March 16 thru 18

Weekend Away:

This is a little bit of a teaser. I was at a mall this weekend & spent some time hanging out in the food court (you’ll find out why later). Here is a sampling of the culinary offerings at this mall & see if you can guess where I was: Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks (OK, those could be anywhere), Dairy Queen, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Subway, Haagen Dazs, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, and are you ready for this Swenson’s Ice Cream (I haven’t seen one of these since I lived in California back in 1970s). Hint, we are still in Asia. OK, there were tons of other restaurants from all over the world, but I just couldn’t believe seeing Dairy Queen & Swenson’s.

March 16 – John invited me to go along with him to Bangkok for the weekend. He was going to meet a customer who they are trying to convince to start printing in Thailand. This customer actually owns Titlest (the golfing people). John told me to be sure not to mention our dinner the week before with Bridgestone (the other golf people). It’s about a 2.5 hour flight, no problems. Thailand is really a great place. They are so proud of their culture and they make a huge effort to show this by decorating everything with Thai art. We flew into the new airport, which is very controversial. It is huge and lovely, but at less than a year in use, there are huge problems with cracking runway & roads and I guess tons of other things. If you know anything about the politics of Thailand you know there was a coup last fall & the prime minister was ousted by the military. I guess a lot of this had to do with the airport. It seems that the government gave the contracts & LOTS of government money to their friends to have the airport built. As it turns out those people did not do very good jobs at the airport and much of the money was squandered. So now the place is falling apart and the people are mad that the government leaders got away with this. So nobody was really upset to see the other government go, but they do want their democracy back. The military government “says” they are just temporary & will have elections soon, but it keeps getting put off. It seems that business goes along as usual though. The people love their king (the longest living ruler in the world – over 60 years) & he says to be patient so they are.

OK, back to the airport. It is filled with sculpture & art that depicts Thailand. Some of it is huge. It definitely makes you know that you are in Thailand, no doubt about that. We met up with our Cadmus Thailand guy, Meenawat. He is in his late 20’s & spent several years as a young boy living in the states. He is terrific & is a good friend. He drove us to the hotel. Again I noted the pride that is shown in the culture. All along the highway to the airport there are statues what I’m sure are Thai deities. I really should learn more about the religions on these places, but that will come.

The hotel was also amazing. John has stayed here before & told me about it, but I was still amazed. Of course the service was incredible, that is the Thai way. They even have a young man standing at the elevator to push the button for you & he remembers what floor you are on & pushes the inside button as well, then bows to you with hands together at the chest & says “kup kum ka”, which sort of means thank you, but a lot more.

The room was way larger than our apartment in HK. It actually had a living room, kitchen, bed room & bathroom larger than our HK bedroom. We also had a balcony overlooking the courtyard. I could have just stayed here all day, but Meenawat had plans for us. We headed to the office which is in a high rise in the middle of downtown. I don’t think I could ever learn to drive in Bangkok. There don’t seem to be any lane markings & most roads have more lanes going one way than the other. At least they drive on the right side of the street. The office is tiny, but a very impressive building. The guys were talking business of course & there was an issue with the printer not having the information that John & Meenawat needed to give to the customer at the meeting the next day, which would involve customer, printer & Cadmus. They needed to get an answer from the printer & make sure that printer & Cadmus were “on the same page” so to speak when they met with the customer. This has the potential to be a huge account if this first job is handled well. There were some major issues that were threatening to ruin the entire deal.

As it turns out I knew the woman at the printer that they were dealing with. When John & I were in Thailand last April she had taken us out for a few meals & taken me shopping at the night market. I said to the guys, “Hey, let me talk to Joy. I’ll invite her to have dinner with us tonight. I’ll tell her that I enjoyed getting to know her last year and am anxious to see her again.” They never thought she’d go for it, but I used my charm & of course she immediately agreed. Meenawat was amazed. I knew John had brought me along for a reason. I really do like Joy and sincerely wanted to see her again, so it wasn’t really a put on.

We all met at The Seafood Market for dinner. This place was great. You can either buy your fish to go or pick it out (it is all alive) & tell them how you want it cooked. The place is enormous and being a Friday night was hopping. We picked out a bunch of different things. For being so young, Meenawat is very cultured and knows his foods & wines. He always impresses me with his worldly knowledge of these things. Joy & her uncle, Kitti San (he owns the printing company), were a bit late, but that gave John & Meen time to strategize. It really was good to see Joy & we had a great meal. I can’t even remember what all we had or how it was cooked. I know there was lots of garlic and it was all delicious. At the end of the meal they talked their business & all seemed to be smoothed out and agreeable. It was important that they show a united front with the customer so they didn’t appear clumsy and disorganized. We all decided the dinner was a success.

Meen was going to take me to the floating market the next morning. He explained that it was “pure Thai”. It was the old way of doing things & there is really only one left. It is far away & only runs in the morning. To get there in time we would need to leave the hotel at 5am. I was game for this, but felt badly that Meen was going to take his Saturday to show me around, especially that early. The guy works like crazy & John will get calls from him late at night, on weekends, and early mornings. He is totally dedicated, so we hated to make him get up at 4am on his “supposed” day off. I told him I could see the floating market another time, so he seemed relieved and proceeded to take us to a bar at the top of one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok. He said this was the place where they had a special dinner last fall that cost $25,000 per person (and that is US money, not Thai). We didn’t eat anything! The drinks were alright, but as you can imagine expensive. It was fun to have a chance to just hang out with Meen & only talk a little business.

March 17, Saturday - Had a great night sleep & relaxing morning enjoying the hotel. It is very quiet & secluded feeling despite being in the middle of Bangkok. Meen picked us up as the guys had a 2pm meeting with printer & customer. I was not invited (thank goodness) and Meen, bless his heart didn’t want me to be bored, so after a quick lunch at Burger King (what country am I in??), he dropped me off at the largest mall in Thailand (be still my heart, anyone who knows me knows how much I absolutely LOVE malls – NOT). Even living in HK has not changed me that much. Meen did say that if I got bored shopping there is an aquarium in the basement. Now things were looking up a bit.

The area where I was dropped off was the food court, good thing I’d just eaten (although there were lots more interesting choices here than Burger King). You know from above all the US food places there were. As this is the largest mall in Thailand, the US choices were actually only a very small percentage of the offerings, but all of them were packed. It was about 12:30 & they were coming to pick me up at 5:30. I was to meet them at Starbuck’s which fortunately is where they dropped me off as there are 2 other Starbucks in this place. There was a large grocery store on this floor, so I decided to check it out. I just think it is interesting to see what there is in the food stores. It must sound like I’m obsessed with food, but not really. I just think you learn a lot about a culture looking at the everyday things like grocery stores. I have feeling this was not an everyday sort of grocery store. It was really upscale, they were even doing chocolate sculpting, which since I’ve returned to HK I guess is something the do around Easter, because all of the nicer grocery stores here also have this now. I did find some PEZ that I almost bought for Brooks, he collects them, but I’m need to see if he has these already. They were not Thai characters, but Disney, naturally.

Having exhausted myself with food looking, I had to see what this aquarium was. It got lost a few times as this mall I guess has 3 or 4 different buildings & I ended up in the basement of the wrong building. If you think malls in the US are crowded, you’ve not seen them in Asia. It is just amazing to me the number of people crammed into this place, all shopping & eating (it wasn’t cheap). I guess that is a Saturday in the big city. I did meet a nice young Scandinavian couple who were also lost & looking for the aquarium, so they tagged along with me until we found it.

The theme for this place was The Little Mermaid, so definitely geared towards the kids. The aquarium was fairly impressive for being in the basement of a mall. It was 2 floors & had several huge tanks. In fact you could pay extra & get a glass bottom boat ride in one of the tanks it was that large. I chose not to & was glad as the view I think was better from the side & the line was terribly long. They had a few shows, Mermaids swimming around was one of course. You couldn’t even get close to any of the shows there were so many people. I didn’t mind, it didn’t look that good. I did find it interesting to see some different fish than I think I’ve seen before. I think my favorite was the one that had fins that looked like feet & it sort of walked along the bottom. I also liked the water rats. They looked a lot like beavers, but with rat-like tails. They had big buck teeth like beavers. I’m sure they are in the otter family. It spent about 2 hours down there & enjoyed it, but my feet started to hurt.

I headed back up into the mall. This mall was 8 floors & each floor seemed to be a different type of store. One floor was all furniture stores. One was all jewelry stores. There was clothing; purses & accessories, etc….. There was even a health club on one floor along with the sporting equipment. On the top floor was the fanciest movie theater I’d ever seen. It was an entire floor & in what I guess you would call the lobby there were contests going on (a la MTV) & a Japanese dance performance & huge sofas scattered all over the place with people just relaxing. They had a cafe . I had thought about going to a movie, but decided against it. I had brought a book along so I found a nice spot & finished my book. Wandered around some more & when it got close to meeting time I found my way back to the food court. I did a lot of people watching, which is very entertaining in Asia. I love the differences in fashion.

The guys called to say they were within 10 minutes. I went outside to wait. After standing outside for about 5 minutes the guard (the do a security check when you enter) told me to go back inside. I said I was waiting for a friend, but he insisted that I MUST go back inside to wait. I noticed that they were clearing everyone from out front & stopped letting people leave the mall. There were strange things happening with the traffic pattern going by also, it suddenly changed then stopped. All of a sudden a bunch of police motorcycles went by with sirens going & lights flashing & a Mercedes went by with tinted windows. After that everything went back to normal & I was allowed to go outside again. When the guys got there I told Meen about this & he said it had to be someone from the Royal Family going through, that is what they do for them, it happens all of the time.

