Trip to Hong Kong... Trip one - 2006, Oct 15-18
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Once everyone is up, get dressed, I pack – not planning on heading back up the hill after our next adventures...We head back down the hill to the Bookworm Café for breakfast (hummus wrap for me), then off to the beach at Hung Shing Yeh (also on the wikipedia site). We get Christie & Noah settled, then Ian and I head back to the ferry – off to catch a nap before dinner guests arrive.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294217-d951211-r17800785-Bookworm_Cafe-Hong_Kong_Hong_Kong_Region.html
We just made it to the ferry on time!! Good thing we both walk fast!!!! En route home, we stop to explore the wine section of the nice grocery store in IFC (and to buy the best french bread in HK)… Then stop at another wine store. A fun stop – lots of stuff not availble in Canada. Home, nap, Christie & Noah get home (took a bit longer than anticipated, ‘cause poor old Noah cut his tootsies in the water), dinner guests arrive - Noel and Elly and Nicholas from, respectively, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Mauritius – even members of the same family have an international flavour here. We had a very enjoyable dinner – good company, good food, and some fabulous St. Emilion courtesy of the dinner guests.
Off to bed…
Monday October 16, 2006
Wake up… Wend my way back to Shenzhen (found it all by myself – eventually). Try on clothes, get some additional alterations, hit the King Elephant for lunch, try to track down some jewelery for Christie (should have done this before – almost didn’t find the stall I was looking for). Next, hide out for a while in the fabric area (the only place where people aren’t following me to sell me stuff!) Buy lengths of silk for three scarves (which end up being about Cdn$6 each – really, can’t beat it) all appear to have been good choices, as have garnered lots of compliments since I returned (and I wear one almost every day – unless am wearing my trusty Russian one from 1990!).
After a while, decide to go hide at the Shangri-La again – it is a busy day with the tailors, some other Canadians, some Australians, and I think a couple South Africans… Have a beer and some lovely walnuts in the lounge (I now understand why Vicki likes walnuts; if they aren’t rancid, they are very nice – and these are very fresh).
Pick up all the stuff… And head back to Hong Kong. I was anticipating a quiet night – yeah, right! Christie has other plans, there are things I haven’t seen. So, the plan is to go to Felix; the Philippe Starck (the designer of my space age war of the worlds looking juicer) designed bar at the top of the Peninsula Hotel. http://hongkong.peninsula.com/phk/restaurants_02.html
Photo from the bar - taken at a later date
and the view from the ladies' room...
I dress accordingly – time to pull out one of the new cocktail dresses! However, first it appears we are going to the Temple Street night market (I’m a bit over dressed, but what the hell!). We started at the Yau Ma Tei end of the market and worked our way all the way to the Mongkok end of it. http://www.hong-kong-travel.org/YauMaTei.asp Nice to have a ‘local’ in tow to help negotiate! Got a few final souvenirs – a laser pointer to play with the cat, a laser etched crystal of the giant Buddha, an evening bag... Part way through, spot some people drinking TsingTao – hmmm, that looks good, maybe we should stop. On the other hand, legal to drink on the streets here – so we buy a giant bottle to share, and continue through the market (nothing but class, you know! – I’m sure you can picture this in a purple and blue silk cocktail dress...).
Feet are getting sore, so we hop a cab, hit Felix, have a drink (scotch for me), watch the view, then stroll over to Aqua for one last stop (Aquatini once we get a seat)... http://www.aqua.com.hk/ . Cool looking bar – appears to be at the top of an office building! Great view of the harbour – who knew, the lights in the harbour start to get turned off after midnight! Finish our drinks and head home – it’s my final sleep!
Tuesday October 17, 2006
It’s going to be a quiet morning – have breakfast, and say good-bye to everyone. Pack the last of my things – and buy a last minute suitcase from the drug store (for a whopping Cdn$15) – this is easier than overstuffing my back pack, and I can take one carry-on bag. It is barely full, but easier to tote around. Have a bath, hope that Ami makes it home before I leave (so can find the right train back to the airport). Sure enough, Ami arrives back from her class and brings me a luggage cart (this system is slick!).
Have lunch, and time to leave! I’ve used on-line check in again, so that goes smoothly. Browse about - buy some miniatures of chairs which are in the permanent collection for design at MoMA (these ones are all plastic, rather than scale replicas in original materials, but they’ll do – the dollhouse now has better furniture than I do!). Get some snacks and water for the plane, and off back home (where I will arrive three hours before I left – gotta love that date line).
Allison picks me back up, drops me off, go grab a couple groceries, then hang out at home – BC is pretty vocal about his displeasure at being alone overnight (Sue stayed for the evening, then headed home). Time to unpack a bit, settle back in – it’s back to work on
Wednesday October 18, 2006
(including a meeting at IIBC – I’m fading fast). Book Thursday off – have Salute – Insurance Person of the Year to attend Thursday night, and think my day is best spent resting (and a chiropractor appointment to help offset the hours on the plane!). The day in the office on Wednesday proved there were no major fires to put out, and I’ll be back in on Friday.
Next year – Sydney …
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