The view from my sisters room

I finally got to stitching this picture together. This is the view of Shanghai from my sisters room.

Click on the picture to see the whole pano.

Shanghai Skyline

Here are some pictures of the Shanghai skyline, with the river and the bund. These were taken from Cloud 9 at the top of the Grand Hyatt - through the glass, so not exactly the best. The tower shown in the first picture is the Pearl Tower.

Wednesday, May 14

Flying home today. Had to leave for the airport at 1pm. Went to the favorite Starbucks one last time.











Bye Hong Kong


In flight meals




In flight, I saw National Treasure 2 and The Golden Compass. Listed to some music. I couldn't sleep much!

Home

Tuesday, May 13

My last day in Hong Kong. I walked around Tsim Sha Tsui, stopping into stores and looking around. The Canon show room was in the area so I went and checked out what was there (nothing to write home about).

Later in the day I headed back to the Night Market (opens at 4pm) and looked around a bit.








I picked up some of my favorite street food - the one last thing I wanted to try before I left.



Visited with my aunt and had dinner with the family.

Monday, May 12th

Monday was a holiday in Hong Kong, in honor of Buddha's birthday. The plan was for us to visit the peak together (except Dad who had to work). We headed out at 4:30pm. It's on Hong Kong island, so we took the ferry over to the other side. There is an open top double-decker bus that goes to the tram that goes up to the peak.






It was a perfect day for the peak and to be riding the bus. The weather was pleasant/comfortable.


The building shown in this picture is the Amercian Consulate, I made many trips to this place over the years applying annually for my student visa.




Pictured below is the tram. It rides up the hill on a very steep slope


Looking back from the tram


On the way up:


Taken at a gift shop at the peak tram terminal




My nephew wanted a snack and we had some time to kill before the sun went down, so we went to McDonalds. They have these flavored fries, ie they give you some flavoring and a bag to dump the fries and flavoring into. We tried the kimchi flavor and the japanese curry flavor - the kimchi was way better.


I must have taken about 30 (40 or 50??) shots of the skyline all lit up. I have yet to go through them all.



We went to a Japanese noodle place for dinner.

Sunday, May 11th, Mother's Day

I started the day early. After a shower, I walked out to the water front Starbucks for some quiet time and a coffee. It was raining but not so hard that one couldn't sit outside. I sat out on the deck above the starbucks, taking in the view and some time for myself.





Here's the phone my sil had me carry, just so I could reachable or could get help if I needed. It's actually quite funny, I missed pretty much every call, wanna know why? I had no idea what the ring sounded like.... ha ha! I liked the phone though, it was thin and had a built in mp3 player.


On my way back, I stopped by and looked at another building we had lived in.


We went out for Mother's day lunch to a place called Nomad's, it was a Mongolian BBQ buffet place. The place has an interesting concept, the buffet was for raw ingredients and there was a section for sauces, you put it together and they cook it for you.











That evening my sister-in-law and I went to the water front that evening to watch the Festival of Lights. It's a light display by various buildings. My aunt and cousin met up with us there for a walk. The lighting display was so so at best but fun nonetheless.



Dinner with the family at a south indian restaurant.

Saturday, May 10th

Between Stanley and Lantau, by now, I had tan and my face was a cherry red! I know I should have put on some sunscreen but I couldn't stand the thought of putting anything sticky on with the heat and humidity.

I had seen all the major sites by now and only had a couple of things left my on my list of must sees. Hong Kong Tourist Board offers tourists a ride on an old fishing boat for an hour and it sounded like fun, so I got a ticket. I had to catch the boat (junk boat) at noon at the Star Ferry area. The day was overcast, which was actually kinda nice seeing how hot it had been the day before.

I got to sit on the top deck with some american tourists and got to chatting with them. The ride was really fun and relaxing. There was a recorded commentary but it was hard to hear from where I was sitting.

It started raining shortly before the ride was to end, forcing everyone into the covered area of boat.












While boat ride started in Kowloon, it ended on Hong Kong island. I had to catch the Star Ferry back to the Kowloon side for lunch with my aunt.












My aunt made chicken biryani, it's was very good.



After lunch and some time with my aunt. I headed back home. Later in the afternoon, I went out with my sister in law to get a few things for the family here.