I guess the meeting had gone well with the printer & customer that afternoon. Now we were going to meet the 3 representatives from the customer for dinner. One of the guys (Ken S) lives in Bangkok and I guess was in the mood for good ol’ American steak. So he chose the restaurant; The New York Steak House. Not what my first choice to eat in Thailand would have been, but then nobody asked me. The other two people were Ken L and Joanne (both over from the US). The three of them were already at the bar waiting for us. The men had martinis and Joanne wine. We all made nice & introductions were made, I was actually the only one needing introducing. The atmosphere was initially on the formal side. We were seated & the waitress came to take our drink orders. She came to me first. I’m not shy about what I like to drink & don’t feel a need to impress people. So I ordered a beer. It was so funny, as soon as I ordered that beer, the Kens & Joanne all let out a big sigh of relief. They laughed & admitted that they didn’t like really like wine or martinis but thought it wouldn’t look good if they were drinking beer. They all followed suit and ordered beers. I guess that was the icebreaker we all needed, because the rest of the dinner was great. Good conversation. Turns out Ken L’s son attends prep school & it is one that plays Kimball Union, so we had some good prep school conversation. Joanne turns out to be a huge NASCAR fan & her husband is a Tony Stewart fan. So she was extremely impressed when I told her I was good friends with a guy who shared house with Tony. And that I’d met him a few times & used to get my kids’ ice skates sharpened in Tony’s garage. She was thrilled. She’s a Junior fan. If you’ve ever lived in Charlotte you can always talk NASCAR even if you don’t like it. You can’t really get away from it down there. They are even going to take a family vacation to Daytona for a race. I don’t get the attraction, but I played it up for the company.

She & I got along great. We talked about our kids and all sorts of other things. It turned out to be a great dinner. I managed to find something besides steak to order & it was very good. I’m not vegetarian, but beef really makes me feel sick, so I avoid it. At the end of the meal we even ended up taking group photos. Again I think it was not bad for Cadmus that I attended. If you know me at all, you know I can keep a conversation going, as long as it isn’t all about printing & this was not. I have since exchanged emails with Joanne and she again said how happy she was that I ordered the beer because she really is a beer drinker & didn’t like the wine at all. I guess it just pays to be who you are & not try to be something different. It has always worked for me.

March 18 – We kind of lazed around again on Sunday morning. It was nice sitting out on the balcony reading the paper & enjoying the breeze. I miss my deck at home. Looks like when our lease runs out in our flat in HK, that we will likely be moving to something less expensive & different part of town. Hopefully we can find something with a balcony or some outdoor space. I do miss that.

It had become obvious that John needed to stay in Bangkok a few extra days to make sure this job got completed properly and the customer left happy. So Meen picked us up and we went out to lunch to his favorite restaurant, Coffee Bean. We let Meen order & he did a wonderful job as usual. I’m not sure what we had, I think Pad Thai, some curry dish, some fried balls of something delicious. It was great. He said that what the restaurant is really known for is it’s homemade desserts. So we all went downstairs & picked out luscious looking treats that tasted even better than they looked. They escorted me to the ticket counter as Meen was going to help John change his ticket. All was well & the flight home was uneventful.

Happy Valley Apartments??

March 14 – Today I looked at some apartments in a part of town called Happy Valley. This is well known because one of the two horse racing tracks is here. Horse racing is HUGE in Hong Kong, everyone bets on them, I mean everyone. On the day of a race you can’t get near the Hong Kong Jockey Club offices that are scattered around the city because so many people are lined up there to bet. We have not attended a race yet, but we will when my mom & sister come in a few weeks. It is supposed to be really fun. For HK$10 (UA$1.30) you can go to the area with the regular people ( as opposed to the “members” area that is enclosed & I hear very fancy). It is right next to the track and I hear very exciting. Another day another blog topic.

Anyway I had called the guy about the apartment in Central that I tried to see yesterday& nobody came to the door. He said to come see the ones in Happy Valley, they were the same. The ones in Central were being renovated. I had been at the office earlier in the day, but forgot to get a map showing where this place was (I’m totally lost without a map). I had gone to the bank also, and that was when I realized I’d forgotten to print out a map (like mapquest). I asked the women at the bank to help me & they did their best. They’d never heard of Hong Kong’s version of map quest & were fascinated by it. They found the location I was looking for, but for some reason they could not get it to print. So they wrote down for me where to go & told me to take the tram towards Happy Valley & get off at the end. This I could manage.

The trams are great this time of year, because it is cool & they don’t smell. They are not air conditioned, so once the hot weather hits you want to avoid them. I hoped on the tram right outside of the bank that was heading for Happy Valley. The trams are very popular with locals because no matter how far you are riding it is always only HK$2 (25 cents). It was a pleasant ride & once you get near the race course it looks almost suburban. The race course is really a huge sports complex with various fields for soccer, rugby, tennis courts, a large track. There were lots of people using the complex, walking dogs, running, playing all sorts of sports. I liked the feel of the area. I found the apartment building (not promising looking) & when he showed me the room I had to keep from laughing. I knew Hong Kong apartments had a reputation for being small, but this was ridiculous. Calling it an apartment was really pushing it. It was more like a hallway with a bed squeezed into one end and a toilet at the other. They had a table with a hot plate on it & a tiny frig, which is why I guess they called it an apartment. It wasn’t really that cheap either.

I think he could tell I was not impressed, so he sent me to another building a few blocks away. This was only slightly better. In the 250 sqft “apartment” included a balcony, so not much room left for the room. Also, not elevators. It was only 5 floors, but I’m sure our people do not want to walk up in the heat without A/C in the stairwell. Another scratch. But I got to see another part of the city, and you know how much I enjoy that.

March 15 – I looked at more apartments today in Central, but they all turned out to be WAY more expensive than advertised. So more scratches off the list. It is a very short list now. Nothing else exciting or interesting.

More apartments - Kowloon & Central

March 13 – Tuesday & I had to go to the bank this morning on Cadmus business. I like doing this because it is an interesting part of the city. I like the little markets on the street that mostly sell fruits & veggies. Just colorful and classic HK.

I have more apartments to visit today. This time it is an area I know fairly well. The main drag in Kowloon-side is Nathan Road. This is a large road lined with nothing but stores. The stores range from every highest end name brand store you can think of & probably some you’ve not heard of because they are that expensive us “normal” people wouldn’t have any reason to know about them to very inexpensive knock off shops. The lower mile of this road (nearest the harbor) is known as the Golden Mile because of all the high priced stores. If you’ve spent any time in HK, you’ve spent time on Nathan Road. I think I’ve walked the entire length of it several times from Tsim Sha Tsui (by the harbor) at one end up to the Night Market & Mong Kok at the other end.

The apartments I had on the list for today were right off Nathan Road, but up from the Golden Mile. I already knew this would be a good area and the ladies at the office would approve. The only question was going to be were the buildings decent & the apartments acceptable. With the budget they gave me to work with, I’m at the low end, so I’m not expecting much. This is one of the 3 most expensive cities in the world for housing costs.

The first building looked promising. Less than a 2 minute walk from the MTR station & nice looking building. There was even a sales office at the bottom. I was shown an apartment and it was terrific. I couldn’t believe it. Very modern furniture, nice view, clean & new looking. This one gets 4 stars. The next one was a few blocks away & quite the opposite. It looked really run down and even I would not stay there (so you know it must be bad). Good reason this one was so cheap (for Hong Kong). This one got scratched off the list.

Next I headed across the harbor to look at a few places in Central, near where we live. One of them nobody answered the bell, so it got scratched, but getting there was interesting. It was on a street with a Chinese name, but under the Chinese it says “Ginseng and Bird’s Nest Street”. Every single store on the street sold ginseng and bird’s nest. People here love bird’s nest, it is supposed to be very healthy & good for your skin. If I haven’t described it before, these literally are bird’s nests. People collect swallow’s nests (I think a very special kind) from caves. The stuff is ridiculously expensive, like several hundred dollars an ounce (that’s US dollars). The nest is made from the bird’s saliva, so it is soft & gelatinous when cooked. They like to make soup from it that is served for dessert. I’ve had it & it is a very delicate taste, nothing special in my opinion.

I looked at one other apartment in this area that was really nice. It had a great workout room. They had a piece of equipment that looks like a saddle for a horse. It was like a small bull ride. I guess it rocks back & forth & the lady said that the women like this one because it helps their waist & hips stay slim. I’d just never seen one in a workout room. Maybe I’ll have to get me one of those contraptions & get my waist in shape!! Long day, but at least there are some viable options & my search may be over soon.

Tai Chi and apartment hunting

March 12 – Mondays & Fridays are the days they have Tai Chi classes at the community center down the street. I’ve been trying to go for a few weeks now, but something comes up or I forget. I’ve now put notes up all over the place to remind me to go. So this morning being Monday I finally got dressed & out the door in time for the class. When I got to the building I didn’t really know where to go, so I followed a man who looked like he was dressed for exercise. I ended up following him to the government tax office – oops. I went back downstairs & to the information desk at the back side of the building. I asked the young man were the Tai Chi class was. He had no idea what I was talking about. There was a cleaning lady there also. Both looked completely confused by my question. I repeated it more slowly “Where is the Tai Chi class?” Still blank looks. He said show me what you mean. So I did my best at demonstrating Tai Chi moves. He said “You mean Kung Fu?” I said “No, Tai Chi.” and did some moves again only very slowly. They both had a light go on & said “Oh, you mean Tai Gey, no Tai Chi.” He said, “Yes, Tai Gey in that room there, but not today, it cancel for today for some other thing going on.” Wouldn’t you know it. I finally get out & get there & find the place & it’s cancelled. Well at least I know where to go next time.

