Ridin' Dirrrty - My trip to India

OK, so you know I have been sort of intrigued but sort of dreading this trip since Tony got back from India and told me that I would hate it...So, I was trying to be brave and expect the absolute worst and hope for the best....It was really unbelievable how these people live and unfortunately I got so wrapped up in the poverty and the filth that it was hard to find any very redeeming qualities about the country, that is, other than the food!
To set the scene, picture the worst slums you can imagine. No running water. No electricity. Garbage filled streets. No toilets, sinks, kitchens. Whole families living in a shack build from sticks and tarps, like a tent. They walk down to a water pipe to get their water to wash with and cook with. And the people in the cars drive by unfazed by what is happening on the streets.


The stores are lined up right next to these slums. A 'store' consists of a similar type shack with a painted cardboard sign identifying what they are selling there. The streets are a combination of mud, garbage, and urine. In fact, I was in one city where there is only 1 toilet to 9000 people. So, if you had to pee, you'd spend a week waiting for the bathroom.


As there is no bathroom, most of the people come up to the street level to relieve themselves. They do this because they live on the side of the street and don't want to get too close to their homes. I cannot tell you how many people I saw publicly urinating, full stream in the streets.

They carry large objects on their heads like this lady and use their hands to keep balance.


The roads are chaos. Cars, and trucks share the lanes with motorcycles, 'auto rickshaws', and animals - camels, cows, elephants, horses and goats. There is no order to the chaos, no lanes, and sometimes to make it even more fun, there are no roads! The roads they do have are filled with potholes and you can't drive much over 40 km / hr because you have no where to go. They also like to shove as many people as possible into their vehicles, and have no regard for safety of families or of children. Here is a picture of an India school bus.
I saw 3 adults on one motorcycle, and on another one and entire family of four. Dad was driving with a child standing on the platform between his legs. Mom was sitting side saddle on the back holding a baby girl in her arms. no seat belts, no helmets. Nothing! Also on my journey, we almost got involved in several 'cow' accidents where we'd be getting up to a steady pace of 60 km / hr and out of nowhere, a giant cow steps in front of the car and we screech to a halt.

The good news is that we had our own professional drivers through most of the time I was in India. One of them when we were in the southern region was very religious and had to stop at the temple before we took off for a prayer and a swipe on his head. He then bought four lemons from this man sat outside the temple (see the trash in the background, lovely?) and promptly places one under each tire so that when we were off on the road again, we rolled over the lemons for luck. Not sure if it was the Hindu gods working or not, but the next day, he did not go to the temple before we set sail and we got a flat tire!
The man with the hairiest ears I have ever seen in my life. That is all ear hair sticking out, no head hair! Double click on the picture for a larger more textured view, if you dare....
The first picture I took didn't come out as well so I had to snap another one. I was pretending to take pictures of a plane in the back ground, but I could not disguise my interest in his furry beast ears. Enjoy!

There is something to be said about being in India though - everyone communicates in english, making the business aspect of traveling a lot easier. There are so many dialects and languanges other than english that people from the north cannot communicate with people in the south, so they all use english as the moderator. So, I understood everything! What a concept!

Here's me eating a delicious dosa (a southern India crepe made from rice and beans) at a road side cafe on a three hour journey to Pondicherry. They let me stop off here to use a real live toilet so I didn't have to squat in front of my coworkers and our driver on the side of the road with the rest of the folk. Big smile here : ) In gerenal the food was great for what I was able to eat of it - lots of veg dishes, curries, and the most delicious breads! Carbs carbs carbs. Love it! But I of course was not able to drink the water or eat any uncooked fruit or veggies. Everything I ate had to be piping hot with steam coming out of it. It was nice to know it isn't just us...I met a guy who grew up in India but for the past 5 years had been living in Singapore. He had to acclimate himself back to the dirrrrty water by taking one sip every day until he stopped getting sick from it, and then slowly adding other items into his new bacteria diet. So gross.
My journey through the week started in Mumbai (the new name for Bombay), then to Pune, Dehli and finally Chennai and Pondicherry. If Pune was a flea on a rat on the Lower East Side, then Dehli is a Park Avenue penthouse. None of the airports were of any particular scale of worst to best, however I did spend the most time in the Chennai airport on my way home. Five hours to be exact waiting for my red eye flight home to Hong Kong through Bangkok. Fun fun fun! At least they had free wireless Internet so I could pass the time doing work and chatting on line to some friends and family.

Here's a shot of Ghandi and I in Pondicherry, a former French settlement. Beaches, Cafe's, French influence architecture, and a statue of Gandhi. Not I get it. Living his principals, the southern region is nearly 100% vegetarian. Gandhi also believed in truth, nonviolence and simplicity. He had cute ears. All of his statues around the country seem to emphasize them.

The people in the south also dressed a lot like him with a wrap around sheet / skirt for men. Women everywhere dressed the same in their traditional saris, draped in various styles and colors - it is definitely one of the most colorful countries I have ever seen and the sari's are the pallet. The women are quite plumper than the men in general and their little chubby tummy's stick out from under their pretty sari.

So, would I ever go back? Maybe. But only if I was guaranteed a trip to the Taj Mahal as part of it. I've gotta see that!

Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!

