Last weekend I decided to meet up with a co-worker and friend of mine Cari, who is in of all places Hong Kong.  She is there on the Waggener Edstrom global exchange program, working from that office for 2 weeks, like I am in Singapore.

I knew it was going to be a whirlwind trip, as there is so much to see in that city, and I only had a few days to see it.  Taking off Thursday evening for a long weekend, I landed in Hong Kong about 8 pm.  Cari was nice enough to meet this fish out of water at the Hong Kong Central subway station and off we went.  First stop, food as we were both hungry and it was getting late.  The only thing open was a Korean BBQ joint, where you actually grill your own meat on the grill built into the table.  Turned out not to be a bad meal at all, but I would have eaten anything at that point.

Hot pot dinner

The next day I worked from the Hong Kong office along with Cari.  It was fun to meet the employees from that office, join some meetings and very informative training sessions and go out for a great lunch of Japanese food.  I had a soba noodle dish with beef and broth, it was a delicious lunch.  Best of all I did not get made fun of for my poor chop stick skills!

That night Cari and I met up with some ex-Pat friends she met while in Hong Kong for some hot pot.  Hot pot is not something I have ever seen or heard of before, basically these restaurants have large tables with a burner in the middle along with a large pot of water, hence the name hot pot.  This pot is divided down the middle allowing for different seasoned waters in each side, one spicey the other not. You get a piece of paper to order from, which you select what types of meats and vegtables you want, and they had eveything you could imaging to choose from and more.  We started out with some basic shrimp, beef and chicken options, but grew more and more adventurous.  We tried goose intestine, tripe (cow stomach), and after a few beers we even ordered chicken testicles!  Wow, I still cannot belive we ate those things, but had to try it, why not when am I going to be here again right?

Cari and I waiting for the laser light show in Hong Kong

Saturday we decided to to the sight seeing thing, and take in as much as possible.  We went out and saw:

• – the Ngong Ping 360 cable cars
• – took a ferry back to Hong Kong
• – browsed good in the Ladies Market
• – watched the Symphony of Lights laser show
• – ate dinner in Soho

That made for a 12+ hour day being out sight seeing, which was a long but exciting day.

Finally Sunday we raced down to ride the tram up to the peak.  This tram is basically a cable-fed trolly system that rides up a railroad track up a very steep hill to the peak overlooking the city.  The views up there were out of this world, such an awesome sight and it was a fun experience getting there too.  From there we rode a tram through town, which is a double decker electric trolley and a fun mode of transportation.

Sunday afternoon it was time to leave Hong Kong and head back to Singapore to get back to my final week of global exchange.  Everyone in both Hong Kong and Singapore have been so nice and accomidating, but it sure was nice to see Cari and have a familiar person to travel and see the sites with.

Thank you Cari for being such a good travel buddy, you rock!