A Quick Trip to Hong Kong

Chris travels to Hong Kong fairly frequently, as that is where the regional office is.  In fact, his boss lives there and strongly encouraged us to do the same.  I had my reservations about the amount of space our budget could buy in Hong Kong, but once Peter, Nickle & the kids announced they were moving to Shanghai, there was no more doubt as to where we would live.  

Hong Kong is a huge city in a small space.  The geography is beautiful - tall, craggy mountains dropping quickly into the sea, with a huge, international population wedged in between.  We visited about 18 months ago with the girls, only for 3 days, but my main memory was that it was unbelievably hot and humid.  We had a wonderful private walking tour, we had a blast at Disneyland Hong Kong, but mostly it was hot.  Hot, Hot, Hot.

When Chris told me he was going to be in Hong Kong for a week, I decided to visit him there.  While he left on Monday, I stayed in Shanghai for my new book club and then joined him there on Wednesday.  November is definitely a better time to visit Hong Kong - even though it was mid-80's everyday, it wasn't in the 90's and the humidity was not nearly as high.  And, as an added bonus, there isn't the air pollution that was so strong in Shanghai last week.  Most people speak English, signs are in both Cantonese and English and, other than the fact that they drive (and walk) on the wrong side, it's fairly easy to navigate.  The subway system is good, the taxis are reasonably priced (at least, as compared to Europe), and it's easy to walk around.  Still, I was happy to spend a great deal of time reading and relaxing, as well as going out with Chris to dinners. 

I did venture out one day to a local German restaurant and had the worst meal I've had in a long time.  I live in China now, so that's saying A LOT!  While I didn't expect the wiener schnitzel to be like it was in Germany, I couldn't even eat it.  And when I told 2 members of the wait staff that it was terrible, they smiled and said okay.  I know they could speak English, so I guess they just don't care that much about customer satisfaction, although I had fun filling out the customer comment card.  Don't ask if you don't want to hear the answer.  :)

I had lunch on Friday at a local Irish pub, which was fine, nothing too special.  However, my waiter was fascinated by my allergy wallet cards - I brought the ones in Cantonese, rather than the usual Mandarin - and asked to see them again and then called his wife to tell her about them.  I'm really spreading the word about these - I should be getting a kickback from SelectWisely.com.  


I also walked around Nathan Road a bit on Friday, up to the Kowloon Sculpture Garden, where I saw this scary sword guy, and down to the water, where the views over to Hong Kong Island are beautiful.  I don't enjoy the guys who approach me every 5 feet yelling Rolex, Rolex, Rolex, but it was a lovely day.

We had a lovely dinner together on Wednesday night at the Morton's Steak House in the Sheraton Hotel in Kowloon.  It was great steak and a lovely view of Hong Kong.  I thought about going to some of the local markets, but we did that when we were in Hong Kong the last time and, frankly, if I want to shop in markets, I live in Shanghai and can do it anytime.  

However, my oldest daughter, and her friend, turned me onto a new book series, Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant, so I had a great visit to Hong Kong devouring these books.  I haven't gone through a series of books that quickly since I read The Hunger Games and enjoyed this series nearly as much.  

All-in-all, I didn't get much of the Hong Kong experience, but I'll no doubt be back, as Chris travels there so frequently.  On this trip, however, I had a great time visiting the Chicago inside the Divergent series of books, talking to family on Facetime, watching some U.S. television online (the internet speed is SO much better), and having dinner out with my husband.