Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

Many people have sent us e-mails asking us how we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Hong Kong, so although the answer isn't anything too extraordinary I figured it was still worth a quick post.

Tom and I had Thanksgiving lunch at an Italian chain restaurant in our neighborhood called Fat Angelo's.


Frankly, it's our own fault. We waited way too long to investigate which Western restaurants were offering an American Thanksgiving menu to get a decent reservation.

That said, it was entertaining! A bottle of wine and a platter of turkey, moistened croutons, cranberry log, gravy, mashed potatoes and veggies hit the spot, even if it was nothing at all like our families (or most any Americans...) would ever make it!



Aside from our slightly unorthodox Thanksgiving feast, a few things about Thanksgiving here surprised me, including how many people knew about it. It would seem to me that, aside from July 4th, Thanksgiving is the ultimate American holiday with no relevance to any other part of the world. Yet so many people here are not just aware, but excited by Thanksgiving! Why would people in Hong Kong choose to celebrate the Pilgrim's survival of the first winter in colonial Massachusetts and their friendship with the Native Americans??

After asking a few questions, I realized that of course, most people simply enjoy the spirit of Thanksgiving-- a meal with family to give thanks for the blessings of the year. In fact, most people I asked had no idea about the traditional story behind it all.

I told a few students the story of the first Thanksgiving and they were actually baffled and a bit agog at it all. One terribly confused Korean friend even asked me why our country would have a national holiday to celebrate the genocide of an entire race. I tried to explain we were celebrating the friendship part of our history with Native Americans, not the later brutality... but he still thought we are all nuts.

Maybe he has a point, but I still wish we had been able to be in Alabama for a real roast turkey, pumpkin pie and some college football!




P.S.- In the spirit of the Holidays, here is Hong Kong's version of 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire'... street corner edition.


(Yes, she is really roasting actual chestnuts!)

Beijing!

After watching the months of coverage leading up to and through the Olympics, we were so excited to have the chance to see Beijing for ourselves. Many people have told us that Beijing and Hong Kong have little in common and that we would notice the difference; I think there is a great deal of truth to that.

Beijing was an amazing city, filled with truly ancient history and surprisingly modern features. Like Hong Kong, it has its fair share of big buildings and international travelers, but it is much more uniquely Chinese. The majority of places in Beijing are not bilingual, and if you don't know Mandarin-- well too bad for you. That said, the taxi drivers make their best effort to figure out where you're pointing on your Lonely Planet map and get you there in a timely manner.

This may seem obvious, as it is the capital city, but it really does seem that Beijing is the exact parallel to Washington D.C. and Hong Kong the exact parallel to New York. Unlike Hong Kong, which is almost entirely focused on business and commerce, the main focus of Beijing is reflecting a uniquely Chinese identity. Nearly everywhere you turn there are monuments and relics to the past and structures for all different branches of governance. This makes Beijing a fascinating place to visit because just by walking around you can explore Chinese life in the Ming Dynasty 3,000 years ago, the Qing Dynasty 300 years ago, the Cultural Revolution 30 years ago and the great changes taking place today.

In our five days in Beijing we attempted to see as much as we possibly could fit into each day, and when we left we still felt as though we missed out. It is definitely a place one should commit at least one week to thoroughly explore.

In the interest of brevity (although it may be too late for that...) I'll just mention a few of our favorite places:

1.) The Great Wall. It was pretty spectacular, and the entire time we hiked it I had to keep pinching myself to believe I was really there. Although there are many sections of the wall tourists visit, we chose to go to Mutianyi, which is known for stunning views and NOT having a Starbucks yet! What it did have, which was GREAT, was local women selling Oreos mid-way through the hike to the top. It was a little random, but those little chocolate cookies have never tasted so good as after an hour of walking up steps!! It also had a truly comical means of getting up and down from the Wall-- to get up you ride a ski lift and to get down you sled down a metal chute in a one-person toboggan!




