving to the museum. The base is in the desert, and from time to time, the White Sands National Monument is shut down due to missile tests. This is where the world's first atomic devices were tested, and it's still one of the military's most important missile test sites.

Here's a fun fact: in 1977, the production team from the original Star Wars visited the base to make recordings which were later used in the movie for the sounds of the TIE fighters and X-Wings. To thank the base for its cooperation, Lucasfilm presented them with this authentic Darth Vader movie prop. Pretty cool!

Inside the museum there's a lot of cool old technology that was used in the past for the missile tests.

These weird green rocks came from Trinity Site, the location of the world's first atomic detonation. They are still slightly radioactive.

President Kennedy visited the base in the 1960s, and there's a small memorial dedicated to him inside the museum. 

After looking around the museum, we wandered through the "Missile Garden".  Dozens of missiles, rockets, aircraft, and other military vehicles were on display in a dusty patch of desert, and a paved path meandered among them.

Anyone interested in military history would be thrilled to visit the base. 

Even though we were all really tired after spending most of the day out at White Sands National Monument, I dragged my friends all over the missile garden. I was really interested! It was a cool detour on our way back to the city, and we ended up spending about an hour there in total.

This is a casing of the Fat Man atomic bomb. This is the same type of atomic weapon that was detonated in Nagasaki.

White Sands

After years of dreaming, I finally made it to one of my lifelong destinations: White Sands National Monument, New Mexico!

We arrived at the visitor's center at White Sands National Monument on a cold, early morning. The sky was still dark when we left Las Cruces, and we were soon engulfed in fog so thick that we had to slow to a crawl and drive with our hazards on. It was really scary! Fortunately, the fog cleared, and by the time we got to the national monument (just before it opened) the cold drizzle was slacking off. 

As soon as we entered the park itself, though, it was like going through a magic portal! We passed through the guard barrier, and as soon as we were in the desert sands, the sky was a magnificent clear blue with barely a cloud to be seen . That's the magic of the desert, I guess!

There's a partially-paved road that loops through the monument, with several trails of various lengths jutting off from it. The first trail that we came to was the La Playa, just a short walk of a few hundred meters. The La Playa Trail took us through a field of scrubby brush to a small alkaline lake - we hadn't really entered the desert proper yet, and life was much more abundant here on the edge of the desert.

It was so cold as we arrived at the park, but as the sun rose, it rapidly became warmer and warmer (still not horribly hot, as it was still the winter). First the gloves came off, then the scarves, and by mid-morning, we didn't even need our jackets anymore.

The desert begins really suddenly! One moment we were trekking through a narrow path with course brush on either side, and the next, we had come up against a steep white dune. The sand began immediately! 

This was the Dune Life Nature Trail. Here, at the border of the dunes, there's still a lot of life. As we hiked, occasional sign posts told us information about the creatures who call this place their home. Native animals include kit foxes, mice, hawks, wolves, snakes, and much more.

It was still a little chilly at this part of the morning, but it would soon become warmer.

There are still a lot of plants at this part of the park, but as we got deeper, the landscape shifted until there was nothing but blinding white sand and pure blue sky wherever you looked. I can see how it would be easy to get lost out there in the desert. 

Unfortunately, several visitors (mostly foreign tourists who don't know how wild nature in the US can be) have died out at White Sands. People will read a sign that points the way to a 5km (3 mile) trail. They think "that's not far at all! I walk more than that every day!" But they don't pay attention and get lost, or think that they won't need any water with them. That's a big mistake! The desert is beautiful, but it can be deadly if not treated with respect.

A lone tree in the desert.

Despite the harsh climate, the desert is very much alive. Most of the nature is nocturnal, and lives underground during the day to stay cool.

The Inter-Dune Boardwalk. The national monument is pretty wild and undeveloped, but there are parts that are accessible for people with disabilities, or who have difficulty walking in the sand.