KL is A-OK

Selamat datang (welcome) Blogger friends! I had a chance to go to spend the week traveling for business in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Malaysia is south of Hong Kong, about 3.5 hour flight and it borders Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. They have two seasons here, HOT and HOTTER, and even now in the middle of 'winter' it is a toasty 85 degrees, with 100% humidity. It is the rainy season right now, so pretty much everyday, it rains for at least part of the afternoon. The country was once British ruled and therefore, they drive on the left hand side of the street like in Hong Kong. Otherwise, it is quite the large melting pot of cultures. The majority of the population are 'Malay' and by nature approximately 60% of the people are Muslim. This is the first predominately Muslim country I have ever been to! The rest of the population is Chinese (mostly Buddhist) and Indian (mostly Hindu) so it is very diverse. Everyone speaks at least four languages including Malay, English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Malay has a different script, but some of the words sound the same. By far, this is the most, best English speaking place I have visited in Asia yet.

Being a big blond American gal, I was at little nervous about going to a Muslim country at first...On the flight over, there were only a few alarming things....the first was when the flight attendants announced they would be coming through the cabin spraying us for diseases and if we wanted to, we could cover our noses and mouths! Yup, that is what they did, with Lysol size canisters. No one else seemed phased by this, so I played it cool. Second, was the announcement as we were about to land, kindly letting the passengers know that they have strict rules and practice corporal punishment in the country where we were about to enter. Niiiiiice. Back to the whole Muslim thing, I have made some very cool discoveries which I am proud to report.

First off, on the ceiling of my hotel room, spacing out before going to bed, I noticed this black and gold triangle thing. No clue what it was, I thought maybe someone put a sticker up there or something. I had to change rooms mid week because Tony joined me (also traveling on business, but we got to spend the weekend, how convenient...) and I was in a single bed at first and needed to upgrade to a king, so in my new room, I again looked up and there it was on the ceiling, but now it was pointing in another direction. The sleuth in me finally figured it out....It is an arrow, pointing toward "Kaaba" (which is conveniently written on the arrow but I had no clue what it meant) the city where Mecca is, the direction they must face for their five daily prayers. Also, I had a product launch in a brand new hotel just outside of the city and amongst all the typical 'ballrooms' and conference rooms, there were prayer rooms with slippers outside for you to change shoes and easily go in for your Allah fix. The men and women are not allowed to pray together, so there are rooms for each gender. Non-Muslims aren't allowed inside and I didn't want to disrespect them by snapping a wild photo, so you will just have to take my word for it...Pretty cool huh?

My first day out visiting customers we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe for some Indian grub. We sat outside at a picnic table and a dude came over and plopped a banana leaf in front of me. I figured it was to act as a 'place mat' which would soon be followed by napkins, silverware, etc. Nope. Out of no where, other guys kept coming by, plopping different types of curries, rice, veggies and sauces onto my banana leaf....all of which I was meant to eat with my hands. Out comes the Purell hand sanitizer! It was very delicious, and very messy : )

Oh, and I discovered a new delicious fruit called 'jackfruit'. It is apparently this huge green prickly thing but once you peel it and take out the many pits, it looks like a shriveled up apricot and tastes mighty fine. Mine was from a buffet so they had already done most of the work.

Tony arrived on Thursday evening and we went out for some delicious malay food with a coworker of ours who is a native. My favorite thing was the fish head curry - here is a picture of the deliciousness.

Friday was a tough day for me. I had to travel to see a customer for five hours in the car all the way down to the southern most city in Malaysia, bordering Singapore. The drive was very pretty, there were acres and acres of palm trees lining the highway. My poor sales guy was falling asleep at the wheel (and I was freaking out because he was driving at 150 KM / hr = 100 miles / hr!!!) so we had to stop at a rest stop where he downed two red bulls....Then the fun came...We put in his Real McCoy CD. Don't laugh! It was so much fun, I secretly downloaded it off of ITunes when I got back into town. Highly recommend it. O La O La Aaaaayyyy.

Other than that, the trip kinda sucked. The air conditioner died half way through and due to flight scheduling, I wound up not being able to get back into KL until after midnight. Tony and I pretended that we were going out on the town when I got back, but he was sleeping and I was exhausted, plus we are old you know, so we just crashed.

On Saturday, we had the whole day free to see some sights. We headed over to the Batu Caves, a famous Hindi temple which is a top of almost 300 steps and surrounded by these terrible naughty monkeys! They come right up to you and steal things out of your hands. You can buy fruit to feed to them, but we were too phobic of their nasty diseases to get too close. I got some beautiful monkey footage which I would love to share with you one day.

