Hong Kong Diaries....

Get ready for a HUGE post.  I wasn't sure what to title this post because it has pictures from our past 3 days here.  First I never showed you the 16-piece sushi platter Sam ordered at the Japanese restaurant.  I'm not a sushi eater, so I really can't tell you everything on the plate (and there were a few unknown fish to Sam as well, but he ate it all and enjoyed 95% of it).

Onto Thursday's activities, we decided to head to Lantau Island (Hong Kong's biggest island that is host to Disneyland and the Tian Tan Buddha).  The airport also resides right next to Lantau Island.  The Hong Kong airport was built on a man-made island!  Sam and I have watched a Modern Marvels episode about this airport multiple times.  Back to Lantau Island, we took the subway (MTR - Mass Transit System) to Lantau, and got off at the last stop, and lo and behold there was an outlet shopping mall there as well!  We didn't really shop there but Sam did step inside the Nike outlet and bought himself 2 new t-shirts.  Sam can't do much clothes shopping here, the XL slim fit men's shirt could have fit me!  Then we got in line to take the cable car ride up to the big buddha (as I like to say, but officially it's the Tian Tan Buddha).  The best part about this entire experience was the cable car ride!  The Tian Tan Buddha was completed in 1993 and it's the world's largest seated, outdoor, bronze buddha statue.  Everything surrounding the buddha was manufactured tourism.  If we had been visiting an ancient statue or ruins it would have been more interesting/fascinating.  But the cable car ride was fascinating!

There was a mini-city at this subway exit where the outlet mall was and the entrance to the cable car ride.  Sam and I decided that the city of Asheville could live in all of those towers.

It was a really enjoyable ride.  It took about 25 minutes and is a total of 3.5 miles.  

Here's the big buddha from the cable car.

Woohoo, Wofford attire made it to China!

They had these really pretty evergreen/pine trees that lined the staircase.  Sam and I both liked the look of these trees.

That's the airport behind the cable car.

Here's another view of the airport.  We watched multiple planes take off and land during the ride down which was really cool to watch.

Now onto today's morning activity (today is Friday for us).  Sam and I ventured way out into the New Territories to the Tai Po district.  We were on a mission to find Yat Luk BBQ restaurant.  Tony Bourdain on No Reservations visits the restaurant and said the pork, duck, and goose were out of this world!  We were definitely the only white people in miles and miles of this restaurant, thankfully, one person in the restaurant spoke English (he looked to be the owner).  But we were prepared to do the "pointing" ordering system, which is where you to point to food at a table near you.  There was NO ENGLISH on this menu or anywhere in this restaurant.  It was quite an exciting experience.  Hong Kong's 2 official languages are Chinese and English.  all of the signs in Hong Kong are written in Chinese and English, and all of the restaurants we have been to have had English on the menu and/or pictures of food.  This menu was all Chinese (the pictures of the menu were taken on our iPhones, and I haven't uploaded those pics yet).

Here is Sam's goose.

Here is my pork.  It was AMAZING!  

The front of the restaurant was covered by bamboo scaffolding unfortunately.  On a side note, Sam and I were quite proud of ourselves for finding this place!  It was definitely off the beaten path.

Happy Sam, after lunch!

We spent about 45 minutes walking around the Tai Po Market area.

HUGE Carrots!

These were taken in and indoor market where the 1st floor was wet food (like raw meat and fish), 2nd floor dry food (like veggies), and 3rd floor was cooked food.

This is the 3rd floor, featuring cooked food.

Tai Po 

More of Tai Po

Hong Kong, First Full Day

Wow, what a day we had yesterday!  It's still really weird to me that Sam and I are well into Thursday, and it's only 9:45pm on Wednesday at home.  I was on FaceTime with my parents and my mom asked, well what did you do today?  I said, you mean what did we do yesterday?  Haha, it's funny to think that they are getting ready for bed when we are getting ready for a full day!

Okay so yesterday we tried to find Maxim's City Hall Palace restaurant to eat Dim Sum for breakfast, but we were unsuccessful in finding that restaurant.  So we wandered to the IFC Tower 2 (the 2nd tallest building in Hong Kong) and ate breakfast there.  They have a really nice mall there, and when I say really nice, Sam and I wouldn't even step foot into one of the stores there.  All of the world's most premier fashion brands have a store in that mall.  However, we were able to step into this little Asian Twist Cafe that served a good breakfast.  I had bread with strawberry jelly and Sam had noodles with pork.

