3 Hours in ...

3 Hours in ...
Ho Chi Minh City
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.

This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Ho Chi Minh City.

Your Guide: Helen Lowy, regional sales & marketing manager for Italian confectionery manufacturer Perfetti.

Where She'd Go: Le Cong Kieu Street -- also known as "Antique Street." It's little wider than an alley and doglegs almost parallel to Nam Ky Khoi Ngha Boulevard, which runs up from the riverfront.

What She'd Do There: Spend hours exploring this web of junk shops. On closer inspection they often reveal baubles ranging from the kitsch to the precious. Missing an ivory-handled, silver dinner knife from your grandmother's set? You might be able to find a replacement here, along with things leftover from Saigon's grand past, such as silver trays, ice buckets, candelabra and genuine art deco blown-glass vases. Also keep an eye out for things like war medals, recon***ioned brass desk fans and tacky ceramic statues of Uncle Ho. For a rest, head around the corner to the Temple Club at 31 Ton That Thiep Street. It's welcoming, cool and exotic and, from early in the day until late at night, it serves delectable Vietnamese cuisine. Surrounded by classic Indochine colonial furniture, you'll imagine yourself in another era. All pieces are for sale, so you could return home with more memories from Vietnam than you expected.

Why You Should Go: Experiencing the real Ho Chi Minh is well worth the effort, even if you have to be wary of fast-fingered pickpockets and two-wheeled traffic bearing down from all directions. Brave the heat, negotiate with a cyclo driver and head for this not so well-kept secret. It's the perfect place to hone your bargaining skills.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Hong Kong
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Hong Kong.
Your Guide: Jamie Paton, director for North Asia of venture capital company 3i Asia Pacific PLC.
Where He'd Go: To Shek O, a beachside village on the southwest of Hong Kong Island.
What He'd Do: It's a 45-minute taxi ride from Central to Shek O, but if you take the No. 9 bus from Shau Kei Wan MTR stop, you get great views of the Tai Tam and Shek O country parks. (On weekends and public holidays the No. 309 bus runs direct from Central to Shek O.) If you're feeling energetic, you can get off at one of the stops and follow the Hong Kong trail along the top of a ridge; the walk to Shek O from one of these stops can take an hour or so.
The village, surrounded by hills, is quite beautiful. You can watch children playing in the sand and shallows or, if you're more energetic, swim out to a floating platform in the sea. There are a number of local restaurants and teashops filled with gossiping mah-jongg players clacking the tiles about the table. If you have time, walk out of town and past the Shek O Country Club to Big Wave Bay, where there is another small village with a less crowded beach that surfers love.
Why You Should Go: Shek O is such a contrast from Central. The views are stunning, the beach can be quiet and there are good places to eat.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Tokyo
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Tokyo.
Your Guide: Peace Winds Japan, a non-profit international assistance organization.
Where She'd Go: To Penguin-dori, a street just a few minutes' walk from the Shibuya Station, for a massage and some bargain shopping.
What She'd Do There: Head to Wulai, a Taiwanese massage parlor a few stores down from Shibuya's Gap store (13-16 Udagawa-cho at the corner Koen-dori and Penguin-dori). It's upstairs and may seem a little creepy until you get used to its tra***ional style. The massage rooms are dark and the staff go by numbers instead of their names. But once the masseuses have walked on your back, rubbed you down in oil, then wrapped you up in steaming hot towels, you'll feel so good you won't care.
After your body treatment, take a left on Koen-dori and walk up the hill to Three-Minute Happiness, an upscale version of the 100-yen stores that have become popular in Japan. It sells almost everything you can think of to put in your home, from dishes and glasses, to cleaning supplies and even cosmetics, and at cut-rate prices of between 100 and 1,000 yen. The wares are mostly fashionable -- or cute.
Why You Should Go: The West once looked to Japan to find the Orient, but Wulai shows how the Japanese today are looking to their Asian neighbors for massage and tra***ional remedies. There's always good shopping to be found in Shibuya and Three-Minute Happiness is a good antidote to Tokyo's sky-high prices.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Bangkok
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Bangkok.
Your Guide: Jerry Hopkins, author of "Strange Foods: Bush Meat, Bats and Butterflies, An Epicurean Adventure Around the World."
Where'd He Go: The Klong Toey market running east along Rama IV Road, starting at the intersection with Ratchidapisek Road.
What'd He Do: This is Bangkok's largest outdoor food market, perched next to a smelly canal between the Klong Toey slum and the upscale Sukhumvit neighborhood. In the distance, you can see the tower that houses the Stock Exchange of Thailand, while right next to you in plastic tubs, insects, turtles, frogs and eels are still crawling, hopping and wriggling. How much fresher can dinner be? The market starts early and, if you want the widest choice of insects and to watch them being cooked, it's best to go in the morning, although the market is open until late in the afternoon. Most of the ant-egg salad, deep-fried grasshoppers, silkworms, beetles, crickets, scorpions and giant waterbugs will be gone by then, but never mind. You'll still be able to see chickens go from cluck to soup in minutes -- this is the original fast food -- and be overwhelmed by the dozens of exotic fruits and vegetables.
Why You Should Go: The market's hundreds of friendly vendors are a break from the cabbie/concierge trap that many visitors to Bangkok fall into and, at the same time, the market offers an insight into the way Thailand -- the real Thailand -- eats. Aside from marrying a Thai, converting to Buddhism or learning the language, this is the best way to understand the culture.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Singapore
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Singapore.
Your Guide: Damon Chua, head of Asia for The .tv Corporation, an online company selling .tv domain names.
Where He'd Go: To the old army barracks in Dempsey Road, which have been converted into furniture shops and art galleries.

