"Hey missy missy you buy from me!"

Hello all!

As you can imagine, we have been pretty busy over here in HK with our awesome tour guides :) Our 5AM bedtime on Sunday set us a bit back from our early plans of site seeing on Sunday day, however after a few cups of coffee, pancakes, and motrin, Kerry, John, Momo and I were on our way to see more of Hong Kong. (Bare with us here as we attempt to describe where and what we were doing, our translators are no longer with us).
The four of us headed down to the equivalent of "Times Square, NYC" to get a feel for the typical HK atmosphere on a Sunday. The streets were PACKED with locals, tourists and many of the Philippine helpers trying to get errands done and enjoy the sunshine. HK basically makes NYC look like it does not have alot of people. Know how people use those leashes for their children in the states? So they cant run so far in the mall? I would completely endorse the use of leases in HK--we basically lost each-other all day, so I don't know how they do it with children. Side note: Most residents in HK have "helpers," women from the Philippines who come over to live with the residents and whose duties range from cooking, cleaning and helping with children--Sunday is their day off. Thousands of these workers all gather in places all over the city, one of them called Victoria Park and catch up on the day with their friends. We stopped off to try "street food" in which Brit was definitely the more daring of the two of us. Bubble Tea and dried pork meat? was enough for me...Brit dabbled in squid and animal organs and pancreas (preferring not to know exactly what organs).

From here we hopped on the MRT (HK version of the T) and went to Mong Kok in the ladies market, which is an outdoor market. The shopping was definitely an experience as the shop owners were anxious for our business. We also had our first encounter with "stinky tofu"--Imagine a mix of stinky, rotten food and garbage. Its unbearable.
Our evening ended taking a nighttime stroll on the avenue of the stars (similar to in LA), it was a beautiful night and great scenery on the water.

Finally on HK time and no longer jet-lagged we head off to the Jade market with Aunt Janet. Similar to a Flee market, rows and rows of aggressive men and woman selling jade, chinese trinkets, beads and samurai swords. Every stand basically has the same selection you just need to haggle with these woman. Clearly we have NO idea how to do that. They name a price and type it on the calculator, then you counter. Still pretty unaware of the exchange rate I basically just cut that number in half, shake my head and walk away. They then proceed to chase you saying, "Hey missy missy, you buy from me ok. You get good deal." At the end of the day I really do feel kinda bad--we are haggling with these people literally over a dollar or two. And yes everyone I promised to bring something home for its coming from here and I spent minimal on it.

Next was our trip to the Peak. The Peak is 396 meters above sea level, which represents an architectural icon and beautiful view of the city. A tram carries you to the top of this very steep Peak at a 45 degree angle with a spectacular view of HK.

To end our world wind traveling of the day is Stanely Market. Its a quaint little outdoor market on the water. More upscale than ladies market in the way the merchandise is presented, but overall it all caries the same chinese trinkets. The market is on the water and is peaceful, serene and I (Britt) would live their in a heartbeat. Just imagine mid-April weather and all you want to do is day drink...that is the complete vibe of this place. Amazing.

Heading to Shenzen tomorrow then off to Beijing for St. Patricks day, Spas, horse races and the search for the perfect dim sum dumpling.