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Don't Kiss the Chickens

Hong Kong, China (January 14-17, 1998)

This is the last entry in our "honeymoon chronicles". It should be a short one because we mostly stayed in our hotel room in Hong Kong. Don's parents were nice enough to treat us to a harbor-view suite at the Regent Hotel, and we had been looking forward to it.

When we arrived in Hong Kong, we looked pretty disheveled and loaded down with our filthy backpacks. We took the bus from the airport and dragged our luggage the rest of the way to the lobby of the Regent.

Then things changed....

We were hastily shown to our room, plied with champagne, truffles, flowers, and fruit, and introduced to our butler. When I picked up the phone, the operator would say, "Can I be of service Mrs. Gray?" and the only thing we thought we might possibly need is more cognac glasses.

After that things got fuzzy. I think I set a record for the number of baths and showers taken in one day, that of course came after I jumped up and down on the bed for awhile. Meanwhile, Don, was ordering "canapes" and checking out the in-house CD collection. In other words, we settled right in.

We finally pried ourselves from the room to take a bus tour around Hong Kong Island. First, we had to take the Star Ferry from Kowloon (the mainland) to Hong Kong Island, we got an expresso before boarding so we could fit in with all the hyper-business folks in Hong Kong rushing to work.

On the other side, we hopped on a public double-decker bus and sat on the second floor in the front so we would get really sick. The road around the island is very twisty. We first got off at Stanley Market, which is a tourist shopping haven. We had expected good prices in Hong Kong, since the economy is shaky, tourists are not sure about the changeover to Chinese rule, and the bird flu is still fresh in everyone's mind. If you haven't been following this story, the bird flu is a deadly virus which has claimed about a dozen lives. So far, doctors have traced the flu to chickens, that is, "human to chicken" contact. So, the government decided to kill every single chicken in Hong Kong. The problem is, after they killed the chickens, they put the carcasses in plastic garbage bags and set them outside on the street where dogs, cats, and rats ate the dead chickens. D'oh!

But, we still found things were more expensive in Hong Kong than back home.

Our next stop around the island was Aberdeen (famous for fishing boats called 'junks'), but we quickly tired of the touts trying to get us to go on a boat trip (face it, we'd turned soft at the Regent), so we headed back to where we had started.

By then we were starving. We followed our guidebook to a traditional Dim Sum restaurant. It was fantastic. Eggplant stuffed with fish, steamed shrimp balls, BBQ pork buns, and more.

After lunch, I had to see the new "travelator". This is a conveyor belt for pedestrians like the ones found in airports. But, this one goes through the center of the city and up the hill to mid-level. We rode it a ways, but quickly realized we would have to walk all the way back (it's only one-way) and hopped off.

The next day we were once again barely able to rouse ourselves, but we managed a visit to the Jade Market. This is a beautiful market because of all the different shades of green jade displayed. I bought a piece carved into the shape of a horse. The Chinese lunar new year 1998 forecast for my sign: the snake, said it will be a very bad year for me and that I should wear a horse or an ox around my neck to protect me. Don's sign is a goat, and his forecast said he would have a great year except he will cheat on his wife. Ummpp!

In the afternoon we went to the Peninsula Hotel for English tea. The Peninsula Hotel is considered the finest hotel in Asia. It is worth just walking into the lobby which looks like a palace inside. I never had English tea before so I wanted it to be special and therefore made Don dress-up in one of his new tailored suits. The problem was he didn't have any dress shoes. In all of Thailand, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, no one sold shoes big enough for Don's feet! We ended up going to a custom shoemaker's shop and thankfully he had a large pair in stock. It was fun because all the other customers in the shop were musicians and their groupies. One musician had some funky purple wingtips made, and it turned out he played in the nightclub at our hotel. So we went to listen to him play soft-rock lounge music that night.

Now that Don had shoes, and was very distinguished looking in his white linen suit, we went to tea. We were served a three-tiered tray with scones, finger sandwiches, and petit fours to go with our rose tea. While we ate, a quartet played on the balcony. It was very civilized.

When we got back to the hotel we indulged in a sauna and massage, although we were a little shocked when we realized it was costing 20 times what it would in Thailand or Vietnam! The hotel also had three jacuzzi pools of different tempertures on the roof overlooking the harbor. It was magnificant! Even though reality was creeping closer and closer (we would be home in two days!), we really enjoyed it.

Our last morning, we went to see the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In honor of the reunification of China and Hong Kong there is a special exhibit covering 7,000 years of Chinese art. The caliber of the exhibit is so high (80% of the pieces are class A compared to the usual 20%) that we had to see it. The main piece in the show was a burial suit made from jade tiles sewn together. The Chinese believe that jade preserves the body. It was beautiful. There were also some ancient bronze statues that looked alot like aliens. Ummm?

After that it was just a matter of packing and getting to the airport to catch our flight to San Francisco.

Now that we're home, we can't wait to give everyone a slideshow. We took 30 rolls of 36, so please be ready to set aside 5-6 hours one Friday night so that we may entertain you (yuk, yuk).

Don starts back at WebTV tomorrow and I will start studying for a project management certificate at Berkeley Extension next week. We hope to see everyone soon.

Love, Don & Karen (San Francisco, CA)

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