Best Brunch Ever At Isola, Part I

This brunch wasn't just amazing because the weather was great, the restaurant had a view of the harbor, and the food was absolutely delicious. This meal, held a few days before I headed back to NY for the holidays, reminded me of how much I love the friends I've made here, how I can't imagine my life without them.

A Night On The Town

Hong Kong is a late-night city full of crazy partiers. More so than New York, I would argue, perhaps for the reason that everything is so compact and close together. You may think you're spending an evening at home, but then someone will be at the FCC, or at dinner, or somewhere getting a drink, and you'll just "stop by" because it's "on the way" and then it's all over and you're out until dawn. Anyway, on this night in December, not long before I headed back to NY for the holidays, I stopped off at the UJC's Hanukkah at Red in Soho, catching Shani and Jessica.

...then met up with Rachael and Katie at Solas...

Then onto the Russia vodka bar, where we added Heather...

Then we went into the cold room! The novelty doesn't really wear off.

Noah's Ark Theme Park, Part II

It's on Park Island on Lantau, and outside of housing the ark it's also a cute residential community.

Alvin and I decided to explore around the rest of Park Island, something most of the visitors to the ark don't do. We came across some idyllic and some sort of beautifully decrepit scenes.

Noah's Ark Theme Park, Part I

The only introduction that this needs is that Hong Kong is home to a huge Noah's Ark replica that also functions as an educational amusement park of sorts. (For any questions you may have, please see Jon Cheng's awesome article in the WSJ, "Hong Kong Christens an Ark of Biblical Proportions.") Now, onto the photographic evidence.

I got the giraffe by spending 100 HKD at the gift shop. Oh, yes.

Random Events, Including The Sexpo

My boss Robyn and I at the Forbes Fab 50 dinner at the Four Seasons. Lots of cool business leaders in attendance, sort of like a Who's Who.

Keiko and Kollace who work in the office on the business side.

Ha, oh yes, then I went to Macau for the "Sexpo" (adult entertainment convention) and wrote this story, "Pleasure's Stiff Price," about a guy who wants to craft the world's most expensive sex toy. It also has some other anecdotal gems from the expo.

Dickie's birthday at Ning Po. LOOK AT THAT SPREAD.

Singaporean food in Wan Chai with Kaishi later that week!

A Night At The Races

Back in Happy Valley at the racetrack -- one of my favorite places to be on a Wednesday night! Isaac was in town awaiting his China visa, so he came along for the ride.

Rosina, a classmate from Harvard, was in town with her Mom, so we went to dinner at Crystal Jade in Causeway Bay and then headed over to the track.

It's easier to see the horses on the big screen than right in from of us. :-)

A winner!

Winning tickets!! (Or we might have been waiting to see if we were going to win. Hard to tell.)

A Trip To The Grocery Store

One of my favorite things about visiting other countries is checking out grocery stores. When Caroline was here, she took some awesome shots of the goods in my local Wellcome. First up, "party" beer!

Obviously, the rice aisle is huge.

Cereals...

I think this is black chicken.

The exotic-looking one is dragonfruit.