Hong Kong (not King Kong. One's an ape, the other a city)

Day 40 (Tuesday) -
The rest of the train ride past gave us a great view of the lush green country side. And, after surviving the 20hr train ride from Shanghai to Hong Kong, we began our cross town travel to Jimmy's apartment. To get an idea of what it took, let me list the transportation systems we used: one train station, six metro stations, three metro lines, one huge apartment complex plaza, two helpful huge apartment complex employees, one elevator, and one apartment belonging to Jimmy. Upon further review, it was only a half hour walk or a ten minute taxi ride.

We spent the next couple hours trying (with varying degrees of success) to do our laundry on Jimmy's fancy washer/dryer combo unit. The successes came in the form of extra-clean laundry (we may have run the wash cycle twice), and regular clean clothes (wash cycle only run once). Our failure came in operating the dryer. On this particular unit (for user safety I am sure) you can not open the door until the full cycle is complete. Which becomes a problem when you are standing shirtless, late, and nursing a sore toe after resorting to physical violence to solve your problem. Note for the impressionable youth who might be reading: resorting to physical violence does not solve problems, especially when dealing with a washer/dryer combo that might actually be 10% smarter than you.

Eliza and I met up with Jimmy (I in his shirt), Cody (another friend of Eliza's) and Nupur (yes, another friend of Eliza's) for dinner and drinks. We dined at a nice Cuban restaurant in SoHo. SoHo is reached by, what is reported to be, the longest escalator in the world. Before we arrived in Hong Kong, I read in our guide book that we were going to be in the same city as the longest escalator in the world. Needless to say (but I will anyway) I was excited. Spoiler alert: it is a series of escalators not one really long one. Stupid misleading guide book.
John, Nupur & Cody on the longest escalator.

Day 41 -
Today we headed off to the Vietnam Consulate in search of a tourism visa. The consulate is located in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. The area is a collection of Cantonese shops and restaurants. There area is quite confusing because the street signs and addresses do not exactly point to what they are supposed to. After consulting two different maps and one hotel concierge, we located the consulate. The process of visa form filling out is some-what straight forward when you get used to the reverse date system and semi-logical form layout. Time, money, and our passports in the hands of a foreign government we ventured off to find more summer clothes. Which of course we need because, apparently, a fleece jacket and down vest are not going to be that useful in SE Asia.

John NOT fitting in the booth at lunch

And speaking of the weather. The weather here is really nice. Highs in the upper seventies and lows in the lower sixties. The best weather so far.

Day 42 -
We began the day by walking to Nathan Road to an area called the "Golden Mile" because of the ability of the occupants to make money. There you can buy pretty much anything. There are all kinds of shops selling the full range of tourist knock offs to jewelry stores with diamonds sparking in the windows. An interesting note here, the people that approach you here actually tell you straight up the the item is fake. "fake watch, handbags", "you buy here, good fakes" and so on. Gotta hand it to them for their honesty. We looked for a backpack for me (the man-bag is just not working), but apparently I am so out of style that even the fakes don't appeal to me. I guess extra zippers, bells, whistles, pockets, and big logos are in.

Then we wandered down to the "Avenue of the Stars". This avenue is a pedestrian only walk way right on the water front which has great views to Honk Kong across the harbour. The Stars are all Asian actors and actress like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. There are a collection of golden stars with the actor's hand print in concrete spread along the ground. One thing I learned is that hand size does not dictate Kung-fu skills.

John as Jackie Chan

Next up we toured the Hong Kong History Museum. A really interesting museum detailing the history of Hong Kong (shocking I know, who would have thought). Eliza was really happy because there was an exhibit on the history of banking in Hong king and Shanghai. Plus there were life size dioramas and she got to pretend to be a local shop keeper in 1891.

For dinner we dined inside the Element Mall and Kowloon Station complex. Basically Jimmy lives in a city within a city. Centered on the subway stop is a collection of apartment and commercial high rises, a hotel in the making, and a shopping mall. The mall is named Element and the rest of the apts have equally innovative and pro-marketing names as well (Jimmy lives in "The Arch"). Food was not bad at all. Located "nachos" on the menu (good first step), and when they arrived we realized it was a nice take on the nacho concept, Doritos chips (the spicy kind) with a cheese and meat sauce to dip them in. Step one in curing the Mexican food craving. A list of things you should not do at The Arch.

