September Update

As I spent most of the latter part of August traveling around Hong Kong, September became the month where we traveled outside of Hong Kong.

-- Taipei ---

September 13 - Flew in to Taipei International Airport and stayed with Paige's family in Tien Mu. We got to spend time with Paige, Henry, Haley, Paige's brother and his girlfriend all at the great hospitality of Paige's parents.

September 14 - Visited Taipei 101's Observation deck in the morning followed by a visit and lunch at Taipei American School (TAS) to reminisce the good old days with old friends. Grace Chen, Helen Chen, and Lilian Yu were all able to make it as well for a little mini-reunion for class of 95.

September 15 - Visited the Palace Museum with Paige and Henry. We spent a good 4-5 hours day and had tea and dim sum at the tea house on the 4th floor.

September 16 - Flew out of Taipei and back home to Hong Kong.

Pics


--- Bintan, Indonesia and Singapore ---

September 18 - We flew into Singapore, followed by a 1-hour ferry ride to Bintan to settle into the Bintan Lagoon Resort. We were welcomed in by Indonesian dancers and enjoyed a nice Surf and Turf buffet dinner at the Nelayan Grill.

September 19 - Woke up to a cloudy day followed quickly by a short thunderstorm. As soon as the rain stopped, we headed to the beach to book our first snorkeling trip. We went to a coral reef bay about a 10-minute boat ride from the hotel and had a great time exploring the waters with lots of fish, sea anemone, and corals. We wrapped up the day each with a giant cheeseburger and fries at Verandah by the Leisure Center. Boy, did the burgers hit the spot after the snorkeling and salt water.

September 20 - We decided to explore the shopping area and headed over to Pasar Oleh Oleh. It's not much of a shopping area but we got to sign up for some massage session and try some Indonesian food outside of the resort. Two one-hour massages and lunch for less than US$50... not too bad :-) We wrapped up the day with the Mangrove Discovery tour which took us through the mangrove rivers to discover several different species of mangroves, snakes, birds, and a local family fishing.

September 21 - Beautiful sunny day in Bintan. We decided to book another snorkeling trip for the afternoon and headed off to the driving range since Bintan Lagoon is known for its golf course. We then snorkeled again and repeated our burger and fries ritual :-).

September 22 - Headed in to Singapore and met with Alice for lunch and walked through Suntec City Mall before my meetings. We didn't have much time left but got to stop by the Singapore Concert Hall and check out the F1 set up on the streets before heading back to Bintan.

September 23 - Headed back in to Singapore for the airport and back to Hong Kong.

--- Bangkok, a city of excess ---

September 24 - Headed out to Bangkok after just a little bit more than 12 hours in Hong Kong. We walked around the area by our hotel, Anantara Baan Rajprasong, before Larry, our friend from Hong Kong, joined us. I took advantage of some street vendor food and tried the broccoli pie and the sweet corn pie from McDonald's. We also got to see Thai prayer dancers at the Thao Maha Brahma Shrine. One can pay for 4 to 8 singer/dancers to sing and dance to prayers while one prays. After Larry landed, we headed out for dinner. We walked over to Siam passing by shopping malls and night markets. And then had dinner back at You & Mee at the Erawan Grand Hyatt to wrap up the night.

Pics

September 25 - We took the MRT train to the Tha Sathon (Central Pier) to catch a boat to Tha Chang by the Grand Palace. The boat ride was only 20 Bhat and you can pay on the boat and go to any stop. We tried a few local drinks that were served out of big tubs and headed out for a little tour of town on a tuk tuk.

The tuk tuk took us to Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha) which is known to be dated back to the 13th century and the Buddha himself is over 900 years old. The Buddha is made of pure gold and is the largest pure gold Buddha statue in the world.

We then toured around town passing by the Democracy Monument, Chitlada Palace grounds, and stopping at a jewelry shop and a tailor shop, before heading back for lunch and onto the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (the Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha).

