Alex and I visited Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong in 1997. I wanted to see Hong Kong before it returned to China in July. No one was quite sure what China would do, despite the treaties and agreements.

This was my first big trip out of the US, with just me and Alex. Also, it was my first trip to Asia. I was a little nervous traveling with a not quite 10-year-old but it was a package trip with guides. This trip was offered through work, I can’t remember if it was Trafalgar, Gate1, but it was first-class travel, with great hotels (and a first-class price).

We left Monday, March 24th, taking a flight to LAX from Chicago, then a flight to Hong Kong. We meet some of our fellow travelers and tour guide, Stephen Wong, during our layover in LA. We had a long flight but we did get to see the Hale-Bopp comet over the Pacific which was amazing. We slept most of the way and were lucky to get a bulkhead.

We crossed the international dateline, arriving Wednesday in Hong Kong. We changed planes then had another flight to Bangkok. Around 30 hours had passed since we first left home.

Thailand

Stephen was with us the entire trip, from LA to LA. But we had local guides in each city. We meet our local tour guide, Toi (pronounced Toy), soon after we arrived in Bangkok. We were greeted at the airport with orchids on ribbons. After cleaning up we took a tuk-tuk to downtown with two people we met on the plane, Debbie and Marge Schemmel. We did a little sightseeing and I also bought a camera since I had left mine laying on a seat in the Hong Kong airport.

We took a cab back to the hotel but he took us to the wrong hotel even using the stationery imprinted with the address from the hotel! We had dinner in the hotel then went for a swim in their lovely pool and went to bed early.

We were awake at 0700. After breakfast we were on the bus at 0830 for our trip to the Grand Palace. The complex was started in 1782, and contains the Royal Palace, Dusit Haha Prasat Throne Hall, as well as many government offices. I loved the amazing architecture, all the colors and decorative details, the great roof lines. We saw the Crown Jewels and the Emerald Buddha Temple. Emerald refers to the color, experts are not sure if it’s jade or jasper, no one is allowed to test it. Legend has it that it was created in 43 BCE.

In my first experience with package travel and their forced shopping experiences, we were taken to a jewelry store. I did buy Alex a sapphire and zirconia ring, that she still has 25 years later. This was supposed to end the day tour, but Toi offered to take some people to another store.

Alex and I asked to be dropped off at Jim Thompson’s house. Thompson was in the OSS in WWII. He started working in Thailand with silk weavers after the war to import fabrics to the US. His house, now a museum, is 6 old teakwood homes combined and contains his collection of Thai art. Beautiful!

We caught a cab back to the hotel, relaxed for a while, had about an hour to swim then met the bus for the Ban Thai restaurant (House of Thai). We had a good meal and great show, with dancing and beautiful costumes. Alex was given a flower garland by one of the dancers as she left the stage. Returning to the hotel we went right to sleep, still a little jet lagged.

On Friday we had a full day tour of the floating market at Damnoen Saduak. It’s about 100km southwest of Bangkok. I thought this was amazing, touristy but fun. Lots of vendors on their boats in the canals, souvenirs, clothing, spices, food, and more. Beautiful!

We stopped at the Rose Garden Cultural Center on the way back. Definitely another tourist locale but we had fun. Alex rode an elephant with Debbie, we both held pythons and saw more dancers. Lunch was included.

We returned to the hotel around 1700 and decided to use the free drink tickets they gave us at check-in, so we went to the lower lobby bar overlooking the fountain and waterfall with Debbie and Marge. Then we had dinner at the Benjarong (named for the Thai pottery – Benjarong means five colors), spring rolls and satay (skewered beef with peanut sauce). The waiter gave Alex another beautiful garland of flowers.

We decided to check out the view from the Tiara bar. The city looked really beautiful at night. Marge was tired, but Debbie, Alex, and I decided to head up the street to the Patong Night market. This used to be (still is, according to Toi) the red-light district, but is also now a shopping area. People bring out their carts of food and goods and line the street. We didn’t think there was much to see. We found out we had gone a little early, we should have waited until around 2100.

Singapore

We left for Singapore on Saturday, arriving at 1515 local time, they are an hour ahead of Bangkok. We met our local guide, Michael, and went to the Marco Polo Hotel. Another gorgeous hotel, there were flowers on our pillows. The hotel was torn down just a few years later, despite it being considered a Singapore landmark.

Our city tour took us to Orchard Road where we visited the gorgeous Raffles Hotel, opened in 1887. We also went to Merlion Park, the head of a lion on the body of a fish, it is considered the mascot of Singapore, and the historic Clarke Quay. Named for a governor of Singapore, Sir Andrew Clarke, it’s a beautiful street converted to a pedestrian only area. We went back to the hotel later for Singapore Slings. They made one for Alex without the gin.

We went back to the hotel for a late swim. The pool was huge and a free form shape, and surrounded by palms, ferns, and flowering shrubs. Beautiful. We swam under the stars and had a wonderful time.

Easter Sunday, we left at 0900 for another half day tour of Singapore. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens. We were taken to the Orchid Gardens and allowed to wander freely for awhile. I found a great gift for my Mom, a real orchid pin, first covered with nickel to preserve the orchid then gold. She loved it.

Back on the bus, we headed to Little India; there was a wonderful scent in the air from all the spices, flowers, and incense. We stopped for a visit at Sri Mariaman Hindu Temple. This was my first sight of a Hindu temple and I was in awe of the decorations, especially the amazing carvings on the roof.

Our next stop was Chinatown. We visited a medicine shop. Michael and the healer pointed out various animals, reptiles, and other exotic medicines, frogs, snakes, lizards, penises, whole and ground, used to treat everything from old age to male virility.