I went home & did my yoga CD which I figured as a fairly good substitute. I went into the office later in the day & asked them about the difference in the name. They said yes, he was correct, Tai Chi is English, in Chinese it is Tai Gey. I have a feeling the “Englishman” who came up with calling it Tai Chi, thought he was using a Chinese name. Oh well, now I know & so do you!!

While I was in the office Ruby asked me to help her with a project of finding a service apartment for visiting sales people. The lease on the corporate apartment we have now will be up in a few weeks, but people will still be coming over. There won’t be enough people often enough to need to have an apartment available all of the time, but they will be staying for a few weeks, so it is pretty expensive to go the hotel route. I thought this sounded like good project for me. She had a list of places & wanted to know if I would visit them & see which ones looked acceptable. This meant looking around new places that I’ve not been before, right up my alley.

I found one place that is only 2 MTR stops from work, the same stop I had to go to pay the electric bill for the office. For some reason John just got the first bill & it is a shut off notice. I guess there was some miscommunication somewhere along the line. They will not take credit cards, only cash. So I get this mission. I found the place just fine & the woman was very happy to take my cash (almost $1,000US). This area is called Shim Shui Po. John & I went here before to get the guitars for our Play Station Guitar Hero game. We did not walk around the area, just went straight to the mall with the video game stuff then home.

So this time I had a chance to check it out, being a weekday & not so many crowds. From the power company office to the service apartment I was looking at was probably about 10 blocks. I had to walk back to the MTR station & then 7 blocks in the other direction. This gave me a good opportunity to see what the area was like. The only way I can describe it is very very local. There are outdoor stalls selling everything from food to jewelry to shoes to pajamas. It is classic Hong Kong. There are mostly HK style food shops, that means noodles & fish balls. I didn’t see any other westerners there at all. It was fun to look around & see everything you can imagine for sale. There were even some old women emptying out bags of used stuff to sell. It was like a yard sale on the street.

As I got closer to the apartment building the area got more & more local looking. It was actually kind of dirty and run down. The apartment building itself was very new and nice, a sort of oasis. Right across the street was an elevated high way, that goes out to the airport & beyond that a park. I looked at the apartment & it was nice, but it made a big difference what side of the building you were on and how far up. Of course the higher floors are more expensive. I collected the managers card & told him I’d call.

I remembered that this area had a mall with an ice rink in it. This is one of the rinks where the youth hockey team plays. You know me & hockey, I had to check it out. The mall was about half way between the apartment & the MTR down a side street. It is called The Dragon Center & it has a huge lit up dragon on the front. It is a very tall building (I learned later it is 10 stories high) & circular. It took some looking but I found a directory & saw that they ice rink was on the 9th floor, interesting – guess they don’t worry about melting & leaking. I took the escalators up so I could see what else was here. This shopping center seemed to be a maze of tiny shops selling just about everything you could imagine. Mostly fashion accessories & clothes & food. The rink was on the next to top floor. It was relatively small with a low ceiling. The most interesting thing about it was the bright yellow track that wound around the ceiling. I figured out that this was part of the indoor roller coaster that starts at the top floor & winds around the top 2 floors. It was not working when I was there, but I’d sure like to see it. The hockey shop was the size of a large closet (like most shops in HK). I asked if they rented hockey skates & after some confusions about what I meant the answer was yes. They said there are certain times when you are not allowed on the ice with hockey skates though. That didn’t really make sense to me, but I guess they have their reasons. So I’m happy now, I’ve seen all the rinks there are in HK (that I know about anyway). It figures that they play hockey at the worst one. If you live in Charlotte, I can only say that this one makes the rink at Eastland Mall look really good!

When I went back to the office the next day & told the women where I’d looked at the apartment, they were horrified. They said it was not a good area because that is where the prostitutes from mainland China live & work. They said it is OK during the day, but it would be a very bad place to have any people living in an apartment. They laughed that I liked it & spent so much time wandering around. They said the only good thing about the area is The Dragon Center & that is not very nice anymore. I guess that area is known for it’s accessory markets & haberdashery (ribbons, buttons, thread) shops. At least I got a chance to explore another part of HK.

Sai Kung - seafood or should it be seefood?

March 11 – Sunday, no work. John was looking at a tour book & suggested we take a trip to Sai Kung. This is a seaside town in The New Territories (which is the large part of Hong Kong that is beyond Kowloon & closer to Mainland China). Sai Kung is well known for it’s seafood restaurants and fish markets. Neither of us had been out there yet, so even though it was a gloomy day we headed out.

We had to take the MTR fairly far out. Then we could take a bus, but we were having trouble figuring out which one to take & John asked a taxi driver how much to take us & it was only about $12US, so we opted for the taxi. As it turns out Sai Kung is up & over some fairly sizable hills. It was a nice ride, but would have been better on a clear day. It started to rain fairly hard during our ride over. By the time we got there the rain had stopped, someone was watching out for us.

We were dropped by the waterfront and joined lots of other people out for a Sunday adventure in the country. This was a fairly large town & had lots of apartments & shops & restaurants. Many people were lined up along the waterfront looking over the edge. We discovered that they were shopping. The waterfront is a cement walking area that is about 10 feet above the water in the harbor. All along the wall of the waterfront were small boats (7 to 10 feet open skiffs) filled with pans of live fish of every kind. The people on the walkway would tell the guy in the boat which fish they wanted. After some discussion, I’m sure about price, the man took the fish out of the pan & handed it to an old woman sitting in front of a large wooden board. The woman took out at huge butcher knife & chopped off the fishes head & tail. They she proceeded to clean the fish & wrap it in plastic. Some people bought the whole fish. The salesman then put the fish in a plastic bag & placed it in a net that is at the end of a long pole (15 feet maybe). He sends the purchase up to the top & the buyer takes it. The buyer then puts the money in the net & the man brings it down & then puts the change in the net & sends it up to the buyer. It was fascinating to watch this procedure going on all along the waterfront. There must have been about 50 boats lined up along the wall all selling in this manner.

We walked along the waterfront which was lined with seafood restaurants. Each one had tanks of fish for the customers to buy from. You could buy & take home or buy & tell them how to cook it & eat it there. There were more fish than I think I saw at the aquarium. It really was an amazing sight. Some of the fish were huge & I’ve never seen such large lobsters in my life (and I’ve lived in Maine).

We wandered away from the waterfront along the narrow winding streets of the town. There were shops of all types tucked away down dark narrow alleyways. I think the busiest establishments were the hair salons. I guess since Sunday is the only day most people get off, it would make sense that this is when they’d have time to get their hair done. People here take getting their hair done very seriously. Most places give you a nice long head massage when they do the washing. Also, it seems like everyone gets their hair colored here. The old people get it colored black so the gray doesn’t show, now we know why it is so hard to tell the age of an Asian person. And the younger people get their black hair colored or tinted all sorts of colors. Bright red seems to be popular as does purple and orange. These are usually streaks & sometimes just 2 or 3 large streaks in the front. It’s interesting.

We found our way back to the waterfront & got talked into taking a sampan (small boat) ride around the harbor. The woman didn’t speak any English, but she knew how to communicate. She showed us her watch & took her hand around the face one circle – meant a 1 hour ride. She held up fingers to tell us how much. It seemed fair, so we went and anyway it was beginning to rain again. The boat was covered. She set us up with little benches so we could sit in the front for the good view. The boat didn’t go very fast, but it was a nice ride & we got a good view of the outlaying islands and harbor. The engine was sort of loud, so we had her cut the trip short as we were both getting a headache from it. She insisted that I sit in the driver’s seat so that John could get a photo of me driving. She talked to us about where we were going & what we were seeing, but it was in Chinese, so we just smiled & nodded like we understood her. I did get out my map & she pointed to the places we passed. It was fun & she was really sweet (I’m sure it is because she probably way over charged us & she felt guilty, I think you are supposed to bargain with them, but we usually don’t).

Back on the waterfront we decided to have dinner. Most restaurants have someone out front trying to convince you to come in & eat there. We got sucked in to one of the larger places. We went to the tanks to pick out our meal. We had no clue what kinds of fish we were seeing, so we took the easy way out & got some prawns (they were about a foot long) & fresh scallops, still in the shell & spitting. They take the fish out & put it in plastic bags & weigh what you get with this antiquated measuring system with a large hook & some tape on a stick. I guess it is accurate, we didn’t double check them. Then someone comes over & asks how you would like your food cooked. Then you wait. It took about 30 minutes, but it was well worth it. The scallops were served in the shell & were mixed with garlic & thin rice noodles. They were delicious. The prawns were grilled in garlic & white wine & again, delicious. We had rice & some veggie. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but we were stuffed. It was most delightful.
We headed home on the bus. It took a bit longer, but being on the upper level you get a good view of everything. We had no trouble getting back to the MTR & home. The only negative part of the day was all the garlic. It tasted great on the way down, but not so good for many hours later & all through the night as we still tasted it. I like garlic, but I have my limit as to how long I enjoy tasting it. I guess that is the price you pay for rich eating!

Laid back Saturday

March 10 – Saturday and John decided not to go to work – YEAH!! We hung out at home, then wandered Soho (area below our apartment). We went to the frame shop & picked out frames and matting for some of our favorite photos. The man & his wife were very nice & helpful. I felt kind of dumb having to ask their opinion on everything, but I’m not used to doing this sort of thing. They were very helpful.