The Grand Palace is in one-word, WOW. Every palace was ornately and intricately adorned with gold. As you walked through the grand palace grounds, we were initially wowed by all the gold and exquisite architecture, but were soon overloaded with the extensive number of palaces that spread the ground. It definitely provided quite a sensory overload.

Wat Phra Kaew was very grand as it was the place of worship for the royal family. Despite the temple's grandness, it housed a rather small (in comparison) and unassuming Buddha all encraved out of a single piece of jade (hence named the Emerald Buddha).

We then walked over to Wat Pho to see our largest Buddha of the day, the reclining buddha. It's 46 meters long and all covered in gold leaflets. Its feet were covered in Buddhist chants, and the side of the temple were lined with a row of buckets for donations. We wrapped up the afternoon by hopping into a cab just as the rain shower started coming down.

In the evening, we hit up Patpon for some "interesting" evening entertainment. We got front-row seats to see the miracle of plastic and sex-change surgeries, and then headed to a couple of bars around Soi 4.

Pics

September 26 - We started the day with a visit to Chatuchak market. Did I mention that Bangkok is a city of excess? Well, this weekend market had an excess of everything you can think of. There are rows and rows of covered and open markets that sold everything from clothes to fake flowers to ornaments and art. You could also find eateries that ranged from quick Thai classic dishes like papaya salads and noodles, to Western style bars and Chinese hot pots. After a few hour stroll through the market, we decided to get some Thai pampering with a Thai foot massage and Thai full body massage before we headed out for the evening. We met up with Larry's friend, Mike, for dinner at Baan Khanitha Thai Cuisine, one of the few fancy Thai restaurants in Bangkok. The food there was excellent though it was a bit on the pricier side, especially when you compare to the street foods ;-). We then walked over to grab a few drinks and walked through Soi Cowboy (a mini and more skanky version of Pat Pong).

Pics

September 27 - We took it easy on day 4 and headed over to the Marriott's Trader Vic's for their famous buffet (thanks to Travis' recommendation). This had to have been the best buffet I have had ever, and I've been to some nice buffets... We took the Marriott's shuttle boat service from the Central pier and headed over to this resort hotel for a nice Sunday brunch. The day was beautiful and the boat ride was very relaxing. Trader Vic's welcomed us in and right away there are cocktail drinks at your service. The menu included outdoor grill stations, fresh green papaya salad station (made on order), oyster station (with oyster shooters made on order and caviar), make-your-own-bloody-mary station, mango and sticky rice station, Taiwanese oyster pancake station (made on order), cheese station, and so many more. The most impressive aspect is that there are several made-to-order stations. You could also pay an extra US$6 to have unlimited wines with your meal. After this large meal, we then headed over to Patpong to meet a few more of Mike's friends for a drink. It was amazing to see the difference between Patpong in the daytime versus at night. The Thai workers were starting to put up the scaffoldings for the evening vendors that filled up the streets. It's amazing that they put up and put down these scaffoldings every day. We wrapped up the day with another massage and ended up staying in for the evening as the rain came down again.
Pics

September 28 - I woke up early to head out to Lumphini Park for an early morning stroll and take in the early morning site. The park was full of life at 7:30am. Lots of people jogging, walking, doing martial arts of different sorts, doing Taichi, practicing dances, biking, etc. I also bumped into a group of retired Chinese folks who get together every morning to exercise and share in a nice breakfast meal at the park. I joined them for a little bit of dessert soup and a little chit chat. I can't help admiring these people who have found such a great community of friends to share the days with in their old age. After the park, we finished packing and headed to Chinatown. The taxi dropped us off on Yaowarat Road, the main artery of Chinatown and also lined with gold stores and Chinese medicine shops. Since it was a Monday morning, we were told that it's a keep-the-street-clean Mondays now so there were very few carts or vendors out. We wondered around the alleys and stumbled on what we called "shoe alley" since the small alley had more room occupied by shoes than there was room for people to walk. As we wound through the streets, we then came across a covered larger and longer alley that I later learned was called "thieves alley". Unlike it's name, this place is actually not skeevy. I'd guess that it's probably named that since you can practically find everything in the stores here from rolls of cloth to stationery stores, to little trinkets of all sorts. Our exploration then also took us to the outskirts of Chinatown were we passed by stores selling guns and rifles, and street vendors selling porn, and lots of other used tools and things. It was definitely an interesting stroll to wrap up our travel.