After then monkeys we headed over to the Central market where Tony and I picked up various silk malay shirts and dresses (for me). We then walked all the way across town to the 'Rodeo Drive' of KL, the Bintang strip. There are ten malls all along the same block right near the monorail. Tony picked up a shirt for that evening because he forgot his cuff links for the one he brought with him. After our long walk, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for dinner. We headed out to a place called Top Hat. We shared their famous appetizers, little 'top hats' filled with veggies, almost like an open face spring roll. Tony had a malay fab sampler and I had a mixed seafood and noodle soup. We shared a bottle of Tyrrells Shiraz (our obsession since our trip to Australia!) and ate with a view of the famous Petronas twin towers, now the second tallest twin towers in the world. They are quite magnificent.
After dinner and since we were so lame the night before, we headed down to P Ramlee street to check out the action. It is a whole strip two blocks long of all types of bars and clubs. We settled on a place called Rum Jungle because they had a great band and were singing everything from hip hop to rock music. We made friends with some malay boys who were sitting near us at the bar and they made Tony snort a shot of sambuca up his nose! Ouch! He said it didn't burn too badly, it was really funny to watch, I guess that is just how they roll. The bartenders did all these flaming bar fire eating tricks, it was a very fun night and we rolled home well after 2.


The next day we walked down to this beautiful park filled with all different sections. They had waterfalls, turtles and amazing flowers. There were all these nice families who came to hang out there and spend their Sunday in the outdoors with the kids. We took lots of great pictures here, but here's one for your viewing enjoyment.


After the park we headed back to our hotel for a quick bite before Tony had to leave to fly out to Hong Kong while I split for India! More on that soon....Till next time, I MISS YOU & LOVE YOU!

A couple of (crazy) weeks in the homeland

Welcome back loyal readers! Tony and I just got back from two weeks back in the good old US of A. We were selected to attend the annual Rockwell trade show (Automation Fair) which was being held in Chicago IL and as a result, we were able to visit lots of family and friends and spend Thanksgiving in the states before heading back to Hong Kong.

I figure I would post some fun pictures from our trip home so that you guys can be famous too!
It was strange to be back in the US at first. Some observations were that there are SO many diet commercials (something they don't have here at all) and that coming into downtown Chicago which I have always thought was a big beautiful city, looked unimpressive having been to some much bigger places in Asia. It was fun to boycott Asian food for the week and our first meal back in the US was some old fashioned Chicago PIZZA. Delicious!
The show in Chicago was great, it was so nice to catch up with old Rockwell friends, my favorite distributor folks (hello T&H!) and customers. The show floor was very crowded and we got to enjoy some fun dinners and late night partying with our co-workers. I needed a 20 minute nap to survive each afternoon, the time change kills. After many long days and late nights we were excited when Thursday finally came around and we could head up to Milwaukee to visit Tony's family.
We took the train from Chicago to Milwaukee with some Amish people which was quite the deal, only $20 and an hour ride! We were invited over to Tony's brother, Nick, and his wife, Laurens' house for dinner so we could see our beautiful little niece Madelyn who is now almost 10 months...Isn't she the cutest? We had not seen her since her baptism in May and she has grown up so much since then, crawling all over the place and making everyone laugh.


On Friday morning, Tony and his dad hit the highway to drive up to their home in Northern Wisconsin for some good male bonding - deer hunting season opened on Saturday morning and they wanted to beat all the traffic (yes, apparently there is traffic on the way to shoot Bambi, who knew?) They were joined by Nick and Tony's brother-in-law Andy later on Friday night and the boys had a nice manly weekend without killing anything - they didn't even see a deer! But they did go sit outside in single digit temperatures at 4 AM...I just don't get it, must be a guy thing.


Me on the other hand, I was off to NYC for a quick visit to see my family for the weekend while Tony was gone. My BFF Sharon flew in from LA for the occasion and it was great to spend time with her. After grabbing my sisters car, we headed through the city and did some shopping at the mall. Hey, I needed new boots and I know I can't really get them here in Hong Kong, so it was necessary shopping as far as I'm concerned. We had lunch at Houstons and I ate the biggest bestest cheeseburger ever, totally craving some American food. On Friday night, we went to Queens and had a delicious dinner with mom & dad where I dispensed some early Christmas presents and between the four of us we polished off one bottle of champagne, three bottles of red wine, and some after dinner cognac. Ooops.


Saturday morning we took a walk in Alley Pond park which was great for Sharona and I since all the fall foliage was in full effect still in NY and neither of us got to see any this year being in LA and Hong Kong. It was chilly but beautiful. After the walk we went to Fortuneoffs where I was able to pick out my birthday present from mom & dad, a new watch! My old watch was a Seiko from 8th grade, still ticken! Hopefully this one last 10 times as long, I love it. Auntie M and A-Rob (my Aunt Marcia and Aunt Robin) met us for a delicious greek lunch and then we headed back to Queens to rest up for a night out on the town with the cousins. Before we went out, my second mothers, Maria & Stephanie, dropped over for some hugs and the Sporn-Heim news update...so good to see you guys! And thanks for the birthday gift!
As we call it, a "Cousin Outing" was planned for the evening and included the 6 first cousins on my dad's side, plus significant others and Sharona, so we were quite the crew. We had a great time as usual and stayed out until 4 AM dinning on the upper east side and then clubbing in the meat packing district. Fun fun fun!..Sorry Jr. & Randela, no good pic of you guys to post : (
Sunday we were invited to the Hamburgers (my aunt and uncle on my mom's side) for dinner and I got to see my little cousins too, who are not so little anymore, I think both are taller than me now! They were lamenting the fact that Tony and I would not be at their house for Thanksgiving since we are both very instrumental in the feast every year. Tony helps Uncle Peter cook all day long and I always wash all the dishes post dinner for 22 people...they almost cancelled it (but somehow I know they pulled through and we promise to be back next year for my favorite meal of the year in good old Jersey! We missed you guys!)My BFF Jamie and her husband stopped over on their way home from a weekend in Saratoga to say hello so I got to see them too!


