round the world in sixty days

Many of you readers probably know we are already done with our trip and are back in the USA. Yes, we fell behind on the blogging.  We have a good excuse though!  Jesse broke my iphone in Indonesia.  Some advice – when you are reliant on a delicate piece of finely tuned technology for email, downloading photos from three separate cameras, and writing blog posts, perhaps it’s not a good idea to toss it across a room that has a cement floor.  Because my phone had an aftermarket screen (I dropped it on the pavement during a run right before the trip – also not advisable), the phone screen was even less functional than a normal broken iphone, meaning it was completely unusable.

Luckily, Jesse completely redeemed himself by getting us a room in the Mandarin Oriental in downtown Hong Kong.  This is the flagship location for the global chain, and has arguably the best concierges in the world.  The phone was fixed nearly instantaneously, and we didn’t have to wait in line at the Apple Store.  So I guess it ends up not being that much of an excuse for being so behind on the posting… but don’t worry, we will get it all done eventually!

We put ourselves completely in the capable hands of our amazing concierge, and followed her recommendation for a Hong Kong foodie favorite at Underbridge Chili Crab.  It was as delicious, and as messy, as it looks here.After a long day of travelling and nightime city exploring, we stopped in for a nightcap at the Captain’s bar at our hotel.  It is a watering hole for well-to-do mostly British expats, and they had a very extensive and impressive beer list, including Young Masters ale on tap – a suprisingly tasty local microbrew and HIGHLY recomended (by us).  Apparently this cozy red leather, wood, and brass den has been an institution since the 1960’s, when the hotel was the first one in Asia to have bathtubs in every room.  We enjoyed the delicious beverages and people watching in equal measures.The next day, we woke up bright and early slept in shamefully late and made our way to the Victoria Peak tram station.  It was a hazy day, but given it was rainy season and clearer weather soon was improbable, we had to visit this tourist “must” in our limited time in Hong Kong. We joined a massive crowd of pushy tourists and made our way to the highest point on the island. We soaked in the views, and had a celebrity sighting – we have no idea what the Fonz was doing in Hong Kong, but we did our best to covertly (and unscucessfully) take his picture.  Below is Jesse, looking torwards where the Fonz was standing, surrounded by people and accompanied by a large bodyguard.We walked around the top of the peak along Lugard Road.  This was a nice way to wean ourselves from trekking, get some time outside, and escape the hordes clustered at the top of the peak.  It doesn’t appear to be a usable road for cars, but surprisingly there are a few (very nice) homes along this road, as well as a building site for a controversial new boutique hotel, so we did have to cram up on the curb every now and then to let a car pass.The views from Lugard road were pretty stunning too, and we got to see vantage points from all around the Peak.Another Mandarin concierge recommendation, this time for old school dim sum at Maxim’s place, on the harbor.  We picked way too many of those bamboo boxes from those carts, and satisfied our dim sum craving for probably at least the next year.
In the same building, we found this chinese caligraphy exhibitionWe were asked to sign in… can you spot our signatures (hint, they’re not in Chinese)?
We walked up Hollywood road, which is famous for antiques, and found an ice cream stand hosted by Jesse’s new parent company.  Jesse was excited, and I was dismayed, to learn that the purpose of this food stand was to promote insects as food.They were offering free samples of bug ice cream, to convince people that eating insects isn’t as gross as it sounds, and that insects are a nutritious and sustainable food source.  Jesse opted for strawberries and “swirls” – the swirls are dried petrified mealworms.Jesse proclaimed it “delicious”.  He then ganged up on me with all of the food stand volunteers to try to convince me to taste some of it.  I put the tiniest amount imaginable on the spoon and tried to swallow it.  To my horror, it got stuck in my throat, and I felt that little bugger there for the rest of the day.  Jesse was annoyed by my persistant coughing and throat clearing attempts.  This was a valuable lesson for both of us.After our impromptu snack, we visited Man Mo temple
The buddhist space was filled with the smoky smell of all this coil incense.
We really enjoyed walking around Hong Kong and seeing the unique mix of old and new. Since we only had one day really to walk around, we missed out on a lot of markets – we were particulary disappointed at not seeing the fish market, the flower market, the bird market and garden (where bird lovers bring their pets to socialize and sing), and the night market.  On the bright side, we have plenty of things to put on our itinerary for our next trip to Hong Kong.For our 2nd and last night in Hong Kong, we took the Star Ferry (as every tourist must do) to Kowloon.  Below is Hong Kong Harbor looking across the water to Kowloon.  There is a massive cruise ship in front of the buildings.
Another regret was not booking a night time Junk cruise to cross the harbor and watch the skyscraper light show- a Junk is a refurbished Hong Kong sailing boat that turns into a bar at night. Sadly, the one we wanted was booked out that night for a private event. Instead we went to Aqua, a bar with arguably the best view of Hong Kong.  We could see the junk boat (with the red light sails) from our windowside table, as we watched the “symphony of lights“, a synchronized display of colored lights, laser beams, and search lights involving many of the largest buildings bordering the water.The cocktail menu at Aqua was overwhelming – my fancy drink (the porn star martini) on the right involved first taking a tiny spoonful of passion fruit seeds, then a sip of champagne, and finally some of the actual martini.  Jesse picked his G&T from an exhaustive list of various gins and tonics from around the world, many of which even Jesse, a beverage expert, had never heard.Then we headed down to dinner at Hutong, run by the same people as Acqua and with the same killer views. We had bamboo clams, which are served in their shells that very much resemble bamboo.We ate 2 different kinds of pork, both good.  The suckling pig tasted like candy.
I made a wish to put on the wish tree (world peace of course)After dinner, we walked around the Tsim Sha Tsui area.  This is now a high end shopping area (how many Hermes and Louis Vuitton stores does one city need?), but it also is an area of historical importance.  This is a ball drop on an old signal tower that was used to communicate with boats in the harbor.
Making our way back to the ferry, enjoying views of Hong Kong from Kowloon We weren’t the only ones taking pictures – there was a model posing for photos in fancy evening dresses right next to us.
At the star ferry terminal, waiting for our boat This iconic ride cost us about the equivalent of 50 cents each way.
We enjoyed as much of Hong Kong as we could in about 40 hours, with a lot of good ideas for our next visit, and completed the important task of fixing our blogging and email device.  Macau, next!