When I arrived in our apartment it was cold, windy, and raining, so I didn’t appreciate the incredible views from our windows, all I could think of was how cold it was - how cold I was. I turned on the electric heaters and put on multiple layers of clothes, and I was still cold.
By Chinese New Year it had turned warm and sunny, really nice weather. I spent that first week learning to use the ferries, buses, and trains. I ate some meals in simple restaurants, otherwise I had instant noodles at home. Then my friend Ed arrived and everything changed.
Ed is a neurologist who splits his time between Portland, OR and Gallup, NM. He grew up inHong Kong and still has an extended family here. I met Ed at the airport andwe went to his niece’s home for a big dinner which included dishes of fish bladder, eel, and pig intestines. It was delicious.
The next night Nonnie arrived and we spent the night at the airport hotel, as it takes a lot of time to get to our house - train, walk, ferry, then another ferry. Two days after that Terry, another friend from Gallup, arrived. Terry stayed at the Peninsula Hotel - the best hotel in Hong Kong - the first two nights, and we had a big dinner with Ed’s family at the Spring Moon restaurant at the hotel. It was great.
This was Terry’s first trip to Hong Kong and for the next seven days we tried to see everything. We went to the Peak on the tram and walked around the Peak. We went to Lantau Island to ride the gondola to see the Big Buddha. We went to Hong Kong Island and explored the mid-levels, taking lots of pictures of the Man Mo temple and other sites.
Terry moved from the Peninsula of our house for four nights and we explored some of Lamma Island, eating dinner and breakfast in Yung Shue Wan, the biggest town on the island. The last ferry from Aberdeen to Pak Kok, where we live, leaves at 10PM, so every night we had to take the later ferry from Central to Yung Shue Wan and then walk the remaining mile or so to get home. After a week of this we were exhausted.
Every night Ed’s family would invite us to a different restaurant, each one serving wonderful food. We had so many great meals that they all sort of run together in my memory. Since Ed is fluent in Chinese he was able to help us with communicating. His younger relatives speak English but the older generation doesn’t. But everyone of them was friendly, helpful, and gracious.
Terry left Sunday, in a Rolls Royce to the airport, after spending is last night back at the Peninsula. Ed stayed with us that night, and he and I almost finished a bottle of Scotch I bought when I arrived, although to be fair Terry and I had been drinking from it every night. Ed leaves tomorrow, and we start the next stage of our adventure.