Hanging out with “locals”

January 4

I spent my last day in Hong Kong with Rosalia and Sal, and they both grew up in Hong Kong up to the end of high school. Rosalia and I met in Minneapolis over the summer when she was an intern at General Mills and I was at 3M. They took me to Stanley Market (http://www.hk-stanley-market.com/) where we had lunch and did a bit of shopping. On the bus we drove past a building built with a hole in it. Sal explained that it has to do with feng shui because the negative energy that rolls down the mountains can flow through the building and into the water. We also went to Victoria Peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Peak) to check out the amazing view of the city before and after the sunset. This gave me a view from the opposite of the river from where I watched the light show. We then took the tram down to and rode on part of the Central-Mid-level escalators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central-Mid-Levels_escalators) in the trendy SoHo area. We met up with Rosalia’s friends for dinner. My hotel was about 40 minutes by metro, but Rosalia and her friends made it sound like it was unbelievably far. There is a perception that the New Territories area is so far that it’s basically considered another country. The restaurant gave us our doggie bag in a cloth bag. That is the norm. When I went to the grocery store, every person had their own cloth bags. Unfortunately, in the United States we can’t part with our plastic and paper bags. Thank you Rosalia and Sal for a great day!

My first trip around different countries in Asia is ending, and it's been absolutely spectacular! I'm excited to get to the Mainland and start the next chapter of my Asian adventure. I'll find out what it's like to live in Shanghai.