Hong Kong

a room with a view.
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I am in heaven as I sit here, 7 a.m., drinking my green tea overlooking Hong Kong. This is an amazing city and we are staying in one of the nicest hotels in it, never mind the world. I woke up early this morning and headed to the fitness center to sit in the hot tub for a morning wake up, after sleeping in my ultra luxurious bed, soft as possible cotton sheets, feather bed, king size down pillows. This is luxury like I have never experienced, and I love it! I am appreciating it as much as possible- tomorrow we fly to Beijing and I’m sure our hotel will be nice but this is Mike’s big splurge. As he says, it’s not everyday that you come to Hong Kong.

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Yesterday we had a great day. We arrived in the city around 10 am and our room was ready but I knew if I spent too much time in it I would end up in bed, fast asleep so we ventured out into the city in search for food. The concierge directed us to the Soho district where we ate a traditional Chinese soup (I asked for NO MEAT, please, and I got duck, cow, and???), then we did some window shopping. There are basically two things to do in this city: shop, and shop. Actually, that’s not true, there is also Victoria Peak, which we ended up climbing yesterday. I knew that if I stopped I would just have to collapse- I was exhausted from my overnight sleep and 2 hours of airplane sleep so we walked and walked, up, down, and all around the city. One of the most interesting things about this city to me is that one minute you can be in a market, where everything from animal intestine to underwear is sold, the next you are in a shiny, impossibly tall skyscraper riding in a glass elevator.

me &mike
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We finally got back to the hotel at 6 p.m. and we decided that since our hotel houses Petrus, “one of the finest restaurants in Hong Kong” (Lonely Planet), that we would just take the “bubble” elevator up there. When we called for reservations they reminded us, collared shirts only, no jeans, no t-shirts. I can’t exactly say I had the best outfit – I did wear a skirt but the Dansko clogs must have given me away as the “backpacker” that I really am. Luckily, when I was packing in Italy my mom INSISTED that I bring makeup, despite the fact that I barely even had room for a toothbrush, so I put some powder and lipstick on and off we went for our eight-course meal overlooking the Hong Kong harbor. It was pretty lovely, I must say.

home sweet home
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After dinner we walked around by our hotel, taking elevators and escalators just for the fun of it. We were in one of the restaurants and we hopped in the elevator, and I chose the ground floor button. It said something about a car park so we figured that it would take us out on to the road where we wanted to go. It didn’t stop where I thought it would (it was glass), instead it continued down for a floor where we couldn’t see what was outside and when we re-entered the glass section we were in a giant shopping mall! We were astounded- under our hotel is a huge mall that we had no idea existed. I think there must be more shopping malls in this city than any other in the world, it is mind boggling. You can’t get away from them. Fancy ones, too with stores like Gucci and Tiffany’s. I try not to get too into the buy, buy, buy mentality but I have to admit every once in a while it gets to me and I think today I will maybe have to at least get one cute dress.

a "foggy" day
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So that’s Hong Kong so far. I am so excited to be here, and I can’t even begin to tell you how good it feels to feel SAFE in a place! Walking around here I never feel like I am about to be mugged, which I definitely couldn’t say for southern Africa. I can just whip out my camera whenever I feel like it, I can carry a hand bag and it feels OK. And it is just fun to have a friend to hang out with- I am used to exploring a new place all alone and it is nice to be with someone who is in as much awe of this place as I am. Traveling alone is great in its own way but for now it is really fun to be with a friend. And I have a lot more of this to look forward to- the day that Mike leaves Bridget arrives from San Francisco and we will stay with her uncle just north of here before we head to India; the day after she leaves I am meeting Steve/Cody in Bangkok and we plan to travel together for a month in Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam; just ten days after he leaves my mom and cousin Julie are meeting me in Bangkok and we will spend two weeks together in Thailand, they will be with me on my birthday. Fun stuff- I am a happy girl right now.