Thanksgiving Etc.

THANKSGIVING!!!!

In the morning of our Friday Thanksgiving we had a meeting at VF Corp HK. We were toured around by Tommy Lo who gave us an introduction to the company and then we spoke with a lady, Edith, who dealt with logistics and planning deliveries. Next Rob Sinclair, VP of Asia Sourcing, came and talked to us about his history. He used to be VP of design at Ralph Lauren and worked for a guy that started the Hong Kong district which is now Lan Kwai Fong and turned around Ocean Park to actually make money for the HK government. He ended up in Asia because he was backpacking and worked as a bartender where he met the LKF guy. Now he is a fabulous guy wearing a powder blue corduroy Nautica jacket. He was really intriguing and very helpful and insightful. After talking to him a bit we split up and I went to speak with Mitch Whitaker, General Manager of Action Sports. He was awesome!! Super handsome, casually (surfishly) dressed, very chill. He told me all about his team and their plans for marketing of Vans and Reef in Asia. He seemed like a cool boss and he said they have positions open, but can’t fill them because Chinese people do not really know the brand yet where as in the US people would be lining up to work for Vans. We had a short wrap up with everyone and then they gave us a gift of a VF water bottle, a makeup pouch, and a North Face bookbag. Insane. The meeting went so well and they tailored everything to our foci and were just so interesting! After we left it was time to get busy on dinner.

We went to the Millennium Training Restaurant after a last minute stop at the grocery store and got straight to work. Stanley gave us full chef uniforms with white hats and shirts and checkered pants. It was very legitimate. We literally spent from 2pm to 7pm cooking. We made too much food: sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, chicken casserole, macaroni & cheese, hashbrown casserole, green bean casserole, and a turkey! The chef helping us, Jason, was great and cooked the whole turkey for us basically. We had a ton of fun and somehow managed to get everything done just in time. The industrial strength ovens probably had something to do with it. I went down to be the greeter while the others got the food on the cart to bring down. We set up shop in a slightly dark part of a courtyard with one table for the good and everyone just gathered around on the brick ledge. Everyone was so thankful to be invited (which of course they would have been) and they all loved the food! We had lots of leftovers and ended up meeting for lunch the next day to finish them. About 20 people came to the dinner including Maria’s parents. We also went around and said what we were thankful for and of course I almost cried several times. We all had a great time drinking wine, eating food, and sharing our tradition with all the other exchange students.

Trying to figure out the turkey

TOO much food

Everyone after eating

Night in the Halls 

Margaux had some French cheese and sausage sent to her so she invited us to the common room to share in her feast. The food was SO good and we had about 10 baguettes. After our little snack everyone congregated in the common room for the rest of the evening and played beer pong with American rules (instead of Chinese). We all had a good time just hanging out in the halls.

Pancakes

The next day was Jon’s pancake morning!! Jon loves to cook (and is really good) so we helped him make pancakes and blueberry syrup from scratch! Everyone just spent a few hours together on Sunday morning/afternoon and just chatted in the kitchen. We each brought different toppings to add so we ended up having quite the feast.

The chef at work

Mongolian Barbeque

For lunch about 16 of us went to a Mongolian restaurant (like Crazy Fire). For those that don’t know, Mongolian barbecue has a buffet of raw meats, vegetables, and spices that you walk through and pick out your favorites. You put everything you want in one bowl and had it over to the cook at the end. It is an interesting philosophy because if you don’t like your food, you only have yourself to blame. They cook the food for you and bring it out when it is ready. Here you could even make your own pizza! It is a fun place to go with a group though because everyone can get what they like and it is quick! Another interesting restaurant option in Hong Kong! 

