Oh so full

Just had a major Chinese feast for dinner at the T'ang Court in the Langham Hotel. I'm so incredibly full right now and feel like I've gained five pounds. Dinner items include: vegetable dumplings, roasted suckling pig with jellyfish, shark's fin soup, braised abalone with sea cucumber and chicken feet, mushroom with fish, duck meat, drunken chicken and bird's nest soup. There was more food but I can't remember all the dishes. Whew!



Just wanted to add how excited I am to see the donations to the American Red Cross via Amazon. When I blogged about this just yesterday morning, the number of donations was around 9,000 with a total amount of around $450,000. Today, the number of donations is around 71,000 with an amount of $4,285,773.51---wahoo! That's so impressive!



Things are set to go to Shenzhen tomorrow night with Ben. I applied for a single-entry visa yesterday and can pick it up tomorrow...can't wait! Happy New Year everyone!! See you in 2005!!

Notes on Hong Kong

After a fabulous dinner at the Verandah Cafe at the Peninsula tonight, I finally made it out to the harbour to get a good shot of all the Xmas lights on the skyscrapers across the water. You can see how the Chinese go all out with full-scale holiday decorations on their buildings (see bldngs in lower left corner)...quite spectacular in person. In this picture is the new 2IFC (Two International Finance Centre) building, now the tallest building in Hong Kong at 88 stories--surpassing the Central Plaza Building (78 stories) and I.M. Pei's Bank of China Tower (72 stories), seen in the photo next to my head. The building in a purple neon glow on the right is The Center, the 4th tallest building. In the evenings, there have been mini laser light shows off the top of some of these buildings in addition to fireworks. This view still takes my breath away....a must-see if you ever visit Hong Kong, esp. during holiday time.





Mustered my way around the Night Market in Mong Kok today, which is really open all day but happens to be insanely popular at night. Quite the touristy spot, this is 3-4 blocks of ridiculously cheap rip-off bargains from Hong Kong. One can find things like a fake Gucci bag for less than ten bucks or a cheap shirt or some fake Rolex watches. If you can brave the crowds and be willing to bargain, you'll walk away with some deals. I was thinking just today about how claustrophobic this city can be. It's only Wednesday and the streets and subway are constantly crowded---you don't even want to know how bad it can get on a holiday (such as Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve). I don't think there's any city in the U.S. that can even be comparable.



Style note--what seems to be popular amongst the hip girls in Hong Kong:

calf to knee length slouch leather boots

a skirt or some sort, the funkier, the better

fur. lots of fur. especially in the form of a vest or the hood lining on a jacket

wearing your boots *over* your jeans (i remember doing this in junior high...i can't believe it's coming back)

carrying your cell phone on a cord around your neck with the earpiece attached to the cord for easier access

vests overall--with fur is better...but i'm seeing vests everywhere

Extended relatives

Met 3 more distant cousins last night at dinner: Steve, Kenneth & Raymond..who all go to university in Canada currently. I don't have that many first cousins since my parents don't have that many siblings; however, when I start going up and over the family tree, it gets complicated. My grandparents each have so many siblings, up in the teens somewhere, due to my great grandparents being of the generation where it was common for a man to have multiple wives and concubines. For example, the cousins I met last night are related to me in this manner: their mother is the daughter of a man who is the older brother of my ma-ma (grandmother on father's side)--but he has a different mother, same father.

Tsunami Relief

Nice. When 9/11 happened and I was managing the team of web developers that supported the Amazon Gateway (aka HP), we had to scramble that day to take down all the content on the gateway and replace it with a big red cross message asking for amazon customers to donate to the red cross for efforts to support the families. I was really proud of that effort as we had raised a ridiculous amount of money in a short period (and considering we had capped the donation to $100 per user), it was incredible to see the number of donors. I was even more proud when I saw a mention of the website on various news programs as a source for donating money.