What He'd Do There: Shop, shop and shop. The old barracks now house many galleries, selling Southeast Asian craft and furniture -- everything from antique Burmese pieces to Zen-inspired outdoor water sculptures. Everything is in a jumble, and the fun is poking around to uncover overlooked treasures.
Why You Should Go: It feels so far away from the city, yet it's only a 10-minute taxi ride from Orchard Road. Apart from the objets d'arts, the attraction is the barracks themselves. These structures are great examples of colonial architecture, with their high ceilings and antiquated low-hanging ceiling fans. Call me romantic, but the setting takes me to a simpler time.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Manila
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Manila.
Your Guide: Cherie Gonzalez, marketing manager, Standard Chartered Bank
Where She'd Go: On a tour of the Makati neighborhood's hard-to-find hot spots.

What She'd Do There: Manila isn't known in Asia for its cutting-edge nightlife because visitors don't know where to go. Buried in a basement next to the Peninsula Hotel, is a chic Japanese sake bistro called Wasabi. It's the kind of place that puts cream cheese in sushi and has a DJ. But don't worry. It has the best Japanese food and chill-out music in Manila. Arrive early and you can get a table, stay late and you'll see most of Makati's real movers. From there you can shift to Venezia, hidden in Glorietta Mall. It's often overcrowded and the waiters' gondolier outfits are amusing, but the music and the service are good. You'll be knocking elbows with Manila's old and new money-makers who clog Venezia's parking lot with Ferraris and Mercedes every night. End the evening at club Orange. It's in a nondescript building on Makati Avenue outside the business district. Don't be intimidated by the buff female bouncer with the guests' list. If you're not on it, it just means you have to pay to get in. Listening to the deep-house music -- often spun by guest DJs from London -- and watching Makati notables at their sweatiest is worth much more than the 300 pesos admission.
Why You Should Go: Good food, good music and a good workout on the dance floor are great ways to unwind. You'll see how Filipinos party and can spread the word that we have world-class clubs.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Beijing
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Beijing.
Your Guide: Anna Ning, marketing executive, J.Gallery, Hong Kong.
Where She'd Go: The Ancient Library located to the west of Beihai Park on Baishiqiao Lu. It's located inside the National Library of China, formerly the National Peking Library, and dates back to the 1930s and was recently reopened after a three-year facelift.
What She'd Do There: Pick something to read from the shelves and settle into one of the reading rooms where each seat is lit with its own tra***ional Chinese-style lamp.
Visiting the library is like stepping into an ancient imperial garden. The collection is spread among several buildings within a large courtyard. While the exteriors of the buildings boast beautifully crafted wooden Chinese characters, the spacious interiors are reminiscent of Western architecture.
Why You Should Go: The library is famous for its collection of old Chinese tomes, but equally valuable is its extensive collection of ordinary ancient books, local histories and magazines. The library and its gardens are a place to escape the frenzy of modern Beijing and slip into the city's cultured past.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Shanghai
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Shanghai.
Your Guide: Rebecca Wong, business research director for Dow Chemical Pacific.
Where She'd Go: To Qingpu Daguanyuan (Grand View Garden) in Qingpu County west of Shanghai city. It's a replica of the opulent family complex depicted in Cao Xueqin's 18th century classic novel, "A Dream of the Red Chamber." To get there, you can take the No. 4 tourist bus from Shanghai to Qingpu.
