HONG KONG -

We were absolutely thrilled to arrive in Hong Kong, where we would be staying for 6 whole days - finally a place to unpack our things and enjoy a slow pace to sight-seeing! We groggily wiped our eyes as our taxi dropped us at the doorway of the Mirador Mansion in Kowloon, where we had booked accommodations with none other than USA Hotel. WELL, the USA Hotel looks much different on hostelworld.com than it does in real life! The Mirador Mansion was perhaps once a mansion 300 years ago, but is much more like a shopping center with sketchy items ranging from post cards and silk to sex toys and fake Rolex watches. I showed a woman who looked somewhat authoritative my confirmation email with USA Hotel's address, and she shoved us into a tiny elevator that only serviced certain floors, and punched the 13 button. We practically exploded out of the elevator, pushed by everyone else and a foul stench, and found ourselves in what seemed like a very poor apartment building. A nice woman recognized our disbelief and beckoned us to a yellow door with a small tinted window, where we were to check in. Then a man took us down to the 10th floor, through 2 more yellow doors, and BOOM, we were in the USA Hotel! Only this place was the size of a shoebox - seriously: barely enough room for 2 twin "beds," and a bathroom the size of half of a small shower stall. The walls were covered with very thick, hideous, floral wallpaper and fake wood paneling. There were no windows, and an air conditioning unit that dripped onto Cam's bed and shot out hot air, but we had to keep it on for some sort of circulation. THANK GOODNESS for the tv, miraculously mounted in the corner above my bed, so that we could again have hot dates with Star World when trying to fall asleep each night. Without windows, or any sign of daylight, it was often difficult to tell what time of day it was!

Fret not, this was the only setback to the HK trip. After a much-needed nap, we ventured down to the waterfront on the Kowloon side, and had the most glorious first view of the Hong Kong skyline. Don't worry, we only took about 100 photos of the vista - complete with an old Chinese fishing junk, red sails and all, as it cruised slowly across the skyscrapers. We also posed with Jackie Chan and put our hands on Connie Chan and Bruce Lee's stars on the Avenue of Stars along the waterfront.

We wandered up to the Jade market, first of many outdoor markets in Kowloon, where we did some damage in the jade and pearl departments. On our way home we hit up the Temple Street night market, where Cam found a fabulous leather bag (to be seen in most photos to come!).

We were treated to TWO separate outings at the Peninsula Hotel, thanks to David Barrett. We got all gussied up in the cutest outfits to come out of our bags, and enjoyed high tea in the lobby, as well as cocktails up on the top floor. We felt quite posh the night we stepped foot in Felix, on the 28th floor, and were treated like princesses as we presented our gift certificate. Within minutes of being seated, the manager came over to ask if we would accept champagne sent from two gentlemen across the room! Tickled pink and feeling rather grown-up, we did as we'd seen in movies, and discretely accepted it, while figuring out who the men were (I would equate them to Bill Clinton and John Britten!)...

We took a day to ride the Star Ferry over to its brand new Hong Kong pier, opened while we were there, and took a bus, then a tram, up to the Peak. Since it was so hot, we were not dressed appropriately for the hurricane-force winds and cooler weather up there, but tried to enjoy the view nonetheless. Through smog and haze, we snapped a few quick photos and walked around as much as possible before nearly freezing to death. We'd planned on walking down, but it got dark very quickly and we were forced to join the masses back in the tram.

One of our favorite trips was to the Hong Kong Art Museum, where our art viewing experience was much more enjoyable than those in Europe. We were lucky enough to catch an exhibit of French artists from the Pompidou called "Artists and their Models," as well as some traditional Chinese art.

All in all we thoroughly enjoyed Hong Kong and all that it had to offer, but I was itching to get to Vietnam...