lunch time

Weekend Events

Lantau Hiking 

After my mom left I had planned on going to Shenzhen, but that plan quickly changed. Andrew and I ended up going hiking with Lorena (German) to Lantau Island. We attempted to climb up to Lantau Peak and realized it would take forever, be painful, and turn dark before we even got close, so we went back. The hike was really nice though. Then we decided to take another short hike before heading back to the village. We followed the signs… until they stopped. There was a sign to continue to the village but said it would take 1.5 hours and there was no sign for the shorter trail AND it was about to start getting dark. We didn’t want to walk all the way back up the hill so we decided to keep walking. We saw another sign, over an hour left. By this point we decided to start running. Literally all three of us were sprinting down the side of a mountain, surrounded by gorgeous lush forest, and dark setting in. We made a joke out of it and even had a quick stop to make a Blair Witch inspired video. We made it down to a bus stop just before dark. It ended up being a great adventure that thankfully ended well!

On the Trek

French Connection Night

Later I decided to go to Ned Kelly’s yet again. There was a smaller group this night, mainly comprised of French people.  They had eaten dinner there and already finished a few bottles of wine. For the most part I chatted with JB and met a few new French. After one of Michael’s sets he ordered me a small version of the initiation shot he takes every time he plays. It was pretty disgusting, but I felt accomplished. Since I was worn out from the eventful week with my mom I figured I would go to sleep early until Amaury (French) convinced me it was a good idea to go to LKF. So I went! We almost got in a tiff with our taxi driver because he went through the wrong toll and said we owed him more money. We are not tourists so we were not going to pay him for this obviously intended ‘mistake’. Eventually we just got out and walked away. We went to a random bar and I spent most of the evening dancing with Michael to the most random assortment of music. It was fun to spend time with new people and now I hang out with the French people much more!

The disgusting initiation drink

Mexican with the Leknes’

The following week Maria’s parents were visiting from Norway and she invited us to dinner in SoHo at a Mexican restaurant. Bodil and Knut Leknes were so much fun and really trying to encourage us to come visit them in Norway and telling us everything we could do there like fishing for our own dinner. Bodil was cute and cracking up at what Andrew was saying the whole time. It was a great dinner, but unfortunately we had to get back to work on homework.

Dinner with the Leknes'

MOM! Here in Hong Kong 2

Tuesday:

The day for Big Buddha. We woke up pretty early and started out for our trek to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island. You may think the Buddha was built several hundred years ago by monks carrying huge chunks of brass up an entire mountain. But you would be wrong, because it was built 20 years ago as a tourist trap. The Buddha itself is pretty cool to see though so we took the cable cars up to the top of the mountain and then walked the steep steps up the rest of the way to the main himself. There isn’t actually much to do up there so after we walked around inside and outside, we headed back down to try and find a hiking trail.

Mother with Buddha

We stumbled upon a part of the Lantau Trail that was called the Nei Lak Shan Country Trail. It ended up being beautiful! It was a trail in the wilderness with just a dirt path that followed the side of a mountain. The view was excellent of the surrounding mountains and eventually you could see down to the city far below. It was a peaceful walk, but still a decent workout. We did not want to go too far so we turned around to head back to the Buddha. We met up with Debbie and her family and watched a Parkour Show. It is basically a lot of strong guys that jump from huge box to huge box and do flips and hold themselves up in crazy positions. I had heard about it, but had not seen it so it was neat to watch. After a bit of shopping in the touristy stores, it was time to catch us a bus.

The Trail

Tai O Fishing Village was our next stop of the day. This ended up being one of my favorite places I have been so far. The village is like a more rundown type Venice, with canals through the city and all of the houses are built on stilts. The most interesting place though. We wandered through the little village with dried seafood stands and lots of cats. For some reason there were lots of areas that looked like hoarding zones either for materials or random objects. Everyone we passed smiled and was very friendly. Houses were made out of very unique materials and seemed to have been built wherever there was a small amount of space available. This stop was definitely worth the trip! It is really hard to describe the area expect that it was just a very different, interesting village.