We tried to go to a Lebanese restaurant for an early dinner, but they didn’t open until 6, so we got sushi from our local grocery store & had a relaxing dinner at home. We watched The Departed on DVD. Pretty depressing movie, but people here were very excited that it got he Oscar because it is based on a movie about HK & written by a HK guy. People here were upset that at the Oscars I guess someone said the movie was based on another movie, but they said Japanese instead of Chinese. The woman who told me this was just amazed that someone could get Japan & China mixed up. She said Japan is very small, China is very big – how dumb does someone have to be to get the 2 countries mixed up. She said I guess because we all are Asian, then Americans think we are all the same. We are very insulted that this guy didn’t know the difference. This was Hong Kong’s chance to make the big time & he thinks we are Japan. It funny how upset this one woman was about it. But the guy should have gotten it right if he was going to bother to make the point. At least now you all know!!

Ocean Park

March 9 – Friday

This morning I walked down the hill to the Central bus depot. I was to meet Sarah at the top of the escalator going down to bus #6. I was a bit early & sat on a step outside a bank branch that is there & very quickly a guard came over & told me I was not allowed to sit there. He said the bank gets very upset. I suppose I look like a vagrant. Sarah & I caught the bus to go to Ocean Park.

Ocean Park is an amusement park/aquarium/zoo. It is supposed to be one of the big tourist places to visit & neither of us had been. We both have visitors coming in the next month, so we felt like we should see if it would be worth bringing any of them here. We paid our fee, after a long discussion which they did not understand about whether at the end of the day I could turn in my day pass towards a season’s pass if I liked it enough. I gather they’ve not heard of that type of deal or we just were not communicating well enough.

We got the map & first disappointment was that the panda habitat was listed as closed for renovation. Of course that was one of the main things we wanted to see. Next was there was no butterfly area, which I was sure I’d seen on another map. Turns out that has been closed down, could not get a reason. We were pretty disappointed by these 2 things, but had paid our money. This park is interesting because it is in 2 major parts. There is the main entrance (where we entered) which has little kids activities & rides. Then there is a cable car that takes you up along a ridge along the coast to an outer peninsula, that has the “older” kid rides & sea life. There was not much to see on the main entrance side. We did find what they call dolphin university, which is where they are training dolphins for the dolphin show. Today the dolphins were getting ultrasounds. This is an education center as well as training area for dolphins.

There was also a rare bird show that we watched. They had parrots & macaws from Africa & South America. These were trained to do some tricks & to talk. There was also the largest owl I’ve ever seen, which swooped down on this poor kid who had volunteered to help. Of course he didn’t hit the kid, but I don’t think he was too thrilled by the experience. It was very well done and this also is a training & education area. They are working towards helping protect endangered species.

At this end of the park there was a hot air balloon on a tether that you could to up in for a look around, but since Sarah is afraid of heights & is was a cloudy day, we opted out of that ride. She did agree to take the cable car even though she warned me ahead of time that she’d act terrified & get sweaty palms, but not to worry, she could handle it. She did fine, but did have white knuckles as she held the edge of the seat the entire time.

The other side of the park has the “big kid” rides. I only went on one, a train roller coaster. It wasn’t very long, but some good ups & downs. It was fun. I went solo at that was just too much for Sarah. I sat in the front seat (couldn’t believe it wasn’t grabbed up) with a young Aussie woman. We had a blast & screamed & put our arms up. Sarah was watching from the side & she said we were the only ones with our arms up & screaming. She said the Chinese people on the ride just looked terrified & were very quiet. Cultural differences!

There are several ocean related exhibits mingled in with the rides. There were California seals – Sarah’s from California, so we were not too impressed with that. A large reef area with exotic fish & sea turtles. Nice large aquarium. My favorite thing in the aquarium area was the sea dragons. They are like sea horses, but with long spindles coming from their heads & tails. It is hard to tell them from the sea weed around them because they have so much flowing from their bodies. They were really interesting looking. The other thing that I loved was the jelly fish house. There were probably a dozen different tanks of jelly fish & the entire house was dark with black lights that kept changing colors. It was a very dramatic effect. It was sort of space alien feeling the way they move so slowly and the lights.

We took a bus back to town and spend an hour or so wandering around the elevated walkways around Central. These are walkways that keep you above the traffic & link a bunch of buildings together. Of course there are shops everywhere, wouldn’t be HK if you couldn’t shop. I resisted any shopping except at Oliver’s, the Western grocery store. I was in search of pizza dough & was not disappointed. I also found muenster cheese, which I’ve looked for since we got here & this is the first time I’ve seen it. Funny the things you end up missing. I also miss good hand crank can openers. Can you believe that I can’t find a good can opener here. I’ve looked everywhere. The ones they sell have a very short turn handle, so it kills your wrist. Don’t worry, Patti (my sister) has it on her list of things to bring over when she comes in about 2 weeks (I can’t wait, to see her & my mom, not to get the can opener).

On my way up the hill to come home, wouldn’t you know it, I passed a framing store. I stopped & he is about the same price as the woman in Stanley & a heck of a lot closer. He seemed very nice & he does the work himself. His English was good, which is always important when doing this type of business so things don’t get mixed up. It will be a lot easier to get John to come here then to Stanley to pick out frames. It was a good day!

Having found the pizza dough, I got the rest of the ingredients so that we could have our Friday night home made pizza. It wasn’t the same as at home for some reason. I think I don’t have the right kind of pan & for some reason the oven doesn’t get hot enough. It is supposed to be at 400, but this over only gets up to about 350 & that is pushing it.

March 8 - Stanley, dinner at Ruth's

March 8 – Thursday

Alan & David asked me if I would mind very much going to the Peak & getting an oil painting like John & I have. I guess they really liked it. I explained that I’d come back after our day in Stanley & the ones out there were really about the same. I think they must have a factory where people do paint by number of the same picture, just changing the colors once in a while from blues to oranges to pinks to browns to black & whites. They all look the same, just different shades. I explained also that the woman is only at the Peak in the evening & I didn’t have an evening to go up there. Since they were leaving today, I decided to be really nice & go back out to Stanley to get each of the an oil (Alan actually wanted 2, one for office & one for home). It’s an easy bus ride out there & it was a nice day & I wouldn’t be long as the order was small & specific.

On my way down the hill to the bus depot, I passed a woman that I’ve noticed before who makes & sells jewelry. It is typical HK jewelry; jade & agate carved necklaces & bracelets & charms. I stopped to see what she had. Alan told me his 12 year old daughter is really into horses & I knew these places always had horse charms, for those born in the year of the horse. I asked the woman, whose name I learned is Gerry, is she could make a horse necklace & she could, but showed me an even nicer one that was already a necklace. The price was right (it wasn’t my money anyway), so I got it & then I decided to get something for his wife as well. I got a circular piece of yellow agate with a green shape in the middle of it. I liked it a lot, so figured she might was well. After all, it’s the thought that counts, even if you didn’t buy it yourself. I was told that she is an LLBean kind of woman, since I’m the same I figured what I’d like she’ll like. Makes it easier.

I then headed on out to Stanley. Went straight to the place I remembered the paintings being the least expensive. They all looked the same so I figured get the cheapest. Even the guy whose pictures were twice the cost of the others & claimed it was better canvas & finer detailed work, looked just the same. At the same place I noticed some embroidered bags that are typical HK. I got a small black one with Chinese characters on it for the wife & a little case with flowers embroidered on it for the daughter (they were all of $5US for the both). Then I saw that they had t-shirts, so I figured that would be a safe & inexpensive thing to get for his 2 boys. I got black ones with dragons & Chinese characters on them, so hopefully they’ll like them. They were about $6US for both, so no big deal if they don’t like them. My task accomplished in record time, I headed home to deliver the packages to the apartment so the guys could pack them up. I think I did pretty well.

John got home early for a change. Poor guy, he’s exhausted from having visitors & entertaining & getting up early to take these guys to China & staying up late answering phone calls & emails. BUT of course he said he met with a customer today who is here from Japan & he speaks no English & just to be nice he offered to take him out for dinner. John was sure he’d say no, but to his surprise he said yes. John asked if I’d please join him since maybe it wouldn’t be so awkward for them if at least 2 of us at the table could talk to each other. It sounded like it would be a very uncomfortable meal.

We met the guy at his hotel, John thought maybe he wouldn’t show, but he did. I had done some research on restaurants in the area (called Sarah, who seems to know a lot about restaurant & everything for that matter). Nobody at the hotel spoke Japanese, so John just started naming types of food: Italian, Chinese,…… and before he got to the 3rd choice the guy said “Steak, please American steak.” So we made a quick reservation at Ruth’s Crisp Steak House which was not very far away & I is certainly good American steak. That was much easier than we thought.
As it turns out he does speak a little English, he was just didn’t have to at the printer in China, because they had a translator for him. He works for Bridgestone, the tire company, who also is into sports equipment, golf balls in particular. He is the director of the packaging design. He told us that he went to University for 6 years to get his degree. We found out that he is married but has no children. He likes to play golf. Between drawing & sign language & his English we learned a lot about golf balls and Bridgestone’s place in the world market. They have a factory in Atlanta so he’s been there 5 or 6 times. All in all it was an extremely pleasant dinner. I guess the steak was good, I had a $20 plate of Portobello mushrooms & veggies. The conversation was sparse, but meaningful & fairly unbusiness related. This allowed all of us to relax & just enjoy the good food and get to know each other a little. He seemed to enjoy the evening as well. He said all he’d eaten for a week in China was Chinese Chinese Chinese, too much Chinese. It was funny to hear him talk about it. We returned him to his hotel & we were home before 9:30.

John called the sales person from his company who is on the Bridgestone account to let him know we’d had dinner with his client. He was really happy & said that he’d been reading up on Japanese culture & apparently they will not accept a dinner invitation unless they trust you, so he was really glad the man had accepted & that it went so well. We do what we can for the company, who doesn’t like having a great meal?

