Not only do people eat octopus around here (including me), they also name their electronic debit cards after them. We purchased two Octopus cards today, and that allows us to go “cashless” here in Hong Kong, around town in stores like 7-11, for meals within Cathay City, and especially for riding the bus and MTR.

It saves us 10% over purchasing MTR tickets with cash at the ticket stands, and also saves us a bunch of time, as we can just flash our card over the card reader, and it automatically deducts our stored dollar value from it. They are pretty nice, especially since they can be used at places more than just the bus or train stops. I’m sure they have things like this in large U.S. cities, but I don’t know about them.

With our new Octopus cards, we headed out for the S64 bus line to take us back to Cathay City. It was fun to ride on the upper level and it was Laura’s first time in a double-decker. It was fun, but it was nothing in comparison to riding on the Lightrider!

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Tsing Yi is an island in between several other islands that make up Hong Kong. It is also a stop on the MTR (subway) and there is a large suspension bridge that connects it with the other islands. We wanted to find both the bridge and the observation deck to see it.

We got off the train, but no where on maps or signs pointed us in an obvious direction. Our plans of just winging it had worked so well in the past, that I suppose we got a little cocky. Nevertheless, we forged ahead to see what else we could see. Click on the picture of the flowers at the top of the blog to see more photos of our day on Tsing Yi.

Never finding the bridge (we’ll find it another day) we found a park to walk around in with some nice views and plants. Also, on our way back to the MTR to head home, we saw a fresh food market. Now this market made the whole trip worth it. It reminded me of our friends back home, because I’m sure that the pictures of the market are what they assumed all of Hong Kong was like (“will you have to boil your water?”) Uh, no. But, we also don’t shop in these types of markets.

My mom did her shopping years ago in Indonesia in many markets like the one in our photos, but thankfully, Laura doesn’t have to prepare food from it’s rawest state. There were fish in tanks that were just waiting to be butchered and that is about as fresh as it gets.

In a way, I felt sorry for the poor fishies who wound up here, because this was definitely the end of the line and the train was not going to pull out of the station. But, I remembered my dinner the night before, and how tasty it was, and realized that this is just the way it is.

Some of the fish were split in half on tables of ice. I couldn’t identify all the “parts” inside, but the hearts were clearly noticeable. Mostly because they were still beating! Or at least twitching with leftover impulses. The place was so crowded, and the fish butchers were hollering out in Cantonese — something like “cold beer” shouts from ballpark vendors. Cuts of meat, slices of fish, veggies, and everything in between, was for sale, and throngs of people were buying it all up like crazy.

Overall, it was fun to see people in this type of fresh market because it isn’t something us Ohioans get to see everyday. Next time we’re in Tsing Yi, we’re taking a better map to the bridge!

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We headed over to Lamma Island, Hong Kong’s third largest island, to see what we could see. We had read that it was a little slower paced, and much more poor part of Hong Kong.

We caught a ferry from Hong Kong to one end of the island, and planned on hiking a trail to the other side of the island, where there was another ferry stop, to take us back to the main island. The hike was about an hour, and took us past some nice beaches. There are several nice ones around here, but this one is supposedly one of the better ones.

The ride over on the ferry took about 20 minutes and then stepping off the boat was like stepping into a whole other world. There were a few hotels, but nothing I’d want to stay in. Some of the places to eat looked a little sketchy, so we moved on. We hiked the trail across the island, and it was a fun, good walk. At the midway point, we got to a look-out pagoda and got to catch our breaths and take in the scenery. It was getting dark, so we continued to the other side of Lamma, and found some more outdoor restaurants that sold fresh seafood. It was about 7:45 p.m. and the next ferry left at 9:00 p.m., so since we had time, we figured we’d eat some local seafood.

Stopping by the restrooms to wash up, we found out that not all bathrooms in Hong Kong are equal! These were glorified “squat pots” in stalls, with a porcelain hole in the floor. Wow, I certainly lost any urge to purge, if you know what I mean.

Dinner was absolutely awesome! We got to pick out “our dinner” by pointing to the fish, crab, scallion, lobster or whatever, and then a few minutes later, it arrived, freshly boiled, steaming hot on our plates in front of us. One of us loves seafood, and the other of us doesn’t care for it too much. Well, the hungry one of us who enjoys seafood found out that the one of us who doesn’t care much for seafood all of a sudden liked it, when it was fresh and hot. So much for my big meal, but it was fun to share! Laura kept saying, “Oh that’s good too!” The food was delicious, even if I did have to cut the heads off of my own shrimp.

Bonus: we found out that the ferry was free with a validation from the restaurant! The place ran their own private ferry, and we enjoyed a free ride back to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is quite the sight, when approaching it by night over the water. The views were spectacular and it was a nice cap off to a great time today. These types of experiences are once in a lifetime and I’m so glad we are able to enjoy it together. If or when you visit Hong Kong, make sure to see it by night and ride a ferry over Victoria harbor, it is simply amazing.