2.) Tienanmen Square-- Although everyone knows the tragic history of Tienanmen Square, I did not know that it is the largest square of any city in the world. I also did not realize how many beautiful buildings and monuments were included in the Square. Tom and I both felt obliged to get our picture taken in front of the giant picture of Mao, but not without mixed emotions. Oddly, many Chinese tourists asked if they could take pictures on their cameras of us in front of the picture!! Now that the Olympics are over, I guess it is back to being a novelty to see Americans around.







3.) Olympic Village -- Yes, it's true that the coverage we saw of the Olympics from Thailand and Cambodia was very different from what most of you probably saw in the United States (read: non-stop women's weight-lifting, badminton, and synchronized diving), but we still saw enough of the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube to be excited to see it ourselves.
Unfortunately, the morning we visited was especially polluted (Beijing more than lived up to its reputation in the air quality department) so the pictures aren't great, but it was pretty cool to see. The architecture reminds me of nothing I've ever seen before.

4. FOOD!! If you've read any of the other posts on this blog, you'll know my love of describing food. Typically I don't love Chinese food, but Beijing sure does know that it's doing! (MUCH better than Hong Kong!!) We tried a few different restaurants with amazing dumplings, Peking Duck, deep-fried pork ribs, chicken and things with exotic names that Tom liked. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, and if anyone is ever going to Beijing and wants recommendations, just let me know.















5.) Tea House After a few days of hitting all the most popular tourist destinations, we were ready to explore some back streets not listed in the guide books. As is often the way with traveling, it was after we got lost in a 'hutong' (traditional Chinese neighborhood), that we found the perfect tea house and art gallery. We spent a wonderful and charming hour in the tea house with a lovely Beijing woman who had taught herself English based on her experiences with visitors. She taught us all about traditional tea and answered all our questions about life in the city. I would have no idea how to get back there if I tried, but it was a wonderful and memorable accident.



Sorry this post has been so delayed, it's been a busy couple of weeks!

The U.S. Elections

After two years of obsessive tracking of polls, editorials, blogs and opinions, it was sad to be so far from the United States for this historic election. As I told my college roommate, Sue, I am jealous of everyone who was able to stand in line with neighbors and free Starbucks for hours to participate in this moment. Tom and I were both able to mail our absentee ballots a few weeks ago, but standing in a crowded street in Hong Kong stuffing your vote into a post office box is just not the same.

That said, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong really came through. They hosted a party in their downtown office today for all Americans, complete with free coffee, snacks, election giveaways, and big-screen TVs playing CNN. Because of the thirteen hour time difference, we gathered to begin watching the election results come in this morning at 7:30am.

The mock election held at the Chamber of Commerce today confirmed what all the T-shirts, buttons, and general atmosphere of the party clearly implied, 90% of the Americans abroad attending the party supported Obama.

As I'm sure it was for most everyone watching in America, the experience of watching the states' results come in one at a time was a euphoric and surreal event. So many of the Americans sitting around us shared our excitement for myriad reasons-- Obviously it is impossible to overemphasize the transcendent power of electing an African-American. There was hardly a dry eye in the house when an African-American woman from Chicago led us all in a heartfelt and solemn rendition of "God Bless America."

But there is also the hope that we will stop having to make excuses to strangers and stop having to justify our place as a global superpower. Granted, Tom and I have only been abroad a few months, but anyone who has traveled abroad in the past five years for even a few days has been asked again and again to explain America's behavior.


It is astounding to me how intently Hong Kong and the rest of the world has watched our election and it is uplifting to see first-hand how instantly this election drastically improves their view of us. President-elect Obama summed it up perfectly in his acceptance speech when he said, "CHANGE HAS COME."

Tom's Birthday in Macau

Tom's birthday is coming up on October 28th and we decided to celebrate early with a visit to Macau. We are looking forward to a visit from two of Tom's aunts next week on his actual birthday, so it seemed to make the most sense to do our celebration before they arrive.

