Blogger rehab - Hong kong.

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Hi everyone,
I want to apologize now and hope all of you will understand if:
you start getting blogs next week about my dogs barking every time someone passes the house
you start getting blogs about how I hate to cook and would really love to hire a chef to prepare for us healthy meals
you get a blog of pictures I've uploaded of my: garden, mail man and local cat and put videos of Jeff coming home from work.

It is clear to me as I sit in Hong Kong after an evening of gambling in Macau (and winning 30$) that I am going to need BLOGGERS REHAB.

It seems like months ago I was sitting in front of my beloved computer planning my trip, this trip, to Taiwan and China. Hours and hours went into checking every detail to make sure I would have an opportunity to step out of my many boxes and jump into new ones. Of course some of this time was used to avoid folding laundry and writting my paper for University, but today I can say that the time spent preparing was time well spent! As I try and relax before the next two flights around the world I am glad that we are finishing the trip in Hong Kong. I find transitions difficult, so being in Hong Kong defintitly pulled me back in to reality and I hope it will soften the blow of leaving China. The last two nights I find myself dreaming of old problems not solved- put the stress on old and who cares! I just assume that my subconscious is getting ready to head for home.

For those of you who have never been to Hong Kong- Hong kong is on this steep mountain where the only thing that seems to stop the building of massive apartment complexes is the sky. I hope they are earthquake safe because it is a scarey site seeing all these narrow, tall buildings shooting towards the heavens seemingly unconnected to anything.
Our hotel is located in the Mid-Levels and we have an amazing veiw of the harbour. Yet , our bed is literally a half a foot from the panoramic window. NO Walls- if I slip .....

Friday morning we decided to see the island - so we took the MId- Levels escalators..
The "Mid-Levels Escalators" are a series of escalators going from Des Voeux Road at the bottom of the hill , up to Conduit Road of the Mid-Levels (the mid section of the hill on Hong Kong Island). It just goes up and up and up! Along the way, there are restaurants and shops. It takes about 20 minutes to take the escalators up to Conduit Road. Now realize there is only ONE escalator! so that means you are either walking down the mountain or walking up it while the other side is getting a fun ride down or up.. you always want to be on the escalators when its going UP! From what I understand the direction of the escalator changes at about 10 am after rush hour.

As we were happily riding down the escalator Jeff couldn't understand why so many people were standing and gathering at the end of the last escalator as we were about to get off.
"Maybe we have become stars and everyone wants to take our picture!" I laughed as tourists were snapping away. "Jeff, I think it's time for the changing of the direction!" I hate to think of what happens if you are in the middle of the escalator and all of the sudden it changes direction?
From there we hopped on to a subway that took us 20 minutes to an area called Kowloown where the shopping is suppose to be amazing.

In Kowloon we walked from store to store, passed food stalls that smelled so bad I thought i was going to P.... . We saw interesting things to buy but all I could think to myself was:
1. Do I NEED this or do I WANT this?
2. How much is this going to cost me in overweight on the plane ?
3. Who is shlepping this home?

I bought a new alarm clock and I hope it will work!

Shabbat we spent at the beautiful "Ohel Leah" synogogue had an amazing meal and met very interesting and funny people. After our shmorgazbord, remember I am in a constant state of hunger, we went for a walk in the Hong Kong zoo. That took us about 15 minutes, not a very big zoo.


My last blog will be when I return safetly home. Thanks to travel blog for giving me a space to share and think. Thanks to Jeff for being a great travel partner and Thanks to everyone for their great comments. I have so many thoughts but I am sure they will organize themselves when I get home. I cant wait to hug the boys!

As they say in China. Shey Shey (thanks) it was Hen How(excellent)

bren

p.s. some of the pictures are from xian. notice jeff's self portraits - I think he's on to something.

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Photos

Traditional boat in the harbor
now the harbor is filled with fast hydro boats

Hong Kong Escalators
transportation in Hong Kong is an escalator that goes from the bottom of the mountain to the top..

Self portrait 3
Jeff's feet, veiw of Hong Kong from our bed.

Self portrait 4- Hong Kong
looking for watches

Muslim quarter in Xian
nothing like a warm breakfast on a rainy day.

Crack the Nut
This man's job is to crack walnut. Then they warm the walnut and slip a little sugar into the shell.

The terracota army pit 1
I found the experience of seeing life size soldiers very unsettling. In your mind you know that theyr'e just pottery but the details makes you feel that they are alive!!!

Eary , eary and eary
Terracotta warriors as found in the pits.

self portrait
Jeff loves to take pictures of himself. he's actually getting quite good.