Monday morning I returned to Milwaukee and Tony came back from his hunting excursion. We had dinner and drinks on Monday night with Tony's sister Theresa and her husband Andy but kept it a pretty early night since we were heading early the next morning to Michigan State, to pick up Tony's baby sister, Angelina, from college where she is a freshman. It was an uneventful 5 hour drive in each direction, but we got to see her dorm room and it really made me miss college. Ahhh.


Wednesday evening we met up with Tony's best guy friends (Rob & John) and their lovely wives (Deb & Jenn) for a delicious Italian meal at a great place called Bartolotta's....yummy! We headed out to the 703 club (Tony's parents tavern) afterwards for some drinking and fun with Theresa, Andy and Nick. There was a whole lotta air guitar and jager bombs, making for a rough Thanksgiving morning for some!
The next day, everyone was in a great mood following a big Packer win, and we ate our Thanksgiving meal around 5 o'clock with the whole Sollazo family. Madelyn was there to entertain us all and we exchanged Christmas gifts with Tony's side of the family since we will be back here in Hong Kong for Christmas. Everyone loved their gifts from the orient!
Friday night we went our for delicious Mexican food downtown at La Fuentes which is right near our headquarters, with the brother & sister crew. Angie stayed home to babysit for Madelyn so both Nick & Lauren had the night off to party for a change. They were very cute pointing out to me all the new trendy restaurants and bars developing in Milwaukee, easing the notion that it will one day soon be our home. We closed the bar and were home by 3, putting a great end to our stay in Wisconsin.
So, here we are back in Hong Kong after traveling nearly 24 hours yesterday...should be a fun week at work! Anyways, it was great to see all of you we could, and talk to you when we couldn't and to the rest, we will be back soon enough and can't wait to catch up more then. Email soon, post a comment on our bloggy blog, and till next time I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!

The Llamas, Alexis & Lindsey - our second visitors!

Hello Everyone! Hope you are enjoying your November. We have no daylight savings here in Hong Kong so just an FYI, we are now 13 hours behind New York, 14 for Milwaukee, and 16 for Los Angeles. I don't think we have any friends in the mountain time zone, but you can do the math. No? You can't? Well, this website has become a saviour to me, check it out if you are thinking of us out here in Asia! http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

On Friday night, my sister, Alexis and her BFF Lindsey arrived from New York. They have been touring the world together since college and were some of the first people to confirm their desire to visit us out here when we finalized our assignments. They did very well on the plane ride over thanks to some Ambien, except for the fact that in her sleepy haze, Lindsey ate a Cheeseburger and a Haagen Daz ice cream and doesn't remember a thing! Alexis was looking at her, also half asleep, wondering how she was doing it, but then they both knocked off again and arrived in Hong Kong amazingly refreshed and ready to party.

We went out for a quick bite of some delicious Thai food and then it was time to bar hop in Lan Kwai Fong. We stopped in for drinks showing them several of the different hot spots until we wound up wanting to go dancing at a club. The four of us negotiated a price to pay for two people, and get free drinks until 1 AM which turned out to be a good deal. We hung out there for a while until we got a hankering for canollis - Alexis had brought us a dozen from the US and they amazingly survived the journey! She had the shells and cream separate so they wouldn't get soggy so we created our own pastry filler out of a plastic baggie and cut a hole in the corner and filled them right up. I was hopeful that they would be able to sleep late the next day and try to get on the time change since they were able to stay up quite late, but unfortunately they woke up pretty early the next morning. That worked out OK though because we were going for a hike. We took them up to the top of the Peak for the view and even though Lindsey isn't used to the exercise, she did very well and we all made it up there in one piece. We had a delicious lunch at the top and then proceeded to work our way down the mountain...it was tough on the knees, especially the steep parts! Must be because I am getting so old!

Our plan was to go get foot massages after we showered up but when I came out to the living room after changing, the girls were tucked into their bed again, fully clothed. Ah, jet lag. So I let them sleep for a few hours before waking them up for a trip to the Night Market for some shopping. Tony and I had to pick up a few things for our families since we are going to be in Milwaukee for Thanksgiving and the girls did find some great deals as well. Alexis picked up a beautiful painting which matches her living room perfectly. That night we went into Soho for delicious Vietnamese food and since we were exhausted from our hiking and partying the night before we decided to call it an early night to get ready for our journey to Macau the next day.