Pics

Hong Kong Travels: Sham Shui Po Market

We learned about Sham Shui Po from my old boss, Edward, who is into electronics and gadgets.
Though Sham Shui Po (深水埗) is best known for its street market of electronic stuff, it's so much more than that! I can't believe we've only just know found this gem! It's very easy to get to by MTR. As soon as you exit the Sham Shui Po MTR station, you'll find yourself in one of many street markets in the neighborhood.


We started with the Apliu Street where the electronic stuff street market is. You'll find yourself looking at zip ties, AV cables, mobile phone accessories, camera accessories, and much much more. The variety of items you'll find here is surprising. There are several booths that have nothing but second-hand products which will include old MD players, walkman, dial phones, LPs and many other items that'll take you back a couple of decades. The prices here are also cheaper than at the Wanchai computer center (where we've been doing most of our shopping). You can bargain a little here but the starting prices are already reasonable.

One street over on Yu Chau Street, there are several stores selling beads and other jewelry making accessories.

Another street over on Ki Lung Street and the perpendicular street, Nam Cheong Street, you'll supposed to be able to find a lot of fabric stores. We didn't get a chance to see these this time but will look for them next time.

On the other side, also another street over, on Cheung Sha Wan Road, there is a row of clothing stores. Most of the clothes here being promoted were around 3 for HK$100 ( around US$13). It was too hot for me to try on any clothes at the time so I've left that for another time.

Another street over on the other side of Cheung Sha Wan Rd, you'll find another row of street markets similar to what you would find at the Ladies Market in Mong Kok. Except once again, this one is less crowded with tourists and the prices are more reasonable.

We also found some very delicious boba milk tea here and picked up some workout tops at 3 for HK$100.

This is a great place to shop around for all kinds of things and definitely seemed less crowded and more reasonable in prices from Mong Kok. You'll definitely find me coming here again.

Hong Kong Travels: Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple and Pai Tau Village

We made a trip to see the 10,000 Buddhas temple today, and took the opportunity to also meet up with Lina, a friend and an ex-Star colleague.

I was hoping to have enough time to visit the close by walled homes but ran out of time and will have to make that another trip.

Sha Tin is in the New Territories in Hong Kong so out about 20 minutes ride from TST towards China. Once we got off the MTR stop at Sha Tin, the temple entrance is only 10 minute walk away. You will have to work your way up to the temple as you ascent 400+ steps.

Right outside Sha Tin MTR stop, you'll head out and down the pedestrian walkway to find Pai Tau Village (排頭村). From what I have read, these villages are small homes that have been reserved for male descendants of residents in 1898. To read a little more info, you can check out this website. The village is nested by the hillside next to mega malls and buildings. A lot of these homes are now used as small eateries or to sell potteries, etc.

Once you keep walking down the road by the side of the villages, we followed the signs to the temple.

You'll come across what looks like an entrance to a temple with a set of lifts to a hilltop pagoda. That would be the Po Fook Ancestral Workshop Hall. Pass by the side of this to get you to the Ten Thousand Buddhas.

On the climb up you'll be accompanied by hundreds of Buddhas, all different and covered in gold. The climb itself is a little bit of an exercise so take this time and enjoy your spiritual journey to the temple. Each of the Buddhas are unique with very interesting, poses, looks and expressions.







Once at the top, you'll be greeted by the big Amitabba Buddha on the temple wall. The temple itself was not very busy on a Tuesday afternoon. It gave Lina and I time to pray to the Buddhas and as Lina said, they probably also had more time to listen and answer our prayers.



The inside of the temple is lined with Buddhas all alongside the walls.



The temple sides are decorated with the twelve animals from the Chinese horoscope. In front of the temple, you'll find extra large statues of the Buddha of Battle and the Quan Yin Buddha.