March 7 - office, movie

March 7 – Wednesday

At the staff dinner I promised the ladies at the office that I’d show my face in there today, so I felt obligated. I figured I could find something to keep me busy for an hour or two. I told them I’d come in at lunch as they were anxious to take me to the shopping plaza near the office. Sophia & Ruby had brought some of their purchases with them to dinner (necklaces) & were very excited to show me. They did look like fun jewelry & the prices were great. When I got there they’d just ordered lunch, so they quickly added my order. I guess at the new office they usually just order in because there are not as many restaurants & they are so crowded. It was typical HK cuisine, which means rice or noodles, soup & some kind of meat & greens. They told me I should get BBQ pork because that is John’s favorite. I figured I’d give it a try. It all was good.

Ruby had a job for me to check out service apartments. The lease on the company apartment is about to run out, so they are looking for less expensive places to house visitors than hotels. So I went through the list & found those close to the new office. The Wilson showed up with a check & they all laughed that I should be there the day a big check comes in. I said of course I’d personally deliver it to the bank, guess they do need me a little. Takes a good bit longer to get to the bank from the new office, but it was good to get back out to that area. I like the feel of it, very local and native. Couldn’t stay long as I’d promised Sarah I’d go to the movies with her. John called from China to say that Alan & David wanted to go to the horse races. I was in a dilemma, but in the end I decided to go to the movie with Sarah as I had a feeling that the guys would cop out on the races & then I’d be mad that I’d passed up a chance to see a movie.

In HK you usually order your ticket ahead of time & it is for a specific seat. Sarah’s building is attached to the mall where the movie theater is, so she’d already gotten the tickets. We got popcorn & went to see Dreamgirls – a good chick flick! It just has come out here, we usually get movies a few months after they’ve been released in the states. The theater was about half the size of a US theater, but the seats were leather & very comfortable. The movie was terrific, I could have gone back to see it again the next night. And as it turns out, the guys did not end up going to the races, so I’d made the right choice.

Something funny I heard today. We usually watch the local news in the morning & they said there was a cold warning for today, as the temperature in HK was going to be 12C (that’s low 50’s to you & me). Imagine that all of your northerners who are suffering with below 0F temps, we get a “cold warning” for 52degrees. WOW!!

March 6 - Devil Beaters, Stanley, Korean - again

Mar 6 – Tuesday

Today I was given two tasks by John, to take David to Stanley and to find a place to get some of our photos framed or a place to buy ready made frames. Since Sarah & I had already planned to go out to Stanley together today, the first one was no problem. Sarah had already told me about a woman that she’d used for framing in Stanley, so the 2 tasks worked perfectly together. Sophia had told me about some framing stores in the Wan Chai area, where the old office was. I decided to head out early & get prices on framing from several places, so I’d know what was a fair price.

There is a photo & frame shop just a few blocks from our apartment, so I started there. We had asked this guy before & I remember he’d seemed fairly expensive. My memory was correct, but I took his card & wrote down his price range. I caught the bus to Wan Chai & gave Sophia a call to find out where the places were she had seen. She told me where to look, but also told me that if I had time I needed to head down towards Causeway Bay (the area that Time Square is in) because today was a special day in the continuing Chinese New Years celebration. Today is Devil Beaters day. Sophia said I needed to go to the area under the Canal Road Bridge to see this most interesting Chinese tradition. She said that old women sit on low stools & people pay them to beat the evil spirits out of their lives. She said you tell them someone you want out of your life and they chant & light incense & then put a paper with images on it, onto a brick and then bang the image with the heel of an old shoe. She said there are always one or 2 of these women in this location, but today there would be dozens of them. If you want someone out of your life, this is the day to take care of it. Well, you know I couldn’t miss this.

I knew it would take me about 10 or 15 minutes to walk down there & I had a good 1 ½ hours before I had to meet David & Sarah was going to head out to Stanley on her own & we’d meet here out there. I stopped at a few more frame places on the way to the bridge & got prices. I knew I was near the bridge when I started hearing this constant banging noise, like the sound wooden heals make when walking across tile or brick. There was a crowd of people under the bridge. The old women had set up small temples in the area with candles burning & incense smoking. Each woman had her own little temple. All were decorated with some sort of tiger, either a statue or stuffed animal. Each animal had what looked like a slab of fat or lard laid across it’s back. There were also paper tigers that each person enlisting the services of the Devil Beater got to take away with them. So far I haven’t found anyone who can explain the significance of the tigers or the fat. They just say, “yeah, you get a paper tiger when you’re done, I have not idea why”. I’ll find out eventually.

It was really fun to watch the ceremony and ritual that each Devil Beater went through. Each had a long line of people waiting their turn. I was tempted to give it a try, but I was pretty sure none of them would speak English & there isn’t really anyone I’d want beaten with the heel of a shoe. Guess living on the other side of the planet and not working tends to make for very few enemies in ones life. I noticed one person paying & it looked like she gave the woman $180HK ($25US). I also didn’t feel like spending that amount of money on something I was likely not to understand. I took a video of the whole thing because I wanted John to be able to hear it. The sound was the most impressive thing, just constant banging. It was cool. I was definitely the only Westerner there & got lots of smiles from the Devil Beaters as I took photos. They seemed pleased that I found it so fascinating. My photo site says that I can post videos, so I’m going to try to post this one. It will probably take a day to upload, but I’ll send an email if it works.

I made it back in plenty of time to meet David. We headed out on the bus to Stanley. It is a great ride out there, winding roads, beautiful ocean views. We met Sarah & she having lived in Stanley the first 9 months in HK, knew her way around. She took us to a Tin Hau Temple. Tin Hau temples are temples to the goddess of the sea or fishermen, so almost every fishing village will have one. There is a story that goes with it, but it’s kind of long. There is also an area that has been restored to look like the old fishing village. It is nicely done. Stanley is known for it’s restaurants, but most for Stanley market. You know HK, they love to shop here. Stanley market must have well over 100 stalls with everything you could want, jewelry, bags, clothing, linens, souvenirs, art, the list goes on & on. The prices are OK & you can bargain some. It is a little cleaner & less manic than the night market in Mong Kok that is also famous in HK. Sarah did a great job of showing us the places were she’d found special items or knew were quality products. She also knew what was a fair price to pay for items. As enjoyable as David was to take around, he is not a shopper. In 2 hours of taking him from shop to shop, he bought a little Buddha as a joke for a friend, silk boxer shorts for his 9 year old son, a plain white cashmere scarf for his wife, and a small Chinese painted name sheet for wife & son. He was supposed to be getting gifts for Alan as well, but didn’t seem to like anything we suggested. He was supposed to get Alan an oil painting of HK like the one John & I had purchased at the Peak, but for some reason none of the ones we saw appealed to him. I have to admit that each store had the same paintings, which makes me realize we probably got a line of crap from the woman at the Peak, unless her husband works on the assembly line that does all of these oils. So the trip was pretty much a bust for David, I doubt his son will be thrilled with getting silk boxer shorts from HK. The white scarf was nothing special or typical of HK. Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I was glad that Sarah & I had already planned to make this trip.

David & I had to get back to town for a Cadmus staff dinner with the HK director of the Company that has purchased John’s company. Don’t know if I mentioned this change with Cadmus in an earlier entry. We don’t know if or how this might effect our stay here, we’ll just have to wait & see. For now they say no changes, so we’ll keep enjoying it while it lasts.

We were going out for Korean BBQ, seems to be a favorite of this group. This time it was at a different restaurant in Kowloon. It was fun to see everyone & this time I tried Korean beer. I stayed away from the sake & plum wine, had enough last time. The guy from the new company was really nice & very relaxed & casual. He is married to a Chinese (mainland) woman, so he knows some Mandarin. The group had fun talking with him in Mandarin. It was a fairly uneventful meal, except on the way up the escalator in the building we passed a jewelry store that was called Cadmus. This of course required some photos to be taken. We had to show the others on the way down.

When John & I had told Alan & David about the vodka bar we visited with Keith, they had expressed an interest in seeing it. Before we left for dinner I checked the card I’d taken & found out they had a 2nd bar in the same block as the building we’d be having dinner in. After dinner I told them about this & they decided if we were this close we needed to check it out. So we found the place, put on the coats, had a shot (I declined since it had made me feel so sick last week), & took the obligator photo. They enjoyed it & we didn’t stay long. All in all a good day!

March 5 - Walk to the Peak, with a twist

Mar 5 – Monday

A very gloomy dreary day today, so perfect for doing computer & paper work. I spent a good part of the day doing the FAFSA application for each of the boys. If you don’t have kids in college you may not know what this is. This is the application that you have to complete if you want to get any money or loans from the government for education purposes. It is almost as bad as doing you taxes & since we haven’t filed our taxes yet, it was difficult to complete. Of course their deadline is sooner than the tax deadline, so it makes it complicated. Normally our financial situation from one year to the next is not that different, so this isn’t too tough, but this year with working overseas, well, we have no idea what the tax implications are. So mostly I just gave it my best guess & I can always go back & change it later. Bottom line is it took most of the day to get those done & take care of a bunch of other paperwork things.
John was occupied with the sales guys, so I was on my own. I opted for not joining the for dinner, I’ve had enough listening to business. So about 6:30 I decided that I needed some fresh air. It was still gloomy out & looked like it might rain, but it looks like that a lot here. I have learned that I can’t keep that from letting me do what I want to do or I’d do nothing. I decided I would walk to the Peak on my favorite road. It was light when I left & I knew it would be dark by the time I returned, but it is well lit & well traveled, so I was not concerned. HK is so safe, you really don’t need to worry as long as you are smart & have common sense.