We had a leisurely brunch in the morning and caught the 2 PM ferry over to Macau. It was a beautiful day and once we arrived the girls took a walk down to Macau Tower and did the skywalk that we had done with Jay & Christopher. Tony & I opted for drinks and a nap by the pool, followed by gambling. We played black jack for about two hours and at the end, Tony was dead even, and I was up $300 HKD (about $40 US). We met the girls for dinner at our favorite Portuguese restaurant, Camoes, in the Fisherman's Wharf. Tony, Lindsey and I ate a traditional dish of the Portuguese Pork & Clams (so good!) while Alexis opted for a grilled beef and pork skewer. Tony had to catch the ferry back that night because he had to fly out to Japan first thing Monday morning, so he left for Hong Kong and the girls and I went out on the town. We started at the Venetian where they could not believe the size of this casino! Alexis was disappointed though, we were not able to find any craps tables in the place. We met a guy there and he said that the only craps he has seen on the whole island was over at the Wynn and even there it is a smaller, shorter table. We played some Roulette and on our last spin, I hit a number and we able t get some money back. They only had $200 HKD minimum black jack tables on a Sunday night, so we went back over to the Sands casino. We had a dealer named Wilfredo and even though he looked nice, he was a mean old man and he wiped me out of all my winnings plus an additional $200 HKD. Alexis wound up wining back her losses from Roulette while Lindsey lost her $1000 HKD in a split second. Hey, at least they got to see the biggest casino in the world and got two more stamps in their passports....!

We headed back to Hong Kong the next afternoon and after dropping our stuff off at my apartment, we hopped a cab and went down to Stanley Market. The girls continued in their accumulation of gifts for family and friends and after shopping we stopped for a drink at the beach. It was a beautiful day, not like any November I have ever seen. We went down to the beach and the girls collected some sea glass from the shore line and Alexis got a bottle filled with sand to bring to one of her customers who collects the stuff...I wonder if she will make it through customs with that? We shall see!

We headed out for Indian food for dinner at Bombay Dreams where on Mondays, they participate in a two for one (buy one entree, get the second one free!). It was delicious! And there are plenty of left overs for me for dinner tonight since Tony is still in Japan and the girls left for Beijing this morning!

They come back to Hong Kong on Thursday night so Friday is our last full day with them. We will go out for Korean BBQ for dinner and then have drinks at a place with a view of the city, but I am not sure what they will want to do during the day. There are so many options left, their time here has gone very quickly!

We will be in the US for two weeks which we are very much looking forward to...Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!

Sidney in Sydney: So good I almost changed my name

Hi everyone! Back from a wonderful vacation to Sydney Australia to celebrate the end of an era...my twenties are gone, over and done with, and to bring in the big 3-0, Tony planned a secret fun filled trip down under full of surprises. It is very difficult for me to write S-Y-D-N-E-Y, so if I get it confused with myself, you will understand why : )

We arrived in Sydney early Saturday morning having taken the red eye in from Hong Kong. One would think that Australia would be a short flight from here since it is so far from the USA, but that is not the case. Instead of the 24 hours it take to get there from Europe or New York, it still takes a hefty 9 hours to get down there from here. I guess that is part of the scam they have going, make it hard to get there so you only have the people who really want to put up with the long flight come to visit your beautiful country, no run of the mill vagabonds here! Tony had us set up at the Shangri-La Hotel which is in the area of town called The Rocks. We were very fortunate to be able to check into our room at 9 AM so we could have a quick nap and shower before hitting the streets. Our plan for the day was to get ourselves situated in our surroundings and check out the Rocks area where there is plenty to do and see. Our first stop was the Rocks Market which takes place every Saturday & Sunday and vendors sell their high end goods under canopies on the street. We bought some great stuff including these eucalyptus coasters as a special souvenir in addition to some cool jewelry and kangaroo leather. We stopped for lunch in Nurse's walk and while walking back to drop off our purchases back at the hotel, we happened upon a beer festival. All the local Aussie breweries had tents set up on two streets around this pub. Nearly everyone there was Australia, so we felt cool that we "knew" about it. For $15, you received a special beer glass as well as 10 tickets. Each ticket gets you a taste (60 ml to be exact, sometimes more if they have a heavy hand and like you) of a tasty brew. We both favored this one called James Squire - Tony liked their Amber Ale so much that he ordered it whenever possible for the rest of the week. After a while at the beerfest, it was time to get back to sight seeing. We walked down to the famous Sydney Opera house to pick up some tickets (another surprise - we were seeing an Opera on Friday night!) and then headed into the Royal Botanic gardens where we spent the rest of the afternoon. It was a beautiful place. We were able to see four different wedding ceremonies being performed that day. Tony fell in love with this amazing herb garden right in the middle of the park where they had everything you can imagine. I could not get him out of there!

After another nap and shower, we headed up to watch the sunset atop of our hotel at the Blu Horizon Bar which boasts 360 degree views of the Harbor Bridge, Opera House and Circular Quay (pronounced 'key') area. The bartenders mixed up some great albeit expensive concoctions for us. My favorite was a drink called a "Show Girl" which was sort of similar to a mojito but had strawberries, limes and lychee muddled together, mixed with vodka. Delicious and nutritious! How many servings of fruit are you supposed to get each day? Well, I made it up drinking those, they were so good.

