First post in China

I'm currently at the Pacific Coffee public internet cafe in Hong Kong, the bay is right out the window to my right. If this computer had a USB I'd upload some pictures, but hopefully I can do so later.

Our flight from Chicago to Hong Kong took about 16 hours, but all in all it really wasn't that bad of a ride, as I kept occupied between 4 movies, a book, and my ipod. We flew with the Sun so we literally had a long day. I only dozed off briefly on the flight, so I was awake for about 36 hours or so I guess.

Here in Hong Kong were staying at the Renaissance Hotel, which is very nice. Last night we met with Mr Chueng and Johnny, a couple guys in charge of our program. They took us out for a walk in around the neighborhood and to an authentic Chinese restaurant where I had my first meal in China. I had a noodle soup with shrimp dumplings or something in it and Mr Cheung ordered a separate plate of roasted duck for the table to share. Good good good food! Afterwards we took off down the block to a small grocery store where I was surprised to find Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. I ended up buying one 16oz can, which came out to be about 80 cents American.

Today we woke up for our first full day in Hong Kong, and first thing I did was go down and use the Hotel pool. Oh did I mention that the weather is freakin awesome here? Yeah it's about 65-70 degrees here, perfect for walking about in a t-shirt. I feel bad for you all who are still stuck in the cold Midwest winter weather.

Me on the boardwalk with Hong Kong island in the background


Dr. Cook, Rebecca and I got out this morning and walked to the nearby history museum for an hour or so, then we split up and Rebecca and I went off to walk around and shop a bit.

Around 5 we walked to the Star Ferry and took a boat to Hong Kong island where we walked to the The Peak Tram station, a train that takes you near the top of the mountain. I can't believe the grade of that train ride, we looked out our windows to see skyscrapers at 45 degree angles it seemed. It was very foggy and dark by the time we reached the top so we couldn't see much of the city really.

From inside the coffee shop I made this post from. Boardwalk, Bruce Lee, Cruise Ship, Foggy Hong Kong Skyline


---Mark