We went to Mount Faber, the tallest spot on the island and one of the country’s oldest parks. We had a nice view of the city, Sentosa Island, and even some Indonesian islands in the distance. We saw some snake charmers with cobras that fascinated Alex.

Later, Alex and I caught a cab to the Haw Par Villa and Tiger Balm Gardens.

Hong Kong

We left Monday around 1100 for Hong Kong. After a 4 hour flight, we landed at Kai Tak Airport coming in steeply over the buildings. The airport was in use until 1998 and was considered one of the most dangerous in the world as the landing had to be done visually and required a sharp right-handed turn after coming past Victoria Peak. I had a window seat so I could watch our approach.

Our local guide was David. We checked into the New World Millennium, another great hotel.

Our first stop was the Peninsula for High Tea. I was very excited about this experience, since I wasn’t able to afford a tea when visiting London in the 80s. Alex loved the little cakes and beautiful surroundings, too.

After grabbing some coats, it was quite cool compared to Bangkok and Singapore, we caught a cab to the Temple Street Night Market. There were crowds of people, lots of unique merchandise; we both really enjoyed it. After about an hour and half, we caught another cab back to the hotel. We were a little hungry by then so we wandered down to the New World Mall, which was connected to the hotel.

We found a “Pizza World” and had some potato skins and sodas (for $35 – Hong Kong dollars). Looking back on this 20+ years later, I am surprised and disappointed we didn’t eat more local food. But while my daughter has always been more open to try new things than many children, she was only 9 and my experience with “Asian” food at that time was very Americanized Chinese. We both learned a lot more about wonderful Southeast Asian food on subsequent trips. Now both of us consider this style of food our favorite.

On Tuesday we were up early at 0630 so we had time to get dressed and have breakfast before catching the bus at 0815. It was very overcast, and we postponed what was going to be our first stop, Victoria Peak, for later in the day.

We headed to the south side of Hong Kong Island and the Stanley Market. Stanley Market is very touristy like Damnoen Saduak, but a great place to shop and explore. Alex and I bought our “chops” or stamps here with our name in Chinese. She chose the rabbit for her chop; 1987 was the year of the rabbit. I didn’t like my birth year animal and selected a dragon.

We stopped at Deep Water Bay and beach and Repulse Bay.

Next stop, Aberdeen! We went on a sampan ride through the harbor to see the “jumbo floating restaurants” and boat people, who live in their boats year round.

We finally headed to Victoria Peak even though it was still cloudy. The ride up, on a tram, multiple escalators, including one of the world’s longest, and multiple stairs is just as great as the view.

We arrived back at the hotel around 1400 very hungry. Alex had been asking Steve and David when we were eating for about 90 minutes. We decided to take a quick lunch in one of the hotel restaurants. Then we took the Star Ferry back to Hong Kong Island at Central with Debbie and another back to Kowloon for more shopping along Nathan Road.

Alex wanted to go to the pool, so we returned for a late afternoon break. Later we went out for dinner and a evening stroll along the promenade behind the hotel and Cultural center. There is a elevated walkway part of the way. It was very relaxing, and offers a fabulous view with all the lights of Hong Kong, and a wonderful cool sea breeze with that salty smell. Alex and I sat on the benches and watched people go by. We talked about our trip and Alex said to me she thought this was her favorite part so far. I knew what she meant.

Wednesday, we had our tour of Kowloon, which means “Nine Dragons”, and the New Territories starting at 0830. We saw the bridge to Lantau Island where the new airport was being built then had a stop at the Chinese border (where of course, there were a few “stores”). We had to walk up a very steep hill, it reminded me of the walks to the castles in Germany.

We headed to Fan Ling to go to the Leun Wo “wet market”, it is a city block square with a roof but no walls. Full of vendors at their stalls lined with cages, and very noisy from the animals and the customers. They had a lot of meat, fish on ice but many live animals, too. They would weigh then butcher what ever you wanted. Alex was horrified and David took her to the bird market next door and let the rest of us wander for 15 minutes or so. I was astounded by the variety of animals available, from turtles to chickens to monkeys.

We went to Sha Tin, a neighbourhood along the Shing Mun River, in the New Territories where we had a Dim-Sum (which means “little pleasures”) at one of the floating restaurants. I loved it, Alex wasn’t sure about the food but tried most of the offered items. So glad she’s always been willing to at least try new foods.

We made it back to the hotel around 1530. We had decided to go to Macau, the Portuguese Colony about 40 miles away on another small peninsula. Eight of us on the tour had decided to go together, Bill and Karen, Bill and Linda, Phyllis, Shirley, Alex and me. We all grabbed some coats and headed to the subway station to Central. We had to go to the next stop, and catch the Turbo Cat jetfoil for Macau. It was about a 50 minute trip. We arrived around 1700. We visited the casino, saws the ruins of Saint Paul, but mostly just walked around looking at the buildings and the views then returned to Hong Kong around 2300. Like Hong Kong, Macau, a Portuguese colony, was supposed to be returned to China in a few years, too. 

The last day of our trip, Thursday, April 3rd, we slept a little late, 0830, due to our late night and we missed breakfast, but it was worth it. It felt great after a number of early mornings. After packing our bags and getting all our new purchases in, we dropped our bags in the ready room downstairs since we were not flying out until late that evening.

After a busy day of sight-seeing we went to the airport and had a 12 1/2 flight to LA. We caught our connecting flight to Chicago and then had a long drive to Bloomington. After about 22 hours we made it back home. What a amazing trip!

My first international trip as a single mom, and despite traveling with a group and guides, it gave me some confidence I could travel “solo” as a woman or travel with my young daughter and keep her safe. We haven’t stopped since!

** All photos property of Lisa, not to be copied or reproduced **