Day1- 2 Hong Kong

Day 1 continued. For lunch, Hana had a delicious lunch of rice, veggies, and chicken. I got a very popular dish of boiled chicken with what appeared to be cooked skin, a few marinated veggie strips, and unfortunately, a bowl of soup with what appeared to be ham hocks or something else that was very pink. At that moment, I was thinking about how I had planned to say "vegetarian" and how it would have been so much better to have ordered the cooked veggies. After picking at the chicken, I helped Hana with her huge plate of food. We had two cups of tea; hers was lemony and mine had pieces of fruit (figs I think) in it. Most people understand some English, so when the server did not understand, I asked a man sitting at a table next to us about how one takes out the remainder of the meal. He was able to communicate with the server and was very friendly. At the register, we noticed how one can use the Octopus card in most retail establishments. Many places don't accept any credit cards. Luckily, I had cash. Everyone moves really fast here; you have to be prepared with cash or card in hand at the register. I guess that's a response to the population density; a way to move people in and out of places quickly.

We took the Metro, after paying cash for the famous Octopus card. They would not accept credit at the subway station. The attendant was very helpful. We followed the Google maps app on Hana's iPhone and tried to walk to Rosh Hashana Services, got a little lost, so looked for a taxi to get take us the rest of the way. The taxi service is very organized where individuals queue up and taxis pull up in order. No flagging down and jumping in here, at least in that area. We were in the area of all of the shops of Causeway Bay and passed the Happy Valley Racecourse in the taxi. It was fun recognizing signs and places that I had studied in my tour books. We went to Erev Rosh Hashana services in a little auditorium at the Olympic House (2005), where the headquarters for all of the sports are located.  The security was similar to what we experienced at the courthouses in FL and we had to show our passports. Maybe 25 people were in the congregation. The rabbi had a fairly interesting sermon and the cantor (hassan) has a nice tenor voice, but we were really tired and fighting to dose off. The service was very short without any musicians or choir. Aside from the initial conversation with a couple of congregants at the door, no one (but the Chinese staff) even looked at us or talked to us when we were in line for apples and honey. I am so disappointed. I guess that I had built up an idea of interesting conversations with diverse people from different countries. The congregants left to have dinner at the JCC. I missed Temple Beth Emet's services and singing in the choir.

Since we had not made reservations to eat dinner with the congregants, we left and walked part of the way back until we could find a bus stop for one of those neat double-decker buses. The Google map GPS had trouble finding us and/or directions were difficult to follow, so we had to turn around a few times. We stopped in a tiny grocery (Wellcome) so that I could get a drink (green tea, of course) and oatmeal for breakfast. Hana is a great navigator, despite all of the challenges with technology. People are walking everywhere, so it feels safe walking at night. We eventually found our way home to the Butterfly. Still raining....We were so tired, probably a combination of travel fatigue and jet lag.

I may have mentioned this, but I have been noticing so much about the streets, shops, and trash. The sideways and streets are pretty narrow in this area. There are little steps, uneven pavement, and barriers along the way. It would be impossible to use a wheelchair here, but I have seen a couple of people using single or double canes. People are moving really fast, all carrying umbrellas, because of the constant drizzle. It's kind of an interesting dance with the umbrellas on the crowded streets. You have to raise or tilt your umbrella and frequently dart and dodge to keep moving ahead. There are lots of tiny shops of all kinds on the streets in this area, selling kitchen wares, massages, technology, clothes, food, etc.  There was a little print shop and open air markets with fresh fruit and veggies. Even alleys are filled with local sellers with fresh fruit and merchandise, such as backpacks, purses, cheap jewelry, etc. I definitely want to buy some fresh fruit but want to research about the safety first. I saw a really strange fruit, which the seller called a chicken fruit. It looked like something out of Harry Potter and is called dragon fruit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya. Apparently, it has amazing health benefits and so I will definitely give it a try this week, once I figure out how to eat it. How to eat a dragon fruit.

This is the Landmark Shopping Mall, inside Landmark Hotel. The Metro station is here, which is why we ended up here, in Central Hong Kong

The other photos are the view from our hotel window in the Butterfly Wellington. It was drizzling the first day. View of Wellington Street and or Graham Street. Excellent local foods and flea market type of shopping.

In Central, there are skywalks connecting buildings, since it rains so much during the summer.

Day 2. Made some instant Quaker oatmeal and tea this morning with the great little tea kettle to keep my tummy full while getting ready to go out. It rained all day today and we walked all over Hong Kong Island Central area today on the way to visit the IFC building, which is part of the financial exchange area. I am better managing my umbrella in the crowds today, while walking at a brisk pace and dogging fast moving carts of compressed trash, shoes, cases of Coke, etc., pushed by workers through the crowded sidewalks. We passed the HSBC building (I think), Tiffany, and headed to the maze that is part of the IFC, after getting help from a lovely English-speaking resident .There are all of these skywalks that keep you dry while connecting various international banks, elite shopping malls, the ferry docks, Central Post Office. At noon, we finally ate at a nice self-service eatery called Pret Manger (I think that means Made to Eat). I had a delicious hot salmon wrap, fresh fruit, and grabbed my favorite indulgent treat, chocolate croissant. Hana had a half of an egg salad sandwich, fruit and an almond croissant. We saw an incredible Apple Store of glass and I was amused by the crowd at McDonalds. We continued to walk through the various shops (there was NO place to sit--no wonder most people are slim here!) until we found a grocery store called City'super. We are always happiest near food, it seems! It was such fun looking at all of the international (some were familiar) food products and calculating the cost of the transaction in USD. We picked up some dry fruit, muesli for breakfast, yogurt, cheese (in Hello Kitty shapes for Hana), a suction toothbrush holder (again, Hello Kitty), crackers (not Hello Kitty), and hazelnut/rice milk. Thank goodness I learned my multiplication tables in 4th grade, because those 7's tables are coming in handy! After standing in the express line and finding out that we couldn't use my Visa card, we were very nicely encouraged to go back into the regular line. The staff were so nice, not ever rude, and at the second register, we were offered spoons for our yogurts, which were taped to the containers.

After shopping, we stopped and ate our croissants, then headed to the Prince's building to walk through what they called more moderate shops (Moderate?), finding a place to rest our feet, and then having had our fill of eye-candy, we headed back. We navigated a little better, stopping in a Watson's drugstore and SASA to find lotion (not in the usual kit provided by hotels). On our way, we got a little lost, but as usual, I noticed lots of interesting places as Hana tried to make sense of the Google directions. She had even downloaded a special HK map, but I am still best with a paper map. We were in the Queen's Road Central and wandered into the area called Lan Kwai Fong, and passed the streets Li Yuen St west and east, where there were lots of booths with vendors selling various wares. It was raining and we were tired, so we kept moving. On Jervois street, we passed lots of small jewelers with jade in green, red, and a beige color, porcelain vases, and an antique mall. This area felt different than Welllington Street. We saw the Entrance to the Central Escalators that take one to the Mid-Levels. I have been intrigued with having multiple levels to a city and want to climb to that level and see what we can see.  We went back to rest at 4 and slept for 4 hours until 8 p.m. We arose and ate leftovers, then just chilled the rest of the evening. Can't believe that it's only Day 2!