At the conclusion of cocktails and sunsets, we made our way over to our dinner locale, Cafe Sydney at the top of the Custom's House. This is one of the most famous restaurants in the city, and we were able to get a table out on the balcony with another amazing view of the harbor. The cuisine was what I would describe as 'modern seafood' and we started with our first serving of many for the week of raw oysters. They were amazing. We were also thrilled to find another favorite of ours on the menu, stuffed zucchini flowers! You have to remember it is spring time there, so all of those wonderful spring veggies were plentiful on the menu. It was a great meal and a great day to start our vacation.
We spent the next day walking around the Darling Harbor area, a short walk from our hotel. This big beautiful harbor has everything from museums and the aquarium to a shopping mall and plenty of outdoor harbor side restaurants & bars. We walked down to the Chinese Gardens and into Paddy's market for a while, but that just reminded us of our existence in Hong Kong, so we quickly turned back. We ate lunch at the famous Jordons' Seafood Restaurant in the harbor. Tony had octopus and a James Squire Amber Ale, and I had a ceaser salad with some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten. You should have seen what else was coming from the kitchen though - towers of seafood platters filled with lobster, crab, oysters, shrimp, mussels, clams, octopus, fried calamari, fish of the day...If only we were hungrier, it looked amazing!
Being the MTV junky I am, I had to seek this out...Tony nearly refused to take the picture, but I reminded him that it was my birthday trip and he had to do whatever I wanted ; ) Does anyone out there still watch the Real World? LOL. I tried to go inside, but it was locked. Probably because it is someone's home! But in any case, those hosers had a sick apartment, amazing location.

After lunch Tony had another surprise. We were booked for the twilight tour of the Sydney Harbor bridge! This was a 2.5 hour journey, literally climbing up to the top of the bridge during the day, watching the sunset on the western arch and climbing down just as the evening lights began to light up the sky. They fitted you with special bridge climbing outfits, and good thing we only had one drink at lunch because they give you a breathalyzer before you are allowed up. The bad part is they don't let you bring up anything - no camera, nothing - because they are afraid of anything dropping below onto the 8 lanes of traffic, pedestrian walk way and two train lines which cross the bridge. It was an amazing view and a very cool experience, but it was costly - $250 per person for the twilight tour! They did take pictures of us with their own approved cameras while we were on the bridge, and I will need to scan them into the computer to post next time...I would definitely suggest anyone that goes to Sydney try this out, it was a lot of fun.

After the bridge climb, we stop back to our beer fest to polish off the few remaining tickets we had left over from Saturday before we showered up and headed out to dinner. Tony had made reservations at an Italian place called "Otto" on the Wharf over in Wooloomooloo (yea, I just really wanted to type that name). It was delicious. For the main course, I had a king fish wrapped in prosciutto which I loved because the prosciutto was crispy without over cooking the fish. Tony had a veal chop that was as big as his head. It was a great meal and another great night.

The next day, we woke up early to catch the ferry over to Manly Beach. Manly is the premier beach area in Sydney, and about a 30 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay. The good news is, this was not the seasick kind of ferry, so I didn't die on the way there ; ) Tony was thrilled to find the boardwalk lines with shops and he was able to pick up three pairs of shoes which we had the store hold for us while we spent the day at the beach. We walked down the beach walk to Shelly Beach and had lunch at le Kiosk. It is right on the beach with views of the ocean. We got a table right inside by the open window so we could enjoy the sea air. To work off our lunch we continued on a 4 1/2 mile hike around Manly which led us through the amazing homes, the park and four other beaches before returning the the main area. We changed into our bathing suits and read on on the beach for a few hours before taking the ferry back to Sydney. It was a beautiful day and I highly recommend a day trip to Manly if you are in the area.

That evening we had dinner at Beppi's, another great Italian restaurant (do you see a theme here? Hey, the boy knows what he likes!) We walked there from out hotel since it allowed us to pass by the Sydney Library, Hospital, Parliament and through the beautiful Hyde Park before arriving at the restaurant. We met two American executives from a slot machine company who were sat at the table next to us. They were intrigued to understand how we knew about this place since it is not a touristy location. They travel to Australia approximately 10 times per year and they figured that it was probably their 90th meal at Beppi's. They told us a story about how one time they saw Russel Crow sitting in the back table amongst the wine cellar talking to big investors about what to do with all his new money he made from Gladiator! The food was wonderful. A notable dish was a antipasti we got of fresh artichokes. They also brew their own grappa (for Tony) and Sambuca (for me) which we had as our digestivi after our meal.

On Tuesday, we headed to another beach called Bondi. This time we opted for the subway, which was a double decker car and probably the one thing that was not nicer than in Hong Kong...dirty, old, similar to NYC except for the whole double decker thing. It was our first cloudy day so there was no swimming for us, but we opted for a long lunch at Icebergs', a well known club in the area. To become a member, you have to swim every Sunday of the year, for 5 years. Like an extreme polar bear club or something! The views over the water were great and so was the food. Our favorite from this meal was the appetizer we shared, scallops crudo which is raw thinly sliced scallops drizzled with olive oil, lemon and herbs. Freshness. To walk off another big lunch, we hit the cliff walk which winds you along the shore line between the ocean and the rock formations which have become works of art from years of erosion.

That night we went to Watson's Bay and had a more casual dinner on the beach at Doyles. Famous for their seafood, we shared a starter of mussels and then eat got the seafood platter which consisted of crab, shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, stuff shrimp, and fish & chips. It was enough food to kill a horse! A great place for lunch as well because at that time of the day you can still take a ferry over to Watson's Bay where we had to take a taxi each way. But it was worth it!

