the good (and awesome)

zoolander/olsen-ing

Fortunately we didn't spend our whole time in Hong Kong scared in our creepy hotel. Overall, I'd say there was definitely more fun than suffering. We went to Buddhist temples (with tons of hanging, spiral cones of incense, little whimsical creatures, drums, and dim lighting), had our fortunes told, ate delicious gelato, ate even more

delicious dim sum with Mary's family friends, wandered Hong Kong Island, shopped in markets, saw really cool architecture, took the Star Ferry, and rode a cable car to look over all of Hong Kong (although we couldn't actually see much of it because of the smog). Katie and I also had a number of epic escalator races, culminating in a thrilling race through the immigration line when we left Hong Kong, in which I was the surprise victor. In the middle of the huge Ladies Market in Kowloon, we randomly bumped into another ETA, Jenn M, who had just spent some time traveling on her own through the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and was stopping off in Hong Kong on her way back to Korea. We even got to meet a Hong Kong movie star--we were wandering around looking for an internet place (unlike seemingly every other part of Asia, Hong Kong has an extreme deficit of public internet places) and heard squealing and other sounds of teenage female glee. We turned a corner, saw this:
and realized there was someone famous somewhere in there. We fearlessly waded into the fray (which parted quite willingly to let the foreigners through) and, sure enough, discovered Alex himself and got a quick picture of him. Several of the TV cameras and tons of the other fans captured us meeting Alex. We have no idea who he is (other than that he's in the movie he's holding a flyer for. Its English title is "It's a Wonderful Life," although I'm absolutely certain it's nothing like the Jimmy Stewart one), but we know he's famous, so it was definitely time well spent. Yay for celebrities.
We also wore really, really nice sunglasses the whole time we were in Hong Kong. Photographic evidence below:


















in wigs

with bruce lee

where's waldo?