On Friday we received our very first visitors! Jay (one of my BFFs from college, bridesman in our wedding, my sister) and his partner Christopher arrived from Beijing where they had just spent the prior week loving the city and seeing the sights. Tony was returning from China as well that evening so we went out for a late dinner at a Thai / Vietnamese place called Tru in Lan Kwai Fong. It was great to catch up and hear all about their stories from China. Jay loves to travel and has been all over the world and said that Beijing is up there in his top two places he has ever visited (Amsterdam is the other one, go figure!) They are going to leave us their guidebook and information so when we get there, we will know what it is all about! After dinner on Friday, everyone was pretty wiped out so we went home and got to bed early getting some rest for our fun filled day on Saturday.
Bright and early Saturday morning, Jay, Christopher and I hiked up to the top of the Peak. We had good weather and they were able to see a great view of the city from the top. We ate lunch at this beautiful restaurant called "The Peak Restaurant" (creative name, huh?) where we dined on salads and wine. I would love to go back at night and see the view when all of the cities lights are on, it must be amazing. We took the tram back down to the bottom of the mountain because
it started to drizzle outside. After taking a much needed shower (sweating as usual in the blaring Hong Kong sun all morning!) we weren't sure what to do next. Tony had gone into the office for a few hours and was not back yet, so we had some time to kill before heading over to the Night Market in Kowloon for some fun shopping, so Jay & I decided that we wanted to get foot massages, while Christopher wanted to get on the Internet and check out reviews of a play that his company just opened that weekend...I had a vague idea of where to go for a foot rub down, so we began walking down the street toward that area. All of a sudden the skies open up to a full downpour and the three of us huddle under a canopy to determine our next move because of course we have no umbrellas. Low and behold, right across the street from where we are standing, up on the second floor, we see an Internet Cafe, and a window filled with pictures of feet with smiley faces on them! 
This is not the place I had in mind, however, it could not have been more perfect, our two desires, side by side! Jay & I opted for the 65 mins for $200 HK ($25 USD) foot massage while Christopher went next door to take care of his business. It was heavenly! Jay let out a single grunting snore, but woke himself up...very relaxing and much needed after our big morning hike. After our massages, we met up with Tony and headed over to the Kowloon side of town to check out the Night Market. Even though he had already done a great deal of shopping in Beijing, there were still some excellent finds in the market that Jay had to snap up, including a beautiful Chinese silk shirt for himself as well as another kind of Chinese shirt! We could not resist buying the T-shirt shown here, which reads "What the fucking are you ding?" and no I did not type that incorrectly! Hilarious. 
He also got some other stuff including DVDs, chopsticks, art and a new big backpack which he will need in order to get all of his stuff home! After the market we came home to freshen up for dinner. We headed out to a place called "Wagyu". Wagyu is a style of beef, also known as Kobe beef, which has a high degree of fat marbling (good, unsaturated fat) and thus sells for between $40 to $150 USD per pound! So we splurged a little bit, kill us! The cows which this beef comes from have a very specific diet which includes beer and sake. Hmmm, maybe I too have a high degree of marbling? Don't tell Hanibal Lechter! I am delicious! Jay, Tony and I all got a steak and Christopher got a special lasagna which was made with some of the beef. Everything was wonderful, we will definitely be back to this place again. After dinner we headed out on the town. I had been researching the hot gay nightlife for weeks and came to the conclusion that our best bet would be to go to this club called "Propaganda" 
whicheven though it had a hard to find the entrance, turned out to be a great pick. We had a great time dancing, even Tony, who was seen up on the stage pole dancing! Yes, there is video footage, and yes, if you are nice to me, I will show it to you when I get home! It was hilarious. I told him he should probably get down because he would not be happy if someone was to try to dance with him, even though he was up there, shaking his junk, advertising his goodies! Here's a cute picture of us at the club. As with most gay establishments, since it is 90% gay and 95% men, the boys tend to use the ladies room. To my dismay, I walked in to find a boy lighting matches trying to mask the scent of the kids he just dropped off at the pool - AND, there was only one stall! Yuck. Who does that?!?! I guess at least he was trying to help with the stench...vom.
it started to drizzle outside. After taking a much needed shower (sweating as usual in the blaring Hong Kong sun all morning!) we weren't sure what to do next. Tony had gone into the office for a few hours and was not back yet, so we had some time to kill before heading over to the Night Market in Kowloon for some fun shopping, so Jay & I decided that we wanted to get foot massages, while Christopher wanted to get on the Internet and check out reviews of a play that his company just opened that weekend...I had a vague idea of where to go for a foot rub down, so we began walking down the street toward that area. All of a sudden the skies open up to a full downpour and the three of us huddle under a canopy to determine our next move because of course we have no umbrellas. Low and behold, right across the street from where we are standing, up on the second floor, we see an Internet Cafe, and a window filled with pictures of feet with smiley faces on them! 