White Sands is made entirely of gypsum crystals. The Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico are rich in the mineral. Every year, rains dissolve the gypsum, which runs down the mountains, collecting in a lake at the edge of the national monument. In the summer, the lake dries up, leaving jagged gypsum crystals, which get broken, blown, and tossed by the wind, eventually forming the dunes at White Sands.

White Sands is the largest gypsum desert in the world. It stretches over 30 kilometers across! The second largest gypsum field in the world (located in Mexico) is only 5km.

Eventually, after a picnic lunch at one of the rest areas, we came to the high desert, where nothing but pure crystalline sand stretched out for miles in every direction.

 It's surreal - when you look out, you can see nothing. Just miles and miles of sand without any sort of marking or landmark to break it up. The view is really breathtaking.

It's also a great place to take fun photos.

Pinky and me admiring the dunes.

I'm so glad that the weather finally cleared up! I've been wanting to see White Sands for years, and it was the real reason that we all wanted to go to New Mexico over our holiday. It would have been sad if the weather (or the government shutdown which happened to shut down White Sands just a few days after we left) had kept us from seeing the park. 

White Sands, New Mexico. I've never seen a place more accurately named than here.

Mesilla: Old Town Las Cruces

Mesilla is the old town area of Las Cruces, New Mexico. During our trip to NM, we stayed in Las Cruces for a few days, and we spend a full day exploring the city and its old town area.

The "Recycled Roadrunner" looks out over Las Cruces from a rest area along the highway, just outside of town. It's something of a local landmark

The roadrunner statue is made entirely of garbage! The eyes are made from the headlights from a car, and when you get close, you can see old sneakers, computer keyboards, crutches, and more!

The roadrunner used to stand in the Las Cruces landfill, but the city moved it to a place of prominence. It's become a beloved landmark of the city. The roadrunner is the official state bird of New Mexico.

It was so cold and windy when we visited, but we had to jump out of the car and take a photo with the bird!

The old town of Mesilla is centered in a city square surrounding Basilica San Albiono.

 Built in 1852, the church holds the distinction of having been built in Mexico! When the US bought land from the Mexican government in the Gladsden Purchase, the area of Las Cruces (including the church) became a part of the United States. Daily mass is held in both English and Spanish.

The church was officially recognized as a basilica in 2008.

It was freezing as we walked around the old town, and the icy rain certainly didn't help us feel any more comfortable - despite the cups of hot pinyon coffee that we carried with us! Instead of spending time exploring the old city square with its cool gift shops, we headed somewhere nice and warm and dry: the Zuhl Museum at the New Mexico State University!

The museum is free to visit, and houses a small but impressive geological collection. There are tons of interesting rocks and minerals on display alongside a wide collection of fossils.

Earlier in the day, we had tried to pay a visit to the brand-new Prehistoric Trackways National Monument. It turns out that the monument was so new that they don't even have a visitor's center yet! It's just a trail into the wilderness. We didn't know how far we had to walk to see the dinosaur footprints, so we decided not to try it. Fortunately for us, the natural history museum in Mesilla had a section of the trackways that we could see!

One of the iconic landmarks in Mesilla is the "Eagle Man". This sculpture was created to celebrate the native American culture that is so important in New Mexico. 

The most interesting thing about the statue is that its creator is blind. The sculptor lost his sight during the Vietnam war. After returning to the US, he began creating beautiful sculptures. The Eagle Man stands in the Las Cruces museum district.

Most of the buildings in the old town area are in a very classic New Mexico pueblo style. Even the local Methodist church is built to look something like an old Spanish mission!

Las Cruces is a really colorful city! It may not be Santa Fe, but people really ought not to overlook it on their visits to New Mexico. So many people only stay in Las Cruces to visit White Sands. To be honest, that was our original plan until the rain forced us to try to discover the city. In the end, I'm so glad that it did! It gave us the chance to experience a part of Las Cruces that we wouldn't have before, and to learn a lot more about the city, its history, and its culture.

An afternoon in the old town.

Greetings from downtown Las Cruces.

Trying to stay out of the rain!