The 3 Travelbugs take on Hong Kong!

We are about to embark on day 3 of our adventure! We arrived in the darkness the night before last to Hong Kong, and were escorted by our dear friend's son via train to our adorable little apartment here in the heart of the city in the fish market district. The sprawling city scape is incredible and reminded me very much of Manhattan NYC, as we too are on an island here in Hong Kong. I was stunned and amazed however, when the sun came up the next day to find that we are also surrounded by mountains beyond the buildings and that we are a block from the famous Hong Kong harbour. The view is breath-taking from our roof-top patio, the pictures posted above says it all!

On our 1st morning, we decided to explore the area to see if we could find a place to buy some groceries and drinks for our place. Within the very 1st 5 minutes on foot in HK, we stumbled upon a beautiful playground right on the harbour 1 block away, Olivia was thrilled. We were completely intrigued in finding countless Chinese doing tai-chi all over the place and in every direction! Some folks were even using the playground to stretch (hanging from the monkey bars) which gave us a little laugh. Only in Hong Kong do the children have to share the playground equipment with the grown-ups! It was completely inspiring to see the passion for good health and spirituality in this culture. Olivia tried a little tai-chi too! Adorable.

We spent the day yesterday i n different areas of the city and went shopping in Causeway Bay better known as "Time Square" as seen in the picture here. Now this area completely reminded me of NYC, except there were more people which I never imagined possible! The downtown is divided into several areas, each specializing in a different product. Thus, you could walk down a street that only sells dehydrated fruits or fish, a street that only sells fresh flowers, or a street that sells only bathroom fixtures! Ver y very cool. You can find all the typical big box stores as well - Ikea, Toys R Us and such. I loved buying all the beautiful fresh fruits and veggies. We were introduced to some very interesting Chinese traditional dishes including congee and tea-infused eggs - who would have thought!

Our friends have been taking wonderful care of us, and we are so grateful. We met the maid that takes care of our friends and their families (almost all families in HK have maids, it's tradition) and Olivia took an immediate liking to her. This allowed Sam & I to enjoy an amazing child-less night out with our dear friend in Soho, an area packed with expats and people from all around the world. The terrain in HK is very hilly, it almost looks like San Francisco in areas, with very steep hills and there are hidden stair cases on every block to take you up and down the hillsides. There were countless high-end restaurants and clubs, and the streets were completely packed, it was such an amazing site. A side to Hong Kong I never imagined to exist.

Sadly Olivia caught a terrible cold/cough and we are all rather jet-lagged, but we SO looking forward to another adventure-filled day. We have plans to take a gondola to "The Peak", check out some amazing shopping markets and hopefully take a harbour boat tour this evening and see a laser light show that is performed each night out over the water! Exciting stuff, I'll be sure to share it all with you! Please excuse the rather dodgy layout of my posts, I am on Sam's PC which seems impossible for blogging, but it will have to do!