Tai O

Back to Kowloon we went in time to shower and get down to the harbor for the Symphony of Lights (light show). We had prime seats away from the crowd, but still closer to the speakers. I see the harbor all the time, but have only been to the “show” once so it was nice to see again. Although this night’s production was in Cantonese it was still interesting. They first announce all of the buildings that are part of the show and they each do a special light up as they are mentioned. Then the music starts and the buildings light up to the beat of the music with different colors, lasers, and different patterns. Another peaceful little area in Hong Kong.

Light Show

Some of you may look down upon this, but we did not have too long for dinner and I really wanted my mom to try McDonalds here. I REFUSE to eat McDonalds at home, but for some reason the chicken nuggets are delicious here! We even discussed this in textile class one day! We had a brief dinner at McDonalds with our delicious nuggets and sweet and sour sauce and walked down for another night at Ned Kelly’s Jazz Bar. Tonight we met Debbie’s family who really got a kick out of the show! The bar had pretty much cleared out so before the last set Colin, the bandleader, came and sat with us for quite a while and just chatted about his busy life and his life as a musician. I love this place more and more!

With Barry - the 84 year old

Wednesday:

This day was devoted to school and a normal day of my life in Hong Kong. We started by going to the Student Halls for breakfast, where we eat every morning that we wake up early enough for it! It consists of scrambled eggs, bun with butter, and macaroni soup. After eating we walked around the district that is right next to the halls called Whampoa. We visited a very authentic local temple during peak time with lots of people inside and clouds and clouds of incense. Eventually we walked through the district down to the quiet, best part of the harbor. This is the spot closest to the halls so Andrew and I run through here, we have coffee here sometimes, or just walk down for a break. Some locals were fishing so we watched them for a while and continued on our day of wandering. I showed my mom PolyU’s campus which is just a MTR tunnel and footbridge away from the residence halls. The campus is blocked off from the city and all of the buildings are together which makes it feel like a real campus instead of buildings scattered throughout busy Hong Kong. I showed her the modern design labs and professor’s offices. It was time to eat again so we went for a snack at the school’s Dim Sum restaurant. From my understanding (which still might not be correct), Dim Sum is usually dumplings and is just a small portion for lunch (almost like tapas). We tried the barbequed pork bun, pork dumpling with crab roe, crystal shrimp dumpling, and the cream custard bun. It is one of those types of foods (like sushi) that are kind of weird the first time, but not too disgusting you want to gag. Overall, I think my mom liked it!

The good spot

Next, we went to my most favorite place in Hong Kong… Starbucks at the harbor. Beautiful view and coffee, two of my favorite things. Too often Andrew, Debbie, and I come here to relax, work on homework, or just to procrastinate and talk. My mom wrote in her journal and I just people watched while we enjoyed yet another iced shaken black tea. You see some really interesting people at this spot on the harbor because there are some locals and lots of tourists that have come to see the skyline and the Avenue of Stars. Andrew joined us for a chat as it started to get dark so we decided it was time for yet another meal. We ended up going to a random restaurant near the halls which was traditional Chinese style and was okay, but not the best. You live and you learn I guess.

The favorite spot

We had to get going to make it to Wan Chai district on the Island for the Happy Valley Horse Races! The races are very neat and have two totally different vibes. When you first walk in, the bottom floor is full of business people socializing, drinking beer, enjoying the evening. This is fun to walk around for a bit, but you really can’t see the races very well so we went up to the 7^th floor for a better view. Up here is not nearly as crowded and is the area that most of the Chinese go to in order to bet and watch their horses. Very different atmospheres, but both fun places to watch the races. We watched about 3 races (there are a total of 7 or 9 I think) and decided to go meet some friends in Wan Chai. 

