Hong Kong Journal Archives

Week One (September 19 - September 23)

Week Two (September 24 - September 30)

Week Three (October 1 - October 7)

Week Four (October 8 - October 14)

Week Five (October 15 - October 21)

Week Six (October 22 - October 28)

Week Seven (October 29 - November 4)

Week Eight (November 5 - November 11)

9/18/01 (Tony)
Tuesday - Almost Gone
Wow. The past week has been a trying one. Everyone is expecting an update from our first days in Hong Kong. Well, we aren't there yet, but soon. I will explain shortly. Traci and I were off work since Friday, the 7th, preparing for our trip. Tuesday, September 11, we were just about to start another day of tying up loose ends, when Jordy (my younger brother who is living at our house with his wife, Angie) said, "Tony, did you see this?" I went into his bedroom and we watched two jets slam into the World Trade Center in New York. It was 9:05 am; three minutes after the second jet struck. NBC showed the ghastly sight over and over as Matt Lauer and Katie Couric kept repeating how they couldn't believe this was happening. Then, as they were speaking to a news correspondent from the Pentagon, he (under) stated that he didn't want to alarm anyone, but he just felt a large rumble in the building, as if there was an explosion. Soon after it was found that ANOTHER plane just struck the Pentagon. Shortly after that of course, there was news that another plane just went down outside of Pittsburgh. All three of us, myself, Jordy, and Traci couldn't believe what was going on. Just like the rest of America, we were glued in horrific awe of what was already evident to be a massive loss of life, and seemingly senseless mayhem. When we were able to think clearly, our thoughts turned to my brother Nate and his wife Sarah, who had just flown to Boston's Logan airport a few days earlier. They said they were going to be driving up the coast, so we weren't too nervous, but one never knows how plans could change. Who knows? They could have driven to New York, but luckily, that wasn't the case. A couple hours after all of these tragic events started, Nate called and let us know they were in New Hampshire, and that they were going to drive home instead of fly back from Boston. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision, considering flights out of Boston had stopped completely, like every other airport in the nation. Boston was obviously under scrutiny. Needless to say, this topic has dominated our thoughts and conversations since it happened.

Saturday, September 15, our best friends Dave and Jess Findell had a going away party for us at their family's cabin just north of Traci's home town of Cambridge, Minnesota. What a great time we had, and what an emotional time. A lot of our friends and family were there. We visited a lot, obviously talked about last Tuesday's events, maybe drank a bit too much, hee hee, and then the party generated into a first rate Karoake jam! Traci's mom and dad, Gena and Dan Warnberg brought their karoake machine along, and we set it up near the bonfire. For about five or six hours, the songs kept rolling. Three fourths of the legendary rock group (ok, not yet, but for sure in the future) Blue Spot Lobotomy were there, including the guitar player who happens to be my brother, Jordan Lemm, Todd Faulhaber, bass player, and the singer, Cooper Finseth. Those three sang a lot. It was great. Then, people started leaving for home, except those who stayed over night. It was emotional. For the last couple of hours, Cooper pulled out his acoustic guitar and Blue Spot sang some of their wonderful songs. After the last good-byes were said, Traci, here sister Micki, and myself drove back to their mom and dad's house to go to bed and get up for the beginning of our long travel day. We are really going to miss everyone. But like I said before, we are still here…

We got up around 8:30 so that we could get Micki to the airport. She had come to visit for ten days from her home in Denver and it worked out that she would be leaving the same day as us. We were told by Northwest Airlines that she needed to be there two hours before departure to check in. There was virtually nobody in the airport at 11:00 am, so she got her boarding pass in like two minutes. So we went to a fast food restaurant and grabbed lunch. At this point, Traci and I still didn't know for sure the status of our flights to Los Angeles and then to Hong Kong. We had another emotional goodbye with Micki, and then Traci, her mom and dad and myself went to our house to relax until we had to go on our flight. Our flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles was scheduled for 8:45 pm, and was confirmed as on time. Yay, except they told us that we needed to be there at least three hours ahead of time, meaning 5:45 pm. Oh well. When we got to our house, Traci called China Airlines and was on hold for 20 minutes, then finally she got through. Imagine our dismay when we found that our flight was cancelled. Not due to the events in our country, but because Taiwan (our layover to Hong Kong is in Taipei, Taiwan) is experiencing a typhoon. We were able to schedule the next available flight out of Los Angeles on China Airlines, which is 1:15 am on Thursday. The problem was our flight to Los Angeles. We called Sun Country and due to the airline issues in wake of last Tuesday's destruction, they scheduled us for a Wednesday flight to Los Angeles without a hitch. However, it is a 10 am flight, so we have pretty much a full day to mill about in Los Angeles. Any suggestions? Feel free to email us.

So, we are still here, but soon we will begin our trip. We will miss all of you, and hope that you can keep up with us. We are planning to update these journals as much as we can. Just so people are aware, we may have trouble updating this website when we are in Bali, the Cook Islands, and Fiji. The worldwide service we have has no connections there. If we are able to hook up through an internet café, we will do that.

Our thoughts are with all of you. Our thoughts are with all Americans. Take Care. Next stop, Hong Kong.

9/21/01 (Traci)
Friday - We're in HONG KONG!
Well, we are here. It is 11:30 p.m. Hong Kong time Friday (10:30 am Friday MN time). We arrived a little late in Hong Kong and got right on a bus to our room for the next few months….not exactly the Ritz, but fine. It is very cozy, relatively clean, with a refrigerator, closets, a huge window overlooking other apartments, AC, etc. It was a long haul here. The 13 hour flight from LA to Taipai was not too bad, but considering we began our journey at 6 a.m. on Wednesday in Minneapolis and arrived to our hotel 12:30 a.m. on Friday (MN times) we were pretty exhausted. We spent our 13 hour layover in L.A. at Venice Beach. We read, ate lunch, watched the sunset and watched games of basketball, handball, squash ball, and lifting weights right on the beach. After Venice Beach, we went back to the airport and spent five hours at there.

When we finally got to Hong Kong, we were able to find a bus that went right by our hotel. We checked in, went to the bank, bought some fruit, took showers and slept for a long while.

Our first impressions of Honk Kong are: very, very clean city! Similar to one huge China Town like those in San Francisco and New York, the airport is on Lantau Island which looked similar to what we expect Hawaii to look like…. Mountains, green, lush, and palm trees.

At this point we don't have any structured plans, although I think this weekend we will see Kowloon Park and check out our neighborhood. Cheers!

9/22/01 (Traci)
Saturday - Kowloon Park
This was our official first full day in Hong Kong. Tony is sleeping and I thought I would jot quickly the things we did and saw today. We got up early and went to Kowloon Park - which is very much like Central Park in NYC - a nice quiet park in the middle of skyscrapers. The beautiful park of trees, grass, sculptures, and fountains reminded me of all of you gardeners and landscapers out there… you would have loved it. It was very neat getting there early in the morning because the park was filled with individuals doing Tai Chi. This is a meditative stretching activity - I am sure most of you are familiar with what this is. I was watching a news show a few months ago and they are starting to do this in long-term care facilities in the states as it is great exercise for seniors and helps with balance. In the park there were groups doing it to music, people with headsets on, and many people just doing stretches and Tai Chi to their own rhythm. The park was filled with people all over doing this neat morning routine. The park also had many swimming pools that were filled with people swimming and many people doing Tai Chi type exercises in the pool. We went to find the price of using the pools and it was only a few dollars, so I would like to do some swimming during the weeks we are here. I have wanted to take a yoga class forever, but like many things in life never got around to making the time to do it. I hope to go to the park regularly in the morning before going to the Asian Human Rights Commission and doing Tai Chi, some swimming, or something of that sort.

Star Ferry and Hong Kong Island
After we left the park, we walked down the main drags in Kowloon and eventually came to the Star Ferry which is a boat that takes you to Hong Kong Island for a mere 28 cents. It is a 5-minute boat ride and it was pretty. If you see picture of Hong Kong, you will probably see the harbor. There were many boats shuttling people back and forth. When we arrived on the other side, it was very different. It no longer looked like a metropolitan China town, but rather a large U.S. city - Chicago or New York. Everything was in English with decorative Chinese characters below titles. It is the home of the Shangri La Hotel which we peeked in the windows of…we did not dare to enter to look around. There were malls that would put the Galleria in Edina to shame. We walked toward the peak tram, which would take us to the top of Victoria peak.

We took a train up a steep incline and got to the top for a gorgeous view of the harbor above all the skyscrapers. It was a breathtaking view of Hong Kong. We grabbed some breakfast at a coffee shop at the top of the peak that had free 15-minute internet access for its customers. The place was Pacific Coast coffee and it is a chain similar to Starbucks. We will probably scope these out and use the free internet service from time to time. It was a beautiful day and we just sat on the viewing terrace, ate some fruit and read the China Daily. We both felt we should look at the view and move on to the next thing, but we find we have to keep reminding ourselves that we have plenty of time and to shake that go, go, go mentality we are accustomed to.