I did better getting up, didn’t have to stop as many times as I did before. Felt good to be outside & getting some exercise. As I figured there were many other people out & about enjoying the evening. It was cool enough for a long sleeved shirt, but not a jacket. As I rounded the top it began to mist & actually felt good. I continued around the front of the Peak back to my road down & as I moved along the rain got harder & harder. By the time it was coming down pretty well, I figured it would be as far to go back to the Peak & take the tram down as it would be to walk. The rain felt good & it was actually very meditative listening to the sound of the rain. It eliminated the other city noises that you sometimes hear up there & you just heard the drops on the leaves and the frogs croaking & birds singing. There were some other foolish people out, a group dressed in suits & nice dresses, which obviously had not expected the rain either. They were having a good laugh about their situation. By the time I got home I was dripping wet, but very happy. The guard laughed with me about how I looked & said I should remember to bring an umbrella next time. Took a shower & had a very good night sleep.

March 4 - Buddha, N'Dour concert

Mar 4 – Sunday

As David had never been to HK before, he wanted to see the Big Buddha. It is the main tourist attraction & you really shouldn’t come here & not see it, although I think that is John’s plan (he still hasn’t been up there). The guys came over for omelets, our Sunday morning ritual. Of course the guys talked business & David & I didn’t get out until very late. I had gotten tickets ahead of time so we wouldn’t have the long wait for the cable car, but we were so late there was hardly a line at all. He didn’t seem to excited by the ride up & I don’t think he took more than one photos. It’s a pretty impressive ride, so I was surprised he wasn’t more enthusiastic. He was nice & pleasant as could be, but just not very impressionable (maybe that’s just sales people). Getting tickets ahead you have to get round trip & as we disembarked we realized that this was not necessarily going to work for us. The line of people waiting to go down the cable car was about 1 ½ hours (they had it marked along the way “45 minute wait from here”). We decided we might want to find alternative return options.

We walked up the 260 stairs to the Buddha. Like everyone that comes to visit, David commented on the amount of exercise you get in HK, just walking about up & down the hills. He took a few photos of Buddha, but again, didn’t seem too impressed. There were more people there than I’ve ever seen before, it was jammed. I’m guessing it might be the last Sunday of the New Year, but I’m not sure. It was fairly humid & warm & we worked up a good sweat climbing the steps. We visited the temple below & again, David didn’t seem impressed & took very few photos. He opted against a side trip to the fishing village or the walk out to the Path of Wisdom. Guess he was just tired & didn’t feel like sight seeing.

We checked out the line for the cable car back down & it was no better. So I said we could take a bus back to the MTR station. Turns out the bus was leaving right then so we hoped aboard. It was a great trip up & over the mountains back to the other side of the island. There was a lot of construction going on so it wasn’t fast, but better than waiting in line for 2 hours. We made it back without further incident & David said he was not going to recommend the Buddha for John to go visit. He kept saying it was a tourist trap & I kept reminding him that for Buddhists, it is a religious sight & very important to them. He didn’t seem to buy this & said unless John was going to become Buddhist, he shouldn’t bother visiting. We all laughed over that. John was glad to have someone on his side about the Buddha.

In the evening I went to a concert with my friend, Sarah. She’d gotten tickets before she realized that her husband would be out of town.. We met at the mall next to her building & had dinner at one of those conveyer belt sushi places. It was really fun. They have green tea powder at the table & a place where you push your cup in & get hot water to make your tea. As items go by that you like you just take them off & you get charged by the number of plates & the color of the plate. The food was delicious & it was a fun experience.

The concert was in Kowloon at the cultural center, a lovely building & the concert hall was great. Our seats were 1st balcony center stage, nice. The artist was Youssou N’Dour. He is from Senegal & has recorded with several popular artists. He has done a lot of work for social issues, especially ones that affect his country. I’d never heard of him, but was glad to have the chance to go to a concert. Right from the first song, it was obvious that this was going to be at a minimum a foot tapping concert. The music was very African with drumming and lots of rhythm. I don’t know much about music, but there isn’t anyway you couldn’t love this music. It just made you have to move & move people did. I was very surprised that people got up from their seats & moved to the aisles & the space in front of the stage & danced & moved to the music. From my experience, in a theater like this, people wouldn’t be allowed to stand in the aisles, but no moves were made to stop them.

We stood most of the performance, as did most of the audience, well except for the people next to me. Sarah & I figured they were French (don’t ask me why, just looked like it). The man next to me looked in his late 30’s & it was probably his wife next to him & obviously her mother next to her (they looked just alike). We decided that the wife/daughter had forced the other 2 to attend the concert & they did so just to humor her. The man spent most of the time text messaging on his cell phone, which he hid from everyone, except me with his program. I think he tapped his foot 3 times & that was the song that had everyone standing & dancing & clapping & shouting. He did smile a few times, but we think that was just to make his wife think he was enjoying himself. The wife/daughter look mildly interested & actually sat forward & clapped with a few of the songs, but not very enthusiastically. The mother held her hands close to her chest and had a look of complete distain & disgust during the entire performance. It was so comical to watch them. They bolted as soon as the performance was over, without even waiting for the encore. For the rest of us, it was raucous and wonderful and left you feeling so good and happy. I was so glad that Sarah’s husband had left town & she admitted that I probably enjoyed it way more than he would have.

So if you get a chance to hear his music, I highly recommend it: Youssou N’Dour !

March 3 - Next guys from US

Mar 3 – Saturday, Chinese Lantern Day

Woke up to one of the clearest days we’ve had in a long time. The weather lately has been so cloudy & hazy. I’m not sure if it’s pollution or just winter weather, my guess is a combo. But today was clear as can be. I decided it was a great day for a hike. We had 2 sales people coming in from the US, but John said they wouldn’t be in until about 2pm. I figured I could be back by then. I had taken the linens to be cleaned from Keith’s visit & they wouldn’t be done until 4 today (Keith left Thurs). The hike I chose looked like a challenging one, but I wanted a view, so I figured I’d go for it. It was a trail called Dragon’s Back & it’s on the other side of HK Island near Shek O (the beach John liked so much). I was about to leave & John asked if I’d come over to the apartment & get some things ready for the next guys, because he had to work on the internet which wasn’t working. Of course I didn’t mind at all. We’d just gotten there & the door opens & it was the 2 sales guys, Alan & David. I guess John was slightly mistaken about the arrival time. So we ended up entertaining them the rest of the day. It wasn’t so bad & I’ll get to do Dragon Back another day, maybe when mom & Pat are here.

We went over to Kowloon-side to our favorite Japanese restaurant, Osaka. These guys felt like having Japanese, they’d just come from a week in Thailand, so Thai was definitely out. They were appropriately impressed & enjoyed the hustle & bustle around the area. Since it was such a clear evening, we told them we really should go to the Peak to get some photos. Alan has been to HK before, but David never has. So Alan wasn’t very thrilled about going to the Peak as he said he’d been twice before, but we convince him to go. We took the Peak Tram, which Alan had never done (he took taxis before & that is a much longer journey). Alan turned out to be very impressed. He said the other times he’d been there he didn’t go to the top of the Peak building & it was also very cloudy. We had a group photo taken at the top & Alan even got one to take home & put in his office. It can be hard in impress salesmen!

Today was Lantern Day. I guess this is part of the New Year celebration & happens on the 14th day after New Years. I happened to find out about this because I noticed at Time Square that they were putting up lanterns all over the front atrium. I asked someone what this was for & they explained it was for Lantern Day, like Chinese Valentine’s Day. They explained that the children & young people who are not married pull fortunes from the lanterns & it gives them a message (I guess like the little Valentine’s cards that kids give out in school). They march or dance around the lanterns & there is candy distributed. I couldn’t find out much more than that. I will have to ask Sophia for a more thorough explanation.

March 2 - Back to Chinese Int. School, lunch with the Heifer Ladies

Mar 2 – Friday

Back up to the CIS (Chinese International School) today for the older kids. Today we had some other guests from Heifer China who were going to talk about the past project the kids sponsored. These are some PR people from the China group in town to help promote their work. When I got to the end of the bus line (no bathroom break this time), there were only 3 other people on the bus. When I got off, it turned out they were Jeanie & the 2 women from Heifer China. We had a good laugh at the fact that we didn’t realize we were riding together. The 2 women seemed very nice. They didn’t speak too much English, but enough for us to have a nice conversation. We were also meeting another volunteer who wants to do the same thing that I’m doing. She has just joined up & came along to observe me in action (imagine that, I’m already training people). She turned out to be American & from NY. So naturally we had plenty to talk about. She’s much younger than I am, has a 1 ½ year old son & is pregnant. Her husband is from NY also, but through some interesting circumstances he is part owner of a factory just over the border in Mainland China. She’s lived here for almost 3 years. She was a teacher until her son was born, so she’s also well suited for this work. She also happens to live the next street up from where we live here in HK. So another potential friend.

The women from Heifer China did their presentation first & it was all in Mandarin, so I have no idea what they said. It really impressed me how the kids could move so easily from one language to the other. The beauty of learning languages early in life & getting the opportunity to use them in daily life. These kids are so fortunate. My presentation went fine & there was another good discussion about water at the end. So hopefully we will raise lots of money from these kids.

Since there were 5 of us, we took a taxi back down to town. The other American had to get home, but I was invited to join the others for lunch. We had typical Chinese, they order a bunch of things & everyone shares. I love it! The other women from the Heifer HK office joined us as well & I sat next to Bianca, who handles corporate sponsorship among other things (they have a small staff, so I think they each do a lot of things). Bianca’s English was excellent & I soon learned that she is married to a Brit. I asked what he does & it turns out he is the Exec. Director of Kadoorie Farms. You may not recall Kadoorie Farms, but I visited it last fall & loved it. I took a million photos of flowers & had one of the best days I’ve had in HK there. I told her how much I loved it & she was thrilled that I’d even heard of it, let alone actually been there. Nobody else at the table had ever been, so I think I instantly went WAY up in her opinion. I told her how much I’d enjoyed my visit to the farm & that I couldn’t wait to take my sister & mother there when they came to visit. She told me to contact her when they were here & she arrange for her husband to give us a VIP tour & we could eat at the staff dining room that serves only organic food grown on the farm. Am I ever glad she sat next to me. The Heifer thing is proving to be good in more ways than I’d imagined.

