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:

Section:/lifestyle/magazine

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

Thoughts on New Jersey

Hi all,
It's been more than a while since my last post.  There are a couple of reasons for this - one is that we've settled into more a routine as the months go on, so there's not as much new stuff to share.  We're still enjoying our time here and continue to find great places to explore and eat.  The second reason is that it didn't feel right to be writing a blog about things we were doing here while our friends and family were strugging in the aftermath of Sandy.  However, the last few weeks did give me a lot of time to reflect upon my adopted home state and I would like to share some of my thoughts and story with you now.

I moved to New Jersey in December 1993.  It wasn’t something I planned to do.  A job opportunity came my way and without too much time to think about it, I decided to pack up and leave Milwaukee.  At the time, I didn’t intend to stay in New Jersey.  I loved living in Milwaukee (despite the cold winters!), had great friends and enjoyed my life.  I saw it as a career move that would enable me to move back to Wisconsin at some point and be able to have a job that didn’t require me to work nights, weekends and holidays.  I had worked as a Store Manager for various retail companies for over 10 years and needed a change.  The move also provided me with the opportunity to be closer to my family who were living in Massachusetts at the time. So off to NJ I went…

It wasn’t an easy move.  It took a while to make friends.  Everyone was very friendly and welcoming but it was hard to break through and make connections.   I have a lifelong friend, Louise, who lived in Piscataway at the time and she was my lifeline.  I truly don't know what I would have done without her there!  I remember her telling me that it wasn’t easy living in New Jersey at first, but after about three years it will all click into place and feel like home.  She was so right!  It was about that time that I made some friends who helped make New Jersey home for me and happily are dear friends to this day.  In late 2000, I started dating Zack and we have been happily married since 2004.

Fast forward to 19 years later… I never left and am proud to call New Jersey my home.    We are fortunate to have cherished family and friends nearby and love all that New Jersey has to offer.  Even though this wasn't my original plan, it turns out that it was a very good decision and I have no regrets.  This overseas experience we are having now just reinforces these choices, has made us both realize what is important in our lives and makes us miss home so much.

It has been a very trying and difficult couple of weeks for our friends and family back in New Jersey, New York and the surrounding areas.  We followed the events online and kept up with people through email and Facebook.  It has been heartbreaking to see the losses people have suffered and what’s happened to places we all know and love.  I know there are people out there still struggling to get through each day. It’s going to be a long road to recovery for many, but it will happen as the people of New Jersey will make sure it happens. 

On a lighter note, my house-sitter had to escape our cold, dark house during the extended power outage and went to her parent's house once their power came back.  So our cat, Owen, went on the road with her.  Owen is quite the trooper.  He made some new friends and settled in nicely in his new surroundings.  Here he is catching some zzzz's....

 

Fun stuff on our horizon - my mother-in-law is coming for a visit Thursday night and will be with us for a week.  We have lots of fun plans for her visit and will have new adventures to share with you later.  We got invited to a Thanksgiving dinner here in Hong Kong at the home of a co-worker and her American husband.  So, we will get to enjoy turkey and all the trimmings with some new friends.  Also, we are anxiously counting down the days to our Christmas trip home.  We will be home from December 23 to January 3 and cannot wait to see everyone and give them big, big hugs!!!

 

With Love,

Carla

Sai Kung Fishing Village

Hong Kong is comprised of several areas, the main one being Hong Kong Island.  We live across the harbor in Kowloon.  There is also an area called the New Territories.  Up until the 1980's it was mostly rural, farm area.  There was a boom of construction and now over 3 million people live there. In the New Territories there is a fishing village called Sai Kung.  I had the opportunity to go there this week for a business dinner.  It was a fascinating and exciting experience.

The drive out there was beautiful.  In contrast to the urban high rises we are around every day and throngs of people, it was lush with trees, winding hilly roads and low rise apartments with water views.  It almost felt like being in California.   It made me happy. One of the things I miss with city living here is trees.  At home, the view out of our windows is filled with trees and other greenery and it's very peaceful.  Our view here is lots and lots of buildings.  On a side note, there is a 64 story hotel/apartment building directly in front of us and we have seen several people wandering around their hotel room naked and then taking  a shower. 

Sai Kung is a fishing village that is filled with seafood restaurants lining the harbor.  Most of these places have numerous tanks filled with all types of fresh seafood.  You can basically peruse the tanks, tell the server what you want, they take it out and cook it for you.  I have never seen so many types of seafood in one place.  I'm not sure what it all was but it was an amazing sight. 

You need to be with a really big group of people to order one of these bad boys!

This particular one below just made me sad - these giant prawn looking things stuck in plastic bottles.  I don't know how they got there but it can't be good.  I tried googling to see what the story is but couldn't find anything.  If anyone knows what the story is, let me know.

We went to a restaurant called Chuen Kee.  They love the neon over here and have some awesome signs!

Because we had such a large group, we had to take two cars out there.  Our group arrived, found the restaurant, sat down and ordered some drinks and snacks.  About 20 minutes went by and the other part of our group had not yet arrived.  We didn't understand how they could be late, because we left at the same time.  We finally found out that the restaurant had two locations about 200 yards apart and the rest of our group was at the other location wondering where we were!  So, we picked up our drinks and snacks and marched over to join the rest of our group.