I was wondering if, with the recent tsunami disaster, if Jeff would decide to pull off a similar effort--and it seems we have. So, please donate to the Red Cross!! In the time it took for me to write that last paragraph, the number of payments went from 8880 to 9124. Spectacular. I hope that this is as successful as our efforts from 9/11.

purple hair

i died my hair a deep purple yesterday. eeks. getting used to it.



under normal, indoor lighting, you can't even tell--it just looks very jet black. however, outside, under sunlight, it looks pretty darn purple. i like to think that it looks very anime like.



the weather got suddenly cold today in hong kong...wasn't quite prepared for it as the weather forecast predicted mid-70's weather the whole time I'd be here. It's 50-degrees now.



if all works out, i'm going to spend new year's eve in shenzhen, china with my friend Ben. have to make sure i get the visa details worked out--supposedly, i can just apply at the border and get one in half an hour. or i can take the safe route and get a visa through my hotel now...but it's going to cost $$$.

Coffee in Hong Kong

I must say, coffee is really starting to take over here in Hong Kong. When I was here two years ago, there were a tiny handful of Starbucks here. Now, there seem to be Starbucks everywhere I go--the airport, the shopping mall, the streets, etc. As a result, I've noticed many more coffee shops around here...specifically, the main competitor with Starbucks here is the Pacific Coffee Co., whose shops tend to be much larger in scale and typically equipped with online computers. There's also more food offered at Pacific compared to the typical small pastries offered at Starbucks.

Yesterday, my family paid respect to past relatives at the cemetery. It was a really nice, sunny day fortunately since we'd be outside the whole time. It always still spooks me out a bit when I go to the cemetery here in HK. For those of you who've visited Bruce Lee's grave in Seattle, you will have noticed his picture on his tombstone--that's pretty normal for Chinese tombstones. So--when visiting the cemetery in HK, where there are literally thousands and thousands of tombstones, you'll walk by pictures of each dead person. Creepy. We remember where our relatives' graves are by the markers of various people's pictures. Even the section of cremated people, there are pictures all along the wall.



Hung out with Ben last night--yay! He's doing well--busy applying for B-school right now...if all stars align, he'll be back in the States next fall. He took me out to dinner at Knutsford Terrace at this Turkish restaurant called Merhaba, which was quite delicious although the service was somewhat slow and forgetful. We had some yummy bites..like spinach, cheese & mint "cigars" with mint yoghurt to dip...and lamb pizza. The best part is you can rent a hookah for $50HK (about $7US) -- we got apple flavor and it was awesome. Sitting outside in the cool night breeze of Hong Kong, smoking shisha was the best.



After dinner, Ben took me to this Russian style restaurant and bar called The Balalaika. He talked highly of this Vodka ice bar, a popular tourist destination. I had images of a really large bar made completely of ice---instead, upon arrival, I saw that it was instead a small freezer with a window that looks out at the restaurant. It was still fun. The restaurant lets guests borrow huge fake fur coats & hats Russian style to step into this freezer, which is lined with all sorts of different types of vodkas. Man, it was absolutely freezing inside--we ordered a shot of vodka, chatted with a couple from Manchester that had just moved here and were on our way. A short, fun worthwhile thing to do if you're in the area.



This recent 8.9 earthquake is crazy. I wonder how Jigna and Matt are doing in Mauritius--there are definitely news reports of Mauritius getting hit by tidal waves. Man, and they're supposed to have their big beach-side wedding celebration today. I hope they are okay. I can't believe it stretched out that far west---I thought it would stop at India. I feel like Hong Kong is much closer to the epicenter (Indonesia) and we didn't feel anything...but I guess the land mass of Indonesia and Malaysia prevented it from really affecting the waters surrounding China or HK. It was perfectly sunny and warm yesterday. My friend, Rod, was supposed to head to Phuket (per my parents) for New Year's, arriving sometime this week from what I hear. It doesn't loook like there's much left after the earthquake. Wonder if he's left yet...and if not, if he's still going.