The next day, Tony had another adventure planned. We rented a car and drove approximately 2.5 hours to the Hunter Valley region - were most of Australia's wines are made. We checked into our Bed & Breakfast, which was a gorgeous place called Peppers', and then we had a quick lunch at Ezra's (spinach salad with roasted pumpkin, avocado, prosciutto, goat & Parmesan cheeses, toasted pine nuts and a glass of pinot grigio) because we were trying to make a 1:30 PM tour of Tyrell's vineyard. They are one of the oldest in the area, and the second largest country they export to is the USA, so keep an eye out for a tasty bottle. We enjoyed their Semillions, especially the Vat 47 which was $50 a bottle ; ) They were very generous with their tasting size glasses so after several, we were feeling the love. We wound up purchasing two more affordable bottles of Shiraz instead. After Tyrell's we hit up another newer winery called Hope where we picked up a bottle of their Chardonnay and a very tasty Verdelho that would go great with dessert. Since we were a bit tipsy at this point we headed back to nap and shower before dinner at Roberts'. This place was very cozy, you could imagine it in the winter with a fire roaring. Tony had been craving steak which he finally was able to indulge in and for dessert he had a great drink called a "Naughty White Monk" - I really liked the name. It was frangelico, espresso, and ice cream all hot and tasty. Yum.

Oh, I bet you lost track of what day it was at this point, but I have not - MY BIRTHDAY! We woke up and had breakfast at our bed and breakfast - I got to eat one of my favorite rare breakfasts of French Toast and yogurt with honey, plus all the usual breakfast hoopla the serve (fruit, cereals, etc.) We then hopped in the car and began what was a beautiful ride through the mountains and vineyards up to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, the day turned out to be not so nice, it drizzled most of the way there, and when we got to the top there was so much fog we could hardly see anything! We started at Echo's Point, and made our way down to this famous rock formation called "The Three Sisters" in Katoomba. Their name comes from an old Aboriginal tale about three beautiful young ladies who had fallen in love with three brothers from the another tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry. The brothers got pissed off about the law so they tried to forcibly capture the sisters and it turned into a big tribal battle. Since their lives became greatly endangered, a witchdoctor turned the three sisters into stone to protect them from harm. Then, he goes and gets himself killed in the battle, so the sisters are stuck as 3 big rocks for eternity. Well, thanks to the fog, we were only able to see one of the sisters (I didn't catch her name), but I assume the other two were behind her. Prudes!n It was some very pretty hiking around there, if only the weather had been better, but we still did some venturing along the footpaths. We then headed back to Sydney to check back into the Shangri-la to get ready for my big birthday dinner!

I thought that this trip was my present, but Tony was insistant on getting me something else to remember our trip by. Opals are the national gemstone of Australia, as well as my birth stone, and it was also October, prime time for Opals, so we decided that should be it. At first I wasn't that thrilled with the idea, thinking I did not really like the opals I have come across in my life, murky white glittery things with no clarity or color. Boring! I have always envied the other birthstones...rubies! emeralds! diamonds! oh my! In any case, we went to the jewelry store and low and behold, I found black opals...unfortunately for Tony's wallet, they are one of the most rare and coveted color of opal. In any case, we picked out together some beautiful opal earings. I love them!

For my birthday dinner, Tony made reservations at Coast which is a new restaurant in Darling Harbor's Cove Wharf which specializes in seafood with an Italian flare. We opted for extravagance (hey, you only turn 30 once ; ) and went with the chef's selection tasting menu pared with wine. It was a spectacular feast. We started with raw oysters which the sommenlier pared with a sherry wine - it sounds gross but it went so well, I think I will serve sherry with oysters forever more! The next course was guincale (pork jowl) which was simply served with gardinera (spicy pickled Italian veggies). We had a antipasti of poached prawns served with caponta and for primi, we had ravioli stuffed with green peas in a mushroom ragu. For our main course, we shared a whole fish. Everything was more delicious than the previous course. Then they were very cute and made me a pretty birthday "cake" which was a crespelle with strawberry rhubarb compote and vanilla gelato. After dinner we headed out for drinks at Cargo Bar where we met another man who was a fellow birthday reveler and his friends from his company who had just busted out of a corporate function to have some real fun.

As Simon and Garfunkel said "Someone told me it's all happening at the (Taronga) Zoo." Just a 12 minute ferry ride from the Circular Quay lies a beautiful zoo filled with tons of exotic animals. Compare to other zoos, I thought that the animals areas seemed smaller, which is probably worse for the animals, but it puts them up a lot closer to you so you can actually get a good look at them, rather then squint at the small form in the back of the cage. My dream came true to meet to Koala bears. They were so snuggly and cute, I took a million pictures of them but here are a few of my favs.

We saw kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, a great performance at the seal water show, and then the typical fare or giraffes, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my). I do believe it, I do believe it's true.

By this point, we had done everything else possible during our adventure filler days in Australia, there was only one big thing left - the Opera. The Sydney Opera House had been in our line of sight all week, and we finally got to go in and enjoy her splendors. Tony got us great tickets to see "The Gondoliers" which is an operatic comedy by Gilbert & Sullivan. It was wonderful! Dancing, singing...but thank goodness for the surtitles (like subtitles, electronically displayed above the stage as the name would indicate) so that we could translate the already English crazy opera singing into words we understood! It was fun and fancy and a 'half-time' we drank champagne.