While they were waiting for us, the other group had taken the liberty of ordering for all of us.  Many restaurants here serve large family style dishes that everyone shares.  They have large round tables with glass top lazy Susan's so nobody has to pass the dishes around.  They also provided us with little bowls filled with tea and lemon for dipping your fingers to clean them.

The first dish we got was sizzling prawns cooked with garlic, spring onion and chilies.  The aroma that wafted off the dish was heavenly. 

We also got lightly breaded calamari strips.  These were delicious and tender.  They served them with a sweet chili sauce that was a perfect accompaniment.  They have a way of frying food here that doesn't make the food greasy.  We are hoping to learn the secret at our cooking class next week. 

Then they brought out a giant bowl of lobster in noodles with a cheese sauce. This was quite good.  The lobster was really sweet and the cheesy noodles were very rich and comforting.  I went back for seconds of this dish. 

There was a whole cuttlefish that as steamed and served with spring onions and a soy based sauce.  This was light and very flavorful. 

We also got sides of stir fried broccoli and baby bok  choy.  I think there was a stir fried rice dish but I didn't get any of that.  I was pretty full at that point and just had to stop. Sadly, I had no room for the item offered below...

mmm... sea blubber in secret sauce...

Many menus here don't have English translation so I have no idea what this is about

This last menu page I found particularly interesting - the contrast of the cooked creature who appears to be speaking surrounded by ribbons and doves.  Quite curious...

Hope you enjoyed the journey!

Carla

Mid Autumn Festival and National Day

Greetings all! 
One of the things that is different for us here in Hong Kong is that we don't get to celebrate the same holidays as in the US.  While all of you were enjoying a nice, long weekend for Labor Day, I was over here working.  And working long hours I might add!  I was more than a little jealous of my friends back home.

Well, we finally got to celebrate a long weekend here in Hong Kong.  There were two holidays that were recently celebrated.  The first is Mid-Autumn Festival.  This festival is also known as the Moon Festival or Chinese Lantern Festival.  It is a lunar festival that is typically celebrated during the full moon close to the Autumnal equinox.  The celebration dates back over 3000 years!  Today the festival is celebrated by eating Mooncakes, spending time with family, lantern displays and fire dragon dances.  Mooncakes are HUGE here.  


                  

Ever since we arrived in Hong Kong, stores were taking pre-orders for mooncakes and everybody has their favorite kind.  Most mooncakes are round or square, about 2 inches across and 1 inch thick.  They are typically filled with red bean or lotus seed paste, or egg yolks.  They are very dense and very heavy.  A single mooncake is about 1000 calories - yikes!  Zack and I tried a few different kinds and I would say a little goes a long way.  Kind of like fruitcake for most people (except I actually really like good fruitcake).  They even make frozen ones for dogs:

We had the opportunity to go to Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island over the weekend to see the Lantern Festival.  This was really neat.  We went in the afternoon so we could see the lanterns before it got dark and then waited for it to get dark so we could see them all lit up.   The centerpiece of the festival was a large round lantern with lights of many colors that were constantly changing.  Zack thought it looked like the Heat Miser's head and I think he's right! 

 
The park was full of people trying to get pictures of all the lanterns.  It made it challenging to take pictures without getting strangers in your pictures! 

Here are a few pictures of the festival.

You could even see the full moon!

Monday, October 1st was National Day.  National Day is a Chinese holiday that marks the day that the People's Republic of China was established in 1949.  This holiday is recognized by large fireworks displays across the country.  In Hong Kong, they have fireworks barges in Victoria Harbor so that people can see the fireworks from Hong Kong Island as well as Kowloon.  Many restaurants along the waterfront and in the high rise buildings offer special dinners so that you can enjoy a nice meal and have a front row seat for the fireworks - as opposed to standing around with hordes of people.  This is what Zack and I chose to do.  We went to a place not far from our apartment and got a nice table on the sidewalk.   This allowed us to enjoy the show and have a nice glass of wine at the same time.

The crowds gathering for the show

The fireworks were spectacular!  The pictures just don't do it justice.  

We've got some fun events coming up.  Next Saturday we are going to the Star Street  Gourmet and Wine Walk.  This is an artist's neighborhood full of galleries, shops, restaurants and bars that will be providing samples of lovely wines and their specialty dishes.  Even better, it's for a good cause as some of the proceeds will go to Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong.  

We also signed up for a Cantonese cooking class later this month.  It's an all day class that also includes a tour of the local food markets.  We will learn proper wok cooking techniques and how to cook "not greasy food with oil".  Some of the dishes we will make are Honk Kong Fried Rice with BBQ pork, shrimp and spring onion and Singaporean stir fry rice noodles.  YUM!!  This woman offers a lot of different classes, including Dim Sum, but we decided we wanted to start off with the basics and hopefully learn how to recreate some of the tasty dishes we are having here when we get back home.  

I also wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Julie back in New Jersey.  Yesterday, we got a big Halloween care package from her that included fun size Butterfingers (my favorite), malted milk balls, M&M's, goldfish crackers and a bunch of fun Halloween decorations.  Our apartment is now very festively decorated! Thank you so much!!!

Until next time.
Love,
Carla