After lunch they showed me to Time Square (we were right near it) as I had to pick up some items at City Super that I couldn’t find at the local grocery. I thanked the so much for the wonderful lunch. They thanked me so much for my volunteering. The women from Heifer China were particularly thankful that I was helping out. Bianca suggested that I go on the next Heifer trip to China to check out the project & the China women agreed. I told them to show me where to sign up. Wouldn’t that be something, I’d see a part of China that I’m guessing not many tourists get to see. I hope it happens.

March 1 - Heifer at Chinese International School

Mar 1 – Thursday

Today I had a presentation for Heifer at the Chinese International School. Fortunately this school is located at the end of one of the bus lines that goes right past our apartment. I left plenty of time, but had to wait for the bus about 25 minutes. Good thing I left early. I’ve ridden this bus before, but never to the end. It goes through some very populated areas & everyone had gotten off by the time we started climbing the hill. I was way in the back & when we pulled into a bus station about halfway up the hill the driver stopped & got out. I assumed this was the end of the line, so I got out also. He seemed surprised to see that anyone was still on the bus & asked where I was going. I said Breamer Hill & he motioned me to get back on & pointed on up the hill. So I got back on. He got off & headed to a small building for the drivers. I figured out that it was a quick bathroom break. Never thought about the drivers having to use the facilities. He shared a few words with some other drivers who were playing cards & having snacks, then reboarded the bus. We went on up the hill, typical HK road, full of twists & turns & going ever higher & higher. We passed several schools on the way up, but at the very top, I saw the Chinese International School, it was tremendous. Several floors high (I learned it was 8 floors later in the day) & very new looking.

Jeanie, my Heifer companion, was there waiting for me as arranged. She is so sweet & was very relieved that I’d had no problems getting there. I was exactly on time. We had to go through security & get name badges in order to enter the school. We headed to the auditorium, Jeanie has been here before. She loaded our power point onto the computer at the front. The guy she works with at the school showed up & he was an American. He heads up the English department. He explained that today we would be talking to the “little ones”. First group would be K-2nd grade, then the 3 & 4 year students. Tomorrow we would have his group, 5 & 6th years. This school goes up to high school, which is why it is so large. It has been around a long time & is very prestigious. Jeff, our connection, was very casual & friendly, just like at the other school. He spoke fairly good Cantonese according to Jeanie. He said he’s lived in HK for 13 years & isn’t really that good at the language.

Jeanie explained to me that this school mainly teaches in English, but the kids also have to learn/know Cantonese & Mandarin. She said this is one reason why many people want their kids going there. There were many more Chinese children at this school than the first one I went to.

The little ones filed in & were very well behaved. The project this school sponsored last year was different from the other school, so I had to adjust my talk accordingly. Jeanie asked if I’d do both presentations, as they wanted it in English & I could do it better. I happily agreed. Last year this school raised over $350,000HK (close to $50,00US). The project they sponsored was to purchase honey bees for some communities in the mountains where farming is difficult and the level of poverty is very high. The kids loved that they’d bought bee hives. We had some lively discussion about why bees were a good thing for these people and how it improved their lives. I read 2 letters from kids whose families participated in the project & they talked about how much the bee hives had improved their lives. The girl had never had any new clothes & with the money from the honey & wax, she was able to get a few new clothes & their diets improved considerably. The boy said that nobody would ever come to his house to play because it was so awful and they never had any food to share. But after a year with the bee hives the family could remodel their home and now they could afford better & more food. The kids liked hearing these stories.

Then I spoke about the project they will sponsor this year. It is the same as the other school I went to, building water tanks & giving pigs. The kids were amazed that the children in the new area have to spend about 6 hours a day collecting water for their families. They quickly figured out that either the kids couldn’t go to school or they wouldn’t have the time or energy to do anything but go to school & collect water. It was interesting to see the kids figure this out. They also thought the pigs were cute, until on smart boy near the front figured out that in order for the families to make money from the pigs they were most likely going to have to kill them for the meat. He wasn’t very happy about this, but we kept it quite so the other kids wouldn’t get upset about “their” pigs getting killed in order to help. By the time the boy left, he guessed it was OK, since pigs have lots of babies & pork is one of his favorites foods. Overall, the kids behaved very well & I seemed able to keep their attention for the 20 minute presentation (thank good ness).

Jeanie & I ate lunch on the 8th floor (that’s how I knew how many floors) in the cafeteria. It was a good Chinese lunch of rice & veggies. The second group went very well also. Same presentation & pretty much the same reaction & response. Only thing that was different is that the teachers were so excited about the new project, because these grades have been studying water, so this fits perfectly into their curriculum. We were very glad to hear this. There was a lively discussion about water & what they’d been learning all year about it. When we were done Jeanie asked me if I would mind very much coming back the next day for the older group. The person she’d asked to help her never called her back & she felt like I had a good handle on the material. Of course I was more than happy to oblige her. We took a mini bus back (holds 16 people) & it’s generally faster than the city buses. It’s always a fun experience being around native folks as I get a chance to ask all my stupid gweilo (that’s white person) questions. Fortunately the people I’m with never seem to mind.

Feb. 25 - 28 Lots of things.......

Feb 25 – NP360, Buddha, Tai O, Stanley, Aberdeen, The Peak

Not doing very well with my blogging since I’ve returned from the holidays. I’m not working any more, but seem to be keeping myself pretty busy. So today is March 8, I’m over a week behind. The good thing for those who wanted brevity, is that my memory isn’t so good, so there will be many details that I’ve forgotten.

So on this Sunday my job was to show Keith (the Cadmus guy here for the week from the US) some of the HK sight, a mission I’m happy to undertake. He wanted to see the Big Buddha on Lantau Island, a must see in HK. Having been before I knew just what to do. Since this trip was not decided on until the last minute, I couldn’t buy the tickets for the skyrail (cable car) ahead of time. This meant waiting in line for about an hour. It wasn’t too bad & the weather was fairly comfortable & not so humid. The skyrail was spectacular. This being my 2nd trip I knew what to expect. It is fun to see other’s reactions though. It was a nice clear day so good for photo shooting. (this photo is NOT Keith, just thought this guy looked so cute with his New Years pinwheel trophy)



Since I’ve described the Buddha in detail on other occasions I won’t do it again. I’ve learned a few tricks, like you don’t HAVE to buy the $7.50US tickets which include a veggie lunch in order to climb to the top (260 stairs). If you really want to go into the enclosed area under the Buddha, (museum of sorts, but the most exciting thing is the Buddha relic – piece of his bone – that is the size of a grain of rice & behind several sheets of glass, so it’s almost impossible to see & not too awe inspiring for non-Buddhists) you can just buy a much cheaper ticket for that. We just climbed the stairs. We wandered around the temple which was fairly crowded, typical for Sunday. People are still celebrating the New Year, so the temple is where they go to light lots & lots of incense & have their fortunes told. We also went out to the Path of Wisdom, which was no longer under construction like the last time I went. Much nicer now.

We then took the bus out to Tai O, the fishing village & Keith got the obligatory photo of the shark skin & all sorts of dried fish. He bought a beer for 50 cents & drank it as we wandered. No open container laws here. We hoped another bus & headed to the village where we caught the ferry back to HK Island. It was the slow ferry, but nice weather, so it was very pleasant to sit outside. The guy next to us looked like an experienced British ferry rider. He looked in his 70’s & had several cans of beer that he consumed on the ride, he also had snacks & read the paper. I guess his relaxing Sunday ride. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stayed on & rode it back again. Maybe time to get away from the wife or something, who knows.

We’d been in contact with John who stayed home to do some work & he met us at the ferry pier. We caught a bus from the pier out to Stanley Market, which is on the south side of the island. John likes to take people there, it is easy & less stressful shopping that the night market. When we arrived it was about 5:50 & the market closes at 6 (OOPS). Turns out many places didn’t really close up until 6:30. It was almost empty & many shops were closed already, so it made it pretty easy. Keith did a good job getting things for family & friends & getting them quickly. It is interesting to see how different people work the shopping thing.

We hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we decided to try a seafood place that I had heard was good in Aberdeen. It sort of a tourist place, but supposed to be good. So we took a taxi to Jumbo Restaurant. It is supposedly the largest floating restaurant in the world. It doesn’t go anywhere, but you do have to take a boat out to it. Very fancy & Chinese. We got the set dinner which was great. We had fish soup, shrimp, seaweed salad, scallops, crab balls, a whole fish (this is the Chinese way of serving) which was delicious. I think a few other things. The dessert was the most interesting. I’d been telling Keith about how taste buds are different in different countries. I said what the Chinese consider sweet, we would not consider so. They love red beans & make candy and ice cream out of it. It is sort of strange for Westerners. Well our dessert was red bean & lotus seed cream soup. It was a hot soup & slightly sweet, but had tiny red beans in it & was red colored. Keith was not impressed. It was OK, I think John liked it.

It was such a clear evening that we decided Keith should see the Peak lest it be cloudy & he miss it later in the week. So we hoped a taxi to the Peak. It was indeed an excellent night for photo taking up there. We even talked to a woman selling oil paintings that she said her husband paints & she sells every night up there. They were mostly of HK in different shades, some at night with a moon, some at sunset, some very pink ones (strange). We each bought one, they were like $12US, so no big deal, but I think will look nice framed on our wall. Easy to transport. Since Keith felt like he missed dessert, we got some gelato & all were happy with that. The Italians know how to make sweet sweets. We took the Peak Tram down & were all pretty tired. I told Keith I think he set a record for any visitor we’ve had in visiting the most places in one day. We were all worn out.