You can go up a few steps further to find yourself surrounded by different Quan Yin Buddhas each looking to protect and grant different wishes. The view up there was beautiful, the air was clean, and it was amazing to enjoy all of this with the backdrop of the Hong Kong high rise landscape.

Hong Kong Travels: Shopping at Jade Market

On this third visit to the Jade Market, we all became a little bit more of an expert. Laureen, Richard and I had shopped there previously with Teresa who was an expert of jade and the place. This time Ben, David and Mandy joined us.

The Jade Market is an easy place to get overwhelmed. There are lots of things to look at and, like most places in Hong Kong, there are lots of people vying for your attention. It's best to start by taking a look around the place and see if there is a certain style that catches your eye, and then hone in on those vendors that have what you're looking for. You'll be able to find jades of all sizes, pearl necklaces, copper statuettes, and various other trinkets. Most people come here for jade and pearls.

Pearls are a little bit easier to shop for since you just need to decide on the quality of the pearl you are looking for. You'll be able to find the gammet of qualities here from HK$100 (US$12.8) to HK$2000 (US$256) for a pearl necklace. Once you've looked at a few, you'll know the difference. First, to identify the real ones, you can rub them against each other and feel that there's some friction. Then, you take note of how round and flawless they are in terms of marks. Lastly, you can then look at shine and color.

Jade is a bit harder. There are lots of variations and you can find really cheap ones for HK$5-10, or around US$1.00 and got up to really expensive pieces for HK$30,000 (US$ 3846) or more for a small piece. For jade, you'll have to see what you like and look for translucency in the stone when put up against light. You will be able to see the natural veins of the stone in the light. After that, I'm still not expert enough to figure out why some are far more expensive than others. The most important part is to find a piece that you like for what you are looking for.

Also note that there are two sections, the larger one has better quality items. The picture to the left shows the entrance to the smaller of the two sections. There are a few booths I would recommend and those include #342 and #341 for jade.

Last but not least, do not forget to bargain. The key to bargaining is to have a number in mind and be prepared to walk away. Even if you don't manage to buy the piece you want, you'll at least know what their bottom price is and come back later to get it. My secret is always to be stern, firm but still be nice.

Good luck shopping for all those who gets a chance!

Beijing Trip Recap

What an amazing trip! We just returned from a full 3-day trip to Beijing. I am totally exhausted but my head is filled with all the amazing experiences. Here are some key highlights:

• Strolled down Tiananmen Square and through the Forbidden City (Palace Museum)
• Took a pedicab ride around the hutongs
• Enjoyed a great Peking duck dinner at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant by Houhai and ended the evening with a pedal boat ride around the Houhai lake.
• Hiked the Great Wall at Mutianyu and brought home some souvenirs
• Bought some peaches on the side of the road off some farmers
• Enjoyed a stroll, beautiful water lilies and ice cream popsicles at the Summer Palace
• Watched a great soccer match at the Bird's Nest
• Visited the Lama Temple
• Swam in the Water Cube

Day 0

We were greeted by two of these beautiful murals at the Beijing International Airport
We arrived Thursday night at 9:30pm to Beijing and picked up a cab to our hotel at the Crowne Plaza Sun Palace. As noted in all the reviews, the cab driver had no idea where it was so we had to explain to him. Luckily, I had written down the directions but nonetheless, we still ended up calling the hotel so that he would know the way.

The hotel was beautiful with a great entrance and the service was great. Extra koodos for the staff in attending immediately to changing our room to one with a king bed and then to having the concierge meet us to help us plan our next few days at 11pm. Winnie Su, the concierge manager, was amazing and attended to all of our questions and needs for the trip.

Day 1

We decided to make the tour of the city by ourselves on our first day by taking the subway. We picked up our tickets at the piao.com.cn for our the soccer match at the Bird's Next and headed to Tiananmen Square. We tried to find the underground tunnel tour but most people had no idea what we were asking so we decided to just move on.