Horse Track

Wednesdays in Wan Chai is Ladies’ Night meaning all ladies get in free to the bars, but instead of going to a crazy club, we went to a hotel bar called Canny Man. They had HK$20 cocktails, pool tables, and a group of about 15 of my friends were there for my mom to meet! It is a calmer place so everyone just talked and laughed and compared me to my mom the whole time. One person said I saw Andrew talking to someone outside of the residence halls, heard her voice, and immediately realized she was your mom. Someone else said, I know you probably get this a lot, but you are exactly like your mom. Someone ELSE said, you are really American, but your mom is even more American (this has something to do with our loudness and excitedness I think). Anyways, we had a lovely time drinking cocktails and just hanging out with friends. Afterward everyone went to another bar and I decided to get my mom to just walk into Mes Amis which is a super packed, dancing club on the corner. We walked in... and out, just so she could see how insane it gets! Then it was bedtime for us.

In Wan Chai - Mom chatting with Benedicte

Thursday:

For my mom’s last day in Hong Kong, we decided to get out of the city and have an extremely relaxing day at Shek O beach! We took the double decker bus (sitting in the front row on top, just to freak my mom out) to the beach that was almost completely empty! It is “cold” here for the Asian’s so there was a school group and about 5 other people on the whole beach. It was abnormally warm here so most people on the beach were in long sleeves and jeans and were looking at me oddly for sun bathing in a bikini. My mom and I both drifted off and some point, just taking in the sun, and were awakened by a furry little creature of a dachshund that was frolicking in the sand. We had been here relaxing for a few hours so we decided we had to move on. We took a taxi to Stanley Market (also has a little beach area) and got a Western snack of french onion soup and mojito for lunch.  After rejuvenating we walked around the market and found some more souvenirs. The area of Stanley is pretty nice, but really touristy. After another few hours here, we started back toward Kowloon to go for dinner.

Shek O

I have mentioned Jon Cordiano before. He was one of the most important people for my mom to meet while she was here as he is completely fabulous and will be in Australia when we go next semester. Fortunately, he had time in his super busy design schedule to come to dinner with us at a Hot Pot restaurant. They say Hot Pot is a must in Hong Kong/China. It is similar to fondue because you have a boiling broth and you cook your own meat, vegetables, dumplings, etc. We had a lovely meal and excellent conversation the whole time. Jon is just one of those people that can always make you laugh and makes you feel wonderful with one of his hugs!! Dinner was so good, but we couldn’t make ourselves go back just yet, so we stopped at Holly Cow (supposed to be Holy Cow we assume) and got frozen yogurt with fruit and stood outside continuing to chat! Finally we had to go back and get everything packed for Mom’s departure the next morning!

Hot Pot with Jon

Friday:

Not an extremely good day. We woke up pretty early and got a taxi straight to airport to see my mom off. Once we arrived at the airport (after a ride with our taxi driver talking to us the whole time about every English movie he has seen or song he has heard), I was instructed to let my mom try and figure out the signs and which desk to check in at to prove she was capable. Eventually, we got there. We checked her in and walked her to the security checkpoint. Obviously sad to see my momma leave, but it will not be too long before I’m back for Christmas break. Overall the trip was excellent with enough seeing, relaxing, doing, and wandering!

MOM AND I!!!!!!!!

MOM! Here in Hong Kong

Again, apologies for an incredibly long post. But it covers 8 whole days! Feel free to read in timed increments, skim through, or just skip to the pictures.

Wednesday:

After an entire day delay, (Newark is a horrible airport) my mom finally arrived in Hong Kong!!! Andrew, Debbie, and I all made the trek to the airport to meet her. When she came around the corner Andrew started taking pictures and I ran to meet her. Everyone is silent in the airport for some reason so everyone was looking at us as we did our excited American screams and hugging. It was so great to see her!!! And I was super excited to start the journey in showing her where and how I live.

Momma!!!