What is in the News in China today?
For those of you wondering, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English. Cantonese is the local dialect most used. Therefore, most things are in both languages. Many neighborhoods, like the one we are in, have less English signage, etc. I always love reading other news sources. It will be interesting to access "non U.S." news. We will look at the Star Trib online from time to time, but our main news source will be China Daily. I am always intrigued to see what other counties consider newsworthy and I think it is important to see all sides to an issue. We sat on top of Victoria peak and read the scoop on the Taliban's refusal to turn over Bin Laden without evidence and Bush's speech that stated his demands were "not open to negotiation." The front page also had an article about the pledge by Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan to cooperate with the U.S. and the international community to fight terrorism. There was an article about Taiwan's refusal to open direct trade to mainland China. Both China and Taiwan will be admitted to the WTO by the end of the year. Taiwan's policies violate WTO rules of "most favored nation status" of the WTO which basically states that you if you are a member of the WTO you must trade the same with all other countries in the club. There was an article about APEC member countries participating in a exposition in Hong Kong, and an article about a poll taken throughout the world regarding Bush and his response to the terrorist attack. It said that ABC found that 91 percent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the attack. A Gallup poll found that only in the United States and Israel a majority of people supported military response against states shown to harbor terrorists. 31 countries such as Austria, Bosnia, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, South America, Spain, Switzerland, the U.S. and Zimbabwe were surveyed. In all of these countries (except the U.S. and Israel), extradition and a court verdict were favored. There was a story confirming that Hong Kong was not targeted by terrorists despite rumors that the police had made some arrests in connection to terrorist networks entering Hong Kong. The Salem Open tennis tournament is currently in Hong Kong and there were a few stories about that. Maybe we will get a chance to see it.

Hong Kong Park
We next went to Hong Kong Park, which was beautiful as well. It had tons of brides walking around getting their wedding photos taken. I found it interesting all of them had the large hoop skirts with that wire hoop thing. We walked through a bird aviary, a tai chi garden with fountains, bonsai trees, flowers, etc., lakes, etc. We walked through the Flagstaff House, which housed a tea museum.

Bridget Jones' Diary
We took the ferry back to Kowloon and were walking and stumbled across a movie theatre that was showing Bridget Jones' Diary. At this point we had been walking around for 9 hours and my recently re-injured knee was getting sore. Sitting in an air-conditioned theatre sounded appealing to both of us. We chuckled at ourselves for even considering going to a movie on our first full day in Hong Kong. But we figured what the heck…we both wanted to see the movie and we have no real agenda. It was the most fancy theatre we have ever been in and as you bought tickets you selected which seats you were going to sit in - like when you attend a theatre event. It was a pretty sophisticated operation. After the movie we stopped at a little mom and pop restaurant near our room and had a great dinner of fried rice with shrimp, pork, and beef and a beef, vegetable and rice dish with tea for a grand total of $7.00 US. Many restaurants are extremely spendy, but there are many others that are cheap.

We turned in rather early (7:00 pm), because we both kind of hit the wall. I think we are both still on Minnesota time a little bit. It isn't easy to transition to 13 hours ahead immediately. Tony is really excited to find out how the Vikings did this weekend. Please email him with the details of what he is sure will be a tremendous Vikings victory (maybe). Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we are going to wash our clothes in the laundry facilities here at rent-a-room. We are also going to attempt to find a grocery store so we can fill our refrigerator and not spend tons of money at restaurants.

9/23/01 (Tony)
Sunday - Snake wine and other curios
It has been a couple of days since we have written (I am writing this on Thursday). We have started to finally get in a bit of a rhythm here in the bustling little (ha ha) city of Hong Kong. Surprisingly, however, in the short time that we have been here (7 days), we have seen much of the city. As many of you have experienced, we are trying to keep up with our email correspondence as much as possible. There have been a number of places that have offered free internet service, and we have tried to take full advantage.

We didn't do much of anything on Sunday. We did however, find a grocery store and bought some small groceries. We also did laundry, which took about three hours because the machines (one load) were so slow. Back to the grocery store. It was a fairly western looking grocery store in the basement of a Chinese product department store. I found Ramen noodles for very cheap, one Hong Kong Dollar (13 cents) per package, so I will now be subsisting solely on Ramens for the duration of our stay in this city. The interesting thing about this grocery store was that they sold live turtles, presumably for cuisine. Also, and pop, you'll love this one, this sales lady kept trying to get me to sample this liquor. There were two different bottles. One bottle was called "Three Snakes" rice wine. And, of course there were three dead snakes floating in the bottle. Every time I think about it I kind of gag a little, but hey, different strokes…anyway, the lady handed me a little cup of the other liquor, and I looked and there were no animals in the bottle, so I started to sip it. It was similar to brandy, but as I sipped, she turned the bottle around so I could see that this liquor was a rice wine with (close the eyes of young children here) pig, dog, snake, seal, and various other male mammal sexual organs. Presumably, the organs had been removed before bottling. The woman kept showing me here biceps, showing me that this liquor would make me virile and strong. No thanks. A couple of days later, I was at the grocery store again, and I checked out more of the liquors they had for sale. Among the bottles of dead snake wine was also dead gecko wine and dead baby field mouse wine, and yes, there were a bunch of dead baby field mice in the bottle. Luckily Traci wasn't with me when I checked them out, because she has this thing about mice…

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9/24/01 (Tony)
Monday - Meat Cleaver Heaven
It was Traci's first day with the Asian Human Rights Commission. We went for a morning swim at Kowloon Park. They haveabout 5 different pools and we swam outside in the nice morning sun. The indoor lap pool was closed due to a swimming gala. After we finished swimming for about an hour, we walked to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). It was a nice 30-minute walk. Traci will write more about her experiences there later. She is enjoying it and learning a lot. I dropped her off and began the walk back to our room. During this walk I decided it was high time I began looking for meat cleavers, yes, meat cleavers. When we were in San Francisco in May, my friend Dave and I almost each bought a meat cleaver in Chinatown, but then we decided to hold off until I was able to purchase them from the source, China. Maybe that was silly, but nonetheless, that was my mission on Monday morning. My dad also proclaimed that he too could utilize a genuine Chinese meat cleaver. So off I went in search of the elusive "meat cleaver." As I delved deeper into the back streets of downtown Kowloon, I sensed a foreboding that the meat cleavers would not be found. I walked down streets to numerous to count, leather merchants, fruit merchants, silk merchants, until I turned onto Reclamation Street. What a fitting name for a street on which my fortunes would hinge. There, in front of me, a beam of light shone brightly off a wok. And then another, and another. I had reached the forbidden and legendary street of Chinese cookware, Reclamation Street. I passed the first store, there were cleavers in there all right, but I passed it just the same. I could not let the first taste of glorious victory pass my lips quite this quickly. I had to find the right store. Soon I did. Two old men ran the store I chose. They did not speak a lick of English, and my Cantonese is sparse to say the least. As I began rummaging through the vast collection of their meat cleavers, one of the old men came up to me and helped me decide. I was trying to choose between the number 2, 4, or 6. He deftly snatched the six out of my hands and waggled an old, tired finger at me. Obviously the 6 was not for me. As I weighed my options between the 2 and the 4, he seemed that he would let me decide. The 2 was a hefty, wider blade, while the 4 was a bit lighter and the blade was not as thick. I made some cuts through the air, and decided that the 2 was the way to go. The heft and the cool look were too much to pass up. I indicated to the elderly gentleman I wanted three, and he was pleased. I bought them for $32 HK each ($4.16 US) and continued on my way.

This day I walked for seven straight hours. I had no real agenda, so I checked out many shops, malls (there are a lot of these) and discovered the bargain of the decade. Of all places, it was McDonalds. Hong Kong has about 10 times as many McDonalds as the U.S., or so it seems. On the way back to my room I noticed a sign on the McDonalds near our place. It had a picture of an ice cream cone, with a little sign that said $2.00 on it. $2.00? That is 26 cents in U.S. dollars! I could not pass this gem of a deal up, as much as I despise McDonalds (except Grimace, of course). Since then, I have made good use of this deal. Oh, and by the way, I bleached my hair. My only reason is because I felt that since I am in a different place, I wanted to take on a different look, if only temporary. Also, I have decided that I am going to pretend I am British to everyone I talk to. Thus begins my slow slide into insanity…