Between the 16th century and 1999, Macau was a colony of Portugal. Since its return to China, Macau has experienced a similar level of autonomy to that of Hong Kong. Until 2049, Macau is also considered a Special Administrative Region. In the past decade entrepreneurs from the United States and Asia have poured billions of dollars into turning Macau into the Las Vegas of the Orient. Macau boasts an international airport, two major ferry terminals, and over 22 million visitors a year to world-class casino-resorts such as the Mandarin Oriental, the MGM Grand, the Wynn Macau, the Grand Lisboa, and the resort we stayed in, the Venetian. Amazingly, last year the Macau casinos took the lead as the highest-volume gambling center in the world, generating more revenue than even the casinos in Las Vegas.

The Venetian-Macau, opened in 2007, is definitely the coolest hotel we have ever stayed in. Just walking around it is easy to tell it is enormous, but we were stunned to find out it is actually the third-largest building in the world (behind a flower auction in the Netherlands and Beijing International airport.)

We took the one-hour ferry from Hong Kong to Macau on Wednesday morning, arriving at the Venetian around 12:30. After handing over our bags, we wandered around the mall inside the resort and did some shopping. Like its counterpart in Vegas, the Venetian-Macau has gondola rides operating on a canal within the mall!

After shopping, we were able to check into our room. Somewhat depressingly, our hotel room was more than twice the size of our apartment in Hong Kong!!!

We headed down to the casino floor, and after rapidly losing money to a few Black Jack dealers and slot machines, walked over to the Morton's for Tom's birthday dinner. I recognize that this blog often focuses on food, so I won't get carried away with descriptions; suffice to say, dinner was DELICIOUS. It made me realize how much I miss good old USDA quality steaks and beef! Also, the staff of Morton's was wonderful, even printing up a specialized menu and presenting Tom with a molten chocolate lava cake as they sang Happy Birthday. It was certainly a memorable meal.






After dinner, we headed over to the theater to see the Cirque du Soleil show playing at the Venetian, called Zaia. Neither of us have ever seen a Cirque du Soleil show and we were highly impressed!! Unfortunately, my food coma made it harder to pay attention than I would have liked, but still a great show.



All in all, a wonderful way to celebrate Tom's 26th birthday. Now back to daily life in Hong Kong for our remaining two months!!

Darlin' it's Better Unda Da Sea

One key part of our trip to Boracay I neglected to mention in our last post was our time exploring under water. As some of you may know, I tend to worry about pretty much anything I can think of, so it was no small feat that Tom and Natasha convinced me to try scuba diving. Before I tried it I was fairly certain that one of three horrible disasters would befall me- 1.) my tank would end up not having oxygen and I would die 15 meters below the surface, 2.) we would end up in a thick patch of killer jellyfish and I would die a painful death, or 3.) that scene from the movie Open Water. (If you haven't seen the movie, just look it up. I can't bear to even repeat it)

As you can likely deduce from the fact that you're reading this post, I'm still alive (so is Tom). In fact, other than a mild ear infection there were no negative effects at all. It was actually pretty incredible.

Tom and I managed to go on two dives to different spots around Boracay with a wonderfully classic dive shop called "Free Willy." Free Willy is named after the shop's owner, a legendary older French man named Willy, although we called him Jacques Cousteau. He was extraordinarily patient with me, even when I began hyper-ventilating during the practice session in the shallow area. I am amazed that he managed to not sound sarcastic as he reminded me that you can't drown in water that's only three feet deep!

The actual dives were unlike anything I've ever done before. The organisms that exist 10-15 meters (30-40 feet) below the surface are incredible. Fish of every color and in shapes I didn't know existed, strange anemones, living coral-- it reminded me of a cross between Finding Nemo that documentary, Planet Earth. I'm not sure I have the right words to describe it, and unfortunately we did not have an underwater camera, so I'll just have to encourage you to try it for yourself.