Day 43 (Fri) -
So apparently Hong Kong has a Disneyland. You would know this if you read in a guide book four months ago and have been telling your boyfriend everyday for the last two months. Welcome to my life. Middle of nowhere China on a train: Eliza will turn to me "Did you know there is a Disneyland in Hong Kong? Wanna go?" Initially I humored her, but after a month of this daily onslaught I started ignoring the questions. When that didn't work, I started saying "No, Disneyland Honk Kong is the last place I would want to go". Yeah, that wasn't the smartest thing I've done.
How could you not be excited at the prospect of this!?

So Disneyland Hong Kong is not the biggest of the Disneyland theme parks. In fact it is downright small. There is only one roller coaster (Space Mountain), so we rode it two or three times. They have replaced Mt. Toad's Wild Ride with a Winnie the Pooh ride. Because nobody knows who Mr Toad is. Also, when did Winnie the Pooh become Disney? The other "cool" ride is a Buzz Light year ride where you get to shoot down Emperor Zurg and his minions. You get points based on some inane scoring system in which I beat Eliza the first time (she claims that her score reset halfway) and Eliza beat me the second time (I have yet to hear the end of the bragging). A definite highlight was the car driving ride. The one were you get to drive a car (which is on a rail negating the need for "driving") unless you were a small child growing up and there for had to ride with your uncle while the rest of your cousins got to drive their own car. Ha, twenty years later and I am finally driving. Right-hand steering wheel sided and all (Hong Kong being a former British colony).
In his very cool red sports car, driving on the right.

After the adventure that is Disneyland Hong Kong, it seemed only right to meet up with Jimmy and Nupur for some end of week debauchery in the bar area known as Lan Kwai Fong. The brilliant plan of "drinks and appetizers" at every bar we went to would have worked, had "we" realized that Lan Kwai Fong is really a 4 block square area that is a cross between really swanky NYC style bars with frat row. So when each bar has spilled completely into the street and mixes with the ones around them, it is much harder to know where one ends and the next begins.
The LKF "scene"
Fun time all around and a chance to meet lots of Jimmy's HK friends.
Jimmy, Liza & John
Nupur & Liza
John, Nupur & Jimmy


Day 44 -
Today we made our way at the crack of dawn (1:30 pm) to the "largest seated bronze Buddha statue" in the world. So apparently there are larger standing bronze, or larger seated non- bronze, or just plain large Buddha statues in the world. I'll let you know if we run into any on our trip.

Joining us is Eliza's friend Nupur, who recently moved to Hong Kong and is therefore also an eager tourist.

To get there one can take a twenty minute cable car ride which give you a view of the surrounding islands and beyond, or hike for twelve hours. The cable car was a great choice on my part. Also, Eliza did not tell me about the hike option until after we were in the cable car. Must have slipped her mind.

The Buddha stature was indeed large and bronze and seated. A fairly impressive structure.

At the Buddha there is a working monastery from which you can purchase lunch. Buddhism, as part of its beliefs does not allow the consumption of alcohol or the eating of meat. Which brings us to the saddest sign ever:


After eating non-meat food and sipping on non-booze drinks we headed back to Jimmy's to make Mexican food. This particular culture's food is highly underrepresented in Asia. Eliza made a delicious meal with the help of Nupur and Jimmy. (I helped by clearing the plates of leftover food. Also, Jimmy's kitchen is not the largest place in the world.)

Day 45 -
Today Jimmy, Eliza, and I took the ferry to Lamma Island for a little stroll and some good seafood. Lamma island is located southwest of Hong Kong island and is known for it's really good seafood. In order to make people feel better about gorging themselves (okay, I suppose because it is a really beautiful island with no cars, spectacular views, and lush green vegetation) you can hike along the island. The hike takes you from one side of the island to the other (each with a ferry dock) and takes about 1.5 hrs. The path is clearly marked if you are paying enough attention to see the signposts. We missed one and had to backtrack at one point. At both ends of the path are small towns each with its own row of restaurants right on the water. The restaurants serve all kinds of seafood pulled from the bay in front of you. It was quite delicious. We had a six course meal which took us longer to eat than walk around the island.
This is us working up our seafood appetite.