We took the Airport Express back towards Kowloon, got off the MTR, and started walking toward a hotel on the harbor. I asked, not that I thought she would be, if she was tired from the flight and wanted to go to bed or if she wanted to enjoy a surprise! Surprise, obviously. We unpacked and repacked her bags outside of a really nice hotel so Debs and Andrew could take her suitcases back to the halls and we would just keep a small book bag for our trip to Beijing. We eventually made it up to the Intercontinental Hotel which is a very nice hotel right on the harbor an went in for a cocktail and snack. I got a very strong dirty martini, my mom a white wine, Andrew a red wine, and we all shared a delicious satay. This hotel restaurant is exquisite. There is maybe a 100-degree glass window overlooking the harbor, dim lighting, and a live band. We sat and chatted for quite a while before they started closing down. Then we made the journey to the sketchy hostel in Chungking Mansion. This is an interesting place. About 15 hostels are all in the same building, but on different floors. To get to the elevators you have to walk past these super sketchy/creepy Indian and African guys who are trying to sell you their hostel (or something). We stayed close together and safely made it upstairs to our tiny, but adequate little room.  We got a total of about 3 hours of sleep before waking up to go back to the airport, but I think drinks at the Intercontinental were definitely worth the little sleep.

Thursday:

My mother and I woke up WAY too early and headed back to the airport to fly to Beijing, China. The flight was not too bad although we were an hour late getting in the air. We arrived at the oasis of Peking Yard Hostel and put our stuff down and figured out our plans for the rest of the afternoon. We had a short trip to Beijing and wanted to try and do as much as possible. We headed straight to the Forbidden City to find out that it was already closed for the day. Luckily we were able to walk around the surrounding walls to get to the other side. You can still see over the walls in some places to see the ornate roofing and detailed paintings. We decided to go to the Jingshan Park, which is right across the street and looks over the huge Forbidden City.  Although this time I did not see a little child urinating on the sidewalk, it was still a nice trip up to the top of the hill to take a look.  We were up there very close to sunset so we got some really good pictures AND since it is cold in Beijing and not tourist season really, there was hardly anyone up there!

Forbidden City (Mom's pic)

It was too early to go back to the hostel so we figured we would try to head over to the Olympic Stadium. I had previously been in the daytime and by now it was dark so I was excited to see the buildings lit up. This was one of the things in Beijing my mom was really interested in seeing. We walked out of the subway into the horribly freezing wind and only stayed at the park for a short time because we were so cold. The Water Cube is lit up a pretty blue and the Bird’s Nest is a gorgeous orange color. We took a picture for a group of Chinese people and they ended up wanting a picture with me. My mom was fascinated by this phenomenon of the Chinese taking blatant pictures of us since we are western.

Olympic Bird's Nest

After turning into water cubes ourselves we decided to go back to the hostel to warm up and eat some dinner. We ordered normal food of vegetarian noodles, cheese and tomato salad, and pineapple/ham pizza. Thursday was movie night at Peking Yard so we watched about half of Pulp Fiction during dinner (I still need to finish it). We met two guys, one from Germany (I practiced my phrases on him) and one from Spain that were studying in Korea. After a while everyone started slowly going to bed so we did as well to be ready for a long day of hiking!!

Friday:

Today was THE day. The main reason we went to Beijing was to be able to climb The Great Wall of China while my mom was so close! We signed up through the hostel and went to meet the rest of the people on the mini tour bus. The bus was entirely packed, with all of the makeshift, foldout seats full as well. As soon as we got on the bus I saw a few fellow PolyUers and ended up sitting with them and hiking with them. We drove for about 2 hours to get to the more secluded part of the wall. Again, it was cold and not tourist season so it really was only our tour group on the wall! We hiked the wall for about 2 hours (6km) or so and it was gorgeous. The cold weather definitely made it nicer, even though we were shedding layers from the beginning. The wall was very authentic with parts that had rubble instead of steps and places where the sidewalls had been knocked or fallen down so you were walking without much protection from falling. 

