Okay a little back tracking here in deference to Jennifer's request for description of food. On the plane ride from Minneapolis to Hong Kong we started out with the mandatory airline snack of drinks (diet coke for me) and peanuts. Later at lunch we had Ginger Chicken and rice, Lox, a tossed green salad, fresh fruit cup, and roll. The second snack was more substantial with cheese and crackers, ham and cheese finger sandwiches and YUMMY an ice cream sandwich. Later on the next snack was cup of noodles a banana, coconut cookie and orange juice. The final dinner was an omelet, orange juice, applesauce cake and fresh fruit again. I recorded all of this but didn't put this in the first installment because I didn't want this journal to be 500 pages long. In all the hotels we stayed in China they would have a gigantic buffet at breakfast of everything you would expect in an American Breakfast buffet, eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, muffins, cereal, oj, tomato juice etc. and then all the Chinese dishes--fried rice, Lo mein, wontons, fish soup, congee (actually a watered down hot Cream of Rice Cereal that the baby loved. Sunday Feb 22--Today is a free day with nothing on our schedule. We slept in late. Then we went to a shopping mall a few blocks from the hotel. It is a strange phenomenon that every where in Hong Kong it is so crowded that people will bump into one another and not react. People are constantly walking into each other so they don't say excuse me otherwise it would take them all day to get anywhere. On the other hand they don't get mad at you for walking into them, a situation that could cause a major fist fight some places in America. The shopping mall had McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, and a Benelton shop. It was 5 stories high and was packed with people. On our way back to the hotel we went back to the airport to try and secure bulk head seats for our return flight to America. We ran into a man from Oregon who designs plants for Proctor and Gamble throught the world. He was booking flights for Hanoi, Japan and Bali. So much for me thinking of myself as an international traveler when you have a guy like that around. We went by open air shops where they had whole pigs, ducks with their bills still attached, roasted and hanging outside for sale. The traffic lights are set up for blind people. If the light is red it makes sounds spaced a distance apart. Then when the light turns green the sounds are spaced closer together so you know it is safe to cross. Also the paper money comes in different sizes for different denominations so you know exactly what the money is. Most stores and malls are not smoke free and there are ads for Marlboro cigarettes just about everywhere you turn in Hong Kong. The guides say you can walk the city even at 2 am safely. The only crime seems to be pickpockets but no violence.
(to be continued)
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