September 1 - Hong Kong
We woke up to an intense thunderstorm and rain on our windows this morning. The storm must have passed right over us, because the lightening and thunder were very close together. Around 9:30AM, I nudged Jon awake so we could have breakfast in the lounge before they cleaned up the yummy food. Again, we had salmon and croissants and fresh orange juice.
Back in the room, our laundry is still sopping wet. So we re-distributed it around the room to try and dry it out since we have to leave tomorrow. We couldn't really decide what to do today, and I felt very lazy and wanted to take a nap. So Jon went to see if he could find the Navy Federal Credit Union office (our bank, which has a branch here for servicemen) which is supposed to be nearby. I fell asleep for 2 hours while he was gone.
A Quality Haircut
Jon decided to go out for a run, since he hasn't been running since we were in Moshi, Tanzania (see July 1). I went out to find the place where Jon got his haircut yesterday, because I've decided that I need one as well. But I found a little place that seemed cute and trustworthy not far from the hotel, and walked in. They were very busy, but very happy to have me. The girl who washed my hair, however, was less than happy about being there and can best be described as "surly". She didn't speak English well, and wasn't happy when I tried to talk to her. So I just lay back and let her do her thing, and I was very happy when it was obvious that she wasn't going to cut my hair.
The guy who did cut my hair was very nice and very cheery. He really liked my hair colors, despite the fact that it's 3 different colors right now: one from my original bleach job in New York, one from Jon's coloring on the Red Sea (see July 26), and finally my natural color which I have to admit I've forgotten about. But my little hair dresser must have deemed it as "cool" because he didn't want to cut off all the bleach color and left it a little longer on top. I am happy with it though, and relaxed immediately as soon as he started cutting. Much different from the haircut I had at the barber in Luxor (see July 20) which was more stressful than going to the dentist.
It had started pouring out when I went back to the hotel, but no worries because all the pedestrian walkways are covered. I found Jon in the room doing his stretches and we both took showers and chilled out for a while.
Special Appearance by Jon:
No Parties in Hell
We are finally in a city again. This is important because it is much easier to go running in a big city than it is to go running in a small village of less than 50,000. Remember that I last went running exactly two months ago, in Moshi, with the villagers calling out 'mzungu kicha' or 'crazy white person'! I think it's easier to run in a big city because the concept of running for fitness is more readily accepted; in the small villages the entire concept seems pretty humorous and something of a waste of energy...
Besides, there are way more sights to see while running along the waterfront on Hong Kong Island (Wan Chai) than there were in Moshi! I started out from the hotel, which is right across the street from the HK Convention Center, and ran around the convention center. The convention center looks to be only a few years old and was built on a man-made island in the harbour - it also looks like a combination between the Sydney Opera House and a giant stingray. Anyway, I ran around the convention center and along the waterfront to Causeway Bay passing the Hong Kong Yacht Club and the Police Officer's Club (both members only and the Police Officer's Club parking lot had just as many nice cars as the Yacht Club parking lot!).
Before turning around near Victoria Park I saw my first graffiti in Hong Kong. This wasn't the usual 'tagging' that we see back home but was painted in yellow with red outlining on a black background and read 'NO PARTIES IN HELL'. Having decided to run for 45 minutes after not having run for two months, I thought to myself 'No shit!' and decided to use this as a sort of motivational theme to keep me going to the end of my run.
I turned around a few minutes later and ran back the same way I had come. It started to rain lightly by the time I got to the convention center, raining harder and harder as I drew closer to the hotel. Soaking wet from the rain and the humidity I quickly made it to the covered carport at the hotel and thought about where I might next be able to run...
Snacks in the Renaissance Club Lounge
At tea-time (4:30-ish), we went up for tea and snacks on the 40th floor again (we're shameless, aren't we?). We decided that the view was so lovely that we stayed up there for 2 hours, drinking tea, reading the newspapers, and watching a thunderstorm roll into the bay. Victoria Harbour is incredibly busy with cruise ships, ferries, yachts, and other boats criss-crossing back and forth between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Island. Jon was very entertained!
Tom Yum's Thai Restaurant and Bar
We headed out to go to Tom Yum's Thai Restaurant and Bar, which we saw last night on our way to the Vietnamese Restaurant. It was actually a really good place and had an extensive Thai menu. Jon ordered a beer and I ordered the "Classic Pina Colada" which came in a monstrous coconut. So fun!
The sticky rice was great, and both our dinners were really good. By the time we left at 8:30, the place was completely packed. We went around the corner to an Internet Cafe and ordered beers and sat down. Jon logged in successfully, but I couldn't get into email and was having trouble uploading pages to to the website. There's this weird bug in Yahoo's website services that causes my uploads to fail and my disks to crash. Yahoo didn't seem to believe me when I told them about it, so we just ruin disk after disk and uploads are becoming very cumbersome. So I got really annoyed and left, telling Jon I'd meet him back at the room.