The area was gorgeous with trees and mountains and a LONG stretch of the wall that you could see really far. We had an excellent trip to the wall with a short snack break (consisting of mainly oreos). We had to walk down stairs for about 30 minutes to get back to the bus and met a guy from California that was studying Chinese herbal medicine and came over to China to shadow some people. My mom also made friends with two French guys on the way up to the wall; so overall the group was pretty neat! We made the drive back, seeming much shorter this time, and went back to the hostel to change and get ready for dinner.

I had organized dinner at Peking Duck restaurant with some of my friends from PolyU before we left so we all met at the restaurant at 8pm. The place did not have enough space to fit all 12 of us in the main dining area so they put us in our own special room with 2 or 3 members of the wait staff only for us. It was so neat!! We all squeezed around one table and Margaux and I ordered an assortment of food for everyone to share. It was cool for my mom to be able to meet some of my friends and see everyone’s personalities, although they were slightly tame since we were at dinner. The food was delicious and the manager was so kind and wanted to make sure everything was perfect!

Crew at Peking Duck

On the way out we all got little sugar sculptures and sugar covered oranges and checked out the huge fish tanks they have in the front to pick out your dinner.  We also passed the outdoor room where they keep the ducks they cook, just walking around looking cute. The gang went out to the bar, but it was already kind of late so my mom and I headed back to the hostel!

Saturday:

Saturday was our last day in Beijing and we did not have too much time so we figured we would just wander around the 798 Art District… if we could ever get there. We took our time at the hostel and eventually left, got to the bus station and did not have the right coins, had to get coins, missed the bus, had to wait, etc. I was not an extremely happy campus, but eventually we made it and still had a little while to wander. I knew my mom would love this place, and of course I was right. We went in a pottery place where I found some tea cups and just wandered through the little shops and art galleries until it was time to catch a taxi back to the airport.

Making dumplings

When we got back to HK, I didn’t tell my mom where we were going, but tried to hurry us along because we needed to be somewhere before 10pm. We dropped our bags back off at the sketchy hostel and went to the secret place. Andrew and I were talking to her as we walked up so she didn’t even notice until we were inside that it was Ned Kelly’s Jazz Bar! She recognized it right away and as I was saying hi to the French people, she said, is Michael playing? And he was sitting right in front of her! My mom got to meet Michael and JB who came and sat and chatted for most of the night (wonderful – both of them). My mom LOVED the show and thought Michael was absolutely fabulous (check video from last post). We had an excellent time with a glass of white wine and just enjoyed the setting and the music!

Sunday:

Our first real day in Hong Kong started by walking to the closest bakery and getting a famous Hong Kongnese Pineapple Bun. Most do not actually taste like pineapple, but they are freshly baked buns with some kind of crumbled type topping and mine had a coconut filling. We walked down the street a bit father to the closest Starbucks and got an iced black tea. This started the trend of pineapple buns and Starbucks every morning for breakfast. Today was market day and we started off in Tsim Sha Tsui on Nathan Road buying candy, little knick-knacks, etc. We then went the extreme opposite from little side shops to the grand Harbor City Mall with every designer label known to man. Our first more realistic stop was H&M to prove how much better their store is than ours in Raleigh, NC. My mom actually found a few things and we continued on to partake window-shopping throughout the rest of the mall. A company we recently visited had three of their stores in this mall so we went in to browse. Pretty much the only two stores I could ever buy anything in are H&M and Zara. For lunch we went to a restaurant that the Cotton Incorporated ladies had taken us at Harbor City called The Jade Garden. We ordered the greatest chicken soup, eggplant with crab sauce, thin, long spring rolls, braised pork ribs, and bean curd for dessert. This was the first true Chinese meal my mom had tasted (excluding Peking duck in another country) and it was fabulous! Now stuffed, we decided to wander a bit more in TST to one of our favorite shops, Shanghai Tang.  Mr. Tang who also owns Agave Mexican Restaurant throughout Hong Kong owns this store. Andrew researched him and said he is the coolest guy and insanely smart. The store is great with traditional Chinese type dresses and shirts with a modern twist, including nice fabrics and the mandarin collar. We each feel we have to buy something from here before we leave because we have been in so many times!

