THE ESCALATOR

This is the longest outdoor escalator in the world... I travel on it daily.

MY FIRST BLACKBERRY

Forrest James Rhodes "Our Godson"

THE HOMELESS

Very little homelessness here but I did find "Casper the Ghost" on hard times.

YELLOW FLOWER

Some HK beauty.

CHINESE "BRUNCH"

100 year old eggs... mmmmm... yummy.

THE CUT

The Buddha from Tahoe. 

NOT related to HK but worthy of a post.

:)

FLOWERS

Sniffy...Sniffy...

THE LIONS "STEPHEN and STITT"

These bronze lions lay behind the HSBC building in "Central." Stephen, with the open mouth, and Stitt, with the closed one. Both lions were cast n 1935 in Shanghai. The Japanese occupied HK during WWII and used the beasts for target practice until they were removed and shipped to Japan for smelting. After the war, they were found in Japan and returned back to China. The original pair are now in a Shanghai museum. These are the second set made of four. 

*Note the bullet hole.

OLYMPIC PROMOTION

THE TRAM TO VICTORIA PEAK

A must here... incredible views, unfortunately a bit cloudy yesterday.

LOCAL SCAFFOLDING

This technique is quite amazing. This is a small example of the local scaffolding. I have seen these bamboo "ladders" 20-30 floors high.

WEEK TWO

Hello friends and family,

Two weeks in and all is well. The weather turned last week... heavy rains at times with HUGE thunderstorms at night. When it rains here, it pours and the thunder is deafening. The first time we heard the thunder here we were dead asleep. We awoke with bright eyes to say the least. The sound shook the entire building with incredible energy. Since then, we have had numerous "attacks", all at night. We have seen some amazing sights since we arrived. Every night at 8 p.m. downtown HK has a laser and light show which is really quite cool. Each skyscraper has equipped themselves with lights and lasers (all different) and all of HK has a 20 minute show. A must see! I have found a great "watering hole" in Soho called McSorley's Ale House. They show Australian rugby games currently but told me that they air the NFL games in the fall. Very little baseball interest here, although I have contacted a softball league here and hope to join a team in September. It is Monday and the sun is back. :) More to come...

LOCAL DOG PARK

THE FRUIT

I found this fruit stand yesterday... YUM! More oranges are eaten here than any other place on earth. Just a little fact for all of you.

THUNDER STORM

What a night! An enormous thunder storm rolled in last night and lasted until early this morning. The CRACK of the thunder shook the hole building all night. It has been raining here for 5 days now with no end in sight. Wish we could send it your way, appears you need it there. 

KUSH 111

Our building from the street.

THE FISH

Most of these fish are still alive. You pick which one you want to take home and WHACK!

THE MEAT

This is how they sell the meat here... the flies can't be seen in photo.

CHINESE DOLLARS 1920'S/1930'S

These belonged to my great grandparents when they visited China in the 1930's

THE BED

Our first purchase was a feather top for the bed. Beds are very hard here, sort of like sleeping on the floor. 

THE KITCHEN

Well, it has been raining for 4 days now with no end in sight. So I thought I would show the "Pigeon hole." The apartment is about 500sf and very comfortable. We have the 22nd floor of a 29 story building. Food has been our largest hurdle to date. We would kill for a Harry's Hofbrau dinner.   

CENTRAL HK

ASCICS AD for MJB

OUR "PIGEON HOLE"

BEDROOM VIEW (NORTH)

WEEK ONE

Greetings from Hong Kong,

Well, what can I say, this has been quite an experience thus far.

Arrived Tuesday a.m. @ 5:30 in HK. We jumped into a Toyota "limo" van that brought us into the city. I would describe HK as a tropical NYC. We arrived at our "pigeon hole" which the locals call the apartments here. Our "ph" is on the 22nd floor and is very nice and new. We have awesome views of the harbor to the north and the mountains to the south. The weather has been sunny and VERY hot/humid. I have walked 40+ miles since I have arrived here. The people are very friendly and helpful when they understand you which is usually the case. The food markets here are very different here, chunks of meat hanging in the open air and dried fish meat everywhere. These markets REEK! We have been trying to eat at locations that are familiar to us. Today (Sunday the 6th) we are jumping on the ferry and floating north to Kowloon.