We passed by Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall which had a huge line of people outside waiting to go in. We also experienced our first show of how Chinese people love to cut lines. There were specific security guards trying to prevent people from cutting lines with a few still sneaking by.

We then strolled down to Tian An Men passing by the Great Hall of the People and the Monument to the People's Heroes. Everything here seemed to be of a gigantic scale and proportions. Despite the rainy day on a Friday, the plaza was filled with people and tour groups.


The Forbidden City was amazing. Having heard imperial stories of the lives of those who have lived there in the past, it was amazing to be in those same grounds. Part of my mind wondered off into what it would have been like to live back in those days...


After the Forbidden City, we were hit up by quite a few rickshaw drivers looking to pick up people to tour the Hutongs. We picked up one who seemed nice (although a little scrawny...) He was great and drove us all around the Hutongs introducing us to the different building and who had lived there in the past.

On the rickshaw with Mr. Tsi
We paid another extra 30RMB each to visit one of the Siheyuan (courtyard houses). The hostess there took good care that we took pictures at all the best corners of the house. We ended the tour at the Qianhai area where we had dinner at the most famous Peking Duck place - Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant (全聚德烤鴨店).



The Peking duck experience was amazing. This branch of Quanjude had performances throughout the evening. Despite waiting 1.5 hrs for our table, it was all worthwhile. Ben and I ordered, a cold dish, a duck liver dish, a veggie dish and the whole duck! Not to mention I had to wrap up the evening with something sweet so we finished it off with a giant green bean shaved ice dessert.


After dinner, we went on a pedal boat ride around the Qianhai and Houhai area to exercise some of the duck off. And then strolled around the lake passing by restaurants/bars playing some of the cheesiest (but fun) music ever.


Day 2


We started the morning with the trip to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It started pouring in the morning so traffic was especially congested with several road closures due to floods. So we made a pee stop at the Jingtai Lan Cloisonne factory where we also picked up a beautiful cloisonne vase.


By the time we reached the Great Wall, the rain had stopped and we ended with a beautiful hike up on the Wall. We took the covered cable car to the Wall and hiked from there. On the way up, we were in the same cable car that the Seventh Living Buddha rode on and on the way down it was the same cable car the Bill Clinton was in so we felt quite lucky!


At the Great Wall

The view on the Great Wall is simply magnificent. The grandness and stretch of the construction with the backdrop of the mountains is simply jaw-dropping. I could hike and walk on this wall all day. We took the path further up the mountain and went all the way till we hit the end of the 'safe' section up some really steep steps and some great windy sections.


On the way down, you were forced to walk through vendor stands and are harassed a little. We did walk away with a few bargains and definitely also got ripped off a little. ^_^ All part of the experience. Since we didn't have much time, we decided to skip lunch again and opted to pick up some peaches from the side of the road.


Our driver drove us through some beautiful sections of the countryside where fruit, corn and tree fields surrounded us most of the way. It was a beautiful scenery.


We then headed to the Summer Palace. Since we had the soccer game later in the evening, we only had 1.5 hrs for the Summer Palace which was quite a pity. The Palace grounds is essentially an enormous park with a beautiful huge lake and several more ancient Chinese architectures and pagodas. One can easily spend an entire day here riding boats, picnicking, and strolling through these grounds. We made most of our time and enjoyed a little of the hike and stroll by the lake to some beautiful giant water lilies in the water.


Mr Li, our driver, then drove us back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then off to dinner at the King of Duck Roast Duck Restaurant (鴨王烤鴨店) by the Olympic center. Our driver went through the trouble of calling and talking the restaurant into giving us a reservation so we only needed to wait 10 minutes for our table. This place was certainly less of a showy place. The duck came out plain and simple with lots of trimming (cucumber, sauce, salt and onion). Given the lesson from the previous night, we opted for half a duck and a veggie dish this time. It was delicious and a great way to wrap up the day.



We then walked to the Olympic park towards the Bird's Nest for the game. Both architectures, the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, are magnificent in the evening with their beautiful lighting.


