Day 6 in China...and some of Day 7

Hello from Hong Kong!
We landed here yesterday afternoon and despite English being the first language we still managed to get dropped off at the wrong hotel.  Thankfully it was only a 20 minute walk to Ibis, our hotel for the next few days, and we got to scope out the neighborhood a little.  We unpacked into our tiny room and scoured the Internet for a cheap-ish restaurant (HK is more expensive than Beijing, more similar to US prices) and came across Masala, an Indian place that was a 9 minute walk away.  After eating Chinese food 99% of the time for the last 5 days we were eager to mix it up and it ended up being amazing Indian food, complete with a really large Indian patron yelling into his cellphone for most of our meal.  

I had read that our hotel was close to an Ex-pat quarter so it was only a few minutes before we started seeing a ton of Caucasian people wandering about, drinking and eating at the many restaurants and bars in our neighborhood.  We actually got lost several times trying to find our way back to the hotel and finally decided to go to a bar called the Globe, which is known for having hundreds of beers on tap (and a few from China) and we had a great time, taking in some soccer, a game of Scrabble and English company.  

Day 6 of China
This morning when we woke up it was raining really hard and after about 20 mins of walking on the street we were both completely drenched so we ducked into a place called UCC Cafe and had a pretty varied breakfast of Teriyaki Chicken Salad with French fries (with ketchup, hurray!) and Banana/Chocolate Waffles for me!

After enjoying being dry and warm we caved and bought umbrellas off a street vendor for $6. Having umbrellas definitely made it easier to bear the fact that we kept getting lost as our Motorola tablet couldn't locate us with GPS because of the height of the buildings in our area!  We were trying to find a used book store called the Attic as we were on the hunt for a travel book on Hong Kong.  We started to feel better about our lack of rain gear when the store owner told us that this weather is pretty unusual for this time of year.  The humid but heavy rain also encouraged us to go into a mall (yay for me, Ty's worst nightmare) for a few hours.  

With tired feet and grouchiness on the horizon we grabbed some food at a place called NoodleMi, a Vietnamese place, which was delicious and not too spendy (about $20 for 2 dishes and a diet-coke). 

We are planning to do a few night sight-seeing activities (the ferry across to Kowloon and maybe Victoria Peak) but right now we are enjoying our full bellies and some relaxation!  I also read in a few travel books that there is a bit of nightclub scene here so we may even get gussied up and head out on the town (if we can stay up past 10pm...).

Cheers!

Day 5 in China

This morning we rushed to check out of hotel to catch our flight to Hong Kong.  We struggled with our luggage down to the Metro with the crush of Monday Morning commuters...it was super awkward.

Once we made it onto the Airport Express train it was a lot less crowded and a smooth ride for the rest of the way.  After checking in for our flight and perusing the souvenir shops we had a great brunch (at 2pm) of Fried rice, fried mixed vegetables and noodles.  Had we known that the flight was going to offer a meal (yay!) we might have eaten less but still managed to eat all of the scrumptious vegetarian meal they gave us.

During the flight Hong Kong Airlines offered free movies, TV and games.  I watched Men In Black 2 and some of Little Miss Sunshine (one of my favorite movies!) and the 3 1/2 hour flight was over!

After landing and getting our luggage we met a couple from Oregon who were living in Hong Kong with their 3 children (all under 5 years old).  They recommended Shek O Beach and Dragon's Peak hike and told us they were super jealous of our travel plans.  

Day 4 in Beijing

Today we took the subway to get to the Lama Temple, which has the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the world!

Lama Temple Gate

Gorgeous grounds around the temple

Maitreya Buddha in the Hall of the Heavenly Kings

Roof of the Temple

Board of the Yonghe Temple

World's Largest Buddha in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses

After temple-ing for a few hours we hopped back onto the subway to the Summer Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Empress Dowager Cixi's summer resort.  We had a quick, surprisingly good lunch of fried rice and noodles at a restaurant nearby and got ready to check out the goods.

The unfortunate thing is that we were both wearing jeans and short sleeved shirts, and it was only about 10 degrees Celsius.  I almost caved and bought a "I Heart Bird's Nest" hoody, for $25, but decided to buy a lot of heated beverages instead.

We walked next to an amazing man-made lake, and were too cold for a paddle boat ride so did some climbing up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense!

Kunming Lake

Amongst the lily pads!

View of the 17 Arch Bridge

Pottery and Telephone museum

View of the Tower of Buddhist Incense on the top of Longevity Hill

We paid our second entrance fee of the afternoon and climbed about 50 steps to get up to the Tower of Buddhist Incense. From there we could see almost all of Beijing, even with the smog.

One Thousand Guanyin Buddha

View of a sweet pagoda from the Tower

Unfortunately, on my way out of the Summer Palace I bumped into the rudest tourist I have ever encountered.  The line for the squat toilets was fairly long and tempers were flaring at the end of the day.  As we were waiting, an oblivious Chinese woman started cutting the line and this brunette near the front announced that she was from California and that she was going to "Elbow this woman in the face if she doesn't stop trying to get to the front of the line"!  The Chinese woman got the message and left the line entirely and at this the brunette proudly nodded her head and then was actually congratulated by two other North American tourists.  I was so embarrassed to have witnessed such bad behavior and felt like apologizing to every other Chinese person in the line.  I don't think these Americans had been in China very long because as we have observed, the concept of "a line" just doesn't compute for some cultures and its just one of those things you deal with when traveling!

We had made reservations for a Peking Duck (read: fancy) dinner at a well-reviewed restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Hotel called Made in China so we got gussied up and high tailed it over there.  We started off with a glass of red wine from their extensive collection, which included wine from St. Emilion, a wine region in France we stayed in about 3 years ago.  Our appetizers were braised bok choi with mushrooms and it was delicious!  We had pre-ordered our half duck as recommended and also ordered fried rice as a side dish but we really didn't need it. 

First sip picture...ahhh

Appetizers

Brown fried rice

Peking Duck is one of Beijing's most famous dishes and is one of China's national foods.  The chef tries to get the skin of the duck just right (thin and crispy) before it is sliced off and served to munch on.  The meat thats sliced off is eaten with Chinese pancakes, hoisin sauce, sweet bean sauce, sugar, onions and celery. 

The chef preparing the duck a few feet away

He sliced us off what seemed like a lot of skin, which had been sweetened and was crispy. Ty and I both did not like the skin; it had a very strange texture and melted in your mouth which was actually a little revolting.  We both really enjoyed the duck meat in the pancakes; I went with no sauce and just some celery to crisp it up.  Despite eating mostly vegetarian on this trip so far, I definitely felt bad eating this meat as we have seen so many ducks/chickens...etc strung up and cooked at street stalls and restaurants.  But overall it was a good experience and the meal finished with duck broth in a wood cup.

After over-eating we decided to check out the Wanfujing Night Market area, which is a pedestrian only shopping area near the hotel.  Despite it being 9:30pm we saw people square dancing/line dancing (all serious faces, no smiles), teenagers break-dancing, and of course lots of shopping!

Finally got a shot of a scooter with mitten handles!