Dec. 10, 2006 - Holiday Lights & Shek O

Need to actually start out with Friday night, our company Christmas dinner. We went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, where you cook your own food. You order platters of meet, seafood & veggies. There are grills in the middle of the table (actually flames under a metal slotted top). You slap your food on there & let it cook. Of course there are a ton of wonderful sauces & side dishes they serve. I couldn't believe the amount of food. It was lots of fun & lets say the sake flowed freely. I'm not a fan of sake, so I was able to make sure the food didn't burn! It was a fun time had by all. The group here is really a good one.

Saturday I didn't do much but run some errands. I had to go pay our electric bill. We've been having it auto-payed, but for some reason that stopped & the first I knew of it was Friday when there was a notice in our mailbox saying our power would be turned off in one business day if not paid. So I went out to where the main office is to get it paid. It did allow me to explore a new area, but nothing very exciting out there. There was a street named Fukk Yiu Street - but I resisted the temptation to be a typical American tourist & take a photo. Just kind of silly. Making the payment was quick and simple, the usual HK efficiency & this morning (Monday) we still have electricity, so I guess it was successful.

Sunday we ate breakfast at our new favorite breakfast place, The Flying Pan. I think the Homestead in Chazy has lost out, except of course for the company we get to enjoy at the Homestead! I went off they Kristin & Steve to explore a new part of the Island. This is their last weekend here, so they wanted to see some more of the outlying parts of the island. We headed to the small oceanside village of Shek O. We went almost to the end of the MTR line (further than any of us had gone before) & then took a bus for about 20 minutes. The views from the bus were spectacular as it climbed up over the mountain to the other side of the island. The buses are great because you can see above the trees if you ride on the upper level.

We got off at Shek O, which is a small village. On the say in we passed the Shek O country club & golf course, very nice! The houses around the golf course were beautiful. I'm sure very high rent. The little village had narrow winding streets and lots of pedistrians. There were several restaurants that were mostly outside, very casual. We walked to the beach & then on the rocks around a point to the other side of the Shek O penninsula. If you check out my photos you will see that I got into watching & photographing the water & rocks. I was actually waiting for the others to catch up, so tryed to get some good water/rock shots.

The thing we all noticed immediately was how quiet it was out there. Just the birds & water, very relaxing. Steve said he'd stay in HK to work, if he could have a place out there. Of course it'd be a heck of a commute. There were lots of people out picnicing & BBQing (a very popular thing to do on Sundays). We had an excellent meal at a sort of Italian place. Wonderful mint lemonade - like an icey with fresh mint leaves mixed into it. YUM! I wasn't too hungry so just had a bowl of pumpkin soup - very tasty.

That night we went to our favorite Japanese restaurant (very international day for eating). Afterwards we saw the Symphony of Lights light show (this takes place every night at 8pm, but the best place to see it is on the harborside). The buildings light up & do a laser/light show to music. It's good. We also got to enjoy the Christmas lights across the harbor. Some pretty good shots of those on the photo site. I'm sure the temperature was in the low 70's which was very nice. Still in short sleeves even at night. It is most pleasant finally.