9/25/01 (Tony)
Tuesday - Victoria Park
Surprisingly, Traci got the day off. They were working on all the computers, so they told everyone not to come in that day. We decided to check out the free internet service at the Hong Kong Convention Center, and Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island, but first we went to the Cultural Center so Traci could take a Tai Chi lesson. Well, I got roped into doing it too because the guy that taught the class, William, was very energetic and you kind of felt bad if you let him down. So there we were, both improving our physical dexterity and our minds, along with about twenty other tourists. I guess the Hong Kong Tourist Association is doing these lessons for the next few years as a way to get people a better understanding of Chinese life. I have to admit, not only was it pretty strenuous, I also felt pretty energized when I got done. We then took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island. We went to the convention center and were able to jump on a computer and respond to some emails. Then another computer opened up, so we were both able to get on computers. Other than checking and responding to emails, we also read the newspapers online. It is nice to connect to home when you are away (I know it has only been a week, but still). Then we went to find Victoria Park. It took us a while, making our way through the packed back streets of Hong Kong Island. It is very similar to Kowloon on the back streets. The façade of the city makes it out to be this cosmopolitan world city, which feels like New York. But as soon as you walk behind the Ritz Carltons, the Shangri-Las, and the big bank buildings, it is a bustling Chinatown, just like Kowloon on the other side of the bay. Anyway, we were trying to find the park, because it had been over a week since we were able to sit on a patch of grass. We had seen Hong Kong Park a couple days prior, but it had no patch of grass on which to sit. We stopped and ate at some restaurant called the Banana Leaf Café or something like that, and it was unimpressive eating at best, especially for the price. Oh well. We finally found the park and walked to what looked like the only patch of grass in the whole place. Upon closer inspection, it was more like little clumps of some kind of small leafy green plant, maybe kudzu, that was actually spaced apart so it was like sitting on dirt with some little patches of green here and there. The rest of the park was pretty much under construction, so we couldn't really check it out. We have still not found any little grassy areas in the whole city. That is something that I personally crave. I like big open spaces, but I knew Hong Kong was going to be a crowded, very dense concrete jungle. I'll have to take a trek to the outer islands. We decided to go to "Times Square," which is really a big mall. We had been looking for a used bookstore all day, as I had read the one novel Traci brought along, and now had nothing to read for the duration. Well, we made it to the mall, but no bookstore. As a matter of fact we haven't been able to find a used bookstore at all in the whole of Hong Kong to this date. After we took the Ferry back to Kowloon, we watched the sun set over Victoria Harbor. We got to see Hong Kong Island as you always see it in pictures, postcards, etc. The lights on all the stupendously large buildings were beautiful. We didn't even try to take a picture, we decided we would buy a postcard of it.

9/26/01 (Tony)
Wednesday - Library and Zoo
Traci found out that you could use your passport to get a library card for the English library at City Hall. So, I was hoping to do that this day, as well as check out the zoo. I got to the library and found a number of books I was interested in. In fact, I spent most of the day there. I finally picked out a book called "King Hereafter," about King Macbeth of Scotland. It has 800 pages, so maybe that will keep me occupied. I was able to get a library card using my passport and a deposit of $130 HK ($16.90 US). I will get the deposit back when I turn in the card and the receipt. I went to the zoo, and it was a trek. Hong Kong Island is mostly a bunch of hills, which of course, the zoo is on. I had to walk up a very steep street, and then some stairs, and then up another steep street, and then some stairs. And the zoo is created in such a way that to see anything, you have to walk up some more steep pathways. Let me tell you, leaving the jaguar enclosure was rapture. Like they say, it was all downhill from there. I tried the subway for the first time. It was very easy to use. What would have taken 45 minutes of me crossing the harbor on the ferry and walking back to our room in Kowloon took 5 minutes for $9 HK ($1.17 US).

9/27/01 (Tony)
Thursday - Laundry Day
Just brought groceries and looked for a good restaurant. There are probably about 10,000 restaurants here, so pickings are not slim. Also washed clothes today. Tried to put wash in at 12:00, but the machines were both full. Waited until 2:00, and was able to get a machine. It is now 5:30 and I am still waiting for the clothes to dry. Traci said this trip would be good for learning patience. I think she may be onto something…When she got home, we went to our favorite (so far) Hong Kong restaurant. It is titled the "Everyday Food Restaurant." It is just a few doors from our guesthouse and it is a mom and pop place that is very good. The meals run about $25HK ($3.25 US) each. We bring the leftovers home for the next day. The weather is hot and humid. Sleeping was horrible as we have no fan or breeze at all, but we decided to splurge and turn the air conditioning on for the night. Until now, we were avoiding that as we have to pay for our electricity. We calculated and now know it will cost us about $1 US dollar for our evenings and nights to be bearable. Tomorrow is Friday - we have officially been in Hong Kong for one week.

9/29/01 (Traci)
Saturday - Mid-Autumn Festival
We are in town for one of the big holidays in China. The Mid-Autumn Festival which occurs the 15th day of the 8th moon, when the moon is the fullest and brightest. This festival lasts for days and consists of families gathering for moonlight parties at homes, in parks, or on hilltops. Children carry colorful lanterns and large decorative festival lanterns are displayed throughout the city. This tradition probably began as a harvest festival and signified the end of the year's toil in the fields before the new planting.

One of the essential pieces of this festival are mooncakes. These are said to have originated in the Yuan dynasty and for you history buffs, a peasant leader, Zhu Yuang Zhang organized a revolution on the day of the mid-autumn festival in 1368. Secret messages were passed among the people hidden in mooncakes. The uprising against the Mongol rulers by the Han Chinese was successful and the Ming dynasty was founded. Tony and I are wondering if this is where the fortune cookie concept came from as well….I will ask Louise, one of the women at AHRC who is enthusiastic about sharing Chinese culture and traditions with me and very interested in America as well.

Anyway these "mooncakes" are sold everywhere and apparently, according to Louise, you can only buy them during the festival. These cakes are made of flour or glutinous rice and traditional mooncakes also include lotus seed paste and a center of ducks' egg yolks. We have sampled some of these in stores and Tony likes them more than I do, of course! I am not a picky eater at all, but in all the years I have known him, I cannot think of one occasion where he has expressed even the least amount of reluctance about any food he has tried… until he saw that field mouse, gecko, and snake wine, that is. Anyway, the mooncakes taste of thick heavy cake - fruitcake like, and slightly peanut buttery. (How is that for culinary analysis?) They also have a variety of center fillings you can purchase such as mixed nuts and ham, mashed red beans, seaweed paste, mini orange pine seeds, egg custard, chicken and peanuts, green bean, etc. There are also different versions of this cake so that Hagen Dazs and TCBY can get into the action with their ice cream and yogurt versions. We also saw some at a Mrs. Fields Cookie store.

On Saturday night, we went to a park on Hong Kong Island and enjoyed one of the festival carnivals. It was one of the few things we have been to that had virtually nothing in English. It was fun to walk around and watch the shows and the all the beautiful children carrying around lanterns. The carnival had Chinese acrobats, traditional Chinese dancing and music, fortune telling, some lantern quiz thing, and a demonstration booth of Chinese cuisine. So of course, we rushed to that booth, sat in the front row and a nice M.C. told us there would be some English. It would not have mattered as it was fun to watch, but how exciting that some of the demonstration would be in English. The chefs at the cooking demonstration did attempt to accommodate our language deficit. They would point to the product they were making, look at us and say "MOONCAKE." We chuckled and nodded self-consciously as the whole Chinese audience was looking at us. It was a fun evening and we did not go to bed until around 11:00 p.m. - a late night for us in Hong Kong.

Food Side Note (Tony)
We haven't really written about the foods we have eaten on a regular basis, only the unusual stuff. The food here has been wonderful. Usually, we have had fried rice or a noodle dish. Tony has been scarfing down all the ramens he can find. There is a great snack food that we both like. It is dehydrated greenpeas with a wasabi (horseradish) coating. We have had a lot of fresh fruit, including some of which that we still don't have the names of. On her first day of work, Traci had dim sum with coworkers. Tony has discovered that there are numerous Chinese brands of beer. He is determined to try all of them. His ground rules for beer is that is costs under 45 cents per can. He has been wildly successful. We are drinking a lot of guava juice, since it is really good and seems to be everywhere. Bread products don't seem to be as prevalent here, but they do have Chinese buns, of which most are varieties stuffed with pork or beans or cream filling or cheese. They are very good and you can tell when you are in the general vicinity of one of these bakeries because the aroma is wonderful. We have only been to a couple of restaurants, one of which is a next door from our room. There is a lot of variety to choose from all over the Tsimtsatsui (pronounced Sim-Sha-Soo-ee) area (which is the neighborhood in which we are staying) including Korean, Indian, Sri Lankan, Japanese, American, French, Italian, Thai, etc., etc. We have some serious eating to do.

In order to get to the restaurant, we needed to get on the "Midlevel Escalators." Hong Kong Island is divided up into several districts, of which the "Midlevels" is one. The unique thing about this district is that there is a covered escalator running up the hillside throughout the whole district. It starts at the bottom near the harbor and works its way up for 500 meters. If you stay on the escalators, it would take 15 minutes to get to the top. Can you imagine a 15 minute escalator ride?

We got on and made our way up part of the escalator until we saw the street we were looking for. We got off the escalator (there are level areas with stairwells staggered throughout) and made our way through the colorful backstreet neighborhood. Suddenly, the restaurant appeared. It was a strange juxtaposition, as most of the stores along the street front here were mom and pop shops, with bright little neon signs, whereas the Luk Yu Teahouse jutted out from the gray concrete walls with an ornate wooden façade. It was as if we were stepping into an English tearoom, which in fact we were.