This is on Hong Kong Island, the tall skinny building in the background is IFC (International Finance Center).  Sam and I were awestruck by the size of this building as well!

Look they had forks and spoons where we had breakfast!  I've actually been doing fairly well with chopsticks.

After breakfast we rode the mid-levels escalator up to the top.  This is the world's longest moving sidewalk.  In the morning it only moves downhill as everyone goes into town for work.

They have stops every once and while, so you can get off at different neighborhoods, I just liked the way this building looked.

The remaining pictures are the sights of Hong Kong Island's neighborhoods as we wandered back down into the city.

Sam and I hopped on one of these tram cars yesterday!  It was fun!

Rachel, here's a tease for my next post which will include our Japanese lunch that Sam and I enjoyed.  

Hong Kong, our first night

We landed at 6:40pm on Tuesday (we took off at 3:40pm on Monday from Newark).  The flight was good.  About 3 hours into, Sam and I looked at each other, and said "Oh crap, we have 12 hours to go!"  That's when you fall asleep.  I caught up on some chick flicks I've been wanting to see.  I watched Bridesmaids, Something Borrowed, The Nanny Diaries, and 1/2 of Midnight in Paris.  

Wow there is so much to see in this city!  Everything is sooo visually stimulating.  Between the bright signs, mountains, harbor views, huge sky scrapers, street markets, and the people there is soooo much to look at it!  In case you're wondering it's 8:00pm Wednesday here as I type this post, my readers on EST, that means it's 8:00am on Wednesday for you.

We were welcomed with hot tea when we arrived in our hotel room!

We wandered the streets last night and ended up eating at a Vietnamese Restaurant.  We actually haven't had Chinese food yet, but we are headed to a Sichuan Chinese restaurant for dinner tonight.  I liked the red lanterns hanging down from this store.

My night pictures are blurry, I needed a tripod, but you get the feel of the city lights here.

That' s me after a 15 hour flight and more than 24 hours without a shower (I'm actually glad for the blur in this picture, it sort of blurs out my tired face).

I might buy a tripod to try to take a few of these pictures at night, because that red sail boat against the skyline was awesome!

WOW!

Sorry for the not so good iPhone pic but that is Hong Kong Harbor!

In Newark

I wish we could say we were halfway there because we have 1 flight down and 1 to go...but that's not the case. It's a pretty cool view watching planes land in front of the NYC skyline.

Jenna & Andrew are Expecting!

I must really love my blog readers, because I am squeezing in one last blog post for you before Sam and I leave for vacation to Hong Kong tomorrow!  Jenna and Andrew are expecting Baby Boy E any day now (I believe her actual due date is around September 7th).  I was so honored that they asked me to take maternity pictures for them.  They are good friends with the DeJesus family (remember this family shoot, baby shoot, and engagement shoot).  Rhea is one of my best friends, we met at Wofford, and her family is amazing.  Jenna and Andrew were at Rhea and Jonathan's wedding in Puerto Rico, where they were just a couple of months pregnant.  They are soooo natural in front of the camera, and their love and affection for one another and their baby was extremely evident.

Meet the cute couple - and I don't hold it against them that they are Davidson grads ; )

They also have a beautiful home, which was beautifully decorated (they like to shop at Cotswold Marketplace). 

They knew about "Eskimo Kisses" too!

Such a sweet quote!!

Jenna is looking forward to having her little boy run around and play in their backyard and on their playset.

Andrew couldn't keep his eyes off his beautiful pregnant wife, it was adorable!

I can't say enough kind words about this couple.  They are going to be awesome parents, and I can't wait to meet Baby E!

On a different note, my brother just asked me "why Hong Kong?"  When I said, "can you imagine 7 million people squeezed into a place smaller than Manhattan, it's going to be so cool to see everything in that city!" He said, I just got back from Manhattan, that was crowded enough, that doesn't sound like fun.  Well I say, different strokes for different folks!