To see more photos of our travels to Lamma, click on our picture at the top of this blog for more.

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For the foreseeable future, today was going to be the last day for us to go out and sight-see because we plan on taking it easy on Sunday, and I start work on Monday. Also, it’s supposed to rain on Sunday — which is nice, because it hasn’t rained on us yet. For more pictures from today, click on the picture of the temple at the top of this post.

We wanted to see some local things or some culture, so we decided we’d see Wong Tai Sin, a famous Taoist temple in Hong Kong.

On the way there, we stopped in Mong Kok to see if I could get my six bucks back from the guy who sold me a non-working photo card reader. He hemmed and hawed and only gave me another one, not my money back. I asked if this one wouldn’t work either. He just shooed me away. No one who worked in the store would then look at me, so I stepped out of the store and told people who were about to enter that junk was sold there. I did this for about five minutes and that sent lots of people away and lots of yelling in Chinese from inside the shop! Ha, ha.

As a side note, when I got home, I checked, and both my flash drive and card reader worked; at least for now . . .

Stepping out of the subway MTR station, we could see the Wong Tai Sin temple. There were lots of people there buying incense sticks that they could burn and then request things from the temple, in search of luck and prosperity. In a way, it was sad that so many people can believe in this hocus-pocus. I’m sure they would feel the same about me and my beliefs, or at least until they’ve read: I don’t have enough faith to ben an atheist. This book uses logic to basically prove Christianity as true, or at least the best alternative to other religions. There are lots of pictures from today that can be seen by clicking the picture of the temple up top.

Later on, we took the MTR down to the Science Museum and Art Museum, but neither had interesting exhibits. The Science museum had an IMAX theater, but on Saturdays, the shows are only showed in Cantonese. So, instead we headed over to the Hong Kong Clock Tower and water front.

Finally, we ate in downtown Tsim Sha Tsui, a part of Kowloon, at the Spaghetti House. It was good to eat some pasta with seafood, mushroom, and sun-dried tomatoes. The air conditioning was great and the view was very nice. We were up on the second floor of a downtown building and could look down on the busy sidewalks and shops. We didn’t walk as much today and made better use of the MTR, but we were still tired when we got back home.

Once in the room, we were able to video chat with Laura’s sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. It’s fun to see people on the computer screen, live. Having the Vonage is nice and having iChat is great too. Of course, nothing is as good as the real thing, but that will have to wait several more months.

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Happy Independence day, everyone! This is our third Independence day to be together, but we’ve only seen fireworks once out of those three. The other two years, we’ve been out of the country — in Denmark and now in Hong Kong! What jet-setters we are, huh?

Like I said in an earlier post, we brought our Vonage box with us so that we could make free calls back to the U.S. and allow you all reading this to call our home phone number for free, and we could talk a lot and get caught up. Well, I put that box in our checked luggage, and it gave up its ghost the day I tried to get it to work here in the Headland hotel. My gracious father bought us another Vonage box and FedEx’ed it here on Tuesday night. FedEx is awesome because it left Tyler, Texas on Wednesday morning and got here Friday morning, at 9:00 a.m.! And that’s after heading to Memphis, Anchorage, Hong Kong, and then losing 12 hours! I plugged the new box in and bingo, we’re now cooking with gas. I called my parents and Laura called hers and we are off to the races when it comes to communications. By the way, would you like to talk to us? Call us on our home phone number between the times of 10:00 p.m. and 9 a.m. EST. If you don’t get us, just leave a message and we’ll get back to you. I love Vonage, don’t you?

Today, we wanted to run down to Mong Kok to get some good deals on some electronics we needed, or at least I thought we needed. I wanted a flash drive that I could use for work, and I wanted a camera card reader so that I could take the photos off our little point and shoot digicam and put them on the computer. You can click on Laura’s picture at the top of this blog entry for more photos from our day in Mong Kok.

The streets were packed, as usual, but there is something fun about just walking along and seeing anything and everything you could possibly ever want to buy. The only trouble is, at least with electronics, buyer beware! If you want a real Prada bag or a knock-off, this is the place to be. If you want a tailored suite for $150 U.S. then this is the place for you. But if you want high end camera equipment or other electronics, then the NYC internet wholesalers are the place to be, not here! Try Adorama or B&H; for anything electronic, from a camera that costs $150 bucks to one that costs $15,000 bucks. They are in NYC and are trustworthy. For everything else, use Amazon. But don’t buy it here in Mong Kok. I learned this after finding a good “deal” on card reader that when I got it home, doesn’t work. Now I’m afraid to even open the flash drive I got because I want to take it back. We’ll see tomorrow if I ever get my money back. I can buy the same flash drive for less, right here in Cathay City. Arrgh! The trials of life, right? Also, I realized that I can get the pictures off the digicam without the card reader anyway . . . bummer.

