Midlevels, night view, and markets

1 - Escalators that go through mid-levels
2 - The view from my brother's flat
3 - Market street
4 - Lantern and incense shop
5 - Chop market worker
6 - Example of a chop

Last night we met my brother at his office to have a quick look, then
went to eat in an ex-pat area of town and then rode the escalator up
to his flat. The mid-levels escalator is the longest outdoor escalator in the world (about a half mile). He has a great view of the city and one of the best buildings around that continuously changes color (it's the green
building in the 2nd picture).

Today started rough - Jason was up by 3am and I was up around 5am. It
seems as when your schedule gets totally out of whack the first day is
easier than the next two or three. So today we were officially jet
lagged. It's 7:30pm where we are and Jason's already in bed. I have a
book I want to finish but I won't be far behind.

This afternoon I met up with my brother and a friend (B#2) to have
lunch at a new Japanese restaurant called Roka. His friend is in the
know so she got us reservations and everything was free because the
restaurant is not officially open yet. They had great mixed fruit
non-alcoholic drinks and the food was good but apparently fancy
Japanese restaurants don't like to cook fish all the way through. And
forks weren't even an option so I had to fudge my way through eating
with chopsticks.

After lunch she and I took a quick trip to a smaller market to find a
chop for Jason's #1 employee. There are markets everywhere here, and I love them. Some of them are full of stuff the locals probably don't
even buy but there are many that the locals shop at for clothes,
incense and other things they bring to the temples, and food. Pictures
3 and 4 are of a typical market side street and a place that sells
lanterns. There's talk of trying to tear down some of the markets but
that would be a shame. It gives Hong Kong it's charm. The 5th picture
is of the guy who gave me a "special deal" and made the chop in about
30 minutes. We were in a rush to make it up to Kowloon so the timing
worked out perfectly.

The plan for tomorrow is to visit Big Buddha on Lantau Island, eat a
vegetarian feast at the monastery, and ride the sky train thingy. The
sky train is like one of the rides at Disney World where you sit in a
car that travels on a wire and hangs far above the ground. Apparently
it just reopened not long ago after one of the cars fell and killed
the passengers. Hmmm....

Better pics are coming... promise

Just realized I haven't really taken pictures of anything amazing yet, but I will soon. I have some waiting of my brother's office and apartment (for my mom) to be uploaded, I'll do that later tonight.

So today is July 4th! No fireworks to celebrate America's independence where we are, but we'll actually be on Kowloon tonight for high tea at the Peninsula, reflexology, and dinner so there's a chance we can see part of the laser and light show at the TST waterfront and have our own little independence day celebration. I'm hoping we can hit the Night Market again (that was one of my favorite parts last time we were here.) They put prawns out in the open, they flop all over the place including on the ground, and they just go right back into the container until people buy them. Gross.

Strawberries and baked beans

(This is attempt #2 for this post. Last night the pictures were
showing up but I guess they disappeared later.)

For breakfast. Really! Most of the breakfast was traditional European
(deli meat, swiss cheese, cucumbers, salad) but a few American items
were there, including baked beans. Not sure who actually eats baked
beans for breakfast, but it's common here. We got upgraded to a room
with a harbour view this morning, a nice treat by Bachelorette #1.
Nothing too exciting is going on today - Jason's at the trade show and
I'm about to go venture into the streets to find something that looks
edible for lunch. Last time we were here all the food was great, as
long as we didn't eat anything Chinese. Here are a few pics.

1 - Mountain view from our old room
2 - City/harbor view from our new room
3 - The buildings look impressive, but many of them look like this close-up
4 - Bamboo is used as scaffolding
5 - Fresh orange and strawberry juices with breakfast. Yum!
6 - Sky Lounge for breakfast, afternoon snacks, etc.
7 - Rooftop pool with a nice harbour view
8 - Mr. Jason ready to impress!

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These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

And we're back!

A spacious and hip room at Hotel Jen

Hotel Jen's location on Hong Kong island - a decent residential area right next to Hong Kong University (but a 15 minute taxi ride from everywhere we want to go)

After a 2-hour delay over some engine issues in Chicago (so what if
engine #4 fails mid flight over Siberia?) we finally made it to Hong
Kong safe and sound, but very groggy. Surprisingly both Jason and I
slept pretty well in spurts on the flight but that's mostly because we
had nothing else to do. We couldn't get up often, couldn't see the
movie screen, couldn't move more than 1.5 inches to either side, and
nowhere to plug in our laptops. Jason has a meeting set up with one
company in the morning, then will be at the trade show the rest of the
day. I'm planning on going to the gym and spending some nice time by
the poolside. When it gets too hot out I'll come inside to lounge in
the executive Sky Lounge. But no real vacation yet - I will actually
be writing the results section for my research seminar article
write-up. My brother has lots of fun activities planned for us while
we're here this leg of the trip... tonight we met for a quick dinner
and walk around Man Mo Temple area... tomorrow is either a) night
cruise around Hong Kong Island and dinner afterwards or b) meet at his
office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Landmark_(Hong_Kong)) and
dinner afterwards.

Check back often! We have internet included in our room for the next 8 days.

Less than 20-20-24 hours to go

Until we'll really want to be sedated. The flight from Chicago to Hong
Kong was supposed to be 14.5 hours but apparently now it's 15.5 hours.
Not fun! Today is a busy day of getting the cats ready (no, they are
not flying with us) and the house ready, doing laundry, packing,
repacking, and packing again, running last minute errands, and running
data correlations. I'll have to do some writing when we first get to
Hong Kong for a group research paper (sitting by the poolside no
doubt) but hopefully I'll be able to get it done pretty quickly so I
can enjoy the rest of HK.

We'll be off by and on our way to the airport by about 4:30am tomorrow
so if you want to talk to us, call us tonight.

Practice uploading pictures

 

Hong Kong Harbor

 

@ Big Buddha Monastery on Lantau Island (Hong Kong 2006)

 

Yip & Madison getting ready for the big trip!

 

Fresh sushi on the docks in Vero

Forty-eight hours and thirty-seven minutes

Over the next 21 days we'll be in the air for 48 hours and 37 minutes, barring flight delays and cancellations, which is sure to happen in Asia. Making all our flights will be a little tricky... there are 11 in all spanning 3 countries and 4 cities. Good thing we just got the new Guitar Hero: On Tour for Nintendo DS to keep us busy on the plane (19 hours of battery life gets my vote).

Our agenda is to spend a little over a week in Hong Kong for Jason to attend a trade show, meet with suppliers, and hang out with my brother. After that we'll head to Bangkok for a few days, then to Phuket for some nice time relaxing and overlooking the beautiful ocean, then back to Hong Kong for 1 night to collect our things. After that we're taking a stopover in Tokyo for 5 days and then will be headed home through Vancouver.

Phuket was one of Thailand's islands that was hit the hardest by the tsunami a few years ago. It is currently tsunami season so cross your fingers none show up. We're hoping to meet up with my friend Nicole and her traveling partner-in-crime in either Bangkok or Phuket, but we'll just have to see where in the world they are by the time we get there.