We sat and ordered a number of dim sum, including shrimp dumplings, pork buns and spring rolls. We also ordered a vegetable that is very popular around here called Choy Sum, and a lotus seed and glutinous rice dessert. Throughout the meal, our teapot was filled over and again. The tea was a delicious concoction of flower petals (chrysanthimum?) and green tea. It was a fun experience. In the fast-paced concrete world of Hong Kong, this place with its walnut wainscoating and stained glass windows felt like a throwback to another slower time, most likely the colonial Hong Kong of British possession.

After we finished our meal, we found the Midlevel escalators again and continued up. We had decided we would take the escalators as far as they go, and then return down. One of the streets we passed on the way up was Hollywood Road. The further up we went on the escalators, the further South we moved, so this area is called SoHo (South of Hollywood Road). Hollywood Road is THE place to search for antiques in Hong Kong, and I will be investigating shortly. That is one of the reasons Traci is glad she is working; so she doesn't have to go antiquing with me, haha. When we got to the top, we realized there was no escalator going back down. Oops. We had to take the stairways back down. At final count (yes, we counted them), there were over 900 steps on the way down. We did find however, that we really liked the SoHo area. It felt very European. I understand that if you explore a little bit in that area, you can find Buddhist temples, which aren't prevalent in the main part of the city. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen any temples yet. It was my mom's birthday on September 30, so knowing that we are 13 hours ahead here, I called home at 4:00 am. It was nice to get to talk to my family (everyone was over to my parent's house for my mom's birthday). I also found out the Vikings won their first game. I think they will now go 14-2. You heard it here first.

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10/01/01
Monday - China National Day
This is the big day of festival and fireworks. This national holiday fell in with the Mid-Autumn festival this year, so there was much lantern toting and mooncake eating this day. Traci and I decided we should do something this day that would capture the culture and festivities of this strictly Chinese holiday, so we went to an Italian opera. Actually, we found that Italian opera is pretty big here. While they don't have broadway type shows, the Hong Kong cultural center hosts many operas and orchestra performances. We saw the famous Verdi opera, "Il Travatore" or "The Troubador." It had all the twists and turns, misunderstandings and deaths you would except of a medieval opera. It was fun. Then we needed to find somewhere to eat before going out to the waterfront to watch the fireworks. We somehow ended up in the bar/lounge of a very fancy hotel, the International Rennaisance Hotel. I suppose it is because in the bar the television was broadcasting the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys football game, and there was a lounge singer doing her best Whitney Houston covers. We each ordered a drink and ordered some food. By the time we left, it was 8:00 pm, and the fireworks would be starting at 10:00 pm. We found a decent spot on the waterfront overlooking the harbor by 8:30, so we had to wait an hour and a half. It was a good thing we got there when we did, because I think by the time the fireworks started, half the six million people that live in Hong Kong were along the waterfront. The firworks were great, and probably the biggest and best finish we have ever seen. Getting back to our room was somewhat of a disaster at first. We didn't move for over five minutes, waiting for the throng to get out before us. Finally we moved onto the main street toward our room. I was flabbergasted by what I saw before me. Nathan Road, the main street, had been blocked off from automobile traffic. The sea of humanity that lay before us was overwhelming. There had to have been hundreds of thousands of heads bobbing up and down, making their way home. It was truly amazing. I hope our regular camera picture turns out, because our digital one didn't.

10/02/01
Tuesday - Adventures in Futility
For the first time, we took the Subway. It was quick, easy, and fairly cheap. Not as cheap as the twenty-eight cent ferry, but considering the time saved by not having to walk to the ferry, probably more economical in the end. It cost each of us $1.17 US. We went to Hong Kong Island to respond to emails at the convention center. When we got there, the place with the free internet access was closed. Of course then we realized it was still a holiday. Everyone got Tuesday off as well, even though it wasn't the actual holiday. So, we just walked around some malls, and headed back home. We would have responded to emails using the laptop, but our own phoneline was dead. They are fixing it for us. We bought a new digital camera today as well. The one we have is fine, but quality isn't its redeeming feature, and I am having a heckuva time downloading the pictures. So, we got a new one. This new one can also record video. It can't make hourlong full-fledged movies, but can record up to eighteen minutes using the memory card that came with it. If we get a really big memory card, we can record up to 50 minutes on it, so that's pretty cool. Hopefully we can now put better pictures on the website. Also bought the really cheap ice cream cones at McDonalds again! Naughty us.

10/03/01
Wednesday - Home Cookin!
Well, Traci went back to work today. She had been off for four days. Wouldn't that be a nice job? Start your first week on Monday, get Tuesday off, work Wednesday through Friday. Then, not have to work again until Wednesday of the next week. Of course she's not getting paid, so I guess that is justified. I went to the convention center and replied to emails and read the Star Tribune. It wasn't an extremely exciting day, but any day you are travelling is exciting in and of itself. I wanted to make supper, as anyone who knows me is aware that I enjoy cooking. Unfortunately, I don't have any cooking facilities here. So, I went to the grocery store and decided to make a salad. I found a block of aged cheddar cheese, some caesar salad dressing, some canned ham (yummy!) and a nice bottle of Chardonnay. I wanted to make it and have it ready for when Traci got home. I also got some crackers and salmon pate. When Traci got home, we had a nice little feast. It was fun. It was the first time we were able to eat a (fairly) regular meal here in our room, if you don't count all the ramens I have eaten. I know Traci doesn't count them as real food.

10/04/01
Thursday - Laundry Day
Nothing EVER happens on Laundry Day. I get up late, eat a ramen, read my book, write for a while, and read my book, and drink a beer or two, and read. Oh yes, all this while the laundry is washing. Did I mention that the laundry takes a while? Actually, that is no problem. It forces me to slow down and not feel like I have to go see the entire city again in one day. The one thing we haven't really seen at all yet is the night markets. We are going to have to check them out one of these days.

10/06/01
Saturday - -Lamma Island and Aberdeen
Saturday we took a ferry from Hong Kong to one of the outlying islands. Lamma Island is a stark contrast to Hong Kong. Seemingly, the pace of life is much slower, it is mostly made up of tropical trees, bamboo, and rolling hills, and there aren't many people around. In addition, Lamma Island maintains two traditional and fully functional fishing villages, Yung Shue Wan, and Sok Kwu Wan. As we stepped off the ferry, a half hour away from Hong Kong, we could have been a world away. The first thing we noticed was the absence of noise. Hong Kong is a great city, bustling with all the excitement of a 24-hour metropolis, whereas Lamma Island is quiet and serene. The next thing we noticed was that there were about 100 bicycles along the dock. I told Traci they must be for rent, but then we realized that each bike was locked to the railing of the dock. We remembered that there are no cars on Lamma Island, so every one of these bikes belonged to someone who lived here, and those people had taken the Ferry to Hong Kong for the day.

We started walking along the main street of the little fishing village Yung Shue Wan. There was a man in the harbor standing on a block of styrofoam that was hooked up to a net. He was netting fish, presumably. The man wore old dress pants and a conical Chinese straw hat, the kind you see in pictures from long ago. We walked on the narrow street between little shops and seafood restaurants. We had decided to follow a walkway that had been pointed out to us in a brochure from the Hong Kong tourist authority. The walkway supposedly traversed the entire island, coming upon two beaches on the way, until it made itself out the other side, at the other fishing village.

Lamma Island is known for its laid back lifestyle and its disproportionate number of "gweilos" that live there. Gweilos are Caucasians. Gweilo literally means, "ghost man," and is what the expatriates are affectionately called. It used to be a derogatory term, but as with most things, it lost its harm, and found its charm (I just made that up). Anyway, the rent is cheaper and it is quiet, so a lot of Europeans moved to Lamma Island. We walked for a good half hour and worked up a sweat (plus the sun was shining and it was noon and 85 degrees) when we saw the first beach. We thought about taking a dip, but we had only been walking for a short while. It was a very nice beach, with sugar like sand, and not too many people. I assume that changed later. We read that the buoys and nets we saw set up on the edge of the swimming area was a shark net! We don't have those issues back in Minnesota, so we got a kick out of that, although I must say we were thankful for those nets. We kept walking, until we reached an open area. We had been walking through thick, tropical foliage, but suddenly, that all gave way to vast open rolling hills. We could see the walkway we were on zigzag its way through those hills. The view was fantastic. We almost felt like we were in the Italian Riviera, for the way the hills rolled down to the sea. The pathway we were on trailed upward, so we had a heckuva climb ahead of us, but we had all day, so it was no problem, until we walked it, of course. We were puffing and wheezing our way up the hill until we got to the top. It was fun though. When we got to the top, the views were even more fantastic. At the top of the hill, we rested at a pagoda outlook. It was neat to see a solitary pagoda sitting on top of a vast, green hill overlooking the ocean. It was all downhill from there, only literally speaking of course.