Day 46 -
Once you have been to the hard to locate Vietnamese consulate, it is much easier to find it. In fact, after shipping home a 16kg package filled with no longer needed winter clothes, we went straight to it. This time around we spent more time in line to pick up our visas than we did trying to find the place, definitely an improvement! Passports back in hand we headed over to Victoria Peak, essentially the mountain (large hill?) that made the island of Hong Kong. They have now built a cable car that takes you up at a 17% incline (rough guess) from the heart of the commercial area. Pretty cool ride and really great views of the whole island on a 3k path around the top.
Celebrated Saint Patricks Day with some nice fish and chips for dinner at Dot Cod, where you get a 10% discount if you are a card carrying member of the HK Cricket association (we are not and therefore did not get the discount, we'll know for next time).

Day 47 -
So the one request my mother made (OK, maybe better phrased as one of the requests) before embarking on this trip was for John and I to see "Jewish Asia" (pretty small request overall). While perusing Jimmy's guidebook selection we located the Ohel Leah Synagogue in dedicated Hong Kong book. One long escalator trip later (well, lots of short connected ones), we arrived at the gates to both a huge apartment complex and one Jewish Synagogue. Then it got a bit stickier. The money belt/ leg satchel is great, but not the single most comfortable accessory ever worn, and due to the secure nature of Jimmy's building, we opted to leave non-essentials there. The lack of passports instantly made the synagogue guards suspicious. Twenty-five minutes of conversation, proving we were indeed Jews who just wanted to see the temple, later, we were admitted. And then left to roam the whole place completely un-checked. Hey, everyone has their own system.
Said Synagogue.
It get's two pictures due to the amount of talking required to gain admission.
When we were walking away from the temple John commented that he was quite glad he did not set off the metal detector, as his blond hair and lack of correct pronuncation of basic Jewish holdiays might not be for the best. (Hey, I am trying. Is it a "H" or a "Ch", nobody can tell me.)

Stopped by the botanical gardens and zoo on the way back to the subway. Lots of birds (lots and lots and lots actually, pretty much half the zoo) as well as some primates. All very large, clean enclosures, much happier than the Beijing zoo!

Somewhere around mid-China my cousin and I figured out that we were going to overlap 1 or 2 day in HK.
The cousins
Reina had been in China for the past week for work and her husband James arrived this morning to meet here and take a little vacation! They are a super cool duo and we had a chance to also meet some of her co-workers who were on the same trip. After a swanky drink in the Kowloon area we took the Star Ferry across the water to Hong Kong. A brief wander led us to serious, west coast style Mexican food.....it was amazing!!
Reina's two co-workers, Reina & Liza
John and James on camera duty


Day 48 -
Today we took a ferry to Macau, another "special zone" of China, and toured the former Portuguese colony. The two main attractions of Macau are its architecture and gambling. The buildings (at least the ones that aren't casinos already) are mostly European inspired.
In front of the new Lisbon
The casinos are also a sight to be seen. It is alot like Vegas, with the themed casinos, but only if Vegas was suddenly taken over by thousands of Chinese. Most of the day was spent wandering up and down the streets. We played one slot machine and Eliza won 20 patacas (about $2.50) which totally paid for our snacks on the ferry ride back.
Big money locale...sort of.

Also snagged a water shot of Jimmy's building, points for whoever guesses the right one (Not sure you can play Jen as you are a ringer).

Day 49 (Thurs) -
The highlight of today actually came this evening. We made plans during the day to meet up with Nupur and her boyfriend Robin, who was convinced to fly into town Thursday so that we would all get the chance to celebrate his birthday and see him before we get to India. As Nupur tends to work a bit later, we wandered out to meet up with Jimmy and his co-workers for a post work glass of wine. Turns out he works with some of the funniest European gents we've had the chance to bull shit over wine with so far this trip. After gaining some useful trip advise, we hoped in a cab and headed over to meet up with Nups and Robin. Somewhere pretty early in the night I convinced Robin it was best he wear a light up button (so everyone would know it was his birthday) and then purchased just the smiley face for him. We had a great evening of chatting and drinks, ending the night with John trying Hookah for the first time (not love at first puff) and a little bit of dancing. All around a great time.

Day 50 -
Most of today was spend packing and getting ready for Vietnam. We have really enjoyed taking over Jimmy's apartment and touring Hong Kong. It is by far the most Western city on our trip so far. The best part has been staying with Jimmy and watching "The Office" on DVD. Ah, American TV how you have been missed. Next up Vietnam.

And a banana picture for my sis