Our first visitor!!

Hi all,
It's hard to believe that we've been here three months.  I feel like we have been gone forever!  We are flying home for Christmas on December 23rd and are counting down the days!!!

We had our first visitor - Zack's mom made the long journey from Pennsylvania to Hong Kong.  She arrived last Thursday night.  Fortunately, her flight was uneventful and she even got here a little early.  She sped right through immigration and we were on our way! 

Saturday we spent the day wandering around one of the many local malls looking for unique, local gifts for our friends and family since Christmas is right around the corner.  We had a delicious lunch at a place called "King's Dumplings".  They mostly serve Dim Sum.  The gave us a sheet of paper with numbers on it for ordering.  We weren't exactly sure what we needed to fill in since the form was in Cantonese so we just circled what we wanted.  Fortunately, the menu does have pictures and numbers by all the items.  All was right and we got what we wanted.  We had three different types of dumplings, Dan Dan noodles and sauteed bok choy.  It was delicious!!  Mom enjoyed this place so much, we went back on Tuesday night to try different dumplings.  My belly now feels like a dumpling :)

Dan Dan Noodles - so far the best we've found since our stay at the Intercontinental

Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

Sunday, we went over to Hong Kong Island for some sightseeing.  Here are Zack and his mom on the subway...

Our first stop was at the Western Market.  This market was built in 1906 and was originally a produce market.  Now, the first floor shops sell mainly souvenirs but the second floor is a textile paradise.  There were many vendors selling beautiful silk fabrics and scarves. 

Western Market

Help !! Get me out of here!!

Festive Christmas decorations

We walked along Hollywood Rd. which is known for the antique shops.  Most of the real shops were closed, but we there were plenty of open air stalls selling more favorably priced versions of the antiques.  

We then made our way to the Man Mo Temple.  This temple is believed to be the oldest temple in Hong Kong built in the 1840's.  It's dedicated to the Taoist gods of literature and of war:  Man, who wears green, and Mo dressed in red.  The temple is very busy with many people burning incense and making offerings of fruit and even bottles of iced tea.  

That is a lot of incense!

We had lunch at one of our favorite spots, the Globe, a British pub that sells many delicious beers from all over the world.  Zack is making it his mission to work his way through the extensive beer list.  They also have delicious pub food which is nice when you need a break from noodles.  We eat lots and lots of noodles here! Our last stop for the day was the Lan Kwai Fong carnival.  Lan Kwai Fong is a neighborhood full of bars and restaurants on very narrow, winding streets which has a very lively nightlife scene. We made our way over there and saw this...

So many people!

It was a mob scene!  We walked up about half a block pushing our way against the throng of people and decided that we'd had enough and turned around and went home. 

We celebrated my birthday on the the 19th - woo hoo - last one before I turn 50!!  We had a great day.  We went to the Hong Kong Museum of History where we saw an exhibit called "The Majesty of All Under Heaven: The Eternal Realm of China’s First Emperor".  This exhibit is about the Emporer Qin Shihuang - the first emperor of China in 221 B.C. - and the underground army he had built to defend him in the afterlife.  The Terracotta Warriors are just a small piece of the eight thousand strong underground army.  This exhibit was quite the bargain too - tickets were $10 HK which is about $1.30 US!  You would never get to see the Terra Cotta Warriors in the US for less than $2! 

Here are some pictures of the pits filled with soldiers.  These soldiers are enormous.

In addition to the warriors, there were musicians, horses and chariots. 

They think this was a musician by the way his hands are placed but his instrument is long gone.

 

This was a sculpture depicting how the work was done and how they put the warriors together.

The stairs outside the museum were made to look like the "pits".  This looks pretty cool and it's amazing that we were able to get a picture of it with no people on the stairs!

The Terracotta Warriors also become the subject for some pop culture fun.  Here is a rendering of the Terra Cotta Warriors made of Peeps from the 2010 Washington Post Peeps Diorama contest:

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For my birthday dinner, I decided that I wanted Peking Duck.  MMMM... Peking Duck.  As you may remember, I was delighted with the Peking Duck on one of my trips to Shanghai and have been anxiously awaiting a chance to have it again.  There is a restaurant in our neighborhood called Spring Deer.  It is highly rated by all the tour guide books as well as the locals.  It's a no-frills space to be sure, but the food was wonderful and the service was very gracious and friendly. 

The expert duck carver.  He probably does this 50 times a night!

Fun birthday gathering!!

Delicious, delicious plate of duck

All the duck fixins'

Tuesday we went to Ocean Park.  Ocean Park is a combination amusement park, zoo and aquarium.  The place is huge.  It's separated into two sections and it requires you to either take a train or a cable car to get to the upper section.  We took the cable car which is a crazy experience because it's basically built into the side of a mountain. Check it out...

Getting ready for take off!

OMG !!!

The highlight of the park for us was definitely the Pandas.  We went through the panda exhibit THREE times.  They have two giant pandas and two red pandas.  One of the giant pandas was very tired that day because he never left this spot...  he just shifted slightly throughout the day.

The other giant panda was a little more active - we did get to see her chomping on some bamboo but after that, she also took a long rest.

The Red Pandas were a bit more elusive.  We didn't see them the first time through.  They have little bamboo houses where they were hiding.  We did get to see them on the other two trips though and they are quite adorable!! 

They also have penguins!!

Having some fun in the gift shop :)

We had a great visit with my mother-in-law and I'm so happy she came to visit us.  

Thanksgiving has just gone by and in the spirit of that holiday, I would like to express my thanks and give kudos to my husband for being such a great support for me on this journey.  As some of you may know, he quit his job in order to come with me.  This was a scary decision for obvious reasons, but also an easy decision as we wouldn't want to be apart for that long.  But, we decided that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that we wanted to take this trip together.  I am so grateful that he is here.  He has helped to keep our lives in order as well as take on the role of my career coach.  Thank you so much honey!!!  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  
Love,
Carla