After we left the hills, we were back in the lush green foliage. There was bamboo growing everywhere, in addition to palm trees. We came to a turn and there was an old couple selling beverages. I guess this was kind of the halfway point in the path. There were chickens in pens all over, and maybe some small hovels that people lived in. I am not sure, but it looked like that might be the case. They were corrugated tin lean-tos. Soon afterward, we reached the second, more secluded beach. By this time, we were plenty warm, so we decided to go swimming. It was very nice. Just like the other beach, this one had a shark net on the outlying edges of the swim area. Traci and I splashed around in the ocean for about two hours. Little did we know at the time we were becoming quickly sunburned to a crisp. It didn't seem like it, but later on that evening we realized it. After we finished swimming, we returned to the path and made our way to the other fishing village where we decided we would eat lunch. On the way there we saw banana trees, a little school in the woods, and these big subterranean caves where the Japanese hid during their subsequent occupation of China. We got to the village of Sok Kwu Wan, and had a crab feast. Well, ok, it wasn't a feast, it was one crab, and it wasn't very big. It was our own fault because that is what we ordered. But man was it tasty. Regardless, we knew we needed to eat later on.

We went to catch the ferry back to the south side of Hong Kong Island (Aberdeen) where we could see the world's largest floating restaurant, The Jumbo Floating Restaurant. We got to the ferry a couple minutes too late, so we needed to catch the next one, 1.5 hours later. Instead, we decided to keep walking along the walkway, because the ferry also picked up at the next little inlet called Mo Tat Wan. That was a nice walk along a cliff edge. We could see the little residential area, Mo Tat Wan long before we entered it. We got down to the pier where the ferry would pick us up and waited. Soon, a sampan from Aberdeen came in carrying one person. The guy got off and paid the driver. Traci thought it would be fun if we rode a sampan back to Aberdeen. I of course was worried about how much it was going to cost. The guy had paid $80 HK ($10.40 U.S.), which seemed like a lot, but we got him to give us a ride back for $20 HK (about $2.60 U.S.). That seemed like a fair deal, since the guy was going to have to go back without passengers to Aberdeen anyway. It was fun. In the ferries, you feel the waves of the ocean, but in a sampan, you ARE part of the waves. Water splashed up, and we nailed some water troughs pretty good. I would recommend a sampan ride to anyone. We pulled into Aberdeen Harbor in about twenty minutes, and it was almost overwhelming with all the fishing boats docked up and the little sampans darting in and out. There were some old people fishing from little skiffs like we saw on Lamma Island. It was neat to see, considering we were only on the other side of Hong Kong Island, which still felt like it was far away.

We got off the sampan and changed into nicer clothes after arguing about it. I thought it would be fine going to the world's largest floating restaurant wearing swimming trunks and a tee shirt. Traci disagreed. So we changed, and got on the free sampan to the Jumbo! It was a good thing we changed. As we pulled up, we realized that it was pretty fancy. Why don't I listen to that woman more often? It was pretty large. We ate and it got dark. On the way back to the docks, we were able to see the Jumbo in all its carnival like glory. There were a million twinkling lights all over the boat/restaurant. It was worth the trip out there. And yes, there were many levels of dining, so I would assume the title of worlds largest floating restaurant holds true. We decided we had better get back to our room, because it was getting late and Traci wasn't feeling well. By the time we got to the subway station, she was ready to hurl…and hurl she did! It must have been something she ate, or the sunburn, or dehydration, since we only brought one bottle of water with us for the entire day. Regardless, it was a great day.

10/07/01
Sunday - Lazy Dogs
Sunday we laid around like big dogs. It was actually kind of nice. We were nursing our sunburn and Saturday's excessive exercise. For some reason that night, (ha, ha) Traci wanted to go to a different kind of restaurant. So we found this cool Mexican place (trust me, they're hard to find here) that was within walking distance of our place. It is called Viva Vips. Traci got tacos and I got fajitas. They were pretty good. That's about it for this day. Pretty low key.

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10/9/01
Tuesday - the Real Hong Kong and America's Sweethearts
I walked all over the peninsula on Tuesday. Traci wanted me to send out some postcards (Dan, Gena, Toots, Mom and Pop, check your mail), so I walked down to the post office. After that, I realized I still needed to get one more meat cleaver (see Meat Cleaver story, Monday Sept. 24), as the requests had been pouring in. For those of you holding out hope for the coveted knife, I am sorry, but I can't carry anymore. So I walked to Reclamation Street, and realized I was too far south. On my way north, I found a very cool market. It was your basic fruit, vegetable, meat, fish, eel, turtle, and pig eyeball market, but it was very large, and there were very good prices. I know where we are buying our oranges and pig tongue from now on. From there, I walked all over the backstreets, which I feel is the REAL Hong Kong. The main streets have all the name brand fashion American homogenized stores and such, but when you leave the main drag, the essence of the city enthralls you. This is Hong Kong. The smells are different, the people are cheerier, and it feels like people living their regular life. The sounds of people haggling over prices and the smell of fish mixed with the smell of oranges is strange but it fits this place. I must spend more time off the beaten path.

Traci and I also went to a movie. Tuesday night in Hong Kong is date night, so the movie theatres cut in half their prices. We went to "America's Sweethearts" which we both really liked. I have been surprised that most of the movies that are shown in Hong Kong are American movies. I have heard before (from Traci) that America has pretty much dominated moviemaking throughout the world. This rings true! Wednesday I am going to stock up on Ramens as my supply is running precariously low.

10/10/01
Wednesday - Museums
I was excited about free museum Wednesday. On this glorious day, all of Hong Kong's museums are free, including the Hong Kong Art Museum, Space Museum, History Museum and Science Museum. I made it down to the Art Museum and Space Museum, because they are right by each other. It was 12:40pm and I tried to go into the Space Museum, but they didn't open until 1:00pm, so I went over to the Art Museum. As one could guess, there was a lot of Chinese art there. As a matter of fact, that was the only kind of art they had, which was pretty cool. I learned a lot about history of the different dynasties, including the Han, Tang, Qing and Ming Dynasties. It seems that the most popular motifs for ancient Chinese art are landscapes and gods. Hmmm, that sounds familiar. Do you think someone in the European art world and someone in the Chinese art world got together back in prehistoric times and decided that halfway across the world they would paint the same things? Chinese art definitely has a different flare to it. Obviously most of you have seen some form or another. In painting people, there are a few themes that seem to be predominant. If you ever see a painting of a Chinese man with a three-legged toad on his shoulder, it is a famous priest who became a mayor and then became immortal. I can't remember his name. A large number of paintings are dedicated to the immortals. There are supposedly eight immortals (men who became gods), but from what I read, eight is a meaningless number in this situation, because in truth, there are hundreds. The other main "person" theme is the Bodhis, or priests who followed Buddha. One of the most famous is Bodhidharma. He is one of ancient China's most famous priests and is usually depicted wading through a river.

My personal favorite part of the museum however, was the wood, metal, earth, fire exhibit. This exhibit showed how Chinese artisans throughout the ages have accessed local materials to create both utilitarian and artistic objects. The exhibit started with wood, and showed different carved bowls, etc. Basically the exhibit progressed through resin-coated wood, carved bamboo, fired clay, carved bone and ivory, and bronze. The most amazing thing however is the intricacy through which some of these pieces were created. Carvings like I have never seen, the painstaking detail was unreal. I really enjoyed that exhibit. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong Art Museum was the only museum I was able to tour. I will have to see the rest on the remaining FREE Wednesdays we are here.

After the Art Museum, I went across the harbor to the English Library. I had finished my book the previous day, and I got a new one by the Italian author, Umberto Eco. He wrote the book "Name of the Rose" which was made into a great movie with Sean Connery and Christian Slater. The book I got is called "The Island of the Day Before." It looks pretty good, and thick like the last one so I can get involved a bit.

I bought my Ramens, 20 of them. Once again, they were $1 HK (13 cents U.S.) each. Excellent. After I bought them, I decided to take a different way back to the room. Soon I was hopelessly far away from our place, so I checked my handy dandy map, and realized I was close to the Hong Kong Science Museum and the History Center, so I walked over to them. I didn't go in, but the buildings were very impressive. I am excited to check them out.

10/13/01
10,000 Buddhas
Today we had a big day planned. We were going to go to the monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas and then in the afternoon/evening we were going to have 2 for 1's in the Lan Kwai Fong area. This is the trendy bar hangout for mostly Gweilos (expats). Since the monastery is located up in the New Territories in a district called Sha Tin, we decided to go there first and then travel way south to Lan Kwai Fong.

The 10,000 Buddhas Monastery is called as such because so many people have donated clay Buddha statues that are covered in gold leaf. Many people feel their prayers have been answered while visiting the monastery so have duly donated a statue. The first thing one notices when walking up the many, many stairs to the monastery is the gold Buddhas lining the stairway. They are all different, but depict Buddha in his various forms. Some are young, some are older, some look vicious and some look peaceful.

