Dragon Boats, and Dumplings, and Apartments, oh my!

Greetings from Hong Kong! Back with Blog entry number two. Thank you all for the comments on the first posting, it was most fun to read them - keep 'em comin'!

On Tuesday we took a trip down to watch the Dragon Boat races. The best spot from Hong Kong island is down in an area called Stanley Market which is a beach area with sun and swimming right next to a jam packed market filled with every souvenir under the sun. The races were attended by countries all over the world. Each team had on an elaborate uniform to identify themselves, for example, these dudes from Scandinavia with the viking hats. There was another group of guys that all had on baby bonnets, bibs and pacifiers, and another one I saw that was all in black and white striped jailbird gear with ink (tattoos) up and down their arms. The races are done in heats of six teams at a time and then the winners go up to the semi-finales, etc. etc. There are awards for most team spirit, thus the elaborate costumes. As you can (maybe?) see from the picture, there are yachts that line up in the harbor to watch the fun as well. I need to make friends with someone who has one of those for next year - the beach was so friggin packed with people and unbelievably hot, it wasn't too long before we found ourselves in a air conditioned pub having lunch and a beer (shocking!)

After lunch we hit the market to see what we could buy. I believe our first attempt at bargaining failed when we made an offer on a new backpack to bring with us on our hikes and it was accepted right away, without a fight - so much for being good sales people! Gotta get back to work on those negotiating skills...weren't we not supposed to make the first offer??!? Oooops. But it turns out that everything is negotiable here, even your gym membership!

After the Dragon Boat races, we headed up to the Lan Kwai Fong area of town. We wanted to scope it out because we are going on our first apartment hunt with the realtor on Friday afternoon. Lan Kwai Fong is the bar & restaurant hot spot on Hong Kong Island. They have every cuisine from Lebanese to Italian in all these really cute tiny places all stacked up on the street. And after the dinner crowd leaves, the place turns into one big party where you can bring you drinks outside and bar hop. See for yourself at http://www.lankwaifong.com/

We ate dinner at this hole in the wall dumpling place where we ordered pork & leek (my fav), pork & celery, and pork & cabbage dumplings. For $3 USD you got a platter of one kind, freshly made by the little Chinese woman in the back. They have four large tables where you grab some wood with strangers and munch on these little bites of love. I took a picture of the place from the outside, I hope I can find it again (did I mention we started drinking at 11:30 at the races?!?)

Right up the hill from there is the neighborhood called SOHO which stands for South of Hollywood Road. This is the area where we really want to live! There is also a NOHO (North of Hollywood) and a BOHO which I can't figure out what that means...

Work is going great. I got to meet the Pres of AP today at his staff meeting. I also have gotten my account assignments realigned a bit and have started to get the details downloaded from my boss. It looks like our first trip will be to China at the beginning of July!

Fun Fact: The traffic lights here are Red to stop, then Turn Yellow (similar to a drag race) right before they turn Green to go. Maybe that is why we don't have a car : )

Till next time...Love you & Miss you!

Tony & I eating Dim Sum for lunch