Feb 26 – Dragon & Lion Dancers, etc…

Today I went to pick up the thing that I’d taken to the tailor to have made. Not sure if you remember, but this was for John & I thought is was something for the company, a sample or something, so I agreed to get copies made of this garment. It was a terrycloth swim suit cover all (one piece, shorts & strapless elastic top). After I took it to the tailor, Mrs. Poon, John tells me it is for his boss’s mother-in-law. Imagine sending something like that here to be made, I didn’t really get it. Anyway, I don’t think Mrs. Poon understood that the garment was not for me. I had tried to tell her to copy exactly, not for me. She kept wanting to make it bigger. Well, she made it bigger. Not a lot bigger, but definitely bigger. She wanted me to try it on & I had to say, no, not for me. It ended up costing about $50US, so I don’t think the boss is going to be very happy. I don’t know what it costs to have things made, but it was so simple I think it could have been done for that in the US.

I had to go to the post office & had found out the nearest one was down the hill on Queen’s Road, near the tailor. Walking along Queen’s Rd I naturally passed some little clothing stalls. I had to stop & a few had some bigger sized T-shirts. I got a couple of them because they were so funny. One I got says “Crusty Demons” on the front in Goth lettering. I got this for Brooks girlfriend for her birthday. The funniest thing about it is that on the inside where the label should be (there was no label) was printed “made in China by the tallest people we could find there”. This just cracked me up. I also found a t-shirt for my friend, Sue, who also has a birthday. This one was much stranger, you know why this stuff is sold here & not in an English speaking country, because half the stuff is misspelled & often what is written doesn’t mean anything. So here is what Sue’s said: “VOICE HEARI AYRO” in large letters, then under in small letters, “It you nsicn carefully to the voice of HER your God and do what is righr ia his eyes, if you’pay attention to his commands and heep all his decrees, t will not hrhr on you any of the diseases and heals co B005” Don’t ask me what it mean, but I thought Sue would find it amusing. I got one for myself that reads “HEAT” then under that “CELEB” then under that “ATTENTION”, then written over those words “CHEERFUL GIRL”. I just liked the Cheerful girl part.

I did find the post office & it was in the huge building that we can see from our apartment that has really nice lights at night & I’ve never known what building it was. It is called just The Center. There are government offices & other random offices in it & the post office. Had to go to 3 different windows, it is very confusing. You can do a lot of things at the post office besides send mail, so there are lots of windows for many different things & what they write in English is more British English, so it doesn’t always make sense to us Americans.

As I exited the building I happened to notice that they were putting up a display or something in the area in front of the building. I noticed a sing saying “Dragon & Lion Dancers at 1:30”. It was 12:45, so I decided to wait & see what it was all about. Dragon dances are a big deal for the New Year, very traditional & people go crazy over them. I was the first one there so staked out my spot. I’d learned from the New Years performances. The guards made me move back some & people kept trying to get in front of me & the guard would move them back behind me. One woman get next to me & she took it upon herself to make sure I retained my front spot. She didn’t speak a word of English, but spoke to me continuously in Chinese. It was so funny. I think she knew I didn’t understand, but she just wanted to talk. When the guy who is like the Chinese father Christmas came out with a basket of goodies, she made a point of getting some & gave them to me. They were red envelops with candy & we decided it wasn’t very good so we both gave our extras to a little boy near us, he didn’t like them either. She also went back a few times to get different strips of red paper with gold Chinese writing on them. I guess they each have a different meaning to bring you luck for different things. She got me a bunch of them & explained in detail what each one said. I understood none of it, but smiled & nodded politely. I guess I was her project for the day.

When the dance finally started I did have a good spot & got some great photos (my new friend made sure of that). The music for the dancing was provided by several huge drums & some symbols, that’s it. So it was very loud, but fun. The dragon came out first & it was a long dragon on several poles held up by probably 15 or 20 people. One person holds up a ball on a pole & leads the dragon around. They are very agile & fast & had to keep changing out dancers as they got too tired to keep up. At one point they gave the ball pole to a man in a suit (I’m guessing a government official or bank president) & he had the honor of leading the dragon, everyone cheered for him.

Next up were the 2 pole lions, that actually looked very much like dragons to me, but they were 1 person in a suit, covered by the suit. These guys climbed poles that were about 25 feet high held by people at the bottom. There was a cross bar that they danced on & leaped off of & did all sort of acrobats on. At the end they were served some lettuce with long poles & the lion took it in his mouth, held it there, then spit it out all chewed up. Next they were given a scroll & at the appropriate moment, confetti was shot into the air & the lions let their scrolls were released to reveal a long scroll with what I assume was a special New Years message. Everyone cheered like crazy.

The high point of the performance was the lion that walked on poles. There were about 10 sets of metal poles that were about 10 feet high, set up in a row with metal circles on top of them, barely enough room to stand on. This lion (2 men under a lion suit) jumped onto the platforms & leaped & jumped from one to another & stood on each other like raring up. They twisted & turned & you always felt like there was no way they would land on that little platform safely & they always did. They were really incredible. I can’t even describe how amazing & impressive it was. It ended with great cheering from the crowd & the dragon & all the lions dancing together & taking bows. It sure was a fun event to happen upon, I’m so glad I got to see it.

The rest of my day was spent looking for some books for John. It turns out there are not large book stores here like we have in the US. The largest I could find in our area was probably 1500 sq. ft. They had lots of books, the Chinese are great at fitting lots of stuff in very small areas, but not what he wanted. I was also looking for maps of Asian countries that are notebook size & stiff & durable. Nobody had a clue what I was wanting. I went to 4 different book stores, it was very frustrating. Thank goodness for Amazon.com!!

Feb 27 – Back to the temple & Walled City Park

It still being New Years (it lasts in earnest for the first 2 weeks after the actually day & really for a month afterwards), Sarah & I decided to do what all good Chinese folk do & go to the temple to have our fortunes read. We headed out to the best temple for fortunes (the one I’d been to last week), at Wong Tei San. The place was absolutely packed with people all over the place burning incense & fake money, praying & making offerings & doing the fortune stick thing. I bought myself a New Years bobble – it is a stick wrapped in shinny red ribbons & has a big circle with 4 little pin wheels on it. There are other ribbons of red & gold all over it & other decorations. Everyone had them & they came in all different sizes. We got our incense & fortune sticks. We made our wishes & then headed for the fortune telling area. We got sucked into seeing the first woman who had English written on her booth. Sarah had her palm read & it was not very clear what the woman was talking about. The woman took Sarah’s numbers & said about the same thing about the 2 numbers as she did about the palm. We weren’t very impressed. We next went to the woman I’d used last week. We had to wait, but it was worth it. She was much clearer. I couldn’t remember the numbers I had gotten (probably very bad luck), so I passed on the fortune. I’ll have to stick with the one I got last week.

There is a little meditation park near the temple that has a large pond that is filled with turtles. It was very peaceful to walk around. It was lunch time so we went to the little mall near the temple & had Chinese soup. On our way out we were looking at the map to figure out if we could walk to the Kowloon Walled Park. A woman very nicely asked if she could help us. I explained where we wanted to go. She started talking to some other people & they all gave suggestions in Chinese & she translated to me. He was drawing all over my map & trying to show me where to catch the bus & which bus was best to take. Sarah said afterwards that at one point there were no less than 10 people surrounding me making suggestions in Chinese. It was comical, but very nice of them to be so helpful. We laughed afterwards that we could have been at the park in the time they spent trying to tell us how to catch the bus & where to get off. Must have been 10 minutes doing all of this.

We finally told them we now knew where to go & would be fine & thanked them profusely. They wanted to take us to the bus stop, but we said that was not necessary. We wandered out & did our best to find the bus area, but after all of that, we couldn’t find it. We were laughing so hard. We finally looked at each other & said “Hell, let’s just take a taxi, it isn’t that far.” It was not far at all & once in the taxi we saw the bus depot. Oh well.

I’d been to the Kowloon Walled City Park before. It is a peaceful & relaxing place. Nice after the hectic temple scene. We walked around enjoyed the waterfall & rock sculpture. Sarah explained to me that the Chinese design their parks to resemble larger areas in nature, so the rocks were probably supposed to represent mountains. It made sense. We walked back about 10 minutes to the MTR station. I avoided taking out my map again for fear of getting “help”. Having done this trip before I knew where to go. No more adventures or misadventures on this journey.

Feb 28 –

Not a very exciting day. I worked on our taxes most of the day. We had to have all the info in to the tax prep people by today. There were many on-line forms to complete & copies of papers to scan. Not much fun, but it is done!! I went over to the Heifer International office to see the power point for the presentation that I’d be doing tomorrow. This school had a different project that they sponsored last year, so I needed to brush up on that. No problem!!

This evening I walked into our bed room, which has a good view of the harbor & something was really different. I did a second look at the harbor & there was this gigantic ship going by. It dwarfed the ferries & other boats out there. As it went by I could easily read on the smoke stacks “QUEEN MARY II”. WOW, I called for John to come take a look. I was not quick enough to get my camera out before it disappeared behind the buildings. I quickly called Sarah to tell her to look out her window. They had not seen it coming & were impressed as well. Sarah keeps up with local news better than I do, so she knew it was in town. I guess the harbor where the cruise ships usually dock is not large enough for QM2, so she had to dock out where the big cargo ships dock & ferry people in to port. It was an impressive sight.