When we saw these statues, we realized that there was no way there could have been 10,000 Buddhas here. If that were the case, there would be gold for as far as the eye could see. When we got to the top, where the actual monastery is located, there were many more golden Buddhas in various poses. There were people with hands folded bowing quickly in front of the statues and then placing burning incense sticks upright in altar bowls. This is to honor the dead. We never did figure out what the different Buddha statues meant. Some of them seemed to be more popular than others. In addition to burning incense, people placed flowers, little trinkets, money, fruit, beer or a favorite food of a loved one on the altar. So if anyone reads this, you can put a giant steak, baked potato, a Guinness and a snifter of cognac on my altar. Traci would probably go for a salmon fillet, some flowers and a Snickers bar. As we made our way to the main building, we soon realized that this really was the monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas. When we stepped inside the building, you couldn't help but notice the thousands of gilded mini Buddha statues adorning the walls. I did a quick estimation, and it seems that there are probably closer to 13,000 Buddhas. The weirdest thing however, is that they all looked very similar to each other, but each had a slightly different pose. I suppose there were many duplicates, but not that I could see.

There was a tower located in the middle of the courtyard. We both walked up, and on each landing, there was a large seated Buddha which people had left fruit and money and such at the Buddha's lap. I continued on my way up to the top, but Traci turned around and went back down. I couldn't really see out of the top floor of the tower because there aren't really any windows, just some decorative holes to let sunshine in. As I made my way back down, I saw Traci sitting on the stairs near the bottom. She was smiling at me and I thought she was thinking of something funny. When I said "what," she said her knee gave out and she fell. Traci has a bad knee from a skiing accident when we were in Colorado about five years ago. Every once in awhile she reinjures it. She did so right before we left on this trip, so it was already tender. She had about a month since to rehabilitate it, but now on the stairs it gave out. Of course we were on the top of a small mountain, requiring us to descend about 500 steps. Like a trooper, Traci took it slow, but made it to the bottom. Needless to say, we went straight back to our room. I made a massive search for ice to decrease the swelling, but alas, ice is a convenience that much of the world doesn't stock, Hong Kong being no exception. No ice. The best I could do was a cold can of pop. We dug out the caked up frost in our freezer and put as much as we could in a bag. She used that and it seemed to help a little.

We spent the rest of the night in our room, and I was excited for the evening, because Batman Forever was on, but of course we missed the first half-hour because Someone just had to watch the teaser show for the new Survivor 3 series. Oh great, another Survivor. I'm not bitter or anything.

10/14/01
Stanley
Since we didn't want to mess up Traci's knee any more than it was already, we tried to take it easy. We took the subway to Hong Kong Island and then hopped on a bus to travel down to the southside of the island to a town called Stanley. Stanley is very scenic. I should say the bus ride TO Stanley is the most scenic, and precarious. There are some nice beaches and a market there, so we thought we would take advantage.

We jumped on the number 6-bus right after we got off the subway, and began the ascent. The roads that traverse Hong Kong Island start at sea level but, as I have stated before in previous entries, Hong Kong Island is basically a bunch of very high hills, almost miniature mountains. So like I said, the roads start at sea level but ascend to a couple thousand feet. As the bus's gears ground hard against the incline, we were excited. The buses are all double deckers, so we sat on the top level so we could see everything. It was like a scenic tour. It was also pretty scary. The bus drivers have been driving these routes for years, I kept telling myself, so they knew every curve pretty well. We felt a few times like we were going to flip right over the edge. Everything is rather exaggerated on the top of a double decker bus. As the city of Hong Kong disappeared below, the countryside began to take shape. Palm trees replaced skyscrapers, and short condos and multi-million dollar mansions replaced tall apartment buildings. We could see over the edge of the cliff we were driving on down to the sea, and golf courses, sailboats and beaches abounded. We began our descent and suddenly we could see Hong Kong's most famous beach, Repulse Bay. Don't ask me why they call it that. It is very big, and perfectly situated in a cove. We weren't going there this day however, maybe another day. Stanley wasn't much farther.

Stanley is located on the east side of a peninsula at the southern end of Hong Kong Island. The peninsula is so thin that it is a ten-minute walk from one side to the other. Traci and I got off the bus and realized we still needed sunblock. Last time we had gone to the beach, we both got nice and crispy. We went to the famous Stanley Market. It is mostly clothes and souvenirs, but there was some stores with non-tourist items interspersed. We found our sunblock and walked through the rest of the market. Soon we made our way to the beach. As we started down the steps to the sand, Traci bumped into a coworker. Small world, huh. We spoke to the gentleman for a few minutes, and then found a nice spot on the beach. We had both brought books along, and Traci brought her swim goggles. I have never been able to snorkel in the ocean or anything like that so I borrowed here goggles and went in the water. It was pretty murky, but when I dove to the bottom I could see the barnacle covered rocks and the snails and shells along with some minnows. I am sure it will be different when we get to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was fun though. For the rest of the afternoon we swam and relaxed on the beach. Traci got to rest her knee, and life was grand. On the way back home on the precarious double-decker bus, we decided to have Indian food that evening. We chose a restaurant called the Delhi Club located in the infamous Chungking Mansions. The Chungking Mansions are as our guidebook calls it, "…a vast, crumbling and dingy shopping/housing high rise on Nathan Road." That isn't far from the truth. It is probably one of the freakier places we have been. In order to get to the restaurant, you have to find the elevator that goes there. It is really crowded and confusing. But, with good luck (hunger) and fortitude (hunger), we were able to find it. The Delhi Club came highly recommended and it was very Spleasant. I ordered Mutton Vindaloo and Traci got a rice dish. The atmosphere was quiet and low key. It was a nice way to finish the evening.

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10/16/01
Markets, Markets Everywhere
Traci and I decided we would meet for lunch today at this little Thai restaurant near here work. Since she works up in Mongkok (about a half-hour's walk from our room) I decided to take the long way there. I went through the Reclamation Street fruit and vegetable market. This is a large market, lasting about six blocks. If someone in this market didn't have the vegetation you were seeking, Hong Kong probably doesn't have it. I took my time and tried to take it all in. You haven't experienced Hong Kong until you spend some time at a street market. I have described it before, but it deserves retelling.

There is a surreal atmosphere surrounding the street markets. A different style of buying and selling to be sure, but it's more than that. There is an element of timelessness about it. These markets have been here in one fashion or another for longer than Hong Kong had been a British colony. If you have ever been to a farmer's market in your hometown, it is similar, but the products are much more diverse and the smells are even stranger. There was the stall with the Durian fruit, a large spiky (and I DO mean spiky; I pierced my finger on one) globe that smells of rotting cheese or some kind of dairy product. The consistency of the Durian once you remove the treacherous husk is soft and wet, but it tastes pretty good. One can smell this fruit blocks away. Another fruit that I may have only seen once or twice but had never tried (until now) is the Dragonfruit. This fruit is teardrop-like in shape. It is red but has green and red leaves shooting out from it around the fruit, appearing like a candle flame. When you peel it, it is completely white, but little black seeds abound within. A good comparison would be a kiwifruit. The same seeds, same fruit consistency, but three times as big.

Another smell is of meat and fish. There are meat shops scattered throughout the market, and skinned goat heads and whole slaughtered pigs greet you at their entrance. Seafood is abundant, and the smells of fresh fish are as well. The things that defined the Hong Kong fish stalls for me however, were some of the unique seafood (as well as amphibians and reptiles). Along with fish and your basic assortment of pedestrian shellfish such as crab, lobster and shrimp, the tanks held cuttlefish, abalone, squid, prawns and eels. There were also turtles for sale. In one cage I saw a lot of black lumps. Wondering what they were I took a closer look. I realized they were about fifty or sixty frogs piled on top of each other in the compact cage. These were a type of bullfrog, for they were very large and plump. The thought didn't bother me much, considering frog legs are supposed to be a delicacy in many places. There was a woman with a large meat cleaver butchering something I assumed was a fish on her chopping block. Something jumped of the block, and then I realized she was butchering frogs. I saw some frog meat lying on the block and again, this didn't bother me. What did bother me was when the frog jumped off the block, she grabbed it, lay it down on the block, and swung her cleaver. I turned at the last second as I heard the knife clap against the block. I have seen fish cut up, animals skinned, but never a frog. So that was interesting.

I met Traci and her coworker William for lunch. He is from Denmark and is in Hong Kong working as an intern for the Asian Human Rights Commission. We had a nice (and cheap) lunch at the little Thai restaurant. This small restaurant had the best curries we have had to date.

When Traci got home, we decided to walk through the famous Temple Street night market. After we ate dinner, we walked to the market. Surprisingly, it was very close to where we are staying. We have been here all this time, and never realized it was so close. The Temple Street market is very long, four or more blocks, and has clothing and entertainment items mostly. The stalls we really enjoyed were some of the handicrafts, such as carved wood or coconuts, beautiful oil paintings mostly of Hong Kong, and handcrafted clothing. There were a lot of electronic toys and radios, decorative items and CD's. It had been a full day of various markets, but we still haven't been to the bird market or the flower market. We don't have too much time left, so we'll have to fit it in somehow.

