It's Fun To Stay at the Y.M.C.A...

That's right everybody...with arm motions this time...It's Fun To Stay at the Y.M.C.A....

Well it is....if the one in question is The Salisbury YMCA in Kowloon! It is a beautiful hotel right on the harbor across from Hong Kong. Next door is The Peninsula and the Sheraton at triple and double the price we paid. I think we did just fine. It is actually a nice hotel, only 2 stars but clean and the harbor view makes up for no bellhop or room service. The picture above is the view from our room during the evening light show.
Kim and I were lucky enough to arrive on Valentines Day (our anniversary too) and even though the desk said the dining room was fully booked we stopped by and they had a table for us. The Valentines buffet dinner was delightful . Between the view and the fact that they took anyone who wanted to go, up on the roof to watch the nightly award winning harbor light show, we had a lovely evening. The light show is made up of lot of buildings on both sides of the harbor displaying colorful lights on their sides and lasers and white lights from their rooftops. The whole thing is set to music so you can tune your radio to a certain band and it is choreographed to match. We really lucked out that night as they don't take people up to the roof every night(although it was a nice roof garden) to watch and it had to be the best view anywhere to watch the show. We could see the massed crowds down on the harbor walk from up there and were grateful for the elbow room and vantage we had.

Although we both ended up working quite a bit from Hong Kong...me on the phone to shrimp customers and Kim putting out programming fires for his boss, we still managed to see some of the sights in the 5 days we had.

I think the best way I can describe Hong Kong is that it is like San Francisco TIMES TEN and Chinatown TIMES A THOUSAND!! The similarities are many with the foggy weather, cable cars, bridges, ferries, hills, harbor, shopping, crowds and great food!
We did a couple of the city-hikes around town, went up to "The Peak" on the funicular cable car tram thing, rode the Star Ferry across the harbor and took buses and the subway all over. We had High Tea at both the Conrad hotel (fabulous buffet tea) and at The Peninsula. Enjoyed dim sum and some of the best noodle dishes ever. I am afraid that even having spent a great deal of time in SF and Chinatown, Hong Kong's lowliest dim sum kicks butt over anything in SF.

And yes we did try foot massages there and although good (how can you not say that with someone rubbing your feet after a long day of walking/sightseeing?) they were not of the caliber to be found in Thailand.

Here are some pics of us hamming it up with the statue of Bruce Lee and the star for Jackie Chan on the Harbor Hollywood walk.


It feels weird to be heading home with everyone talking about all the snow on the ground. I am sure my thin blood is not going to like it. However, we already have plans for the next leg of our grand adventure and it is only 5 weeks away so I should be able to handle the cold for that long.

More details on that soon...

Did I forget to mention the Tigers?

Well perhaps that is because I was too chicken to go in the cage with them at the Tiger Kingdom. Naww, just felt able to enjoy them from the other side of the fence is all. Besides I wasn't sure if they'd sense I'm a dog person and treat me accordingly. Sorry no pics.. I can't find any from that part of the day..my guess is I erased the chip prematurely.
On the day we went out to the Queen's gardens and temple one of our stops was at the Tiger Kingdom. If you ever make it over here to Thailand, every TukTuk driver, tour operator and taxi will be only too happy to tell you all about the Tiger Kingdom and take you there. Regardless as to if you just went there the day before AND are wearing a big Tiger Kingdom shirt to prove it! (as tested by our friend Mike) They can be rather persistent at times.
We spent Chinese New Year down in Chiang Mai's Chinatown. I didn't manage to get a good shot of the dragon-dancing but I did get a goofy shot of Kim, Alan and Marijke among the festivities.

In the last few weeks I have been working out, eating well and taking care of myself a bit. I've had my teeth cleaned (oh Mary how Kim and I missed your gentle touch!); Acupuncture (missing you too Linnie!); and had an appointment with a Podologist to work on my overwalked toes and feet.

Alan has taken on the task of teaching us Snooker....a far cry from the social pool I learned to play growing up. I am certain he is quite tired of hearing me say "You're kidding? Hit that one? It's acres and acres away!" The table feels twice the length of a normal pool table and there are twice the balls to hit, in a particular order of course. There are also young girls in skimpy hot pink outfits there to serve you drinks, keep score and hand you the bridge when you need it...all as part of your table rent.
Alan's girlfriend Marijke and I have gone out girly-shopping together and I managed to find a couple of new bras...slightly strange shaped cups but at least they had ones that fit me, a rarity here in Asia. We also hit the lovely jewelry shops along the Thapae Road and discovered we are a terrible influence on each other. Seven pairs of earrings and two rings later I had spent all the cash I had on me and half of what she had on her, lucky for me she'd spent the other half. We agreed those 3 shops are now off limits for the rest of this trip!



At the Wararot Market:
Yes that is a pork waffle right between the Strawberry and Chocolate....and we are talking salty pink hot dog type pork too!

So should I have bought the hat?















We met our alter egos from Seattle the other day. Richard and Stacy were enjoying Thailand as a rest spot to get ready to head off to India, Egypt and Turkey. We had two lovely breakfasts with them at our favorite, "The Blue Diamond". By the end of the second breakfast, where we again had to leave to make room for the lunch crowd arriving, we realized it was a bit spooky how parallel our lives were with these new friends. As Stacy put it "You said that and the hairs on my arms stood up!" To name a few coincidences, she can't eat bell peppers like myself and she also was so preoccupied with visa's for other countries along their journey that they did the same thing as we had. They had overlooked Thailand's visa rules until they were over the limit just as we had done.
They have started a blog called www.lyonsontheloose.com and their motto is "Live Like You're Leavin'"!
Not a far cry from our www.willworkforairlinemiles.com and "Live each day as though it might be your last!"