A recap of Carson's first week in Hong Kong

It's been a busy and fun week for us! Let's peek at day-by-day summaries...

• Monday: Exploration of Sai Ying Pun (dim sum lunch at the Star Seafood restaurant, walking Centre Street from bottom to top, sampling two favorite bakeries); a tour of the University of Hong Kong (Katherine's office, the Senior Common Room, etc); a tour of our previous apartment complex; Shanghainese dinner in Shek Tong Tsui.
  
• Tuesday: Riding the "ding ding" (trolley) from Sai Ying Pun to Admiralty; wandering the Pacific Place shopping mall and finding the amazing Great Food Hall; exploring Central (riding the full length of the Mid-levels Escalators from bottom to top, wandering SoHo, late lunch at Ivan the Kozak, snack at Krispy Kreme!, late dinner at a pizza place).
  
• Wednesday: Exploring Causeway Bay (buying leather goods at Satchi 2, the Sogo department store, Krispy Kreme!, turtle pudding!, Times Square, factory outlet clothing shops, a pet shop which claimed to be "Chinchilla Land" yet had no Chinchillas, the World Trade Center mall, Honeymoon Dessert), dinner in the cafeteria just below our residence hall.
  
• Thursday: Exploring Wan Chai (browsing the furniture stores of Queen's Road East, lunch at the delicious Singaporean "Prawn Noodle Shop", factory outlet clothing shops, computer and video game stores, a yummy dessert shop, exploring Park and Shop - a common Hong Kong grocery store, picking up some irresistible bakery goodies), dinner at our favorite Chiu Chow restaurant in Shek Tong Tsui, exploring Kennedy Town (cruising the streets all the way down to the waterfront).
  
• Friday: Gazing across Victoria Harbour from both the Central and Tsim Sha Tsui sides, riding the Star Ferry across the Harbour, dim sum lunch at Serenade, strolling the Avenue of Stars, participating in countless primary school student interviews to help them practice English, gift shopping around Nathan Road, crossing the Harbour again and taking a bus to the lower Peak Tram station, riding the tram up to Victoria Peak, gazing down from the Peak to Victoria Harbour during the day, dinner at The Peak Lookout where we encountered The Peeing Cat (see below), ascending the Peak Tower to take in the Harbour's night view, sampling a bit of gelato while we waited to take the tram back down.
  

And, between all of this, we've been getting lots of mileage out of the Nintendo Wii I picked up about two weeks ago (playing games like "Trauma Center: New Blood", "Wii Sports", "Super Smash Bros Brawl", "Super Mario Galaxy", "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess", and "Worms: A Space Oddity"). Livin' it up! ;>

Now to the pictures...

Monday: Carson's first Hong Kong meal!

Tuesday: Our late lunch spot in SoHo...

Tuesday: ...followed by our late snack spot!

Wednesday: Carson's first dessert shop experience nearly knocked him out! (Toddy palm and kiwi drinks with "yeung zi gum lo dou fu faa", a wonderful dessert soup made from fresh mango juice, pomelo, sago, chunks of mango, and sweet tofu.)

Thursday: Lunch at Prawn Noodle Shop!

Friday: Carson towers above Victoria Harbour and proceeds to uproot the tallest building in Hong Kong, Two IFC.

Friday: After causing mass destruction, the evil mastermind's true plans are revealed: complete control of all dim sum! Or maybe just lunch at Serenade.


Friday: One of the many primary school student interviews (which were loads of fun) Carson and were involved in.

Friday: A daytime Peak-view of Hong Kong

Friday: Dinner at the Peak Lookout under the shadow of the Peak Tower

Friday: The Peeing Cat, on the roof of The Peak Lookout, fleeing the scene (make sure to click the picture for a closer view). Moments before this was taken, the Peeing Cat sat right in the roof gutter, aimed, and launched an arc of urine over the edge - showering a table just below. We immediately alerted the staff and they cleaned it up...right before seating a large group of Korean tourists in the now-notorious spot.


Friday: A close-up of The Peeing Cat, who visited us later during the dinner (but did not pee on us).

Friday: A nighttime view from the Peak Tower

Friday: You might think this is just a sudden photo of me, but it is in fact an expert demonstration of the secret Chinese nun photography technique. To fully appreciate the skill with which it is executed, make sure to click the photo.

Friday: Riding the tram back down. It's not the smoothest ride. ;>

Today we're heading back to SoHo for dinner and a movie ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"), so Carson will get his first Hong Kong theater-going experience!