10/20/01
Lantau Island
Lantau Island is the biggest of the 250 islands in Hong Kong. It is now the home of the Hong Kong International Airport, and located just west of the main Kowloon peninsula. There is a bridge connecting this island to the mainland of Kowloon. We had seen it a little bit on our first day here as our bus traveled to our destination, but we didn't know anything about it at the time. We went to Lantau today and found out how big it really is. When we arrived via the subway, the first thing we noticed is that everything looked so new. Only 30,000 people live on the whole island, and only very recently when the bridge and new airport were built has the population risen to where it currently stands. That explains why everything seemed so new.

We wanted to see the giant Buddha statue and Po Lin monastery located on the west side of the island, so we hopped on a bus and began our way to the place. All the other bus rides we had been on before this had been relatively short, so we were amazed that by the time we got to the monastery, over an hour had passed. Part of the reason it took so long is because most of the way it was one lane, so we had to pull over on either the sidewalk or a designated bus stop as other traffic (mainly other busses) passed by. Along the way, going up the sides of mountains and down again, we saw some beautiful scenery. We could see the ocean in the distance, but in front of that were majestic mountains covered in green foliage from top to bottom. When you are here, you keep forgetting that Hong Kong is fairly tropical. You realize it when you get out of the city. We had just turned a corner, when we saw more breathtaking peaks, when people started pointing out one peak in particular. Finally, we saw it. The giant Buddha statue could be seen at the top of one of the distant peaks. Even from where we were it was huge. However we were way below it, so the rest of the bus ride would have to be up, up, up. And it was. When we finally arrived we got off the bus and were like ants at the base of the statue. It was built in the 70's, so it isn't even that old, but what it lacks in antiquity, it makes up for in awe-inspiring views. The Buddha is seated on a lotus flower on top of a set of three hundred plus steps. We made our way to the top and took pictures around the statue. We made our way back down and walked over to the Po Lin monastery. Typical of other temples we had seen, there was incense burning everywhere, and golden Buddha statues throughout. We spent a couple hours up at the giant Buddha and monastery, and then we left.

After another hour-long bus ride through winding mountain roads and dense greenery, we made it to the ferry pier, which would take us to Hong Kong Island. To the right of the pier was the beach. We had brought along our swim gear just in case, and so we decided to take a dip. We swam for about an hour and a half, then went to the ferry. The boat took another 45 minutes to get back to Hong Kong, and by the time it docked, we were pretty hungry. If you have been reading these posts, you will have seen that we have eaten a lot of rice and noodles, so we wanted to eat something else. So we went to Pizza Hut, which is right across from our room. We hadn't gone there all this time, but I guess you could say we broke down and needed to eat something familiar. We bought an Italian sausage pizza. It was awesome. We found out you can order take out. Hmmmm.

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(Written on October 28)
Hong Kong: The City of Life
Nay Ho! That means "Hello" in Cantonese. Say it with me. "Nay - Ho." Good job. So, hello and welcome to another journal entry. There had been a point in this trip where I was ready to move on, but I must say, some how Hong Kong grows on you. I don't know if it is the amalgamation of Western and Chinese cultures, or if it is living by the sea and mountains, or a little of both. We were able to get our Hong Kong to Thailand tickets changed to November 5th instead of our original flight dates of November 12th. We wanted to have more time in Thailand because we will be moving around more when we get there, hence the earlier flights. Both of us are going to miss Hong Kong. The bright lights of the city are mesmerizing. The culture is unique. Modern technology meets ancient society. The smells and sounds are ever present and yet blend into the background in such a way that without them the city would seem desolate (except for the sounds of our neighbors getting home at two in the morning every night). The Hong Kong Tourism Authority claims with their trademark, "City of Life; Hong Kong is it!" We both agree. Hong Kong IS a City of Life. Regardless, we still have one week to enjoy all this City of Life has to offer. We plan on cramming in as much as possible. Traci has had to work Monday through Friday every week since we have been here, so she hasn't got to experience quite as much as she would have liked, but we are planning out our last week so that we can remedy that. So, as the Cantonese say when they're having a great time, "Ngor day waan duck ho hoy sum." We're having a great time.

10/23/01
Meeting People
Traci met a guy from Australia in the elevator the other day. Since we are going to Australia in a couple months, Traci decided it would be a good idea to pick this guy's brain. She called him Monday night and set up a meeting Tuesday morning. I am not as social as Traci, so I wasn't quite as hip on the idea, but my being uncomfortable was totally unfounded. Grant is an Aussie from Melbourne. Traci and he decided we would meet for coffee right down the street from our place. At 9:00 am, we met. Grant turned out to be a very nice guy, and I ended up talking to him more than Traci. He told us all kinds of things about Australia. Our "wine" friends will be excited to know that most of the places he told us to spend our time was in wine country. Australia has a very well established wine business, about as old as the US's wine business. Only recently has the United States really begun importing a large variety of Australian wines. We were told going up to the Great Barrier Reef might take a long time, so we may just concentrate on Southeast Australia and Tasmania. Of course this won't be until January, so we have plenty of time to think about it. The one thing that seemed like it was a bit of a bummer was that Grant said the upper beaches on the east coast of Australia would either be closed or very dangerous because of Box Jellyfish. He said if you get stung, you will die in a couple of minutes. I don't think we will be swimming there. The reef is a couple hours off shore however, and the jellyfish don't swim out there. These are some decisions to be made for another time.

We left it with Grant that we will try to contact him when we get to Melbourne, and he'll show us around or whatever. It is actually kind of nice to meet people. I am really coming around. We went to the Convention Center and checked emails and such. There, I met a guy from Portland, Oregon. He was checking emails and was asking me questions about getting on to the internet. It turns out he had been camping on a hill side next to the China mainland border, and he was planning on biking across China to Vietnam and Cambodia, then flying out of Singapore. Wow, now that is ambition. He figured it would take him about nine months. After that, Traci gave me crap for the rest of the day about being a social butterfly, which if you know me, that is not the case.

10/24/01
Lemon Curry?
This day was rather unremarkable except for our continuing quest for the elusive (Ok, not elusive, it is everywhere; but doesn't elusive sound better?) curry. If you have ever eaten a curry, you know how addictive the flavor is. The best part for us is that Hong Kong is a veritable "melting pot" of the curry cultures. What I mean by that is, people from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and many other ethnicities that utilize curry in its myriad forms, live in Hong Kong. There are no shortage of Thai and Indian restaurants. So, in the interest of posterity and our stomachs, we decided to go on a quest for the best curry. Traci asked a waiter at one of the restaurants what is in an Indian curry, and he gave us the best answer he could, which is to say that everyone makes it a bit different. It is curry powder, pureed tomatoes, onions, oil, red pepper, garlic, ginger, cinnamon and some other spices. This sauce is cooked quickly and poured over potatoes or yams and either chicken, beef, pork, vegetables or seafood. It is served in a bowl that you pour over rice, noodles or Indian bread (yuck, soggy bread). It sure is tasty! Thai curries usually have a coconut flavor to them as well. There are also different types of curries. The most common is just listed as "curry" on the menu. Other types are green curry, which is a Thai specialty, and red curry, which I know nothing about.

Tonight we went to the Kowloon Cantonese Restaurant. The curry was superb. It was a seafood curry, which neither of us had ever eaten before. The seafood consisted of fried fish chunks, shrimp, squid, cuttlefish (I think) and fake crabmeat (cod). Following is a list of curry restaurants and a short review. The restaurant and its location is listed, its rating out of five stars, then the type of curry we've eaten there. We know that this doesn't mean anything to you, but for our own remembrance and your possible but not probable entertainment, here it is:

• Cherry Hill Restaurant (next door to us, Jordan, Kowloon) *
  - Indian chicken curry - has no flavor. This restaurant is much better for their basic fried rices and Choi Sum (green spinach/broccoli type vegetable served with oyster sauce).
  
• Banana Leaf Restaurant (Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island) **
  - Indian chicken curry - ok, but not great. We were really on a roll at the beginning. It is a wonder we kept ordering curry.
  
• Club Delhi (Chungking Mansions, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon) ****
  - Indian curry - Mutton Vindaloo - I ordered the Mutton Vindaloo. I had the choice of getting it "westernized" or eating it spicy. I chose the spicy. It was great. Very hot, but flavorful. Vindaloo isn't quite the same as a regular curry, but it uses curry as the main spice, and is similar, although there are some other flavors that I can't really describe.
  
• The Lotus (Mongkok, Kowloon) *****
  - Thai chicken and beef curry - This is by far the best curry we have had since arriving in Hong Kong. Traci and her coworkers went here for lunch, and her and I have eaten there a few times since. In addition to the wonderful silky, coconutty curry, they have a set lunch which includes a can of coke and a bowl of soup as well for very cheap ($3.25 US). Best deal in town. In my opinion, this is the best curry I have had. Traci usually orders the chicken curry, but I ordered minced beef curry. Usually curries are served with just the meat and sauce in a bowl, but my minced beef curry came served over rice already with mushrooms, peas and some other vegetables.
  
