The copilot and I haven't had a proper vacation in over a year. A long ski weekend here or there, but we were past due for an adventure. The seeds of an idea were planted a couple of years ago when I went to Sapporo, Japan for a conference. I had a love/hate relationship with the trip--I was terrified of traveling alone in a place where not much English is spoken, and I have a deep-seated fear of seafood. But my interest was piqued enough that I wanted to come back to Hokkaido in the wintertime to check out the skiing.
With that goal in mind, the copilot reasoned that we might as well stop by Hong Kong while we were in the neighborhood. His mother is originally from HK, and a good bit of his family still lives here. We also recruited one of our ski-loving friends to join us.
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| Frequent flier status pays off: business class |
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| Location: middle of nowhere Siberia |
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| Futuristic dystopian Los Angeles or present-day Hong Kong? |
No, that's actually
Blade Runner, which I was a little bit reminded of navigating the crowded street, bombarded with advertizing screens and neon lights.
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| Not too crowded on a weekday...Saturday the streets were packed. |
The food was weird...but delicious:
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| Much better than Americanized Chinese food. |
The copilot's uncle kindly took the afternoon off of work one day to drive us into the New Territories area of the city. We stopped at a fishing village:
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| IT'S STILL ALIVE |
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| The water is a bit cold this time of year... |
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| Top of Victoria's Peak |
We got to visit with the copilot's grandfather, who is 95 (!!) and the family kept us well fed the entire time.
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| Aunt and uncle have a great view from their apartment! |
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| Tea at the hotel: a popular passtime |
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| The Star Ferry: quintessential Hong Kong |
The one thing I didn't get to do was visit a local yarn shop--one of the copilot's cousins is a fellow yarn enthusiast, and she recommended some shops she likes, but we never made it. Next time...
Then--off to Sapporo on a Saturday night red-eye.
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| Hopefully not drooling. |
Wow! How great. I would love to visit Asia one day. Husband misses the good times he had on Okinawa.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh... so jealous. Hong Kong is high on my list of places to visit. An ancestor of mine was the first English governor there. He was not a nice guy, but paintings of him look weirdly just like my dad.
ReplyDeleteApparently there is a Pottinger Street somewhere in the city. ;-)
I have been to Japan only once. I loved every minute of it. We were in Oita City on the island of Kyushu.
Have a great trip. :-)
I'm totally with you on the seafood. These people are kin to the Klingons ....:-)
ReplyDeleteThat looks like such an amazing vacation. But.... no stopping at yarn shops? For shame.
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