Saturday morning was our final full day in Sydney. We did some shopping in the Rocks again in the morning and were invited over to lunch at our coworkers house where he and his wife live about 25 mins outside of the city. We spent a wonderful day there relaxing in their beautiful home, playing with their Whippet, Diva, and emptying their wine cellar. It was so nice to be in a big house bbqing in the back yard for a change.

Sunday we flew back but now without a final brunch complete with bloody mary's (homemade from real stewed tomatoes, served with a celery stalk and a grape tomato garnish) at the Harbor Park Hotel and Bar, right underneath the bridge for one final time. This is our "We don't want to go back to Hong Kong" self portrait...we had a blast in Sydney and cannot wait to go back.

Thank you to my wonderful husband for planning an amazing birthday trip. You are out of the dog house for at least a little while ; )

I know, I am a spoiled brat! Till next time I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!
P.S. Want to see all the pics? Go here!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=h4xx265.5q10fv2p&x=1&y=pk55w2

National Day Weekend

Hello all! We had a three day weekend here in HK with a holiday on Monday due to the celebration of China's 58th Independence of Day, called National Day. What is cool here is that we not only got a holiday for this, we also had off for the Independence from British rule, so Hong Kong has two Independence day holidays. Sweet!

On Saturday we were able to conjure up a rather large hiking crew...now that the weather is getting "cooler' (whatever, dude, it is still freaking hot here! where is fall?!?!) more people are joining in on the fun. We met at 8 AM at the Shell Station in Happy Valley and proceeded up to the first mountain of the Twins, and before the first set of major stairs, we turned left and took a more leisurely route around the reservoir. The best part was the scenery! It was very beautiful. There were 11 of us total, including a doggie. His name was Morgan (he has a Chinese name too, but I don't remember it) and he is a mutt who belongs to one of the girls in our office. He was very cute, and he loves to hike. Don't worry Kaiser, you are still our most favorite pup in the world. We miss you!

We asked a Japanese tourist to take this cute pic of all of us, he did an excellent job.

On Monday for the holiday we had organized a trip to Lamma Island, which is the 3rd largest island in Hong Kong, located on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island. The trip included a ferry ride on a yacht, which I figured would be fine since I had plenty of Dramamine. I have been on a few ferry's here, even to Macau which takes an hour, and I was fine, so I figured, no worries, it'll be great. Well, the yacht was so choppy in the water and the driver was a snail, so needless to say, I was nearly puking the entire time. I somehow managed to hold it all down, but was feeling quite green until I was on solid land again, then I was totally fine. Another woman with us gets seasick too, so I gave her half of my remaining Dramamine and she actually felt too bad to to the rest of the activities which included a trip over to the "Fisherfolk's Village". We had coupons to try out the "Funny Hookless Fishing"...what a scene! They give you a piece of bamboo with a string tied to the end, then a minnow tied to the string. Thus, hookless. That is probably because if you actually managed to hook one of these fish, they would pull you out into the ocean and you would die. They were mutants! They had maybe 50 giant fish in this roped off tank area in the water and if your poor minnow even got close to the water, the fish would jump out and eat it. We all screamed every time it happened because the water would thrash, and the people who lost their minnow would almost fall in and at the same time try to pull this massive fish out, but then they couldn't so the remaining minnow head, tail, guts, would come flying out of the water and almost hit the bystanders....It was quite funny! I gave Tony my poll to try out after his first attempt was devoured in 30 seconds, and then we proceeded to buy him 3 more for HK$10. This is my friend Patti, and my friend Paul's daughter Ashlee. Neither of them caught anything but Patti lasted quite a long time with her fish guts teasing the fish. We were trying to go for a baby blue and yellow one since it probably doesn't get much to eat having to fight with the mutants for food. Tony nearly got one, it was out of the water and everything but then it hit the side and ricocheted back into the water - a very exciting moment!

They also had all different kinds of sea life that you could pick up and hold like starfish, horseshoe crabs, and tanks of squid, funky fish and sea urchins. I didn't dare but this little girl was picking them all up, she was fearless! It was fun. After the Fisherfolks adventure, we went back to the main island where we were served a seafood feast! They had salt & pepper prawns, scallops on the half shell with garlic and glass noodles, half baby lobsters, fried calamari, sweet and sour whole fish, veggies and fried rice. It was very delicious, although I was nervous to eat too much knowing I had to get back on the freakin boat to get home. Regurgitated seafood can't be pretty...Luckily I survived once again. The girls made up a game to distract me and take my mind off of the nausea. Three others on the ship were not as lucky and were sick the whole way home. Once we got back to the Victoria Harbor area, we stopped sailing and staked out a good spot to view the fireworks!

They were as amazing as last time, but if you can't tell it is because Tony was taking the pictures since I was barely holding on : )

So overall, I would definitely go back to the island again... either once they dig out a subway stop there, or build a bridge, or invent that beaming thing from Startrek (to Lamma island Scotty?)...or just knock me out, drug me up, and wake me up when we get there! No more yachting for me...at least I know I will never buy one of those when I win the lottery, so mo' money for the rest of you!

Till next time I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!