Caroline Takes Hong Kong, Part V

Dickie graciously made a booking at the private kitchen where he is a member. (The Ning Po Residents' Association, I think it's officially called.) DELICIOUS Shanghainese food.

Then Heidi, Caroline and I went up to Staunton's along the escalator and drank outside, HK-style.

The next night, Caroline and I ventured over to TST to see the light show. At 8 p.m. each night all the lights on the city's major buildings basically flash on and off for about 20 minutes. If you're watching from the "Avenue of the Stars" across the harbor from Central in TST, booming classical music will accompany this display of artistry. As you can see, the buildings are decorated for Christmas. The short one to the left of the one with vertical purple stripes is my office building.

Lasers! And pretty water reflections.

Floodlights and the moon.

Caroline Takes Hong Kong, Part IV

More scenes from Lamma. Getting off the ferry at Yung Shue Wan...

It's so lush and green!

Here I am at the beach, staring at some kind of shenanigans going on at the Lamma Fun Day festivities. (This is a fairly typical HK vista -- the mountains, the water, etc.)

The group of us at one of the delicious seafood restaurants.

Back in Central, coming off the ferry from Lamma. The building in the background with the circular shapes with the "3"s inside is my office building! Our suite overlooks the harbor.

Caroline Takes Hong Kong, Part III

Caroline getting ready for dim sum in my blue bedroom.

After a mega 30-person dim sum at Sportful Garden in Wan Chai, a group of us head to the ferry to Lamma, an outlying island known for its somewhat hippie-ish tendencies.

Turned out there was an event on called Lamma Fun Day, and so we found it and went!

Mmmm, the power plant. Doesn't that look like fun?

Caroline Takes Hong Kong, Part II

Early mornign Star Ferry ride.

The Star Ferry = an institution.

The crazy Christmas store. That little boy is confused as to why this amuses us.

Fish.

We perused the crowded, overwhelming markets in Mongkok while waiting to eat dim sum at this amazing place run by the former dim sum chef at the Four Seasons. It only seats about two dozen people. The char siu bao (pork buns) are amazing because of a little bit of a sweet topping.

Caroline Takes Hong Kong, Part I

She arrived at the airport express after the 16-hour flight, and we headed straight to the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

After a dumpling dinner at Wang Fu, we headed back to my apartment to rest up. The next morning, we headed to the Star Ferry. Coffee in hand, we took in the view of the skyline from Kowloon side.

We headed up to Prince Edward to the flower market, and found a store will crazy amounts of Christmas stuff. (It is mid-November.) We commenced ridiculous posing.

Fish!

And flowers!

Inside My Hong Hong Home, Part II

More apartment shots:

Inside My Hong Hong Home, Part I

After I returned from Shanghai, I moved into my own apartment near Star Street in a neighborhood called Wan Chai, an area near the downtown that the New York times deemed "surfacing." I scurried around to get it all decorated and set up before Caroline arrived for her visit over American Thanksgiving. (Until I moved here, I didn't know I had to differentiate between it and Canada's, which is earlier.) It's the first apartment I've lived in on my own and I adore it. Warning: it is tiny. But so are most Hong Kong apartments, and mine has a lot of windows, which sets it apart. If you can believe it, the kitchen is actually larger than most out here. Here are some shots of my place.