This is not the place I had in mind, however, it could not have been more perfect, our two desires, side by side! Jay & I opted for the 65 mins for $200 HK ($25 USD) foot massage while Christopher went next door to take care of his business. It was heavenly! Jay let out a single grunting snore, but woke himself up...very relaxing and much needed after our big morning hike. After our massages, we met up with Tony and headed over to the Kowloon side of town to check out the Night Market. Even though he had already done a great deal of shopping in Beijing, there were still some excellent finds in the market that Jay had to snap up, including a beautiful Chinese silk shirt for himself as well as another kind of Chinese shirt! We could not resist buying the T-shirt shown here, which reads "What the fucking are you ding?" and no I did not type that incorrectly! Hilarious. He also got some other stuff including DVDs, chopsticks, art and a new big backpack which he will need in order to get all of his stuff home! After the market we came home to freshen up for dinner. We headed out to a place called "Wagyu". Wagyu is a style of beef, also known as Kobe beef, which has a high degree of fat marbling (good, unsaturated fat) and thus sells for between $40 to $150 USD per pound! So we splurged a little bit, kill us! The cows which this beef comes from have a very specific diet which includes beer and sake. Hmmm, maybe I too have a high degree of marbling? Don't tell Hanibal Lechter! I am delicious! Jay, Tony and I all got a steak and Christopher got a special lasagna which was made with some of the beef. Everything was wonderful, we will definitely be back to this place again. After dinner we headed out on the town. I had been researching the hot gay nightlife for weeks and came to the conclusion that our best bet would be to go to this club called "Propaganda" 
whicheven though it had a hard to find the entrance, turned out to be a great pick. We had a great time dancing, even Tony, who was seen up on the stage pole dancing! Yes, there is video footage, and yes, if you are nice to me, I will show it to you when I get home! It was hilarious. I told him he should probably get down because he would not be happy if someone was to try to dance with him, even though he was up there, shaking his junk, advertising his goodies! Here's a cute picture of us at the club. As with most gay establishments, since it is 90% gay and 95% men, the boys tend to use the ladies room. To my dismay, I walked in to find a boy lighting matches trying to mask the scent of the kids he just dropped off at the pool - AND, there was only one stall! Yuck. Who does that?!?! I guess at least he was trying to help with the stench...vom.Since we got home pretty late, we slept in and went out for brunch at a place called the "Press Room" which is a french brasserie. The boys had omelette's with Bacon and Gruyere and I had a croquette messieurs (french grilled cheese with ham). They also had fabulous Bloody Mary's. After brunch we headed over to Man Mo temple which is a Taoist temple from the 1800s which reveres the God of Literature (Man) and the God of War (Mo). It is filled with people burning incense sticks and cones praying, the smoke is so thick it is hard to stay inside for very long. They also bring fruit and vegetables from the markets to give to the gods.
After the temple we walked down Cat street (no kitties here, just a name, believe me, or I would not go! I am not a friend of the felines). They have a bunch of street vendors selling different souvenirs. Jay, Christopher and I purchased good luck charms. Your good luck charm is based on taking the sign of the year you were born and connecting the sign which is known to be your animals friend to be your good luck. Jay & I are both the year of the Snake, so we are supposed to wear a charm of an Ox for luck. Mine has a nice round booty and is hanging on my cell phone. Christopher is the year of the Monkey, so he gets a charm of the Dragon. Very cool. After cat street, we took the train over to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) which is at the base of Kowloon on the water. Since they are both actors, the boys had wanted to see a play while in Asia, and Christopher read about an upcoming production of "Blackbird" in the South China Morning paper. Blackbird was the hot ticket in New York last year and is debuting in Hong Kong on Thursday. We reserved seats for the Sunday performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Center and went to pick up the tickets. 
The whole area near the water has beautiful view of Hong Kong Island and contains not only the Cultural Center with three theaters, but also the Museum of Art, Space Museum, Science Museum, and the Museum of History. It is beautifully landscaped and along the pier are all these street vendors and performers. We caught a performance of two little girls singing in Chinese - they were fabulous! After TST we headed over to Causeway Bay. I wanted to take Jay to this store called G.O.D. (which stands for Goods of Desire) because it has great furniture and other household things that I knew he would like. Dear G.O.D., please open up a store in the US so I can decorate my home with your beautiful furnishings, Amen. Check out their website http://god.com.hk/ We then headed to dinner at Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant with a great view of the TST side from where we just had come back from. We had a great meal of different curries, Vietnamese spring rolls and roll your own rice paper rolls filled with shrimp, avocado, lettuce, pineapple, and noodles. Delicious! 
The whole area near the water has beautiful view of Hong Kong Island and contains not only the Cultural Center with three theaters, but also the Museum of Art, Space Museum, Science Museum, and the Museum of History. It is beautifully landscaped and along the pier are all these street vendors and performers. We caught a performance of two little girls singing in Chinese - they were fabulous! After TST we headed over to Causeway Bay. I wanted to take Jay to this store called G.O.D. (which stands for Goods of Desire) because it has great furniture and other household things that I knew he would like. Dear G.O.D., please open up a store in the US so I can decorate my home with your beautiful furnishings, Amen. Check out their website http://god.com.hk/ We then headed to dinner at Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant with a great view of the TST side from where we just had come back from. We had a great meal of different curries, Vietnamese spring rolls and roll your own rice paper rolls filled with shrimp, avocado, lettuce, pineapple, and noodles. Delicious! 
We headed home after dinner to plan out our activities for next weekend - they boys are headed to Malaysia today and will be back again on Friday for their final weekend in Asia. Friday night we will go out for Korean BBQ, then Saturday morning take the ferry over to Macau (the small country 1 hour away from Hong Kong which was previously owned by Portugal and is now the Las Vegas of Asia), and then we will go to the theatre on Sunday! It should be a great weekend, now we just have to get through another week of work till we can have fun all over again. Till next time, I LOVE YOU & MISS YOU!
We had a great laugh at this sign on the subway which has a old bearded man who Jay & I dubbed as Confucious...It says "Grandparents use the lift for a safer trip" but we decided it should have said "Confucious says 'Old man use escalator fall down go boom' " : )