Snorkeling
Scuba diving was a bit too expensive for us to do more than twice, so we decided to try snorkeling to see more of the aquatic life of Boracay. Although not quite as cool as scuba diving, still an interesting experience.

Boracay, Philippines

Tom and I just returned from a truly amazing week in Boracay, a small island in the Philippines. After a gluttonous week of over-eating, tanning, exploring coral reefs and enjoying postcard sunsets, our return to the busy streets of Hong Kong has been a bit of an unsettling adjustment.

For example, in Boracay you would never have to compete with hundreds of determined people wielding umbrellas as weapons just to cross a street before the light turns red. In fact, in Boracay there appears to only be one road and very few actual cars. The closest Boracay comes to 'traffic jams' are the groups of families and Asian tourists who line the shore to take pictures of the sunset each night.









In Boracay, almost everywhere can be reached on foot. When transportation is necessary the primary modes are either sailboats around the island or "tricycles" up and down the road from the docks to the main tourist area on the island. Tricycles are basically sheet metal boxes attached to diesel vespas. Although they are an entertaining adventure, I would not recommend them for the faint of heart.



















One of the best parts about Boracay, oddly enough, is the food. Unlike Ko Phi Phi, where most of the best restaurants were started by European ex-pats living the dream, in Boracay the best restaurants are run by Filipinos. This includes a great Italian restaurant with great pizza and pasta and a Greek restaurant (Cyma) that easily qualifies as one of the best restaurants Tom or I have ever eaten at, including in the U.S. A few pictures of Cyma's food:

This dish is called "Gourmet Hummus." The title does not do it justice. If I could survive on this snack every day for the rest of my life, I would.









(Our friend Natasha posing with amazing lamb ribs!!)
















(What I am about to say will cause friends and family to fall out of their chairs... I ate this Red Snapper. And I liked it. That is how good this restaurant is.)












This dish, flaming mangoes with vanilla ice cream, should definitely find its way on to the menu of DC restaurants ASAP. Life changing.

























As much as I loved the food, the best part of Boracay is absolutely the sunsets. I took far too many pictures of this, which you are welcome to scroll through on my shutterfly link if you would like. As for the blog, I'll only include a few of my favorites:








Link to all Boracay pictures: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcOWjlq3btmMJ

Sundays in Hong Kong

One of my favorite traditions I've discovered in Hong Kong is Filipino gatherings on Sunday.

According to the Philippine Consulate there are 52,000 Filipino women living in Hong Kong under a Domestic worker program. These women come from Manila and rural parts of the Philippines to work full-time in Hong Kong, for both wealthy and average middle-class families. The 'lucky' women work for wealthy families and might get their own bed, but the majority sleep on floors or couches that must be cleaned up before the families awakes. They work 6 days a week cooking, cleaning, and looking after other people's children for wages rarely exceeding $400 USD/month.

That leaves Sundays.

Although they have almost no spending money, (what little they make is sent home to their husbands and children in the Philippines,) tens of thousands of these women gather together every Sunday across all of Central Hong Kong island.

They wake up early to board trains, trams, ferries and buses to take them to the center of life in Hong Kong, a neighborhood fittingly called Central. Central is near the ferry docks (which makes it most convenient for those coming from the outlying islands) and where many of the largest skyscrapers are located. The area is unique in its abundance of sidewalk space on overpasses and its parks and benches.

The women lay out mats and towels on the sidewalk and set up for the day as one might set up for a day at the beach. They bring books, magazines, playing cards, music, home-made dishes, nail polish, hair brushes and clothes to trade. They sit in groups for hours talking in rapid-fire Filipino, laughing, catching up and beautifying one another.

These women, brave, self-sacrificing, and lively have come to be synonymous with Sunday in Hong Kong.

They are an inspiring reminder to me that even in the worst of situations, life is what you make of it.

