venture in to the 'city', hong kong island our 2nd night, of course in search of a vegetarian restaurant and health food store! wander along the way, find what we are looking for, i have a lovely (but expensive) meal, stephen ends up with a hurried one as they literally closed the restaurant shortly after ordering. actually get in to the city before dark the next day, searching for a tourist office that is no longer there, familiarize ourselves with the city a bit, getting a feel for it. spend much time in the apartment, chilling out, cooking meals, spending time with each other.
go out saturday night to meet the partridge/lees at the airport. say hello, make plans to see them sometime in the next couple of days. looking forward to spending time with our close friends from home, and experiencing travel from a child's perspective (they have two boys). slow start, plan to meet jo-ey, clayton and the boys late afternoon. get in to the city a bit ahead of time, do some wandering, and totally randomly bump in to someone we met in costa rica 3 years ago! complete chance too, we paused in a metro station we were walking through, phil came through walking right towards us and knew he recognized us! he has been in hong kong since august, and is doing a program in buddhist studies at the university, but that day was his first time in that particular metro station. we exchange numbers, as we are on our way to meet the partridges, and he is on his way to class. hook up with jo-ey and the boys, hang out in a park, then her grandmother's apartment. intrude on dinner a bit, then make it an early night. meet up again the next day, we now join them on their tours around hong kong. today, victory peak. STEEP cable car ride, many photos, lunch. nice afternoon, the boys are alot of fun, really great to connect with our friends.
stephen and i decide to finally venture to kowloon tonight, first stop, the chungking mansions, hoping to see a wong kar wai world. wander the building and alleys, then spend the rest of our evening taking photos of the city at night. make our way slowly down to the water, snapping photos around the museums for 45 minutes before rounding the corner and catching the truly stunning view of hong kong island at night from kowloon. shoot way too many photos that don't come close to doing it justice, then make our way to the ferry port to go back to discovery bay.
meet up with the partridges a bit the next day. the following afternoon, a visit to the semeiotics HK office and lunch with jimmy, jacky and the crew, then off to meet stephen's sister judy at the airport! we haven't seen her in over a year, and she is returning to china after 7 weeks of travel in india, it will be nice to see her!
spend the rest of our time in hong kong hanging out with judy, seeing jo-ey, clayton and the boys, hooking up with phil, meeting judy's friends. did a junk ride through victoria harbour, visited kowloon park, the beach at repulse bay and strolled the kowloon markets with the partridges. stephen also wanted me to mention that he enjoyed some delicious dim sum with the partridges!!
cooked lovely meals, shared photos and travel adventures, went to the discovery bay lookout and spent much needed time catching up with judy.
went to lamma island, and were immediately taken in by it's setting, and the community, enjoyed a nice evening catching up with phil.
it was really nice to see everybody, to have down time, and just quality time with everyone. not sure what to make of hong kong itself, we are ready to leave, looking forward to china, visiting stephen's father's village, stepping outside of such a major urban center. our time here was well spent, but maybe we haven't really even scratched the surface of this place. we will have the chance again.
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