Catching up with old friends at a new place...

...well, a place that's new to us, anyway. Have a look at the Hopewell Center...

It is 709 feet tall and has 64 floors. Until 1989, it was the tallest building in Hong Kong (though quite a number of buildings have now surpassed it).

Katherine and I rode the "observation elevator" to get a nice look at Hong Kong as we climbed upwards.
...and we made sure to look down once we got to the top. Better not drop a penny!

Why ride to the top of the Hopewell Center? Amy, Katherine's sister-in-spirit (both born on the same day and year), invited us to have lunch there - in Hong Kong's only revolving restaurant, "Revolving 66".
Here you can see the basic structure of the restaurant. Nearly every table has a window seat and the view is really spectacular.

Since it revolves, of course, the view from your table changes significantly every 20 minutes or so. That makes for quite a unique dining experience - and one that we'll want to share with folks who visit us, so this is going on the "must do" list for all you guys.

The restaurant serves a large buffet lunch. When I think "buffet" in the US, I prepare for run-of-the-mill cooking offset by the large quantities you can get with your dollar. This is not at all the conception in Hong Kong. Here, buffets are almost exclusively run by high-end hotels and the quality of the food is considered to be quite high across the board. As such, your tab can run pretty steep (compared to other forms of eating), but many consider the experience worth it. This was my first buffet in Hong Kong and I can say it was most definitely didn't disappoint.

Here's a shot of the first thing we saw on display - heaps of freshly-steamed crawfish. Mmm!

We arrived with only about 10 minutes before the lunch buffet was to close, so they asked us to get as much food as we wanted so that they could clear everything up and prepare for the afternoon tea buffet (which was later replaced by the dinner buffet ;>). There was no need for us to eat in a hurry - just collect our food in a hurry - and here's the result...


Let's just say that we were full afterwards. And that we didn't need any dinner.

Here's a shot of the whole crew as our time there wound down. From the left: Amy, Katherine, me, Ng Yin. Nearly 20 years ago, Katherine worked with Amy in a paging center (a class of company which no longer exists now that people can send their own pages and text messages directly) and Katherine attended middle school with Ng Yin. Amazingly, Amy and Ng Yin met each other - completely independent of Katherine - a few years ago while taking a class together. As they became friends, Ng Yin saw a photo album of Amy's and recognized Katherine, exclaiming "I know her!". And here they all are together in one place. :>