Tuesday: Jet Lag Eases Its Grip

As I looked over our last few postings, I realized that we talked about sleep a LOT and only posted pictures of Wynn passed out. Well, we've gotten our internal clocks more or less synced up with the time zone, so we can talk about experiences beyond who got how many hours of sleep. And we can post and actual picture of Wynn in fully-awake mode:

See? There she is, with Hong Kong Island in the background.

We took the train to the south end of Kowloon this morning and had dim sum at a lovely little restaurant that Scott had read about. VERY different from yesterday morning's experience at the hole-in-the-wall congee shop. Today was all fine china and linen table cloths. The entire meal was only about $25 for the whole family, and they even made the food into cute little shapes: tiny hedgehogs filled with egg custard and homemade coconut/marshmallow desserts shaped like bunnies (the most sophisticated take on a Peep you'll ever find). We had bao, spring rolls, jasmine tea that tasted like flowers, and a steamed flour roll with pork (basically, thick-cut bacon wrapped in a thin layer of gluten - yummy!).

The "grass" by the bunnies is actually cotton candy

formed into tiny little filaments.

After dim sum, we rode the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island. Wynn liked riding on the ferry but started to complain that her stomach hurt; we soon found out why as we stood in an extremely ritzy shopping center and she proclaimed, "I really need to poop." Scott whisked her off to the restroom, and business was attended to. She felt perfectly fine after that.

We rode the tram across Central Hong Kong - a cheap and efficient way to get a look at all the little shops and neighborhoods. (We were on the tram for almost an hour, and it cost about $1.50 for the whole family.) It's funny to see how the streets are arranged by the products they sell; one whole block will be dried seafood products, the next will be nothing but tires, then a block of cooking oil shops, and finally a street filled with pet products. Even the top-notch malls are arranged this way: Clinique is across from Origins and next door to Shisedo and L'Occitane.

The view from the tram was fascinating!

After resting back at the hotel for a bit, we went across the street to the Langham Place Shopping Center. It has about twenty different restaurants in it; tonight we chose MOS Burger (a Japanese chain - really tasty with thick-cut fries) and Haagen-Dazs for dessert.

We'd heard so much about the night markets, and since we finally reached the point where we can stay awake past dinner, we strolled over to the Ladies Market. It's kind of like the most crowded day you've ever spent at the State Fair. A lot of people love shopping at these markets, but we agreed that it was mostly stuff we weren't interested in... knock-off designer hand bags, souvenir t-shirts, etc. We didn't buy anything there. We did, however, walk up to Pioneer Centre, which Scott had read about on the internet. They had three shops specializing in (surprise!) airplane models and other merchandise. We settled into one little mom and son shop; they were extremely helpful, and Scott was completely knowledgeable about what he was and wasn't interested in - and what constituted a fair price. Let's just say Scott was elated with the things he found, and the mom & son probably high-fived each other when we walked out the door.