Meeting Hillary in Hong Kong!

Hong Kong lights
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Hi! After a long flight from San Francicso I finally arrived in Hong Kong to meet my dear friend, Hillary who is taking the year (!) off to travel the world. Wow! My one month trip seems so tiny. But I think I'd get homesick anyway. I already miss my cat! Hillary made it really easy for me in HK. She gave me specific directions how to navigate the airport and the shuttle and she had already found us a place to stay so all I had to do was show up. Anyways, HK is so western, I felt like I was in New York. There is so much international business and tourist travel here, everyone speaks English and it just feels like a big European city. The weather is near perfect. About 80F during the day and extremely pleaseant at night. A bit smoggy for my Pacific wind-blown taste however.

tiniest and cleanest room in the world!
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The Rent a Room where we stayed was tiny but very comfortable. I think it is the cleanest hotel room I have even seen! It has everything, from a safe to the (I hear) ubiquitous chinese electric kettle. All of the electricity is powered only after you put your key in a special slot near the door and you have to turn on the hot water heater some time before you can take a shower. We found that out the hard way after a chilly one. Very energy conserving! In the morning I had a delicious cup of Maxwell House instant with the cream and sugar complete in the mix. Delicious, though not the Peet's I am used to. Boy, I don't thnk I can take much more of this roughing it.

view outside our window
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I only spent one night and one day here before we hopped on a train to Guangzhou to meet my uncle Don and aunt Leah and my cousin Charlotte. More on that coming soon.

Mostly it seems like HK is made up of very air-conditioned shopping malls! We rode on the longest escalator in the world, which is a covered, outdoor series of escalators that takes you up the 'mid-levels" in SOHO, through shops and restaurants and tenament housing. pretty cool.

Walking along the touristy harbour we were stopped by some middle school kids in uniform who interviewed us about Hong Kong for their english class. One of them posed reluctantly with us for a photo.

funny pet sign
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We were walking around and we saw a young couple in pack-packs running around with a lone camera man in tow. (Actually they nearly got hit by a double-decker bus as they crossed a busy street.) they looked quite frantic and we observed them asking for directions from a passer-by and then go running off again. I noticed they had names pinned to their backbacks: Nelly and Jean-Claude. I think they were French. He had very dark circles under their eyes... Was this part of the Amazing Race? We thought maybe so. It certainly didn't look like they were having fun!

windows in the Hung Hom train station
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I'm not drinking the water, even in the westernized big city! and I havent gotten sick yet! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I am a little worred about work, but mostly I dont think about it. That's what worries me! : ) I wonder if it will still be there when I get back?

write to me!

~Bridget