Lunch at Jade Garden

Next district was Mong Kok that is north of TST. Here are the authentic Asian markets including Ladies Market, Goldfish Market, Flower Market, and Bird Market. For those who have been to Florence, Ladies Market is similar to the San Lorenzo Market and those types of shops. We knew we needed to buy some gifts so we were in the right mind set for bargaining and got pretty many things here! A lot of the shops are the same so you have to walk up and down to see who will give you the best price. We took a pit stop by the waffle stand and how a golf ball type waffle that was fresh off the iron and delicious. We ate it on the way to the Goldfish Market that is literally a row of tons of pet shops. We walked through here to get to the beautiful Flower Market that is full of potted orchids and arranged flowers. There was also a huge Christmas store here with lights, ornaments, and Christmas trees. The Bird Market was closing down by the time we got there, but we still got to see caged birds and boxes of creepy “food” like centipedes, etc.

Busy street in HK

We were planning on meeting Debbie and her mom and aunt for dinner at Angry Sushi, aka technically Genki Sushi, so headed back towards campus after all of our market shopping. We relaxed at the fountain for a few minutes before going to stand in line. Genki Sushi is the type of restaurant that has the rotating sushi plates you can just pick off as it comes around. Unfortunately since we had a large group, we sat at a table and so my mom didn’t get to play with that or the personal hot water dispenser for green tea. Dinner was excellent and it was nice to be able to talk more with Miss Yvonne and Miss Luanne. We had only met them briefly before so it was good to chat and see the neat gifts they had bought during the day! After dinner we pretty much called it a day!

Monday:

On the Star Ferry

On Monday we went and got our normal breakfast and headed to the pier to take the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island which takes about 15 minutes. We checked out the IFC building which is the tallest building in HK and went through the mall inside, out to the roof terrace where we go sometimes at night. Central (where all of the corporate buildings are) has a lot of nice stores so we walked around, saw Lan Kwai Fong Street which is the bar street, and walked up Pottinger Street which is an uneven, steep cobblestone road. We also walked down Hollywood Street that is full of antique shops and little boutiques. We walked up to SoHo where all of the ex-pats live and eat and decided to stop for lunch at a rooftop Mediterranean restaurant. We enjoyed glasses of wine, hummus and pita, risotto, skewers, and fried mozzarella. SoHo is a neat little area with every type of restaurant you can imagine.

Pottinger Street

After lunch we headed from Central to Causeway Bay which is another district on the island. Here is one of the neatest markets we have found in Hong Kong. There are tons of open-air market shops where the housewives come to shop everyday. They have a meat barbeque stand, a butcher, several fresh fish places, and produce stands. Everyone seemed to be very friendly and you could literally find any type of fresh meat or produce you wanted. We stayed around here for quite a while before walking over to Times Square where they had an interesting exhibit featuring large blow up spray paint cans. Once it started to get a bit dark we went to the Peak Tram to go up to the top of Victoria Peak that overlooks the entire city.

Market

Ma and I at Victoria Peak

The view at night is amazing and all of the buildings are lit up. You can see both the Kowloon side and the HK Island side. We stayed here for a while, just taking in the view until we decided to stand in the long line for the tram down, freezing. For dinner (when we finally got back to Kowloon) we went to a local restaurant right down the street from the residence halls. We call it “The Corner Restaurant”, very creative I know. Known of the employees speak English and we usually have to enlist the help of the people sitting behind us for help. Normally it is full of local PolyU students with probably one other table of western students because we all love it so much! The best things here are the lemon chicken (which we had) and the sweet and sour pork. The meal also comes with soup and tea. Excellent little dive and it is always packed so you know it is good!