HONG KONG, CHINA
Today is Mike's birthday, dontcha know. Which of course means: Shopping for electronics! So the three of us set out this morning for a street market specializing in all kinds of stuff you plug in, including phones, stereos, speakers, and various audio cables--a big open-air Radio Shack, basically. Anyway, he didn't find any suitable birthday gifts there, so we headed to the nearby "Ladies' Market," where mom picked up a couple of silk scarves (not for Mike!). I helped her haggle.
At the birthday boy's suggestion, we then hit one of HK's major tourist draws, the Peak Tram. It's a very steep incline railway, in operation since the 1880s, that shuttles people up to the top of Victoria Peak. At the top there are shops and restaurants, and a great panoramic view down on the city and harbor. After having lunch and taking some snaps, we then headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.
Later, we had complimentary cocktails in the hotel bar, and then took a cab to an uber-trendy high-rise restaurant called Aqua that Mike had chosen for his birthday dinner. Tragedy struck early in the evening, though, when Mike immediately realized that his cell phone was missing. He quickly deduced that it must have fallen out of his pocket in the taxi when he paid the driver--D'oh!! Unfortunately, there was no way for us to track down the cab, and since his phone didn't work in Hong Kong, he couldn't call it to notify anyone that it was his. Kind of a bummer to deal with during your birthday dinner, eh?
Anyway, the food was good, and the view of the city skyline from our table was amazing. During dinner I gave Mike one of his birthday presents--a baby cobra preserved in a bottle of whiskey that I picked up in Laos (no one should be without one)--and later bought him a Faye Wong DVD at the HMV down the street.
Today is Mike's birthday, dontcha know. Which of course means: Shopping for electronics! So the three of us set out this morning for a street market specializing in all kinds of stuff you plug in, including phones, stereos, speakers, and various audio cables--a big open-air Radio Shack, basically. Anyway, he didn't find any suitable birthday gifts there, so we headed to the nearby "Ladies' Market," where mom picked up a couple of silk scarves (not for Mike!). I helped her haggle.
At the birthday boy's suggestion, we then hit one of HK's major tourist draws, the Peak Tram. It's a very steep incline railway, in operation since the 1880s, that shuttles people up to the top of Victoria Peak. At the top there are shops and restaurants, and a great panoramic view down on the city and harbor. After having lunch and taking some snaps, we then headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit.
Later, we had complimentary cocktails in the hotel bar, and then took a cab to an uber-trendy high-rise restaurant called Aqua that Mike had chosen for his birthday dinner. Tragedy struck early in the evening, though, when Mike immediately realized that his cell phone was missing. He quickly deduced that it must have fallen out of his pocket in the taxi when he paid the driver--D'oh!! Unfortunately, there was no way for us to track down the cab, and since his phone didn't work in Hong Kong, he couldn't call it to notify anyone that it was his. Kind of a bummer to deal with during your birthday dinner, eh?
Anyway, the food was good, and the view of the city skyline from our table was amazing. During dinner I gave Mike one of his birthday presents--a baby cobra preserved in a bottle of whiskey that I picked up in Laos (no one should be without one)--and later bought him a Faye Wong DVD at the HMV down the street.
posted by John Kuge at 11:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home