days 1, 2, 3 in HK

so i think i fell asleep as soon as i got on the plane. tim woke me about an hour later for a drink, and i had drool cascading down my cheek (? how it got there, i am unsure), chin and neck. BET HE WAS HAPPY TO HAVE MARRIED ME! i drank my juice and promptly fell back asleep. before i did, however, i had a small fit about my TV not working, at which point i was rescued by thomas, the angelic chinese flight attendant. he brought me a drink and fixed the screen so that i would watch such cinematic gems such as the interpreter and sin city. thomas, i will name a child for you one day! apart from watching those fine films, i spent most of the flight asleep on tim's lap (fun fun fun for the husband!). a great time was had by all.

when we got to HK, we were informed that it was 90 degrees at 8pm. deee-liteful! we walked through the airport--a shiny, modern place (and the largest covered space on earth, for the engineering dorks reading this) and waited in the customs line. when we got to the window, we were greeted by a rather severe looking gentleman who appeared immune to our innocent traveler charm! w.l. kwok, customs agent to the stars, was having none of it. he didn't ask us a single question, which is a good thing because otherwise i would have had to confess to carrying 4 luna bars in my bag. mmm, delish.

our hotel is also sparkly and new, much like most of hong kong. coming in on the fancy digital train, it looked as though everything was enormous with neon lights. it looked exactly like something out of a sci-fi movie (something i could have watched on my thomas-enabled TV screen on a plane somewhere). in daylight, however, it's not quite the same. it's more like midtown nyc crossed with athens, or san jose, costa rica--a bunch of superflashy buildings next to decrepit, eastern bloc looking buildings with laundry dangling outside.

we awoke yesterday and went for breakfast in the hotel. when we discovered it was $15 each, we decided to CHOW DOWN (not that it takes that much for me to make that difficult decision). here is what i had for breakfast (the longer you read, the weirder it gets): rice krispies, a croissant, green salad with thousand island dressing, fried rice, and a variety of delicious dumplings. i also had some of tim's sausage. tim had all that with baked beans. yuk. fried rice for breakfast is surprisingly good, and sweet/savoury dumpling-thingies are even better--try them if you can! pork bun owen, you would have loved this meal!

after breakfast, we checked our email briefly and then walked into town so tim could see his first work of art at LERA, the bridge at chater park. i was expecting a little footbridge, but it was a pretty good-sized overpass with fancy beams! i have some pictures of tim stroking it and smiling foolishly, so i will try to attach those at a later date. since it was approx. 200 degrees and 600 percent humidity, we were guzzling water like fools, and we decided not to push ourselves too much. we walked through chater park (a charming little place with various pools and lovely greenery) and we hiked up (by hike, i mean walked uphill) to the peak tram. the peak tram is (duh) a tram to victoria peak. it sounds like a great idea, until you get on and realize your life is literally being held by a wire. eek. also, it's a steep climb. we walked around the top (smog like that i've never seen), took some pics of the city (which you can't really see, b/c of the smog) and had some mango sorbet at the haagen-dazs. listen man, it was 95 degrees!

we went down on the tram (perhaps scarier than coming up) and walked through hong kong park, which is bigger than chater park and has a cool aviary with some crazy-looking birds. at this point, we were tired and hot, so we went home to the hotel and took a nap. tim slept for about an hour. i slept for FIVE. (listen, man, i've had a rough month!) when i finally awoke (sans drool thankfully), tim was starving, so we walked over to times square (a sort of chinese miniature version of ner york) and had dinner at a lovely place called water margin. i'm sorry to focus on food, but in my opinion, it's the best part about the city so far. foolishly, i decided to try the delicious looking chicken appetizer they gave us. OOOOH! SO SPICY! I WAS CRYING! of course, despite the fact that i literally couldn't breathe through my mouth for 20 minutes, i decided to try it again. and again. and again. i am like pavlov's dog, if pavlov's dog was my parents' dog finn. the thing is, it was REALLY GOOD. it just burnt the hell out of my mouth.

for dinner, we had some (very bland, fortunately) clams in rose wine, and then deep fried prawns with chili sauce, and then (praise jesus) fried rice. o, fried rice, savior of my tongue! how i love thee at every meal! we then walked through the square and went home for bed. tim is loving this hotel because for some reason, they have premiership soccer on all day long. i am loving the hotel because they had desperate housewives on last night at 11pm. it's surprising how exciting the english language can become when you're surrounded by chinese, or how hilarious soccer can be when narrated in chinese!

so, today. i am about to be kicked off this computer, and then we are going to a noodle shop for lunch, and then will get the ferry to kowloon to look for a satellite phone. then, if we find one, we will spend all our time calling people and pretending to speak in chinese. it would help if we at least learned hello, please and thank you, however.

so that's it! we're going for dim sum for dinner, so charlie owen, we will have a pork bun (or 5) in your honor. sorry this is so long, but i am covering multiple days, and we only just arrived so everything's still exciting. give me a few days and you'll be getting 'woke up. ate. walked. slept.' thanks for reading, guys! see you in bali, or perhaps tomorrow (if you are verrrry lucky)!!

ps. die yankees, die!