Anyway, we had a fun time, even though it was hot, just walking around and seeing all that was for sale. The standard fare here is to be offered something, like a beaded necklace, for an exorbitant price: “For you, 85 Hong Kong dollar.” One U.S. dollar is 7.8 HKD. So these beads worth just a few bucks are offered at US$10.89. No way! We start walking away. “Okay, 60, for you.” No response from us. “Forty!” Okay, now we are getting somewhere. The Asian way is to offer something very high knowing that, I, the customer, is to offer something lower. One never pays sticker price or first price quoted here in Asia — it just isn’t done that way. They know it and expect you to know it. The good thing for buyers is, that you can walk off and they will give you the absolute best price they can, and if it isn’t low enough, 10 other merchants can be tried out, within 100 feet. It’s a tough way to go for the timid, but can be rewarding too. And no, we didn’t buy the beads, but we’ll be back!

Afterward, we got some takeout food from the food court in Cathay City, the complex our hotel is in, and enjoyed being in for a change. The running around wears on you after awhile. It’s been a good week, so far. I know we have been posting a lot of pictures and blog entries, but they will slow down as I get busier. But for now, it’s fun write to you all about the goings on here in Hong Kong. Tomorrow is Saturday, so enjoy some fireworks and cook-outs for us, will you?

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Today was a more laid back day where we didn’t do as much running around downtown like we had yesterday. I had some things I had to do to get ready for work, so we got a later start to the day. Click the picture above for more photos from today.

In the morning, I was in the HSBC banking office getting signed up for a new account for salary purposes and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy out in the hallway looking in at me as he walked past. I thought to myself, “That dude’s staring at me, what gives? He does look a little familiar, though.” I was looking at him like, “do I know him?” and he was looking at me the same way. Sure enough, we recognized each other at the same time: it was Matt Grondin, a friend of mine from Purdue, (we were RA’s together in the same hall) and we flew together at Chautauqua, 8 years ago when he was a new captain and I was a new co-pilot. Wow, small world and crazy running into each other. Also, he lives just a few miles from where I grew up in Texas and wants to move into Arlington, where I was born and grew up! Pretty crazy. He’s been here about six weeks, and helped me get a lot of good information about the upcoming training.

Laura and I ate and headed out to see Hong Kong’s Botanical Gardens. We took a three dollar cab ride to the subway train station at Tung Chung, and headed into the Central Station in the middle of Hong Kong Island. It was all good until that point, then the heat and humidity got the best of us. Hong Kong island is on a hill, or mountain, hence the pictures of Victoria Peak from our last post. So, since we started out near the water, the walk to the Botanical gardens was completely up hill and I, once again, looked like I had taken a shower with my clothes on! We carried some bottled water, but that didn’t help too much. We got to the gardens and saw birds in an aviary, some animals, and lots of greenery. It wasn’t as spectacular as some gardens, like the Fort Worth Gardens, but it was nice to walk around and relax.

Afterward, we enjoyed a nice downhill trot to the central district, where there were lots of pricey shops and throngs of people running around. With our money, there wasn’t much we wanted or could afford, so we set out in search of some local cuisine. After an hour of walking around and looking into different places, we finally decided on Hop Fung Noodles. The place was not exactly four star and we certainly didn’t want to see what the kitchen looked like, but the food was outstanding (even Laura liked hers!). The waiter was very courteous and even brought us silverware. The chef in the front of the restaurant was busy keeping many boiling pots of “things” cooking and frying. I’ve noticed that many of the restaurants downtown, that serve local food, have the guys cooking the food on the street side of the place, with glass windows around him, as if to show off what is being cooked in the store. It convinced us, we went in, and we got some great food. Laura got vegetable soup with noodles and I got some curry chicken. That and two drinks puts us back less than $10 U.S. and we were stuffed!

It was getting late, after 10 p.m. and we were getting tired, so we headed home, but all in all, it was a fun and relaxing day here in Hong Kong land. With all the people, things to do, and places to see, it just amazes me that all this exists and I never new about any of it. I mean, people living their daily lives, hawking junk to tourists, selling wild food, shopping, working, living, and now we get to be a part of it. There is someone who knows about all that goes on in this huge world of ours, but we as finite humans only get to catch a small glimpse of all that goes on under the sun. I’m glad that we are able to see and do things that very few others from our part of the world get to see and do. This place has been bustling with people long before we got here and will continue long after we’ve gone, with so many people’s stories and lives and situations. God cares for each one of these people here in Hong Kong. I am overwhelmed with how many people there are here, and each person is important to Him. It shows me just how big a God we serve, and that He can be a loving, caring father to each person in this great big world we call home.

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