The game was quite fun as well. Neither Ben nor I are huge soccer (oops... football) fans but we enjoyed the game and enjoyed the crowd. The stadium was almost at full capacity and there really was not a single bad seat in the entire stadium. Our seats were on the lower level but we walked around the stadium to check out the upper levels and the views were amazing. It was just beautiful!



Day 3

On the last day, we decided to take it easy and slept in. The only things we wanted to get done before our 7:30pm flight was to visit the Lama Temple and swim at the Water Cube.

In order to swim at the Water Cube, we had read that we'd need a 1-inch photo for the deep water certification ID (unless you already had one from China), and then we'd need get the health check, swim 200 meters non-stop, and hold our breath underwater for 30 seconds. So we stopped at a Kodak Express to get our pictures done. It wasn't really Express. They took digital photos and then proceeded to meticulously polish our faces through Photoshop and put in the white background through CorelDraw. The polishing of our faces included removing the shiny areas and evening out our complexion. All of this would normally take 30 minutes; however, due to printer issues, we ended up being there for nearly an hour.

We then headed to Lama temple where I was able to pay my respect to all the Buddhas. The temple used to be a palace for the emperor and it was converted into a nunnery in the 1700's. It is now home to several Buddhas and is known to be good at answering people's prayers.

We arrived at the Water Cube and got in line for the 2pm opening of the swimming pool. The actual Olympic pool is only used for performances so they've opened the warm-up pool for people to swim. We paid 50 RMB each and an additional 20 RMB for the deep water certification, and our 2.5-hour timer started. You usually only get 2 hours but we got an extra 30 minutes to take our deep water certification.

It was my first time in an Olympic size swimming pool so it was quite exciting! Not to mention to swim in the same pool that Michael Phelps swam at! :-) I managed to get in 900 meters and Ben got in 1000 meters. As a side note, our deep water certification only required us to swim 25 meters before they realized that we knew how to swim and pulled us off to the side. We did see one guy who got into the water and immediately freaked out when he couldn't touch the bottom. The deep water test was good for something.

We snuck in some pictures of the pool at the end and wrapped up our trip.

Just after swimming and sneaking a picture in by the practice pool
We headed to the airport to find our flight was delayed from 7:30pm to 8:40pm. In actuality, we didn't board till 8:45 and the plane did not take off till 10pm. Because of the delay, we got a free meal at the airport which almost made up for the fact that we did not get home till 2am. At least the airline provided a shuttle service since the airport express had stopped running.

Despite all the craziness on the trip home, this was a great memorable experience and I definitely can't wait to go back to Beijing again and visit some of the other sites.

Hong Kong Travels: An evening at the Happy Valley Racetracks

Wednesday, June 10th

We made it to Happy Valley Race Tracks on one of their last races before summer fully sets in here back on June 10th. It was our first real horse race together and our first in Hong Kong.

Our friend and my co-worker, Gorgeous Eddy, set a group of us up with an outdoor buffet dinner. It was a tad bit warm and humid to sit outdoors but it was great to be there with friends and great food! :-) We also got to celebrate Dan's birthday on this special occasion.

Ben and I placed about HK$100 each race (about US$15) on a horse that would win and another on a horse that would place. On 6 races, we lost 5 but came out almost even with the table bet winning big at the last race (thanks to Dan!).

Here are a few pics to remember the evening. Ben got to also practice taking action shots with his new camera:

So many places - so little time

There are just too many places to go and too little time for me to write my blog... In the past 5 weeks, I've been to Macau, Taiwan, Bangalore and Shenzhen, and each one can easily be its own blog entry. But I (and all of you) will have to settle with a condensed version.

Pictures are better than a thousand words so I'll share some of our moments in Macau through the gallery below.

I then also took the opportunity to make it back to Taiwan for my dad's 60th birthday. It was great to spend some family time with my parents. I unfortunately don't have any pictures since I lost the camera with those pics on my trip to Bangalore. We took the direct flight from Hong Kong to Taichung on Dragon Air. The Taichung airport is the smallest International airport I have ever landed in. The great thing about is that it's only 20 minutes away from my parents house. I spent the weekend there mainly enjoying some great meals with my mom cooking up a 10-course meal every day and enjoying a great spa Sunday with my parents.