Pictures of Hong Kong

Here is the link to some pictures from the first few weeks in Hong Kong. The majority of the 90 pictures in the slideshow are of Hong Kong's skyline, with a few others of local beaches, the zoo, and Tom's law school. Enjoy!


share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcOWjlq3btmLm

Everything's Better in Hong Kong

Sorry to anyone still reading our blog about the delay since our last post. The last few weeks have been pretty busy as we attempt to set up a temporary life here in Hong Kong.

Things are going really well, on the whole. After a day or two of searching, we found a studio apartment through a serviced apartment agency called, "studio studio" I kid you not, our entire apartment is a spacious 280 square feet, but perfectly nice. Having one small sink serve as the bathroom sink and kitchen sink takes some getting used to, but we are pretty happy with the location.

We are located right in the center of a neighborhood called "Causeway Bay" which has the best shopping in Hong Kong. One block outside our apartment is the giant center called "Times Square" because it is so similar to the Times Square of New York. It can be a little loud at night to be in the center of downtown, but it's also pretty amazing to walk out the front door and immediately enter into the sea of Hong Kong life. Within two square blocks there are at least three Starbucks, two McDonalds, a California Pizza Kitchen, a Pizza Hut (more on that later), Krispy Kreme, and dozens and dozens of restaurants and stores. I wish I had the budget for shopping, it's too tempting to walk past Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood, MaxMara, and Louis Vuitton on the way to the subway every day!

Speaking of the subway, public transportation is one of the aspects of life in Hong Kong that most amazes us. Their underground system is called the MTR and it is the most efficient, clean, well-designed, futuristic mode of transportation I have ever seen. It makes Metro, the NY Subway, the Boston T, and the Chicago L look like old relics from the Industrial Revolution. The MTR trains run every two minutes on every line, there are entrances located everywhere to ensure there is no clogging of particular entrances and, for lack of a better word, everything just looks cool.

Your fare is paid with an "Octopus Card" you tap on your way through, much like a SmartTrip card in D.C. The only difference being that your Octopus card can also be used at almost any convenience store (7-11, Starbucks etc.) as well as all public buses, ferries, funiculars, cable cars, etc. One hardly needs cash because the Octopus card is the quick ticket to anything you need around the city.

In reference to the title of today's post, we have begun to realize that nearly everything is just a little better in Hong Kong. By "better" I mean more efficient, cleaner, safer, and more thoughtfully designed.

For example, there is virtually no crime. Despite the downtown feel of Manhattan, I would walk alone in the middle of the night anywhere, including dark alleys and parks.

Additionally, I can walk absolutely anywhere in the city, because there are underground walkways or above-ground overpasses to help pedestrians cross any major street in the city, including highways. Every street in the city has been carefully designed to leave a safe space for buses, trams, and foot traffic. As a result, 7 million people can all get around a massive city quickly and easily, no matter the time of day.

Tired of the hectic nature of the city? Head to the beach!! It stays warm enough to lay out until November and there are dozens of beaches within fifteen minutes of downtown. Hop in a cab from where we live and for about $10 you can go to a gorgeous beach that makes you feel like you're a hundred miles from civilization. Feel like hiking? Take a twenty minute ferry to any of the outlying islands and spend the day on trails through scenic hills. I've never known a place to have such a range of geography in such a concentrated area.

The place that truly amazed Tom and I most is Pizza Hut. Yes, we recognize that may make us sound pathetic, but it is truly a sight to behold. We went one night hoping to get cheap and familiar take-out. What we found was a twenty minute wait for a fine-dining experience. The interior of the Pizza Hut was nicer than Bertucci's and the service significantly better than one might find at Legal Sea Foods. In addition to the usual deep dish pizza, included on the menu were such items as Lobster rolls, fois gras, and cocktails. (Pictured right: Our friend Natasha from Tom's law school eating at Pizza Hut with us)

When even the Pizza Huts are nicer, I think we have something to worry about.