Hong Kong

Having just spent a week in Bangkok we thought we would be ready for any big city. Hong Kong quickly proved that theory dead wrong. We started the easy travel day in Bangkok after breakfast with Chris and one of his college friends in town - an three hours flight on India Airlines. We landed at about 3 pm and made it to the bus station with little hassle. Getting around the airport and into town was, by far, the easiest experience we've had so far and several people helped us throughout the trip. In fact, a couple from New Zealand paid our bus fair to the train station - a very nice welcome to the city.

Nothing seemed out the ordinary until we debarked from the train and stepped into the most densely populated mass of people I've ever encountered. Having backpacks strapped to our backs didn't help the situation, but the shear volume of humanity was overwhelming in itself. Our hostel is located in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong island - only two stops from Central Hong Kong. We couldn't remember the name of our hostel, so it took some wandering around and more help from strangers before we finally found the building completely devoid of any kind of marking that would indicate that it was a hostel. Chellis met us at about eight and we went out for dinner and a couple drinks in the Lang Kwai Fang neighborhood. We didn't spend too much time out, though, because, Chellis was feeling the jet lag and her grandmother's birthday party was the next day (today). Instead we returned to our hostel and watched a bit of TV. None of the channels were in english, but that didn't matter because our favorite show didn't require any dialogue. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but four closed circuit video cameras are fed into one of our channels. There are two wonderfully entertaining qualities about these cameras: 1) People do not know that they are on camera in the elevator and 2) All four walls of the elevator are mirrored. Endless fun. This morning we met Chellis' grandmother at her apartment in Kowloon. Along the way we stopped at a beautiful flower market - especially lively during the Chinese New Year. We arrived at the apartment and were immediately greeted at the door by the entire extended family and asked to sit down for a snack. We had been practising how to say "happy birthday" in Cantonese since last night, but I totally froze. Nicole, however, was able to say very well while giving her our present (a silk scarf we bought in Thailand). We were offered boiled eggs in a light soup - according to Chellis it is supposed to provide us with the good fortune of having thousands of babies. Yikes....

After a few minutes we were asked to join the birthday group for Dim Sum at a local resturaunt. Chellis was surprised we were invited and we couldn't refuse! Nicole, Chellis, Grandmother, two of Grandmother's friends, and Chellis' Dad piled into a minivan drove over to the resturaunt. I'm not sure what the three women were talking about, but there was a lot of laughter among old friends.

The resturaunt was completely empty save for a small room in the back with a nicely set table and about fifteen people already sitting. The guests were all friends of Grandmother - some of which were childhood friends from her home village in mainland China. A tight nit group of Mahjong players, they were joining Grandmother for a morning snack before engaging in an all day tournament. They have all been playing each other for many many years and gamble large sums of money. Several bowls of dim sum arrived shortly after we sat down and the first feast of the day began. Being only a warm up, it was over rather quickly, but it was all delicious.

Nicole, Chellis, and I are walking aound the town right now(picture at the top of the page) - taking a break before the party resumes from dinner around 8 pm. Apparently that's when the real eating takes place....another rough day of gorging on wonderful food. Life is tough.