What She'd Do There: Wander through this vast complex, which opened in 1979 and took nearly 10 years to build. Qingpu Daguanyuan recreates the residences of the Ning-guo and Rong-guo clans depicted in Cao Xueqin's novel. Daguanyuan includes ceremonial buildings, temples, a nunnery, tea houses, painting studios, ponds and streams. Try and imagine yourself as a member of the imperial family as you watch operas, monkey shows and performances by the Red Chamber musicians. Guides can tell you enticing tales from the book which inspired the park's buildings and gardens, such as the three-way romance that developed between the handsome bi***ual hero Jiabaoyu, his forever-weeping girlfriend, Lindaiyu, and his ruthless wife Xuebaocai.
Later, walk through the pavilions and winding paths on the shores of the nearby Dianshan Lake. Here, the Garden of Spring Plums is famous for its gorgeous plum blossoms. You can take a boat to explore the streams that crisscross the 106-hectare park.
Why You Should Go: Visiting Qingpu Daguanyuan is like stepping inside the novel. It's the embodiment of 18th-century aristocratic life as depicted in the classic book and helps you to immerse yourself in the complicated lives of the book's characters -- girlfriends and wives, gay lovers and extended family, all living under one roof.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Jakarta
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Jakarta.
Your Guide: Brian Marterer, Global Integration Group, ABN Amro Bank
Where He'd Go: The Jalan Surabaya (Surabaya Street) outdoor market in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
What He'd Do There: Go treasure and bargain hunting.
Jalan Surabaya's cramped stalls overflow with antiques (both new and used), ceramics and porcelain, nautical paraphernalia, handiworks from around the archipelago, textiles, silver, and the occasional secondhand Bee Gees LP. Previous trips to the market have yielded century-old brass microscopes, Papuan gardening tools, a Javanese gong fit for a sultan's gamelan orchestra, and a 250-pound, 18th-century naval canon (in suspiciously good con***ion) that made one lucky shopkeeper a rupiah millionaire.
Conveniently located at the last few stalls is a vast selection of oversized suitcases. The luggage hawkers will help you pack up your loot, and reassure you that your antiques are indeed authentic.
Why You Should Go: This is where you go to find that gift for the person who has everything, but most of the fun is in the haggling. Leave plenty of time to shop around for the best price, and be sure to walk out of negotiations at least three times before making a purchase.

Despair is not Hopeless!​

Macau
3 Hours in ... is written by readers of The Asian Wall Street Journal to share their advice on how to spend a few hours of spare time in major cities in Asia.
This Week: Making the most of your spare time in Macau.
Your Guide: Florence Au, financial adviser for Mondial (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Where She'd Go: To Macau's Old Protestant Cemetery and the historic district of Rua da Felicidade.
What She'd Do There: Start out by strolling through the green old cemetery next to Camoes Garden at the end of Rua de Sto. Antonio. It is the resting place of English painter George Chinnery (1774-1852), who lived in Macau for the last 20 years of his life, and Robert Morrison (1782-1834), the first Protestant missionary in China, who compiled the first English and Chinese dictionary. Then head to the historic alleys of Rua da Felicidade, the former red-light district. It's about a 30-minute walk from the cemetery. The buildings, with their carved red window frames, red canopies and red front doors, have been well restored and there are good restaurants in the area.
Why You Should Go There: The cemetery tells stories of Macau's past in a different way from a museum. Many of the headstones feature interesting accounts of the lives of the people who are buried there. The shops and alleys of Rua da Felicidade are a blend of the past and present.

Despair is not Hopeless!​