Kowlooooooooon

We spent last night in Lan Kwai Fong, and SoHo. Started the night at TiVo, which was a pretty cool restaurant, where it was two for one meals, so we saved some money as well. Then headed down to The Brew House for the end of Happy Hour! We of course got Hoegartens which were served in half litter mugs. It was the biggest beer I have ever held, but don't worry we both finished them, and then another! From there we went to Z-bar to listen to some music. Around 10 we hit up the infamous club Dragon-I and got some nice 12 dollar cocktails. Apparently it was model night as everyone in their was a model from some eastern European country including Kazakhstan, and Estonia.

Most conversations when something like this:

Me:Hi, I'm Joe, where are you from?
Model:(roll eyes) Kazakhstan.
Me:That's pretty far, why are you in Hong Kong?
Model: I am a model
Me:Me too!!
Model: I have to go now

It was actually a lot of fun, and I just kind of laughed it off, and got to dance to some good music. After the model club we went back to the hotel and called it a night.

Woke up this morning and went to one of our favorite restaurants, Pret A Manger! Then we took up the mid-level escalator, to the end, and the walked back down. Then we took the subway to Kowloon! The subway system here is so easy to navigate, and so nice. Also the card is called an Octopus Card, which is way better name than a metro card.

In Kowloon we took a walking tour. We visited the bird market, where lots of old Chinese men sat around with their birds, and played Mah Jong. Next was the flower market, where we could bu banzai trees got so cheap. If only there was a way to transport them back to the states! Next we went to an outdoor market and bargained our way to some good deals.

Jed is ruthless with the bargaining, if someone says 200 Jed says 20, if they say 150 Jed says 20. He always gets a good price though. When I bargain, they say 200, I go 160, they say 190, I say OK! I feel bad for them because they might actually need the money. My trick is if I really want something, I just let Jed bargain it down for me. We ended up getting some great souvenirs, and gifts for everyone back home. I think we are going to need to buy an extra suitcase to carry all the items we have acquired.

It was a long and hot day. Back at the hotel now. Getting ready to go out. It is Canada Day and they are having some huge parties, so maybe we will pretend to be Canadian eh?

Big Happy Birthday Shout Out to Jeremy Bia, who turns 12 today!

2 Weeks In!

Cannot believe this is officially the start of our third week traveling. As you can imagine after the flying all day we were pretty exhausted, but we still made night of it. Explored the area by our hotel, which I can only describe as version of Hell's Kitchen but instead of restaurants they only have bars. Ate dinner at an English Pub, which was good but found out quickly the HK is going to be much more expensive than Thailand. Much much more!! Walked around some more and got a few more drinks, than decided to call it a night. Hotel LKF is like a luxury apartment, they have everything, from a mini-bar, to complimentary bathrobes. To save money Jed and I got only king size bed so its also very romantic haha :) I highly recommend this hotel!

Woke up at 10:30 and got ready while watching the CNN. Surprised to see how much we had missed while isolated on the tropical beach Paradise of Phuket. Went out to get breakfast/lunch then walked around central, which is the uhhh central part of HK. It is like any city here in Hong Kong, but the catch is there are hills EVERYWHERE. We got lost many times trying to find the Bank of China tower, but eventually got to it.

We did a walking tour we got from our Lonely Planet guide, and visited the HSBC tower, St. Johns Cathedral, the Hong Kong Park, and Central Square. We also went to the Chinese Tea Museum which is exactly what it sounds like (kind of boring, but free to enter). Jed convinced me to go get some tea at the attached tea shop. It was kind of cool to watch how the prepared it, but in the end, it was just tea, expensive tea. 81 HK dollars each! The HSBC tower is called the Steel Robot, and it lives up to it's name. The architecture is really beautiful here, I am excited to take the tram up Victoria's Peak to see it lit up at night.

So tonight the plan is to hit up LKF, hopefully make it to a happy hour, and meet some new people!

Note:
$1 USD is equal to $7.75 HK

You for Scuba?

Our sixth day in Phuket was pretty low key. Luckily the day before we did all our confined water dives (in pool) so we had the day off from scuba. We woke up by far the latest at around 1pm. Then we hit up a new beach called Kata Beach. It was so much nicer than Karon. No killer riptides here! Joe and I just chilled and Joe got some questionable Pad Thai from some hut right on the beach. But he said it was still pretty reasonable. After some sun and boogey boarding we headed home showered and read. Our motorbikes took us yet again to Patong beach where we found a Scruffy Mcgees and listened to some live music and called it a night.

The next day were our first open water dives! We were picked up at the bungalow around 8:30 then headed to the boat. The boat was pretty large and just made for scuba. About 25 people were also on the boat ready to dive. We were the only divers training for our open water certification so basically we were the newbs. After three dives at three different locations we were feeling pretty good. The dives ranged from 36-50 feet deep. Joe and I took our final exams and passed with flying colors. Food was served on the boat and after a 10 hour day we made it back to our bungalow. That night being exhausted we caught "Drag Me to Hell". I definitely recommend. It was good in a classic, cheesy, funny kind of way for a horror film. A lot like Sam Raimis other film "Evil Dead".

Saturday was our final day until we got our Padi certs. Same deal... we headed to the boat and did three dives. This time our dives went deeper and we saw a lot more cool stuff. At about 65 feet at Phi Phi island (where they filmed the beach) we saw octopus, zebra mora eel, giant mora, rock slugs, trumpet fish, lion fish, leopard shark, school of yellow tail barracuda, sea horse and some catfish. Not to mention a million other tropical fish. After another long day we finally got our certification. Now officially we can go out on our own and find treasure! It was actually a lot of work to get this thing, but Joe kept pushing to get it. Our last night in Phuket, we went to another Irish bar right by where our motorbikes were dropped off and watched some rugby. We walked back to Kata and fell asleep.

Today was a travel day. Flight leaving Phuket to Bangkok then finally to HONG KONG!!
We arrived a couple hours ago to pouring rain but still I'm so excited to be here. The city definitely has a New York feel. Our hotel is amazing and finally were not slumming it. Were located right in Lan Kwai Fong in central Hong Kong Island. Supposedly a very happening area. Miss everyone and we will be updating more often no that we have internet!