• Kowloon Cantonese Restaurant (Jordan, Kowloon) ****
  - Indian seafood curry - We were a little nervous with this one, because when we got the bowl of seafood curry, there was about an eighth of an inch of oil on top. I stirred it up, and this turned out to be an excellent curry. Spicy, but not too much so. As I stated above, there were many different kinds of seafood in the mix. Like I said, we were a bit leery of all the grease, but it didn't affect us in the least. (Great Choi Sum too!)
  
• New Dish Restaurant (Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon) ****
  - Nepalese/Indian chicken and beef curry - This was probably the spiciest regular curry we have had, but it was so good, that the spice (which I like anyway) was a non-issue. This was also one of the more complex flavored curries we have had. There were definite hints of cinnamon and of ginger. Maybe it was because this was a Nepalese restaurant, which I imagine has slightly different recipes for curry than India.

Sorry to inundate people with my restaurant reviews. In case you ever come to Hong Kong, maybe you will find this information useful. You can obtain an official copy of my restaurant review guide in the near future. Just send $5,000 to my home address. On the other hand you might need to ask me anyway, because most of these restaurants we found by chance. There are only about two hundred thousand restaurants in Hong Kong to choose from.

10/25/01
Walk, Walk, and Walk…
Traci had Thursday off because it was a public holiday. There seem to be many of those in Hong Kong, but maybe we just came during the busy holiday season. The day is designated for people to honor their ancestors by sweeping off the graves of loved ones and visiting mountains. It seems similar to Memorial Day in the States. People also picnic a lot. We started off by deciding we would go on a walk suggested by the Tourism Authority. It seemed so easy to get there in the brochure.

The brochure said to take a taxi to the place we needed to go. It also said you could take a bus if it went to the right location, but finding a bus on a public holiday is no easy task. I am a cheapskate. I admit it. I'm not an irreversibly skinflint cheapskate like my friend Jessica, but nonetheless, I am a cheapskate, so, the bus it was.

We got to the bus station and found a bus right away that would take us to the right location. However, as Traci pointed out to me as I turned around, I had just butted in line. The line followed the wall of the bus terminal and out the entrance all the way down the street. This bus's final destination was Stanley, a very popular holiday destination. I am not trying to exaggerate, but I bet there were over 1,000 people in line. This is not to mention that every bus stop that this bus would go to was also jammed. We looked for other buses that would go to the same stop and found one. But then found that that route didn't run on Sundays or public holidays. A sign suggested an alternative route, so we decided to take it (by this time we could have been there if we would have taken a taxi). Surprisingly, there were only a few people on this bus. We soon found out why. The bus went nowhere near any landmarks that were on the maps, but went as far south on Hong Kong Island as any bus. We got off the bus at a major stop when we realized this. We searched out other buses that would take us to our elevated destination, but couldn't come up with any clear idea. So, with our backs up against the wall, we bit the bullet and took a cab.

It wasn't horribly expensive and we would have most likely saved money if we had taken a cab originally. Oh well. When we got to the trailhead, there was a map that showed many routes to get to the bottom in addition to the one our brochure indicated. The one that we liked the best was kind of long, but when we started on that trail, we realized that the trail was REALLY steep and seemed unpredictable. With Traci's knee in questionable capacity, we decided to take the path the brochure suggested. It turned out to be a good choice. The path wound downhill through the mountains and followed the edge of a reservoir.

(Traci writing now) As we were walking around the beautiful reservoir, we heard some shouting of something resembling some games, fun, etc. So we followed the din to a picnic area where about 300 people were. There was an area where there was a tug of war going on. We went into the crowd to watch and before we knew it, some smiling older women swept Tony into the activity. They directed him to their side of the tug-of-war rope. He is about an average of 6-8 inches taller than the average man here and probably outweighs them by 70-80 pounds. The ladies probably had their eyes on him when we walked in. He was standing on the side with the older women and someone else came over and grabbed him to bring him over to the team of men wearing yellow shirts, he just followed along. Then the same women who recruited Tony saw what was going on and brought him right back to their team. The teams were lopsided, as it was mainly younger men against mainly older women with Tony and a few other men. The airhorn was sounded and a mighty struggle ensued, but in the end the women (and Tony) lost to the men. They fought long and hard. Oh Well. The women gathered around Tony with huge smiles on their faces, shook his hand, patted his back, and laughed among each other.

(Tony writing again) For some reason when we finished the walk, instead of chalking up the bus/taxi fiasco as experience, we decided to take a bus back (we could have taken a taxi). Well, it wasn't as much of a problem, but the day had already become long, with having just walked for four hours. The only bus that left this area did not take us where we needed to go, but did stop at a subway station, so we thought we would take the subway back home. One of the subway stops we needed to cross was a stop that had a monument we wanted to see. The monument is called the Tiger Balm Gardens. It is a colorful garden full of statues of figures from Chinese mythology. They are arranged in scenes that depict victims being tortured in hell. Sounds freaky, but from the pictures we have seen, it looks more like a circus than something scary. The reason I say "pictures we have seen" is because after getting off the subway and locating the Tiger Balm Gardens on our map, we walked for an hour and we hadn't found it. According to the map, we should have found it in about twenty minutes. An elderly gentleman saw our confusion as the map fanned out all over the place. He asked us in English where we were headed. We told him the Tiger Balm Gardens, and he was excited that we were interested in them. He told us how to get there (we had missed our exit by a few blocks) and Traci thanked him in Cantonese (mm goy). He was very happy that she used Chinese, and said she spoke very well. So, we found the correct walking route (which was a steep uphill grade (30 minutes walk)) and made it to the Tiger Balm Gardens, which were closed for remodeling.

Frustration began to set in. After grudgingly sitting on a bench outside of the gardens enjoying the meager bread and oranges we were going to eat in the gardens, we set off for home. We walked for forty-five minutes to another subway stop, and got on the subway. When we got to our room, we collapsed.

10/27/01
Out on the Town
Traci attended a public forum on globalization in the morning and we had a fun evening going out to dinner and for drinks with a few of Traci's co-workers and some of their friends - 8 all together. We ate dinner at a restaurant called The Macau located in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was only a fifteen-minute walk from our room. Macau is an island off the coast of China that had been taken over by the Portuguese a couple hundred years ago, so the Chinese food there has a unique flair. Some of Traci's coworkers ordered a variety of entrees that were put in the middle of the table to share. This is really the only way to eat. You get to try everything and it makes meals much more of an event. Our meal consisted of mushrooms, a green water vegetable with peppers, Indian curry, fried rice, potatoes with minced beef, baked rice with duckmeat and three roasted baby pigeons. The pigeons were served on a platter, cut up into sections. One of the sections was the head. We were told the heads are eaten sometimes. The three heads were the slow movers of the evening until the end when I nibbled away at the neck and part of the head and was applauded by the table. A couple of the Chinese people said that I was more Chinese than they were. I was just hungry. Ryan, a Chinese coworker's boyfriend, enjoyed sharing with us some of the "traditional" foods we should try while we are here. The truth is, he was just trying to gross us out. Funny guy.

After the gorging, we sauntered as a group to another part of Tsim Tsa Tsui to partake in Hong Kong nightlife. This is something we haven't done much of since we've been here. We went to the Green Parrot Pub. . The bar was pretty full, but luckily there were a couple tables in the corner. There was a TV blaring a soccer game on ESPN and Chinese music in the background. Most everyone ordered the cheapest beer, which wasn't really cheap (Carlsberg), and visited as best we could despite the loud surroundings. There were cups with dice placed in front of everyone, and Ryan showed us all how to play some Chinese dice games. Of course as in the US, if you lost the round, you had to drink. After that game, Ryan showed us some other fun games. We had a great time!

10/28/01
Cheung Chau Island
Happy 31st Birthday Nathan! This morning we got up and took the ferry to Cheung Chau Island. This is a dumbbell shaped island about forty-five minutes ferry ride from Hong Kong. A brochure listed a fun walk on this small island. We soon found that the walk was really short, and ended at the beach. Hong Kong's only Olympic medallist came from here. She was a windsurfer. When we got to the beach, we could see why an Olympian came from Cheung Chau. There were windsurfers all over, and seeing them catch the wind and perform spins in the air was amazing. We sat down at the beach and ate the lunch we had bought at the grocery store.

We were planning on swimming right away, but saw a pagoda on top of a very large hill to our left. It looked like it was a pretty intense hike, and since we had the whole day, we decided to tackle it. We found the trail sign and began. There were bicycles and passenger tricycles for rent everywhere, and Traci lamented the fact that I didn't rent one of the tricycles to cart her around the island. We followed the path and it soon wound uphill. The climb was steep and we had to stop a few times to catch our breath. We are still working on the getting in shape thing. Once we reached the pagoda at the top, we could see all of Cheung Chau Island. We were taken by the startling resemblance this island had to some of the Mediterranean towns we have seen. It felt like we were back in the Cinque Terre in Liguria, Italy. We continued on the pathway and followed it down through heavy vegetation that gave way to the residential area. It was rather quiet all the way down until we got to the bottom. When we arrived at sea level again, there was a basketball game going on in front of us. To our left there were old people playing Mahjongg, a tile game similar to dominos. We made our way to the beach and spent a few hours there before returning to Kowloon.

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