I got back from Taichung on March 9th afternoon and then flew right back out to Bangalore that same evening.

I was there purely for business so I didn't get a chance to do any shopping or much sightseeing. However, I did ask the driver to take me on a 30 minute detour to check out the major sightseeing places in downtown by the Star TV office. A few things to note about Bangalore:

* People honk their horns just as a courtesy to let others know that they are coming from behind so there is constant honking coming from the streets
* If you ever thought driving in Taiwan is bad, Bangalore is much much worse
* Lanes don't mean anything and neither do street lights (when there are no cops)
* Crossing the street is like playing froggy
* Bomb checks with every car that goes into any nice hotel and metal detectors at the main entrance

Despite a few of the points above, I loved Bangalore. The city is beautiful with lots of trees, beautiful parks and beautiful architecture. I had Indian food in every meal and loved it! The people there are also all very friendly and welcoming. The one interesting cultural thing is that the people there will shake their head from side to side and it's really a sign of acknowledgment. It took me a little bit to get used to it because I felt like they were disagreing with me instead but they'd do it with a smile. :-)

Fast Forward 2 months later... We're in HK!

This will hopefully be the beginning of my Hong Kong adventure blogs. Ben and I have safely gotten to HK and settled into our first week here. Here's a short synopsis so far...

Dec 19 - Landed in HK after 22 hours of transit, paying $175 in excess luggage and overweight fees, and an unexpected stop in Taipei for refueling. We had way too much stuff with us! Luckily, picking up the boys at cargo was relatively trouble free. We lugged our 6 luggages and the 2 kittie carriers and hopped on 2 cabs to get to our temporary serviced apartment in Soho.

Dec 20 - With the day and nights still jumbled in our heads, we ended up with 6 hour naps in the afternoon into the day and catching really late dinners for the last two days. We did manage to check out some apartments and have found one we liked a lot. Luckily for us, rent prices have come down a lot so we are hoping to find a pretty nice place :-). We've been alternating between nicer restaurants in Soho and holes in the wall noodle places. We finally made it to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) for a dinner but not ready for drinks yet. Luckily we bumped into a giant dreidel who told us about the Chanukah festivities the following day. It'll be nice to have Ben join in a Jewish festivity here in HK!

This is the giant dreidel and Ben

This is a pic of LKF - expat party central

Dec 21 - We decided to trek to Wanchai and get some much needed outlet converters since none of our appliances would plug in. We got converters and a small transformer for some electronics - laptop, electric toothbrush, camera charger, phone charger, etc. (you get the drift... ^_^). And then we joined my boss and what seemed like all the Jews in HK for the candle lighting ceremony right outside the Bank of China building. Quite an amazing and contrasting sight!

Pic of our bed that comes off of the ceiling ^_^ right on top of our dining table.

Dec 22 - Dec 24 - My first three days of work. I am getting used to my commute to work which is composed of several escalator rides down to the IFC building then a brisk walk down to the ferry pier and a 12 minute ferry ride to the mainland side. I'm loving the ferry ride! I get to have my morning breakfast and read the paper. Star TV is then less than 5 minutes walk from the pier. On my rides back,I get to enjoy the beautiful evening skyline of Hong Kong which are extra adorned for Christmas and New Year. Ben continued to apartment hunt and has found a couple of others that sound great so I got to take a look at them after work on my slightly shorter day on Christmas Eve.

Dec 25 - It's been weird spending Christmas outside of the U.S. I think today more than any other day so far I've missed not being in the U.S. and being close to family and friends. We enjoyed a nice American dinner at the Flying Pan and caught a "Tale of Despereaux" at the Pacific Place - this extremely ex-pat and high end mall, and then wrapped up the day with some Rioja wine from Spain and cheese. Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Really miss everyone!!!

	View of Kowloon from the ferry on my way to work
	View of Kowloon from the ferry on my way home from work